Cinnamon Roll Sunday

Have you ever had a hankering for something that you just can't shake? Well, for me it's those darn IKEA cinnamon rolls. I didn't taste them, but I've thought about them all week. Today I finally gave in to the temptation. Holly was my partner in crime.


Hope you've had a lovely weekend.

Love,
Laura Lee

IKEA Adventure and Teen Girl Bedroom Reveal

How come I never heard of IKEA before?

I mean, I read the paper. I watch the decorating shows sometimes. I talk to people. It isn't like I bury my head in the sand. So how has the biggest store in decorating history, which enjoys an almost cult-like following and which produces the most widely-read catalog in the world, in numbers approaching the printing of the Bible, escaped my attention for so long?

I really do wonder...

Well, last Friday, Sharon and I experienced IKEA in Atlanta. And now I know why people drive for 500 miles, pulling a U-Haul trailer behind their SUV, to shop at this store. To coin the current teen vernacular....IKEA is WAY COOL! IKEA is known for its Scandinavian, modern style furniture, accessories, and practical storage solutions. But really there is something for everyone, including me.

This was a shopping experience not for the faint of heart. We wisely wore our comfy shoes and were prepared to walk miles through the 15 acre labyrinth that is IKEA's showroom and marketplace. We had just finished a big lunch and as we entered the store were not immediately tempted by the scent of the delicious smelling Swedish meatballs and cinnamon rolls wafting over from the cafe'. Smiling, we passed quickly by the free, supervised, children's playland and boarded the escalator to the second floor, grabbing a cart to begin our shopping adventure. The cart itself was fun. It rolled not only forward and backward, but also from side to side, allowing me to rapidly change direction when something caught my eye, and hopefully not knock some unsuspecting shopper off his feet in the process. The prices caused me instant glee. The stuff is cheap!

My main goal on this outing was to finish the decorating of Abby and Lacy's room. They moved in together in the late spring and we had not yet converted their room over from the little-girl-princess-room, a la Holly and Maggie. Abby was unwavering in that she wanted it to look mature, bright, modern, and NOT babyish. We had already painted the walls pale blue, and Abby brought her hot pink rug and chair from her other room. So I was thinking lots of black and white would give the room just the sophistication Abby was looking for. Thankfully, mellow Lacy couldn't really care less about their room's decor; she was just happy to go along with Abby's preferences.

Spending over an hour on IKEA's website before I ventured into the store was a good idea. I had a list of what I was looking for....bedding, curtains, a bookshelf, mirrors, a desk chair, and accessories. I'm glad I did my homework, otherwise I would have been totally overwhelmed. We shopped for nearly four hours on our first visit, using our cell phones to communicate fantastic finds. Then on Sunday, we decided to go back and buy everything we wished we had gotten on Friday.

I could tell you a lot more about IKEA, but really you just need to experience it for yourself. Here is the girl's room, pulled together at last.

I love it...arf, arf!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Who taught my infant lips to pray,

To love God's holy word and day,

And walk in wisdom's pleasant way?

My Mother

The tiny Texan and her first shoes.

Happy 75th Birthday, Mom!
Here is a yellow rose, just for you.


I love you,
Laura Lee

Bonjour!

Parlez vous francais?

Me neither!

But I LOVE French bread! I bake all the time and make lots of bread. Recently I discovered this recipe for French bread that calls for half whole wheat flour and half white flour. It makes the most delicious French bread I've ever tasted! My favorite unbleached white flour is King Arthur brand. It is far superior to other brands, in my opinion. If I didn't grind my own wheat, I would also purchase King Arthur whole wheat flour for baking. King Arthur brand is available at any grocery. I bake this bread in my French bread pans, but it could be done on a cookie sheet. This recipe makes two pretty loaves.

French Bread

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons dry yeast
• 2 cups comfortably hot water
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 cups unbleached white flour

*******

• 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon water
• sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix whole wheat flour and dry yeast in mixer bowl. Turn off mixer. Add hot water, oil, sugar, and salt. Mix 1 minute. Quickly add white flour, 1 cup at a time, until mixture cleans the sides of the bowl and forms a ball. Knead 3-4 minutes.

