Listening:  Amon and our littlest are watching Popular Mechanics For Kids while I type this.  My nephew Cooper, who is now 16, use to watch the show when he was little.  Amon found one of the DVDs at the library last night with Josh.  It’s kind of funny/annoying as all get out watching super dated kids shows.

Eating:  Nothing, but last night I made THIS.  It was my first time making it and I really liked it.  Really tasty.  And so far I am loving my Instant Pot .  Feel like I’m getting the hang of it and it really is awesome.

Drinking:  Water.  I shoot for 128oz a day.  I break it down easier by trying to drink 4 32oz bottles every day.  I use my Nalgene Bottle to make it easier.  My goal is 32 oz before 6am, another 32 oz by 12 noon, another 32 oz by 3pm and my last 32 oz by the time I go to bed.  And full disclosure I love a good coke every now and then too and I do not want the diet or zero stuff.  Give me the full on regular sugar one.

Wearing:  Sweats and a tee, but if you are looking for a cool way to stand with refugees check out Unlock Hope and snag up one of these amazing tees.  I have purchased from them before and love this company.  All the money from these shirts goes towards helping refugees.  If you know me and your birthday is coming up, do not buy one of these shirts.  Wink, wink.

Feeling:  This feels super complicated.  The current state of our world and our president’s most recent actions makes me really sad.  I also feel sad about some hard things little people in our family are going through.  I just keep trying to look to Jesus and the Bible…surrendering each kiddo and thing and line thoughts and actions up next to Jesus in the Bible.  That’s all I know to do.

Also, I feel excited because tomorrow is Solomon’s birthday.  I love celebrating our little humans and Solomon is one special kiddo.  We wrote out his entire birthday day plan over the weekend and he is over the moon excited.

(Hudson took this of Solomon and I laughed out loud when I viewed it.  Can we say Rico Suave?!?!?)

Weather:  Sunny.  Give me all that sunshine.

Wanting:  To head to China.  I simply cannot fully explain how my heart feels.  It’s so interesting because each time we get blessed with another son or daughter it’s so different than any of the other times.  Not one of them has felt the same coming home however they did.  And our newest little guy is no different.  Totally different feelings again and yet that same bursting-at-the-seams love.  I cannot wait to see his face in person and squeeze his little body ever so slightly and in a non-creepy way.

Needing:  2 things:  1.  Sell stationery.  We’ve got a massive travel bill coming up soon and there’s still stationery and Bible journaling classes available in my shop HERE.  Take a look and tell your friends.

2.  Finish up my Created For Care prep.  I’m headed out Friday to the CFC  conference to teach Bible journaling and I really cannot wait.  I keep thinking about it.  I keep getting so excited.  I keep anticipating what all God will do.  I keep thinking about all the fun ladies I met last year and crossing my fingers to meet some more new ladies this year.  I also keep thinking about sleeping in on Saturday morning.  True story.

CFC also has a super cute little online shop HERE.  Each year they have new items for sell to help off set the cost of the event to make it less expensive and more affordable for mamas.  I also snag Harper a tee.  Absolutely getting this one for her this year.

Thinking:  2 things again.  1.  How I need to wrap Solomon’s gift and write in his card and make his brownies and hot chocolate sauce…he requested brownie sundaes for his birthday dessert.  I love him.  2.  Chinese New Year.  It’s the year of the rooster and my BIL and SIL hosted again this year and it was so great.  It always is.  I’m going to share about it tomorrow.  It felt extra special knowing we’ve got a little guy in China who will be home oh so soon.

Enjoying:  Prostest signs.  Whether you’re a democrat or republican or liberal or somewhere in between hopefully you can enjoy some signs.  I have sooooo enjoyed looking at all the different ones.  Some hilarious, some so deeply thought provoking, some just simple…the signage game is strong.

  Let’s choose kindness and love today.  I know we can do it.

My site is currently super wonky.  My subscription button has disappeared which means so did your blog post emails.  So sorry about this.  I’ve had a friend look into it and unfortunately it’s going to take some major fixing and currently adoption, and travel and heart surgeries are taking top money priority.  I’m hoping to eventually get it fixed, but in the mean time you’ll just have to check this little blog out the old fashioned way.  Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.  Means the world.

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Just a friendly reminder to all you locals that this Saturday is our adoption Zumba Party.  We are so crazy blessed by how friends and strangers are using their talents, abilities and resources to bless our family.  It is incredibly humbling.

