Bulk Cooking, Not for the Faint of Heart

A number of people asked me to share my "24 meals in one day" I posted about on Facebook this week.  I thought I would take the opportunity to give you a good laugh reading my post and maybe share some helpful tips if you, too, choose to try this crazy feat!

Here is my #1 tip of the day:  Plan ahead.

I can say honestly, we had no plan.  My good friend Dana called me around lunch time and asked if I wanted to cook a bunch of meals with her.  We had talked about doing this some time this summer and it sounded fun at the moment...so I said yes!  We met around 2:00 and searched the internet for ideas.  We found a number of recipes (no, they didn't match up as far as ingredients) and printed them.  We made a master grocery list, taking into account the things we had on hand, and were off to shop!

Actually, we didn't leave until around 5:45PM (we were waiting for my husband to get home), ran a few errands and THEN went shopping.

Shopping took around 2.5hrs.  We stopped by the Dollar Store (foil pans/zipper bags are cheaper here), Aldi's and Kroger (meat was on sale) for the rest.  I thought that was pretty good since we had two kids with us!  We each spent right around $200 for all the meals.  We were very pleased with that.

Then, the cooking began!  It was 10:15 by the time we had unpacked our over-stuffed van into my kitchen!!

Yes, we are crazy!

My groceries

Dana's groceries

My kitchen!  It pretty much was a mess of bags, boxes and food by the time we were done.  We would just rummage and grab and we weren't very organized.  At 10PM we didn't have time to organize the stuff to access easier.  

Tip #2: Organize your groceries before starting

You can see here it's around 10:30 and we had 3 whole chickens cooking and rice water preparing.  This was really helpful since this stuff had to cook for.ev.er.  However, we couldn't use the stove for over an hour for anything else.  That brings me to my next tip...

Tip #3:  Cook your meat the day/night before.

I really think prepping the meat for these meals could take you a whole day.  And it would be worth it!   Boil a few whole chickens or put them in a crock pot over night.  Marinade your meats to prepare them for your zipper bags.  Cut chicken into cubes or strips.  Shred the cooked chicken.  Cook the ground beef and add seasoning.  Seriously, do it all the day before and your freezer bags will come together SO quickly!  And, since we needed chicken broth for a number of recipes we had to wait for it to cool.  And that took forever!  And another tip...

Tip #4:  Have a number of canning jars ready for storing broth, sauces and other ingredients

I didn't have very many handy, so we ran out of bowls quickly.  (My kids like to put bugs in the them and leave them around my yard...grrr!)  But, having more handy would be great!  I also have at least 3 sets of cup measures and an additional 12 1-cup glass bowls that were very handy!  Between the two of us we kept misplacing the actual cup measures, so I was glad to have the extras around.

 Chicken broth

 Tips #5:  You need a food processor and blender.

These will save you HOURS.  So, borrow one if you don't have one!

Carrots, onions, celery, cilantro and parsley in the food processor

Tip #6: If you are cooking with someone else, label your things!

We had no issues during clean up trying to figure out whose stuff was whose.

Label EVERYTHING!

We also had our groceries on a specific side of the kitchen, too.

Tip #7: Employ help

Mr. Prince was on clean-up duty, and he wasn't super happy about that at 3AM.  But, he also helped flip chickens, open cans and other 'manly' cooking things.  I'm sure your kids may be helpful, but I was actually happy that mine were a state away while I took on this adventure.  :)

This wasn't even the worse moment...

And if you are messy cooks like Dana and me, your stove will look like this when you are done!  Poor Mr. Prince...

Tip #8: Label your zipper bags

We labeled them with the meal, date, family name (this is important if you are cooking with someone) and instructions.  Not all needed instructions, but some needed the whole recipe, so we taped it on with packing tape.  A few recipes we were short something (like 1C sugar), so we just added it to the zipper bag.

Tip #9:  Have a large table in addition to your kitchen counters

The table was where we put together the bags, organized ingredients, set aside half-recipes and where I did most of my meat preparation.  We also used the piano and another desk that were near by.  So, in other words, you need LOTS of table space!   And if you don't follow Tip #9, you'll need more because you'll run out of bowls, pans, pots and spatulas!

3 incomplete recipes waiting for the next step

Yes, it says 1:17AM.  Our fist 6 meals completely done after 3 hours!  

2:31AM, just 1hr 15m later we had 30 meals done!

If your meat is prepped, it will come together much faster than ours!

Tip #10:  Pick recipes YOU will like, not just the easiest 'cook 50 meals in a day' post off Pinterest

So, the actual recipes.  I have to say, I've tried many-a-crockpot-meals and more have flopped in our home than stuck.  We have very few crockpot meals in our rotation.  I'm not sure if I'm just picky or if I just keep finding bad ones, but I seem to have bad luck with them.  So, I wasn't really up for making 20+ meals we may end up hating.  So, we found meals that looked good.  They weren't necessarily 'easy' either.  They were meals that we likely wouldn't bother spending the time to cook on any given day.  Meals that required multiple steps or ingredients.  I know many do this for the quick and easy meals, but that wasn't my plan.  So, another good reason to plan ahead and plan a few different days!  

I found THIS site and really liked her meals.  She didn't have a master list made up or anything, but that was fine since we didn't want to make all her meals.  (That would be a nightmare trying to omit certain ingredients from a master list and a reason why I haven't provided that on this blog post.)  All the meals were 'freezer friendly' so I was happy with that.

Here were the meals we made from this site and how much for we prepared for each individual family:

• Homemade Pot Pie (doubled made 5-6 pies or 2 meals for our family of 7)
• Fried Rice (doubled made 5 meals with 6 cups extra rice)
• Slow Cooker Broccoli Chicken Alfredo (2)
• Sweet and Sour Chicken (3)
• Chicken Parmesan Pesto Shells (2)
• Beef Barley Stew (2) 
• Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos (2 but we had extra lime pesto for other meals)
• Cafe Rio Pulled Pork  (2)
  

Here were some other meals from other sites or my own collection:

• Soft, Simple and Chewy Granola Bars (2 batches)
• Sausage and Egg Breakfast Burritos (18-20 burritos) - my made up recipe
• Chicken Tortilla Soup (2) - I cannot find the recipe we used but they are all very similar
• Crock-Pot Cheesy Potatoes and Ham (2)
• Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup (3)
• Chicken cleaned, prepped and frozen (2)
• BONUS: Chicken Enchiladas (this was made with left overs from cooking!)

