Our first Kwanzaa!

This has been fun and interesting for some of our family! I have been estatic to do this holiday! For those of you who haven't heard of Kwanzaa it's an African American Holiday celebrated Dec 26-Jan 1st. Even thought it's right after Christmas it has nothing to do with Christmas at all! It's truly an Awesome Holiday with really good message to celebrate. The first night we set up our Kinora set our daughter Halli looked freighted. The Kinora set looks similar to a Hanakuaa set, so she thought we were celebrating a new religion and she wasn't so sure about it. I explained that Kwanzaa is not a new religion it a holiday and we can celebrate it in a way that fits our family just like most families do with Christmas.

Unfortunatly a couple of days after we starting celebrating KWANZAA I came down with one the worst stomach flues that last almost a week. Our kids kept begging for me to get out of bed so we could celebrate. Sadly I wasn't able to. But it was so exciting to see how much they LOVED Kwanzaa and I know they will look forward to it again next year.
The Symbols of Kwanzaa How to set up your Kinora set and it prime focus!

Kwanzaa has seven basic symbols and two supplemental ones. Each represents values and concepts reflective of African culture and contributive to community building and reinforcement. The basic symbols in Swahili and then in English are:

Mazao (The Crops)
These are symbolic of African harvest celebrations and of the rewards of productive and collective labor.

Mkeka (The Mat)
This is symbolic of our tradition and history and therefore, the foundation on which we build.

Kinara (The Candle Holder)
This is symbolic of our roots, our parent people -- continental Africans.

Muhindi (The Corn)
This is symbolic of our children and our future which they embody.

Mishumaa Saba (The Seven Candles)
These are symbolic of the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles, the matrix and minimum set of values which African people are urged to live by in order to rescue and reconstruct their lives in their own image and according to their own needs.

Kikombe cha Umoja (The Unity Cup)
This is symbolic of the foundational principle and practice of unity which makes all else possible.

Zawadi (The Gifts)
These are symbolic of the labor and love of parents and the commitments made and kept by the children.

The two supplemental symbols are:

Bendera (The Flag)
The colors of the Kwanzaa flag are the colors of the Organization Us, black, red and green; black for the people, red for their struggle, and green for the future and hope that comes from their struggle. It is based on the colors given by the Hon. Marcus Garvey as national colors for African people throughout the world.

Nguzo Saba Poster (Poster of The Seven Principles)


Each night their are 7 principles to go along with the 7 symbols. We started the first night with the principle of Unity and then continue each night with each principle each night.

Umoja (Unity)
To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Imani (Faith)
To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

A wonderful Christmas!

This year was remarkable! As I have mentioned win previous posts we've had so many blessing this Christmas Season. We started our Christmas Eve off with an evening at Grandma and Grandpa Mettler's house. We enjoyed a nice dinner with grandparents and Casey's sister Jill and her two boys, Nathan and Peyton. The kids played while us adults hung out. Then the kids opened their traditional one Christmas present from G-ma and each received some beautiful new jammies. Right before we were to leave our kids were surprised with a secret Santa gift(from their aunt and cousins-who tried so hard not to give themselves away)!!! We love ya Jill, Nathan and Peyton. This was a huge gift for our kids, when they opened it up they found a Wii inside. They have been wanting for one since it came out but haven't really asked because of the cost. We know Aunt Jill doesn't really have the extra means either for such a huge gift, but when it was left to her by an anonymous donor and she already having one decided to pass on the joy of giving and gifted it to us. THANK YOU so much!!! On our way home we went buy to deliver a little Holiday treat to our friends the Shultizes(their family lived in Albion with us and ended up moving to the Declo area the same weekend we moved to Declo). We took the tour of their home and visited a while. Then they explained that Wade's family has a tradition each year at Christmas. His 8 siblings and families have decided that instead of doing a gift exchange within their family that two sibling each year decided on a family they would like to do Christmas for and then all 9 total siblings put in what they would like to donate! This year they had chosen our family. WOW, we were shocked! We had no idea and to be honest I was floored. Angela had been reading my FB and knew we were working on the adoption and new our past year of still playing catch up from our move. What remarkable friends we have! I held it together in their house as we loaded up our box of presents but when I got in the car to read the card they had left for us and I opened it up to a large amount of money instead. I LOST IT!!!! This was a complete blessing, and an answer to our prayers. We decided to take the money and use it to buy our kids the few things they really NEEDED: church clothes, shoes, winter snow pants and Camry a jacket that will ZIP! Than as if things could get any more AWESOME. We have a huge Christmas stocking sitting on our front porch labeled "from your friends in Albion"! Words truly can't express my complete gratitude for the love and kindness we have been show this Christmas Season!

