Hi friends!
It has been quite some time since I have posted, but I would like to share a brief update with all of you. If you read my last post (finished up by Alisha!) you know that my husband and I were recently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa. We were there for about 2 1/2 weeks to finish up paperwork and bring home our 4th daughter.
We have been home now for 3 weeks.
There have been squeals of joy and excitement along with tears of frustration and exhaustion.
When we arrived home some dear friends of ours had gone to the store and bought a few essentials for our fridge and pantry (Starbucks and chips/salsa were at the top of that list!). This was a huge blessing and allowed us to just rest once we got home instead of running to the store! The next day my mom helped us out by grabbing a few more things from the store that we were craving and needed for the kids. When you are in Africa for over two weeks and have a super limited amount of food items you can eat, you come home craving everything!
We were stocked for breakfasts, lunches and snacks- but friends from church blessed us even more with dinners for the first week. Then friends in our homeschool co-op took over and brought meals to us the second week we were home. We had amazing breakfast casserole, vegetable lasagna, tacos, Easter dinner (I was sad that we missed Easter dinner and a friend made one for us!), yummy roast, pork and other delish dishes!
Having meals brought to our home was such a gift. Coming home from the Congo we were jet lagged, I was still recovering from being sick while in Africa and we were trying to help our newest daughter with all the adjustments she was going through (along with our 3 who were already home!).
This Meal Planning Mommy was NOT meal planning or even cooking. Period. It was a season which I am just now slowly emerging from. Tonight gluten free spaghetti noodles with Prego Spaghetti Sauce and a salad was on the menu. That was about all I could handle and it tasted amazing
As our life slowly begins to find it’s new normal, I will be meal planning and cooking more and more. For now, I will be using my own gluten free resources here on Meal Planning Mommies to meal plan!
I plan to take about 4 weeks more off from Meal Planning Mommies in order to focus on my family and continue to help our newest Anderson adjust. Soon I will be looking for new gluten free recipes to add to future meal plans. If you feel like you have a great gluten free recipe you want to see shared on Meal Planning Mommies, please leave email or leave a comment. I would love to have some highly recommended recipes on my radar to try out over the next month.
If you are looking for gluten free resources while I am taking a blogging break, don’t forget to check out my already created gluten free meal plans and grocery lists. There are lots to choose from that already exist here on MPM.
Blessings!
Michelle says
Your newest Anderson is absolutely precious! I found this website while searching for weight watcher recipes. But I’ve loved hearing of your faith, and your adoption story. I’m a mom to 7, three of whom are adopted from foster care. I can relate to you a lot! On my honeymoon, we stopped at an adoption agency to get information. Many, many….many years later, we finally adopted our youngest 3. I spent all of those years praying for the children that God already had in store for us to one day become “mommy and daddy” to.
Congratulations!
P.S. I’d love to know more about how it’s going. How’s your little one adjusting? How’s the big sister’s adjusting? Have you gotten used to the stares yet (took us awhile but we did)?
Sarah Anne says
Hi Michelle! Thank you for your kind words and encouragement. Phoebe (our newest little one) is adjusting pretty well. She loves to eat eggs (all the time!) and wants to dress in 2 or 3 fancy dresses every day. The older girls are doing an amazing job learning French in order to communicate better with her. They have been patient and all 3 of my older girls have been her little mommy at one time or another. Our whole family dynamic has changed and even though it is incredibly hard some days, we feel blessed to call her ours!
julie k says
<3 beautiful <3