So, we ended up preparing 30 meals along with 20 breakfasts for my hubby and granola bars!  We cooked around 4 hours the first day and then maybe 6-8 the next day (on and off).  I still had two meals to throw together a few days later, but all my food processing and meat prep was done, I just had to throw it all into bags.  Again, refer to tip #1.  :)

I know you are now distracted with searching these recipes to see if you like them...  But let me give you little tips on some of them to help you...

Homemade Pot Pie
I did not blanch my veggies.  I bought all frozen and I'm not going to sweat it!  We bought the mixed veggies that include carrots, green beans, peas and corn.  We did use the homemade broth from our boiled chickens.  It was delicious!  I haven't made the crust yet and am debating buying them verses making them...

I stored all my freezer meals flat so eventually I can stand them up in the freezer and easily flip through them like a file drawer.

Fried Rice
We made so.much.rice.  Your rice will rise as far as your water, so beware when filling a pot to the top!  We doubled this recipe and it was a LOT!  We stored this in zipper bags instead of a pan like the recipe suggested.  You MUST have a food processor!  There really is no other way to make this.

Slow Cooker Broccoli Chicken Alfredo
For many recipes we bought chicken on sale for $1.89/lb because we had to prepare it a certain way, but for recipes like this we bought frozen chicken for $1.99/lb.  It made preparing these super fast!

Sweet and Sour Chicken
This was one recipe that took a long time.  Cutting chicken, browning it....  If your chicken is prepped the day before, this one will come together a lot easier than it did for me.

Chicken Parmesan Pesto Shells
We bought already-made pesto for this recipe.  We also purchased a can of miced garlic to use for all our recipes to make things fast and simple.  We did not put our filling in the shells.  Mostly because our stove was always too busy to cook the shells!  This will still be simple to pull out of the fridge after cooking the shells.  Should take less than an hour to cook shells, stuff and bake!

Beef Barley Stew
If your meat is prepped the day before, the next thing I suggest you do is prepare your veggies.  Whether that's using the processor for something like Fried Rice or chopping veggies for Beef Barley Stew, it will make things move faster.  These bags came together quickly after all our veggies were done!

 We even kept a bag in the sink for compost collection!

Look at us being all earth-friendly and stuff!

And THIS is what happens when you peel and cut 15 onions!

Can you see my mascara running...LOL!

Cooking isn't always pretty....

Cilantro Lime Chicken Tacos
We did make this pesto from scratch.  Don't forget to clean your cilantro - ours was DIRTY!  We actually cooked up this chicken completely before freezing and stored the pesto in a different zipper bag until ready to make.  Should only take a few minutes to warm up and throw in tacos!

Cafe Rio Pulled Pork
I don't know what Cafe Rio is, but this looked good.  A pretty simple crockpot recipe but requires you to marinade over night, cook 3-4 hours, mix with a blended sauce and then cook 2 more hours.  So, I would never have the time to do this on a school day!   This is all done so it's ready to just warm for sandwiches!

Soft, Simple and Chewy Granola Bars
These are THE best granola bars and they don't take hardly any time to make!  We were making them weekly this past spring.  Way healthier than store bought!  We omit the almonds most of the time (it really changes the flavor) and the dried fruit (none of us care for dried fruit) and add in 3T heaping with peanut butter.  We've played with the recipe, but that is our favorite!  What's nice is you can add in anything you like and make it work for your family!

Sausage and Egg Breakfast Burritos
I saute onions and then cook my sausage with them.  Then I scramble 20 eggs in a different pan.  I chopped it up pretty good and mix it all together.  I put a heaping 1/3C of egg mixture and a pinch of shredded cheese into each tortilla and roll them in a napkin first and then foil.  When they are pulled out of the freezer we just leave the paper towel around it and cook it for 1-1.5minutes and they are awesome!  We've used ham and bacon as well.  If you use more than one meat, be sure to label them!  I've made that mistake before...

Chicken Tortilla Soup
This came together quickly and I used frozen chicken pieces to make it easy.  This was our first meal we tried!  My son used the tortillas for his lunch that I had set aside for dinner, so I only had one tortilla!  I toasted it in the toaster oven to save time and they all tried it.  We added shredded cheese and crushed tortilla chips as well.  It wasn't a *favorite* but my kids are pretty picky and they all ate it.  I think it will join the lists of meals they really like over time.  :)

Crock-Pot Cheesy Potatoes and Ham
We bought a small ham chuck that was already cut in slices and that saved some chopping time.  This is a quick prep crock-pot meal!  I used a 2-gallon bag for this and will add the water later.

Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup
This is a quick crock pot recipe if you have a food processor.  It helped that we had a number of recipes that needed carrot, celery and onions, so we only had to process them all once.

Chicken cleaned, prepped and frozen
It's so much nicer to grab thawed chicken that is already prepped!  I hate rinsing, trimming and getting all slimy.  Plus, it cuts 20 minutes off my meal prep time since I don't have to do all that plus scour the counters to avoid contamination!

Chicken Enchilada
I had some left over shredded chicken, rice and enchilada sauce that I threw into tortillas and baked up for dinner tonight!  Wouldn't feed all 6 of us, but fed Mr. Prince and me since our kids are out of town!

All in all, it was crazy but fun!  I will do it again, but not sure when.  Maybe if I get adventurous over Christmas break?  Here is my beautiful freezer!  Since I'm in school and on-call for births (doula/student midwife) my husband can cook a REAL, HEALTHY meal while I'm gone!  I hope my tips will help you be more efficient than we were!  I'm sure there are many more helpful site/blogs, but I wanted to share some of my awesome recipes! 

