Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sweet Sophia is 2!!

A few days before Sophia's actual birthday, we had a Tiny Party to celebrate her and Duane's birthday.
Anna Leigh, her "big sister", helping her open her Dora Backpack.

Caroline, "big sister" #2, enjoying her tiny cupcake.

Didn't know 2 year olds could be so beautiful!

Micah and Brooks. Double Trouble.

The birthday girl with her daddy.

Some of our "tiny" food. Tiny caramel apples, tiny cinnamon rolls, and tiny cupcakes.

Noah had a lot of fun with the tiny hats....

Birthday kisses with Owen.

Don't you love how she already knows how to "lean in"?

On her actual birthday we celebrated with a cake made by daddy and an outing to see "Alice in Wonderland" performed by her big sisters.




It's hard to believe that she is 2 years old! Ofcourse we think she grows more fun and more beautiful every day. With turning 2, she also grows more opinionated and stubborn each day. So it goes. She owns her daddy and her biggest brother. Micah treats her like one of the guys. And I don't know what I ever did without another girl in the house. We love you Sophia!!

Just Love Coffee

Ok, I know you are probably ready to see pictures of the kids and that will be my next post, I promise! I just have one more fundraising opportunity to share. Rob Webb, a man from Nashville, has opened a coffee business to help families raise funds for their adoptions. We have a store on his site at www.justlovecoffee.com/teamdixon. The coffee is fair trade, meaning that the coffee farmers had decent working conditions and received a fair price for their coffee. This is not the case with most coffee - something that many people don't realize. We get $5 dollars for every bag of coffee purchased from our storefront. Check it out!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Tracy's Adoption Shop

Today a sweet girl named Tracy contacted me through my Etsy store. She is also adopting from Africa and raising funds through an Etsy store. She sells very cute and very affordable baby slings! She had the idea to set up a blog where people can go to see all of the stores people have set up to raise money for their ethiopian adoptions. I thought it was a great idea (especially since she's promoting our 2 fundraising sites!), and I wanted to pass on the site. She just started it, so it might take her a while to build up the list. Just check back often. What a great place to do your Christmas shopping!
www.ethiopiaadoptionshop.blogspot.com

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Exciting Announcement!

Our friends, Daniel and Sarah Dubois, have offered us an incredible opportunity to raise funds for our adoption!

They are in the process of adopting a little boy from Ethiopia. As an effort to raise funds for their adoption, they created a line of t-shirts. God blessed this effort and the shirts have been a hit! Through this and several other fundraising efforts, they recently reached their fundraising goal, praise God! I can only imagine that after raising 27,000 dollars, their had to be a small part of them that wanted to rest and be done with it. But they have opted to continue in their fundraising. Now they will be raising funds for other adopting families. Here's the exciting part....they are blessing us with the opportunity to receive all proceeds from the sale of their shirts for the next 4 months! They offer t-shirts, hoodies, kids shirts, onesies, even stationary. We are so excited about this opportunity. God continues to provide what we need to carry out his mission!


The shirts and stationary can be found at http://www.goseeklove.com/t-shirt_fundraiser.html. They would make great Christmas gifts! While you're there, find out about the Dubois family and their adoption story. Their website http://www.goseeklove.com/ has some great resources for anyone adopting or considering adoption. In fact it was one of the sites that we initially referred to for information.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Isaiah 53....a must read for moms.


Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him. He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off— and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true. Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God's plan will deeply prosper through him. Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones," as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly— the best of everything, the highest honors—Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Isaiah 53 (The Message)

It's amazing how God will speak to us through his word, giving us exactly what we need in that moment, if we will just make the time for Him. Isaiah 53 was my scheduled reading for today. Well, actually yesterday. I'm a day behind. But God is not limited by the fact that I'm behind!
I became extremely frustrated with my kids this morning. The arguing, rolling eyes, complaining, and general lack of respect left me overwhelmed by the injustice of it all! My self pity tape began playing in my head. "After everything I do for these children, they still treat me disrespectfully and fail to obey me on a regular basis. I love them, I feed them, I bathe them, I teach them, I bless them with opportunities, and I sacrifice my own desires for them. I've given my entire life for them.......and this is what I get in return!" My hurt and frustration led me to tears. They started as tears of hurt and self pity. The tears of an underappreciated, underrespected mother. But as I sat there, my tears changed from those of a self pitying mother to those of a sorrowful, disobedient child. A wave of grief flooded over me as I was filled with the knowledge that I have done this very thing to my God. "God, is this what if feels like for you? Ofcourse it's not! I have 3 children, and you have nearly 7 billion. What must it be like to have so many children who fail to appreciate you and honor you for who you are and what you've done for them!"
And then I remembered my Jesus. I remembered how people disrespected him, ridiculed him, beat him and spit on him. I remembered how they nailed his beaten body to a cross after stripping him of all of his clothing and dignity. And he loved them. As they beat him, he loved them. As they spit on him, he loved them. As they cursed him and mocked him, he loved them. And with this crazy, relentless love he saved me from my enemy. The enemy who whispers in my ear that I deserve to be "paid back" for all that I've done for my children. The same enemy who tells me that all of my many sacrifices should be noticed and appreciated by all who benefit from them! The enemy that tries to fool me into thinking that if I yell at them and show them who's boss...then they'll obey. Then they'll respect me. What a liar he is.

I maintain that my children need to learn to be respectful and obedient, for their own sakes and as practice for how they should respect and obey God. And I will continue to impress these things on them, hopefully with the same grace and patience that my Father extends to me. But I realize now that it is not something they owe me. It is not something that I deserve - "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." Phillipians 2
So I will continue to love them, and bathe them, and teach them, and feed them, bless them with opportunities, and sacrifice my own desires for them......because that's what He does for me.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Don't mess with Micah!

He can write his name and he has a tattoo. My baby boy is growing up.




Happy Birthday 4th Micah!

You know you have good friends when they offer to have your child's birthday party at their house. You know they're really good friends when they offer to make the cake too! We had planned to have a party at the park, but it was a rainy Sunday so we went to the Breedloves for Micah's birthday. The Carpenters and Hillary joined us and we had lots of fun. Micah's not too hard to please. He's happy to just play with his friends.



Triple Trouble

Didn't the Breedlove girls do an awesome job with the cake?


The girls love to dress Sophia up like their own little living doll.

Happy 9th Birthday Noah!

We celebrated Noah's 9th Birthday with our good friends the Breedloves. This is the family that we get together with every Sunday night for Family Group. Sometimes we do service projects. Sometimes we spend time learning scripture together or studying. And sometimes we just play :)......
Sophia thinks that Anna Leigh and Caroline are her big sisters. Her face could light up a room everytime she sees them!

It's always a party when this crew gets together!

Noah and Chandler breakin it down during the dance party.

Musical Chairs

Noah's Soccer Cake

It's just too much to think about the fact that my baby is halfway to 18!

Dixon Family Field Day

With no plans on Labor Day we knew that we better come up with some way to occupy the kids. Duane decided we would have a field day. We started the day with breakfast at IHOP, where we planned out the day with the help of Noah, our little list maker. Then we picked up a few supplies, and headed home for the first annual Labor Day Dixon Family Field Day, or LDDFFD! Events included the sack race, ball toss, egg toss, spoon egg race, water balloon toss, 3 legged race, and more! Next year we just might invite other families to join us!