What's Worked For Us: Becoming Twelve (With Recipe)

A few weeks ago I posted about Hope turning twelve.

Last night, with her dad's help, she became...well...more twelve.

Let me explain. It's one thing to turn a numerical age. It's another to reach the real capability of an age as you're growing up.

In our family, we begin training them in the kitchen from the time their tall enough to see over the counter. We try to teach them enough to be able to help with the preparation of meals. However, around the time our kiddos turn twelve, our goal changes. Our desire is that with additional training from us, they will make the transition from being kitchen help to having enough culinary skill to be able to prepare dinner for the family without assistance.

We view our children's ability to cook as one of the most important life skills they'll need for the rest of their lives. After all, we all have to eat three times a day, right? We believe this for both our sons and daughters. Only the Lord knows when He may bring them together with a future spouse, so both boys and girls need to be able to cook for themselves. 

We rotate cooking nights among the children, and last night it was Hope's turn to lead. Normally, she's still paired with an older sibling. Yesterday, however, her partner was out of town.

So her dad, who was already a great cook when we married, spent the hour prior to dinner doing some of the crucial training that will allow Hope to become a great cook herself. As he invested in her, Hope learned how to make Sour Cream Enchiladas, one of our family's favorite entrees.

I wish I had taken a photo of the beautiful dish Hope created with some coaching from her daddy. His intentionality in making sure she learns her way around the kitchen blessed all of us. We had the yummiest enchiladas we've had in a very long time. In addition, Hope sat a bit taller at the table last night. Her confidence had been given a solid boost. Even she could sense that she's now more twelve...not just numerically that age but now just that much more capable of contributing to the family's needs in the kitchen.

Here's the recipe in case you'd like to try these yummy creations for yourself.

Jane and Jean's Sour Cream Enchiladas

4 cups cooked chicken, diced
1 can chopped green chiles, drained
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 bunch of finely sliced green onions
16 oz sour cream

12 standard size flour tortillas
1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese.

Mix and heat the first five ingredients in a large pan on the stove to make the enchilada sauce. Set aside half the mixture after completing this step.

Spray a 9x13" pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Spoon about 2 heaping tablespoons of the heated mixture into a flour tortilla. Roll it up tightly and place it in the 9x13" pan. Repeat this step until you have filled 12 tortillas.

Now pour the remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Use a spoon to spread the mixture evenly, making sure to coat all the tortillas to prevent burning. Spread the shredded cheddar cheese evenly over the top of the enchiladas and sauce. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese if fully melted.

Let the enchiladas set for about 15 minutes before attempting to serve. We like to cut the enchiladas into 3x3" squares to serve. Enjoy!

Miss Vibrant Turns Twelve!

(Starting with this post, we will be using all of our family's real names, rather than blog nicknames. We are the Reynolds family, not the Beaver family. The nicknames for my husband and me, "Mr. and Mrs. Beaver" came from the characters in the movie "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.")

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For our family, late April holds three milestones: Hope's birthday, followed by the 'famiversary" of Hope and her biological sisters, Christina and Faith on the same day as Eliana's birthday. This year Hope's birthday also coincided with Easter. So many grand reasons to thank the Lord for His overwhelming goodness to our family!

Late Sunday afternoon, we sat the birthday girl in the closest thing to a throne in our great room for gift opening.

When we open gifts, we always go from youngest to oldest. Even at her young age, Eliana has truly embraced the biblical sentiment that it is better to give than to receive. She is a thoughtful gift giver, picking out just the right present for the recipient. She then takes great joy in presenting the gift.

Hope received a wide array of gifts from her family, some toys and some which were more "gown up" and fitting for a girl on the cusp of her teens.

After donning the jewelry she received, she immediately dove into relishing a new set of Legos. She had help from two of her siblings. Nathaniel and Eliana who are on the opposite ends of that long-and-somewhat-strange season ~ now called the tweens by marketers ~ in which you are maturing toward adulthood while there is still much about you that is resonates with that which is of childhood.

While they collaborated on building the Lego set, some serious grilling was going on. John was the appointed grill master for Hope's birthday dinner.

I'm not sure what seasoning secret the chef was sharing here, but he had a captivated audience in his sisters, Sarah (left) and Kirsten (right). We thank God for the close friendships our adult children share!

The girls went back inside, and the men turned to technology.  

We finished off the celebration of Hope's twelfth with a beautiful cake make by Faith. 

In the build-up to Hope's birthday, we informed her that we had a plan to make a "surprise" cake. The reason for the secrecy was that a couple of months earlier, we stumbled across a recipe that we knew would fit Hope's personality perfectly. Until the first slice, the birthday girl didn't know that the white icing hid layers of vibrant color.

