Crazy to Cupcakes

While we were in Uganda we had the privilage of spending a week with Dan and his two newly adopted children, Hannah and Joseph. It was really great for Charles Tucker to have some friends to play with once Henry and Mary Taylor left and Dan was such an encouragement to me along with his buddies Scott and Judd who came to our his rescue while he was in Uganda. They made Uganda more fun!

Once we were all a little adjusted with our new families here in the states...Charles Tucker finally got to see his old Ugandan buddies one morning for a playdate over at the Crazy's house... So sureal to see them in their new home, happy and thriving...God is sooo good!! Love these two kids...they have a special place in my heart. Can't wait to see what the Lord does through their lives...it's gona be good!!!

It was quite challenging for Shelly and I to get seven children to sit in one place for a picture, so lunch time was our next best option! None of us wanted to leave this fun, crazy house...Henry was kicking and screaming..and Charles Tucker loved playing with "JoHannah" and "Jophes" again...

Shelly has been such an encouragement to me since we have both come home with our children from Uganda. Can't wait to do more playdates with our Ugandan babies and learn from a mother of five! Shelly and Dan are also one of the couples that started Sixty Feet almost a year ago after hearing about this horrible prison for orphans in Uganda. You can read about our journey to "M" while I was in Uganda, HERE. Their eldest daughter felt such compassion for these orphans that she decided to sell cupcakes to raise money for "M"...which became known as the Cupcake Kids.

The Cupcake Kids was really the kids’ idea. They had been watching their parents becoming involved with a ministry in Uganda, Africa called Sixty Feet and they wanted to help out in their own way. “Why don’t we sell cupcakes and lemonade on the corner one afternoon and give all the money to the kids in Africa?” they said one day. Okay, why not? So we gathered some friends, designed a sign or two, baked some adorable cupcakes and sat out on the street corner. Some folks showed up. And God showed up…big time!

The first cupcake sale made $260.00, so then two weeks later they made 10,000.00 from several more cupcake sells all over the country. So neat to see God turn water into wine! We actually met Shelly and Dan at the first Cupcake Kids sale last spring....so neat to see what the Lord has done with Sixty Feet, along with the Cupcake Kids in less than a year! Pretty incredible!!!

Mary Taylor enjoying the first Cupcake Kids sale...

Well, on April 16, 2011, children from all over the nation are joining together for the desperate children of Uganda for one big Cupcake Kid's sale. Go HERE to learn how to host your own Cupcake Kids Sale in your neighborhood. Can't wait to do one in our neck of the woods!

 

Here are the Sixty Feet women at the Created for Care retreat at the beginning of the month. Look how yummy those cupcakes look??

So thankful the Lord has led us to these amazing people who have hearts for orphans. I feel blessed to be able to join with others on this journey to love the fatherless...believe me, we need eachother!

First Hair Cut

A friend from the YMCA has been so excited about Charles Tucker joining our family that she a has really taken care of me by bringing me hair products and then last week she brought me a brush. But, all I could think about was, why do I need to brush his hair?? It is so short and always stays in the same place. But, maybe she is telling me I am not doing something right with his hair?? So I decided to ask another African American friend about his hair. Well, to make a long story short, she told me his hair looked "nappy"..... Well, I guess it is time to get a hair cut!! I thought his little circles of hair looked cute, but obviously it is not acceptable. Little do I know...

So.. we headed to the local barber shop...

When we walked in and tried to get Charles Tucker to sit in the chair, he clug to me pretty tight, so I realized this might be a little more difficult, than I realized. But, Isha said, "Oh, let him sit in your lap." Perfect, what a great idea!! Mary Taylor sat in the chair beside us, then Isha went next door to the gas station and came back with suckers for the kids! Wow! She knows is good! Relief...now both kids are set for Charles Tucker's first hair cut. He was a little apprehensive about the razor, but soon he realized what it was and seemed to understand and remember this from his babies home. About ten minutes later, Charles Tucker had a fresh new cut!!
                                                                           (iphone)

Ten dollars and Ten minutes later we have a new dew!!! This is easy, I can do this!! One step at a time....

 After I got his hair cut, I read on Kristi Johnston's blog about African-American hair care and realized that these little balls of hair are a big No, No! Opps.... I am learning...I guess it's time to use our new brush!

