I Refuse...

Sometimes I just want to close my eyes
And act like everyone's alright
When I know they're not

This world needs God
But it's easier to stand and watch
I could say a prayer and just move on
Like nothing's wrong

But I refuse
'Cause I don't want to live like I don't care
I don't want to say another empty prayer
Oh, I refuse

To sit around and wait for someone else
To do what God has called me to do myself
Oh, I could choose
Not to move but I refuse

I can hear the least of these
Crying out so desperately
And I know we are the hands and feet
Of You, oh God

So, if You say move
It's time for me to follow through
And do what I was made to do
Show them who You are



I hope you've heard this song...it so speaks of what my heart feels about our love for Jesus and our lives being lived out for Him. We cannot say we belong to Jesus and then live a life that resembles nothing of Him. If we do, then our hearts aren't truly His, right?

I thought of this song as I read a new link on our adoption agencies website. I hope you will take a second to read this...it's heart breaking and at the same time shows that we all need to say "I REFUSE" to sit here any longer. Did you know that even with all of the adoptions that we hear about and take place worldwide, that 14,050,000 children remain orphans and age out of the system every year!

God use me. Break me. Remind us that this life is not mine, but yours. Any fears we have about what you might be calling us to is not from you...for you do not give us a spirit of fear.

Christmas Catch Up

We were able to come HOME for Christmas, and what a time of joy it was! We started a new tradition on New Years Day! This was at a free family fun run after church on Sunday. It was a blast and we were so proud of everyone that came. My sister Laura and I have been running lots in 2011 and completed our first 15k in October. Our other sister Becki and our daddy said they would run it with us next year, so we thought this would be a great way to kick off that goal. AND, Laura and I registered for our first HALF MARATHON!!! She is flying to Atlanta to run it with me and I feel like the luckiest most blessed gal on earth!
The boys had so much fun and actually CHOSE to do the 4 mile run! They regretted that about one block past the 2 mile turn though!!! Those Grunewald boys are great athletes.

Noonie and Papa ran most of the way pushing the girls!!!

Oh man...this was right as we were leaving Tulsa and saying good-bye. The kids were all so sad. Less than 5 months guys! We can do it!

We were able to see old friends and man did it fill our love tanks!!! We are so blessed to have friends that have prayed for us while we've been gone.

We had fun with our cousins...

Our daddy even got to fly in for 5 days!!! Oh how we needed that time with him. We were so thankful.

Waiting to come down stairs on Christmas morning! Man, are we blessed! We opened WAY too many gifts. But enjoyed a new tradition of giving a gift to Jesus this year. The kids got money from us and got to choose (which meant the boys chose, the girls didn't get it) how they wanted to give something to Jesus. They chose to help our dear friend Joey Armstrong. Please take a minute to check out his blog. He is a wonderfully talented writer, and lives his life for Jesus. We were so thankful that our kids know a little bit more about all the ways to love on Jesus on HIS BIRTHDAY!!!

(Please excuse that the pics are out of order, but I couldn't move them for some reason). This is our rescue trip home. My mom selflessly flew out to Atlanta on December 12th, stayed with us and packed us up and DROVE us home on December 15th! This pic was taken at lunch when we were almost to Oklahoma!!!

My grandmother took us to see the incredible lights at Rhema. We were dying to see lights because in Atlanta, if the lights are worth looking at they cost a fortune to view!

She is so silly and LOVED these sunglasses her sister got for Christmas.

Emery got her first American Girl bitty baby! She immediately kissed all over her!

Owen's "Holiday" program at school. He sure does love his new teacher and has made so many wonderful friends!

Then my mama drove us all.the.way.back.here. Seriously, how blessed are we to have family that loves on us so well. I got to spend almost 4 weeks with my mama!!! Oh how my heart needed that. As wonderful as it feels to be here with Blake, we are all looking forward to our final return Memorial Day weekend. Both boys kept warning us they were not coming back to Atlanta with us! And even Sadie told Noonie she wanted to go with her when we dropped her off at the Marta yesterday.

So proud of our Cooper

Some of you may have already seen this, but I had to post it here so that our first families could see it too.

Cooper worked so hard to memorize these verses, and I cried just about every time he's said it.

There is just something about a child knowing the Bible and the real reason that we celebrate Christmas. May this always be our focus, not just during this time of year!

We HEART Curls!!!

I have been wanting to do a hair post...so here goes. As much as I would like to say I am 6 years into my hair care education, I am probably more like one year. I am such a beginner.

When the guys were born their hair didn't stay curly (except when wet) until they were 9+ months. And even though there was lots for me to learn about curls, I had no idea how easy their hair was!

