Perspective

PERSPECTIVE
Looking back at the year, there are many things that could label this year “a rough year” for our family…a shattered wrist requiring months of therapy and an inability to hold my children, a failed adoption, the breakdown of all major appliances, including our water heater on top of the load of paying for two adoptions, and most currently, still waiting after 8 months to bring our new son home while dealing with the chicken pox. In all honesty, I have given in to the temptation to have a pity-party and feel like I “deserve” certain things. Even after I had set out to give more to others this year, I have believed the lied that I “needed” new things, different things, better things. In reality, I had lost perspective. How great our God is! How much he has given us and blessed us with! While I stay nestled in our cozy home with warm clothes, sipping hot chocolate, listening to crisp songs playing on freshly installed new speakers, I have lost touch with the heart of God and his heart for those in need. Those who have nothing compared with all I have been given.
And, after a hard day spent Christmas shopping :), the current edition of the Shaohannah’s Hope newsletter caused me to think. How easy it is to lose perspective during this time of year when the world is telling us what we “need” and reminding us what we don’t have. When, as Christians, we have the greatest gift ever given, Jesus Christ. I pray that this Christmas would be a time when you would find perspective through the gift of our Savior.
Alison

*In typical Dear family fashion, we will not be sending out a Christmas card this year, but here is a fun new picture of the kids.

The Great Love of the Lord

Yesterday I was reading the Psalms and was so reminded of God's great love for us. Today, I'm going to a baby shower of a friend who is adopting two sweet girls from Ethiopia and was looking through Psalm 107 for an appropriate verse. There were several to choose from and, again, I'm reminded of how much God cares for those in need.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this- ...those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south...
But he lifted the needy out of their affliction and increased their families like flocks. The upright see and rejoice, but all the wicked shut their mouths. Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and
consider the great love of the LORD. Psalm 107:1-3, 41-43

What a great God we serve! I love that God cares about the needy.

So Proud

For about a year we have supported a ministry called the "Free Wheelchair Mission". Basically, it provides wheelchairs to people in third world countries that cannot get around otherwise. Recently, they sent us a "thank you" book with pictures of the people and stories of how these wheelchairs have changed their lives. Brian has been reading it to Tallinn and his little heart has been so touched by these people. Tallinn decided he wants to buy a wheelchair for someone who doesn't have one. So, we did a bake sale initially to start raising some money. Tallinn made about $20 on his first day (the wheelchairs cost about $50). He's also been telling people at his swim lessons about how he's buying a wheelchair for someone and we're going to do a "mini" bake sale next week at swimming. We are so proud of our sweet son and love his heart of compassion for others.

Trick-or-Treat

It's become a tradition for our family to trick-or-treat with our good friends, the Wilsons. We intentionally choose "non-scary", well-lit homes to not freak our quite fearful children out. (Tallinn even remembered a house from last year that was scary as we set out on our adventure and wasn't sure he was up for it.)

Our sweet little spiderman, with tight buns, abs and arms, in a costume at least a size too small and our little fairy, focused entirely on the end result----CANDY---paired up with Captain Hook and the infamous golf pro, Bodie for a night to remember.

Here are a few of the memories.

11 Friends....10 Years, It's Amazing What Can Happen

We just celebrated our 10-year college reunion from Westmont. While not all of our friends could make it, between the 11 of us it seems an EXPLOSION of children has happened. Tallinn and Addie had lots of fun getting to know all these second generation friends and we loved watching them interact. We all connected in the lobby of the dorm where our friendships originated over 14 years ago.

I am so thankful for these friends and for the blessing of Westmont. What a treat to have remained friends for so long and to see our children now forming friendships.

Here are some fun pictures of the activities.



Tal liked playing with Elizabeth and helping her around campus.


Here is Tallinn praying for our fabulous breakfast prepared by Sarah. She lavished us with quite the spread and welcomed us and the Smith's into her beautiful home. We had a great time!



The girls (minus Christine, Leah & Sandra)





The kids: Gracie, Fiona, Wil, Samuel, Reece, Addie, Tallinn, Vera, Brady, Owen, Elizabeth, Jackson, Ella





This is the good life!

