We only need about $4000 now to bring the girls home!!! If anyone wants to donate, it’s tax deductible! You can get one more tax deduction for this year if you do it this month. And what a fabulous Christmas gift for two lonely girls…. a family!
We’ve been expecting to hear that the home study was complete any day since we received and corrected the draft a couple weeks ago, but we haven’t heard anything yet. I think we’ll call our social worker today and check on it. We’ll miss the December deadlines for grant applications, unfortunately, but it’s all in God’s hands. Perhaps He’ll lead enough people to help us that we won’t have to apply for the grants. That would be wonderful since it would mean more grants available for other people. Most of the people who go through the adoption process don’t start out with all of the funds they’ll need, so there are plenty of people applying for the grants that are out there!
On a completely different note, the kids are using their birthday money to Christmas shop for their siblings (my suggestion, but they all liked it). I think it’s wonderful that they get a chance to use their own money to buy something for someone else, but since they’re all pretty young it means I have to come up with a lot of inexpensive (they don’t have that much birthday money) gifts for each of them. That isn’t a problem for Eli who loves cars (matchbox cars are cheap), but the others can be more difficult. I think I’ve managed ok so far, but I was trying to think what I could suggest to Charis for Alexis. I think I know something she’d love, but I have a dilemma…
Early in our marriage, Joel and I swore we would allow no barbies to enter our house. The idea behind this is simply that they promote an unrealistic and unreachable view of beauty. Having so many girls in the house now, I think it was a good decision. There’s such a high rate of eating disorders and such things out there, and anything we might be able to do to prevent our kids from going through that is worth it. (Don’t know if the anti-barbie stance will make a difference, but it’s one small way to try.) Anyway, Alexis is now at the point where I think she would love to dress up dolls and play with them like I used to play with my barbies. But I can’t find any of that type of doll that’s any better proportioned and whatnot. I found some “Bible character” dolls, but I’m not sure if they’re meant to be undressed and redressed in different outfits – there certainly weren’t any clothing sets on sale with them. Besides, it would seem odd to have “Queen Esther” going shopping with her girlfriends or losing her pet dog.
So my question is this: does anyone know of any dressable dolls out there that aren’t as oddly proportioned as barbie dolls? I’m not looking for dress up baby dolls, because she’s mostly past the age where she would enjoy them. I’m looking for ones that look more like young adults, but real young adults and not freakishly shaped ones. 🙂
3 responses so far ↓
1 Jean // Dec 8, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Are there any affordable American Doll imitations? (I suspect that would still be too much for Charis to buy, but might be useful longer-term for Alexis.) Or “lightly used” or previously collected dolls from ebay at more reasonable prices. Most girls seem to like them through elementary school, what with the historical stories and other collectibles, and they do have dress-up options.
I don’t know anything about Dora or any messages in that show (I can just recognize her in terms of buying for my nieces and cousins’ kids on the other side of the family who like her), but I seem to recall a Dora doll (about 12″ tall) with some clothing options when I was shopping for my cousin’s little girl a week or so ago. And she definitely didn’t have an hour-glass figure! I don’t know what upper age Dora appeals to, though; Alexis may too old to be interested.
2 auschick // Dec 12, 2008 at 11:41 am
i only grew up on Barbies. What about Bratz dolls? I don’t know much about them or if they’re better or not, but they seem pretty popular among girls.
3 Lisa // Dec 27, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Rebecca,
Congratulations on getting the funds together for your dossier!
I just read your post on Barbies and I can suggest an alternative. A couple of years ago my girls received Only Hearts Dolls from their aunt. They are very sweet and much more wholesome than Barbies. You can find them at this link or at a number of other sites:
http://www.onlyheartsclub.com/
I believe they are even sold at Target.
I also felt uneasy about Barbies and have not allowed them in my home, but I couldn’t completely verbalize my thoughts about them. Obviously their appearance was an issue, but it was more than that. Then I read a great article about Barbies that put words to my feelings. You can find it here:
http://femina.reformedblogs.com/2008/02/24/lets-play-dolls/
I think I may just have to write a blog post about Barbies!
It is nice to stop by your blog and see what is happening in your family.
Many blessings,
Lisa