Enjoy your cooking!

Adoption: The World of Papers, Lists, Anxiety and Blessing

Ok, not really anxiety.  At least it shouldn't be!  I'm trying really hard to stay organized and stress-free during this process, but I'm failing...often.  That's ok - I'm pressing on!  She is worth it!

I've been thinking a lot about bring Frances home this past week.  I know, I'm a little ahead of myself considering we are still waiting for our homestudy approval...ha!  I just can't help it.

4 girls' hair to fix in the morning
6 kids,which means only using the 12 passenger van for family trips from now on
2 preschoolers, both with special needs and specialized lesson plans
Asian eyes, oh those eyes!
My last Fourth of July with only five kids
2 big girl helper-mommies for two little girls
2 big brothers to protect and spoil 4 sisters
Chubby little 4 year old hands
A best friend for Miracle

I am so beyond excited!

But, adoption is hard because you live in this world of hope and waiting while you drown in paperwork, numbers, fundraising, phone calls, planning, budgeting, notaries and STRESS.

I have so many lists:

• Tips for traveling to China
• Suggested foundations and grants
• Grants for special needs
• Grants for Down Syndrome
• Grants for China
• Credit cards that give rewards
• Fundraising ideas
• People who have donated to us
• People who have offered to help in numerous ways
• People whose tables I still have from our garage sale
• Tips for filling out paperwork
• Books about adoption
• Books about Down Syndrome
• Books about Down Syndrome adoption

It's nuts!  I'm not complaining.  I am SO happy to be here after our long journey.  I'm gonna fill out this paperwork jammin' to my For King & Country and take it in stride.  But, I can't say it's not hard.  It is.  For many reasons.

It's hard to know your little girl is being tucked in bed by the only mama she knows as I wake in the morning.  And that someday our roles will be reversed and she'll be thinking of the memories of tucking Frannie in bed as she wakes in the morning.

It's hard to know there is another mama out there that delivered a baby on Sept 22, 2010 that is about to come upon the forth year of her mourning.  No matter what reason her mama had for abandoning her, I know that every mama loves their baby.  Four years of not knowing, four years of tears, four years of guessing and hoping.  Four long years of sadness that will never, ever end.

"The first gave you a need for love, The second was there to give it."

Adoption is heartbreaking.  For every ounce of joy I have in adoption, there is still a heaviness of sadness.

But, I also believe that for all the hardships families endure throughout the process, there are so many blessings.  All these things are shaping me, my family, my children.  We are working together to raise money, budget and be creative.  Our goal is unified in love.  I hope some day Frannie's biological mama will know how much she is loved and wanted.

My 8 year old told me this weekend that she wants to have a child with special needs.  She wants to BIRTH a child with special needs.  (Though she also wants to 'make' her Asian husband be a pilot some day so he can fly them to China to work at an orphanage and adopt all the little Asian babies, LOL!) We talked a little bit about why we love people with special needs so much and then I told her that if I had a choice to heal Myra and Frannie, I would.  I told her that they aren't living how God created them to live.  They can't enjoy creation to it's fullest.  They may or may not be able to understand a God that loves them dearly on this side of Heaven.  I would choose 'better' for them.

You know what this little girl said?

She said she would keep them 'that way' because she LOVES them 'that way' and she also wouldn't change them because she KNOWS they would go to Heaven because God wouldn't punish someone who didn't understand sin.

Jaw drop.  Speechless.

I'm not sure I can come up with an argument against that!  Oh how I love that little spunky girl's heart!

 Angelica Pickles (8), Miracle and Princess Pea, Easter 2014

I know some friends and family (mostly those who don't live near) think we are crazy and are negatively affecting our 'neurologically typical' biological children by adopting another child with special needs (thanks Uncle Isaac for the coined term!).  It's not a conversation that ends in a high five or fist bump.  It usually starts with a wide-eyed stare and stutter, and ends with a high-pitched 'Good Luck' accompanied by an insincere eye-brow raise.  That's ok with me, though.  It truly doesn't bother me.

#1 I'm following my God's lead for my life, not the world's
#2 I see the benefits of having a sibling with special needs daily in my children's life
#3 I know the difference we can make in the life of an orphan
#4 I'm stubborn and enjoy going against the grain  :)
#5 I get my fist bumps from my friends who have children with special needs, nurses, therapists, etc.

And I'm not Super Mom, as so many have told me over the years.  I fail at my plans, yell at my kids, watch Call the Midwife instead of clean my kitchen, argue with my peacemaking husband, skip Miracle's therapy, make cereal for dinner, skim Facebook instead of playing a game with my kids, wait until I have 10 loads of laundry to do.... all the things other 'normal' moms do.  I'm a work in progress, too.  I can say, I do work very hard to accomplish my goals of trying to be the best mom.  That's all I've ever wanted - to be THE best mom.  I'm not.  By far!  But, I can accept grace where it's needed and move forward, trying even harder.  That doesn't make me Super, that makes me FORGIVEN.  God looks through the blood of Jesus at my face and smiles.  Not because I did it all right, but because Christ did.  He's the Super Hero!  No cape under my shirt!

This is sort of a random post of my thoughts, so I thought I would share something silly...

A few weeks ago I realized the colors that represent Down Syndrome awareness were blue and yellow.  These colors are special to Mr. Prince and me because they were BOTH our favorite colors in college.  I thought that was pretty cool when I found out.  We will be rockin' happily in Down Syndrome awareness attire!

Today I read about why World Down Syndrome Awareness Day is March 21st.  This date represents the 3 copies of the 21st chromosome, which is Down Syndrome or Trisomy 21.  My FAVORITE numbers since I was a little girl were 3 and 21!  My birthday is on the 21st, so that's part of it.  But, I thought that was cool as well.  Corny but Cool!  :P

I have some other great news to share...

We are coming SO close to our Fundraising goals!  $35,000 is a LOT of money.  And we hadn't considered international adoption prior to 2013 because of this.  Where is our one-income family going to come up with that kind of money?  I know, I know....God can do anything.  But, it just didn't sink in that way back then.  It was a burden to even consider.

