Christmas Movies

The girl's are really into Christmas this year, I think they have watched every Christmas movie on television in the last 2 weeks. Talking a lot about Baby Jesus, Santa, and what they want for Christmas which is pretty much Princess anything. I am so excited to see how they react Christmas morning, Mom get ready Dirk says were baking cookies for Santa at your house Christmas Eve.

The Lindsey's are off to Texas

We would like to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and for safe travels, also we ask that if you are going to drink this holiday if you would please do it responsibly. Too many lives are cut short during this time of the year.
It can happen to you, and it will eventually if you don't make the right decisions before you go out to socialize.

Please Do Not Drive Drunk!

School Christmas Party

The girl's enjoyed their party, I think Faith liked her cupcake the most. Hope got a sticker book and Faith got a play school house, they spent and hour playing with them at the dinner table when we got home. They made a beautiful cross to hang on the Christmas tree.

The Christmas Program

The girl's had a Christmas program at school, and they were angels
( How Fitting). The girls usually cry when we show up to any school functions, because they are afraid we are going to leave them there, so this time we tried to hide behind the people in the audience so the girls didn't ruin the whole program. It worked they did great. You could really hear Faith sing.

One of my friends I went to high school with has just moved to Shanghai China with her Husband and two little girls, you will have to follow her blog as she lives this adventure. I am jealous I would love to have this opportunity. The blog is also under my blog list:
http://landfam.blogspot.com

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Seminole today.
Please give your children a hug and kiss today and tell them you love them.

Christmas Party

We were invited to a Christmas party with a group of local adopted Chinese children. It was a lot of fun. We went on a hay ride, and met a lot of very nice families. We look forward to the next get together. I just have a few pictures to share , because my camera was messing up.

The twins Birthday Party

I can't believe the girl's are already four, they are growing so fast. They are such a blessing to us, and we cherish each day with them. We thank God everyday for sending the perfect girls to us. May all their wishes come true.
The girls had a good birthday, I took cupcakes to their school, so they were able to celebrate the day with their friends. Dirk cooked Chinese food for their birthday dinner. We will have the birthday party Saturday at a pizza place here in town with some of their friends from school and church. I will post pictures of party later.

Happy 4th Birthday

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent our Thanksgiving at the beach. Booked a traditional Thanksgiving meal at the Boatyard, so no cooking, no cleaning, and no leftovers for us. YEA!!!!! We had a great time.

The first pictures are of the girls before their Thanksgiving program at their school. They of course spent most of their time crying, afraid I was going to leave. They don't do well with crouds.

This photo was sent to me from one of our friend's, they seem to like Faith's cookie-eating method

Fantasy In Lights at Callaway Gardens

We went with a group from our church to Callaway Gardens in Georgia yesterday to see the Christmas lights. We all had a wonderful time, it is such a neat place to go. The girl's favorite lights were of Tinker Bell, and with the help of a little girl from church we were able to get pictures of them with Santa without tears. The Butterfly Center was neat, the girl's fed the fish in the little pond and a butterfly landed on Faith's head, which I'm not to sure if she liked that much. The girls also got to decorate their own angel cookie, and did a wonderful job.

Runway Barbie
The girls got to create their own barbie on the computer, and have it come out on the runway at FAO Schwartz. This worked well until Faith saw Hope's Barbie which was dresses like Cinderella. ( Dad helped Hope pick hers out. Shame on mommy, I should have known.) So we had a little fit in the store, until Hope looked at Faith's Barbie and saw it had a purse so Hope was glad to trade with Faith. Thank goodness, Hope is always helping me out.

Some New York pictures of Central Park in black and white.

Here is the website of Robert Maniscalco, the man that did the portrait for us. It is absolutely beautiful.

http://www.maniscalcogallery.com/

Words can not express how thankful we are to have had this experience and to meet these wonderful people. Thank you to all the people at the Today Show, Kathie Lee Gifford, Hoda Kotb, Jayme Baron, Paulo Szot, David Friedman, and Robert Maniscalco.

The song was amazing, how honored we are to have our very own song to share with the girls as they grow older.

WSFA Montgomery Alabama News

Everyone Has Story -----

-------see Tara and Dirk's Story Here-------

Mimi thinks they did great and is very proud :). I'm sure there were folks all over Texas, Alabama, and beyond watching today --- especially those in DeLeon, Seminole, and Dothan who were all very happy to see Tara, Dirk, Hope, and Faith. I can't wait to see the portrait, it looks beautiful, and the song was wonderful!

Update - This is the story from the NBC Today Show website.

By Rina Raphael
TODAY staff
updated 1:20 p.m. CT, Thurs., Nov. 6, 2008

One night in 2004, Tara and Dirk Lindsey decided to go out for a celebratory dinner with their three children, Rachel, 10, Madelyn 6 and baby Yates, 5 weeks old, to commemorate their plans to start a sheep farm in Seminole, Texas. But fate had other plans in store for them: A drunk driver, three times over the legal drinking limit, struck the driver's side of their car, seriously injuring the couple, and killing all three children.

Rushed to the hospital, the couple was in critical condition for a week before comprehending the reality of their situation. “The medical staff did not want us to know [about our children]; they were afraid it would make our condition worse,” Tara, 35, and Dirk, 41 said in an essay sent in for the “Everyone Has a Story” series hosted by TODAY’s Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb.

When Tara finally woke up, surrounded by friends from her small Texan town, she knew something was terribly wrong. She recalls asking about her children’s whereabouts, and the silence spoke for itself. “It was all so crazy — I couldn't believe it was happening to us,” Tara said. “We weren't doing anything wrong.”

