Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies - with a twist

This is a Brown family favorite. And by "Brown family" I'm including Josh's parents and grandparents in the mix. We're serious about sugar cookies. And no, not the fancy type with colorful frosting and shapes (although they could be fancied up, if you were interested). They're pretty basic, and simply irresistible. We make these every time we're together, and collectively gain a good 10 pounds.

What makes these sugar cookies so good?
A) A solid cookie recipe. Basically, you need a sweet, soft, chewy base for the frosting.
B) Cream cheese frosting - as in, the kind you'd use for carrot cake!

Prior to marrying into this family, I'd have never thought of such a combination. But I'm a convert now.

Cookies:
1/2 C butter, softened
1 C sugar
1/2 t vanilla
2 eggs
2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 T milk
extra butter and sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar together, and then add vanilla and eggs. Mix together. Little by little, add the flour, and then toss in baking powder and salt. Add milk and mix some more. Add more flour if necessary for the sake of consistency. We usually don't need any.

Then use your hands to pull a wad of dough out of the bowl. Roll into 3/4 inch balls, and set 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet.

Take a water glass (or something else with a smooth, flat bottom) and grease the bottom of it with butter. Pour some sugar onto a salad plate, and pound the glass on the sugar plate a couple of times. Use this to flatten the balls of dough, and be sure to reload with sugar on a regular basis. Bake for about 10 minutes - just before they start getting brown.

Frosting:
(we like lots of frosting 'round here, so tend to double this recipe)
1/2 C butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese
1 t vanilla
16 oz powdered sugar
some milk for consistency

Beat first three ingredients together. Add sugar bit by bit, and add some milk if necessary.

Once the cookies have been out of the oven for a few minutes, they're ready to frost.

MMM

The last time we made these, Josh took the liberty of adding M&M's to his cookies. It was a successful experiment.

Adoption Questions: Part 1

Why Adoption?
I know - this is the first question on everyone's mind. My answer is three-fold.

1. We wanted to be parents. We've known for years that it might be difficult for us to have biological children, and we're just not all that interested in walking too far down the fertility treatment path right now. It is an emotional, expensive, stressful time (from what I understand, having watched friends go through it) and we felt that we'd rather just put that kind of time, energy, etc. into an adoption process.

2. We have a heart for adoption. We've always talked about growing our family through biological AND adoptive children. Personally, I've felt a tug toward adoption since I was a teenager. I have wonderful family members and friends who've been adopted. I've watched people from church and work go through the process. And I've known for a long time that I wanted to do it. I believe that God has placed this desire within us, and we're simply walking down the path he has placed before us.

3. I'm adopted. So is Josh. Not in exactly the same way, since Josh and I were both raised by our birth parents.

But God, through Jesus, adopted me into His family.

In Galatians, the apostle Paul talks about the difference between slaves and heirs.

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Galatians 4:4-7

Apart from Jesus, I would be considered a slave. I'd have no claim on God's promises, blessings, or family. I'd be an outsider - just like unpaid household staff. And I'd be bound to God's rules for my own salvation.

But since I've accepted Christ into my life, believing that he fully paid for my sins through His death on the cross, and trusting in Him alone to make me right with God, I'm no longer a slave. My standing with God doesn't have anything to do with a list of rules, but rather a relationship with Him through Christ. He knew I'd never be able to follow his law perfectly, and in love sent Jesus to die in my place. Through this I know that I've been adopted into God's family, and can now be considered a child of God. I'm an heir to God's incredible promises. Jesus redeemed me, and in that is my own adoption into God's family.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1

I really just think adoption is near and dear to God's heart. He is, after all, called the "Father of the fatherless." And in His infinite wisdom, He placed this particular desire on my heart. And Josh's.

As a follower of Jesus, I'm called to care for "orphans and widows" (James 1:27). The Bible actually talks about this concept a lot. I think part of the reason God asks His followers to do these things is because it gives us a little taste of what He is like. And I'm so excited draw nearer to God through this process. I don't think there is any way this process won't give me a new, unique understanding of my Lord and Savior. And I'm excited for that.

I was recently reading a book (one I highly recommend) about adoption where the author talks about how, on a shelf in his office, there are two hats. One is a black cap from his seminary graduation, and the other is a paper cone birthday hat from his son's recent party. He'd adopted this son years before. He spoke about how, even though he'd spent years studying and learning about God through his seminary education and subsequent ministry, he learned so much more about his heavenly Father through what the birthday hat represented. This image of the two hats just sticks with me.