Check these numbers out:

$2500 saved for the homestudy and application fee
$7000 grant Frannie already had on Reece's Rainbow
$1600 raised at our Adoption Garage Sale in June
$300 cash donations
$5000 allotted out of our taxes for 2015
$2000 saved from only MommyK traveling to China
$3000 *estimated* savings from budgeting in 2014
$1500 *estimated* to be raise at another Garage Sale
$4500 pain and suffering settlement from an accident in May *JUST RECEIVED*

So...that puts us at an *estimated* $7,600 left to be raised!  The ONLY way those numbers have added up is because we have a God that can do immeasurably more than we could ever imagine!  Only $15,000 more and we can bring home TWO kids from China!  We are going to keep plugging along fundraising and applying for grants and see what God does!  The agency said it's a long shot that we would get a waiver for another child, but don't forget....our God can do immeasurably more than we could ever imagine!


I can't wait to see the end of our story.  In the mean time, I'm going to keep learning and listening and allowing God to chip away at me, refining me to be the mom he's created for all SIX of my current children...and any other children that may come our way by birth or adoption.  :)

Join me!

MommyK and Miracle

If you feel called to donate to our adoption, there is a PayPal tab at the top right corner of this blog just above Frannie's photo.  You do not need a PayPal account to donate.  May your blessing to us come back to you ten-fold!

Announcement!!

We are NOT pregnant....we are FINALLY adopting!!

Mr. Prince and I have talked about adopting for years.  It's fairly long, but here's how we've finally come to where we are now...

Back in 2004 (right after Princess Pea was born and Sid was 2) we applied to be house parents for underprivileged children near Chicago.  We had visited the facility because friends of ours from college worked there and really loved what they were doing there.  Both of us could stay home or either of us could teach at the school there.  The process took over six months.  They didn't like that we had two kids, nor that we planned to have more, so we stepped out of that process after declining a high school group home in 2005.  Our training and love was for elementary kids, but they didn't think we could manage two young children as well as a house full of elementary girls.  We disagreed.  And knew God wanted to bless us with more children.  In fact, just weeks after declining the position, we found out we were pregnant with Angelica Pickles!

Over the next few years we started to hear more and more about Foster care and the hurting children taken away from their parents during rough times.  We started the process to be Foster parents in 2007, officially applying in 2009.  There were some delays in the process as we birthed Boo Boo in 2008 and unexpectedly were pregnant with Miracle as our application awaited approval.  Our desire was to be emergency Foster parents for infants and toddlers, hoping one day that would lead to an adoption.  I had babysat children out of my home for over five years and we had four cribs/playpens set up throughout the house.  We were eventually denied a license due to the ages of our children.  They said the state rule was no more than three children under the age of three in a given home or four children under the age of six.  We had both.

It was incredibly disappointing news for us.  But, we contended to apply again in a few years when Angelica Pickles would be over the age of three.

Then, Fall 2009 we were blessed with Miracle.  With her doctor appointments, seizures, therapy for cerebral palsy and such, it took me over two years to really get a handle on Myra's care in addition to my daily responsibilities of being a homemaker, homeschool mom and wife.  Adoption had never left my heart, but I knew it was something that would have to wait even longer.

(If you wanna learn more about Miracle, start with THIS post and there are more links there, also.) 

(Funny, I started following THIS blog after reading THIS post about another little girl with special needs that was born months after Miracle.  This mother was such an encouragement to me and left me wondering why God hadn't given Miracle her daughter's diagnosis instead of the ones Miracle had been given.  Come back and look at this after you read the rest of my blog!)  

God knew the entire time.

In early 2012 I contacted the local Foster care agency and inquired about starting the process again.  I was then told that the state of Indiana had changed their requirements so that no more than five children could be in a Foster care home, including biological children.  The previous requirement had been eight.

It honestly felt like another punch in the gut.  I knew God had called us and had given us hearts for children and adoption.  I didn't understand why we kept hitting walls.  But, God made it clear to me we were to adopt before we were going to have more biological children.

I started looking into domestic adoption, despite the cost.  I called some reputable Christian adoption agencies and one told me that no mother would ever choose our family due to having five kids.  In her 30 years, only one mother had chosen a family with more than two children, and that was because they had previously adopted.  Even children with Down Syndrome had so many parents waiting, homestudy ready, that it would likely take us a number of years to adopt.

Another punch.

After more months of research, I found out we could apply to adopt through the state of Indiana, we just couldn't Foster.  By then our Foster care classes had expired, so we had to start the process from scratch.  So, in late 2012 we started the process in the Special Needs Adoption Program (SNAP).  Our second homestudy was done in May 2013 and we were approved on Mr. Prince's birthday in September 2013!

I began immediately looking for our children.  We were open to special needs, sibling groups, boys or girls.  We sent in for information for many, many, MANY children.  Some we got back and knew we couldn't handle their needs, and others we never heard about.  Our homestudy was requested for a few children and we were never chosen.  For three months I spent HOURS searching.  It was emotionally exhausting.  But, I thought this was finally our open door.

Then the Foster to Adopt agency contacted me and told me that if I planned to make more inquiries, we would need to get a domestic homestudy to do so.  They didn't want to help us any longer.  

So, we contacted a highly recommended local homestudy agency.  We sat down with Jan for free and discussed with her why we wanted a domestic homestudy.  We were hoping their agency could be prompt in sending out our homestudy to Foster care agencies across the nation since our Foster care agency no longer wanted to support us in this.  Jan was very compassionate, but was very straightforward in saying she really thought we would just wait forever in the SNAP program.  She had experience in the Foster to Adopt world and she said they would likely never find our large, one-income family a desirable adoptive family.

Another punch.

Jan went on to tell us how many children were currently waiting for families around the world and, with our openness to special needs, we could likely adopt fairly quickly through a Waiting Child program.  We had told her we were open to special needs children and had been drawn to the idea of a child that was deaf or had Down Syndrome.  The problem was, I didn't want to adopt internationally.  My thought has always been that there are children HERE in America that need parents, too.  And the outrageous cost we could never afford.  And the travel that would take us away from our other children.  I had made this little picture in my head of what I wanted.  We desired a multicultural family, but this...it just wasn't desirable.

