Journey 2 our family

New Year!

2012-02-08T08:57:00.001-08:00

I am starting the new year with a well known confession!

I am not a good blogger!

I want to be a better blogger!

In the spirit of fresh starts! Here is what I am thinking about this year.

First of all, for about the past 5 years January has played a significant "role" in the life of my family.

Each year we would anticipate what the Lord was going to do in the coming year. Through our foster to adopt journey it has been amazing and fun to see how the Lord has changed our family. Not just by bringing more children to us, but by watching the Lord change us and our hearts and the hearts of all our children in the process.

I could not have imagined my Safe Family placement would become my daughter a few months later.

So here we are a family of 8 in 2012. We have told the Lord we are open to what you would do in and through our family!

I cannot wait to sit here this time next year and see what He has done.

I was talking with a good friend the other day about the Lord and how good He is and we decided it would be a boring life to limit what God wants to do in your family by setting up your own parameters about what you will allow.

I love being on this journey!

Forest Preserves

2012-01-15T00:30:00.000-08:00

There are many Forest Preserves close to where we live. Matt and the kids and the dog go and hike these on the weekends. He is an amazing father who realizes the value of quality time with our kids. They want that time with him and he makes a huge effort! I feel so blessed that our children get to have him for a father.

I think it can be a "trap" that we get ourselves into, as parents, we think because we are running our kids to all their activities that we are getting personal, quality time with them. 10 minutes in the car, is not enough!

Plus it is so great for our kids enjoy and appreciate God's amazing creation!

Here are some pictures of some of the places we have been. These Forest Preserves are beautiful!

Our summer in pictures!

2011-12-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

We LOVE the weather here in the summer! We are always comparing the weather on our phone app to the weather in Texas.
We moved this summer , which is getting a little bit old for the kids since we have done this 2 summers in a row.

Anyway, because we are inside so much in the winter, it is always our goal to be outside as much as we can.

We had a membership at a pool that many of our friends go to, we loved it!!

We also have beaches 15 min from our house and we love going there as a family, when we can.

These are some of our fun memories from summer 2011!

New house!

2011-12-13T07:40:00.000-08:00

It was a very interesting process to house hunt in Illinois.Houses here are very different from houses in Texas!!!
Here is why:
They love their siding-blah
Almost no one has a fence-kinda weird
So many houses look exactly alike
Their taste in finishes is opposite of mine- light wood vs dark, etc.

Anyway- the upside is they almost all have BASEMENTS!
How did I survive all these years with all these kids without a basement! We love our basement!!!!

Our one tip would be- make sure it is finished. Our unfinished basement in the rent house was scary and dark ! I think we were all afraid to go down their.

So we looked for about a month and found one house, really cute, great character, not quite as big as we had hoped. We put an offer in , they would not come off the price. Hello! you need to be ready to come off your price if you are selling your house! It is the reality today!!

We were done with negotiations. Needless to say, God is Awesome! Later that week in another area we found the perfect house!

We were looking for a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house. We found a 6 bedroom house with 4 bathrooms. The basement is totally finished . The basement includes a huge bedroom for the big boys a beautiful bathroom. I have a workout area and a scrapbook room as well as a HUGE crawl space and a fun Entertainment room. We have also made the 5th bedroom a school room! We are so excited to have this house! We know the Lord provided this for us and we are so thankful.

WOW, I STILL HAVE A BLOG!

2011-12-12T14:51:00.000-08:00

It has been sooo long and sooo much has happened in our family in the last few months! For starters our baby girl's adoption was finalized this summer. We had a small gathering of family and friends to celebrate all that the Lord has done ! It is always such an emotional day to hear the adoption is finalized! In her case it was bitter sweet for her parents who we care about , knowing the huge loss they will be facing. She is such a precious joy! I am speechless at the thought of getting to have her as my daughter.

Visit with birthparents!

2011-05-01T03:59:00.000-07:00

This is not your typical first meeting with the birthparents! We originally were with an agency where the birthmom picks you from a scrapbook. So our first meeting with her would be totally different. Because I have been talking and praying for this couple for several months it makes it all very unique! So here we are on the way to meet them, a director from our ministry (safe families) drove Susie and I to meet them, she facilitated the meeting. We met at a McDonalds close to where they are staying. It was a great meeting! They are very sweet and funny, they love Susie!
We had a great visit. I shared with them that Matt's mom passed away when Grace was a baby and we decided then that if we ever had another girl we would use the name Kay in her name.Well, four boys later we got another girl. Her name Susan was given to her to honor her birthdads mother who had passed away and so we will name her Susan Kay Steele and call her Susie Kay!

We talked about things they wanted and did not want for her. It was strange yet normal.We had a good hug at the end of our visit. We all knew the next time we would be in the same place it would be for court, for them to relinquish rights. Their is a weird mix of emotions, hard to not be sad for this mama and yet so exited for us and so happy for the baby and for her future to be secure.

Please pray for this sweet couple as this is and will be difficult for them for a long time!!!

Possibly getting to adopt again!

2011-04-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

Well, the beautiful girl in the last post is our little Susie! We adore her ! She likes us pretty good too! We have also been able to get to know her parents through phone calls. Things are difficult for them and they are making some very hard decisions. They called and asked if we would adopt her. I have never had anyone ask me that on the phone or actually in person either. It was a very surreal moment. Here is this child who I love and adore. She has transitioned into my home so effortlessly. She is not only darling but a really easy baby and she even kinda looks like Patrick.

Anyway, back to the phone call, so here is the other side of this , I care deeply for her mama. She is very sweet!
We talk all the time, sometimes several times a day, we text each other funny things! So my heart was both excited and deeply saddened to hear the question. I am a mom and I love my kids too. I cannot imagine making that selfless sacrifice for my kids, I hope I would do the same if I needed too.
We said yes! Things could move quickly from here on out. I am going to my first meeting with them on Wednesday, 2 days! I have never met any of my kids birth moms. I of course would love to sit and have a conversation with them and learn about their personalities. Me being the curious person that I am, I would like to just watch their mannerisms . Do my kids have any funny trait's that come from their birthmom? Do they look like her? Did she have dreams for her child? Are there things she wanted them to do in life or things she wished they could see?