Our routine for their biracial short hair is: wash weekly, but I mostly still just co-wash (conditioner wash, no shampoo) even for them. They sleep on satin pillowcases, but no sleep cap or durag. In the mornings while they brush their teeth I dampen their hair with my spray bottle with water and 2 tsp conditioner mix and add some type of curl activator or light hair lotion. Most ethnic products are too heavy and weigh their curls down or make them appear greasy. Then I comb through to separate the curls. If their hair is less than 4 inches I don't even need the Tangle Teezer, but sometimes they prefer it over a plastic comb.

For the girls...I have been blessed enough with some great friends that have shown me some wonderful blogs (right side column)! What I had learned about the boys hair (don't wash daily and certainly don't use shampoo daily) helped me a ton with the girls. And since Sadie's hair was so short and hardly grew for the first 2 years, it's been a slow go. We've found some great sleep caps both online and at Walmart. And I added satin scarfs to their carseats. I think all of these things have helped. Last winter I started twisting their hair for the first time...this was then!I am still twisting now...but it's neat to see how much their hair has grown and filled in. This is our set up for now. See my hair bag or as Blake called it my "traveling salon"? I found it at Walmart and it works great because of all of the pockets. It has rubber bands, beads, products, combs, brushes, scissors, barretts, bows, and our spray bottle. I LOVE my bag!!! The girls usually watch cartoons or a movie and Sadie painted and did crafts last time. We have snacks and drinks close. Before style time I have already washed, detangled and sectioned their hair in the tub the night before. The guys are usually at school when we do hair. This pic above is the first time I tried stretching on Emery. This is where you band the hair when it's damp and let it dry with the bands on so that their is not as much shrinking. It works pretty well! Look close at this pic and you can see how long her hair actually is when its stretched out!

I have had Sadie's hair braided a couple of times. Meaning I took her or had someone else braid it. I like this for a couple of reasons. 1.) Their braids stay in for WEEKS (3+), mine stay in for a week tops. The less you manipulate their hair, the less breakage and more growth you have. 2.) I learn new stuff by watching and going and asking questions. 3.) It's a great opportunity to form new relationships with people. Healthy, intimate relationships with other African Americans. But we can't do it all the time, or I don't want to. I think it's great bonding for me and the girls when I do their hair. I want them to know how much I love taking care of them and their hair. And it costs money to take them, so we can't do it all of the time.

This place I took her costs $55 for a whole head of cornrows. Luckily they didn't want to do her whole head because the hair in her "kitchen" is still very short and tender. Am I the only one that had to look up "kitchen"? Ha!! See how much you can learn!?!?For the girls, you really have to keep some type of moisture on it constantly. We love coconut oil at night or on braids...well pretty much anytime! It's amazing how soft their hair can be. And we found a new product at Target that I am in love with!!! It's great for a teeny weeny afro or for puffs. It's called Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie and YUMMO does it smell good. I didn't think it was too costly ($10 for 12 oz) and it's a Fair Trade product!

Do You Love Jesus?

This is my absolute favorite time of year. I get teary hearing certain Christmas songs about the birth of our Savior...how He became human for us.

This song is my new all time favorite because it keeps reminding me of such truth of the season...



And something I hardly ever do is steer you to another site. But there is something that has been stirring in my heart for years. My first youth pastor and his wife have have had the same stirring. Jen has written about it and I pray you will take a minute to read what she says about Christmas. She writes so much better than I ever could. She is so bold and honest. If you love Jesus, please please read what she writes.

My prayer is that our children always know that Jesus is what Christmas is about, not Santa, not gifts.

I Hope I Never Forget...

I hope I never forget how much I sweat during this photo session! What was I thinking? Taking pictures after school is not a good idea...even with backup. But these do make me laugh!

There are so many things that happen in a day that make me giggle. Funny things that the kids say or that happen to us...I want to take a minute to jot down a few so that I will never forget this stage in our life.

Sadie loves her brothers and wants to be just like them. As sweet as that is, it can lead to some really funny or awkward moments. Like her playing until she had a pee pee emergency, so she just dropped trou and squatted IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PARK!!! Wha? No baby baby. Girls don't tee tee outside.

On the days when it's hot, the guys start stripping off their shirts. Sister follows and is so sad to hear that she has to cover up her "pumps". She calls her bumps "pumps". I wear my insulin pump in my bra. Whoops. Guess we need to have a "parts" talk.

She is also convinced she has a penis. Her belly button was an outie forever. For the longest time she would pretend to potty with the boys. She'd stand facing the potty, tuck her shirt under her chin and yank on her belly button just waiting for something to come out. Bless.her.heart! Luckily her belly button has gone in, and she just thinks it's funny to say the word.

Right now we are working on being ladylike and keeping your privates to yourself. Lately she keeps whispering, "Mom. They can't see my pirates!" Its just too cute and I can't correct her.

