The Waring's Journey

The Lord Builds Our Family

2010-09-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

When Richard and I married 22 years ago, we dreamed of having a large family. We thought that family would be children from our genetics but the Lord had other plans. For employment, we worked at a temporary shelter that housed teenagers in need of state care. It was in this line of work that I first met our daughter Addison's birthmother (Julie). It was also at this shelter that I miscarried and lost our only pregnancy through donor insemination. My heart was broken, my life seemed doomed to be childless and I had lost all hope of ever being a mother. I remember praying for the Lord to hear my cries and answer my need to be a mother. I desired it so deeply. Shortly after losing our pregnancy, we changed jobs and became primary house parents for a group home of state kids. This home was currently empty and we were able to sort through different files of children needing placement and pick our kids to live and work with. Peggy was one of these kids. She was nine years old, called me mom, spunky as all get out, and turned out to be one of my most challenging; yet bonding experiences of my life.

This kid simply grabbed my heart.

So who is she today?

Today, she still calls me mom, still has my heart as a daughter, is the biological aunt to our daughter Addison..although she will say "No, I rather prefer to think of myself as Addi's older sister.", has three beautiful children who call me Grandma, and is married to a wonderful young man named Richard.

Yes, we still get a kick out of his name being the same as my husband's. We tease her that when we told her to find a man to marry like Dad, we didn't exactly mean he had to be named Richard. LOL

(just a side note... it doesn't help that I call my husband "hun...or honey" because, they both still look up at me and answer! LOL Too funny!)

The Lord has been building my family from the moment I said "I do" to my husband and He's been doing it in ways I couldn't see or understand at the time.

I'm so thankful that His hand has been upon us and He's placed such beautiful people within my life. I never thought I would be so blessed to have adopted three such wonderful children (Bailey, Addison and Levi) but what I really didn't see coming was the unique way He would fill my heart and complete my desire for family by also adding to my life the bonds of love I have with their birthparents, birthparents-spouses, birthsiblings, birthaunts, cousins, birthgrandparents, and so much more.

Here are some photos my sister Janene took of their family.
(Thanks Janene...You are very talented!)

My Beloved Darr Family

Richard and Peggy

My of the heart Son-In-Law, Richard, and Daughter, Peg

Peggy with their girls (Brandi & Tiffany)

Richard with their son (Austin)

Austin

Brandi

And spunky like her Mom, Tiffany

My of the heart, precious three grandchildren

God is so GOOD and His love for me is far beyond what I can see or understand.

Lord Jesus, soften my heart and continue to open my life to the family You've chosen for me. Fulfill my desires and complete me as You see best. Take me past myself and mold me to be not only, the perfect match for my husband but the open hearted mother my children need.

Addison, Our Daughter and Our 3 Grandchildren's Baptizm

2010-09-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight the Bible study was held out at the lake and Addison, Austin, Brandi, and Tiff all got baptized by Grandpa. It was wonderful!

Thank You Jesus :)

Change In The Making (w. lyrics) - Addison Road

2010-09-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Oh man, ... this one's got me all over it!

What Do I Know of Holy

2010-09-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

This song was humbling today for me.

Enjoy

:))

I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strenghtens Me

2010-07-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

I’ve been gone for a while but now have a few minutes to update what’s been going on with our family.

On the 5th of July, my husband Richard climbed a ladder to fix a leak in our roof. As soon as he stepped onto the roof, he slipped, fell backwards, and landed very hard on our deck. We are praising Jesus that the deck helped to cushion his fall because things could have been much worse. As it was though, Richard hit his head pretty hard and suffered a seizure. Everything was pretty scary for our family and loved ones as they watched the Life Star helicopter take off and fly him to the hospital that best deals with head traumas. Every day we see improvements with him and he is now walking with a cane and regaining his balance and motor skills and working towards a general feeling of himself.

I have cried buckets of tears and walked through some of my deepest fears only to find that the Lord has Never …Not even for a moment, left my side. I feel like this experience is taking me through a boot-camp training to trust the Lord in and for EVERYTHING! Through this, I am being humbled, stripped of hidden pride, and strengthened in areas I had no idea needed changing. I am finding too that I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME even when I don’t want to. And… That He’s making of me a stronger person then I ever thought possible.

We have been blessed by the many prayers and kindnesses shown our family and I can’t even express how deep many of these acts have touched us.

Someone fixed our leaks on the roof

Many have brought meals and groceries to feed our family
Stood by my side and waited, prayed, cried, supported, and cared for me at the hospital

People have loved and cared for my children and helped keep a sense of peace and normalcy in their daily lives..as we've worked through this

A person has built a beautiful porch railing to assure Richard will not get hurt if he gets off balance going in the front door

Others have cleaned, done laundry, tackled my dirty kitchen, allowed me to take naps, and filled my gas tank

A couple bought plants and planted our garden, taken down our dog run, cleaned up the yard of weeds, unwanted shrubbery, fixed our stairs door to always spring shut assuring safety

And…others have stayed with my household and allowed me time alone to do shopping, run errands, and helped me fill out the endless amounts of paperwork , and even fixed my vacuum and weed eater
There was even a wonderfully kind person who twice fixed my computer when it crashed with a nasty virus while we were at the hospital

Oh… and yes, there are others who have touched my heart and sent funds to help cover the unpaid bills as Richard is not able to work during his recovery

For all of these things… and so much more, our family would like to thank you. With each of your acts of kindness, love and thoughtfulness, we have truly been touched and have seen Jesus working through you.

Lord Jesus,

thank You for All You have brought us through, thank You for protecting our Daddy from being hurt worse and thank You, so much, for the continued recovery he’s having. Thank You for never leaving me and keeping me strong when I felt so weak and scared. Thank You for giving me my best friend back a little more each day and showing me that NOTHING is outside of Your hands. You truly are an AMAZING God and although my flesh wars against the things You are walking me through, I trust You with my life and family and welcome the change You are bringing about in our lives.

We love You, Lord Jesus…

With Everything!

Senior Pictures

2010-06-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Bailey just had her senior pictures taken this past week and I thought I'd share them here with everyone. The only problem I'm having with them is I don't know what ones I like the most. LOL

What do you think?

I will number them and you tell me what one is your favorite or favorites.

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

#16

#17

It's hard huh!
:)

Summer Is Off And Running... Boy Are We Busy!!

2010-06-11T11:09:00.000-07:00

The last few days of school were jammed-pack full of end of the year activities. Here are a few pictures of Addison's school market. She made Creative Clips that hold pictures and papers from paperclips. Each child made some sort of item to sell and then they held a market and sold their items. I love market day...it's so fun.

Here are some of the items from market that I purchased with the fake money the teacher gave all of the parents.

As many of my friends and fellow bloggers know, I've been MIA for several weeks. We've been projecting in our yard trying to get things cleaned up and ready for summer.

As many of you remember not too many weeks ago Levi talked me into some baby chicks. They are still alive, happy and growing like crazy. They've out-grown the two larger boxes we've been keeping them in so it was time to revamp the old dog run for them. They are thrilled and love this new ...and temporary space we made for them. Having them in the dog run will buy us a few more weeks before we have to rebuild and revamp the old chicken yard that will be their permanent home.

Levi just loves the chickens and I've caught him twice inside this dog run terrorizing them for fun. LOL

Now these chickens are strong and I know they can survive my sweet little boy who loves to play with them....but Perdy is a different story... Just looking at my sweet boy napping on the floor, you would have no idea what shenanigans he's been up to.

Poor, Poor, Perdy....Perdy is the little chicken that my family begged me to buy weeks after the other chickens. They argued that we needed a full dozen and not just the 10 we already had. Well, I argued that if the chicks are not the same size and age, they older ones will pick on the babies and kill them. I even looked to the sales man for him to back me up...But did he? ...NOPE!! So we bought two little babies and within a few days, one was dead and the other was pecked so bad on the top of the head, her skin was gone and she was almost completely life-less. I brought her inside and put her under the heat lamps. Within a few days she was recovered but still very ugly so we decided to call her Perdy.

"Warning for the squeamish"

(She looks a bit like the skekies from the movie "The Dark Crystal".

I'm not so sure that feathers will ever grow back on her bald head...poor baby!

