Christmas with the Carpenters - 2011

Grandpa, Stella and Noni in Rockport - 12.23.11

Mimi, Griffin the Dog, and the Bird (who is eating a gingerbread man in her box) - 12.24.11

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  It all started with a trip to visit my dad and step-mom in Rockport where they showered us with gifts.  We received a fleece sheet set which makes me want to go to bed pretty much as soon as I wake up in the morning!  Here is the cutest picture of Stella taking a bath in the same bathtub I bathed in as a kid: 

Stella checking out the tree before church.

We've decided to start our own tradition of celebrating Christmas at our home; we invited our family and my mom and brother came to stay with us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...it was lovely.  Tim had to work on Christmas Eve, parking and ushering for our church services; after the service with Stella (highlights:  her dancing in the aisles and eating the FAKE glitter snow off the floor), my mom and I came home and watched "Elf" with my brother.  It was a great memory and it's been a long time since we've done something, just the three of us.

On Christmas morning we all woke up and watched Stella open her presents.  She loves her kitchen from Grandmom Carpenter.  She enjoyed everything!  We bought a ham big enough to feed us for several weeks...ham, ham, ham, ham, ham!

Katie, Matt, Grammy Suze, Stella, Chris and Ben.

On Christmas night we went to visit with Grammy Suze and her family for dessert, and they did not disappoint!  It is wonderful to have such a great family - both family by blood and spiritual family.  I feel especially blessed this Christmas and am grateful to all of our friends and family for such extravagant generosity!

New Glasses!

How much do I love this girl?

We got Stella a pair of back-up glasses from Walmart in the event that she:
a. Throws her main pair (REALLY HARD) on the pavement the day after getting a replacement (yep, that happened).
b. Scratches the lenses of her main pair a week after getting a replacement (you guessed, it...that happened, too).

Since her pediatric opthamologist is all the way in Concord we have had to camp out for hours while they fix the one pair we have.  So, we saved up for a back-up pair that cost less than half of her primary glasses.  I would say she's stylin' in her new glasses.  They aren't quite a perfect fit, but she will grow into them and I think she looks like a little engineer, which suits her personality.  I could not love her any more.  What a doll!

Sleep issues = Yogurt Head.

Life has been wonderful lately.  I've realized there are long pauses in my blogging life - sometimes this a result of feeling like I have nothing to say, sometimes life gets full, and sometimes life is just good and I feel quiet...lately, I'm in the good and quiet phase.  God has been pouring out His grace in our life as we've wrapped up a ten week study on biblical financial stewardship.  In the course of the study we have seen God's provision in our life in absolutely stunning ways.  I mean, like literal "take-your-breath-away-get-down-on-your-knees-and-thank-Him" ways.  I have said it before and I'll say it again, I would never trade this time with Stella for any job outside the home; not only because I love being present for my daughter and for my family, but also because it has given us a front row seat to see the provision of the Lord each and every day.  We are preparing to start the process of adoption soon (God willing that Tim's car passes inspection in January and doesn't eat up our savings...).  It looks as though we will be going through Bethany Christian Services and trying for a domestic infant adoption.  I couldn't be more excited.

About three weeks ago, Tim and I noticed a shift in Stella's activity level.  Especially when she's out of the house she seems to constantly bounce from activity to activity.  We found ourselves asking, "Where did our calm, focused child go?"  It felt as if she didn't stop moving!  It wasn't long after that I realized she is entering into the next phase of her childhood - she's not too far off from two, she's very conversational and bright, and she's curious like an engineer.  Stella is growing up.  She is 21 months old and she's talking up a storm.  Today, when we picked up Tim from work to head to a friend's house for dinner, she saw him come out of the church and said, "It's a Daddy!"  And for the rest of the 15 minute drive she did not stop talking once.  Clearly, she takes after me.

Last week I panicked when Stella, for the first time in her life, did not take a nap one afternoon.  Her naptime is, simply put, a sacred time for me; it is the main reason, apart from Jesus, I stay sane as a stay-at-home-mom.  She has been a great napper since the first day of her life and I simply wasn't ready to consider the possibility that this phase of her life might be ending.