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I was lucky enough to join Owen for lunch at school last week and it was a blast. All the kids were SO excited about the "holidays" and the conversation started:

Joshua: "If you celebrate Hanukkah you get more presents than if you celebrate Christmas."

I giggle and he continues, "That's what my dad says." (bwahahaha)

They boys got to talking about who celebrated what, some both, some Hanukkah and most Christmas. So I asked, "Do you know why some people celebrate one and some the other?"

The boy next to me pipes up, "Yes! If you believe in Santa you celebrate Christmas!"

Oh man. Are we off or what?!?! I looked bug-eyed at Owen hoping he might think that was odd since we really don't do Santa. Nope. He just chimed in, "I believe in Santa!" Dang.

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Blake went in to practice the other day and a player told him he looked hung over. If you know Blake you'll know why that's so funny. Blake replied, "Listen man. I have 4 kids. It's always a party at my house."

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Sadie speak:

Her favorite bedtime delay, "Will you skwaatch my back?" Even after you HAVE skwaatched and skwaatched!

scabetti= spaghetti

wogurt=oatmeal or yogurt

my baby= Emery Faith

pena putta= peanut butter

When she gets in trouble, "Mama, eww bein wude to me!" ____________________________________

Sadie was jumping on our bed and we asked her to stop. She continued. Blake said something about her being sassypants. She stopped bouncing and said, "Daddy. I not fassypants. Ina hurt eww."

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I picked up Coop from school one day and he told me that his teacher didn't know the words to Jesus Loves the Little Children. I immediately knew what he was going to say. He explained she left out the color brown in her version of the song. It's so hard for kids to understand that song and what red and yellow mean and why brown is not included. So I just told him he needed to teach her how we sing it:

Jesus loves the little children,

All the children of the world,

Red and yellow, black, brown, white

They are precious in his sight.

Jesus loves the little children of the world!

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Blake and I have held off and not put the kids in organized sports as of yet. We got so excited because we found a church basketball league that is starting soon. Blake's schedule should be slowing down. The weather is getting cold and we need an outlet for our wiggles. Perfect timing for both boys. We excitedly tell them and ask if they want to do it. Cooper said no, and got mad as I questioned why. His response? I will sweat. I will get thirsty. I just like to shoot and don't like "real" basketball. Are you serious? Kid, you have awesome talent!! Crack.me.up! Owen quickly followed. They both were out and the more we tried to persuade them, we realized who their parents were. Holy bananas they are stubborn and so are we! ;o) We asked them to sleep on it and let us know this morning. Shocker, they are not at all on board. But they did both say, "We want to play football!"

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I pride myself in dying my own hair. It goes just fine about 90% of the time. But there might be a few times I've had to wear slightly purple or grey hair around. Yikes. Well this last go round I got caught up in a murder investigation show and before I knew it I was platinum blonde. Oops. The following night I was bathing the kids and Cooper said, "Mom. Your hair is kinda black. I mean. Up there it looks burnt. " Oh lands. He was talking about my roots people. _________________________________________

Funny things in Atlanta:

They use needles from pine trees as mulch. It's everywhere in the streets like tumbleweed.

There are endless numbers of Lowe's bags filled with leaves sitting on everyone's curb. Not sure what this is except perhaps a biodegradable bag?

Things are "spensive" around here! Do you know I have to pay to park to go see the doctor? And it's $4 for the first 30-1.5hrs! I looked like a fool when I gasped at the toll guy telling me I owed $5 for going to the doctor. No bueno people. And I could hardly squeeze out of my car after I parked. For reals. To see Christmas lights, in your car no less, it's $40 on a weekday and $60 on the weekend.

The malls here are SWANKY. I had avoided them for multiple reasons, but had to get some StarWars cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma. So with 3 babes in tow, we headed to the one that was not as ritzy. The second we walked in, my eyes hit the floor. I couldn't make eye contact with anyone. I was wearing my normal SAHM clothing= jeans, tennies and a Tshirt. Mkay. Everyone else was in business/church attire. And then there is me, with 3 kids...and my 3 kids happen to be brown. And gorgeous. And we kinda already stick out. I pitted out my shirt in 5 seconds flat.

I have a new addiction to the Goodwill. There. I said it. We love shopping there. The girls get to play with the toys while I look for odds and ends I left behind in storage. We've found rain boots for the kids, books, toys, furniture. And you know it's bad when the workers know us now :/

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Okay. That's enough for now. I will try and keep better track of the sweet things my kiddos say so that I can tell them one day. Hope they made you giggle!

Thankful Thursday!!!

Hope these make you smile! We have a LOT to be thankful for right now!!!

My bestest friend in the whole wide world!

And my forever babycakes. Please don't tell me she's not a baby anymore. I know. But she will always be my baby!