So... poor Perdy is doing her best to survive her traumatized little life when... wouldn't you know, I couldn't find her in her pen one afternoon. We searched EVERYWHERE!! I thought, did the cat get her? ... Maybe she somehow got out and is hiding. ... Maybe she's been eaten or mangled by Bob. I had the whole family calling for her and looking everywhere for any sign of her. Levi on the other hand kept getting under my feet and mumbling about something. I finally asked..."Levi, do you know where Perdy is?" He said ... "She's sleeping and walked me to his closet. I said..."No Levi, not now... We're looking for Perdy." I thought he just wanted me to play with him in his room. Then, it hit me what he was really saying.... "Levi, where's Perdy?" I opened his closet and he handed me a netted bag with a box in it.

I again thought he must just think we're playing a game and handed the netted bag to Addison as I said... "No Levi, we are REALLY looking for Perdy, she's gone." Addison then tossed the netted bag back to me and said... "I don't want this...Why are you giving it to me?" LOL

I caught the bag and held it dangling from my hands when all of the sudden...it hit me, what Levi was saying... "She sleeping!" I gasped!!! "Levi, is Perdy in here?"... He just smiled..."She's sleeping!"

I ran to the table and opened the netted bag...opened the box and what do you think I saw.. Perdy?

NOPE!

There was another little box inside it.

And what do you suppose was in the little box?

YEP, YOU GUESSED IT!!!

PERDY

Poor girl, who knows exactly how long she'd been in there and then being tossed all around by Addison and I. Addi took her back to her pen and I lectured Levi as to why it was not okay to play with Perdy and take her out of her pen.

So, do you think this lecture was affective?

Humm....Well, a few days later... You guessed it, Perdy was gone again.

It was late and everyone was sleeping when Richard and I discovered her missing. We looked everywhere...I tried endlessly to wake Levi from his dead sleep, asking him..."Where's Perdy?"

I never could wake the boy, he was way too tired and his eyes just rolled back in his head, as he turned over in his bed. LOL

Richard went down stairs to wake the girls to help find her. While searching, my eye saw an, ever so slight, movement across the room... within the CD cabinet.

PERDY!!!

(Tap, tap, tap on the glass was all she could do)

I was horrified to see her predicament. The last time We'd known of her, in her pen, was the day before...had the poor thing been locked away in this situation for a full night and day? I think so. She drank water until I thought she'd drowned herself.

Again...Poor Perdy!

This time Levi got a little more then a talk'in to. LOL

So, what other things have we been up to?

Let me see...

We've been working on setting up our swimming pool (not an easy task..let me tell you!"

Around the pool is a weedy patch that drives me crazy all the time. So, I searched Craigslist and found a person wanting a rock wall torn down in exchange for the rock given free. Sounded perfect for our hard working family. The girls and I spend two days digging, hauling and salvaging enough rock to fix our weed problem and keep the garden dirt from washing down. I sprayed the ground first and put really thick black trash bags under the rock to keep it weed free. It looks so good around our pool... (This is the pool that was given to us one summer from a job site of Richards. The owner thought our kids would enjoy it and man, was she right.)

(I'm so loving Craigslist... It's perfect for our family)

Aside for working hard to get the pool ready...

We've also had an unfortunate miss-hap with Levi and our back patio. Our back patio has been a disaster for far too long...

(Here is the horrid before pictures that I would never want to show anyone but for some reason decided to post here on my blog.) lol

Several summers ago we had the nifty idea to make a brick patio. We leveled the area and spent weeks mixing, coloring and pouring cement to make this huge patio. It looked nice for about one summer and then it started to sink..shift...grow horrid weeds and sunk way too low to easily step off of the cement step.

We've not had the funding to fix this problem and have had to live with it for several summers. Anyway, a few weeks ago Levi tripped trying to climb in and bit the concrete with his teeth. Poor baby had a bloody lip and rattled his front tooth. He was so hurt that he couldn't even eat ice cream without pain. The dentist said he had trauma but that the x-ray said his teeth are fine for now. I was so upset at what had happened I started praying and searching for a solution.

Hubby and I talked about laying a new patio, building a new deck... something...anything! But, everything just was way too costly and not possible.

So, I started searching Craigslist

I typed in deck wood and would you believe, I found a person wanting their old deck torn down and was willing to lower their asking price so that we could afford to buy it for $200.00. I was so excited and we made a family outing of it. We took the entire deck apart, loaded it into our two minivans, and hauled it home. :))

Then, within a week or so later, another opportunity arose to have another deck as well. So, the family again worked like dogs and took it apart leaving us with tons of really great wood to reassemble in our own back yard.

(Thank You Jesus!)

My wonderful parents came to help get us started.

...and before we knew it, my brother-in-law joined in.

The process has been huge but so worth it.

I just couldn't believe how nice the wood really was from these decks and we didn't have to purchase any new brackets or anything. It was all there.

I've had the fun job of de-screwing the top boards

We've all been doing our part.

Addi and Levi were watering the flowers that have already found their home on the deck.

Addison was helpful with the rock moving but with the deck, she's been grounded.

This past week when she was spending the night with a friend, tripped on a rock and broke her toe. Snapped a clean break on the tip of it. OUCH!

I've pretty much grounded her to the chair or light activities until it has a chance to heal a bit.

We've had a great time teasing her about doing something so silly as tripping on a little rock and breaking her toe.

Oh the joy of razzing your children :))

And finally...

Today is Richard's birthday

He's 44 and still as handsome as ever...

Yep, that's my man! (and my dad)

So for his birthday, he and I got up early and enjoyed a yummy breakfast and coffee on the part of the deck that is semi finished.

Such a sweet morning together :))

(Cool fountain, huh... Yep, Craigslist LOL)

Tonight we will have a family bbq with just our family on hopefully the other part of the deck if it gets finished. lol

Happy Birthday Sweetie...

We love you!!

Well, that's about it for now...Next week we have a whole new schedule of work planned. After my parents saw the deck deal we found on Craigslist, and how great the wood really was, they had me find them one too. Who would have figured so many used decks were available? LoL

Yep, next Monday we are doing it again...This family never stops. I think of us like worker ants. We just go and go and go...always doing something! :))

"The Gift of an Ordinary Day" by Katrina Kenison

2010-05-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

This was so good, I just wanted to pass it on in hopes that every mother will watch it. Wow, how this has changed my thinking today. :))

Busy, Busy Week

2010-05-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

This week has been packed with family and projects to keep us busy. Addison has a market project at school where the kids earn play dollars for points earned during the weeks prior. Then, they have to come up with a project that they can make and sell at market. On market day several class rooms participate and sell their items and buy other kids items with the dollars earned.

Are you confused? LOL

Here is Addison's project for this market. She made creative magnetic clips...to hold pictures and such. She worked hard on them and I think they turned out cute!...Yes, I helped her some and it was fun! LOL

The pollywog's are made from fishing lures without hooks.

This is how well they work. Pretty cool huh!

Also, this week we've had Reiko & Gabby, Pollo & Jauni and Heidern over for a BBQ. Look how cute the boys are. Heidern is getting so big! It was great to see Levi loving on him. All night long he kept saying.... "Can I hold my birf-half-brother, Keiden?" That's quite a mouth full for a three year old to say and understand. But we love that he's sorting it all out and putting his genetic roots in order for his relationship with Heidern. We just hope that soon he will be able to correctly pronounce his name before Heidern is older, so he won't get confused with being called both Heidern and Keiden. LOL

And last but not least, we had a full day with Michelle (Bailey's birthmother) and her graduation from Phoenix University. I couldn't be more proud of her.

Yay Michelley....We love you!!!

( sorry the pics were dark at the graduation but it was the best I could do)

Kathryn loving on her Grandma during the ceremony

Bailey and Addi...I love my girls seeing Michelle work so hard and graduate.

Levi was a ham during the ceremony. He befriended a sweet little old Grandma on one side of us and also a cute little boy on the other side. The boy is not shy and wants to know everyone. It was funny!

It's so important that our kids have these bonding and memorable events with their birth parents. Michelle overcoming her difficulties and fears to finish school like this, is such a testimony to my girls. You can do anything you set your heart and mind to do. We are blessed to have our kid's birthparents in our lives and treasure them so deeply. They truly are a part of our family and our lives are complete with them in it.

Kathryn loving on her Mommy :))

Here is the reception party for her graduation. It was fun.

Her hubby David and my Richard carried in the cake. They acted like it was heavy to get Michelle and my sympathy for having to carry it.

What nuts! Too funny!

Levi couldn't wait to dig into the cake :)

Michelle's Mother-In-Law and some Aunts, Grandmother, Parents and even her Pastor and His wife all attended. It was great to see everyone.

