WHERE'S MARVEL ?

My kids had their own version of Where is Waldo, with our dog Marvel.

Can you spot our very large dog?

SOCCER SUPERSTAR

Ethan is 6 years old. This is his 3rd season to play soccer. The first one does not count because it was indoor soccer (6 games ) and the field was the size of my den. No , I do not have a large den, the field was tiny. He never scored his first 2 seasons.
The first game of the season was last week .His team lost the game 2 to 1 but he scored the only goal. He was so proud ! We were so proud ! It is like a switch has been flipped in his brain and he gets it. It is really fun to watch your child have fun doing something. Now we are not the parents who are in some kind of delirious denial that any of our kids will get a scholarship for sports. We do enjoy watching them find something that they enjoy.

He is in his victory stance in the picture !

John Matthew is excited to be adopted!! Beware ! this is a very professional video !

(Yes, my baby has on a bow tie)

ADOPTION DAY!

This week has been a whirlwind for our family! On Tuesday we found out that we would be able to adopt our baby on Friday! Wednesday we went to the Cps office and our baby was moved from a foster placement to an adoptive placement. We had so many people jumping through hoops to get this adoption finished this week

We have had the privilege of working with a Great CPS worker. I know everyone has his or her own opinion of cps workers. Here are the facts we know about these people, they are not paid much money, they work long hours, and they deal with crazy people who have done crazy things, most of them really seem to care about kids, and like in any profession you have those that are good workers and those that are not great. We have loved our worker on this case. We feel so blessed we got to work with her. She really wanted the best for our child.

Anyway, Thursday night I got everyone’s clothes together and ironed (I am funny about ironing) Matt and I both could not sleep. It was a strange yet somewhat familiar feeling. I had all 3 biological kids with c-sections and so I always knew when my babies were coming. This night kinda felt like that. We were excited to have the whole thing finalized. We were so excited for him to have our name. For us to be able to say he was ours. To go to the doctors office and they do not call out some random name when it is my baby’s time to go back, they will call out the name we gave him instead. On the flip side we know him, we were there when he got his first tooth, and when he said his first word which was Ummyummyumm (His word for yeah food), and when he took his first few steps, which was this week! He has seemed like our baby from day oneYet, the whole week has seemed surreal! We believed this was what we were supposed to do since fall 2006. It has been a long journey for us. We do feel so blessed, because we know there are others who do not have any children and they long for even one to call their own.

While this has been a long journey, we have been so blessed by the body of Christ! I will save that long post for another day.

So Friday we went to the courthouse and the whole thing took about an hour. It was too easy! A few papers to sign a few minutes before the judge and he is ours. I could not help but cry when the judge said his name.

I could not help but think about the picture on spiritual terms. Our father has chosen us (all believers in Christ) to be his kids. He plucked me out of my crazy life and put me in a new place and in a new family. I now have a new identity in Him, the old has gone and the new has come. That is the story of my baby and the story of my life.

People say to us,” you are so great to do this”, we are not great, we are sinners saved only by grace! Yet, we serve a great and awesome God! Who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask.

I am getting old !

I turned 40 years old today !

Do you remember when your mom and aunts turned 30 years old or 40 and you thought, Wow ! they are soooo old ? Well, I do ! I have been in major denial that I am turning 40 ! I am having trouble even typing the number ! Last night I went to bed knowing when I wake in the morning I will be old !

I woke up this morning to our family tradition , which is cake for breakfast ! Matt bought me White Chocolate rasberry truffle Cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory. This was a great way to start any day !! My cute family had cards and gifts for me ! My entire day was filled with calls and emails from people I love ! My precious Husband made me one of my favorite meals- shrimp boil ! He is so good ! Needless to say , what started as a day filled with self- pity and fear of old age , ended with my heart being changed and me being thankful to be alive and thankful to be surrounded by so many priceless blessings. Here are 5 of them !