Lightly oil hands. Divide dough into two equal portions. Roll each into a 12x15 inch rectangle. Beginning at the long side, roll up tightly, pinching edges to seal. Taper ends. Place each loaf with the seam side down on a lightly greased baking sheet which has been sprinkled with cornmeal. French bread pans may also be used. Diagonally slash loaf tops every 2 1/2 inches 1/4 inch deep. Beat egg white and water with a fork until foamy. brush tops and sides of loaves with egg-water mixture. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Let rise until double. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until deep golden brown.

I was ready with the camera because I knew what Tom would do as he walked in the door from work!


The only difficult part about this recipe is keeping the family out of it until dinner time!


Au revoir!
Laura Lee

The Princess and the Prize

The official drawing for the 25th Blog Post Give Away was held this morning. The excitement mounted as the names were tossed into the tote.


The princess stirred the cards around and pulled out a winner!

Well.......?????????? Who is it????



Grandmama! You're the lucky winner of the tote bag and the fun surprises tucked inside! I'll be mailing it out to you soon.

Thanks to everyone who played along. But, you really didn't stand a chance against Grandmama! She wins everything she enters!

Edited to add: Grandmama thinks I should take her name out and draw again. But I said, "No!" It was all fair and square and she's getting the tote! I'll be doing other fun give aways in the future, so check back often~

Vintage Finds and School Daze

Shopping in HOT-lanta over the weekend produced a few beautiful vintage goodies. I love this retro-green tea bag cannister. And I just couldn't pass by this hand embroidered tea towel.

Drop by for a spot of tea!

Playing all weekend means there is lot to do around the house today. I started school with Holly this morning. She is doing the A Beka DVD school this year and is very excited about having her own personal DVD player. Lest you should wonder, there is no connection between her excitement and the fact that the DVD player is hot Barbie pink. She has the sweetest teacher. I love these teachers. They are infinitely patient and never raise their voice! If Holly doesn't understand something, she can just back up and listen again. This is a perfect fit for her, the child who hates to make mistakes.


Drawing for the tote bag will be on Wednesday. Visit this post to read all about it. Lacy has made beautiful name cards for all the entrants, so even the drawing will be pretty. There is still time to enter. Leave me a note!

Have a wonderful week.

Love,
Laura Lee

He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

Bao and Shen

Every year, during this week in August, we have so much to be thankful for. All three of our youngest girls have adoption related anniversaries in August-- two "gotcha" days, a "yes, we want to adopt her" day, and a birthday!

While thinking of our girls and their adoption stories, I am reminded of one of my favorite adoption stories ever. This is the story of Bao and Shen. They are the sons of friends we met through our agency's adoption email list. Todd, a pastor, and Henriann live with their family in Texas. Henriann and I became email buddies as we chased paper, sought approvals, and waited out SARS, some days wondering if we would ever even get to meet the precious children we knew were waiting for us.

By God's grace, we did eventually make it through that horrible SARS wait and travel to China in the same group to get our children, Holly and Bao. Bao is without a doubt the smartest little boy I think I've ever met. And from what you will read, he is also an extremely determined little boy. I will let Henriann tell their story herself. I have her permission to post this letter she sent her family and friends a couple years ago. My hope is that their story will bless your heart as it has mine.