How amazing to get to know my baby girls parents, I already know so much about them and I cannot wait to continue to have a relationship with them. I will hopefully get pictures from her birth until now. I will get to know all the details of her birth. I have already talked with her mama about her dreams for her daughter. It is a strange position to be in, it is a strange conversation to have. I feel blessed that the Lord has worked these things out for baby Susie for her future and her life.

This will not be an easy road for anyone, yet, everyone involved believes this is the best thing for baby Susie!
I know the people who read this are my family and some of my closest friends, please continue to pray for this situation and lift up her birth parents and the details of this adoption.

First and second placement with safe families!

2011-01-14T04:36:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a precious child here for about a week. She was a beautiful baby girl!We feel so blessed to be involved with such an amazing organization!

Here is what I have decided, even if a child does not get to stay in our home for a long period of time, we have to believe that the Lord had them here for a reason. Now that we know their name, we can continue to pray for the Lord to work in their heart.

On the day the baby left , we had another little one yr old girl come to our home. Here is the thing, there are so many needs right now!!!Our group has days when they need to place 9 kids sometimes more.

We still have the one year old little sweetie here! We have loved having a little girl in our home. She is a joy and a blessing and we will care for her for as long as we need to.

The kids adore her and my little boys are so cute and careful with her. John Matthew is always trying to make her laugh and they have become big buddies.

We have decided for the dynamic of our family a girl works best with our two boys so close in age. They are just different with a girl.

It is so fun to have pink hair bows and little girl shoes, I forgot how cute they make all little girl clothes! I cannot resist buying cute things for her!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2011-01-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas time , I love decorating, I love the traditions we have , I love the parties,I love baking,I love giving, cause I am a present girl .Overall , I just love celebrating who Jesus is and what He did and does for us! It is one of my favorite times of the year.
I am always sad to take the Christmas decor down!

I love to spend this time to reflect back on our year and pray about the coming year.
I would never of guessed this time last year I would have moved to another state.
I would have thought I would have adopted a little girl by now.
I spent most of the year on a strict diet and I would never have thought I would be the size I am now!
I love being a follower of the Lord , life is an exciting ride, full of adventure!

Looking ahead to 2011, we will be involved with an organization called safe families. Hopefully, get to help some families out.
Would love to have another daughter this year.
Get direction from Matts company as to where the next stop for us will be.
Basically, sit back and see what He has planned for us. Fun to wait and see.

Safe Families!

2010-12-16T04:03:00.000-08:00

Now I do not get out much and so the Lord has to bring people to me at the grocery store. Seriously, this is getting comical!
Here I am at walmart , stocking up as usual and I notice a beautiful blond lady holding a dark infant. Because of how my family looks I am always interested when families look like mine. I strike up a conversation and my passion for children is ignited when we start talking about the organization she works with. It is called Safe Families, based in Chicago.Such an amazing ministry! Through my years in teaching parenting classes and fostering I have noticed it seemed the State workers were completely overwhelmed with their load and even the ability to turn some things around.This is the organization that is the solution. Christians and churches come along side families who are not in the system yet, but, they soon could be. They are facing job loss, homelessness or drug or alcohol rehab or a few of these at the same time. Basically, they are at the end of their rope! Who better to step in with hope for them than believers who can say, "We are going to help you ".
I could cry just writing this. It is precious to see moms like you and me say, hey , I can take one more kid in my home for a while. Many of these children are under the age of 5. I was able to meet some of these little ones last week and they are darling.
Please pray for this organization! For these families, who are looking for hope. Especially with the winter coming, and with the economic crisis so many people are out of work, no money and no place to live. The homeless shelters are filling up.
Please pray for wisdom for the staff of this organization! Amazing believers who selflessly give their life, basically to make things right for others.

I have so much to be thankful this season!

Our house is sold!

2010-10-19T17:13:00.000-07:00

We just moved from Texas to Illinois. Our house in Texas had been on the market for a few months. We had updated the house more than I thought we would need to before we left. Then while we were gone our realtor had a few more suggestions. Now of course all of these "suggestions" cost us even more money. We felt we needed to make these changes,especially, when my very well known realtor called and told me this was the worst season she had seen in 30 years for our area!
We prayed and we had people from all over praying for us and this house. I tell ya, prayer works! God is faithful, all the time!!!

Observations!

2010-10-06T11:02:00.000-07:00

While we have loved living here , there are some interesting things we have noticed;

We have loved the summer!This has probably been one of our best summers as a family ! What is great about the weather here is when the kids do not have school in the summer, they can actually go outside and play. Where in Texas if you are out past 10:00a.m it is not gonna feel good. It is actually beautiful here with many ponds and lakes and even the beach 15 minutes away.
Now, we realize the weather is about to get ugly. However, we homeschool and I will try to only leave my house when it is necessary.

We have loved the amount of touristy things to do here.Many things are even free ! My personal favorite has been the Forest preserves, we like to take the kids and the dog and walk/hike around, these places are beautiful ! We have tried to partake in all the outdoor activities, so we will head to the city more when the weather gets a bit colder. It is already in the 40's here.

We love the people. Now here is the thing, I really think we pride ourselves on being friendly in Texas. I have to tell you the people here are sooo nice and helpful.The weird thing is they think I have an accent, I do not know what they are talking about!I am however very aware that I say ya'll a lot.

We found a church already, which has been such a blessing !