All details are below, but in a nut shell you pay $10 for 2 hours of zumba exercise with the amazing Janet Duke and all the money will go towards our adoption process.

There will also be raffle items for just $1.  Yes, $1.  This means you could win a set of 5 key fobs, this 10×10 canvas, stationery sets and my online Bible journaling class for just $1.  So so fun.

I will also be there with more stationery sets for just $10.  Great little gifts to snag up plus you know your purchase has great purpose.

Please feel free to share with all your people.  The more the merrier.  What an honor this journey has been and what a gift our boy is already.

Happy Thursday.

When people ask me where we are in our adoption process I say, “Just waiting.”  And here we are, definitely just waiting.  It’s looking like Chinese New Year is going to hang us up a bit, but everyone is still hopeful for a mid-February travel.  I think about our little guy every day.  My BIL and SIL are hosting a Chinese New Year party again this year and I instantly thought how next year we’ll all be celebrating together.  Our little dude has likely been hearing fireworks as the celebrations have already begun in China.  Josh Kelley has his fireworks ready to go and I’m thinking about asking the kids to help me make a cardboard rooster head…it’s the year of the rooster this year.  I already snagged some of the rooster stamps at the post office…one sheet for me and one for Harper.  We’re both mail buffs.  One of my goals for several years now is to send mail weekly.  Loving that all my letters have been adorned with a little rooster love.  Emails from our China director are the highlight of my day.  My stomach always drops and perks simultaneously with every waiting email I see pop up.  She has been the absolute kindest…I love our agency in general…hence why I’m on their reference list and get emails from prospective parents every now and then asking about them.  Thumbs ups and praise hand emojis galore.  We’re definitely all ready to meet littlest brother.  We talk about it daily.  We talk about travel.  And chop stick use is in heavy practice.  Josh said this morning, “Please look at Harper.”  I peeked around the corner from the kitchen to see this.  God love that girl.  She is absolutely already heavily emotional invested in her smallest little brother.  A very important piece of our guy’s paperwork got misplaced with immigration a few weeks ago and Harper cried harder than I did.  It was the sweetest thing in all the lands.  It was found…no worries.

BTW…why does she look like a freakin’ teenager?!?!?!

Sidenote:  If your library does not have playaways, ask them to get them!!!  They are basically modern books on tape.  Every Kelley kid loves them!!!  End sidenote.

And in other news, I have two things you must make for dinner or lunch asap.  First, White Bean Turkey Chili.  I pretty much halved the recipe exactly and made a few adjustments…nixed the chicken stock base because I didnt have any, black pepper instead of white because again I didn’t have any, 4oz can of chopped green chilis, 1 box of chicken stock (4 cups), only one can of white beans, left out the sour cream all together…Hudson cannot do dairy…and added leftover rice.  Crazy good.  Served it with a side of fruit and some people threw in some tortilla chips.

Second, Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas.  Shut the front door you guys.  Massive hit.  I followed the recipe except I was out of cumin so I subbed coriander…still delish.  We warmed up some hard and soft taco shells, whipped up some pico de gallo and topped them with pico and chopped romaine.  Just shut the heck up.  A side of black beans and fruit and dinner was served.  Make these asap.

Sidenote:  Our sweet butcher Scott at Kroger cut me exactly a 4lb boneless pork shoulder.  He’s the nicest!  I ended up letting it cook the full 6 hours and it fell apart between some forks.  Perfection.  End sidenote.

I feel like random is all I’ve really got lately.  The world is quite in turmoil and my mind is having a hard time breaking it all down to be truthful.  So I’ll keep trying to be kind to my neighbor, line up thoughts, ideas and feelings next to Jesus’ and tell you guys about delicious pork tacos.

Peace out.

1. You guys killed it on our Usborne Book Fundraiser.  Like seriously.  We are so blessed by so many people some of whom we’ve never even met.  Thank you a million times over.  And a huge thank you to Suzanne who just blessed our socks off.  We even got free books and the Kelley kids had a massively fun time picking out all their selections.  So so fun!!!!

2. Amon has really been into playing pretend guitar.  It’s a teeny bit hilarious.

3.  This Saturday is our Zumba Fundraiser.  Mark your calendars and tell all your friends.

I’m also making up a few things to raffle off at the Zumba Party like this fun floral set of key fobs, an art piece and maybe even a word pillow.  So excited.

