So Thankful

How fun to start the week with Rainbow Brite's Thanksgiving Feast for her Kindergarten class!! We had a blessed week with family and enjoying each other.
I needed a break from work.
I needed a break from being busy.
I needed a break from life.
Lately I have been really struggling with our whole adoption journey. Many twists and tangles leaving me and Mister Green emotionally raw. As I type this God has done a great work in me. The sermon this morning was just what I needed to hear. The past few weeks have been rough for me dealing with these adoption issues. I have been mad at God knowing full well that He didn't do anything to me, but is allowing suffering so that I may know Him better. I had to CHOOSE joy over the holidays. My heart wasn't in it, but lo & behold He blessed me anyway, even though I didn't deserve it. He DOES have a plan for our family. I just know it. The journey, however, is much more than I thought it would be. Despite my own sadness in my heart over adoption misleads I had a fabulous break and am actually looking forward to going to work being refreshed from the Thanksgiving holiday.

Picking up pecans is Rainbow Brite's favorite thing to do at her grandparents' land. She went straight outside as soon as we arrived to start filling her cup with pecans....(for those of you non-Texans, that's pronounced "puh-KAHN"---not "PEE-can"...wink).

Rainbow Brite with her aunt (Mister Green's sister) enjoying the exquisite weather. Cool crispy air, leaves continuously falling from the trees and the sound of them crunching under foot. OOOO---I LOVE FALL!

The night before Thanksgiving we had a hot dog cookout along with S'mores at Mister Green's parents' land. The weather was just perfect for such a treat!

Oh yes. My new love. I got my Christmas present early because I begged Mister Green to let me have it for Thanksgiving. Because I have a job and we have a friend who has worked for Canon for 30 years I am very happy to own my new Rebel XSi that takes AMAZING pictures!!! I have always wanted a camera that would take a picture and blur the background or show fabulous detail and also one that would catch action pics and NOT blur the subject. I finally have it and I took GOBS of pics over the past week. This berry shot just makes me smile.

With my new camera I was able to capture about eight continuous pics in a series of Rainbow Brite laughing, swinging and making crazy faces. This is just one of the many showing the sheer joy of being a kid.

We were able to visit both sets of grandparents which is such a blessing because they are in the same city. Grandma (my mom) had the kids decorate her Christmas tree for her. Too cute!

A little tossing of the football with cousins.

We put up our Christmas decorations, watched White Christmas and drank hot chocolate!

Miao's favorite place every year at this time.


Be on the lookout for the next post and a series of...interesting pics.

I call it The Hammock. ; )

We Are So Blessed

Texas Twilight

I had the opportunity to decorate the 45 tables at our church for a fun women's event which featured Christmas treats, sing-a-long and speaker. The best part was the TEXAS theme!! We love our Lone Star State and a good old Texas style Christmas came together on Thursday night. When I agreed to do the work (with a great team) I wasn't working full time and had the time to devote to it. Because of being busy all the time it came down to the wire of gathering all I needed. I couldn't have done it without GREAT help. It was fun!



Our native-Texan speaker was stuck in traffic and an hour late because her agent switch her venues with another reporter and was on the other side of Dallas. She finally arrived and was quite delightful.

There is a precious woman at my church whom I want to be like when I grow up. ; ) She did this fabulous stage for us!!!

...and then it was FINALLY here---TWILIGHT.

Midnight Showing.


We had a B-L-A-S-T hanging out at Starbucks after the Texas dinner, having a peppermint white chocolate mocha AT TEN O'CLOCK at night!! We headed to the theater an hour early. Got there to find millions, literally, of crazy teenagers giddy with excitement. We oldies were rolling our eyes until a The Man in the Yellow Shirt came over and said, "I have something for you." Oh goody!!! Since the THREE screens were going to be full of Edward-lovin' teens they opened up a fourth screen JUST for oldies!! LOL! We adults guarded our doors and no teenies were aloud! It was glorious!!

The movie was nowhere near as fun or alluring as the book, but it was still good. The whole experience is what was fun. I got into bed at 3:00AM and then got up at six for work. I was actually still wired and did fine until about 5:00PM yesterday.

Thanks girlies---I had a wonderful time!!!


It's fun to be young...at heart. ; )

A Peek at A Week #1

~Wrote 10 sentences and sent it to my AWESOME pastor that said:
I will bring my Bible to church.
....all because I forgot my Bible last week and for some reason he made a HUGE point to say throughout the sermon several times, "If you brought your BIBLE...turn to...", but with very exaggerated intonations to make a point. My friends thought it was hilarious that I didn't have mine and it seemed as though the pastor was talking straight to me!!! He wasn't.

~Had to delete our Face**Book accounts because we were hacked into for the third time with the last putting our computer into an unending loop linked to p*o*r*n. Lovely. We had to shut down the entire computer by force to stop the loop. Now all the gobs of people we had reconnected with are just...gone. Poof.