With the increased activity and conversation during the day her sleep habits have shifted.  She sometimes wakes up crying in the middle of the night.  The other night she wound up in bed with me at 2am, which I hate.  In the three, count 'em THREE, times in her life she has slept in our bed at night we both don't sleep too well.  It seems as if her goal is to climb back inside me with how close she sleeps.  She kicks me with her little feet and squirms all over - usually ending up on top of me at several points during the night.  In the morning, when she woke up at 5:30am (two hours earlier than normal...), I was exhausted and Tim took over.  When I woke up from the dead several hours later I heard bathtime noises and new that Stella was likely body painting with her yogurt again.  When I saw the milky water in her bath, I knew I was right.  Thankfully, Tim snapped a few photos before he washed her up:

These are precious and hysterical moments.  I'm doing my best to savor each one of them!

Stella's BIG Sense of Humor.



These days Stella makes us laugh all the time.  In the picture above she is reading a book on Soren Kierkegaard while wearing her pajamas and an orange hunting hat.

In the picture below she is walking through the Children's Museum of NH wearing a life vest she found in one of the exhibits.  She would not let me take it off her so she wore it throughout the museum for the rest of our visit:

Here she is wrapping herself in the rug which sits by our front doorway.  If this isn't a reason to keep the rug clean everyday then I don't know what is...

If her sense of humor is this big at 21 months old I have a hard time imagining how she will keep us laughing throughout her life!

Just Cause.

YUM.

Advent - 200th Post!

Recently, we have been busy preparing for the Christmas season and I'm listening to old-fashioned Christmas carols (my favorite) as I type this.  The season of Christmas is simultaneously one of my favorite seasons and one of the most stressful times of year for me.  The mix of the Christmas story in all its mysterious beauty paired with rampant consumerism  is enough to make my head spin.  I'm thankful, though, for a peaceful home that is a haven in which to celebrate the true meaning of this advent season - the waiting for the Christ-child's birth.  I remember clearly being aware of the waiting aspect of advent when I was pregnant with Stella, awaiting the birth of our own child...it brought an entirely new meaning to Christmas when I could relate to a small piece of what Mary must have been experiencing during the weeks preceding the birth of her son, God's son.  In this waiting season I am reminded of how much of my own life is mirroring advent right now.  My family is now in waiting for several things - we wait for God to provide the money to meet some of our goals (thank you, Crown Financial Ministries), we wait for God to provide direction for our upcoming adoption, we wait to celebrate the day of Jesus' birth in just a few weeks.  God has been so faithful and I'm trying to enjoy the waiting season and to remember how it connects me to the story of God during this time of year.

We bought a (GULP...) fake Christmas tree this year.  I thought I'd never utter those words, but don't you think it's adorable?  Also, we wanted something tall and skinny enough to fit on our landing so that we could gate it to keep it safe from baby hands and dog mouths.  I think we accomplished our goal and I'm thankful we went this route.  Never say never, right?!

Oxytocin.

Stella and I took a visit to Dover Women's Health to say "hi" to our midwife, Cindy.  It was wonderful to see her and to reconnect (and, no, there was no other reason I went to see her besides saying "hi!").  It is a fact that women who experience a natural childbirth also experience a surge of oxytocin, AKA: The Hormone of Love.  I was told of this before I gave birth...that you go from extreme pain to total love of everyone!  Obviously, this is God's way of helping women to connect with their just-born child - to feel a surge of love and acceptance for this little person that is about to totally change their life.  But oxytocin isn't blind, it also helps a women to connect with her husband, her midwife, her nurses and other folks who happen to be in the birthing room.  That was true of my experience.  I think it's probably especially powerful during a natural childbirth, which is all I've personally known.  I went from begging Cindy to "help me!" and to "get her out of me!" to absolute adoration of her for all HER hard work during Stella's birth.  I love how she helped me through and also got serious with me.  At one point I can clearly remember he saying, "Jenny, shut up and push!"  She spoke into the deepest places of my heart and knew just when to comfort, encourage and exhort.  Thank God for good midwives!  Thank God for Cindy.

A Day in the life of The Carpenters

Tim and I MC'ed our church's marriage retreat this weekend. We made this funny video as an icebreaker for the first night to show couples two extremes of married life.

Waiting is Hard.

Waiting is hard.  I could stop writing now and most people would agree with me.  

I think it's especially difficult to wait for something you feel God has called you to do.  Tim and I are both passionate about adoption but we have some decisions to make first and a few things to accomplish before we can move forward.  I'm thankful for this financial study we are doing right now and for all I'm learning - especially in regards to the topic of debt.  We have been so blessed to see God provide for us by eliminating Tim's student loan debt thanks to the incredible generosity of friends.  In one day our biggest debt was gone.  Now, we are trying to be faithful to pay off some very small debts before we feel it is wise to move forward with saving for adoption.  We have been selling possessions, putting all extra money towards our remaining debts, and we hope to be 100% debt free in the coming months.  It might not seem like a long time to wait, but when you're waiting on a child...and that child is waiting somewhere on you...it's an eternity.  I am praying God will provide the means to pay our debts so that we can start the process of saving for this adoption.  We are so excited for this adventure as a family and want to be faithful to live according to God's Word each step of the way...that starts NOW with this:

"Just as the rich rule over the poor, so the borrower is a servant to the lender."  Proverbs 22:7

We want to serve Christ and Him alone, that means we are committed to being fully debt free so that we can fully serve Him.