Four less orphans in 2011

For the past year or so, I have had the privilage to get to know several adoption families through blogs. Some I still talk to through their blog and email, but others I have called on the phone for advice or even met  person. Three of these families have finally completed their adoptions in January 2011.

Rachel and her husband Brad just got Legal Guardianship of their sweet Amelia last week. Amelia is a beautiful girl who I got to meet and love on while I was in Uganda. She lived in Charles Tucker's baby home. Rachel, Brad and Amelia are still in Uganda waiting to get Amelia's visa to come home to be united with their other daughter, Caroline. I am praying they will be safely home in the next couple of weeks. You can follow their journey HERE.

Lora and Andrew just returned home from Uganda last night with their sweet Mira, to be united with their five other children. This family has been through a lot in two and half weeks (which is extremely fast, our adoption process in country took four and half weeks), they had their money stolen and they almost had to come home with out their daughter. But, the Lord provided and now they are at home loving on all six of their children. I had the amazing privilage of meeting Mira in Uganda while I was there. Charles Tucker and I loved on her for an hour or so, while we took pictures and filmed her for her mommy and daddy back in the states. Only one month later, her parents were able to hold her in their arms. God is good!! You can follow their journey back home HERE.

Then finally, Julie and her husband just brought twin infants into their family through domestic adoption. I knew Julie through her blog Flutterbugs, but then realized my sister-in-law Leslie knew her as well. Julie and I finally met at one of the African Adoption Fellowships in Atlanta about six months ago. Julie and her family inspire me. They now have five children after waiting seven months to welcome home their babies. They are truly grateful to their birth mother who sacrificially gave these children up so they could be raised in a loving family. Such an inspiring "Gottcha Day Video".  (remember to pause the music at the bottom of the page)


Love seeing orphans come home to their forever families! It never gets old!!

Balance

Lately I have been trying to find "balance" in my life. I think this is something we all strive for, but never attain, especially those of us who are at home with our children. If we give time to one area of our life, another area suffers. Then the next day we give more attention to the area that was suffering, and then the other area suffers. For example, this blog was something I really attended to the last year or so of my life during our adoption process, but other areas of my life were lacking. I did not spend  as much time with God, my husband, or my children. So I this was one are of my life I could slow down on and give attention to more important areas of my life. Now that we have added a new child, there are many other things on my plate such as a precious face looking up to me who needs constant love and attention, lots more laundry, three kids under four who mess up the house constantly, which needs to be cleaned, more dishes to clean and more disagreements between siblings to regulate. Add all of this ontop of spending time with your husband, keeping up with friends, volunteering for church, cooking our dinner, running errands and spending time with God. Naturally, this left me feeling overwhelmed and basically a mess. But, the Lord revealed to me that he is the only one who can create balance in my life. He is the only one who can give me peace amongst the caous. So, instead of being productive and checking things off my list once the kids go down for a nap, I decided the only way to stay saine and not loose it, is to spend time with the only one who can give me LIFE. I know most of you are probably saying, "Dah!" Of course you should be spending time with God! Well, I was, when it fit into my schedule or when I was desperate. But, fitting anything into my schedule is impossible, because the work never ends and I never get everything checked off my list. So no matter how many dishes are in the sink, toys on the floor, voice messages to check, emails to return, and people to call back...I stop what I am doing and go read, journal, and pray that the Lord will rescue me from myself. Then after thirty minutes to an hour, I feel rejuvenated, rested and peaceful to tackle what life throws at me. This time has been critical for me to stay saine and not be a miserable person to be around. You know those harassing thoughts that enter your mind about what you are NOT doing, or who you are NOT pleasing, well this "time" helps with that too! God has truly met me in my overwhelmedness and given me LIFE. When people ask me how it is going, I can honestly say things are really good...yes, it is hard, but the Lord is carrying me through, literally. The christian life promises suffering and trials...the sooner I learned to embrace this, the sooner I will learn to enjoy life through trusting and abiding in Jesus.