There are friends who pretend to be friends, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Prov.18:24 Oh, what a story I have to tell of God's faithfulness! I have been waiting and waiting to share this news with all of you. I hope it encourages you wherever you are on your adoption journey! In August 2003 our family brought home a beautiful little five year old boy named Bao from Shenzhen, China. (We have two bio daughters, Melanie (12) and Cina (10)). Bao is a precious child and he has truly blessed our
family. As soon as he could speak English, he began talking about his best friend in China, Shen Bao Long. We had seen this child in Shenzhen and even taken his picture to have for Bao. Bao began to ask if we could bring Shen Bao Long to our house. Bao has a trundle bed and he was always pointing out that Shen Bao Long could sleep in the extra bed. He saved clothes, toys and candy for him. Every time he talked about him, I had an ache in my heart. Bao missed his best friend so much! In November, some dear friends received a baby referral from Shenzhen. I was thrilled! We translated a letter from Bao to Shen Bao Long and sent him a gift. Our friends actually met SBL, and took a video of him opening Bao's gift. I cannot tell you how many times Bao watched that video. We all fell in love with that sweet boy on our TV screen.
	In December, I began looking for the family who must be adopting him. In August, the SWI [orphanage] had told us he was "paper-ready" and I assumed someone must have snatched him up. I thought it would be wonderful to get the boys together again. I emailed different lists looking for him, but no luck. In January, I emailed my adoption agency and told her our story. She offered to talk to their contact in China, who was leaving for Beijing shortly. Within days, we heard from her. The CCAA [China Center for Adoption Affairs] had just received Shen Bao Long's file!
I don't know exactly how it all happened, but I love the mental picture of our adoption agency’s representative standing in the CCAA, surrounded by thousands of Chinese children's files and holding up Shen Bao Long's file and saying "I have got to have this one"! I believe God used her in such a powerful way. Everyone in the "China adoption community" says it's impossible to pre-identify a child. Let me tell you - "ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE" (Mark 9:23). The CCAA was still "processing" his file, so although Shen Bao Long's name appeared on Christian World Adoption's latest Special Needs listing, the file wasn't ready. Also, the question of who was going to adopt him was biggest in my mind. Of course I wanted him, but my husband was very sure that there was no way we could do it - financially we were drained from Bao's adoption and surgery. I considered my sister as a possibility, but it wasn’t the right time for her. Then some very dear friends expressed an interest. They watched the video, looked at his pictures, and read all my books on older child adoption. This went on for about six weeks. They were so interested that at one point I think I emailed our adoption agency and told her I was almost certain that they would adopt him. I was excited about the possibility of the two boys being the same town, but sad that we weren't taking him. Still his paperwork sat in the CCAA. I could go on and on about various things that happened, but I'll try to keep this short. At the end of March, I was pretty low. Our friends had decided not to adopt Shen Bao Long. I was sure God wanted us to have him, but had no idea how we could do it. Todd was still unsure and there is nothing worse than not being on the same page as your husband. My travel mates from Bao’s adoption were a constant source of encouragement. They prayed for our family to make the right decision and sent me so many encouraging emails. One Friday night, I prayed very hard for confirmation that this was indeed the path God wanted us to take. The next day, Todd went to get the mail. There was a letter and an EXTREMELY generous check from my dad. This was amazing for several reasons. My dad didn't even know we were considering adoption, he hardly ever gives us money except for at Christmas, plus he mailed it after the mail pick-up time on Friday night! I sat at the table and bawled! Todd was choked up and said "Will you stop praying so hard!" but agreed that this was the sign he had been waiting for! I emailed our adoption agency on Monday with the news that we were going to adopt SBL as soon as the CCAA released his paperwork! She emailed me on Tuesday that guess what - on Monday, in China, the CCAA released his paperwork! Glory! So, we start this wonderful process again and hope to bring Shen Bao Long home to his brother by Christmas. We will call him Shen, which means "Spiritual Thinker." Bao was so excited when we told him! He wanted to go buy the bunk beds that day! He said, "Mom, did you know Shen Bao Long is my best friend?" Yes, Bao, we know! And my sweet, wonderful daughters are so excited about their new brother! Thank you, Lord! I think back of standing over Shen Bao Long's bed (he was napping) last August and taking his picture. How God must have secretly smiled that I was taking a picture of my son and didn't know it! It so reminds of the verse in Ephesians 3:20 - "To Him who is able to do exceedingly more than WE ASK OR THINK". I could have never imagined that we would be doubly blessed!! We can't wait to bring him home! Thanks for letting me share my story! Glory to God! Love to all, Henriann, Todd, Melanie, Cina, Bao, and now Shen waiting in Shenzhen Best friends, now brothers, at home in Texas