For our family the cake was virtually symbolic of how Hope Alina entered our family nine years ago. When Mr. R. and I went on our "first trip" as part of the adoption procedure, we were permitted to spend 45 minutes with the toddler we were considering adopting (Hope's sisters, Christiana and Faith were in another orphanage for older children.) Our first encounter with the diminutive orphan was in the office of her orphanage's director. Hope was like the cake baked for her this year. Her true colors were completely hidden.

The 2-1/2 year old sat in our laps in a silent orphanage in a small industrial city in far western Russia and didn't make move or utter a sound. Despite how passive and silent Hope was, the two of us were smitten in three-quarters of an hour. Right there on the spot we signed a legal document committing to return and make her our child. However, even as we made the promise, we didn't have the slightest inkling what she would add to our family. This little orphan was still all "white frosting," so to speak. Little did we know that hidden behind her then frozen exterior was a vivacious child brimming with curiosity and individuality. With love and a sense of security, boy, did she  blossom! We soon discovered that when the Lord added Hope Alina to our family, He added a veritable rainbow! This month, as we celebrate both her birthday and her famiversary, we again thank God for His good gift of Hope!

Russian Adoption: A Birthday She'll Never Forget

Yesterday Amy turned eleven.

We're certain she always remember this particular birthday because she spent the day in California. Her dad and brother had a week-long business trip so we decided at the last minute to  make it a family trip.

First thing in the morning, we gathered and walked to a renowned breakfast restaurant in the area.

Even thought we got there before the crowd did, our wait was still fairly long. You get used to this when you travel as an extra-large group.

Super-hungry Oksana kept checking to see if the restaurant was ready for us.

The rest of us us fellowshipped.

I was even able to sneak in a photo of our first Russian trio whom God placed in our family through adoption almost 12 years ago: Mark (17), Jaynie (almost 20) and Sarah (18).

The breakfast was outstanding--worth every minute of the wait. However, on the walk back from the restaurant, we indulged in sweatshirts for our youngest little girlies. Their goose bumps were enough to evoke our sympathy.

As a photographer, I quickly discovered the two girls looked mighty fine together in these colors. This worked out great since the duo are best friends.

Here Amy wrastled with a pink-flowered water snake...and eventually won!

Next we were off to beach...about a block away.

The birthday girl and her best buddy tentatively made their way to the water's edge. While the others had forged on ahead of them to begin wave hopping.

Later, older sisters, Jaynie (left) and Daria (right) help the birthday girl work up the courage to do a bit of wave hopping.

Mostly, though, Amy was content to play in the sand. These are her legs after some of that sand play. We weren't sure we'd ever get her clean!

After the hours of beach play, the kids were quite hungry. When we reached the restaurant, we told the birthday girl she could order anything she wanted (first time off the kids' menu!). She immediately set her heart on the "Danger Burger", a hamburger large enough to scare anyone but Amy.

We finished the day by a stroll down the Santa Monica Pier--a happening place at night. Our birthday girl was tired and happy after her first-ever birthday in such an exotic locale.

Shakespeare Lied

Mrs. Beaver:

In one of his plays William Shakespeare crafted the line we've all heard many times, "Parting is such sweet sorrow." What sounds great in poetry just isn't true to life in this case. Parting is just plain hard. This morning Amy was grieveing the impending departure of her sister, Lissie, to the other side of the world. Lissie held her but, of course, couldn't sweep away the reason for our 10-year-old's pain.

Another???

Mrs. Beaver:

Amy on her 10th birthday in April

A few weeks before Amy's recent birthday, her dad asked what she was hoping for as a gift. Without hesitation, she replied, "A doll." He questioned her choice, "Another doll? You have so many." She looked up at him with an expectant smile and said earnestly, "Yes, but with one more I can play 'Orphanage.'"

Yet Another April Reason to Celebrate

Mrs. Beaver:

Saturday was an important day for two reasons. First, it was Oksana's birthday. (See most recent post). Second, that day was also the 7th anniversary of the adoption of biological sisters, Tatiana, Natasha and Amy. As I've commented here before, anniversaries are very special to adoptive families. They give us the chance to look back and appreciate all God's done for us.

What an unspeakably precious gift our Heavenly Father has given us in these three girl! Children truly are a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127)!