Michelle's parents :))

Loved getting to talk with them and we had plenty of good laughs as Bailey told them of her recent new car and how she wrecked it 5 days later. Geeze!!! Teenagers!!

Megan loving on me :)) It was great that they came and showed their love for all of us.

Michelle, you've worked so hard... Couldn't be more proud of all you've accomplished!

You go girl!

Love you!!!

Thank you Lord, Jesus for Michelle!

We pray that You will bless her and her family and bring her the most awesome; perfect employment for whatever career path she chooses... and that all of her hard work will seem worth it very soon.

In Jesus name....Amen!

Is This Normal Chicken Behavior?

2010-05-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

We truly are an odd family...LOL

Here is how we spent our evening tonight.

Too Funny!

After church today, we had a bbq and enjoyed some awesome food and fellowship.

Considering how hard my hubby works it was great to just see him relax and not do anything for awhile!

I made a huge batch of yummy hot wings.

Everything was so good!

I think the best thing was just relaxing and watching the kids play with each other.

Here is our mini version of football. :))

This entire weekend has been full and packed with friends and family. Now, I'm looking forward to winding down and getting some... Oh So Sweet Sleep!

Grandma's 70th Birthday

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

Saturday we went to Fort Scott, Kansas to celebrate my mother-in-laws 70th birthday.

Happy Birthday Mom :)

I have to be honest and say that with as busy as we've been this past month and with all of the frustrations with our embryo waiting, I really wasn't feeling up to going out of town and celebrating anything. I even told my husband that I felt maybe he and the kids should go without me. Then, just a few hours before getting ready to go, I decided to suck it up, put my shoes on... and just go. As soon as we arrived, I felt the tiredness and heaviness of my heart just lift and I was so glad I'd come. My In-Laws were so sweet and such a pleasure to be around. Their smiles and excitement to see the kids was awesome too. The room was already set up for the party and a lunch was set out for us to enjoy before the celebration began.

We all sat around a pre-school table in the Sunday school room to eat.

Here is my MIL, hubby, FIL, cousin Michaela, Addi, Aunt Brenda, Bailey, and Levi

Before people started arriving, we snapped a few pics of everyone.

This is Richard's family

It was Grandma's big day so here's one with her grand kids

And one with Grandpa too

The grand kids

My hubby with his sister, Brenda... she's the oldest

Aunt Brenda with her daughter Michaela

Our family

Cousin Michaela

Our kids...

Bailey, Levi, and Addison

As we sat and waited for the party to begin and people to show up, the kids played with Grandpa.

Just watching them interact together got me to thinking about the fact that Grandpa, Grandma and many of the relatives are getting up there in years and just how important it is for all of us to have this time together. Once this thought hit my heart I grabbed my camera and began snapping pictures of everyone. Life is short and way too busy, I don't want to take for granted, anyone here, assuming that they will always be around in my life. I don't want to miss this opportunity to love and enjoy each and every person who walks through the door to celebrate with us; knowing that it might be a long time again, before I see their faces and these small moments with them could be our last and precious.

Aunt Brenda spoiling the kids with treats she'd saved for them.

Levi sharing his love with his beloved Auntie

Me sneaking in close to my MIL and loving on her

As people entered the room and hugs continued to happen, I realized just how special this moment in time was for each of us. If I had given in to my business, tiredness, and frankly lack of wanting to be social, I would have missed this opportunity to love on those I have not seen for years, nor will possibly ever see again. As time has sliped by and months turned into years, I am saddened that I haven't taken advantage of more of these opportunities to be with the people I love and call family.

So many much loved and missed distant Cousins, Aunts and Uncles... And wonderful friends

... Like Richard's Great Aunt Gladys who I have not seen in years.

Oh how I've missed her!

Bailey cut and served 4 large cakes.

Aunt Barbara, Aunt Mary, Aunt Effie...

And others...

All together there were 92 people who came to say happy birthday to my MIL.

The girls with their Great Uncle Donnie

And Great Aunt Kathleen

Have you ever noticed how there can be 100 other chairs in the room, but still your babies (no matter how big they are) want to sit on your lap? LOL

Then... once one of your kids is perched on your knee, soon another will follow. :))

And before you know it...all of your kidos are in the picture. I love it!

Poor Levi...Mom's lap just couldn't hold him too. Hahaha

All in all, we had a wonderful time and I'm so glad we came. I look forward to the next time when our family's will see each other again.

Thank you Lord for changing my heart and helping me to set aside everything that is weighing me down and put those I love, as a greater priority in my life today. Thank you for showing me the importance of family and friends and the blessings they bring to my life.

Jesus, You are so good to me ...Always.

No, No, No...No...Okay, just one! LOL

2010-04-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

It's spring and look what Levi made me do. LOL

We went to the store and came home with 10 very sweet, little chicks.

I tried to be strong and I told Levi No!! several times, until his big eyes wore me down.

As we were leaving the store I said..."Levi, your daddy's going to have a cow!"

Oh well, What's a mother to do?

Too Funny!

Busy, Busy Day Today :)

2010-04-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

This morning started early with a family breakfast. This was Bailey's Jr. Prom so she had big plans of being gone for most of the day and all night long. I wanted to sneak in some family time before she was off and running.

Sorry about the glare on my glasses...uuugghh!

Not too bad of a snap-shot of the 5 of us.

After breakfast we went shopping for summer clothes and picked up a few bags of mulch from the good ol' Walmart garden center.
This, I'm embarrassed to say is our front VERY neglected flower bed. We've let it go wild ever since last summer and it looked a mess.

How do you like them- there dandelions? LOL

Poor Addison and her friend Julie got suckered into pulling weeds. I was amazed that they seemed to be having fun doing it. Usually around our house pulling weeds means you are in trouble. I helped too and together we managed to make some progress.

Here are the newly potted flowers and mulch. Nothing grows in this part of the yard ...NEVER HAS THE ENTIRE 17 YEARS WE'VE LIVED HERE...So, if you want anything to grow basically, it has to be in pots.

I still need a fresh coat of white paint on the patio set but that's for another day.

We love sitting out here when the kids play basketball late at night. It's great!

After fixing the front yard, Bailey's cousin, Jojo, helped Bailey dress for her prom.

This is Bailey and her (friend date) Aaron. He's such a sweet guy and they looked great all decked out.

They went out to dinner at a place called "715" (yeah, that's the name of the place. The food is not that great but the whole place is lit by candle light and it's quite an experience to eat there. ) Then, they walked the down town in Lawrene and finally went to the prom.

This is my favorite picture. The two of them have so much fun together.

We had to take some funny pics too. Poor Aaron!!

She was brushing off his pants...not spanking him. lol

I had to tease her that she looked like she was proposing to him in this shot. hahaha

Aaron actually opened the door for Bailey but we thought it would be great to take a picture of her doing it for him instead. LOL

This was them being announced and going into the prom.

I'm sure they are going to have a wonderful time. We just couldn't be more proud of our oldest, baby girl!

Bailey... You look BEAUTIFUL!

My Heart Today

2010-04-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today was 50’s day at school and Addison looked so cute all dressed up, I had to snap a few pictures.

With things being a bit depressing here at home this morning I wanted to get out and just enjoy the nice weather. Levi and I decided to meet Richard for lunch and spend a bit of time together. When I was driving home I couldn’t help but think of the struggles we are having and feel the frustration that embryo adoption waiting has been for us.

Then, wouldn't you know it, I passed the cemetery. It struck my heart so hard that I had to pull over and think about it for a moment. I even snapped a picture of it.

Everyone dies... We all are only here for such a short time... I want my life here on this earth to have substance. I want it to mean more than just the simple life of living for myself. I want the Lord to use me anyway that He sees fit. So He's handed me the gift of infertility, disappointment, and years of sorrowful waiting as He builds our family. I've struggled, whined, pleaded for Him to complete us but, it's His desire for us to continue to wait.
(My lilacs in full bloom today)

I know that His thoughts are higher than mine and I know that His love for me is greater than I could ever imagine, so I will continue to trust Him. He has formed me in my mother's womb and He knows me even better than I know myself. From the moment I took my first breath of life to the moment I lay this life down and take my last breath hear on this earth... I will continue to trust Him.
(Found this figurine in a gift shop and had to have it.)

My heart will hurt, my tears will fall and my spirit will fail, but in all things... I will continue to trust You, Jesus.

                God, You are so good to me.