What was so amazing about this Christmas is that we thought it would be a very simple and somewhat bare as far as present went. With the new moved and still having bills for both places we knew it would be more than tight. We sat all our kids down and explained to them the process of our adoption and how the funds need to be payed out. We explained that if we put a lot into Christmas presents than that would push us back on bringing our kids home. We asked each one of them what they would like us to do, put it towards presents or towards our adoption. Hands down they all said "OUR ADOPTION", that our kids, their brothers and sister's coming home was much more important than Christmas presents. I just love my kids and I feel so blessed to be their mother.
I am always okay with less than more as far as presents go because the true meaning of Christmas is about Christ and his birth and I feel it's so important to keep that the priority and sometimes when the presents are at top of our list we can lose focus. However this Christmas the spirit of Christ was at the FOREFRONT of our Christmas because of the many that GAVE to us as Christ gave of his himself. Their example gave us such prime opportunity in teaching the spirit of CHRISTmas to our kids! I think as a family we all learned a little more humility and gratefulness this Christmas!

Of course Christmas Eve was a late night like most. Our tree was in major need of re-decorating, presents still needed to be wrapped and organized under the tree. My one priority that we will continue to make a tradition every year, we took a small basket filled it full of hay, found a baby(perfect for baby Jesus) swaddled it in a blanket, laid it inside the basket, took our lighted star off our Christmas tree and hung it over the basket. We typed up on a sheet of paper and laid it at the bottom of the basket "Unto us this day a Saviour is born". We put it at the base of our Christmas tree in front of all the presents. Our kids loved it, they asked us if we could do it again next year. Before unwrapping any Christmas presents I read aloud a few hymns centered on Christ birth and then we sang Away in a manager and Joy to the world! Then we read the Saviour's birth from Luke! It was an amazing experience to put this before anything else. Making our Saviour the priority first set the tone for the rest of day! We finished opening all our gift and then went over to our Grandparents to finish celebrating with them and Jill and her boys! We ate a good dinner, challenged each other to the Wii and just enjoyed our time together! All in all it was a fantastic day. We were truly blessed.

I AM EMOTIONALLY SPEECHLESS!

WE just had the most "AWESOME'EST" thing done! We heard a small knock at the door. I thought the kids were playing and paid no attention to it. Casey was in his office and got up to check it out. When he opened the door no one was there, but he noticed someone had left a quart size jar on our porch, Casey picked it up and then looked around to see who left it, he noticed someone in a hoodie walking away. Casey said THANK YOU, and the person kept walking! SO Cas came inside and immediately I heard my name called. He was yelling throughout the house, HON look what someone just left us! It was a jar filled with MONEY that had a note attached that read CHRISTMAS JAR! Oh wow, what a blubbering baby I am right now. I have such a grateful heart, that someone, or some family thought to save their money up until right before Christmas and then to deliver it to us! I am speechless and overcome with emotion. It's so powerful to see that so many people do live and celebrate the true meaning of CHRISTMAS, being a true example of our Saviour, giving and sacrificing all for the sake of someone else benefit! Wow, my heart is FULL!

I have longed to write this past week. I really have been so overwhelmed with the kindness and thoughtfulness that so many have shared with us as we are fundraising for our adoption. I have neglected to write because I don't want to make anyone feel that their kindness was less than as important as someone else's, if that makes sense. To know that someone, so many have been willing to sacrifice at this time right before Christmas to help us raise money towards our adoption is humbling and amazing. When I put it out there that we would be making fudge and salsa for fundraising I was so stressed that we wouldn't recoup our costs or break even. I am so happy to say that we have exceeded BOTH! We've had many orders for fudge and salsa, one amazing order was 32 fudge and 26 salsa. We have had 2 checks show up in the mail with no desire for anything in return, one was from a highschool friend that I haven't seen in 13yrs but just got reaquainted with through facebook and the other was from a person I have never met face to face but have enjoyed getting to know through facebook and blogs, both sent a note that said they wanted to do what they could to help us bring our kids home. Each night I go to bed anxious to offer "THANKS" to my Father in Heaven for the amazing friends he has blessed us with and for their willingness to support us and love us! I wish I weren't so speechless as to how it feels to be the recipient of such " INCREDIBLE BLESSINGS!" My prayer is gonna be a long one tonight :)

TO EVERYONE: IF YOU HAVE CALLED ME, EMAILED ME, FB ME, ORDERED FROM ME, OR SENT ME A CHECK IN THE MAIL. "THANK YOU" FOR THE LOVE AND SUPPORT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME. YOU HAVE EACH TOUCHED ME IN SUCH A MEANINGFUL AND SPECIAL WAY! I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!!!!

Tempt your TASTEBUDS this holiday season!

All proceeds will go directly towards our adoption fundraiser. If you would like to know more visit www.hermansenfamilyroots.blogspot.com. Thanks!

WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!

