I Love THEM Sooooooo Much!

 

If you give a kid markers and a sheet of white paper and tell him to draw what his life is like, you will always be amazed at what he thinks about it.  Brody drew a picture of the sun first.  He said he likes to play outside when it's hot (he gets that honest from his mom).  The rectangle is our house with a little triangle for the roof.  To the right is Ryan, then me, and Brody below us.  I'm not sure why we have such long legs.  The four legged creature is Maggie the dog beside our mailbox.  To the left of the drawing is an electrical box and a tree with some grass .  The best part of his drawing is the two potato looking things at the bottom below the house.  Brody said, "That's my baby brothers coming from India.  I love them soooooo much!"  That's right folks, Brody believes we're getting twins.  I tried to explain that twins are rare in India, and we don't get to pick if the baby is a boy or a girl.  Of course, Brody assured me that he will be getting two babies.  What really blesses my heart is to hear him say, "I love them sooooo much!" 

Chai While We Wait

It's a new year with all new possibilities!  Our home study is complete.  We're hoping to have the rest of our paperwork complete in the next couple of weeks.  Our goal is to be on the waiting list in February.  I'm so excited!  It nice to know we've done everything on our part that we can do and all there is left to do is wait. 

Waiting...well, that's not one of the easiest things in the world to do.  To fill up time we continue to prepare our family for the child to come, and we try to learn about Indian heritage.  Our neighbors Chad and Dawn gave us a wonderful Indian cookbook for Christmas.  It's packed full of all kinds of information.  We've really enjoyed reading through it.  One of my new favorite things is chai tea.  Chai is Hindi for "tea," so adding the word tea after chai, as is so often seen in coffee and tea houses in the country, is redundant.  So I'll just say I really enjoy drinking chai.  I'll share a favorite chai with you, and maybe you can drink chai along with us while we wait. 

Darjeeling Tea with Cardamom

2 cups water
1/4 cup loose Darjeeling tea leaves or 5 tea bags black tea
2 cups whole or 2% milk
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 whole cloves, crushed
2 to 4 black peppercorns, crushed
Pinch of ground cinnamon
1/4 cup cup sweetened condensed milk or 4 teaspoons sugar

1. Heat water to a rapid boil in 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, reduce heat to low.  Add tea leaves, simmer 2 to 4 minutes to blend flavors.  (If using tea bags, remove and discard.)
2. Stir in remaining ingredients except sweetened condensed milk.  Heat to boiling, take care not to let milk boil over.
3. Stir in condensed milk. Strain tea into cups.

Recipe by: Raghavan Iyer

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Brice Family!  We pray all of our family and friends have a wonderful holiday season.  Our theme this year is "MAKE MEMORIES!"  We have already begun to do just that.  We have even started bringing in a little India into our Christmas memories.  One of the Christmas trees has a few new ornament additions that were made in India.  I've added them to the red and green tree, and they are just too cute.  I love the elephant!  Our home this Christmas has smelled like ginger instead of cinnamon.  Ryan has made some delicious Ginger Snap Cookies with an Indian flare.   As we made our Operation Christmas Child boxes, we showed pictures of children who have received them in years past to Brody.  Brody helped pack the boxes, and we explained the fun and usefulness of many of the items.  He asked if his boxes "Go to India?" well.....maybe.  Today in the mail, Dillon International sent their Humanitarian Aid Programs magazine for 2011.  It had several pictures of the orphanage in India they work with, and it was a great opportunity to show Brody where his brother or sister will be.  Our hearts desire is that Brody, as well as all of our future children, learn that there are people all over the world who are in need.  Sure it's fun to get presents, but we don't need to get so much that we are unable to help other people.  In every activity such as these, Brody understands a little bit better the importance of adopting.  Even though the child to come into our family is not here yet, we are preparing our hearts and lives through many memory making moments.  

  

Photo of the orphanage in India.

Indian Ginger Snap Cookies

One of our favorite things about Christmas is doing a cookie exchange with friends.  This year we wanted to do something different, and we decided on a cookie with Indian spices.  Our house smells like ginger!  We want to share the recipe with friends and family, but we warn you that they are a little spicy.