I hope this gives you a feel about our heart toward this adoption, and this baby.

And I'll continue to answer your (many) questions as best I can over the next week. Thank you for journeying with us.

A Brown Family Announcement

There’s a little something going on around here that I’m so excited to share with you all. In fact, I’ve been dying to blog about it for weeks.

The Brown family is under construction. And we’re thrilled about it.

We’re in the early stages of an international adoption process, and are planning on welcoming a little boy from Russia into our family. We pray we’ll be able to bring him home by next Christmas.

More details to follow, but in the meantime, what are your questions? Maybe you're unfamiliar with adoptions. Maybe you just want to know more about why we chose this path. I know we still have a lot to learn about all of this, but have done some significant heart-searching, praying, and research over the past couple of months. And we're excited to share this journey with all of you.

And we could use your prayers, bloggy friends.
For the health and safety of our future baby, who may or may not be born already, and who will most likely spend several months of his life in a Russian orphanage.
For the process. The paperwork. The home study. The judges and courts and officials.
For us. That we depend on and trust in the Lord throughout this journey – a journey we feel His calling to begin. That we make wise decisions as we prepare to welcome this little guy into our home. That we grow closer to each other in this process.

What I'll remember about Thanksgiving Weekend 2009.

1. We had a wonderfully relaxing time with the Browns. We lounged around. A lot. And for busy people like me and Josh, that is perfect.

2. We were sick. (I suppose that is another reason why we lounged around.) Josh got sick on Thanksgiving day and didn't eat a bite of dinner, poor guy. I got sick two days later. But we're back in action now.

3. Pioneer Woman's turkey recipe was excellent, at least in my opinion. (The rest of the family agreed, but they may have been humoring me.) The brine helped keep it flavorful and juicy while cooking. For next time I'll aim my thermometer in a better place, however. We started cutting into it a wee bit too early.



4. Her mashed potatoes (holy cow heart attack) and no-knead rolls were also terrific. As was Poppa Brown's famous Turkey dressing and Mom Brown's sweet potato-and-apple dish.

5. We bought all kinds of Blu-Rays on Black Friday, as Josh had received a PS3 (which includes a Blu-Ray player) a few days before.



6. We played lots of cards with Josh's parents and grandparents. Our favorite game is called Wizard. We like to call it "Wizzy."



7. We watched Star Trek on Blu-Ray. Twice. It is a new family favorite. We saw it over the summer in the theaters with Josh's parents, and Josh's dad came out of skipping like a little boy. So it was given - and received for Christmas presents.

8. The Lions lost. Oh wait, that's every Thanksgiving.



9. We made awesome sugar cookies. I'm saving the recipe for Short Stop's Cookie Exchange on December 9th, so stay tuned.

10. We had much to be thankful for. Praise the Lord for His boundless blessings.

After many moons of sleeping on a mattress on the floor...

WE HAVE A BED.

The funny thing is, we've had a bed since we first got married. Josh's grandparents gave us a bedroom set for a wedding gift.

It has been in our guest room since we moved in. See? We were just being good hosts.

Right.

A couple of factors influenced our decision to spring for a new one:
A) Josh's parents had an extra king-sized mattress they were willing to give us.
B) Our old bed is SO HIGH off of the ground. So high that we kept an old ottoman next to the bed so Riley could have a launch pad. Living ottoman-in-our-bedroom free sounded pretty appealing.

One of these days I want to get some artwork/pictures up. Some cute pillows, maybe. And I'd like to get a full-length mirror for the wall with the windows.

But for now, it is just nice to be up off of the floor. With a headboard so my pillow doesn't fall into the ditch between the mattress and the wall.

We were so anti-high bed this time around that we clearly swung the other way. This one doesn't quite clear my knee.

We decided early on that we didn't want to try and match the existing woods we had in the room, so we went with the upholstered look. Also, I wanted a headboard the was cozy to rest up against. Our last bed was SO NOT comfortable to sit up in. This one is great!

And yes, we are THOSE PEOPLE that have a TV in our bedroom. Can anyone guess the movie?

Okay, so we did get SOME good ones.

Mom and Dad Brown

The Four of Us

Nana and Poppa Brown

The Brown Boys

All Six of Us Browns

And this one is my personal favorite.

Still figuring things out.

I thought I'd get all ambitious and shoot some family pictures while we were in AZ. I came armed with a tripod, my Nikon, and a new remote control.



Clearly, I'm still working out the bugs on how it all works.