But, God calls us to the hard and undesirable sometimes.

Over the next month, I gave up.  I stopped looking for children.  I stopped talking about adoption.  I was beaten down.  I looked briefly at the countries Jan had suggested, but with no gusto or ambition.  I read about many other hang ups we might run into with international adoption.  Every site was discouraging.

Too many kids

Too young of kids
Too little income

I told God I was done and really just wanted to birth another child.  I wrestled with him the entire month of December 2013.  I got an email from Jan on Christmas Eve (why was she working on Christmas Eve?).  It was about an additional agency that was not on my original list.  They had waiting children from the Philippines.  Something drew me to contact the agency and I stated to look at their waiting children in early January.

January brought about many changes, as I started full-time midwifery school.  In my journal on January 4th I wrote, "I have been prompted to leave the uncomfortable to follow God into the unknown.  Adoption.  Cerebral palsy.  Doula.  Midwife.  Moving.  Some exciting.  Others daunting.  Many teaching patience and trust."  A major change in my heart.

We found two little girls from the Philippines that were 9 and 6 just days into January.  Sisters.  They were absolutely gorgeous.  Our girls were currently 9 and 7.  We got their complete profiles and I just cried reading them.  Their personalities sounded so much like my girls.  Their father had left their mother and she had started in the 'dancing' industry to make money.  The girls had been in custody of the country for only 2 years and had just become available for international adoption in December 2013.  They seemed perfect.  We fell in love.  So did our kids, especially our girls.  We sent in our application to the Philippines in January 14, 2014.  We were told we would wait around a month.  

On January 29th we got an email that another family had been identified for the girls.

Biggest punch yet.

I was shocked.  We didn't know we were even being considered alongside other families.  My kids' reaction was the hardest.  Angelica Pickles cried and cried.  She named her favorite stuffed animal after the little girl her age.  She talked about what it would be like to live with them all the time.  She was upset her older sister wasn't crying, too.  It was a hard, hard week.  I had no idea where to go from here.  But, I felt God showed me that week that He could make His Will happen whenever He wanted to.  That the situation was wholly in his hands.  That He can help us find our child through the heart of an adoption agent on Christmas Eve, or He would help us find them another way.  But, our hearts were broken between here and the Philippines.  And I never stopped praying for those girls.  And praying their family would be better than ours.  And perfect for them.  Yet, I still wondered if this door was completely closed...

I didn't look for kids outside of the Philippines for a while.  Each month the Philippines sent out a list of the hard to adopt kids (where we found the girls) and I waited expectantly for that list in February, March and April.  We asked about a little girl that was 6.  She wasn't likely to make it through to us.  A family with a current dossier in the Philippines was inquiring about her, and if they declined, she would be offered to all 20+ families currently waiting with dossiers.  THEN, she would be offered to us.

So, I continued to wait and pray.  Pray and wait.  I contacted a few other agencies and expanded my search to Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand.  I just didn't see my child/ren anywhere.  And my heart still hurt for the girls.

Some time in March I viewed THIS video.  It rocked my world.  I had seen many Gotcha videos but this one made me bawl and bawl and watch it over and over.  (Get some tissue if you plan to watch it!)  I attempted to hold back my tears as I showed Mr. Prince.  I had heard of Reece's Rainbow before, but never looked at their site in any detail.  I mulled over this site for hours reading profiles and falling in love with these children.  Reece's Rainbow is a site committed to advocating for special needs children, especially children with Down Syndrome.  We had talked about the idea of adopting a child with DS, but we hadn't talked about what exactly that would look like for us.  I had so many questions.  Could we really do this?

I feel in love with THIS profile (don't miss the videos!).  'Yulia' is a three year old girl from China with Down Syndrome and possible hearing impairment.  We didn't think China was even an option for us due to our income and family size, but we were told by 'Yulia's' agency that we could ask for waivers since she had special needs.  We had a long, hard conversation about finances, the future, Down Syndrome and all the other things swimming through my head.  And in mid-April we began to pray and fast about this little girl.  Is this who God wanted us to adopt?  My plan was to finish out my semester of school and we would possibly proceed in mid-May if we felt that was where God was leading.

Days later, on April 21st, we received an email from the Philippines agency that the two girls had become available again and they were reviewing our file!  I literally couldn't stop crying for hours and just paced, praying, up and down my street.  My kids thought I was nuts and really wanted to know what was wrong.  I called Mr. Prince at work and we decided it was best to not tell them.  We didn't want the same heartache for them.  I told them there was a possibility of good news or bad news and asked them to pray for good news. They weren't exactly satisfied with that answer, but they stopped asking.    

All I could think of was that God wanted me to trust, wait and understand that all of this was part if HIS plan.  I couldn't stop thinking about traveling to bring these girls home and what that meant for our family.  I had never given up hope that they would come back to us if it was God's plan.  My friends even got goosebumps when I called them and asked them to pray.  It seemed like the 'end' to the beginning of our adoption story.

The Philippines asked for additional information about Miracle's special needs.  I thought this was odd, and was possibly a little offended by it.  Why does this affect how we would parent these two girls?  We were currently raising four other 'neurologically typical' children and they were doing great.  We sent a positive response about how much we love Miracle and include her in everything that we do despite the fact that she doesn't talk or walk.  And then we waited.

On Mother's Day I had the privilege of watching one of my best friend's babies (#4) assimilate into his family immediately following his birth through Skype.  (I missed the birth by moments!)  She never knew, but I cried and cried with my camera off (they thought I had technical difficulties and honestly weren't paying attention that much for obvious reasons).  I wanted to birth another child.  And all I could see was having not three, but now FIVE little girls being a part of my next birth experience and being little mommies to another little Kellogg baby some day.  I had waited to have children for almost 5 years now awaiting an adoption.  So, it was just a little emotional for me. 