The weird things we have noticed are , you have to drive a long way to get a sonic beverage ( which is on my list of favorite things) and there is not a Hobby lobby on ever corner. Chick-fil-A is sadly a day trip, my kids are having withdrawal. Speaking of restaurants there is mostly chain in the village where we live. We have however , found a scary hole in the wall place that makes a mean Mexican chicken. Matt and I mostly eat veggies and protein so we love this place.

They love their siding here. You have to hunt out brick homes here, it is really strange!

Random grocery store chains here, my favorite is Dominick's(owned by Safeway) and this mom and pop shop in Wisconsin that carries the best stuff and has great prices.

Do you know what a Kringle is? It is an amazing pastry that is made in Wisconsin. I have bought one of these for my family and it was gone 5 min. after we got home.Sadly, because of my lack of willpower with baked goods these will need to be a rare occasion treat.

No roaches here, but spiders of all shape and sizes are very common,eeewww!

Overall, we love it here and if the Lord allows us to stay here a while we will be excited to do that!

Still waiting for our baby girl !

2010-09-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have asked and wondered we still desire to adopt more children. We were done with all the paperwork before we moved and just needed to actually have the homestudy "updated". Here we are in a new state with new laws and new requirements. We have just had 2 homestudy visits here and more paperwork to finish and we are almost in the "waiting " stage. Which means our agency will submit our scrapbook to the birthmom they feel we are a good match with and she will say yes or no to us. We then proceed according to her wishes. Sometimes, the birthmom wants to meet you and sometimes she does not. We are very open to what she wants , yet we are cautious still , depending on her situation.
It is our deepest desire to get to be at the our baby's birth.However , we are trusting the Lord with all the details.
Our crib is up and we just bought a new baby girl car seat(because we had to have it inspected by the police). We have found they are more particular about some things here and not so uptight about others.

We feel ready in our home and in our hearts. We will see what the Lord does.

We will post when we know something. Thank you for praying for us through our journey!

Really Busy !

2010-09-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

Wow ! I sorta forgot I had a blog ! It is kinda like my words with friends games on my IPhone. People can always tell when I am busy because I do not play for days !

Needless to say, we love it here ! The weather is amazing ! 65 today! We spend every weekend going to do something new around here. We have been to forest preserves, Wisconsin fair, raspberry picking , zoo, jelly belly warehouse , water parks and the Beach and legoland is our favorite, so far.

The kids love being outside ! We have a pond and walking trail in our back yard that is lovely ! Matt and I and the 2 little guys try to walk it every night. The kids have many kids their age and they play outside everyday and often times go to the park which is around the corner.

Our transition could not have been better. Here is a fun story: The kids and I arrived on a Saturday, the next day I went to the dollar store to buy misc junk to get the house ready for our stuff to arrive the next day. I noticed a blond lady and her blond husband and 2 of her blond kids and 2 other kids that looked Guatemalan . I know this because I spent a summer in Guatemala and I love those precious people. I had to ask about the kids. We started talking and found out they homeschool and are hoping to adopt another and her husband works for the company my husbands company was once a part of. An instant friendship has been formed. We get together every week and take all of our kids on "field trips" .
As you can imagine we are a sight. 2 moms, 9 kids and she is pregnant and most of our kids do not look like either one of us. It is really fun to see the looks ! The kids are best friends , she has older and younger kids. This friendship can only be described as a precious gift from the Lord.

I felt so blessed in Texas to be surrounded with amazing , godly , selfless friends. I prayed the Lord would just give me one friend ! He answered my prayer the first day I got here. He is so good !

Traveling to Chicago !

2010-07-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

We are finally here and I have to share about our trip . This is our pond in the back of our house.

First of all , thank you to all our precious friends who blessed us the week we were leaving, it was a really crazy time being home alone( without Matt) and with all the kids, and also with the movers. We made it through the week even though it seemed like such a looong week !

My sweet friend, Tiffany took my crazy crew to the airport, so here we were curbside , checked all our luggage and then I proceded through to security with 5 kids, 4 carry on bags, one carseat and one stroller. Security was fun! But the really fun part was yet to come. We were there in plenty of time to eat, go to the bathroom and get ready to board.
Matt had strategically reserved our 6 seats all in a row. I get to the gate to find we will be taking another plane and we no longer have those seating assignments. Finally, I find someone to help me and she gets our seats 2 sets of 3 in a row. It is boarding time we load and get everyone settled, Quinton has never flown before and is very nervous about the whole thing. My three big kids are 2 seats ahead of me and I am in the middle of the little ones. We wait in the plane for an hour ! Then I hear the news, I was afraid of , we all need to get off the plane.
I am really thinking I must be on a punked show for people who are not famous. Do I laugh ? Do I cry?
We all exit the plane, same amount of stuff except no stroller. We all potty again and eat again, because it is almost dinner time. Finally, another hour later we board the plane.

I was so happy to see Matt and he had ordered Chicago style pizza and ribs for the family.
We just chilled our first weekend here !

I will try to be a better blogger than I have been since we are are so far away !

2010-06-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

We are hoping to finally get the house on the market . We are so excited at what the Lord could be doing . It is bitter sweet to leave. We love our church, we love our family and friends. We are very comfortable in our situation. I think I should break into a stanza of " friends are friends forever" !

It does make me thankful for all the Lord has blessed us with. While my house is not a mansion, it is my home . It is filled with precious memories that will forever be etched in my heart . I rocked most of my babies to sleep in this home. It is the home where God blessed us with so many precious foster kids. We have a play structure in the back yard , we called it a park for Quinton when he first came to our house, Matt and his Dad built this together for the kids . My kids love to run in the circle of the downstairs and chase each other. They have all done it and they still do. We have had many a talent show and dance off in the family room. I have been able to teach our kids in the dining room for the last few years and I have loved our time at home. I am sad to leave , but again it is just a house , where moth and and rust could come in and destroy at any time. I am hopeful that the Lord is not finished with Matt and I yet ! We believe He has opened this door for us and so we await to see our next , colder adventure !

My heart is full and I do feel so blessed !!