Still fighting for their health, Tara and Dirk couldn't even attend the burial. Instead, Tara’s mom planned her grandchildren’s burials, as her daughter mourned in a medical ward. “We were able to attend the funeral by ambulance and then we were brought back to the hospital,” Tara said.

Adding to their grief, the drunk driver held responsible — who recovered in the same hospital — never apologized to the Lindseys or acknowledged her guilt. “I just really want her to know what she's done to our lives,” Tara said. “You can't get them back.”

The driver received three life sentences and will be up for parole in 27 years. The mangled vehicle from their accident in now is a mobile exhibit for MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and travels around Texas sharing the Lindsey's tragic story.

Despite their painful loss, the Lindseys knew they had a great deal of love they still wanted to give. They wanted a future with children, and weren’t afraid to rebuild their family. “We couldn't imagine life without [children],” Tara said, who pursued adoption since she had her tubes tied after the birth of her son.

Exactly two years after the accident, they received a phonecall: their adoption agency had approved their request, and they would soon be parents of twin Chinese girls. “We went from a horrible day to a happy day,” Tara said of the anniversary. “In our hearts, we know what the day is but we try not to acknowledge the day in order for us to get through it.”

“It was our faith and hope in God that we would survive this tragedy,” she said of her ability to move past the accident. “So we named the girls Hope and Faith.”

Today, caring for their beautiful children, the Lindseys understand their new family can never replace their previous one, but they are thankful for a new chance and are trying to provide their girls with a normal, happy childhood. Photos of Rachel, Madelyn and Yates line the walls of their home, but they are careful not to overwhelm Hope and Faith with the family’s past.

“We don't want them to feel like they are in the shadow but we will never forget our birth children,” Tara. “We will always have that pain in our hearts, but you can live after a tragedy.”

When questioned about how many children they have, the couple answers that they have five: three in heaven, two with them on Earth.

After the Lindseys described their ordeal, singer Brazilian singer Paulo Szot of Broadway’s “South Pacific” sang an original song titled “Heaven’s Rope,” written by Kathie Lee Gifford and her collaborator, David Friedman. The lyrics represented the couple's remarkable struggle and perseverance:

No one can stop the pain from the loss
That you feel when you're torn apart
All you can do is hold on to
The ragged end of heaven's rope
Clinging with all the strength that you have
With your last bit of faith
Your last bit of hope
Holding on to heaven's rope

The Lindseys were the fifth winners featured in the “Everyone Has a Story” series, which will continue for three more weeks. Like previous participants, the Lindseys were presented with a tailor-made gift: Artist Rob Manascalco gave them a touching family portrait that included Rachel, Madelyn and Yates alongside Hope and Faith. “It was a labor of love,” Manascalco said of the artwork that took him five weeks to complete.

Holding Faith and Hope on the TODAY set, the Lindseys were thankful of the opportunity to share their story with viewers.

“This is our story of thinking life cannot go on, yet God had another plan for us,” Tara said of her strength to move forward. “We thank God everyday for giving us a chance to be a family again.”

Everyone Has a Story -----

----- and this week's story is Tara's!

A Mimi post.


Everyone Has a Story
by Kathie Lee Gifford and David Friedman

Everyone has a story
Different as night and day
And everyone has their own journey
Some follow their path, some wander away
Everyone has a moment that changes their life and then
Its suddenly clear in that moment that nothing will ever be the same again
Careful the plans we make
Careful the roads we take
Careful the hearts we break along the way
Careful the things embraced
Careful the time we waste
Careful the dreams we taste and toss away
Everyone has a purpose
Different as day and night
And everyone finds their own answers, some blinded by fears some guided by light

Yes everyone has a story
A beginning, a middle, an end
But if there's a god in the heavens above
And if there's such a thing as a thing called love
Then there must be a way for anyone's heart to mend

Careful the chance we take
Careful the choice we make
Careful for heavens sake, the road we take

Everyone has a story

Awhile ago the NBC Today Show announced a contest called "Everyone Has a Story" asking people to "send in their amazing, inspirational stories" and Tara entered. She thought their story was something she wanted to tell and if she won, this would be a way of hopefully reaching people with the message to "Please don't drink and drive" and that when your world seems to be coming apart, with faith and hope you can get through anything. She didn't tell anyone she had entered until the Today Show had contacted her that she was a potential winner. We've waited through four weeks of winners and this was "our" week --- they called Tara this morning to tell her she was the winner this week! Mom, Dad, the the twins are on their way to Birmingham now to catch an early flight tomorrow morning to NYC. They will appear on Thursday's show (11/6) --- the last hour of the Today Show with Hoda and Kathie Lee so be sure and watch!

While Tara and Dirk have visited NYC several times, this will be the twins' first trip. They have their little American Girl Bitty Babies and are hoping Mom and Dad will take them to the American Girl Place. They won't have a lot of time to site see but will have Wednesday to spend and will hopefully get a chance to see some of the sights. Mimi is wishing she was along --- I do so miss NYC and would love to be able to spend this time with them.

Festival

We took the girls to the festival today, and they enjoyed it a lot. Their favorite ride was the race cars. They went around a track but when they got to the curve it would swing them around real fast, and they would LAUGH and smile so big.

My favorite was the fried snickers, I of course had to try the fried Twinkies too, but its not as good. I was hoping the girls would help me eat them, but they didn't care too much for them so I ate them both!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

We took the girls trick-or-treating around the neighborhood, and Hope would say " GO HOME" and Faith would say " NO HOME", so we went to a few houses then went home. I think Hope enjoyed answering the door for the trick-or- treaters. I think they are finally getting the hang of it, now they open their bags real big and stare at them, then turn away. Maybe next year they will say trick-or- treat!