Merry Christmas!

Four Years Ago

2007 Photo



This Year's Photo

Four Years ago,today, we became a family of 6. Our leap of faith to bring Julia home had come to an end. The last 4 years have brought happiness and tears. We mourn for all Julia has lost but are glad we were chosen to be her family. There is no doubt that she has a better life here. As far as we know her orphanage is still not allowing adoptions. We hate to wonder what would have happened to Julia.

Julia will now tell you she was born in Russia. She still has no concept of adoption or that we weren't her first parents. She doesn't remember anything from her life in Russia. For the most part that is probably a good thing. From what we know she went through some rough times.

We thank God everyday for this little girl. We have been so blessed!

Happy Birthday, Zachary!

Happy 10th Birthday, Zachary! Zachary was home sick from school today but fortunately he was feeling better by dinner time. We were able to go to Cracker Barrel while the older two boys were at their connect group Christmas parties.

Don't feel too bad for Zachary because he had a big weekend. My friend, Paige came down and helped Zachary make his birthday cupcakes. He decided on Pandas this year. Kristopher continued to tease him and tell him they looked like badgers. Zachary really wanted to make his own cake and dinner this year. He assisted Paige with the cupcakes and made dinner on Sunday afternoon. We had a delicious meal consisting of fajitas, rice, and black beans.

Sunday afternoon Kristopher and Zachary were in the Fuquay Varina Christmas Parade. Zachary for Cub Scouts and Kristopher for the marching band. It was extremely chilly watching the parade but it was a lot of fun.

Baptism and Dedication

Tonight all three boys were baptized. Have I mentioned we are so proud of the three of them? We also had Grace dedicated. It was a special night for the Braxtons.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

One Christmas tree down, 7 to go. Since we are leaving for Florida tomorrow we wanted to put our Christmas tree up before we left. It is 12 feet tall so it takes quite awhile. The 6 to go are in Julia's,Grace's,Zachary's,Kristopher's, mine(goes in the living room with all the glass ornaments),the downstairs Coca Cola tree, and the Florida Christmas tree at the condo. Nicholas took intiative and did his tonight. The kids trees are only 3 feet tall so they don't take very long to decorate. I get tired just thinking about all the work I have to do when we return from Florida on Sunday.

This is the earliest we have ever put up the Christmas tree. It does feel good to have the biggest one done. We also have already had our Christmas cards made. That is a first, too. I usually send them out two days before Christmas because I am still working on the photos. We had our picture taken the other night. For the record I do not like our Christmas cards this year. Shouldn't have taken Dallas with me. He insisted we get the ones with both of us in it, too. I am not liking me in it at all.

What Can I Say

Lots going on around here lately. Computer problems are one of the reasons I haven't posted lately. I just get so frustrated with my computer I don't stay on long.

What's new in the household? Grace has had hearing aides for about 2 months now and still haven't posted. She spent a half a day at UNC hospital to see the Cranofacial team. It consists of about 8 doctors who look at Grace and decide if anything needs to be done. It was agreed that we should wait until next year to see if Grace has progressed in speech before any additional surgeries are done.

Julia saw a specialist at UNC Developmental Center. She thinks Julia is progressing and will reevaluate in 6 months. She thinks we need to not think about Julia's age and just try to keep her up with Kindergarten. We feel they are missing something but time will tell.

Kristopher is still driving us nuts but I think we finally had a break through. How do you communicate with a 16 year old that is not responsive? I will be checking out the christian book store this week. I guess we should just be thankful he loves going to church, youth, and stays out of trouble.

Nicholas and Zachary are both doing well. Nicholas is becoming way too obsessed with sports. Reminds me of someone else in the family. Zachary continues to surprise us. Today, he printed and laminated Thank You cards to give people when they do something nice. We went out to lunch today and when we got back in the car Zachary surprised us with thank you cards.

I have a post I have been planning for months. Hopefully I will get it posted this week.

Additional Halloween Pictures

My favorite picture

The candy

The kids and their pumpkins

Trick or Treat

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas but wait it is only October 31.

Once upon a time there was Hannah Montana and a Fairy. Thanks to Aunt Debi for buying us these beautiful outfits.

I think my sister has lost it.

Happy Birthday, Nicholas!

Thirteen years ago Paul Swain Nicholas Braxton came into the world at St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond, Va. He was my shortest pregnancy, shortest labor, and smallest baby. He was induced at 38 weeks due to his older brother being so large.