Cardiff Aaron Min

Here is a new picture of our sweet little boy! He turns 6 months on Monday and we are anxious to bring him home. We are really praying that we will have him before the new year, but trust that God will bring him in his perfect time.

In the meantime, we're enjoying this two squirly kids and all the fun things they are up to and saying.

Thursday, they returned to swimming after being off a few months and Tallinn had heard that their teacher broke her hip. She was in the pool when we got there and he was so excited. In the car on the way home he said "Mom, Ginny came back to life. Yeah, Ginny." I couldn't hold back the laughter.

This is the good life.

Hosting International Students

This summer, we had the privilege of hosting some pretty fun students from Spain, Japan and Korea. The kids loved having another family member and we all had fun getting to know these fun girls and the countries they come from. Our last student, China, made us some fabulous Japanese food and quickly learned the ways of "liar's dice...Perudo" and "Yahtzee". She also beat Brian in his first ever Uno loss, or, as they say in Japan "Ich".


China with our family at the zoo

China and Addie at the zoo

China and Tallinn at the Angel's Game

At breakfast with our first student, Almudena, from Spain

Navigating the Truckee

Here is just a taste of the "Roaring Rapids" along the Truckee River, from Tallinn and Addie's perspective. The ducks might just have been the most exciting part for them. We're still new to this blogging thing and hope this doesn't turn out sideways.
During our trip in Tahoe, we did two days of rafting along the Truckee. The first time, we hit a branch or something and had a major hole. Alison had to stop alongside with the kids while Brian ran back to get something to patch the hole. In the meantime, the kids were waiting in the raft, that continued to fill with water and Alison tried to keep it on the side of the river, avoiding the pinches of crawdads along the way. Finally, Brian came back and we'll just say "Thank you Lord" for duct tape as it proved to be the glue that kept our little boat together.

During our second trip down, our little raft, pre-patched with duct tape, got yet another hole and we were taping and re-inflating all along the trip. At the very end, the rapids were even faster due to an upcoming storm and we got out just in time for the first drips to arrive (turns out the storm really didn't come, only sprinkles, but it was exciting). Nonetheless, we all had a great time and learned some lessons on how to patch a raft.

Last Trip with Just the Four of Us

Okay,

So it's about time we set up a family blog, but life gets crazy and time passes and kids' albums get neglected and pictures hang out on computers more than in albums and in the hands of family members.

In an effort to not allow too much time to pass before people see our children, we are going to try to post current pictures, stories and events. But please, keep your expectations to a minimum :).
The Dears have recently seen some changes. For one, our family of four was about to become a family of 6, but, we have just found out that we will really be a family of 5 and that is okay. Being in the process of adopting a 12-year-old, we were all geared up for Roxy clothes and Jr. High, but it looks like our family is going to be significantly younger, with Tallinn leading the pack at the prime age of 4.

In preparation for the chaos that comes with another baby, we took one last trip with just the four of us to Lake Tahoe. We had a great time hiking, biking, river rafting and swimming. On our biking trip, Addie found comfort singing "Jesus Loves Me" during the long ride next to her brother. Riding alongside, I tried to capture her sweet singing. However, I can't figure out how to edit the video, so I'll have to post it later.

Here are some fun pics of our trip:

Our first night we got to visit with our longtime friends, Aaron and Jen Linthicum. Addie LOVES her uncle Aaron (with son Austin).

Staying in Rocklin with Auntie Connie and Uncle Chuck has become a tradition for us whenever we venture up north. The kids always love staying at their house and often think we're heading there when we're driving anywhere that looks similar. Poor Tallinn is always disappointed when I tell him it's very far away

Our sweet daughter, getting so big and so full of personality. We are so thankful to God for his special gift of Addie.

Silly Boys

and then, the silly side of Adelaide.

On our last night we stayed with our good friends, the Palmquists. Tallinn had fun playing with their two boys, Peter and Isaac, and their daughter Abi. Those three boys together definitely spelled T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

North Lake Tahoe, along the CA/Nevada Border. This was another hike we did that had an amazing view at the top.

Male Bonding in the Truckee River.

The view from our room.
Besides the fact that we had two rather large holes in our boat and the water level was pretty low, and we avoided a potentially dangerous thunderstorm, we all made it down the Truckee River Alive!!