4.  I made my SIL’s pork pot stickers completely solo Saturday night for dinner.  I might have been sweating while making them because I was a tad anxious and nervous I would botch them, but in the end they were a success.  Everyone devoured and Harper even said, “These taste just like Aunt Becky’s.” Success.

5.  My friend Jess hooked our newest boy up with some new clothes.  He currently has only one shirt that my friend Sidney sent him and that’s it.  I’m not sure what exactly I’m waiting on 🙂  Jess made my anxiety level go down a bit though.  He’ll be rocking these for the first time in China.

6.  A friend and her son stopped by briefly today.  We hadn’t seen them in quite a while and her son is from China and the same age as our boy.  I looked at her son and restrained everything within myself to not scoop that kid up and squeeze him into approximately 5,000 pieces.  Just a few minutes after they stopped by Amon came running through the house pushing him on a riding toy.  I could have cried a river.  So many prayers and hopes for another God designed brotherhood…another set of brothers so closely knit together.  I simply cannot wait.

7.  Hudson casually walked over to me to ask something…in our littlest jacket.  I cackled.

8.  Orders.  I’m officially closed for custom orders.  I’ve finished everything up and shipping the last order off tomorrow morning.  I might still make up some random items to help with adoption expenses.  I’ll keep you posted.  Until then you can still snag stationery sets and my online Bible journaling class in my store HERE.  I am shipping out stationery sets the next day…so it’s a really quick turnaround. 🙂

9.  Harper added this to a box of new face products I got recently.  Josh Kelley and I laughed pretty hard.  She didn’t say anything…we just opened the box and it was in there.  I am in love with her wit.

10.  We had a game night with some friends recently and left with a list of new games we loved.  At the top was Quick Cups for the kids.  We snagged it at Target the very next day.  It is SO MUCH FUN!!!!  I even play…and often get beat.  Go get it and play your heart out.

11.  I took this picture then noticed two things: 1.  Amon’s socks are on backwards so the heels of his socks are on the tops of his feet.  And 2.  Our littlest’s shoes are on backwards.  I die.  They are quite the dynamic duo.

And 12.  Amon falling asleep…in church singing.  Because he still does it every now and then and when he does it’s kind of my most favorite thing in the world.  And why does he look so ginormous?!?!?!?  Just stop it time.  Stop it.

Happy Tuesday party people!

You all are probably D.O.N.E with all my fundraising posts, but just wanted to remind you that orders for our Usborne Book Adoption Fundraiser are due by tomorrow night at midnight.  If you needed some steamy plans for tonight or Thursday night then look no further.

*Head over to my friend Suzanne’s book link:

SuzanneSharesUsborneBooks.com

*Browse all the amazing books and make you selections.

*As you check out you will be prompted to “Select An Event.” 

*Choose “Kelley Adoption Fundraiser.”

*And check out.  That’s it.

Our family will receive 25% of your purchase to go towards our adoption expenses.  And don’t forget to place your order by tomorrow night, January 19th at midnight.

So that’s it.  Just a quick reminder coupled with cute pictures of Kelley children reading.

Thank you again a 1000 times over for helping us fund this adoption and telling your friends and family.  We are forever grateful.

I feel like we are currently addressing 27 things that feel big in life right now ranging from heart kiddos and surgeries, to weird undiagnosed health problems, to kiddos struggling hard with loss, to broken van doors, to learning disabilities, to trying to make wise choices for everyone in our home, to being crazy excited to bring home another son and brother, to was that really the last episode of Sherlock forever…as in forever forever?!?!  and why can’t we just have all the cookies every single dang day?!?!?  I don’t even know.

I am currently not taking anymore custom new orders, but here I sit with 4 custom name pillows that still need to be created and shipped.  I’ve had about zero work time with life and China prep and them childrens 🙂 especially the ones who keep getting sick and the ones who keep coming home from school early again sick.

I read Meg’s post today and just cried.  All these kids…freakin geez…I don’t even know how I got so lucky to be their mom.  I really don’t.  I tell God every single morning what a screw up I am and then proceed to name all the things I need to lay down at His feet yet again and again and again.  I am a giant sinner.  I let anxiety squash my joy and send my head into a tailspin.  I have to tell myself things like “Laura, if ____ does not get done the world will really and truly not end.”  I feel lost in this parenting gig every day and yet know I was meant to be their mama and it’s the biggest honor and I really am the luckiest mom in the entire world…just like the rest of you.  They are a gift!