Frustrating Week

2010-04-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

I’m having one of those weeks where you just want to pull the covers over your head and ask the Lord to start over. Yesterday I spend hours on the phone trying to locate Richards and my infertility documents that show our test results for my surgeries, exams, and his sperm analysis and urology diagnosis. I was repeatedly told that our records are too old and was destroyed. I guess when you struggle with infertility early in your marriage and then go the road of adoption, only to return again to the hope of a pregnancy, this is to be expected. Apparently, when you are not a patient for over 10 years, your records are destroyed. We’ve been at this waiting business to have a baby for 21 years…So now I guess, it’s a clean slate and we have to re-do all of the test and have no proof of the past. I’m beating myself up for not keeping a file of these documents and being more organized.

Then, for the adoption grant we are applying for, I need a letter from my doctor that states I can have a baby (our infertility is because of my husband’s 0 sperm). I received a phone call from my doctor; she will only write the letter if I pay to have another costly and painful biopsy and sonogram. I have been cleared from these biopsies already and have been told that they are unnecessary by other doctors because the last several sonograms and biopsies have looked so good. I do have the sonograms every six months and the last one looked great…So why should I have to pay for an additional one, and the pain of the biopsy, just to have a letter written?

What if applying for this grant is for nothing, and what if we never hear from a couple regarding embryos. The few we have heard from have not seemed hopeful for any length of time. I just hate the idea of putting myself through this painful experience and paying all of the new doctor visits and costly test and exams without any real assurance that we are even going to get to do an embryo adoption soon. If not, and it’s still going to be more waiting that the Lord has for us, then all of these tests would have to be done again to satisfy everyone with current results. I just wish I had something solid to plant my hope and desires upon that would make this all worth it.

So today, I’m praying for the Lord to show me His will. I have to remind myself that the Lord sometimes shuts a door so that I will turn and follow His will in another direction. I’m also praying that the slim possibility of our infertility clinic used 20 years ago might have some of the lost documents. I called them last week and signed to have my records sent to me. I have not heard anything so am hopeful that they indeed do still have records to send.

Jesus, please show me Your will and straighten my heart if I am to have this biopsy. Please bring us our embryo/’s and finish this journey of waiting and hoping to see the fulfillment of the promises You’ve spoken to our hearts. We love You Lord Jesus and if it’s Your will that we continue to wait and go through these difficulties….Please help us to endure them and not despair…Mold us into useful tools and use our lives, marriage, journey of infertility, adoptions and waiting, all for Your glory.

Amen

Beautiful Day At The Park

2010-03-29T18:13:00.000-07:00

Today was beautiful outside.

We decided it was the kind of day to go out and smell the flowers and play at the park.

Addison received a package in the mail...Yes, after spending the night with Tyler (her birth sibling), they had to mail her ipod cord back to her. I swear, those girls ALWAYS leave something when they spend the night at each other's houses. Levi was ready to ride his bike to the park. He dressed himself I might add... and was set to go with his make shift sword in hand. LoL

Addison and her friend Jaina

Bob loves the kids and he loves going to the park. He actually broke his neck a few years back when the kids tied him to a tree and he couldn't get to them when they were playing. Just look at his concerned face....all of those Beagle/Sharpe wrinkles. hahaha

Levi made a new little friend too.

Can't go to the park and not roll down the hill a few times :))

Levi realized I was down the hill walking Bob and decided to run...I mean, roll down to me....

What a champ!

But as fun as that was... He never stops and was off to catch up with his sister.

We had a great time and I guess the weather is supposed to be beautiful all week so hopefully we will get to spend lots more time outside.

God is Good!

2010-03-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of Levi and I at the doctor's office today.

On the way to the doctor's this morning, I was praying for the Lord to give me wisdom and the right words to talk with my doctor about our continued desire for an embryo adoption. Don't know why I was so nervous, but I was.
Then....As the door opened,
I was surprised to see one of my best friends in high school was my student nurse. The moment she hugged me, everything came spilling out... Along with a bunch of tears. LOL

I was able to open up and really talk about everything and how important it is for me to be in the best possible shape diabetically and have a current uterine scan on file. She was great and ordered a full blood work-up and scheduled the next uterine scan and follow up appointment, to document the progress. She was so supportive and encouraging. The Lord could not have answered my prayers more preciously than to send me "Trish" today.

God, You are sooooo incredibly good! Thank you for walking me through this appointment! It was awesome to feel You there with me.

Pizza, Parade, and a Wonderful Day With My Kido's

2010-03-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

For St. Patricks Day, Michelle (Bailey's birth mom and Kathryn her 1/2 birth sibling) joined the kids and I for a day of fun. Aaron, Bailey's friend came along too.

Here is a shot with me and the kids. Getting them all to smile is something else. LOL

Before the parade started we went to a little pizza shop called Rudy's for lunch.

Kathryn and Addison

Michelle and Kathryn

Me and Michelle :))

Bailey and her friend Aaron

Me :))

Levi was telling me that he could see two fish in the fish pond. I thought it was so cute that I took several pictures of him.

The pizza was awesome! Yummy veggies with a wheat crust.

This was Aaron's pizza when he was done. LOL

As you can see, Michelle and I had no problem eating all of ours. Hahaha

Addison being a goof and missing her mouth with the breath spray. That's my girl!

After lunch and after I spend a good 20 minutes drying my son's jacket from when he decided it was a good idea to try and catch the fish in the fish pond (thank goodness for the hand dryers in the bathroom),... we still had to wait a good 30 minutes for the parade to start. Levi brought his own drum so time went a bit faster for him.

He was such a happy boy when he heard the music and saw the parade coming.

After the parade, we all went to the Goodwill and had fun shopping. Yes, I will admit that I'm always on the hunt for a second hand deal whether it's from a discount store, garage sale or the local Goodwill. Aaron was a trooper and we all had a good laugh when we found some funky big glasses.

And to top off the fun day we all went back to the house and had a girl + Aaron hair party. I told Aaron that he will make is wife a very happy woman, if he's willing to do her hair for her. It is the test of knowing if you've married your best friend or not. He thought it sounded fun and to be honest, he was pretty good at it too.

Here the girls are all letting the goop sit on their hair and process.

Wish I had the after pictures to show you but after they finished their hair, everyone scattered and went their own way. Everyone's hair turned out beautiful and even Michelle and I got ours done. Aaron texted Bailey and said he had a blast so I guess we didn't scare him off with too much girly stuff.
He was a trooper.
All in all, it was a great day and we enjoyed our time together. So far spring break has been fun and it's got me looking forward to summer when the kids are home more often.

Taking On Healthy: Spaghetti Squash, Spaghetti

2010-03-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm making a dish my mother taught me to make called Spaghetti Squash, Spaghetti. It's a great step in my endeavor towards healthy eating and controling my diabetes so I'm completely on board. Thought I'd show everyone here how to make it. It's so easy, easy, easy!

First you find a very cute little boy to help you and then you pick out a pretty yellow spaghetti squash. I'm making this recipe in bulk so I can freeze some meals for later. Your family will most-likely only need one.

Levi is showing you that you need to cut the squash long ways with a big knife

Me cutting them open and deseading them just like a pumpkin.

Levi wanted to try eating some raw... He didn't like it much. LOL

Then you place it in the microwave for about 12 minutes. It's done when the outside is kind of soft. Let it cool for a minute or two before you continue because it's REALLY hot! :)

Richard took over cutting open the rest of the squash while I worked on the cooked ones.

Once it's cooled, start shredding the inside of the squash with a fork. It's amazing how much comes out of it. It's like it just keeps going and going.

When it's all finished it should look like just an empty shell
(Throw that away)

Here is how much I was able to get from one large squash. This would be enough to feed our family for one meal.

Now I make the spaghetti sauce. I used the Hunt's Zesty & Spicy sauce, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, garlic, Italian and oregano seasoning.

In case you don't know how to quickly peel fresh garlic, here is what you do...
Get a big knife and lay it on a clove. Then, smash it pretty hard with your hand held flat.

The smashed garlic just slides out of the outter layer.

Then, chop it into small pieces.

Now, open your sauce cans and dump the content into a tall soup pan. Next,brown your hamberger meat and drain the grease into one of your empty cans. You don't want the grease to stay in your food. I always use a pretty lean meat so I don't have too much grease. (remember I'm cooking bulk that's why my picture shows a lot of grease.)

Next, I dump in my garlic, Italian and oregano seasonings, drained meat, and simmer the whole thing for about 10 minutes. (I use a lot of seasoning when I'm cooking with dried, not fresh herbs.)

