Keep Praying!

I'll be posting pics of the girlies and their Christmas goodies tomorrow, but today I again want to urge everyone to please, please, please PRAY FOR STELLAN!!! He is back in the hospital with RSV. Fortunately this is not related at all to the troubles he had in the womb, but nevertheless, he is not doing well. Pray for his mama who is running herself ragged trying to keep up her milk supply, be there for Stellan, and also still be mama to her 3 little ones at home. I can not imagine what she is going through, but I know it has to be tough. So please, hit your knees and pray for this awesome family. Click here for their blog if you want to learn more about them. If you want to be updated regularly on Stellan's condition, check out MckMama's twitter on the left hand side of her blog. Thanks so much!

Pray for Stellan

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did :) The kids just keep getting more and more fun each year as they get older and understand a little more. This year they focused a lot more on the fact that it is Jesus' birthday, and that is the reason we celebrate. Natalie loved to run around the house (well, not around the house, it was too cold for that!) yelling "Jesus born! Jesus born!" Too cute! The older girls got their Christmas wishes in the form of 2 American Girl dolls. That is all they had been asking for, and Grandma came through for them :) We tried something a little different this year...instead of driving back and forth Christmas eve and Christmas day, we spent the night at my parent's house with my brothers and their families. It was, well, interesting! We had fun and stayed up way too late. But I think next year we'll go back to driving. It's really not that far and the girls sleep better at home. Plus, we all missed opening stockings and presents at our own house.

Before I leave you, I would like to ask for your prayers for baby Stellan. He is the miracle baby of MckMama, whose blog I am totally hooked on. (seriously, it's the first thing I do every morning!) He was diagnosed in utero with a heart condition, and his parents were told that he would almost certainly die. However, God had other plans! After many months of prayers from people around the world, Stellan was born perfectly healthy, and has been healthy up until recently. He caught an illness that his siblings had, and has been taken to the ER because he wasn't breathing right. Please pray for the doctors to have wisdom and for Stellan to get better. Thanks so much!!!!!!

Here's a picture of the sweet little guy

My First "Not Me Monday" Post!!!

Yea! Not Me Monday, hosted by the one and only, MckMama! I have never posted one of these before, but I feel like I need to be honest (or not) this week!. If you want to play along, here are the rules. So here we go!

I did not tell my middle daughter that she was "fine" and to "go back to bed" when she told me that her tummy hurt. I'm a very compassionate mama and would never just send my child to bed after she had been up 5 times previously whining about this and that. Nope, not me!

I was not so caught up on Facebook that when I heard what sounded like water spilling out of a cup, I did not almost yell at my daughter to stop messing around and for goodness sakes, get back to bed! I mean come on, I don't yell!

For some reason I did not decide to look at my daughter and see that what I thought was water spilling, was in fact her throwing up all over the living room floor. Umm, no, not in my house, because I'm a compassioante mama who would have taken her daughter into the bathroom at the first sign of a tummy-ache.

And all of this should not have been a surprise to me because my oldest daughter did not just puke at G'ma and G'pa's earlier in the evening. No, I listen to my kids and I'm always on top of things.

That was fun! Please leave me a comment if you enjoyed my honesty :) Love you all!!!

Our Christmas Letter 2008

December 14, 2008


Dear Family & Friends,

Hello! I hope this letter finds you all doing wonderful and excited about the upcoming holiday. I have decided to give this whole “Christmas letter” thing a try, and see how it goes. However, due to the ever rising postage rates, I have decided to post this on my blog instead of mailing it to everyone. When you have a family as large as the Patrick clan, you can easily rack up $20-$30 just in postage!!

Adam is still working at Turtle Top in New Paris, and we are very thankful that the company is still doing pretty well during these rough times. We have many friends who have lost jobs, so we praise the Lord on a daily basis for His provision and protection. Adam enjoys running in his spare time, and in September ran in his first marathon. He loved it and hopes to do another one soon.

Jodi keeps busy with the daily responsibilities of being a stay-at-home mommy. We have added a fourth little girl to the mix from 8-4 five days a week. It has been great to have a little one around, and also great to be able to send her home at the end of the day! In October Jodi had the awesome opportunity to go to Kenya with a team from our church. She spent 2 weeks at the AGC Baby Center in Ngata, Kenya. You can read more about her trip here. Jodi says that there will definitely be a 2nd trip, hopefully with Adam and the girls.

