Christmas Favorites

I love Christmas! Who doesn't, right?! I love everything about it. I love the cool weather, the decorations, the magic, the good eats, the parties, church dramas, the time spent with family, the shopping, my boys faces on Christmas morning, and most of all being able to celebrate the birth of Jesus freely.
However, even though I love it all, I do have some favorites that I thought I would share here throughout the month. I collect Nativity scenes, Santa's and ornaments so I am sure you will see lots of those. Of course, everyone of them has a special meaning to me and my family and that makes taking them out every year and placing them in their certain spot all the better! I have already put my favorite Christmas picture up on the top right of my blog and I will be playing all my favorite Christmas songs throughout the month as well.
So without further delay here are my first Christmas favorites. By the way, they won't be in any certain order, they will appear just when I see them, read them, or just when they come to mind. Enjoy!


My first favorite is a Nativity scene that Jon Milledge made when he was in 4 year old preschool. It is made out of tiny clay flower pots. Is this not the cutest thing? It gets wrapped up very well every year because I would be heart broken if something ever happened to it.


The next favorite is a new one this year. It is our "Waiting for Ruthie" ornament that I got from Jiinkin Kids. Stephanie is the artist behind Jiinkin and she is also in the process of adopting a little girl from China. She is super sweet and very talented. Thanks Stephanie for adding to our "favorites" this year!

Family Campout, Sunday

With Thanksgiving being this week, I got a little side tracked with my postings about the campout. On Sunday, we all got up and had another huge breakfast together which is always a sight to behold. After breakfast, we made more trips around the farm on the 4-wheelers, did some swinging, the kids fished, the kids did some more paddle boating and everyone began to take their tents down. We then had a big lunch of grilled chicken and quail with all the fixings. YUMMY! After lunch, we made family pictures by the pond(see below)and said our goodbyes so that we could all head for home.
Again, it was such a fun weekend and I can't wait to do it again. Thank you to all the Parkman brothers and sister in laws for making the First Annual Parkman Family Campout a huge success!!! We love you all!

Here are the individual family pictures that were taken:


The five brothers....They have a picture of them as little boys where they were posed like this. They always want to "recreate" the pose when they are together but we keep telling them that we think they are a little too old for it!


Ok....maybe they aren't too old for the previous pose!


Uncle Tommy's family....his whole family was able to make it!


Uncle Richard's family....Krista and her new husband, David, live in California so they couldn't make it and Barrett lives in Beijing, China, not sure why he couldn't make it!! ;) I wish I was in Beijing right now!


Uncle Larry's(my daddy)family....we were all there!


Uncle Leslie's family...everyone was able to make it except their daughter, Wendy.

Uncle Glenn, who is the baby, was there the whole weekend. Mona Beth, his wife, was in and out all weekend and their daughter, Glenna Ruth, was there on Saturday. However, they weren't there for the pictures on Sunday. Also, their oldest daughter, Leigh, and her husband, Brian, weren't there because their first baby, Maggie, had just been born. Their son, Render, is in dental school at the University of Kentucky, therefore, he couldn't make it either.


All of the Parkman grandchildren that were there.


The Parkman grandchildren and our spouses


All of the great-grandchildren minus baby Maggie

Happy Black Friday!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving . . ." Psalm 95:2

Thanksgiving

Let us give thanks to God above,
Thanks for expressions of His love,
Seen in the book of nature, grand
Taught by His love on every hand.

Let us be thankful in our hearts,
Thankful for all the truth imparts,
For the religion of our Lord,
All that is taught us in His word.

Let us be thankful for a land,
That will for such religion stand;
One that protects it by the law,
One that before it stands in awe.

Thankful for all things let us be,
Though there be woes and misery;
Lessons they bring us for our good-
Later 'twill all be understood.

Thankful for peace o'er land and sea,
Thankful for signs of liberty,
Thankful for homes, for life and health,
Pleasure and plenty, fame and wealth.