Then, I portion out the squash, top with the spaghetti sauce and wrap the dishes to freeze. I just happen to have these handy little microwave dishes I saved when I was eating the Weight Watches meals to get my blood sugars under control. Richard was so sweet to help me and together we finished this project in no time at all.

Now, I don't care how healthy something might be, if your kids/family won't eat it, it's not something that's going to stick. So, here's the proof that this meal is yummy... Just look at that smile! I'm pretty sure that our family will never cook spaghetti again with pastey flour noodles. We are hooked!

YUMM....:))

Green Soup...And Oh So Good For You :))

2010-03-12T19:26:00.000-08:00

I have found an amazing new way to take in my greens and fill my body with those vitamins that I can't seem to get from the foods I'm eating. I call it my cup of green soup.
Now,
Each morning instead of the coffee I used to drink I now drink a hot cup of green soup. My diabetic blood sugar levels are testing amazing and man, my body loves me.

I only use organic ingredients and try to find the greenest veggies I can find.
I blend everything together. Here are some of the ingredients I blend in my soup.

Olive oil

Walnuts

Bailey helps by smashing and peeling lots of fresh garlic
Thanks Bailey :)

Collard Greens

Dandelion Leaves

Kale

Chard

Leeks

I blend it all together with parmesan cheese, basiel, broccoli and a touch of salt (very little)

Ummmm... taisty bunch of goo lol

I then spoon it into ice cube tays for individual servings

And freeze
See... I do drink it and although it take a few times of drinking it to get used to it, It's not too bad.

I store them in big freezer bags and in each cup of soup I add two of the cubes as one serving.

And it's good to the last drop.

(Friendship Clause)
Don't forget to brush your teeth or chew a bit of gum after drinking it or your friends won't like you. It's very garlic and onion potent. lol :)

When You Pray

2010-03-02T08:16:00.000-08:00

When you pray...

These were the words that I woke to this morning. I pondered them for a moment only tho realize this was the Lord speaking to me and His meaning was a bit direct to the fact, that it's been a while since I've stopped and given Him time...prayed. So, while the house was still quiet with everyone sleeping, I got on my knees and sought the Lord. The moment I opened my heart to Him I realized there was a bucket full of anger awaiting me to be dealt with. Anger towards loved ones who've hurt me, anger towards past friends who've hurt or disappointed me, and then, it surprised me to see that among the list was the Lord Himself. I realized that I was holding frustration, disappointment and even anger towards the Lord in His plan of waiting for our embryos.

It seems that through the years that we've waited, I've gone through so many different phases of emotions. We started with excitement, then we seemed to have a sigh of frustrated desire, then excitement again and disappointment, sorrow, back to frustrations of longing, waiting, buckets of tears, acceptance of His timing, and now...I find hidden anger. It stumped me for a moment that I could be holding anger and yet stay active in my church, sing and play worship, pray, receive from the Word and yet be holding something so hard as anger, for frustrated desires, against the very One I'm worshiping.

but geeze, isn't that what we do so often with those we get offended or hurt by...we act like it's fine and there's nothing wrong. Yet, inside we still have that coldness towards them that lingers. I just really didn't think it would be possible to do that with my Lord and Savior.

So, this morning there was a washing of repentance and I asked the Lord to help me to forgive and love those who've hurt me and to forgive me for holding my heart in anger towards Him.

AAAuuuhhhh sigh... What a heavy load lifted.

I truly want to shine in Jesus and do it from a genuine heart. How else will we reach this hurting world?

Thank you Jesus for waking me this morning and working...Once Again...on my stubborn heart.

More Church Remodel

2010-02-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

This past week we've been working on our church entry way. We spent literally days chipping up tile and scraping the mortar underneath. We couldn't have done this project without the support of everyone willing to get on their knees and use EVERY OUNCE of their energy.

Thanks (Bailey, Richard, Pastor Chris, Paul, Stewart, Amanda, Mayshell and Arlinton)

It was horrific...LOL

We also couldn't have done it without the awesomeness of Will and Shay (Bailey's birth family) who gave support, knowledge and donated product to do the staining correctly.

Thanks guys, we love you :))

But, when we look at the finished project, we love it and it all seemed worth it.

Here is the before pictures

And here are the after...

Here is the awesome table we found at the Goodwill store and fixed up. We think it looks great and is perfect for the space.

As you can see, the floor has a wonderful pattern on it from the old tiles. We couldn't have hoped for it to turn out any better. :))

God is Good!!

Valentines Day

2010-02-14T05:59:00.000-08:00

Our treat for Valentines Day was a sweet hockey game. I'm okay with most sports, but hockey is my favorite! Last night's game was AWESOME and we won the game with a 6 to 1 victory.

It was GREAT!!!

It was the Mavericks vs Mississippi RiverKings

The kids are just like me and absolutly LOVE hockey. We're pretty convienced that Levi should become a player and would most-likely be the most penalized player for fighting too.
Our boy's got some spunk in him and would be really great! We'd get used to him being toothless. LOL

Tonight was Disney night and the kids all got free Disney stuffed toys.

The place was a packed house and every seat was filled. Here's our Maverick mascot.

During intermission they let all of the mascots play a game of broom ball. It was cute!

And of course hockey, wouldn't be hockey without a good fight or two. This was the second one. I thought it was amazing that the refs. just stood there and let them at it. I guess it's a bit like when Josiah and Levi go at it at church some times. Megan and I just stand there for a second and see if they can work it out. Usually they end up on the floor and have to be busted up...Just as the fights here in hockey. Hummm.... Maybe those boys would be good to play hockey together. It would be best though to have them on the same team. LOL

Here was the hockey puck toss to win money.

And here was the clean up from when a player got WHACKED with a high stick and had to go for stiches for sure. Poor guy! Had to be painful!

And here was our Win!!! Go MAVERICKS!!!

We had a great time and can't wait to go again. If you haven't gone to a hockey game in awhile...you should go. It's a BLAST!

Happy Valentines Day :))

Church Remodel Project

2010-02-07T11:32:00.000-08:00

This week hubby and I, have been up to our necks in a remodel project at our church. We started on Tuesday and had it all finished by Saturday night and ready for Sunday morning worship. God is so good and provided everything we needed. We also had a wonderful group of people with willing hearts to help with the load of work it took to finish.

The first day of our project was not too bad and allowed us to get the carpet steamed cleaned and set outside of the building to dry... but Friday it was a different story. We woke to everything covered in a blanket of snow.

It was absolutely beautiful.

Here is our humble little church and the before pictures. We were thankful to be in a building and blessed with a small stage, podium, sound equipment and chairs to sit on. This is how it's looked for the past year that we've made this our church home. We all joked that with the slatted walls, mirrors and funky tile floors it looked like we were meeting in an old shoe store. :)

So this past week, we were blessed to have found a good deal on some used carpet and padding. With our small church and it's VERY limited funds, it was perfect and gave us inspiration to do a complete church remodel.

Because my hubby, Richard does flooring for a living and I do decorating, we were put to the task of coming up with the layout and design of the project. Both of us went straight to our knees and asked the Lord to help pull it all together. It was amazing to watch just how perfectly He did so also. Everyone pitched in with their time and abilities and things began to happen. I was even amazed that those who had their lives full with jobs, family, babies or disabilities, dropped everything and came to bless in any way they could. There is nothing more beautiful then to see the body of Christ come together to meet needs like this.

It was Awesome!

Here is the pieces of carpet all laid out and being cleaned by our wonderful Ted. When we saw them laying there, we knew that Richard would have his work cut out for him.

It was a mess! LOL

Things really started taking off when the slot boards started coming down off of the walls.

It was a job that took several VERY strong and determined guys to do. Those things were so heavy.
Even Pastor Chris went to town on those puppies! LOL

I can't tell you how happy I was when I called Brian, who does mud and drywall for a living, to my rescue. If he had not come and fixed the walls, I would have had to and it would have never looked as good as it did when he finished.

Thanks Brian...

You saved me once again!

In my design, I needed a pillar built and laminate put on the stage area. Even though many thought I was nuts, Richard, my awesome husband, loved me enough to do it.

Thanks honey, it turned out beautiful!

I think many thought I'd lost my mind, and clearly needed more sleep, when the mud started going on the wall for the foe rocks. LOL

Paul was doing his best to make sure Richard measured up as well.

