Our free favorite spring break ideas

Make something! I love to "put away" some of our big, messy(you know the ones with 300 pieces )toys for a special day.
Or something like that crazy magic sand stuff.
Set up a tent inside or out, don't have one, make one out blankets.
Make up a creative adventure for your kids like a pirate adventure with bandanas and swords. Mom of boys, here!
We also love to cook special things this week, since we have a little bit more time. I love to let everyone help!
Kids are so cute and creative I love to see how different things turn out when they all have the same supplies.
My friend Tiffany , put random craft supplies in an old jar and told the kids to make something. They all did it and loved it!
One year, we had kids make a video with some friends, so cute and such a great memory.
Have kids write a short story and illustrate it, let them work together.





We have forest preserves around here ! Great to take kids out into Gods amazing creation and let them explore. Boys love it! Take a bag, make a collection. Scavenger hunt or I spy with little ones. A picnic lunch is always a hit around here. Make a craft with the treasures you found.



Park fun is underrated !

Help with Safe Families

I know I passed on the info about our the great ministry we are working with called Safe Families. Go here safefamilies.org and find out about what we do.

After being in the foster system for many years we have seen so much, sometimes too much. Anyway, enough to know there are many problems with the "system".

Please if you live in Illinois or know someone who does, this ministry is making a difference and Christian families are stepping up to help families in crisis, usually single moms in crisis.

Our number of placements have almost doubled since last year.

A great way to serve as my friend Tammy says,"set another place at the table". Opening your home and family to those in need!

New Year!

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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 !

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 !

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 !

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 !

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 !

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 !

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