We love a crazy party and there is nothing crazier than a Grinch Party.  I think it’s great family bonding to include everyone in the planning.  All you have to do is think green.  We make green punch, desserts sprinkled in green, food with a green glow and ask our guests to bring something yummy to share sticking with the theme.  I put out Grinch books, Grinchy toys and stuffed dolls that I’ve collected over the years.  I have Grinch music from the movie blaring in the background.  This year, we even found Grinch T shirts for all 17 of us!  Top off the night with a fun game and Grinch DVD (original cartoon or new)

Game:

Buy mini clothes pins and play the Grinch Game.  Greet your guests and pin a clothes pin on their shirt.  Let them know if they cross their arms, legs or say Grinch… they lose their pin(s).  If you catch the culprit, you win all their pins or you can also lose all your pins if you are caught.  I usually set a time to end the game and have a fun prize for the winner.  Winner- the most pins!

Punch recipe:

• 3-4 large liters of 7Up
• Large tub of green lime sherbert

Mix together for a delightful foaming punch fit for a Grinch.

My nephew Garrison & the Grinch.

My nephew David giving the Grinch a piggyback.

I love the Grinch.

Zoie slobbers on the Grinch, but he doesn’t care.

Best Friends.

I wanted to personally thank you for all your cheers as we wait for our home to sell.  I feel like there’s a big crazy club of us out there in bloggy land who are anxiously waiting to hear the magic word… SOLD!  On my street alone, there are dozens of For Sale signs scattered in yards making the drive home very colorful indeed.  Unfortunately, we have not had a single bite yet, but hubby and I have not wavered in our passion, joy or creativity to move forward with Home 4 Adoption.  Stay tuned for big miracles coming soon!  Please take a peek at our 2 new adoption fundraisers (featured in flasher)

Let me know if you have any crazy brilliant ideas or tips for us to get our Home 4 Adoption sold!

My brilliant bloggy brother has been in town all week and has encouraged me to get a face lift.  I like my ears just the way they are thank you, but he found a new look for my blog that he thinks will be easier and faster for me to post photos and all my important adoption stuff.  I’m really nervous.  I just got comfortable with my new old blog face and now he wants me to change again.  Learning new bloggy skills is not easy for me, but I’m up for the challenge if you are, too. Hopefully, it will be painless.  I love being an encouragement to you, so hang in there with me and lets work together making My Crazy Adoption a one-stop-shop for adoption.  I cherish the daily emails from you and learn something new every time you connect with me.

The new blog face lift will continue to read just like a magazine.  You can dig deep and find the topics that interest you from Adoption A to Z.  I will continue to post the weekly regulars and keep adding information on past subjects such as, Top Adoption Agencies, Grant/Fundraiser ideas, Adoption News reports, Friday Flips, favorite recipes and personal stories from my crazy life.  Each week, I will post on the side column a new Adoption Life LIVE one-on-one video.

If you have any suggestions for my new blog, let me know.  I want to also thank my bloggy friend, Nikki who created the beautiful header.  She has sprinkled her love over hundreds of blogs.  If you are interested in her creating your blog design, head over to her website. $30 for a unique, personal blog face lift.  Nikki is moving to DR May 1 and is set for a grand adventure serving the children of Haiti and DR, but will still be able to serve the blog world.  She is my hero!

Don’t forget if you are the 99,999th bloggy visitor, take a computer photo shot and email me.  I have a collection of super cool prizes just for you!

I like anything with fluffy in the name.   I’m making this hot chocolate recipe tonight for my family. Tell me what Christmas video you love to watch while drinking a hot mug of cocoa.

A fun Flip video of my kiddos sharing why our Christmas Memory Tree is so special. You can make one too.  Watch Adoption Life LIVE #2 posted on the right side column.

I read every one of your beautiful, amazing comments.  I’m thankful beyond words for the blessings you poured all over my crazy  blog today!  I wrote down your names, cut them out, and hubby with his eyes closed, just picked THE WINNER…. Tiffany Johnson!!!  Thank you for sharing what you are thankful for.  Please email me and leave your full name and address. You can pick a Men’s T or Women’s T style.

Today is a special day to give thanks for well…. everything!  I’m so thankful for my bloggy friends who are helping us T shirt by T shirt bring home our new daughter.  You are making a difference in a child’s life in a powerful way.  You have renewed my spirit and refreshed my energy to move forward with the adoption process.  I’m making a choice to throw away my crazy fears and soar with faith.

I want you to share with me, what you are thankful for today.  I will read all your comments (while I’m resting my very full tummy) and late tonight, I’ll draw a name for a free New Simply Love T shirt.

