When Your Heart Finds Christmas

Every year as the week before Christmas approaches........I find myself crazy with worry and anxiety about what I have done and bought and what I didn't buy and do I have enough for the kids, John, family...etc. This year is very different for me. I think I am in a different place than ever before. I don't think it is because I lost 50 pounds. I am not sure what it is. I am finding this year that I am enjoying what Christmas is all about. I can look at all the blessings in my life and feel really content. I think part of the difference is my deepening faith. The more connected I am to God the better all other parts of my life become. I am so in love with my husband and I am thankful that he is such a huge supporter of what ever I do. He is now and always has been my biggest cheerleader. I have been so blessed to have 3 children. Each unique and different and each holds a piece of my heart in the palm of their hands. Often times I feel people feel sorry for me because I never had biological children. I say .....DONT! I feel abundantly blessed to be called mama by each one of them. Don't think I don't see myself in each of them because you would be wrong! I do see myself ...in their thoughts, their actions, their words, their tenderness, their love. Maybe other can't see it....but I can. I am thankful that I am in a good place with my brothers and sisters.....all of them...at the same time. That is a "Christmas Miracle". Over the past five years we have made many new friends..not acquaintances.....friends. People we met doing our 3 adoptions. Some I only know on line and some I know personally. I cant begin to tell you how much these people matter to me. We follow each others blogs, we write comments to them, we talk about the ups and downs of adopting children. I can t tell you how much these people matter. One in particular, I wont mention names ( but she is still younger than "most planets"), is so near to my heart and I am so blessed to call her a friend! How lucky am I to have such a relationship? I am thankful that we have gotten so close this year and I feel our friendship will continue to grow over the years That's what I am thankful for this year. I don't care about presents, or material things. I am celebrating life. Mine and His! I am so happy that the kids are getting it too, they know what Christmas is all about. Of course they are excited about presents too, but they know what Christmas means and they know that we are preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ . Years from now, I want to read this post and remember the feeling in my heart this year. If you are reading this, I hope you find yourself with Christmas spirit in your heart!

Reason To Celebrate

I am celebrating my own accomplishment here! I hit the 50 pound mark in my weight loss journey. I have struggled along the way and I truthfully thought at times "oh forget it" but I am on a journey and I have to keep moving forward. I was hoping to reach this milestone by Thanksgiving and was not too happy about about not accomplishing it. A little too much pie, cake and cookies! I got right back on track and here I am.

My Three Christmas Chef's

Here is a preview of our Christmas card......are they cute or what!

The First Visit With Santa

Today was the church bazaar. I was quite " surprised" to find Santa and Mrs. Claus! It is the first of many visits Im sure. What surprised me was my childrens level of "naughtiness" right in front of Santa Claus. We visited for a few minutes and as we were departing Santa commented that he could see who the naughty one in the group was! How he could tell after 2 minutes with my son was amazing!

The Mom Song

I am pretty sure I could have written this song. I certainly says these words often enough. http://vimeo.com/1509073

Totally Tori

I am dedicating this post to Tori. Tori turned six last month. I can not imagine my life before her. She brings so much pleasure and joy to our whole family. She is bright, energetic, and loves adult company. Adults usually enjoy being around her too! She is very studious and takes her school work very serious. Monday is her report card and I have no doubt she is excelling. She just learned to read and is doing a good job with reading and writing. She likes to write letters and just spells things phonetically as you can see in the letter she wrote me! She makes John and I proud everyday.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!! Rather than going door to door looking for treats, the church sponsored a " trunk or treating" event. The local market let them use their parking lot and everybody that was participating decorated the trunk of their car and then stood beside their trunk as the kids went from car to car! The parking lot was closed off so it was really safe for the kids. The people giving out candy were all people we know and the kids had an AWESOME time. It was actually really fun for the parents too! The people giving out the candy were so into the spirit of things and a great time was had by all

What is this picture of this winter wonderland? Well......it is what was happening yesterday! Although I am usually an avid weather follower, this storm caught me off guard and unprepared!

How beautiful did it look though? I love snow storms. I love being snowed in with John and the kids, I love baking when it's snowing, I love making the kids hot chocolate and I love staying in our P.J's all day. None of this was possible yesterday. The kids had a snow day, but we had no power, no phone, no heat and no water! Luckily when John came home he was ablke to hook us up to a generator so we had light, HEAT and a refrigerator. The wind was howling ,trees were falling and it was a nasty storm! But we do live in upstate NY and snow is a part of life here.

Pre Christmas

We are doing a fantasy picture for our Christmas card. So I needed to take somew pictures of the kids for the photographer. I know it's early.....please don't stone me. But the pictures are cute and I wanted to share them! Lori..I know Ive been tagged as soon as I can figure out how to "link" I will do it. I have an insert link icon but it doesn't work. Oh Yeah...thanks!!

I'm Back.......

What's new with the Franco's? We have been very very busy. There has been no time for blogging or pictures but hopefully things are calming down! John's mom has been very ill. We found out last week she was in the cardiac intensive care unit. She is 93. Our families live on Long Island which is about 3-4 hours from us. So John made a trip down there mid week and the kids and I went down the end of the week. She is improving and we are thankful for that. This is my children's only grandparent. Tori turned 6 on October 8th. It seems lately that the kid's birthdays go from one day to a week long celebration by the time we finish seeing everybody. Tori had cake at her birthday party, a treat on her actual birthday in her class, a special dessert that night at home, followed by 3 cakes with relatives. My first baby turned 6...seems like I was just bringing her home! Bella has been busy with gymnastics. She really enjoys it and is quite good at it. It is hard for her because she is in a class with children 2 years older than her. She is small compared to them and she doesnt always follow directions.....Bella.....not follow directions?........OH YES! Little John is thankful to have mommy to himself for 3 hours a day now. he is busy with speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy and soon vision therapy. He is still working very hard to overcome these delays! Big John is working very hard. He has had few days off and he is the hardest working man I know. He loves his family and would do anything for any of us. Ok now me....Well the biggest thing continues to be my journey of getting healthy and losing weight. It is a daily struggle. Eating and emotions are so intertwined. I am happy with the decision I made but it is still difficult! I am down 42 pounds and am very proud of my accomplishment! my goal is 50 pound by Christmas. Of course, I will take more but That was the first goal I set for myself. You made it to the end!! Thats it in a nutshell. I am hoping to get around to pictures soon!

Bella Does Gymnastics

A couple of months ago Isabella started doing cartwheels on the lawn. REALLY good cartwheels. I questioned her several times about how she learned this. Apparently there is an episode of Dragon Tales where Emme has to cartwheel over the ogre's bridge. I think The dragons teach her how. This was all Bella needed! So she started gymnastics yesterday. It's always nice when your children find their talent on their own. John took her to class yesterday. She was put in a class with 3 and 4 year olds. After one class the instructor moved her to a class with 5 and 6 year olds! How cool is that? especially since she just turned 4 in May. John took these pictures with his cell phone so they are kind of small. Bella we are so proud of you! Of course John reports that Bella sometimes is more interested in socializing. Im glad she is having fun and Im glad that she has found something that is all hers.

Chipping away at...............

Working hard staying focused on being healthy. Today I went back to regular food.....soft/mushy. It tasted really good. Ready for the good news......I am down 32 pounds and it feels really good to say that! Lets see how it goes for the next 2 weeks.......

Just Pictures

Trying To Catch A Butterfly

Child Proofing

My First Grade and My Pre-K Girls

Getting Ready For School

The girls getting ready for school and little John just becuase he is adorable!