The day after Mother's Day, May 11th, I got the news that another family had been identified for the girls....again.

There are no words for my feelings.  I felt peaceful, yet hurt.  Accepting, yet torn.  I still pray for them and think of them often.  But, I guess they were never mine.  And I had been praying that God would give me peace either way.  See, as I was waiting I started to question whether I really could take in two older girls.  Could I really parent them well?  This wasn't my original plan either.  I had succumb to the fact that this decision was not mine.  And I was peaceful.  I was glad that I couldn't mess up God's plan as long as I searched for His Will.  That peace beyond understanding - that is what I claim for that day.  

I also found out that while we were waiting on these girls, the six year old girl we had inquired about (also from the Philippines) had become available to us.  But, since we were waiting to hear back about the girls, we were not given the opportunity to look at her profile and she had been accepted by another family.  My heart immediate sunk, but I quickly accepted that as God's way of assuring we would eventually adopt who He wanted us to adopt.

We had been majorly distracted from praying about 'Yulia' from Reece's Rainbow through these few weeks.  I still had her photo on my iPhone screen and still thought about her, but I truly thought the girls would be ours.  But, as I prayed about these girls while we waited, God kept assuring me that I could parent who He places in our arms.  That His grace is sufficient.  That it would be His strength that would allow us to adopt and parent this child or children He had planned for us.  At the time I was thinking about the girls and the difficulties I knew they could bring to our family.  The sacrifices that would have to be made, the prayer that would be required, the money that would have to be raised.  But, my heart immediately turned toward 'Yulia' after we found out we were not chosen for the girls and these promises from God still rang true.

I struggled for a few weeks wondering what I would do if we moved forward with 'Yulia' and the girls become available again.  I prayed over and over, that if these girls were going to come back again, that they would come back to us before the end of May, not 6 months down the road.  I prayed for direction and leading from God and begged for peace.  Begged.  I read about Down Syndrome and Mr. Prince and I had many conversations.  My heart grew for this little girl, yet I was somewhat reserved because of the hurt I had already been through with the girls.

It took a few weeks to get all my questions answered about the process.  In that time a few families started to inquire about 'Yulia'.  I was told that no one had ever pursued her in the 3 years she had been waiting.  We sent in our application for them to review our information to assess if we would be able to adopt from China.

On May 24th the director of Across the World Adoptions contacted me and told me she didn't see any reason why China would not allow us to adopt 'Yulia'.  I was still in denial, but wanted to believe her.

  

We began to work on our Letter of Intent and started to get more excited.  We announced that we 'hoped' to adopt a little girl from China to Mr. Prince's family on Memorial Day.  We were reminded that day that 'Yulia's' birthday was the same as Mr. Prince's maternal grandmother, Helen Frances Plasterer.  We had always wanted to name a baby after Helen, but nothing ever stuck with our other kids.  Helen raised four children with a rare disorder and all four died by the age of eight.  This was in addition to the other four babies she lost by miscarriage/stillbirth and the five she raised into adulthood.  She was an amazing women who only met our first two children.  But, I have said since Miracle was born, she was the one person I wish I could talk to about raising a child with special needs - she did it four times with grace!  My appreciation grew for Helen ten-fold after Miracle was born.  Mr. Prince and I went home and quickly decided without much discussion that 'Yulia's' name would be Frances Joy Yutang Kellogg.

Frances from Helen Frances 

Joy describes Down Syndrome perfectly

Yutang is her given Chinese name

She would be known as Frannie Joy!  Our attachment grew.

May 28, 2014 we sent our Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt Frannie Joy.  And we waited....again.  We held a fundraising garage sale in early June and raised a little under $1600.00!  We posted photos of Frannie at the sale, but I was still a little nervous because I wasn't SURE she was mine yet.

Well.... we just received our Pre-Approval to adopt Frannie Joy on June 19th!!  She is ours!!  Well, not officially...but a promise has been made from China that we can come get her next year!

Frannie Joy will be four on September 22 - the day after my birthday, two days before Miracle turns five and the day Helen Frances would have been 93.  We are waiting for our home visit for our homestudy, but all our paperwork is done.  We are starting our I800A application for USCIS and our dossier paperwork.  We hope to bring her home early 2015.

We are beyond excited to finally be bringing home the little girl God had planned for us long ago!  And the events that shaped our love and opened our hearts to adopting her is quite obvious to us now.

God has shown me through raising Miracle that life isn't always easy and life isn't always fair but His plan is perfect, His grace is sufficient and His love is unconditional.  I have struggled throughout the last number of years waiting for answers, waiting for direction, waiting for healing and waiting for adoption.  I still have things I'm waiting on.  And though I know in my heart that God's timing is perfect, my head still yearns for my own timing.

I want Myra to be healed NOW.  

I want Frannie to be here NOW.  

I want to move NOW.
I want to be a midwife NOW.

I'm still running into road blocks for many of these things.  But, I just have to keep reminding myself that those blockers are there to slow me down and point me to my Savior and Redeemer.  That Christ is my strength and God is my path.  This story sums up much of the last 10 years of my life.  It's kind of odd to see it on a blog in just a few number of paragraphs.

If you feel drawn to help fund our adoption, there is a PayPal DONATION button on the top right corner of our blog (you don't need to have a PayPal account to donate).  We need to raise approximately $35,000 to bring Frannie home.  The process goes quickly for waiting children and they will expect that we move quickly to raise this money.  We have some fundraisers in the works and plan to apply to grants.  Currently, we are $1800 short to pay China the $3500  'acceptance' fee for Frannie.  When we turn in our dossier in three months or so (my goal is her birthday), we will need an additional $6260 to send our dossier to China.  And, we are praying about possibly bringing home an additional child if God provides the funds quickly for Frannie, if China and USCIS would approve us and if we raise an additional $15,000 on top of Frannie's $35,000!! 

I understand not everyone is in a position to donate money, but we also need some people who could commit to pray for this process.  I would love to know if any of you are willing to do this for us!