House fixin stuff !

2010-05-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

Today, like everyday the last few weeks we have been getting our house ready. You know touching up things to make them look new, taking out the old unlovely things and replacing them with new shiny ones. I was thinking how selling your house is like our relationship with the Lord. We sometimes wait until something "big" happens in our lives before we give Him any notice or spend any time on our relationship with Him, or mend the relationships in our lives that need fixin.

"If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life , is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4

We are moving to Illinois !

2010-05-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Matt got a promotion and we are moving to Illinois at the end of June ! Like any decision we make we prayed about it and discussed at length why this was a good idea and a good time to do this. On so many levels this is a good idea and great timing !

While we are really sad to leave so many precious friends and all of our family ( yeah, both sides)we do believe this is from the Lord and we have made it a habit, that if the Lord puts a door in front of us we walk through it and see what He has for us. Apparently , he wants us to move !

Matt and I started discussing how if the Lord opened a door for us to go to Africa as missionaries, we would say cool when do we leave. By the same token, who are we to say no to this opportunity?

We are going, we do not have any details worked out , yet. We only know when we are going and where he will be working. Everything else is up in the air. It is times like this that I realize my self proclaimed laid back personality , is actually really a bit impatient and kinda controlling. I want the details, yesterday ! It has been a great exercise in faith, for me. I have the feeling, this might be just the beginning of a new season of hopefully deeper faith and trust in the Lord.

The kids are excited about the snow ! That is probably because they think the winter there will be like our last Texas winter . I hate to break it to everyone, but there will be a little bit more snow than we are used to . I got to live in Ohio for several years as a kid and I have great memories of the snow !

We have been busy updating and decluttering the house to get it ready to go on the market.

We are trying to make good use of our time while we are still here. It is really important for me that the kids get to have some great quality time with friends and family before we leave.

It is also times like this that I am so happy about the sovereignty of God ! We do not have the ability to "mess up" God's plan for our lives !

" I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. Job 42;2

Trip to San Antonio !

2010-05-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

The following posts will be about our little family trip to San Antonio.

Here are some pics of us with my Aunt Grace and my mom.

Safari in Texas

2010-05-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from our safari and petting zoo trip !

Fun activity to do with the kids !

Remember the Alamo !

2010-04-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

We studied the Alamo in History and we thought it would be cool to take the kids . Matt and I had not been to see it either. Crazy to live in a State your whole life and not see one of the most famous landmarks.

Anyway, the whole visit lasted around an hour and then we ran over to the River Center Mall and Matt took the big kids to see the Alamo movie at the IMAX. They all thought it was very cool !

We had a great visit seeing My parents and my Aunt Grace and Uncle AG. Thanks to my Aunt Grace and my parents , Matt and I were able to go on a date and go to dinner and the Spurs game ! So fun !!!

We also were able to go through this drive through safari. The kids had a blast, feeding the animals and getting to go to a petting zoo.

Overall , it was a quick trip , but so much fun and a much needed break for all of us !

Life Lessons from the ice

2010-04-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

Patrick has been playing hockey for several years. We have all come to really enjoy watching the sport. We play house league and we have had a great experience . We have been blessed to have a couple of coaches through the years that have even been Christians. This season was a great one ! Our coach ( who is a Christian) is great with the kids and Patrick has really grown as a player this season.

Anyway, we head into the championship and we win our first game and lose our second. The kids are sad, but handle the loss really well. They played really hard to a team that was really good. We found out 2 hours after our game, they were a little bit too good. In our level for the championship games you were not allowed to play any of the travel players , apparently the team we lost to had been playing their players throughout the championship. They had to forfeit and so our kids who thought they were done for the season had one more game to play for the championship. This was totally out of the movie "Facing the Giants". Our kids played for the championship and they won it. We were able to share with Patrick the value in being honest and following the rules. God wants us to be people of integrity. The kind of person who does the right thing, even if they think no one is looking.

A great lesson for our kids and probably a really crummy lesson for the poor kids who's coaches decided it was a good idea to cheat and they had to forfeit the championship.

Heading in a new direction !

2010-03-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

As many of you know we have had such an interesting journey with fostering. So many precious kids !

We have grown and the Lord has changed us in so many ways. We are so thankful for his awesome blessings ! All 5 of them ! We have said from the beginning we wanted to Glorify God in this and we wanted to be open to however many kids He had for us. We have loved our journey so far and yet we feel we are in a different place with our 5 today.
So we decided to look into other adoption avenues. We looked at international adoption through Edna Gladney (Ethiopia) or Dillon (Korea). We have people we know who have kids from these programs and at least the people we know had great experiences. As we were about to send in the paperwork to one of these programs we were able to share about our foster journey at our church with a panel of friends who have all adopted children through various routes. One of our friends had been through a local agency that needs families to adopt African American or bi-racial babies.It is the whole birth-mom chooses you thing. We were interested and decided to call. We found out there are a few babies being born in the next few months and the agency does not have families for these babies. We are in ! We are having our homestudy transferred over to the new , christian agency and we could not be more excited. Knowing we could have a newborn in a few months is amazing. This agency takes the birth mom in shares the Lord with her , loves her and counsels her and then supports her in her decision. We have heard there have been so many miraculous stories of God working in the lives of these ladies. We are so excited to get to be a part of a place like this.

Please pray for us as we embark on this new adventure. We are getting paperwork finished and our scrapbook looking cute ! It is times like this that I am so thankful that we believe in a sovereign God ! Please join us in praying for the precious birth mom . Please pray for the health of the baby and mom now and during delivery.

We are so excited to see what our Lord will do !

I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS !

2010-03-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share about the goodness of the Lord in our journey to foster.

First of all, if you do not think you are having any more kids , you get rid of everything related to babies. We started the foster process when our youngest was 5 yrs old. ALL the baby stuff was long gone!