Thanks Paul, he needs to be kept in line. LOL

And Jeanine was incredible! She would come to me and say... Okay, what can I do? Poor Jeanine ended up stuck with some of the worst jobs and in turn, was covered in sanding dust and left with the task of cleaning out the mud buckets.

Couldn't love you more, lady!

Thank you!!

Susan, Megan, Stuart, Amanda, and Mayshell's Mr. Right, all pitched in with so much energy to do the daunting task of painting everything.

You guys are all AMAZING!!... and we couldn't have done it without you.

Arlinton is setting up the sound system and everything looked perfectly hid behind our wonderful sound system walls built by my Daddy. Thanks so much for all you've done for us dad, you're heart for our fellowship is beautiful!

So here is the finished picture of our little church. Everything and everybody came together and now we have a place to worship that is as sweet and precious as the people who attend.

Couldn't believe how quickly things were done and everything was cleaned up and ready in time for service on Sunday.

Mayshell and Anna even snuck in early to do one more, once over cleaning.

Here we are doing a sound check and getting ready for our worship. Poor Arlinton had to redo all of his hard work when our divaness and preferences of where we needed to stand for hearing each other messed up his layout.

Here is Addi playing peeka-boo with the twins as we practiced worship.

I think those girls are my biggest fans. They don't even notice when I play a sour note. LOL

Some of our church body.

I just love these people so much!

God has truly blessed our little fellowship and I'm eager to see what new things He has in store for us this year. As we've already seen... He can do anything!

Our Day At The Museum

2010-01-26T08:42:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd share a few pictures from a trip to the museum I took with my friend Susan, Addi, Levi, and her great nephew Ethan. We had a great time and enjoyed our morning together. Outside it was really warm, foggy and although the snow was melting there was still ice on the trees and bushes.

Levi was not too keen on the big stuffed polar bear and even with me holding him, was not too happy. LOL

Addi and Ethan

Addison

Levi showing his teeth like the dinosaur's.

Cool reflection of him, huh.

Ethan looks as scared as the rabbit

LOL

Levi was on the move and couldn't stop too long for anything. He was so excited. If Susan and I stopped to look as something, Levi would shout..."Hurry Mom!!!, Hurry..You HAVE to see this!!!" I thought he might have a small heart attack, his heart was beating so fast with excitement.
He was WAY TOO CUTE!!

Susan with the boys

The trees were so pretty.

Levi ridding the Jayhawk. Yes, we are big KU fans.

Getting two young, goofy boys to smile is almost impossible. :))

This was a art structure that the campus spent lots of money making. It looks like a tornado of dried sticks. I guess it's pretty fitting for Kansas. Most people around here do wonder what it's like inside one. .... Welp, now we know, minus the wind. LOL

This is looking up from inside it.

Me and the kido's

We had a great time and can't wait to do it again. I know Levi and Ethan would like us to go back every Saturday, if not... just move in and live there.

hahaha

It truly was a lot of great fun, but my favorite part was just watching the excitement from the kids.

That made my day... Kids are AWESOME!

Thank you Jesus for the one's You've given me.

Shame on Him!

2010-01-22T06:22:00.000-08:00

So what do you do with a husband that stands on the back of your scale, and makes you think (just for a moment) that you put on 12 lbs over night? LOL

I stood there and thought... I only had a tiny handful of popcorn. How'd that happen?

He's so BAD!!!

What's New With Me

2010-01-17T11:17:00.000-08:00

The other day a friend of mine asked why I haven't been blogging since Christmas?

So...

I figure it's time for an update on what's going on with me. I've been super busy since Christmas reading my book requirements for my doula certification. I plan on having it all finished, writing my paper, and turning it all in next month.

Yay!

I'm also very excited that next, in late Feb. or early March, one of my Cafemom friends is birthing a few hours from me and has asked for me to be her doula.

Can't wait to not only meet in person, but... to get to serve as her doula,

is just over the top exciting!

Along with focusing on my doula things, I've been working on getting my body in shape and getting my diabetes under control. I know that if I'm to do an embryo adoption one day, I need my body to be ready. I also have to be able to show my Dr. and Sheila, my midwife, that I'm serious about carrying a pregnancy and can pull it off safely.

So...

Each morning I'm faithfully exercising 20-30 minutes and soon will advance that to either longer in the mornings or splitting it and doing another 20-30 minutes in the evening.

I also took one of our spare rooms and turned it into my own personal study/fitness room. I wanted to create a no fail environment for reading (I get distracted easily) and logging my blood sugars, meal prep, exercise, and weight loss, so I stocked this room with nothing but things to help keep me on track and the kids have to stay out!! LOL

Here is my messy, chicken -scratch logging of everything. I track my blood sugars three x's a day, my morning weight, exactly everything I've eaten, water I drank, exercise, and when I've taken my medications. If you look closely, you can see that Levi also has helped me do some journaling when I wasn't looking and hasn't understood the No Kids in the room concept. Hahaha... I think it's cute that he snuck in to leave me a sweet note in my journal. Maybe this was his way of encouraging me.

Thank you Levi :))

I've also added a new (kind of ugly) watch to my daily attire. This watch has three different alarm settings that helps me remember when to eat my snacks and mid day meal. I always forget to eat in the day time and then over eat at night when I'm starving. I can't tell you how much this has helped me. It's ugly but I love it!

Here is the foods I have stocked in my little frig. It's so easy to go in and just grab what I need and am not tempted to eat something else that's in the kitchen's refrig. It's great!

I'm also now drinking tons of water. I try and drink anywhere from 6-11 of these tall glasses each day.

I'm eating 2 snacks and 3 main meals a day. Most of my main meals are frozen Weight Watcher meals to help me get used to smaller portions and they are low in sugar and I can grab and eat them quickly. I figure after I build a good habit of eating these smaller meals I then can go back to cooking and having better control over my home cooking and portion size. I did pre-cook some burgers I like to call Fiesta Burgers. They are made from fresh ground turkey, veggies and lots of seasoning. I love them and can pull one from the freezer quickly and eat as a snack. I also try and eat a handful of lettuce or salad with each meal. I know... the salad in this pic. is kind of sad looking, but It was all I had before shopping. LOL

Here is another favorites of my snacks. I think of it as a diabetic friendly turkey hoggie sandwich. It's a few big leafs of lettuce, turkey, and mustard. It's crunchy and satisfies.

Here's some of my pre-frozen Fiesta Burgers. I took an afternoon with a friend and pre-cooked these little puppies up and froze them in tiny little individual servings.

And I don't care how good you are trying to be with your eating, you are going to have those days when you just want to eat something yummy. So... Here is my yummy snack. I found these diabetic friendly yogurts. They are 50 cal., zero sugar, and 3 carbs. I like to eat mine with a very small handful of frozen blueberries.

YUM!

Everything is going so good. I've gotten my blood sugar levels drastically down, my medications are finally being taken as they should and this week I've lost 9 lbs. My body is loving this and my mind is feeling like the fog of uncontrolled diabetes is lifting.

God is so good and I think that this is all in His perfect timing. Who knows....Maybe He has our embryo babies just right around the corner in my life and it won't be long before we finally get to meet them.

Snowed In For Christmas

2009-12-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas

Everyone!!!

We've had a pretty busy few weeks around here.

Lots of visits and visiting with friends and family.

We spent a great evening with Bailey's birthfather's family. They came sporting yummy pizza, and gifts for the kido's. The girls introduced their family to the joys of an Ipod Touch. Will and Shay were quickly sucked in and it was so funny to watch them play.

Shay was trying to conquer the water slide game and her poor girl kept screaming as she'd fall off of the slide. Too Funny!

Madison and her Mommy :))

The kids all opened their gifts from each other

Levi was given these 100 balls and a wonderful drum set. You should have seen our house there were balls EVERYWHERE and we are STILL enjoying such lovely sounding music!!

Thanks Will! LOL

We had a blast with our Shotton Family ( you guys are great!) and can't wait to see them again.

Love you!

Christmas Morning...

My parents arrived early and snuggled in our recliners until the coffee was ready. Dad wasn't feeling well but still got up and cooked everyone yummy pancakes, bacon and OJ for breakfast. Grandma gave Levi a new card game and taught him how to play. We've been playing ever since. :)) Watching him play is just too cute. I thought I'd share some pictures.

Thanks Grandma!!

After breakfast the crew showed up. Gabby, Reiko, Heidern, Pollo, and Juani.