"God calls you to be dissatisfied. You should be discontent, restless, and hungry! The Christian life is a state of thankful discontent or joyful dissatisfaction." ~How People Change, by Timothy S.Lane and Paul David Tripp

Another way to find balance in my life is community, real genuine community. The Lord has provided this group of girls women who I meet with everyweek, to really get deep with and get to the heart of our "stories". Stories, meaning, the stories of our lives, so we can be in right relationship with God and be more free from ourselves. I truly believe this group is one of the greatest things I have ever experienced. I am growing leaps and bounds with these women!! One of the cool things I have learned through this group, is a new podcast called True Sisterhood, that started in December 2010. Is there such thing as true sisterhood? Most of us what say no! But, these four women from many different stages of life, have come together to form this true sisterhood as an example of what it could be to really get to the heart of issues, not just graze the surface in relationships. We were made to be in community and help one another along in this journey through the Christian life. They talk about identity, beauty, and influence...pretty much anything women deal with on a day to day basis. I have loved listening to their podcast once a week while I am cleaning the house, doing the dishes, or running on the treadmill. They really speak to my heart. Go to their website to check it out! TRUE SISTERHOOD You can also get their podcasts FREE on ITunes and it updates on your Iphone everyweek, if you press download. I highly recommend this podcast!! You won't regret checking it out!!!

The mission of the podcast:

"Our private thoughts reveal a lot about the breakdown of relationship among women, even (and sometimes especially) Christian women. We’re catty. We’re envious. We compete and compare. We look to our bodies, our achievements, our men, and even our spirituality to give us what we lack. Addiction and vice soon become our favorite solution to what we may not even realize is our deepest problem: loneliness.

 Turns out, we need each other more than we’d like to admit. The True Sisterhood exists to demystify the drama of female relationship by modeling authenticity and vulnerability, so we can navigate life no longer alone."

Who am I?

I am a daughter graciously adopted into God's kingdom. His grace sustains me and compels me to love others. Through this amazing grace I hope to share a glimpse of his love with you, so that you will be rescued from yourself and brought into right relationship with our savior. I am also a wife to a godly husband that sacrifices more for me than I deserve and a mother to three precious children, one we recently brought home from Uganda. I started this blog to inform friends and family of our adoption, but it has since become a chronological story of his blessings in our life. I am learning that trusting Jesus is a moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day act that only his grace can sustain. To God be the glory

Our family on December 3, 2010 for our court date in Uganda..

These are my three munchkins I focus all of my energy on everyday, all day! Henry is 4 1/2, Charles Tucker and Mary Taylor are both 2, we call them "the twins" or "the babies".

You can find us most days saving the world from all evil...

Creating caous...

Or just loving on each other...

Charles Tucker's Adoption Day-February 4, 2011

Last week, around Tuesday, Dee came home and said, "I am about to file our papers to adopt Charles Tucker? Are you ready to go to court any time they tell us to go in the next couple of weeks?" Me: "You mean any day we will adopt him? Wow! That was fast!" Sure, enough, Dee filed the papers on Wednesday and our court date was set for Friday. It usually takes about six months to adopt in the states once you get home, but ours only took five weeks. Way to go Dee for working so hard on this!! So that is why you have been staying late at work???!!

So Friday morning before our court appearance, we headed to the airport to pick up an adoption blog friend, Sara, whom I had never met in person. She came in town for the Created For Care retreat for the upcoming weekend, but decided to spend the day with us, before the retreat started. Well, Sara, I hope you enjoyed our crazy family!?!

 Yes, I got them to pose in their p.j.s and boots, I could not resist taking a picture before we headed to the airport! Can you believe my crew is cooperating so well these days!! So fun for this mama!

It was so neat to finally meet Sara face to face after a year of knowing her through her blog and occassional texts and phone conversations. She is about to go pick up one of Charles Tucker's best buddies from the babies home in Uganda. Please pray she gets a court date fast, hopefully in the next couple of weeks!!!

So around 10:30, we headed to the court house downtown to make Charles Tucker officially a DeBardeleben. We got there early just to make sure we did not miss our court appearance.We found a small corner for the kids to play and run around. Then around 11:30, we entered the Judges' chambers and within three minutes, Charles Tucker became part of our family! It was somewhat anticlimatic, with our kids making noise and acting out, but thankfully we brought Sara along to cry for us and help us realize the magic of it all. Charles Tucker DeBardeleben is officially an orphan no more!! That is definitely something to cheer about!!