Thankful for friends and loved ones, too,
Thankful for all things,good and true,
Thankful for harvest in the fall,
Thankful to Him who gave it all.

Author: Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer

Family Campout, Saturday

After we recovered and warmed up from the cold night, Saturday was a fun filled day. We woke up early to hysterical laughter coming from other tents. Anytime my Uncle Glenn is around there is going to be jokes and lots of laughter. It sort of felt like the Waltons because we were all talking to each other while still in our tents trying to stay warm. OHHH...the memories! Here is a list of all that we did on Saturday. This should explain why we slept better that night!

~Huge breakfast for 50 people and everyone was still speaking aferwards

~The kids fished all day starting very early in the morning

~The kids paddled all over the pond in the paddle boat...all day

~We all rode the go-cart and 4-wheelers until several weren't working quite right...OOPS! It wasn't me...I promise!

~Two of my cousins and I made a trip to the local Walmart for more cold gear. We decided that hats would keep us warmer in the tents that night....not sure it helped much

~We each made our own trail burger over the campfire for lunch

~We made candied apples

~We did alot of swinging, rocking, talking, laughing, jump roping, game playing and some of us even did some napping

~Uncle Glenn had planned a quail "hunt" if you really want to call it that. I won't go into details but the poor birds didn't have a chance. But according to all who tried them, they were pretty tasty on Sunday for lunch....YUCK!

~We had a chili supper Saturday night

~After supper, Uncle Glenn set up an outdoor movie screen and we all settled down to watch Jungle Book under the stars

I had so much fun hanging out with my family that I really hated for the day to come to an end. Like I said yesterday, hopefully we can make this an annual event. Of course, I'm packing better next year if we are doing the tent thing again! ;) Stay tuned for Sunday!

Family Campout, Friday Night

Several weeks ago, 45 to 50 members of my family all met and had a campout at my grandparent's farm in south Georgia. We had a blast and I'm really hoping that this will become an annual tradition. I am just now posting this because first of all I have been very busy but also because I took well over 200 pictures and the thought of doing one post with all those pictures made me tired! So, I have decided to take it one day at a time starting with Friday night.
Most of us arrived late on that Friday and spent lots of time visiting, eating, putting up tents and just hanging out around the campfire. My boys didn't think I would actually sleep in a tent so to prove them wrong, I did, and nearly froze to death! I have spent a great deal of time in south Georgia in my life and honestly didn't think it ever got that cold but I also can't remember ever sleeping outside either! ;)
Stay tuned for my posts about Saturday and Sunday. They were much more exciting!

One Year and Why We Wait...

One year ago today our dossier was logged into the system at the China Center of Adoption Affairs in Beijing, China. I remember receiving the call later in the month notifying us that we actually had "The Date" and thinking what a relief it was to finally be waiting on our daughter instead of a piece of paper. I also remember thinking how far away November 8, 2007 seemed and tried to imagine how wonderful it would feel reaching the one year mark knowing that within the next couple of months we would see our daughters face. Today is very bittersweet for us in that we are thrilled to have reached this HUGE milestone yet we have so many more months to go that it almost feels like this is really no big deal at all.
We have been asked countless times lately why we are still aboard this slow boat to China. We have been asked, "How long will you wait?", "Why don't you switch countries?", "Don't you just want to give up?" and many others. It is hard to go into detail at Walmart or other public places what our feelings are towards adoption and our Ruthie but since this is my blog, I can do it here!
We, as a family, felt called by God to adopt a baby girl from China. We feel this call as strongly as someone who is called into full-time ministry or foreign missions or a certain profession or any call that God places on someone's heart. We honestly feel that there is a little girl in China who probably isn't born yet that God is creating or has created especially for our family. She is ours and we are hers. I think that most people mean well but I also think that it is hard to understand adoption if the passion, desire and call haven't been placed on your heart. We have two precious sons that we would die for, that we would've waited a lifetime for, that we would never give up on and Ruthie is no different. Just because she isn't biologically ours doesn't make her any less our daughter.
Here are a few reasons why we continue to wait for Ruthie.....