(Levi's birthmother and family)

They came despite the fact that it was snowing like crazy out and had been all night long. The streets were not plowed and everyone was getting stuck. They made it all the way until they got to our street and we had to park their car and go get them in our van.

We opened gifts, ate a tasty meal together, and played games for most of the day. This was the first time that my parents were able to meet Gabby and the guys and that made my heart happy. Anytime I can enjoy my family along with my birthfamilies it's AWESOME to my heart!

Thanks Dad and Mom for being here with us. :))

This was Heidern's first Christmas and he seemed to already get the concept of gift opening. LOL

Heidern (our Grandbaby) snuggling with his Grandpa.
Everyone just passes him around and it's pretty special when you get him for any length of time alone.

Our family loves to play card games and it didn't take long before we had everyone hooked as well.

Levi did not always understand the concept that it wasn't his turn. LOL

We played games for most of the day and into the night. Before we knew it, the snow was way too deep for anyone to get out and our Christmas turned into one big slumber party. Our kids slept in Bailey's room, Reiko and Gabby got the hid-a-bed, Heidern slept with us and Pollo and Juani slept in the bedroom downstairs. Fortunately, my parents left for home before it became impossible to leave.

Breakfast the next morning was biscuits and gravy.

The snowplows did finally make it down our street and everyone (but me and Heidern) went out to help shovel the driveway and play in the snow.

Reiko and Levi playing in the snow

It was awesome to have so much help shoveling.

Levi and his icicle

Reiko showing Levi how to use the snowboard down the driveway.
She too funny!

All in all, we had a wonderful time. I think we might make it tradition to keep everyone overnight for Christmas. It sure made a memory for us to wake and have breakfast together.

There's just nothing like waking to the smell of fresh coffee, and yummy food amongst loved ones.

God is Good!

Addi's 11th Birthday :))

2009-12-11T23:44:00.000-08:00

Last night was Addison's 11th Birthday slumber party. She was pretty excited to get her Ipod touch. Now, she won't have to bug her sister to play on hers. Kids started arriving after school and played and watched fun movies until 11:00 pm when we made them all load up in their pj's for a late night run to Dunkin Donuts.

Levi

Grandpa decided to take a quick little nap and Bob decided he'd join him. LOL

I tried to tell Bob to get down and leave Grandpa alone but I think the love between them is mutual because Grandpa said he could stay.
Just look at that face...He knows he's getting away with something.
Hahaha

The ladies from our church surprised Addi by decorating a table with cookies, donuts, and hot cocoa. When we arrived they jumped out shouting

SURPRISE!

How's this for a cake? LOL

These ladies are AMAZING!

Mayshell did so many of the behind the scene things for Addison's party.

She is such a Blessing!

Kathryn, Bailey, and Tyler

Here is a snapshot of some of the birth sibs with our kido's

Love this of Kathryn and Bailey

Levi being Mr. Funny!

Bailey and my friend Megan

Here's one of me being silly with Michelle and Bailey

Me and my Bails

We had a wonderful time and it was a blast to do it so late at night. I'm sure Addison will remember this birthday party for years to come.

God is good...

Just An Update

2009-12-08T22:45:00.000-08:00

We've been so busy these last few weeks, I thought I'd post a few pictures to catch everyone up on the family.

First this is tonight,

Bob was mad at me for giving him his bath today. He and I had a battle of wills and I practically had to lasso him to get him into the tub. He's got to be the heaviest beagle/sharpe on the planet and he almost won too. When he plants his hind end down, it honestly takes Dad to get him up again. It was quite funny to see me dragging him down the hallway with all of my might. LOL

After I won, he was pretty mad at me for the rest of the day.

So... tonight, I showed him some special attention and he decided he's forgiven me.

Yeah, a little Bob love and we are friends again.

:))

This year Thanksgiving was at our house. We had some friends, all three birth mothers, one birth father...their kids, our kids, and even one of our birth mother's, mother came this year. We had something like 24 people all packed in our cozy little house. It was great! I cooked two turkey's and all of the fixings... And everyone else brought lots of yummy pies and cakes. The only glitch we had was the stinking potatoes! For some reason they would not cook.

Uuugghh!

Next year, I'm starting them before anything else.

Sorry I don't have pictures of the big event...I wish I'd of taken a few but just didn't have time. I did manage to get a few of the kids after things quieted down. I was sad that we thought to take this picture of them after Heidern had already gone home...bummer! It would have been nice to have had him in it too. And, of course we would have loved to of had Madison also. We truly missed our beloved Shotton family.

Trying to get everyone to look forward and smile is almost impossible...

But, we finally did it! Just look how much everyone has grown.
This is TJ, Tyler, Addison, Kathryn, Levi, and Bailey

(TJ and Tyler are Addi's birth sib's and Kathryn is Bailey's)

I did manage to snap a few shots of our tables before everyone showed up.

This started out being the kids table but ended up that everyone just mixed and mingled. It was great!

Levi was a big helper in getting things ready

The girls were awesome and helped me set the tables.

This was the second table set up in my doula room. How do you like those retro colored chairs? I thought they were perfect and was so glad to have them.

Levi is helping Addison wipe them down. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw him climb up them in his skivvies to give his best attempt at washing them like his big sissy.

He's so funny!

And here he is being "Jo Cool"... At least he has clothes on. hahaha

And finally, I thought I'd show our home back to normal after all of the remodeling projects and the holiday. A lot has changed. We've now got new funky-tile floors, new carpet in the living room, new smashed mosaic tile counter tops in the kitchen, as well as, (new to us) sink and stove.

It's great to have everything cleaned up, put back together

and ready for our next big event...

Christmas!

Hope you enjoyed

New plan for chasing away the embryo waiting blues

2009-12-02T08:45:00.000-08:00

I've been struggling with the embryo blues lately so I've decided to start spending more time filling my heart and mind with the Word of God, rather then focusing on what isn't happening in the embryo waiting arena. I've started watching the DVD's produced through the Wilsey Bible School in Wilsey, KS. These are verse by verse teaching studies through the Bible.

Last night I watched one in the book of ACTS and loved it completely! I slept so sweetly after filling my mind with the richness of God's Word. A great big Auhhha, just settled within me.

I just happen to have an inside source to these DVD's and am able to get as many as I want. If anyone else wants to do these with me, I'll send you a copy also. Just email me your address and I'll send a set to you.

There is NOTHING that satisfies a hurting heart more than the Word of God.

Again... Auhhha!

Be Still My Waiting Heart

2009-11-05T08:39:00.000-08:00

So...

this morning I’m finding myself struggling once again with the lows of embryo waiting. I’m sitting here waiting for my doctors office to return my call to schedule my next endometrial aspirate biopsy and pelvic sonogram. I also just happen to need a refill of the Provera I take daily to keep the chances of uterine cancer at bay.

I was supposed to schedule this in October but put it off until now.

(I know…shame on me!)

I dread going into these appointments and talking to my doctor because I know I will once again, have to plead my case to continue to wait and hope for someone to donate their embryos to me for an embryo adoption. It’s so hard for others (my doctor) to understand from what craziness my longing stems from and why I would choose to continue to wait and hope for something that seems so far from my reach.

Why don’t I just go to a clinic and use clinic embryos, have a baby and be done with this whole thing. Why risk the waiting and possibility of developing uterine cancer.

It’s so hard to find the words and explain my heart and the lessons I’ve learned in obedience of following …and YES, waiting upon the Lord and His timing and plan.

We’ve been at this for over 21 years now and I’ve learned that every time I move in any direction other than what the Lord opens for me, it ends in frustration, pain and heartbreak.

I’ve learned to simply wait.

We waited four years for Bailey, six years for Addi and there has been nine years of waiting between Addi and Levi. For our embryo desire we’ve been praying for almost 8 years and the last two have been combined with the added pressure of a ticking time bomb of a faulty uterus if we do not do something soon.

I’m feeling so weak these days. I’m crying all the time, emotional eating whenever possible and throwing myself into every kind of home improvement project I can think of.

All of these things seem to be occupying my mind but my heart is feeling the weight and heaviness that unless you’ve been in my shoes you could never truly understand.

So...

this morning, I’m finding myself comforted by the book of Psalms. I can relate to the heart of David and his pleas for the Lord to hear him.

…Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart; be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

…The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; Send thee help for the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice…

Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. We (I) will rejoice in thy salvation, and in banners; the LORD fulfil all thy petitions. Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. They are brought down and fallen; But we are risen, and stand upright. Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.