So, I started talking to my friends and I shared about what we felt the Lord had called us to do in fostering to adopt some kids. We had friends bring us carloads, yes , one time it was a suburban in fact , filled with items we would need ;swing, bassinet, crib, toys clothes, you name it.

I will never forget one night before our agency wanted to come out and inspect our home we were rushing to get the children's room all set up. We still needed a mattress for our crib. Very few people knew this fact. My kids and I walked out to go to church that night and sitting against my garage was a brand new with tags baby mattress. No note , just the mattress. I started to cry and my kids were worried about me and I got to share with them the beauty of the body of Christ. I told them we had a need and God placed our need on someones heart and they listened and obeyed. They spent their time and money to bless our family because God loves these children. By this time we were all crying and I know none of us will ever forget that day. A beautiful lesson on giving !

One day we received a call telling us that we would have a little girl arrive at our house in 2 hours. It was Yeah ! and Yikes all at once. I had no car seat for her ! I sent an email to my sweet friends asking if anyone had a car seat we could borrow .Within the hour one of my sweet friends arrived with a new precious pink car seat. We still use this seat today, with a blue cover, it works great !

We were also blessed by several friends with a pampers and Pj shower. My boys were given 30 pairs of pj's thankfully all sizes and I did not need to buy diapers for months. Such an amazing blessing !

There have been so many friends and family members that have blessed us with things we needed at just the right time.

There are so many orphans and children who need a home and a family. God does promise that He will supply all our needs according to His riches and Glory.

If you have considered fostering or even adoption. Know that God is faithful and He will provide for everything !

Also, if you are not a member of a Church, it is so helpful to have people who love and support you like a family.

I know we are truly blessed to have the support we do and I appreciate that so many of the people in our life have really been a huge part of our journey , with their prayers and support ! We know it would not have been this easy without these amazing people in our life.

If some of you are reading this, We love you and we cannot express how thankful we are and how much we love you!!!

Buckey and Bup !

2010-02-18T14:30:00.000-08:00

John Matthews new words are Buckey for Blankie and Bup for cup !

I love this stage, when they are learning to talk. I love when they repeat everything you say to them.

Adopted for life

2010-02-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

In case you are interested in adopting or you know someone who is , there is a great book out there called ," Adopted for life " by Russell D Moore. Matt and I picked this book up the week it came out and I could not put it down. It was so exciting to read a book that discussed everything I felt inside.

This man and his wife struggled with infertility issues and they adopted internationally. He is a very intellectual man and yet he allows the reader to see into his daddy's heart.

He covers a variety of issues that face the person who is considering adoption.

He also paints a beautiful picture of our adoption as our Father has chosen us and how he lovingly brings us into His family.

He discusses how adoption is the gospel ! Of course , I am a fan of adoption. I truly get the picture of what has happened in my home and what GOD has done in my life. It humbles me greatly !!

He also covers the role of the church and this got me thinking. Thinking about all the famous people who have gone to other countries to adopt kids. I was thinking about the guy who started the campaign to send computers to third world countries. TOMS shoes , so cool ! Are any of these people believers? WHAT ARE WE DOING ? I can tell you what some of my friends are doing; I have friends who support a local crisis pregnancy center, I have friends who serves at a homeless shelter regularly, I know believers who are trying to get licensed to be foster to adopt parents, I have friends who have now adopted their second biracial baby. We (people who know Jesus ) need to take His word to heart when He says true religion is to care for the orphans and the widows.

I also believe with the Haiti crisis, there will be many opportunities for believers to show their faith to the world . There were 380,000 orphans in Haiti , there is no telling when the dust settles how many more there will be.

I do see God moving in the hearts of His people and they are moving to action and it is amazing! I love hearing stories of people opening their hearts and checkbooks to the people of Haiti.

Anyway, pick up this book for yourself, or for anyone you know who is interested in adopting. It is good stuff !!

Snow Fun !

2010-02-16T07:48:00.001-08:00

It was so fun to have a couple of crazy snow days here ! The kids had a great time playing and having snowball fights. It actually snowed on Ethan's birthday and that was a special day for him !

For a few days it did not seem like we lived in Texas. Now the snow has melted and we have a mud pit in our back yard and that seems more like it .

3 BIRTHDAYS IN 4 WEEKS !

2010-02-12T13:10:00.000-08:00

If it seems like all I blog about is birthdays, your right ! I have this span from January to February where more than half of my kids birthdays land.

Ethan just turned 7 years old ! I cannot believe it ! He is such a precious sensitive kid. He is so passionate for the Lord , I cannot imagine what God has for him one day. He is one of the most creative kids I have. He is a builder and artist and an inventor. He love to serve others and is very patient with his siblings, especially the younger ones !

We are so blessed to have him as a son ! We love you Ethan !

Where did my little girl go ?

2010-02-04T19:47:00.000-08:00

Grace just turned 12 years old ! Wow ! She has grown up so fast! I cannot believe she is 12 and almost a teenager.

Because I know she reads this , I wanted to tell her how blessed we are to have her as our daughter.

Grace Elizabeth,

I could never have realized 12 years ago that I would have a child like you ! Your heart is amazing ! I love your passion for God's children and especially Africa. I love your passion for serving your family. You are an amazing blessing! One day you will be an outstanding mama. I am excited to see where the Lord takes you in this life.

Your devotion to our Lord is amazing. You spend most of your free time seeking Him and getting to know Him better. I am so proud of your knowledge of the Bible, I pray you will always have that fervor for His word. I pray that you will always want to obey Him and serve Him. I pray He will always be first in your life.

I love you precious girl, I would not make it through most days without having you with me !

All my love,

Mom

QUINTON JAMES TURNS 3

2010-01-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

My sweet boy Quinton is 3 years old this month.
One of my reasons for this blog is to remember what the Lord has done in my family.

These are a few of Quinton's favorite things:
His favorite phrase is ,Whatcha makin mom ?He is serious about his food !