We have always felt love and support from our friends and family and I have no doubt the support will blow us away again!  I know there are already people who have asked when and how they can donate.  Here you go!  Please feel free to link your blog or Facebook to this post and spread the word on how others who haven't (yet) been called to adoption can help bring an orphan home.

Kellogg Family (2014)

Princess Pea, Mr. Prince, Boo Boo, Sid the Science Kid, MommyK, Miracle, Angelica Pickles

I'm thinking Frannie's blog name will be Kai-Lan.  

Seems appropriate considering the cartoon names our other kids have adopted.  :) 

I know many of you are blog browsers....

Please stop and say HI!  

Leave a comment so I know you visited and I can come follow your family story or adoption journey!  

Over 700 people have already visited this post, but I only know one of you!  ;)

Family Update *BIG NEWS*

It's been FOREVER since I blogged.  And a lot has happened in the last year.

Allow me to summarize...

We completed our school year last month and I'm currently planning year 2014-2015.  Sid the Science Kid will be doing mostly high school work during his 7th grade year, Gracelyn will be going into 5th grade, Angelica Pickles will be in 3rd and Boo Boo will be in 1st/2nd.  Miracle will continue to stay home with us due to the help of a nurse during my 'teaching' hours.

This year I'm making lots of changes to my curricula due to being in school full-time myself.  This past January I started full-time midwifery school.  It was a difficult semester managing homeschool, a home and my own school....but we survived!  This is a two year program that will take 2-4 to complete due to attending a required amount of births and prenatal appointments.  I'm SO excited about this program because birth and pregnancy has been a passion of mine for so many years!   

Mr. Prince continues to teach 3rd grade students at a local elementary school, but had a rough year.  Teaching is becoming more and more difficult as our culture shifts.  He is currently working at a summer Clubhouse program and really enjoys his time there.  Mr. Prince has been an incredible help this last semester picking up the slack I've left as I did school for hours and hours every evening.

MommyK and Mr. Prince at a cousin's wedding, 2014

Sid the Science Kid has 'graduated' from his church's elementary school program and is now in the 6th-8th grade program.  Exciting, but he is already starting to learn about 'cliques' and 'cool' kids.  I don't look forward to these middle school years coming up for any of my kids.  He is still doing leaps in bounds in school and completed a Pre-Algebra program this year!  I'm finding it hard to keep up with him.  I'm praying these next few years he finds some passions (other than Legos) and starts to develop a love for something.  These are important years coming up and I'm a little nervous about parenting a tween!

 Sid the Science Kid (11) with Miracle (4)

Princess Pea has bloomed in her dance classes this year and has matured a lot.  Academically she is keeping up with her brother and blowing me away.  She has been watching me do the laundry for years, and last month, asked to fold a basket.  She did awesome!  So, I told her for the summer I would pay her $.50/basket to help her raise money to buy her 3rd American Girl Doll (this will be the second doll she's purchased herself).  I haven't folded a load of laundry for WEEKS!  She is such a little helper and little mommy.  She blesses my heart so often!

Princess Pea (9) practicing for her Restored to Glory Presentation

Angelica Pickles just turned 8 and is still a very spunky little girl!  She had a rough beginning of her school year, but by the end of the year she was enjoying school and reading much better.  We also found out how crazy quick at math she is!  She has grown a lot dancing for Restored to Glory this year as well, and it was her first year in a different class than her sister.  She really bloomed in some friendships at church and I'm excited to see her interests in church activities, school and dance take off this year.  She adores her baby sister and often takes time to play with her daily.  She loves to help in the kitchen, too.

Angelica Pickles and MommyK

Boo Boo's personality just keeps getting better!  He's a such a clown and tries to be funny constantly.  His newest thing is the daily mo-hawk.  I have no idea where he comes up with these things.  Boo Boo finished his entire 1st grade math book this year and is reading at a 2nd grade level.  He seems ready academically to be going into 2nd, but he still seems like my baby!  I'm thinking I'll have him straddling between 1st/2nd this coming year.  He loved the soccer and basketball teams we put him on this year and is probably the one who uses the 10ft hoop we purchased for our backyard the most.  He constantly wants to be outside.  We really enjoy what he brings to our family.

Boo Boo (6) and MommyK

Miracle has had a pretty uneventful year, which is some ways is a good thing!  Her seizures have been under control for the most part and she's been happy.  She now sleep in her sister's room, per request of her sisters, but still takes naps on our laps or the downstairs couch.  Her head control hasn't improved much, but she's eating a few ounces 1-2x daily!  We just received her Upsee harness this past week and I cannot wait to work on walking with her in that!  We had numerous friends donate the $489 to pay for the Upsee a few months ago and are so thankful for their constant love and support!  

 Miracle (4) happy in her stander!

Miracle has changed our family's perspective on life completely.  And that brings us to our next update...

Stay tuned for my next post!  :)

Miracle Myra is FOUR!

This is sort of an odd day for me.  Myra seems like she's been around forever, yet I can't wrap my mind around calling her four.  She is, in fact, a large four year old.  So, that I can assure you!  Carrying her 34lb- 40inch self is getting harder and harder for any period of time.  I loved carrying her in my sling or wrap.  I just cannot do it anymore.  So, in that way she very much feels like four.

But, I simply cannot believe her birth was a whole four years ago.  I remember that day so clearly.  It is probably the worse day I've ever experienced, yet that experience has changed the course of my life forever.  In many ways I wish I could take it back and change it.  In many ways I wouldn't dare, for the person I was fours years ago on September 23, 2009 is no longer living.  I sort of had a birth of my own on her birthday four years ago.

(If you don't know her birth story you can read it HERE.  Her step by step story is typed below her photo in the right column but you can also read more about her MRI results HERE and her diagnosis HERE and my perspective HERE and HERE.)

