We're All In This Together

The last few months have been challenging for me personally. I am longing to live a life that is radical....I find it so hard to do here. Our society just doesn't get "it". By "it" I mean the heartache and hurt of people all around us - heartache and hurt that we have the capacity to CHANGE, to make a DIFFERENCE. People here seem so complacent, content to live in their own bubble. Our society only wants to hear about something if it can benefit them; what's the best car to drive, the newest sound system, the latest technology, the biggest house, the coolest renovations, the hottest name brand....

I cannot get my head around this mindset of greediness and selfishness. Sometimes I want to be like that. Sometimes I find myself thinking "if only I had this, if only I had that"....and I have to give my head a shake!

The 5 children in our home represent 3 different countries. 3 of my children came to me broken, grieving and suffering more loss than anyone should in a lifetime. My babies. My sweet, precious little babies (no matter what age they are!). What if we had turned our hearts against hearing about orphans? What if we made a choice to get a bigger house rather than paying for our adoptions? What if we had chosen to turn away from the truth of people's pain, brokenness and lonliness so that we could just carry on with our blissfully happy life?

People, I wouldn't have 3 of my sweet, precious, little babies! My babies. They wouldn't be here. They wouldn't be filling my heart to near bursting with gratitude for their presence in my life every single day! I would not be inspired to be a more caring and loving person. I would not look into their faces every day and see the amazing miracle of their lives! Living and breathing right here in our house. The essence of Christ's love living right under my roof.

I encourage you. I challenge you. Please choose to live a radical life. Love Jesus so fully that you can't help but have His love spill over and touch another person's life.

Recipes!

Our family represents 3 different countries and we love to try out foods from around the world. I am not the best cook but every now and then I brave a new recipe to try and incoporate some culture into our eating!

This recipe comes from Columbia and our family's newest member made it for me today...it was actually quite delicious!!!

POTATO and EGG SOUP

Slice up a 5-6 potatoes in a pot.

Add water just to cover the potatoes.
Add about the same amount of milk as water.

Bring to boil and cook until potatoes are soft.

Add salt and pepper.

Make sure the heat is turned down to medium and crack 3 eggs into the pot (on top of the potato soup mixture) DO NOT STIR in the eggs...you want the eggs to stay whole, like a fried egg. Let the eggs cook in the hot soup for about 5 mintues.

Serve it up! Makes about 3-4 servings.

If you have a recipe from around the world to share, please leave it in the comments section or send me an email!!!

Also, this is a great website filled with recipes from countries that allow international adoptions. Click on over and try out some of these cultural delights to help celebrate National Adoption Month!

Here is a calendar link that gives ideas of something to do EACH day of NOVEMBER to celebrate National Adoption Month...It's got some great links and ideas...be sure to check it out!



Check out the Magazine...






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There are some neat tips and ideas on scrapbooking your adopted child's memories, their lifestory and their everyday life with you! Click HERE to read more!

National Adoption Month

November is here....after a crazy busy last week of October! 3 of our children had birthdays last week - we had 4 parties and then all the Halloween fun - carving pumpkins, decorating the house with spooky things, finding costumes for everyone and then the actual trick or treating. WHEW!

Moving on to November....
November is National Adoption Month! I would LOVE to hear feedback from everyone on ways you've been touched by adoption, adoption moments, adoption blogs, great adoption books or anything and everything that has to do with adoption. Throughout the month I'm going to be adding some adoption tidbits on my blog...quotes, statistics, blogs, books, resources, etc....

If you are an adoptive parent, an adopted child, social worker, teacher, friend, anyone who has something to share about adoption, leave it in the comment section. If you have an adoption blog, please leave the link and I'll post it on my blog!

More later,
Tammy