Indian Ginger Snap Cookies

Ingredients

·                                 9 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour

·                                 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

·                                 1 tablespoon ground ginger

·                                 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

·                                 1/2 teaspoon ground clove

·                                 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

·                                 7 ounces dark brown sugar

·                                 5 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature

·                                 3 ounces molasses, by weight

·                                 1 large egg, room temperature

·                                 2 teaspoons finely grated fresh ginger

·                                 4 ounces finely chopped candied ginger

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cardamom, clove and salt.

Place the brown sugar and butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on low speed until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the molasses, egg and fresh ginger and beat on medium for 1 minute. Add the crystallized ginger and using a rubber spatula, stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until well combined.

With a 2-teaspoon sized scoop, drop the dough onto a parchment lined half sheet pan approximately 2-inches apart. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 12 minutes for slightly chewy cookies or 15 minutes for more crisp cookies. Rotate the pan halfway through cooking.

Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to stay on the sheet pan for 30 seconds before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with all of the dough. Store in an airtight container for up 10 days. If desired, you may scoop and freeze the cookie dough on a sheet pan and once frozen, place in a resealable bag to store. Bake directly from the freezer as above.

creation groans - Orphan Sunday

"Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings."
-Helen Keller

There are 15 million orphans worldwide.  So I ask myself a question, "What am I going to do about it?"

This Sunday, November 7th, is Orphan Sunday.  I hope every church reminds Christians that day that is their responsibility to "...Defend the cause of the fatherless..." Isaiah 1:17

Everyone is called to something...pray, foster care, adoption, orphanage care.  For information go to  http://www.orphansunday.org/

Third Home Study Meeting

We had our third and final Home Study meeting this week.  Our social worker came to our house to inspect it, and she also met Brody for the first time.  The first thing he asked her at the door is, "Did you bring me a baby?"  He makes me laugh so much.  Since Brody is only four years old, he does not have to be interviewed.  She did ask several questions about Brody.  It's always fun to get asked to describe Brody...."He is just a big ball of energy who loves to run and play.  He enjoys life, and he is an excellent problem solver."  Brody told her that he wanted a baby brother.  After being asked some more questions about our family, we gave her a tour of our home.  I must admit I was a little nervous at someone looking at every inch of our house.  A house says a lot about your family, and I hoped she found it a warm and inviting place.  Brody gladly showed her what he calls "The Baby's Room."  We have a crib set up, but there are no decorations yet.  We will decorate it once we get a child referral.   I get excited just thinking about it.  Our social worker should be finished with her report by the beginning of next week.  She will turn it into her agency who will then turn it into our adoption agency.  All home study paperwork should be complete by the beginning of November. 

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1.02.05

Second Home Study Meeting

Our second meeting for our home study was today, and it was a good meeting.  It was very informative, and she gave some great advice on helping an adopted child adjust into a new environment.  Our social worker also mentioned a Life Book, which is a baby book for adoptive children.  I'm going to look into that.  Then there was some digging into the lives of Ryan and Cristy.  The questions are nothing bad or hard, but I get kind of nervous when I'm asked so many questions.  She did ask us the question everybody seems to ask, "Why India?"  Our desire is to give a child some opportunities they would not have otherwise.  Most people typically do not think of India as being poor.  India has so many different parts to it...from the eternal snows of the Himalayas to the cultivated peninsula of far South, from the deserts of the West to the humid deltas of the East, from the dry heat and cold of the Central Plateau to the cool forest foothills.  There are parts of India that are amazing and have wonderful technology, but the country as a whole is very populated.  A recent study showed the Indian states, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, have 421 million poor people.  This is more than the 410 million poor in the poorest African countries.  It was hard for me to believe at first that eight Indian states account for more poor people than in the 26 poorest African countries combined.  The adoption agency we picked, Dillion International, works with an orphange in Kolkata.  There is also hopes in the next couple of years that two more orphanges might possibly open up for Dillion to work in, and that is very exciting news!  I hope to hear in my lifetime that many children of India will find homes whether in India or all over the world.