The stockings are hung....

.....on our mantle with care! Aren't these the cutest stockings?! My friend, Caryn, gave me Ruthie's stocking for Christmas. Well, once I received it, the boys stockings didn't match, so I ordered them one as well! :) It is hard to tell in the picture but Ruthie's is hot pink, Anderson's is green and Jon Milledge's is red. I love seeing stockings for all three of my babies on the mantle. Even though Ruthie isn't home with us this Christmas, she is certainly in our hearts. I wonder if Santa will leave anything in her stocking??!


This is a new nativity that I received from Forest and Caryn for Christmas. Forest, aka Dr. Pagett, is the dentist that I work for and his wife, Caryn, is one of my dearest friends. Anyway, we had our staff Christmas party on Thursday night which was full of food and lots of fun. We played all sorts of games that had us in stitches and even had a run to Walmart for a scavenger like game! The nativity was hand made by one of our patients who does amazing pottery, sculpting, and metal work. The detail on it is wonderful. Isn't it beautiful? Thank you Forest and Caryn!! I love it!



This is a picture of our tree that I took today before my family came over for Christmas. I should've taken one when it was dark outside so that you could see the lights better but once everyone arrived, that was the last thing on my mind!

Prayers for Lily....

I have met so many wonderful people through our adoption process. People that I have so much in common with and now think of as lifelong friends. One of those people is Leslie. Leslie has two beautiful daughters...Ella, adopted from Ukraine and, Lily, adopted from China. Lily is having open heart surgery tomorrow to correct a problem that the doctors found once she was home in August. Please say a prayer for Lily and her Mommy and Daddy. Surgery is scary anytime but open heart surgery on a two year old has Larry and Leslie somewhat nervous. Please pray for the nurses and doctors that will be caring for Lily. Also, pray for a quick recovery and healing for little Lily so that she can be home to celebrate her first Christmas with her forever family.

Larry, Leslie, Ella and Lily....Milledge and I are praying for all of you. Please let us know if there is anything we can do from here. I still think I just need to come up there! ;)

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. James 5:15

****Update****
Lily's surgery was a success!! She is in ICU and they are just trying to keep her as comfortable as possible. She is doing so well that they think she will move to a regular room tomorrow if they can remove her chest tube! Thank you for your prayers!Leslie said that they were certainly felt.

*****Update #2**** Friday December 21
Lily was moved to a regular room last night and had her chest tube removed this morning. I just called Leslie and when her cell phone rang she said that Lily started dancing to the ringtone! If all continues to go like it is right now, Lily will be released to go home TOMORROW!! She will be at home with her family for Christmas! YIPPEEE! Thank you God for your many, many blessings!

*****Update #3**** Saturday December 22
Lily is HOME!! She was released this morning and is now at home playing like she never even had the surgery. I talked to Leslie and Miss Lily on the phone earlier this evening and she was running around, climbing and acting like a typical two year old! Thank you all so much for your prayers for this little girl! They were heard and felt by her family.

More Christmas Favorites

This is a nativity that my mother gave me and Milledge as a wedding shower gift before we got married. We love it!


This is our Rudolph that greets us when we walk in the door. The boys have always enjoyed him and fight over who gets to plug him in everyday. They even turn him on and off every morning before school just so they can see him lit up for a few minutes!

13 Months and Believing...

As of today, we have been waiting 13 months for our Ruthie. We would like to say that we have waited those months patiently but that hasn't always been the case, some days are just plain hard! God spoke to me recently in His still small voice and really helped me through one of those hard days. When I was down about the wait, wondering if Ruthie was ever going to come home and basically just having a pity party for myself, I felt Him very close to me saying...."Do you really think I don't understand what you are going through? Do you think I don't know what if feels like to wait? Do you think I don't know what it feels like to be separated from my child? I do understand, I have waited much, much longer for some of my children to come home to me and actually some never do and I know how bad it hurts to be separated from a child. Please just be still and know that I am God and working during your wait".
I had never really thought about Almighty God having to wait on anything. I mean, He is all knowing, all powerful, why should He have to wait on anything? But, probably the one thing He doesn't want to wait on, what pains him the most is waiting on us, his children, to come home to Him. He does understand what I am going through and because I am learning to lean on Him more, He is bringing me closer to Him through this wait! How wonderful is that?! Thank you God for your patience and for waiting on and believing in me.


My friend, Leslie, and her family recently sent us a care package and this ornament was in it along with several other very cute things. This little ornament meant so much to me and made me think about what I believe during this Christmas season.
~I believe that God sent His one and only Son to earth to live and die for my sins.
~I believe that because I believe this and have accepted it, I am a child of God and will live with Him forever in heaven.
~I believe that He has blessed me beyond measure with a wonderful family and great friends.
~And I believe that Ruthie WILL be home some day!

Thank you Leslie! I believe that I am blessed to call you my friend.

Favorite Books

These are two of my very favorite Christmas books. The first one, The Christmas Story, was one that I loved as a child. I couldn't wait for the Christmas season to come around because my mother would read this to us and we would sit listening, anticipating the next page and enjoying the wonderful pictures. My mother moved recently and I found this book in her basement and she was kind enough to let me bring it home. I wonder what two little boys will be listening to this great book in the next few weeks?!



The next one is a newer book that I had not read until a couple of years ago. I'm not even sure how old it is but it is very cute. If you have not read Olive, the Other Reindeer, it is a must holiday read!



Happy Holiday Reading!

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