He loves Elmo and especially the Elmo from Poppy and Grammy ( this furry monster toy can sing and dance)

He loves Hockey and wears his helmet all the time !

He loves to be held and cuddle.

He loves pie ! We had so many party's over Christmas and many of them contained Grammys Pies and so for his birthday he did not want cake , he wanted pie ! A new tradition?

He loves to play outside !

He is sleeping in the big boys room and he get so giggly at night because he is so excited to be a big boy !

We have preschool time every morning with the little ones and we sing songs and he loves the song, The Lord is my Shepard. While the rest of us are singing one part of the song, he interjects , THE LORD IS ! My future Worship leader.

He is good at anything he tries.

Overall, we are completely humbled that the Lord has chosen us to raise such a precious, sweet, loving little guy !

Happy Birthday Quinton !

HAITI

2010-01-18T11:14:00.000-08:00

Such horrific devastation ! We have tried to use this disaster as a teachable moment in our family . We are not in control of anything ! Our life is but a mist! There are people who have it bad , real bad ! We are not those people .We cannot complain about anything ! We are richly blessed ! And today, we have no disaster facing us .

We continue to pray for the people of Haiti ! We pray for the hearts of the people that have lost everything. You cannot turn on the news without your heart breaking. Their faces say it all.
We pray for those people that God will be real in their lives and that they will come to know Him.

There are many places to donate money at this time . If you are a Christian the best donation would have the gospel attached ! Know who you are giving to and how they allot the donations .

Happy New Year !

2010-01-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

OUR WHITE CHRISTMAS !

I hope you all had a joyous Christmas and a great New Years !We had a great time visiting with Family and friends over the holidays.

I love Christmas time ! Everything is prettier when it is sprinkled with Christmas. We took our holiday decorations down last week ! I am always a bit sad when we box everything up and put it away until the next year . I usually use this opportunity to reorganize or redo a particular room or area. See, I am a knick knack girl ! No, I do not have collections of precious moments or miniature ceramic dogs . But, I do have stuff ! Too much stuff ! I am such a bargain shopper that usually if I find something that I like I buy it and then find a place for it. I am clearly out of places for things.

Needless to say, we (as a family ) have been on a radical cleaning spree these past 2 weeks ! Yea ! I have 7 black trash bags full of stuff to donate and I am just getting started. I have found that having all these people under one roof, encourages the habit of decluttering ! It is a do or be buried , kinda thing ! We have very limited attic space and so last week I cleaned out our attic. It is a great feeling and while it is not fun to do these kinda "projects" on our vacation, it is hopefully teaching all of us ( and by us , I mean me ) to acquire less stuff.

We as a family are trying to focus this year on the little details. In our relationships with one another, in our "jobs" at our house and mostly to be faithful children of the Lord ! I have been reading a great devotional by Elisabeth Elliot called "Keep a Quiet Heart" on this day she talked about Luke 16:10-12. The verses about "He who is faithful in a little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous in much. "

I do desire to be faithful in all my "roles" this year !

We know what Ethan wants for Christmas !

2009-12-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

A NEW SON !

2009-12-03T07:13:00.000-08:00

While there were many great things that happened on National Adoption Day, the greatest in our family was the adoption of our son !
Quinton James !

This day was again surreal ! Volunteers were all over the courthouse to welcome the families. There was a balloon arch ( like at the prom ) that we entered under. There was food , family pictures and all the kids received a sweet teddy bear. Our courthouse has very long pew benches that lined the hallway and our courtroom was at the end. The benches on that day were filled with families and kids. If I had to guess I would say 90 % of the families were African American. It was a precious scene all of these parents taking these children into their homes. There were families with 8 kids in them . There were families with several teenagers. I was so moved I could not help but tear up at what was taking place in this building on this day. I know some of these kids will not have to live in the cycle of sin that their parents were raised in. Like our babies many of these kids were removed from horrible situations and placed into families that love and adore them. I am so thankful for these people who have opened their hearts and homes to these children. Who like most of us just want to be loved and accepted. But , who unlike most of us have experienced awful situations .

We had many sweet people celebrate with us on Quinton's special day ! Matt's sister and her husband and their kids , our favorite worker at our agency and Quinton's sweet CASA worker who drove in from out of town . As well as Poppy and Grammy , Aunt Ann and Uncle David, our pastor and his family who had been at a sporting event all day and came over anyway, my closest friend Tiffany (who has prayed over all the kids we have been submitted on, probably 75 ?)and her family, and many other sweet friends who came over to celebrate our adoption.

We are so excited and we really cannot believe we get to have this little cutie in out family. We are of course thrilled to have all the paperwork, visits, and caseworkers over with for now.

People have asked us , if we will continue to open our home to kids. We are open to however many children the Lord would bless us with ! We do pray there will be more, we would of course, like to even out the 5 to 2 guy /girl ratio in the house.

Thank you for all of you who have supported us so faithfully on this long, bumpy road.
We feel blessed and totally overwhelmed at how good the Lord is to bless us with people like you !

NATIONAL ADOPTION DAY !

2009-11-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

This is a very special week across our country ! In courtrooms everywhere there will be around 4,500 kids taken out of the "broken failing system". They will get a new name and become a part of a family that will hopefully love them unconditionally ! They will now have someone in their life that will be there when they need them. There will be much hoopla going on at the courthouses ! Family pictures, presents, balloons, clowns, food and just excitement.

While this will be an amazing week !

Here is the reality ! There are 510,000 kids in foster care. There are 129,000 kids that are legally free to be adopted right now .This does not include the millions of orphans in other countries who will go to bed tonight in conditions we would not let our dog live in. They are just children !

I met a young lady last week. Beautiful young girl ! She could be a model ! If you did not know her story you would think she lived a great life with no problems. This sweet girl about to age out of the foster system had lived in 30 homes since she was 4. She had lived through things children should not experience. The hope for her has come through foster parents who would not give up on her, even when she kept running away. This precious girl will get adopted this week . I do not know if her adoptive parents are Christians. I would like to think they are. They are however setting an example for us all !