Halloween.

Halloween this year was amazing.  Trick-or-treating was rescheduled for today because of the big snow storm last weekend.  Stella isn't old enough to even understand the whole trick-or-treating part of things, so she was perfectly content to stay at home with me and hand out candy while Tim worked.  At the beginning, when there were only a few trick-or-treaters, she got really upset every time I would shut the door in between visits from neighborhood kids.  It took her a bit to figure out that I wasn't ending the evening by shutting the door!  She happily said, "Hi guys!" to each kid who came for candy, and she handed out the candy directly into their bags.  We went through our entire stock quickly because she gave so much extra to each person.  She would wave at them and say, "Bye!" as they walked away.  As we were nearing the end of our big bowl of treats, one of our neighbors, Cliff, came over to give Stella her very first lollipop.  She was amazed.  I'm glad it was toward the end because I think she would have quickly realized what she was handing out to every kid and she would have stopped being so generous!  

Stella feeds the dogs

Stella has a new chore around the house - feeding the dogs.
And as you can see, she's enjoying it...a lot!

Snail Mail.

I have a love of snail mail.  I love sending it and receiving it.  Today, Stella and I went to the post office to buy stamps and mail some letters/bills.  Once I showed her how to put the mail in the slot she was hooked.  Too bad I only had four letters.  The funny thing was she wanted to put the three letters I was holding in the slot, but when it came time to put the letter she chose in the slot she was NOT a happy camper.  Did you know that post office's are, for the most part, really echo-ey?  Well, I do now, and so does everyone who was in the Durham Post Office around 4:30pm this afternoon.  

She held on to this last letter with a death grip.  By the time I pried it out of her hands it was kind of crumpled.

P.S.  Love that they have a slot at Stella's height for mailing stuff.

Choices.

"Oh the joys of those who trust the LORD."  Psalm 40:4

This verse is TRUE and it hangs above our kitchen sink.

I've been reflecting on my life recently and especially on choices we've made.  The choice to give up our house so I could stay at home with Stella.  The choice to live in a modest apartment to make staying home possible.  The choice to drive the cars we drive, spend the way we do, and go to the church we attend.  I can honestly say that there is little I would change about my life, even if, for some reason, Tim or I started to make a lot more money and had the freedom to spend it in whatever way we chose.  I love our apartment, I love my little family, I love our church family, I love living simply, I love our neighborhood.  Most of the things I would love to have are things I absolutely do not need.  Living on one salary has taught us to see God's provision more clearly.  We don't have much left over at the end of every pay period, but we have all we need and more and we have more joy than most.  I am grateful to God for His provision and would be worse off if I didn't consciously see it every day of my life.

Today I am especially thankful for Stella's new frog winter hat.  It's hilarious.  Now all I have got to do is to teach her to keep it on her head...

Funny Faces.

Teaching Children Financial Stewardship.

We opened Stella's first savings account yesterday.  Thanks to our hometown bank Stella now has a passbook and an account full of her past holiday, dedication, and birthday money.  We saved every penny of it because we wanted her to know what it is to honor God with her money - age-appropriate lessons to follow on:  tithing, giving, saving and spending and investing.  Tim and I are enjoying the book we are reading, Your Money Counts by Howard Dayton, and even though we don't agree with every principle it's refreshing to read a book on finances that has a basic biblical foundation.  I'm excited to teach Stella financial stewardship as our view of this topic continues to be shaped by God.

Stella had her snack and her book ready for the wait.

Thanks Jennifer for staying late to get us signed up!

Look mom!  This is proof of my new savings account!

Good thing she brought her purse for her passbook...she sure does plan ahead!