She has a home with her very own room that has a (very unorganized) closet with lots of pretty pink clothes and beautiful ladybug bedding waiting to keep her warm....



















She has LOTS of bows waiting to accessorize her hair....









She has a dog named Jackson that is waiting to give her sloppy kisses.....











She has a kitty named Tiger that is waiting to teach her the fine art of cat napping...









She has a brother named Anderson that loves her and is waiting to push her on the swings and teach her to play baseball....











She has a brother named Jon Milledge who loves her and is waiting to jump on the trampoline with her and teach her all about sports....











She has a Mommy who loves her and is waiting to teach her to shop, to cook and to have great tea parties.....









She has a Daddy who loves her and is waiting to rock her to sleep and to be wrapped around her finger......











She has a family that loves her and is waiting for her to come home because until she does, we will not be complete.....








But most of all she has a Heavenly Father who loves her so much that he knitted her together in her mothers womb all while preparing a family on the other side of the world to love her as their own....and we do. Thankfully, He is walking beside us reminding us daily that He called us to adopt, that He is in control and that through Him all things are possible.


There you have it.....we are waiting because we feel we have no other choice. It is like one of our children is missing and we won't be at peace until she is home. How long will we wait? As long as it takes. Why don't we switch countries? Because Ruthie is in China. Do we ever just want to give up? Not a chance!

Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your daughters from the east and gather you from the west.~Isaiah 43:5

Do you think they'll be good big brothers?

During the visitation and funeral of our friends father, we were so blessed to be able to watch their girls, Mary Joyce and Katherine. It was so fun for me to watch my boys interact with both of them. If the way they acted last week with these girls is any indication of the future, Milledge and I have our work cut out for us! They are going to spoil Ruthie rotten!
I took them all to Walmart and the boys had to show Mary Joyce every toy on the shelf and allow her to play with each one. At one point, she tried to stand up in the cart to grab something that she wanted and I had to tell her no and ask her to sit down. Well, Mr. Anderson very quickly told me that I couldn't do that. He said, "Mama, please don't tell her no, she thinks you are getting on to her". OH MY!!! I'm going to be in BIG trouble and I can't wait!


Playing Chase


Katherine wants to help Jon Milledge with his homework


Can I play too, Anderson?


Playing with Matchbox cars


So sweet!


Daddy had fun with the girls too!

Will the Real Mr. Tice Please Step Forward

A couple of weeks ago Jon Milledge's school had Red Ribbon Week which included different activities everyday. On Friday of that week, the kids were asked to dress like any professional from the last 100 years. Some kids dressed as farmers, some as doctors, some as nurses and one little boy dressed up like his daddy. When I asked Jon Milledge early in the week what he would like to dress up as he said, "Mr. Tice". Mr. Tice is Jon Milledge's teacher this year in the 5th grade and has been a wonderful teacher who Jon Milledge really admires. So we set out to find the perfect "Mr. Tice" outfit. Of course, J.L., Jon Milledge's best buddy also got in on the fun! The boys decided to wear khaki pants, button down shirts with the sleeves rolled up and a pencil in the pocket, tennis shoes, a belt, glasses, a beard and salt and pepper hair and they wanted to hold a Diet Coke because Mr. Tice "always has one". Mrs. Tice is the school secretary so she was able to "sneak" us an old school ID of Mr. Tice's that they clipped to their pockets. The boys were too cute and were the hit of the whole school that day. In fact, the town newspaper was called to come and capture the moment. I can't imagine being a teacher knowing that the kids could've been anybody they wanted to be but they chose to be me. I think Mr. Tice was surprised and touched.
Aren't they cute? You can't see it too well in the pictures but I sprayed Jon Milledge's hair with gray hair spray and made his beard "salt and pepper" too.


The boys with Mrs. Tice


The boys and Mr. Tice