There are so many foster kids who need someone like this couple to just love them, the way Jesus loves us ! He takes us with all of our "issues". He loves us with a love that we cannot fathom ! He takes us back with open arms when we run away ! Most of us are the picture of the prodigal son . I know I am. He loved us while we were yet sinners. We deserve nothing ! He takes us in and heals our wounds and makes us his kids.

Please join me in praying for the kids who will be adopted this week! Pray that they will find security in our Heavenly Father. While there are nice people on this earth , we are all sinners and our Heavenly Father is the only one who will never leave us or forsake us.

Please also pray for all those children who are waiting for a forever family. I only know what some of these kids have experienced and I cannot imagine having to cope with things like seeing your parent be killed or being treated so badly, by people who are supposed to love you. Sin is an ugly thing !

Pray that more Christians will open their homes to these kids ! You can look at the adoptable kids in Texas at the Tare website go to dfps.state.tx.us/adoption . They change this every week.

If you have any questions about fostering , I would love to answer them. Post a comment and I will get back to you.

Fostering to Adopt

2009-11-11T08:35:00.000-08:00

Fostering

Matt and I are updating our license to continue to foster to adopt. It can be a long process with much to do. We believe it is what God has called us to , so we are going through it . Some of our stuff can just be updated and some "requirements " have expired and we have to go back and do them over again.

I thought I would take a minute and in case someone knows someone who wants to go this route , I would share an overview of most of what it takes.

Fostering children is NOT for everyone ! I know people who stopped after the first child left and they were not able to do it anymore. It was too painful and emotionally so draining.
Here are the facts:
In order to foster or foster to adopt you must do these things:

Complete training

There will be some classes that will bore you out of your mind.However, you might be surprised and get some training that is interesting and educational. One of the classes we were required to take was infant CPR. We were glad to have had this training when I was holding a 5 pound 3 month old who turned blue on me and stopped breathing. Thankfully Matt was home and he started CPR, I called 911 and the baby started breathing again . The baby lived and was fine. This was a medically fragile baby and most people will not get a baby with these issues. You never know when something you learn in a training will apply.

Your House in order

Cleaning supplies
It is good to have all cleaning and chemicals locked up somewhere. We bought a Rubbermaid storage piece that is in the garage and we attached a lock with a key. That means they do not want any cleaning stuff out on counters or under sinks.

Plug covers on all plugs.We already had locks on cabinet's in the kitchen which is great because we knew we wanted little ones.

Your agency or CPS is not looking for a perfect house,but , everything must be working. Toilets, hot water from sinks, etc.They are also looking for anything that could be dangerous, an area with many cords sticking out, for example.

Fire inspection- needs to be done and you need a carbon monoxide detector as well as smoke alarms on each level and fire extinguisher's on each floor.

Firearms-reported and secured. They just want to make sure your house is clean and safe for children.

Background checks

They will check to see your criminal history to make sure you are not on the most wanted list or anything serious.

Driving record

They will want a copy of your driving record. No big deal !

Getting to know you

They will interview you and get to know all about your childhood up to the present day. They will probably interview you and your spouse separately. They are looking for anything weird in your history that might not qualify you to foster kids.

Paperwork

All of these things will require paperwork and there will be times that you think, it is too much , I cannot finish all this. You can persevere and press on because it will be worth it !

My Church is putting together an entire booklet together on Adoption. If anyone wants a very in-depth version of what you need to do to adopt a child please email me .

I will write about the plus side of fostering to adopt another time. There are certainly many great reasons to going this route.

John Matthew has a silly hat !

2009-11-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

Did any of you watch Blues Clues with your older kids? We did ! Steve had a song he sang when blue had something silly on his head.

It went like this:

Blue has a silly hat
Blue has a silly hat
and you repeat that until your annoyed !

In fact I will sing this for you in the video !

Well we have been singing that here for many years and so the first time our baby cleared out his bowl and put it on his head we sang the song. That was our first critical mistake ! John Matthew being the showman that he is, found this to be his new stand up act at the dinner table. Why not he has a captivated audience .

The problem now is he does this at every meal with every bowl. He has a lot of hair and so the food gets really messy in all his curly hair.

The moral here - be careful what you find to be funny !

Quinton James !

2009-11-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

My Sweet Quinton is so funny. Every since he came into our lives he has brought so much joy ! One of my favorite things about him is he is into clothes. He loves accessories ! He loves to find peoples shoes in the house and put them on, he does not care if they match or not ! He loves Hockey ! He loves to look nice ! He knows when he looks cute.

Heavy metal in blue

2009-11-08T15:03:00.000-08:00

Patrick just got Braces ! He picked out blue ! He is so excited to have them. Trying to get used to eating a whole lot slower and there seems to be some foods that are not even worth trying to eat !

I always wanted braces growing up ! Little did I know I would get to put most of my kids through them.

He looks so grown up !

New addition !

2009-11-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

Because we want to see how fast we can max out our current home we just got another dog. We already had Marvel, the very large Catahoola and Matt and I were thinking it would be great for him to have a buddy !

Back story on Pets -
Now for those who know me well, they know I am not a "dog person" . I have actually always loved cats. When Matt and I first got married we had Miles the cat. He was black and white and he loved me. He slept on my head , nice I know. Now Miles the cat hated Matt, everyday when Matt came home he would attack Matt and bite him and try to climb up his leg and slide down with his claws dug into Matt's leg. My sweet husband endured the cat knowing I loved him. We kept Miles until we brought Grace home and Miles the cat was in her bassinet. That was all we needed to find a new loving home for Miles.