For his birthday Nicholas wanted to go to a Hurricanes Hockey Game. Dallas and him should be on the way home now. This morning we gave him the tickets and he gave them to Dallas to keep. Dallas and I then went to vote. After voting Dallas and I emptied our pockets into the big trash can outside the voting building. You probably know where this going. We get home and Dallas says to Nicholas...you have the tickets don't you? Nicholas and I both tell him that he did. Back to the trash can Dallas goes. He said people thought it was quite humorous him digging through the trash can. Another cub scout leader was there and was disappointed that Dallas found them so quickly. He was hoping to see Dallas dig to the bottom.

Last year this time, Nicholas was having his birthday dinner at Wendy's in UNC hospital. Grace was still recovering from her surgery. We had a chocolate cake for dessert. Fortunately only the only similiarity is the chocolate cake this year. For dinner we will be having london broil, homemade macaroni and cheese, and green beans. These are all of Nicholas' favorites.

What You Don't Know About Unicef

From the Center for Adoption Policy's homepage:

Newscap, October 30, 2008. No Trick or Treat for UNICEF. Tomorrow
being Halloween, we are barraged by ever present orange trick or treat
for UNICEF boxes in schools, stores and in magazine ads. Once again it
is our unfortunate task to point out that notwithstanding UNICEF's
great reputation and name recognition, UNICEF has repeatedly failed to
protect unparented children. Behind its carefully crafted benevolent
public relations image, UNICEF only supports intercountry adoption
theoretically and grudgingly. UNICEF continues to thwart ICA
programs, on the spurious grounds that a child's right to his identity
as expressed by remaining in his or her birth country trumps the need
for a permanent family. Ideology should never prevent the creation of
permanent, loving families.


Please think twice before you support Unicef.

Fall Festival

Last Sunday Dallas took the 3 youngest to a Fall Festival at a local church. We all went last year and had a great time. This year the older boys didn't want to miss youth so I took them and Dallas took the younger ones.

The Hotdog - Zachary was so excited about this costume.


Belle and Mulan

Another Trip to Florida

Maribeth and Grace

Grace and baby Alivia

Zachary loves our rental car.

After the Fair- On the Way Home

A Night at the Fair

We had a great time at the NC State Fair last Friday night. Last year it was so crowded you couldn't even move. We learned a trick..go when it is raining and cold outside. You almost have the whole place to yourselves.

Julia after a Weekend with Paige

Attitude

Grace just put her babies to bed.

Grosgrain: Marie-Thérèse Gown GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: Marie-Thérèse Gown GIVEAWAY!!!!

You have got to go see this beautiful dress! Wouldn't Julia be the perfect Marie-Therese?

Fuquay Varina Marching Band

This year Kristopher decided to join his high school's marching band. It has been a great experience for him. He has enjoyed it so much he plans to do it again next year. The time commitment is huge and we miss him not being home but it is a great opportunity for him. Today, he is at school from 9:00 a.m. until 10:45 tonight. This is an easy Saturday. Most times it is even later at night. They are hosting a band competition today- Festival of Bands. Dallas is also volunteering until 2:00. Tonight I will get to go see him perform for the first time.

We will be at church tonight at 6:00 tonight if you would like to join us. We have a guest pastor. Our pastor and his family are in Africa this week. Join us here

for a great service.

The United Tour

I need to be working but decided to post on here first. Today Julia and I drove to Roanoke to meet my friend Paige. We have had the best time. Last night we went to The United Tour. Stephen Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith gave an excellent 3 hour concert. It is one of the best concerts I have attended. Stephen was as good as ever and so was Michael W. Smith. Plus spending time with Paige was great.

If The United Tour comes anywhere near year I definitely recommend attending. It is worth every penny plus some. You won't regret it. God was in the building.

Please Join us at C3 tonight at 6:00

We would love for you to join us at church tonight. We will be attending tonight's service at 6:00. It is broadcast live so we would be experiencing it together.

Don't worry if I didn't give you enough notice or if you just can't make it, tomorrow at 9:15 and 11:15 are two more live services.

Hope you can make it!

Just click here a few minutes before the service and watch along with us. You won't regret it.

Living Life

Title kind of makes you wonder doesn't it? One of the boys had a ballgame at 6:00 every night this week except Wednesday. Tonight they both do at different ballparks. Makes for a crazy evening. Zachary and Julia get off the bus at 4:20 and I have to have dinner ready by 4:45 so we can leave by 5:10. They aren't done until 8:00 and that is too late for dinner especially when they need to go home, go to bed, and repeat the next day. Three more weeks of baseball. I am so ready for it to calm down. I want an evening at home.

