Our Other Children

I've been thinking a lot this week about our other children. Not Noah or Anna, but the ones that haven't made it into our home yet. I imagine them at this time of the year and wonder what their Christmas will be like. If they are still with their biological parents I know it is a bad situation as only the toughest cases have parental rights taken away. If they are already in a foster home, I wonder if they are like so many that I hear about that are in home number five, six, or seven while waiting for their forever family to come and get them. I hope they are learning about what Christmas means and I hope they have at least one present under the tree with their name on it come Christmas morning.

Today as I finished the coat of primer on the swing set in the back yard, I thought about our other children and hoped that they get to come home soon enough to play on it before we move again. The other day I looked around our guest room and thought about the furniture we would buy for them before they come home. I look at the bedroom count on houses for sale around town and think about the number of children that we could adopt before running out of space if we lived there.

That is how I know that adoption is a calling for us, because it intertwines with so many of my thoughts and decisions on a daily basis. Please pray for our other children if it comes to your mind, specifically for their hearts and minds to be protected and for a spiritual sensitivity and propensity towards Christ. So many others in foster care tonight are waiting on their forever family to show up. Please pray that God meets the needs of the children, watches over the foster families, and that He will call out and prepare the waiting parents.

Santa-monium

Noah I and decided to brave the cold air yesterday morning for another in a series of Brown boys adventures. After an early wake up, quick coffee, and some sporty new adventuring pants for the boy, we headed out the door for Nashville to ride the North Pole Express (choo choo if you ask Noah). Upon arriving we were ushered into the old train station where they had model trains set up with about 22 old men behind the train table each with a remote control for their respective locomotive (hint hint for my Christmas list). Noah loved seeing the trains and would have probably been happy to come back home at this point.

Hundreds of children and parents (some in pajamas for some reason, crazy nuts) poured into the stuffy building until the time came for us to board the train. Noah handed the man his ticket and we soon found our seat on the big train we had come for. We got as settled as one could get with a toddler on a train with thirty other kids, and off we went. Noah stood on the seat looking out the window at all that we passed, watched over the back of the seat at all the other kids, and occasionally recognized my presence with his signature head bonk. Children were singing, parents were happy, and all was going quite smoothly until one little boy behind us spotted the big man coming into our train car. Yes, that's right, Santa. All the kids were screaming and excited which made my little adventurer a little apprehensive. He watched and we waited for our turn with St. Nick. Finally it was Noah's turn and after a little hesitation he let Santa pick him up and hold him. Noah just stared at him in wonder until I reminded him to ask Santa for what he wanted for Christmas. "ah da de big car!" Santa understood perfectly and with a wink he was off to the next child (who by the way had a two page list).

Noah thought the rest of the train ride was dull in comparison to that big event. He just kept holding out his hands talking about Santa picking him up. After two hours on the train, one cup of hot chocolate, two sippy cups, and 228 goldfish crackers, we were back on our way home to tell Mommy all about our big morning.

Here are some pics of our big day.

Almost Done

The man cave is nearing completion. I'm just waiting on a garage door and then I can finally have a home for all the stuff that is currently piled six feet high on my side of the garage. I have painters that are coming, but not until it is above 50 degrees so I know it might be a while. Here's what it looks like now.

In other news, I just returned from my first overnight business trip since Anna was born. Kimberly didn't call me in the middle of the night crying so I'm guessing everything went well in my absence. She did go to bed at 7:00 tonight so I'll take that as my cue to keep the overnights as few and far between as I can.

Noah continues to try out new words every day. I think today was a new record as he didn't stop talking the whole way home from school. During the drive he recalled his recent encounter with Elmo, told me about a boy in the class that got sick, let me know he got in trouble at school, reminisced on the visit from his memaw, told me what he wants to ask Santa for when we sees him at the mall, and lastly reminded me that he wants to ride the train this Saturday. It went something like this:

Noah -"Daddy, daddy, daddy, Elmo down" (waving his hand in toddler high five style)
Me - "yes, Noah, you gave Elmo a high five, what happened at school today?"
Noah - "da sa na de wow wow" then fake coughs and gags
Me - "oh, Jacob threw up at school today, that's right. What else happened at school?"
Noah - "no no, eye," (pointing to his eye)
Me - "you had a no, no, that's not good. Noah, you need to keep your hands to yourself at school"
Noah - (ignoring my wisdom he decides to change the subject) "Memaw wond wond mall meow"
Me - "yeah, memaw took you to the mall and you rode the cat on the merry-go-round"
Noah - "de de de na na sa mall dan da big car"
Me - "that's right, you're going to see Santa and you can ask him for a big car for Christmas"
Noah - (upon spotting the train as we neared home) "Daddy, daddy, daddy, choo choo wie Daddy Woah, Daddy Woah"
Me - "That's right, Daddy and Noah will ride the train on Saturday"

I just had to pause in the middle of writing this post to tend to one fussy little girl. While feeding her it occurred to me that she no longer fits in one arm during a feeding. Also during the feeding I noticed that her bald little head is no longer bald, when you hold her to the light you see that my baby has a full head of fuzz (and my hair line, poor thing). They do grow so fast...

Lastly, has anyone ever been to Gatlinburg for Christmas time? If so, how would you rate it on the fun times and family friendly scale?