These three girls add the color to our world. Here are some favorite photos of them:

Natasha (left) (5), Amy (3) and Tatiana (7) dressed to go to church for the first time, four days after arriving from Russia - 2005

The girls on their first trip to one of our favorite vacation spots, the North Shore of Lake Superior.
They'd been part of the family for about four months - 2005

Near their first anniversary, the trio were making "cakes" for the celebration - 2006

A happy swimmer - 2006

Baking buddies sharing the same stool while "helping" an older sister bake - 2007

Our family was blessed with the opportunity to return to England where the first five of us had lived for a couple of years -- 2008

Feeding swans on England's Thames River - 2008

Tatiana at "Odds Farm Park" in rural England - 2008

Yet another bug hunt - 2008

A tired 8-year-old after a long walk through the Cincinnati Zoo - 2010

On vacation in Cincinnati in 2010

Tatiana's first roommate was Lissie. The two share a special bond.

Amy has been Oksana's closest friend since we adopted Oksana in late 2010. Amy has truly been a life saver.
Despite Oksana's speech delay, Amy has learned Oksana's language -- a mixture of Russian and English.
The two of them play together beautifully (well, okay... most of the time).

Oksana's best pal!

Cuddling a pup we "met" at a rest stop - 2011

If you're aware that we've just started the process of adopting a sibling group of four, you may wonder WHY we would be willing to increase our tribe from 12 to 16 children. A portion of the answer is captured in the pictures above. When we look back of over the past seven years we see many truths about God. Our God is a living God. Our God is good. Our God answers prayers. He has proven Himself perfectly faithful through the adoption of and our raising of "The Three Little Girls."

We know we can depend upon that faithfulness in the adopting and parenting of yet another four kiddos. In fact, we eagerly look forward to seeing the Lord move mountains on behalf of the four orphans awaiting a family in an orphanage in Russia.

Amy's 10th

Mrs. Beaver:

On Saturday, Amy hit double digits. Of the nine children we've adopted from Russia, she was the youngest as she became a family member. When we met her on the required "first trip," Amy was only 2-1/2. Here she is in December 2004:

That day we were allowed to spend 45 minutes with her and then asked whether we were ready to sign a document committing to her adoption. As we'd sat on the sofa in the orphanage director's office, Amy had been as passive as we'd ever seen a toddler. She barely moved, didn't smile and never made a sound. Despite her listlessness, when our short stint with Amy came to a close we were already in love with her button-nose (and the rest of her!) and didn't hesitate to sign the document declaring we were willing to be her parents. 

Four months later we were allowed to return. Amy had turned three just days before we picked her up at the baby  and toddler orphanage. This time Amy was anything but silent. As she was taken from the familiarity of her care-taker's arms and placed in the arms of two people who were strangers, she began a truly pathetic whimpering, moaning sob that would continue for about two hours through the experience of traveling with us to the orphanage in which her sisters, Tatiana (7) and Natasha (5) resided to pick them up.

Before we'd even left Russia, we discovered that Amy was not at all what we'd expected after our first visit with her. Instead, she was a happy, spunky, exuberant child who quickly captured the hearts of all in her new family.

Amy's love of life made her happy to try out new experiences, like running the small pebbles on Lake Superior's shore through her fingers.

Amy was sickly when she first joined the family, and her weight dropped from 21 pounds to 19. At 3-1/2 years old she was wearing 12 month clothing! A couple of minor surgeries early on following her adoption made Amy more resilient to infection.

In one of the operations, Amy had to have all but eight teeth removed. Our pediatric dentist pieced together that her teeth had rotted as a result of being left with a bottle in her crib during long hours of neglect by her birth mother. We felt grateful to the Lord to be able to provide the health care and nutrition she desperately needed!

As she grew stronger and healthier, Amy's zest for life made her creative...

...and many times her creativity has left her family laughing!

We're certain Amy will always remember her 10th birthday. That very morning Mr. Beaver and I gathered our children in our great room and shared our decision to add a sibling group of four to our gang. True to character, Amy burst into ecstatic tears of joy and flew across the room into the arms of her daddy, tightly hugging his neck. In her special way, she enthusiastically signaled her approval of our decision.

We were in such a celebratory mood, having both an a birthday and an adoption for which to rejoice, that we did something we've never done before for one of our children's birthdays. We went to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza and games.

Many of Amy's siblings gave her the tickets they'd earned. Mark was the first to demonstrate selflessness to his sister.

Amy asked Natasha to help her decide how to "spend" her new-found wealth.

Amy's choose as her largest prize a bag of very pink cotton candy. Lissie read us the list of ingredients. It went something like this: air, sugar, red food coloring, sugar, sugar sugar...

Amy's antics continue. She brought our Chuck E. Cheese experience to an end by giving her family a reason to laugh--yet again--as she exited in giant purple-slat eyeglasses. Amy remains wonderfully unaware of self, willing to just enjoy life as it comes to her. Amy loves others with an open-hearted abandon that has blessed many, starting with her family.

We thank God for packing so much joy into such a small package. We thank God for giving us the grace to say, "Yes!" to a toddler who seemed so lifeless. We thank God for the gift of Amy!