Wednesday Night was First Wednesday at our church. The first Wednesday of every month we have an awesome(our pastor's favorite word) service that is alittle more pumped up than Saturday/Sunday service. We had a guest pastor preaching this week from Alabama. It was an inspiring service. We all need to keep our eye on the rabbit we are chasing. Our rabbit is serving God,bringing others to God, and getting to the kingdom. What is your rabbit?

I have taken on a volunteer job I absolutely love. I am getting ready to increase my responsibilities and take a position that is a step up from what I was doing. I am so excited and can't wait. If you know me at all you know my passion is helping orphans. So that is exactly what I am doing and loving every minute of it. The great part about it is I do almost all the work online or through Skype.

Be looking for your special invitation to attend church with us this and every week. And Yes we now go to one of those churches. Times have changed and are needs have changed. We have found where we belong.

SYATP08

Were your kids there this morning? This is the first year we knew about SYATP. Kristopher and Nicholas were excited to be there. In case you don't know, that is See you at the pole. Students all over the country gathered at their school's flagpole to pray. Our church had a SYATP rally the Sunday night before and over 700 youth and parents participated. They boys were psyched about it.

The excerpt below is taken from Wikepedia.

See You at the Pole (SYATP) is an annual gathering of Christian students of all ages at a flagpole in front of their local school for prayer, scripture-reading and hymn-singing, during an early morning hour preceding the start of the school day. The American SYATP events occur on every fourth Wednesday of September[1]. This annual gathering began in Burleson, Texas, in 1990, as a response to a Disciple Now weekend with a handful of Christian students. It has grown by word of mouth, announcements at youth rallies and churches, and the Internet; SYATP meetings now occur internationally.

In 2005, over 2 million students in the US participated, as well as students in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Scotland, and South Africa.[2]

We thought Grace had Strange Eating Habits

Kristopher definitely has Grace beat. Kristopher's sandwich of choice is pepperoni with Texas Pete on it. He enjoys his french fries with vinegar on them. He wants me to find little packets of vinegar for him to take to school and a little jar of Texas Pete.

I Survived

For the past few months we have been looking for an inexpensive old car on Craigslist. Last week we found a 1998 Ford Contour with 106,000 miles for very cheap. Thank goodness, the mechanic said it was in great condition and that we got a good deal.

Kristopher could now have his driver's license but we haven't given him many opportunities to drive. Dallas nor I were comfortable letting him drive our cars. Dallas did take him out a few times in the van but it is rather big for Kristopher.

So yesterday, now that we have the car I decided to let Kristopher drive Grace, Nicholas and me to the library. It is about a 20 minute drive through town. The whole ride I was gripping my door handle and my feet were pushed to the floor board. Kristopher actually did pretty well. It was me who couldn't take the pressure. I realized I was over my head and wanted to stop the ride almost immediately. I held my tongue(Kristopher would disagree)as much as I could. When we arrived at the library I could not refrain from sighing with relief. We made it in all in one piece. I learned a valuable lesson...I would not be riding with Kristopher until he had a lot more practice. That will be Dallas' job.

Can you believe Kristopher had the nerve to say that I made him nervous?

Happy Birthday, Dallas!

Yesterday was Dallas' birthday. I meant to create a post last night and forgot. We spent the day in Greenville with Dallas' sister. We went to our favorite restaurant, Chico's and then went to see the house Dee is building. What a busy day!

Happy Birthday, Debi! And I'm Back.

Happy Birthday to my Sister!
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It has been so long since I posted. Here is a run down of some of the events that have happened in the last week and a half.

Grace needs hearing aids for high frequency hearing lost. She has been fitted and should get them by the end of October. She will get 30 minutes, 2 times a week speech from Wake County School System. She did not qualify for developmental services.

Julia will now get special help from the special ed. teacher 3 times a week for 45 minutes, 30 minutes a week with the speech/language pathologist for language not speech, and is being further evaluated by the occupational therapist. She appears to have problems with fine motor skills.

Kristopher is driving me crazy. To be such a good kid he drives me up a wall. His interim was horrible. Need I say more. Not due to bad test scores, simply forgetting to turn in papers and complete homework. We have had this problem since 6th grade. The sad thing is he is extremely intelligent and in all Honors classes. It just isn't important enough to him. He will not be having much fun the rest of the grading period. All his video systems have a new home in my closet. His computer will be getting a new home this weekend.