Abbie is 5 now and in pre-school at Woodview Elementary. She loves her teachers and has many new friends. Abbie likes to draw and is very close to reading on her own! She knows the entire alphabet and can write pretty much anything if we tell her what letters to write. She will attend Kindergarten in the fall. We talk a lot about her adoption story, and she thinks it’s pretty cool that she has brothers and sisters that she hasn’t met yet.

Adelle is 4 and enjoying her last year at home with Mom and Natalie before she heads off to Kindergarten next fall with her big sister. She is a dramatic little girl who loves to sing along with her High School Musical CD. Her sense of style is hilarious, and Mom has learned to let go of the vision of matching clothes! Some fights aren’t worth fighting! Adelle continues to have a huge vocabulary and surprises us everyday with the thoughts in her little head.

Natalie is, well, she is 2. Really, what more can I say?! She had always been my “easiest” child. Until she turned 18 months old! Now she has one speed –- fast. Too bad she’s so clumsy! Natalie loves doing whatever her big sisters are doing and is really going to miss them when they go to school. Right now Nat’s asthma is not bothering her and we’re praying that her 3rd winter may be a bit easier than her first two. So far so good!

We hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Enjoy time with family and friends, and remember why we celebrate this special season. We love you!

Love,

Adam, Jodi, Abbie, Adelle, and Natalie

Wordless Wednesday

This is all my husband's doing. He is such a nut! And very much in love with Taylor Swift :)

Daniel K Is Home!

I just found out that my little man Daniel K from the baby center in Kenya went home with his new family today!!!! I'm so excited for him, and for his mommy and daddy. He is such a sweet little guy and one of the boys that I would have taken home in a heartbeat. Please pray that his transition would be a smooth one. In a way I'm also sad, because I was really looking forward to seeing him again when I go back to Kenya. But I just need to get over myself :) He is far better off with a loving family of his very own. Praise the Lord!!!

Tea Party

Abbie and Adelle got this gorgeous tea set from G'ma and Pop-Pop when they were about 2 and 2.5 . Needless to say, I haven't really been brave enough to let them play with it. However, Abbie found it up on top of the cabinets, and asked Adam if they could play with it, "since I'm 5 now". Adam said yes, and after we got home from seeing Santa, we got it all set up for them. It really was quite fun! Until I left to go do the dishes.......

The girls were so careful with the teapot

This is what happens when you leave a 2 year old in the room with breakable dishes. What in the world was I thinking?! That my naughty rebellious sweet, angelic daughter wouldn't throw a plate at her sister as soon as I left? Hmm...the tea set (minus one saucer) is back up on top of the cabinets.

A Birthday and Santa!

Abbie is 5!!!!! We had a little birthday party for Abbie on Saturday with family, and she got some rockin' new pink boots from her Uncle Andy and Aunt Danielle. She got a HSM tee that plays music, and a new baby doll from G'ma and G'pa (she named her Katie :)). She got a pretty pink dress from g'ma and Pop Pop. It was fun!!!

(yes, she is dressed...in a tank top!)

Earlier that day we had taken the girls to see Santa. At first Abbie was the only one who would sit with him, but then Natalie decided to go too. Adelle was having no part of it!

She looks so serious!

I need Comments!!!!!

So I'm thinking about making a Christmas gift for the parents of the little girl I babysit for. I took these pics this morning. What do you all think? Would you like these if you were her parents? I was thinking about a 5x7 of the laughing pic and also of the b&w one. Comments? Suggestions? Thanks!!

Natalie Beth

So last night when I went to my bedroom, I found this sweet little girl sound asleep in my bed. And being the good mommy that I am, I had to take a few pictures!



Oops, didn't mean to do that! But she went right back to sleep when I put her in her own bed.




This was her at dinner time. Full of mischief!

Meet Jeremiah

Meet Jeremiah, the object of my daughter's affections. This baby doll goes everywhere with us (in his carseat) and HAS to be dressed in pajamas at night and clothes during the day. At first I thought, oh this is so cute! What a good mommy she'll be! However, now it has turned into, Adelle, this is a DOLL. We do not have to be quiet when he is "sleeping" and he does not need to get dressed to sit in the car while we are in church. But he is absolutely adorable and it is fun to see how nurturing she can be.



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