Then daddy had to go make some copies before we left of all the documents, so we let the kids run around a little bit more. Look how excited Henry is about his new brother!!!

Let me present to you "Charles Tucker DeBardeleben"

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine. Isaiah 43:1

What a privilage it is to be chosen to be Charles Tucker's mommy. He is a precious little boy with a savior who loves him more than I will ever have the capacity to love him. He shows me more everyday what a blessing he is to our family. I am excited and thankful for the rode we have ahead of us and I pray the Lord will show me more and more how to best be the mommy he has called me to be to our new son.

**Sara and I then headed up to the Created for Care retreat to hang out with 250 other mommies who love orphans.. More on that later!

What do you do when you are stuck inside for a week?

Time flies! Charles Tucker and I have been home for one month day! And I have known him for two months! It seems like yesterday when I was begging the Lord for a court date and now we are home in the groove of life...kind of...as much as you can be "in the groove" with 3 kids under 4. What else have we been up to this month??

Well, our snow week looked like this...

Two little monkies jumping on the bed....disregard my southern singing voice...(remember to pause the music at the bottom of the page)



Playing in homemade tents.... Charles Tucker loves to wrestle with Mary Taylor and Henry...It is so funny! But, he can only handle too much and he has to be in full control, or he will loose it...so the wrestling doesn't last too long.

Mary Taylor loves it, she is truly one tough little girly girl...

TaTa and TuckTuck loving eachother.....(this is what they call eachother)

They can't get enough...

Look at this precious little boy, isn't he beautiful???

Super Heros protecting all that is good....Henry finally got CT to wear the Robin costume. He has been waiting for Charles Tucker to be his sidekick for months now. This was a safe day in the DeBardeleben Household!

Dana nana nana nana.. Dana nana nana nana...Batman..and Robin....

The twins destoying playing board games...


Playing more dress up....Super girl decides to go girly on us....She finally likes dressing up in tutus, not just super heros and army men...

TuckTuck loves wearing his backpacks around the house. If I let him, he would never take it off! So glad he recieve two backpacks with his name embordered on them from some a sweet friend long time friend, Courtney and my wonderful sister-in-law, Leslie! He loves them both!!

Painting....I bravely brought out finger paints...

After we finished it was time for early baths...



Becoming a dog....What??....I promise this was not my idea?? But, I wish it was! They stayed in here for about ten minutes....mmmm...Can I do this when I need to go to the grocery store????

More wrestling, especially before bedtime...

Three peas in a pod....

Playing with cousins:

Then the snow started to melt...finally...we could get outside and playaround a bit.. Dexter, our cousin came over to get to know TuckTuck (Charles Tucker)...

When they were about to leave, the boys played around outside while the twins went down for naps...we thought. All of asudden the blinds open from the big window in the front of the house and this is what we see...

If you look closely, you can see Mary Taylor's face in the window. Well, I put her in the pack-in-play because Charles Tucker sometimes wakes her up when she sleeps downstairs, so for a couple of days this seemed to work, until she learned to climb out...This was soooo funny!

She was staring at us from the window...

Henry went up to get a closer look at Ta Ta...."No no, Ta Ta..."

"Can Ta Ta come outside?" Henry thought this was so funny!

Sadly, we made her go back to sleep in her own bed downstairs....that was the end of the pack-in-play...

Then we ended our snow week going to church, dressed in our Ugandan traditional clothes...I think the sun was too bright...

I am so proud of Henry for cooperating with pictures these days. It makes my heart happy! Life was not always this way, you can go HERE and HERE to read how God has been stripping me of myself in the picture taking area with my family. So knowing he has grown me leaps and bounds in this area, I guess he is giving me little blessings to enjoy, now that my hand is not so tightly gripped...

  

Who is this child and what did he do with Henry???

And a big bear hug from big brother...and look at TuckTuck's little hands...PRICELESS..

Well, that about does it for our snow week! It really wasn't all that bad...we had fun getting to know our new family with our new Ugandan treasure!! What blessings he brings us!  

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed When they speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 127:3-5