Not much going on with Zachary and Nicholas. They are both busy with baseball now. They each have games 2 nights a week and practice one weekend day. Keeps us on the run.

Grace and I made a weekend trip to Florida. Nothing much has changed there. It was great to see a few of my friends.

Until next time.....

Conversation with Julia

Julia:I don't have to go to school tomorrow?

Me: Yes, you have school tomorrow. You go to school everyday now.

Julia: Why do I have to go to school?

Me: You are a big girl now. Big girls go to school everyday.

Julia: I could be an alligator.


Later in the night...

Julia: When I grow up I want to be an alligator like Alexa.

Julia's First Day of School

Before we left home

getting on the bus

safely home

Grace's First Day

Grace seemed to have a great day at preschool today. She didn't cry when I left and seemed fine when I picked her up. She does go to the church nursery every Sunday for an hour an half. I am sure that will help her transition. Her lunch box is empty so I think she ate all her lunch. She must have had one potty accident because she had changed pants. She answers yes to every question we ask her so we can only guess whether she liked school.

First Day Pictures

Twas the Night before....

School Starts. The kids are all nestled in their beds except for Kristopher. I think they are ready to go back to school.

It is funny how we always look forward to summer but then everybody is so ready for school to start again.

Zachary will be in 4th grade this year. We met his teacher the other night. He has Mr. Hughes. Yes, I said Mr. This is the first time one of my kids has had a male teacher in elementary. It is his first year teaching so hopefully it will go well. Sometimes new teachers are great. They have new ideas. We aren't expecting Zachary to have any problems, he never does. Zachary is obssessed with school work and getting it done.

Nicholas will be in 7th grade. We didn't really meet his teachers but we saw them and listened to them. His Math teacher is the same as last year. I am sure he will have a great year as long as he keeps himself organized. Nicholas procrastinates, too. He waits until the absolute last minute to do his work.

Since Kristopher is going to be in 11th grade he wasn't the least bit interested in going to his open house. He is on a block schedule so he only has 4 teachers a semester. Three of them he has had in past years. Kristopher does not procrastinat but he has a problem with organization. Marching band will take up a lot of his time this year so he will need to keep on top of all his work.

Julia starts Kindergarten but her first day isn't until Sept. 2. Grace will start going to preschool on Tuesday for 2 days a week. Updates will follow.

Potty Training

By Gosh, I think she has got it. We started last Wednesday for the very last time. I decided it was now or never. Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that she starts preschool next week and needs to be potty trained. Today was her first day with no accidents. We had to go out a couple of times and she did fine. She has even started telling us she needs to go. It is a little strange how she tells us but at least she is letting us know.

Missing Nicholas and Zachary

It has been a quiet week around here. Sunday night we met Dallas' sister Dee and took her Nicholas and Zachary. They were longing to spend a few days with her and she invited them to come stay. We pick them up Friday night. I hope they want to come home. She had lots of fun things planned for them. Last night they were going to a baseball game, they were going to play golf one day, and lots of other things. Dee lives on a farm so there are always things to do. I know the boys love the freedom of a huge yard(acres). Dee has a golf cart that they love driving around, too. I hope they are being good and can't wait to see them Friday.

Which Princess Are You?

Here are the results from my quiz. Click on the link and find out which princess you are.

You Are Aurora! (A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty.)

Thoughtful and loving. Authority figures probably have been sheltering you all of your life. Thankfully you're a very tranquil person who is content with what life has given you, but secretly you want to know how the outside world works.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Grace

First picture we ever saw of Grace-November 2006
Picture taken- August 15, 2006

Grace A year Ago-August 12,2007

Grace Today-August 12,2008

Grace Then and Now

Grace A Year Ago

Grace Now

All I Want for Christmas is My Three Front Teeth

Grace ready for Surgery

Grace's Teeth

Grace did very well with surgery. She hasn't even cried. I was holding her when she woke up so she woke up very slowly and has been doing great. They removed 3 teeth, fixed one cavity. Put a couple of caps on and sealant on all her teeth. Of course, Xrays were taken too. Unfortunately 2 of the teeth they had to remove were her bottom front teeth. He felt if he left them that they would cause more problems. The concern was that infection was already setting in and they were so tiny anyway.