Happy Thanksgiving!

see more Epic Fails

I have never cooked a Traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  I’m grateful and thankful for my mom who for 42 years has tackled the job with love, joy and a little craziness sprinkled in.   She still makes the same meal I remember as a little girl, but with a few twists and turns over the years.  The best Thanksgiving is when my entire family can come together for this very special day!  Typically, our Thanksgivings are cold, wet or snowy.  One of my favorite memories was having Thanksgiving dinner on the beach in Mexico.  OK, that year we gave mom a break, but I will never forget the fun we had as a family gobbling down the feast with a Mariachi band playing in the background and running to the pool for a quick dip before returning for dessert.  We had fun saying Feliz Dia del Pavo! (Happy Turkey Day)

My favorite Thanksgiving side dish my mom serves is sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

Ingredients

• 5-6 good size sweet potatoes
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1/2 stick melted margarine
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 bag marshmallows

Boil potatoes until soft throughout Allow potatoes to cool for a little bit and remove skins Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork or hand masher In a 2 quart casserole dish combine mashed sweet potatoes, beaten eggs, melted margarine, brown sugar, vanilla, and milk and mix well Smooth potato mixture to be level Bake at 350 degrees until hot Top with lots of marshmallows and bake another 10 minutes or so until marshmallows are brown.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Welcome to the 1st Tuesday Trivia video game. I want to provide you with fun, easy to understand Q & A that applies to adoption. All you have to do… share your answers.  Like your teachers used to say, there are no wrong answers. I would love the doors to swing open with thought provoking conversations in adoption land. I want to hear the good, the bad and the crazy. We can teach each other a thing or two about adoption. In a few days, I will come back here and share Trivia Answers with specific methods, insight, and practical tools suggested straight from the book, Attaching in Adoption.

One of my favorite adoption training books, Attaching in Adoption, offers practical tools for adoptive and foster parents. “All parents deserve positive, proactive, and the state-of-the-art knowledge about their children. This is all the more imperative when children have been adopted after challenges.” The topics offer a wide range of information:

• trauma,
• grief,
• attachment disorder
• emotional age vs chronological age,
• cultural change,
• race,
• prenatal exposure to alcohol and drugs,
• getting diagnoses,
• identifying their family’s challenges,
• meeting challenges within the family,
• forming a circle of support for the family,
• working with mental health providers.

Watch Flip to find out Adoption Trivia Question #1

Trivia Q #1: What is attachment and why is it so important?

You can purchase this book at Adoption Boutique/Treasures.

New T shirt designs Just 4 You!  Pre-Order TODAY!

T adoption fundraiser ends December 15th at midnight!

You will never know how crazy it has been for us to see you wearing our adoption Simply Love T-shirts all over the world! I’ve received so many emails… we are bringing it back just for you!  Simply Love for 2009 Christmas Season.  A Limited Edition T-shirt extravaganza. The shirts will have a new look, with the same beautiful design!  Starting today through December 15th we will open up the craziness and have some holiday fun! The first 20 orders will receive a personally signed free copy of my dad, Gary Smalley’s new book, As Long As We Both Shall Love.

I’m so excited to share our new fundraiser for our next adoption! We originally designed our Simply Love T-shirts as a family with the help of gifted friend, Heidi for Zoie’s adoption in ’08.  Starting today, you can PRE-ORDER on Paypal Button and my little Santa’s helpers will mail your new Simply Love shirts BEFORE Christmas.  We will place all orders on December 16th. We will have several fun contests so you can win a T-shirt, too… stay tuned!  100% of your donation will help us bring home our new daughter!  Unfortunately, we do not have an inventory of T shirts in stock due to fundraiser.  We pre-order them for you.  Thank you for your understanding!

The shirts come in 2 crazy designs…

• New Men’s/Unisex Dark Olive “army” Green Vintage extra-soft with Africa and verse in black.  Simply Love in dark red. The saying on the back reads…. “Man Up. Protect & Love the Fatherless.” Fit normal, slightly fitted.

• New Women’s Black Funky T with Tiffany-blue swirls.  On the back, with permission from 147 Million Orphan ministry, the saying…”If you are a Christian, then orphans is your thing!”  The Women’s T-shirts are UNISEX and fit normal size & long.

Simply Love celebrates the verse, Philippians 4:6-7… surrounding Africa.  If you have a photo wearing our Simply Love T-shirts, please email me.  I’d love to show it off!

Price: $24.95 (includes free shipping)

We are all called to Simply Love one another.

Pete Kidd in Addis Ababa November 30-December 8th.

Friend Jill & Silas in Addis Ababa.