I'm almost as a loss of words today.  It's very hard to describe my feelings.  I honestly never thought we would be where we are four years later.  I truly believed Myra would be running around with her siblings and chatting up a storm by now.  Don't get me wrong, we celebrate each and every accomplishment - ask my Facebook friends!  And I've learned well that milestone lists are not what is important in life.  I've seen compassion for people who are different grow in my children, and that has been amazing.  I look at each and every child around me with a sense of wonder.  Their abilities amaze me, their speech, their laugh, their toddle as they learn to walk, their big noggins.  I see things through different eyes.  This I like.  I'm more appreciative.  More observant.  More in awe of God and His creation. 

And I feel like I can actually see through Myra, to her heart.  Through the cries, through the screams, through the protests during therapy.  She's a super sweet personality.  Very laid back, in fact.  She loves to observe, but if you involve her in something, she lights up.  She loves people, loves listening to them talk and interact.  She loves music- Celtic, country, lullabies, guitar, banjo, men's voices, bells.  Most people either see her crying or staring off into space.  But, she's listening.  She's interacting every way she knows how.  She may not react when you say 'HI', but if you just stayed a moment longer, often a smile will erupt just as you walk away.  Her reactions are delayed, but they are there.  She loves when kids play with her, play with her toys, touch her hands and face.  Many kids at church or on outings come up and ask about her hearing aids while touching her ear or start playing with her toy.  Most parents shoo them away, but she loves that.  They don't understand it's the only interaction with other children that she gets besides her siblings.  I can see her light up when her 3-year-old cousin comes to say 'HI' as she starts playing with her toys, touching her hands and talking to her.

Myra is the best cuddle bug.  She curls up in her dad's arms, my lap or envelops one of her siblings completely as they try to manipulate her as she's gotten so big.  She loves to listen to our heartbeats and is content for so long with that.  She feels safe.  Her vision isn't great, so when she goes for periods of time in her wheelchair or on the floor and she isn't hearing constant chatter, because the kids are outside or I'm cooking in the kitchen, she cries because she's lonely.  She is a people person.  I wish you could all know her like I do...

The fact that Myra isn't mobile or verbal stinks.  Truly.  But, the biggest heartache isn't that I can't mark it off a chart to say that she did it, but that she cannot express herself like the rest of us.  She's in there and can't tell us all she's thinking and feeling.  She's trapped in a body that doesn't do what it should.  When she's crying and we can't figure out why, I'm just heartbroken.  That is the biggest thing to swallow.  That no one else knows her like I do, and I don't even know her like God does.

But, can't you see her spunk?  :)

Our pastor shared a vision with us when she was only hours old.  He said she was around the age of three and was dancing at the alter with dark, curly hair and everyone could see the glory of God on her.  I have chosen to believe this vision wholeheartedly and have tried hard to not to put God in a box.  I'd like to think that this means she is healed completely of every single disability, but I know that that may not be true.  But, I am still waiting.  Despite the fact that she's now four, I'm still going to wait.  God is not one to break His promises.  But, I think of the possibilities if she is healed completely- the people I would tell, the story she would have, the vast number of people that would witness God's healing hand and how many people this could affect in their walk with God.  The truth is, she IS a miracle!  We HAVE seen God heal her in so many ways already.  I HAVE told many people and she IS affecting people's lives, just as she is.  So, all I can say is, even though my little human brain can make plans and see the benefits of a completely healed little girl, God often uses those of us that are broken to make the biggest statements and touch the most people.  And though I'm not completely ready to let my dreams of complete healing go, I can accept God's plan for her life. 

If I've learned anything in these last four years, it's been that His plans are greater than mine.

This song sings my heart....

"Even If" -Kutless

Sometimes all we have to hold on to
Is what we know is true of who You are
So when the heartache hits like a hurricane
That could never change who You are
And we trust in who You are

Even if the healing doesn’t come
And life falls apart
And dreams are still undone
You are God You are good
Forever faithful One
Even if the healing
Even if the healing doesn’t come

Lord we know Your ways are not our ways
So we set our faith in who You are
Even though You reign high above us
You tenderly love us
We know Your heart
And we rest in who You are

Even if the healing doesn’t come
And life falls apart
And dreams are still undone
You are God You are good
Forever faithful One
Even if the healing
Even if the healing doesn’t come

You’re still the Great and Mighty One
We trust You always
You’re working all things for our good
We’ll sing your praise

Even if the healing doesn’t come
And life falls apart
And dreams are still undone
You are God You are good
Forever faithful One
Even if the healing
Even if the healing doesn’t come

You are God and we will bless You
As the Good and Faithful One
You are God and we will bless You
Even if the healing doesn’t come
Even if the healing doesn’t come

And even if the healing doesn't come in this lifetime, it is coming. 

I can rest in that.

I love you, Myra.  More than you will ever know.

But my love is incomparable to HIS.

Day 1 DONE!

Finished with Homeschool Day 1 and completed and graded everything by 2:30pm!  Now, we aren't doing our full school schedule, but doing chores and getting back into routine is taking quite some extra time.  We got done all I had planned, so I am pleased.  Despite feeling like I'm only half ready for school this year, we had a fabulous first day!

Tomorrow we will add in flash card work, poetry and scripture memorization and our Answers in Genesis apologetics curriculum.

Next week we will add in science, history and Character Quality Language Arts.  I still have lots of planning to do with these.

First Day of School photos, unedited and unplanned....

 Boo Boo's first day of 1st grade!

Angelica Pickle's first day of 2nd grade!

Princess Pea's first day of 4th grade!

 Sid the Science Kid's first day of 6th grade!

I also made over seven phone calls this morning taking care of a few things since I've been gone three weeks.  We realized last night that our monthly order for Miracle's g-tube supplies and formula hadn't arrived yet.  We have supplies for TODAY and that's it.  They had some excuse about Medicaid changing things, but it's ridiculous UNacceptable, no matter what excuse they have.  A local branch will bring us supplies to last a few more days as they work out insurance issues, but nothing will arrive before 10:30AM tomorrow.  I will have to throw some baby food together for her morning feeding to get us through the morning.  That added some extra stress to my day! 

Had to throw in these pictures from our church's carnival yesterday, they are so cute!  I think my 10 year old is too old for face painting, but whatever.

See other First Day of School photos at the Not Back to School Blog Hop 2013!