Winter Festivities

Our little tree all dressed up

The month of December is a great time to hear wonderful Christmas music, drink hot apple cider, get Christmas trees... and go to the beach?!

Yep! Robert and I were finally able to take a little vacation this past week as I enjoy my one month break between quarters at school. We spent two nights in the small town of McMinneville where we were able to visit the Evergreen Aviation Museum -home of Howard Hugh's enormous Spruce Goose- and do some wine tasting. The next two nights we spent in the darling coastal town of Cannon Beach. Aside from being a little cool (it averaged about 40 degrees each day), it was beautiful and empty:) We had the whole place to ourselves and were able to take some much-needed long walks along the beach with our doggie.

On Sunday after church we finally got our Christmas tree! We were all set to buy a normal (dead) one, but as we marched around the nursery and saw all of the cute little spruces and firs growing in pots were succumbed to take one home as a pet. We now have a 5-foot White Fir living in our house that we will eventually plant in our yard and that many many years from now will be around 80 - 100 feet tall!

Loading "Fir" into the truck

At the beach - and bundled up!

In front of the Spruce Goose

Holly and her friend Dana after a Christmas concert downtown

Thanksgiving

Gene making a delicious rye stuffing

Penny working on the yummy turkey

Mom and Jimmy

Mike and the boys

Dad and Terri

Cousin Mike

We had a very lovely Thanksgiving this year with all of our parents now living in Central Oregon. Robert drove to Corvallis on Wednesday to pick up his cousin Mike -who is currently a freshman at OSU- so he could spend the holiday with us. On Thanksgiving morning we had breakfast with my Dad, Terri, my step-brother Mike and his boys (Donovan and Garrett). Later that day we drove to Sunriver to have Thanksgiving Dinner at the Benningtons. My mom and Jimmy were able to join us as well, and we all stayed very close to the fireplace as it was a mere 28 degrees outside!

Our First Foster Parenting Class

"Meet Jacob, an adorable little boy who is in search of a home. He is developmentally delayed because of a cyst on his brain but has made significant progress in his current foster home. Jacob is beginning to play with toys and likes things with solid colors. He really likes to play with small animals. He loves to attend school and looks forward to his bus ride every morning. Jacob is now eating table foods and he loves French Fries but hates rice. He is not yet potty-trained but is learning the basics." - A listing on Adoption.com

We attended our first Foster parent class on Saturday. It was an all day class that lasted from 8:30 to 4:30. The majority of the class was a question and answer session. There were about 40 people in the class, most of which were there to become foster parents for a child they were related to. There were only 5 couples (including us) that were there to learn about adoption and what they called "general applicant foster parents" which means we were looking to become foster parents without a specific child in mind. One thing that was very apparent from the class is that the State of Oregon's main objective is to reunite all children with their biological parents. If an offending parent can demonstrate that a child's physical and mental safety is no longer a concern, then the State will do everything it can to return that child to its family. The State sees being with the biological parents as the best possible home for a child as long as those safety concerns do not exist. On one hand I agree with this as I think every child should have the chance of growing up with the parents that conceived them, on the other hand this policy does not take into account the overall quality of home that the child is in. If we decide to become Foster parents, then we have to be ready to return a child to a home that is not ideal or even healthy according to our standards. It is a sad consequence of living in a secular society. Although it is sad and fustrating that the state does not hold the same values as the Word of God, I still think that God can use us to plant seeds in the both the children and parent's of children that come into our lives. One interesting thing we learned in our class is that the State encourages foster parents to meet and communicate regularly with the biological parents. We both saw this as a great opportunity to demonstrate the love of Christ to both the child and the parents. What a great ministry this could be for us. With that said we are still seeking God's plan for us through prayer and appreciate all of you that are praying for our decision. We feel God is definitely leading us in this direction, but want to make sure that our feelings are truely God's will. All our love, - The Benningtons

Foster Parenting - To Do or Not To Do.

We are thinking about becoming foster parents and we need your help. We will be attending an all day class on foster parenting through the County Welfare office here in Bend on November 3rd and we could really use your prayers to help us decide whether this is something we can do. If you have any words of wisdom or encouragement, please e-mail us as we are both feeling led to make this step, but we also have a lot of fears we need to work through first. We have only committed to attending the meeting and we will decide from there whether we want to proceed through the training process or not. This is a big decision and we can not go into it without considering all of the consequences thoroughly. Thank you for your prayers and please don't hesitate to e-mail us your thoughts as we really need a lot of counsel to make this decision. All our love - The Benningtons

GO BEAVERS!!!!!

Christmas Card Photo????

Trying to stay warm (it was raining - of course, its Oregon)

My Dad wanted to get a picture of us all in our Beaver paraphernalia!

Well we made the trek across the mountains last weekend to welcome my cousin Mike to Corvallis, Oregon from Honolulu, Hawaii. Mike is a freshman at Oregon State University (my alma mater). To welcome him to Oregon it seemed only fitting to take him to an Oregon State football game. The Beavers played the UCLA Bruins on a cold, wet day in Corvallis and sadly the Bruins kicked the Beavs butts. As sad as the game was, we still were able to have a wonderful time and it was great to see Mike. Incredibly enough Mike lives in the same dormitory that I spent my freshman year. Much to our amazement we discovered that Mike did not own an umbrella or a rain coat. So Sunday after the game Holly and I spent several hours driving Mike around doing some much needed shopping. A rain coat, hiking boots, umbrella, Gatorade, gloves, and several warm socks later we were done. Hopefully that will keep our young Hawaiian cousin from wishing he picked a dryer, warmer school. Good luck with school Mike and GO BEAVERS!!!!! - Robert