I just received a priceless gift from a dear friend, Lenka. She was in Ethiopia several months before our family, bringing home their daughter. She visited Kids Care Orphanage and took one photo that means more to us than she will ever know! Adoption has many challenges, but the hardest for me personally is the blank empty space of time that’s missing about Zoie life.  Many families choose to keep the personal information private, but what I will share with you is simply… Senait was loved by her birthmother, held in her arms for 2 months and relinquished at a police station in Addis Ababa, March 2008. Having a letter and testimony from her birthmother comes with bittersweet emotions. I will never personally be able to thank her for her love and sacrifice, but can honor her everyday loving Zoie Senait. Here is a never seen before, very first glimpse of our daughter taken on 3.20.2008 at 2.14 EST.

I have tears streaming down my face just looking at this beautiful orphan’s face knowing she did not have a mommy and daddy. She was all alone. Little did this tiny baby know that in less than a month, God would give her the family He planned before she was born.

“I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.”  (Jeremiah 29:10b-11 MSG)

Kari, I am so happy it is Zoie!  She was so tiny. I remember I did not even wanted to hold the babies in that room. They were all so small. I remember standing in there and praying for all of them. It is amazing to know and see Zoie again this fall (she is not tiny anymore:) Love, Lenka

Christmas must be something more… as you celebrate Christmas season this year, make a decision to do something for an orphan. We can ALL make a difference.  Enjoy a special video of our adoption to honor the true meaning of Christmas.  Feel free to share this Vimeo on your blogs.

A gift for you: I really want to encourage anyone who has adopted to create a special video that documents your Forever Day.  Even if your adoption was years ago, sharing the memories with family and friends can be life-changing!  I know this can be intimidating if you feel computer illiterate or a little lost knowing how to put it all together.  One of my passions, as you know is adoption videos.  I would like to offer you my help.  I’m not a professional, but as a part of fundraising for our next adoption, for $15.00 I will create a Forever Family Photo iDVD for you to enjoy for years to come.  This includes the custom made DVD and shipping. You can mail me a disk with all your adoption photographs (no videos) and I’ll take it from there. Quick Tip- Target makes it super easy to “burn” a photo disk.  You can share quotes, verses or favorite songs that you want me to use or just be surprised!  Typically 100 photos will make a 3-4 minute photo video.  I would love to feature your video (with permission) on my blog.  You can pay me on the Paypal button or send me a check with your photo CD.

Email me and we can start creating Your Crazy Adoption Photo Video today.

Many months ago I posted a few pics of Zoie having her “first” temper tantrums.  I’m the mom of 3, so I’ve had lots of practice dealing with these crazy, hair-raising episodes.  Zoie is now 22 months old and has started perfecting her tantrums.  She has her screaming fits down to the tee when she hears the word no, but really wants to hear yes.  She started in the past few days, throwing her chubby body down in the middle of Target, but eases her back and head in slow motion so she won’t hurt her self. Temper Tantrums are no funny business.  It’s been a long time since my 2 oldest have thrown a tizzy over a broken crayon or juice not being poured fast enough.  Hubby and I work hard on remaining calm and refocusing the bursts of rage to something fun or interesting.

I have to admit, the temper training all comes back (slowly, hey I’m 42) but it’s reassuring to know that no matter where our children are born… biologically or through adoption, they all express anger in extraordinary ways.  Wanting our own way, on our own terms is a universal display of emotions.  My biggest struggle right now, is redirecting her slapping.  Zoie shocked me when she started slapping her own face when she got super baby angry. (see Flip below-its a mild version, but you can see the change) I immediately let her know that was not OK!  In fact, now when she slaps her face… I say calmly, “No hit Zoie! We give Zoie loves!”  I showed her how to kiss her hands.  She has been giving her hands lots of kisses and hugs.  It’s working!!  Now when she wants to slap her face, she ends up giving hand kisses.  I think we are very close to bringing up the “time out” chair from the basement.  It’s a little dusty, but the chair is still in good condition (16 years old!) We let the kids paint and decorate the chair, so it will be a special and challenging teaching tool for Princess Zoie and her Temper Tantrums.  I can’t believe I actually “caught” her in the action. Enjoy my craziness.

I love learning from my bloggy readers, so any advice on taming tantrums would help this mom out.

I’m so excited to share something free with you!  With November being Adoption Awareness Month, I wanted to make you aware of an opportunity for FREE adoption education through Adoption Learning Partners (http://adoptionlearningpartners.org/index.cfm).

Adoption Learning Partners is offering a free online course entitled “Becoming Your Child’s Best Advocate: Help for Adoptive Parents”.  This course is “designed to help adoptive families identify the financial, medical, educational, legal and social service resources available and understand how to best access them.”