Crown Financial Class

Today, Tim and I (and Stella, too) went to our first small group study for Crown Financial Ministries.  We are really excited to take this class, especially in advance of the huge financial commitment to adopt a child.  I have heard of many financial planning classes, even those marketed as "Christian", but I'm supremely impressed by the biblical basis for the Crown material.  From the output of the book you are asked to sign a Quit-Claim Deed - surrendering all of your earthly possessions to God; ultimately, every single thing we own is God's anyway, so it is a spiritual exercise to give full ownership and control to the one who gave us everything.  We are memorizing verses each week that correspond to the specific lesson we are learning.  We all commit to praying for each member of our small group every day of the ten week study.  Scripture permeates every page of the book Your Money Counts by Howard Dayton.  I am halfway through the book and I have advance questions about the spiritual implications of investing and saving money for myself while there are so many people in the world in great NEED (haven't read that far yet...).  These questions aside, I'm excited to build a scriptural foundation for how we handle our finances.  Afterall, as someone who calls myself a follower of Jesus, shouldn't my life (and all its pieces, especially the way I handle money) have a biblical basis?  Just because something works in my life, or because I like doing something a certain way, doesn't mean it's God's best!

Joyful Contentment

"...godliness with contentment is great gain." 1Timothy 6:6

I've spent some time recently thinking about being content.  I go back and forth between whether it is a good thing to feel content this side of heaven.  I think contentment can bring with it complacency - being content can lead to feeling like there is nothing to work on, nothing to improve, and no place to go but here and now.  Contentment, as many people define it, can include lots of "stuff" that makes us feel secure, safe, and protected - and security, safety, protection aren't things God guarantees when you walk closely with Him.  I wrestle with the idea that heaven is going to be radically better and more amazing than my human brain can grasp.

And, at the same time, I have never felt more joy in my life since becoming a mom and quitting my day job.  I love the freedom of this life with Stella and Tim.  I love being with my daughter and being more available for my family.  I truly enjoy the community where we live and all the opportunities to minister to those around us.  Being joyfully content is a beautiful thing and, as I was walking the dogs and praying today, I had a revelation that experiencing godly contentment comes with knowing you are in the center of God's will.  I long for heaven but I'm so grateful to be experiencing pieces of heaven right her and right now in my life.

Sandwich Fair 2011 - Stella Dances

You may be wondering whether Stella enjoyed the Sandwich Fair this year.  We went as a family again and had a total blast.  

The highlight this year is a toss up between Stella interacting with all the animals and her dancing to the amusement ride music.  If I had to vote I'd put money on the dancing.  Here is Stella closing out our fair experience this year with her awesome moves (special thanks to back-up dancer, Tim, and to Fergie...the song couldn't have been more perfect...she was trippin' all over the place):

Miss you, Cup Head.

Tim has been away and, while Stella and I have been enjoying a lot of each other's company, we are ready to see him again today.  We are headed to the Sandwich Fair today (a fair I've been going to since I was ten years old)!  I'm so excited for the time as a family and I'm also excited because I know when we get home it will be Stella's bathtime...and time for cup head:

I present to you Stella and Tim's latest creation:  Cup Head

Miss you, Diaper Head.

Tim is gone with the youth from our church - at their annual Fall Retreat up North.  My next few posts will be dedication to Daddy Diaper Head - who can make Stella (and me) laugh harder than anyone else and who plays the funniest games with her that I have ever seen...including, putting diapers on his/her head as follows:

Shout out to our pastor, Bruce, who is preaching in the background!

Cell Phone Mom

Stella and I went to the riverway to meet our friends, Pam and James, for a little walk this afternoon.  We arrived about twenty minutes earlier than our friends and I decided to let Stella wander around while I made some phone calls to my nana and my mom.  Stella was having a blast exploring the dock area.  After I got off the call with my grandmother, we were throwing rocks (I know, naughty habits I'm teaching her) and picking them up when my phone rang.  It was an attorney from our church and I had to take the call.  We've been asking questions about all the "what-if's" from our home foreclosure and this man has been the kindest and most thoughtful attorney I've spoken with (and I've talked to several in the past months).  Anyhoo - I'm realizing by this time that I'm the dreaded "cell phone mom"...the moms I see all over town with a child wandering or playing alone while they gab away on their cell phones.  I made a mental note to not be "that" mom for too much longer; unfortunately, I was not finished with my note-to-self before Stella found the one mud puddle in sight and took off running.  I caught up to her too late to stop the ensuing mess.  My one attempt to remove her from the mud puddle resulted in Stella screeching her protests so loudly she was attracting attention from all around us.  So, I did what any good cell phone mom would do:  I let her play in said mud puddle until my conversation ended about five minutes later.  She had a blast for five minutes and I was able to finish my phone call.  I promptly changed her pants when my friend arrived, and I also changed my identity to fully-present-non-cell-phone-mom.