We’ve been wildly preparing for China.  We had yet another set of passport pictures to get taken and China Entry Visas to apply for.  I’ve never in all my life overnight shipped so many, many things.  We paid far more than I’d like to admit to send our boy a package containing a small blue blanket, a little stuffed panda with a heart over it’s eye and a book containing photos of his new family.  When I told our mail guy my choice of shipping method he looked at me and said, “Are you sure?” 🙂  I told him I needed this package to get to it’s destination as soon as possible…in other words, I want our little boy’s heart to start being prepared for our arrival as soon as possible because we’re coming and severe, aching loss is near for our son.  It makes me sick thinking about it.  How can I be so excited and honored and thrilled beyond my wildest dreams and in the same breath be absolutely heartbroken and crushed for our little guy?!?!?!

He is almost 3 1/2 now and I want to weep over the time missed.  I want to weep and weep and weep.  A simple thought of him sends me into tears.  Hudson and Solomon’s 1st grade teachers met me in the school office today, gave me a card and then wrapped their arms around me simultaneously and I just stood there in the middle of the sweetest hug and cried.

What is God up to?  What is He doing?  How is He going to work all this out and mend this little one’s very broken heart?  And how will all this time ever be filled?  And how will He make a way yet again?  And why, oh why did He think we were okay enough to allow us a front row seat to watch Him work…to watch Him do what only He can do…to watch Him do yet again the impossible and the improbable and the sheer insane?!?!?  I don’t even know.  I don’t get it.  I don’t understand, but I don’t have to.  God is God and He is good.

I read in Exodus this week about when God sends Moses before Pharaoh.  So far in Exodus Moses has questioned God over and over and over again about why God chose him…he’s got a stutter and isn’t equipped to be used by God…so Moses thinks.  And yet God keeps choosing Moses and showing off His power.  He keeps setting Moses apart.  I read in a commentary how God called Moses “to act and speak in His name and to perform things beyond the ordinary course of nature.”  Beyond the ordinary.  That’s where my hope is sitting this week…with God beyond the ordinary.  That is what God does…He does beyond the ordinary.

When things feel messed up and jacked up and weird and uncomfortable and hard as hell and sad beyond sad and we feel lost and completely out of sorts and we think “I don’t even know anymore” we can find that hope…even if it’s ever so tiny…we can find hope in a God who is beyond the ordinary and who does beyond the ordinary and Who’s specialty is beyond the ordinary and we can grab hold of that hope and hold on for dear life because He’s making a way even when we just don’t see how.  Goodness, what a God we serve to show up in and far beyond the ordinary for us.

Just wanted to pop in on this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.  All the kids are home and we ate Mickey Mouse waffles for breakfast, have played 32 games, have cleaned house, read books, food prepped and I’m currently watching Solomon do pushups while Hudson yells, “Give me 60 pushups on your knuckles.”  We watched Karate Kid this weekend hence the 60 pushups on his knuckles.  I keep cracking up watching it all go down.

Sidenote:  It’s been a looooooooonnnnnnnggggg time since Josh Kelley and I have seen Karate Kid.  In the beginning it was almost unbearable to watch, but 20 minutes in and I was hooked.  So good…minus some new profanity we had to tell the kids was not okay to say.  Sheesh, doesn’t Daniel Son know it’s my job to accidentally introduce curse words to my children when I drop an entire jar of poppyseeds on the floor.  End sidenote.

Okay so a few housekeeping items I wanted to write about:

A. You guys, my site it currently all kinds of jacked up.  How long has it been like this?  Good question.  Who knows at this point, but my contact button is not working and it was just brought to my attention.  Also, some people’s email subscriptions have ceased…I don’t even know.  And I am not receiving notifications of comments which means I have to log in and then go and look up any comments to answer questions, etc.  All that to say, if you have tried sending me a message and I have not responded I promise I am not ignoring you…I never got the message.  I always answer emails…it may take me a few days because, well, life and a hubs and 5 kids and everything else, but I will answer your email.  I’m looking into getting everything fixed and maybe even a complete re-do after we get our newest little guy home…we’ll see.  In the meantime, if you need to contact me please just email me directly at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com

B.  Our Usborne Book Fundraiser is still going on.  Today Harper, Hudson, Solomon and I all went through the books and made our final selections.  We are getting several of their awesome activity books for our airplane ride to China.  On Thursday night Suzanne is going to be doing a live portion of the party on Facebook to show off some of their books and all week long she is sharing more information about the books, highlighting certain books and giving away free shipping for an order.  If you would like to be added to the FB group just leave your Facebook name in the comments section of this post, email me at pitterpatterart at gmail dot com or message me on FB and I will add you to the group.