Tonight was WONDERFUL!!!! We went and watched "BLIND SIDE". What a phenomenal movie! First off I loved who Sandra Bullock was in this show (a loving mother). Why because almost everything she said or did, I would laugh over, knowing I would do the same thing. Second, there were SO MANY meaningful messages. Having a transracial family, it went through so many of the situations we do face or will face down the road and it accomplished it in such a wonderful way. THIRD, it gave me and Elijah a wonderful opportunity to BOND! I think for the first time Elijah was able to see how LOVED the lead actor was by his WHITE mom and family, how she and they accepted him for who he was and that in the end LOVE is what makes a family!!! This is the message I try to convey to my kids constantly and it was really impactful to see it from another perspective and to top it off to know it's a TRUE STORY!!!!

These past few months have been growing months for Elijah in a lot of ways. Much I won't be able to explain thoroughly for the sake of privacy and respect. But I also want to give other families that adopt transracially an opportunity to learn through our opportunities. I have noticed over the past year Elijah becoming very reserved with me especially and with his family out in public. Over the course of time it became more and more. However at home there was no difference in how he interacted with all of us. I also noticed at this same time how much he would pay attention to families and their racial color when we were in town. I had an idea of what he was going through and just kept it on the top of my mind, knowing that he would have to come to terms with his own thoughts and feelings when he is ready. I always encouraged open discussion and would sometimes ask questions to see if this was the time Lij would be ready to share. Well if there is one thing you know about our family, it's that our kids are VERY CLOSE knit. ELIJAH absolutely adores his little brother and sister. Every day after school as soon as he run into the house, he gets a bite to eat and immediately plays with Zyan and Livy. He really loves it as much as they do. On Halloween I went to the school parade and then to visit my kiddos in their classrooms. Me and Livy and Zyan were just leaving Camry's class when we ran into Lij in the hallway with his classmates playing a game. Livy did her usual, she ran up to Lij, all excited calling his name, and wrapping her arms around him to give him a huge squeeze. Lij froze with a look of panic and shock on his face. I was then shocked and proceed to give the encouraging look, LIKE YOU BETTER LOVE YOUR LIL SIS RIGHT BACK! He graciously gave her a slight hand stroke across her back and we went on our way. That whole afternoon I was plagued with so many thoughts and concerns of why Lij would treat his sister that way. I know most of you might be thinking, he's a boy and he's probably just embarrassed to be hugged by his sister and believe me that's what I had been telling myself the entire time too. But a mother's gut instinct always knows best. Plus that look that he gave of shock and panic wasn't only about his sister, I knew it had to do with me as well. Of course I got home and started to go through the whole thing again in my head, throwing out there all the excuses that he could possibly have. I prayed and then I knew I just needed to wait and talk to him about it. For the sake of time and writing. It came out that night that he was embarrassed by his white family. He wasn't sure what everyone at school would think, if they were to see that his family was all white. This didn't shock me. I must admit it did hurt a little. I am a VERY sensitive person, I keep telling myself that this wasn't about me and I knew it wasn't but I had a sense of fear that he might not accept me for who I was, his white mom. But I got past it knowing that it was about Elijah. I also knew it was fair. I have always been able to tell Elijah how much I love him, that he was chosen. That I love him for who he is. WE DID CHOOSE ELIJAH, but only in HEAVEN did he choose us, knowledge he didn't bring to earth. I GET THAT!!! I also get that no of us choose our parents, so you can ask why would it matter. Well most of us have parents that resemble us in appearance, speech, we know we grew in their tummy, we have pictures of our beginning. For Elijah this is all very different from how most of us started our journey here and how we live it daily. I know what caused all of Elijah's questions of his differences was our move from Arizona to Idaho. In Arizona he was Elijah, and everyone knew him and loved him for who he was. That's all they knew since they had grown up with him from a young age and that's all he knew. In Idaho he become the BROWN KID, the BLACK KID, the DIFFERENT KID. This started having him question himself and his family. We have had NUMEROUS talks which I am so grateful for. He's honest with me and I love that. From those many talks I can say that Lij LOVES who he is. He KNOWS he's handsome. But he hadn't learned to have confidence in who is family is. I have explained to him that "LOVES MAKES A FAMILY". Can LOVE always give him what he's missing or needs, no not all the time, but it is very important when delivering the truth and helping Elijah come to terms with reality. The next few days after Halloween I could tell Elijah was doing a lot of thinking. And in the middle of Walmart he came up to each one of us individually, hugged us and said he was proud to have us as his family and that he was happy to show it. Tonight only reconfirmed that multiplied by 10. We sat arm in arm or hand in hand for the first part of the movie. At one point I had to get up and hold Livy in the walkway. Elijah came up and asked me if I could or would go back and sit with him. As a mother I am so grateful for the producers and directors of this show. I don't know if they will ever completely know the profound impact that this movie will gladly have on many families and people everywhere.