10 years later my kids and My husband decided it was time for a dog. We found Marvel on Craigslist and he really has been a precious pet. He is a protector and never barks unless the yard guy is in our yard. He does not chew up anything and he is so gentle with my all my kids. He is well trained and puts his nose on the door knob when he wants to go out. Since we have had Marvel I realized I just did not have much experience with really good , smart dogs.

This month Matt and I were looking at dogs online and found my new baby dog! We had a list of cute names , but when we saw him we had to call him SUGAR ! He is precious ! He is one year old. He is house trained. He also gets along with Marvel and we could not be happier.

GOT GERMS !

2009-11-04T14:15:00.000-08:00

We have all passed some bug around our house for the last week. Now, I have been a mother for many years and I have lived through countless high fevers, too many stomach bugs to count and hundreds of colds. I have just never had 5 kids sick at the same time I was sick. Needless to say it has been a first for me. Like everything else has to be in my house I had a spread sheet of who had what meds and when. Thankfully , My precious husband has remained well !! He is holding down the job and the sick ward.

Have you ever noticed that a persons personality seems magnified when they are sick? The laid back ones seem to be more chilled. The children on the High drama side seem to be a bit more clinging and whinny. The talkers when they have fever can really get to babbling. Cuties !

I have prayed for a large dose of patience and I always try to keep my small issues in check, when I realize there are people who are praying for their children to live .

Hope you all are staying well this season !

Patricks Birthday !

2009-10-09T14:42:00.000-07:00

(Patrick after eating a turkey leg at the state fair )

Dear Patrick ,
I cannot believe you turned 9 years old yesterday ! It is amazing to think back to the day I had you . In some ways it seems like yesterday ! In other ways you have changed so much. We remember when you were born and the nurses did not need to look at your bracelet because you looked so much like your dad and you still do. You were such a cute toddler and you were so sensitive and you still are. We rejoiced when you became a believer and we have watched our faithful Lord transform you and change you into a sinner saved by Grace. We love to have theological discussions with you , because you are so deep and you understand so much ! We love your passion and we are so excited to see the plans our Father has for you . You inspire us to Love God with all our hearts ! We are blessed to be your parents ! You are a special blessing from the Lord, Patrick !

All our love ,
Mom and Dad

By the way, you are the only 9 yr old I have ever met who ordered sushi on his birthday !

WHERE'S MARVEL ?

2009-09-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

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

Can you spot our very large dog?

SOCCER SUPERSTAR

2009-09-28T14:45:00.000-07:00

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 !

2009-09-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-19T18:36:00.001-07:00

(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 !

2009-09-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

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 !

Back to school with 5 kids

2009-08-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

We started school 2 weeks ago ! For a homeschool mom this phrase takes on a very different
meaning ! Besides school supplies , we get to buy all the text books and plan all the lessons. This year I have a sixth grader , third grader , first grader and my two little ones. It can appear to be impossible to be organized and have a clean house and school everyone. Here is how I do it! Not perfectly, but with Gods grace I am trying .

When I first started homeschooling I went to a homeschool fair and the Lord (really, it was Him) took me to a random book I found at a book booth. The book by Steve and Teri Maxwell is called" Managers of their homes ". Let me say this, if you have more than 2 kids and you are home all day, you need to buy this book. If you homeschool your kids and do not have this book, you must buy this book ! Can you tell I love this book!
Here is the idea in the book, the family who wrote the book have many children and they were very organized. They asked 20 of their friends would you like to use our schedule and plans for running a home and see if they work for you ? The book is their plan and their friends thoughts about the plan and how they tailored the plan to their family. There is copies of schedules in the back of the book. As a foster mom and a homeschool mom, my family is always changing , but one thing remains, I still must get my job done !

The Maxwell's are a humble and amazing family who really desire to bring glory to the Lord. Their website is titus2. I just bought" Managers of Their chores" and I am so excited to have a great plan in that area of our home. I would recommend any of their resources .

Anyway, Especially if you are just starting to homeschool this is a great resource to help you get a plan in place, and that seems to be half the battle sometimes.

Our Adoption Journey

2009-08-24T13:37:00.000-07:00

Our story began fall 2006 when my husband and I were taking biblical counseling classes. We heard a sermon that changed our lives. Voddie Baucham ( Voddiebaucham.org) a fantastic preacher out of Spring ,Texas, preached on Centrality of the Home. We were brought to our knees in absolute conviction. We knew we would need to change some things in our home. We began making preparations for those changes. I was working as a preschool minister at a large Southern Baptist church. I quit my job, we pulled our kids out of public school and began homeschooling them and we started the process of becoming foster parents in hopes of adopting.

Our timeline:

Fall 2007-January 2008 licensed as foster parents

February- 1st placement baby boy, still at the hospital due to the drugs in his body. We visited him everyday for 2 weeks and found out the day before we brought him home that an uncle would be coming to get him instead. We were new at this and we were crushed.

March 15th-2nd placement- a baby boy and his 2 year old sister. Precious children! We were in love with these kids we made our requests know to the Lord that we wanted to keep them. This was not the plan! They left 2 months later.

Mid July - We get a phone call about a group of kids who were removed in a drug raid and they cannot find a place for them. They all come here for almost 2 months and leave to go with grandparents.

We tell our agency we would like only adoptive placements.

March 2009- Baby boy (D) 3 days old born on drugs , probably adoptable. Arrives on Monday.
Friday of that week we get a call about another adoptable baby boy M. He arrives the next Monday.

Mid May baby boy D leaves.

Late May we get matched to an adoptable 2 yr. old boy. He arrives to be a part of our family.

As of September of this year Matthew will be an official part of our family.

In November our Q will be adopted!

Now it may seem like a simple process , however we have been submitted on probably 50 kids within the last year. We have been very close to getting other adoptive placements. It is a journey of faith and trust. Thankfully we trust a soverign God and we know He has a plan. It has been exciting to watch our family grow and blossom .

We are so thankful to get to adopt these boys ! We have learned so much about ourselves and our family through this process!