You can also order at anytime by heading over to SuzanneSharesUsborneBooks.com and snagging some great books.  As you check out you will be prompted to “Select An Event.”  Choose “Kelley Adoption Fundraiser.”  And check out.  Crazy easy and our family will receive 25% of your purchase to go towards our adoption fund.  Please feel free to share this information with family and friends and strangers 🙂

And C.  I did want to report back that I finally used my Instant Pot and it was like magic.  Perfect white sticky rice in just 22 minutes.  Consider me impressed.  I used the rice to make my SIL’s traditional Chinese rice.  So yummy and I text her approximately 41 times while making it to let her know how it was going.  Everyone ate with chopsticks as well…we’re in practice/prep mode right now.  This week I’m making the fried rice again along with pork pot stickers.  Can’t believe we have another little boy with a story only God could write to call our son.  God is so good and I am the luckiest mama in the world.

That’s it.

Hope you’re enjoying this special holiday.  What a dream Martin Luther King Jr. shared with us all.  What an honor to remember and celebrate.  And how much more work there is still to be done.  Let’s get to it.

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality…I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love with have the final word.”

-Martin Luther King Jr.

1.  Have you ever tried hot yoga?  I tried it for the first time recently and consider my mind blown and my body officially challenged.  It was so good and so hot and so hard, but all in the best kind of way.  I loved every second of it…even the hard as hell moments.  I was really nervous and intimidated to try because I’ve only done one yoga video ever, but I found out there was really nothing or anyone to be intimidated by.  Everyone in the class was in their own zone doing their own thing and there were all sorts of different people in the class too.  And the instructor Misty, sooooo good and kind.  The best.  I’m officially sold.  Locals if you’re looking for a class to try I totally recommend Misty’s classes.  You can check out her schedule HERE.

2.  Has anyone tried the 21 Day Fix app?  Lots of questions in this post today 🙂  I do not do diets.  I like food too much and that includes all foods, but I do love something that helps me keep my eating on target and in moderation.  I really loved the 21 day fix because it was more about making a long term change rather than a diet and there isn’t any food elimination.  It’s about eating real foods, moderation and exercising.  Ashley, Alissa and I are doing the workouts for all of January and then Ashley told me about the 21 Day Fix app.  You guys!!!!  It’s awesome and makes tracking your food so easy.  I have really loved using it and keeping up with what food I’m putting in my body.  I love the reminder of how many fruits, veggies, proteins, etc I need daily.  If you need a little something extra to help keep you accountable I totally recommend this app.

3.  Our Usborne Book Fundraiser is still going on.  Have you grabbed your books yet?  More questions.  We are seriously telling everyone.  I’ve put fliers in every teacher’s mailbox at our school, our sweet MDO sent home fliers to all the parents and we’re sharing like crazy on social media.  We would be so grateful if you’d help us spread the word.  This is such a fun and easy fundraiser.  To order just head over to SuzanneSharesUsborneBooks.com browse all the amazing books and make you selections.  As you check out you will be prompted to “Select An Event.”  Choose “Kelley Adoption Fundraiser.”  And check out.  That’s it.  Our family will receive 25% of your purchase to go towards our adoption fund.  Easy and awesome.  Tell everyone you know!!!!

And 4.  You may remember I used to Zumba…oh, those we’re the days.  Life got busy and I was unable to make it to classes, but I still keep in touch with our sweet instructor Janet.  Janet text me yesterday and said she wanted this little site and our sweet China boy to be the recipients of her January Zumba Party where locals help raise money for others.  And then I cried.  How kind and nice and thoughtful and generous and Janet never ceases to amaze me.  She made up fliers and everything.  We’re even wearing red and gold for Chinese New Year!!!!  So come join us for a sweaty dancing workout with Janet on Saturday, January 28 in Rivergate Mall from 4:30-6:30.  All money raised goes directly to help cover our adoption expenses.  Mark your calendars and check out all the details below.

This has been a good week.  Hard, but good.  God is faithful and mighty and I love meeting you guys again here in this space.  Thank you so much for reading and thank you even more for the prayers and encouragement.  Have an awesome weekend.

Happy Friday!