~Prayed for several friends in need of extras prayers.

~Started using wonderful mineral make-up.

~My BFF from across The Pond called me for the first time since they left a month ago. Sooooo sweet to hear her voice!!! Very hard to talk in code without saying words that are God related so as not to compromise their position. When He permeates who I am I find that my vocabulary reflects that. I think that's a good thing.

~Basked in the glorious fall weather while riding in the Jeep with its top down!!!

~Discovered a new FAVORITE movie: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Yeah, we're buying it. Awesome!

~Had Rainbow Brite's 6 year old portraits done. Awwwe. That's a good thing since I missed her 5 year old ones. Was a very interesting event. The only time to do it was at 6:30 pm. An ENORMOUS rain storm came in while we were in the studio. Left my phone in the car. The NEW photographer had NO skills in how to take pictures. I was at my wit's end with the day, the storm, the less-than-with-it photog and pretty much showed my snotty brat side at the place. Kicked off my shoes, marched onto the background area and said, "THAT doesn't even make any sense! Here." Ugh. (moving Rainbow Brite into a cute--common sense---position huffing and puffing along the way) Then I made it better by saying this, "THERE! THAT makes sense. Take the picture now. Take the picture NOW. Get THAT one! Take it NOW!" Not my better side. The pics turned out cute.

I made myself apologize.

Remember my phone was in the car? And there was a really bad storm? Mister Green was worried after our long departure. He was calling and calling and calling and thought we had been tragically killed in the storm. Then he tried to call the studio. They wouldn't answer the phone. Probably because they were dealing with some bratty blonde lady who wanted things a certain way. Hmph. He was LIVID when he finally got through to the studio. Not at me, but at them for not answering and was just worried about the welfare of his girls. Thanks, Babe.

~Bought all the decor for the big Texas Christmas shindig that I am decorating for at church this coming week. Got home with everything...except one bag. Yep, had to turn around and drive BACK to the store to retrieve it. Yeehaw.

~Had a super fun pap smear done by my new doctor...who is ONE year older than me. Ewe.

~Rainbow Brite has swallowed some kind of crazy giggle enhancing pill and has become the funniest kid on the planet.

~Waited all week for and still waiting for a special call from Haiti. Oh, the torture.

~Gave our adoption testimony at a seminar given by our old agency for prospective adoptive parents. Always love that.

~Oh, yeah, went to work. Woohoo. (Just joking...Thank you, Lord for the job!!)

~Need a haircut, need a haircut, need a HAAAAIIIRRRCCUT just now, I just now need a haircut, need a haircut, just now.

~Prayed extra hard for our adoption.

~Made a "souper" fall dinner for friends on Sat. night.

~Had fun rubbing off my BROWN EYELINER from the delicate edges of my LIPS. oops.

~And, I'm richly blessed.

Wordless Wednesday - YUM!

The Quest

This is the best part about ministry to me. The Retreats. This is when you really get to know people. I adore the planning part because Mister Green and I LOVE working together as a team to brainstorm everything and then see the final product come together. This was a medieval themed preteen retreat for 5th & 6th graders. We wrote curriculum based on purity for the girls and guarding your senses for the guys. I won't go into all the tons of detail, but we REALLY took care of the kids and made it all extra special. We ended with a coronation ceremony for just the 6th graders where the girls were crowned with beautiful laurel wreath rhinestone crowns and the boys were knighted. The parents then prayed over their child. It was wonderful seeing families come together in unity. Our desire is to see families step it up and BE the family unit God has called us to be.


Anyone who has followed this blog long enough knows that any event we have for the ministry...Mister Green makes sure that Rainbow Brite gets a shirt, too. This time she stayed for the whole retreat. When I was teaching the sessions she would have on earphones and watch a movie over to the side. The other times she was RIGHT in the middle of all the 5th & 6th graders like she was one of them! Too cute!

The kids were served chicken, corn cobs, potato wedges and bread which they had to eat with their fingers just like in medieval times. The banquet was decorated with gorgeous fall colors and lots of candles and various candlesticks.

Fair maidens in full costume!

The girls made princess hats.

The boys got to play, ie...beat each other up!...with "swords" called boffers made from PVC pipe, swim noodles and duct tape. FUN!

The adult men wore these medieval sir coats and we had a church member loan us the knight. Great addition!

We adore working as a team and I am so blessed to have a man who loves God with all his heart and pours himself into His ministry.

Welcome to Kaleidoscope!

I am so excited to start a new blog adventure!! Pandapalooza has been a great ride, but with the addition of our little man from Haiti waiting in the wings I just felt the need to try something new. Remember kaleidoscopes when you were a kid? All those beautiful colors moving in amazing designs and shapes and figures. That is our family. Not conventional at all, but rather a creative work of art from the Master Artist. With white parents, an Asian beauty and a Haitian prince, our skin is a kaleidoscope of colors. More to come soon as this new blog is a work in progress!