…The king (I) shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he (I) rejoice! Thou has given him his heart’s desire, and has not witholden the request o f his lips.

(Psalm 19:14 thru 21:1)

(Psalms 23:1)

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Lord Jesus,

Please help me today to find strength and courage in dealing with my doctor. Please give me the right words to say that she will continue to understand my heart. I truly only want the babies that You have for me and I am willing to wait until You open the door and bring them into my life. Help my longing heart to be satisfied in the waiting and find joy in the blessings You’ve already given. Thank you for my dear sweet son who surrounds my days, when hubby is working and the girls are at school, with funny antics that keep me laughing, although my heart is breaking. Hold my thoughts and keep my mind stayed upon You as You continue to hold me, and my desires of being a Mommy, securely within Your hand.

Here are some pictures of this last weeks family outings, remodel projects and spending time with friends ...Yes, more food fellowships because we love spending time with friends around our table.

Our family and Mayshell drove 2 1/2 hours to watch Bailey march in the Neewollah parade. We had to arrive 2 hours early to find a spot down front. The streets were packed for 3miles. We brought our blankets and spent time together waiting for it to start. Addison took this picture of us.

Addison

I had been up cooking for our harvest party until 3:00 am that morning and so Levi and I snuck in a tiny nap while we waited.

Levi was so excited he could hardly contain himself. "Momma, the parade is going to start and have lots of candy?"

Our dear friend Mayshell with Levi and Addi

(Love you lady!)

Bailey marching

This is our kitchen before I decided to tear it all to pieces and give it a whole new look. We started with the stove. This is the new one we put in and these are the counter tops before demolition.

Here are the counter tops with the smashed tile pieces in place and the sink gone. It felt really therapeutic to smash all of this tile up into tiny little pieces and place them together again like a puzzle. Levi really had a great time smashing the tile too. We just had to really make it clear to him that this was a ONE TIME SMASHING PROJECT. LOL

It's funny how I have an idea and everyone else seems to get pulled into it. Poor Richard, my dad, Mayshell, Bailey, Addi, Levi, Reiko and the gang all got sucked in. This is us pasting in each tiny piece.

Here it is pretty much finished. We still have some ideas of resin and light foe painting around the edges for it to be completely done.

We love it!

You can see in this picture that the floors are ripped out and getting ready for tile. That's what our focus is right now. We hope to have the tile flooring done by this weekend.

I hope, I hope!

Look how torn up our house has been this week. Uuughhh! It's driving me NUTS! LOL I keep telling Levi he has to wear shoes while the flooring is not done. This was his attempt to obey. What can I say... LOL He's so funny!

Even with all of this remodel craziness, our friends still wanted to come spend the evening at our house for a harvest party meal together. We had no running water in the sink, no flooring down, unfinished counters in the kitchen, no working toilet upstairs (it had to be pulled for the flooring..fortunately we have a working one downstairs) and everything was covered in dust. I told them it would be like eating in a barn...but they still came anyways. That's just how much they love us.

Who needs a put together house and flooring to have a great time? LOL

WE ENJOYED EVERY MOMENT

AND WOULD DO IT AGAIN IN A HEART BEAT!

Love each and every one of you...It was awesome!

Ever wonder what love truly looks like?...

2009-10-30T00:08:00.000-07:00

This morning I was really struggling with emotions... Feeling the longing for our embryo babies and for God to open the door for our heats desire.

I was pretty much a mess!

So a huge part of me was thankful that we've been busy this past week with remodeling our kitchen and floors. The distraction has been good.

This morning when I'm struggling with my pity party, I received a phone call from Levi's birthmother Reiko. She said that her hubby and his friends didn't have to work today and they decided to come help me with whatever needed done. I can't tell you how much this touched me to have them come and bless me like this. It was also great to hold Heidern and have some Grandma time with him.

It was just what I needed.

If you've ever wondered what love looks like, here is a perfect picture.

These guys came to do nothing more than bless me and ...Man, did they ever!

They worked all day long tearing out our wood floors throughout the house. (Everywhere we are going to put tile.) I just stood around in amazement of how much they love me to do such hard ...really hard work. Especially when all I had to offer them was a can of pop. Even that was hot due to a lack of cups and ice. I'm pretty sure they had no idea that the Lord had used them to pull me from my sadness and stop the flood of tears that were building to blow this morning.

Poor Heidern was not exactly sure why everyone was banging hammers and making so much noise. LOL

God is so good and my love for these guys and Reiko is overflowing.

They truly are precious to me!

Simply Beautiful!

2009-10-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

Richard just finished working on this job and I couldn't be more proud of him.

He's so talented and works amazingly hard to provide for his family.

I just wanted to show off some of his work.

Here he is putting in a hard wood floor. This was a very tedious job and took several days.

The final floor was gorgeous.

In this bathroom, he tiled the sinks counter top, back splashes, jacuzzi tub and floor.

In the kitchen he tiled the walls. Love this tile!

This wood floor stretched from the bedroom, into the living room and around the dinning room and finally into the kitchen and pantry. So much work but OH, IS IT PRETTY!

The owners seemed really pleased with everything and told Richard to have anyone call them if they needed a good reference of his work.

Thank you Jesus for giving Richard the ability to provide for his family. You are such a good God and the talents You have given him to do this kind of work, are simply beautiful!

Turning 40, Cabbage Rolls & A Family Dinner

2009-10-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Yes, last week I turned 40.

I was really struggling with this age because in the infertility world, 40 is the point where it gets more and more difficult to be chosen, accepted, thought of as young enough to parent/birth.

We've been waiting so long to be matched with a couples' embryos and turning 40 didn't help one little bit.

This past week our church started a new in depth, Bible study. One of the first steps in this course was looking honestly at who you are and how you minimize sin. It's called the Gospel Centered Life. As I browsed the list of character traits, I saw the words fake and hiding.

I couldn't help but instantly well up with tears.

Faking- "I strive to keep up appearances and maintain a respectable image. My behavior, to some degree, is driven by what I think others think of me. I also do not like to think reflectively about my life. As a result, not many people know the real me. (I may not even know the real me.)"

Hiding- " I tend to conceal as much as I can about my life, especially the "bad stuff". This is different from faking, in that faking is about impressing, Hiding is more about shame. I don't' think people will accept or love the real me."

So often, I try to keep up a smile and put on a happy face for others. But inside, I'm deeply sorrowful. I'm continually dealing with the heavy feelings of longing and waiting...the sadness of unfulfilled desires that infertility has upon my life.

I'm crying most nights and praying most days for the Lord not to forget His promises to me.

I'm constantly trying to put our best face forward to show our family as the perfect open arms to receive their precious embryos and yet, horribly fearful that my age, weight, income, tiny little house will be a stumbling block for us.

Yesterday morning, I picked up a children's book that my mother had sent home with Levi. He and I sat in the living room big chair and read it together.

It was the story from the Bible of Sarah and Abraham. I didn't get past the first page before I felt the tears streaming down my cheeks. The picture of this little old lady (Sarah) giggling over the fulfillment of the promise from the Lord, was more then I could handle. I've heard this story many times but today...

it just spoke volumes to my aching heart.

40 is not too old, I am exactly where the Lord wants me and His timing to fulfill our promises will be perfect.

A new peace is beginning to settle within me. My sister Janene said it best when she said ... I'm being re-made from the inside out.

I believe that the Lord has a beautiful plan for our family and it really doesn't matter what age I am...

if He deems it time.

For I know that,

All things will work together for the good.

And

NOTHING is too difficult for my God.

So after reading this children's book, I felt a freshness and

my day seemed a bit brighter.

Jesus, You have such a way of encouraging my heart. I know that you have not forsaken me... and the desires You've placed within my heart, will not be forgotten.

So...

in You, I will continue to wait.

This picture of Richard holding our grandbaby, Heidern and our friend's twin girls, Taylor & Tristyn

warms my heart as I think of all the Lord has in store for our family.

Tonight we have a family dinner planned with many we call family.

(Reiko, Gabby, Heidern, Pollo, Quany, Megan, Josiah, Tristyn, Taylor, Mayshell, Di & Beau... and our family of 5)

We are having Cabbage Rolls, Pico de gallo, and Fruit Salad.

Cabbage Rolls have been a family recipe and favorite ever since I was a little girl. My mother always made them for my sisters' and my birthdays.

They truly are wonderful!

This last year, I made them for a family dinner with Reiko, Gabby and Pollo. As we began to eat, I was COMPLETELY horrified when they dumped fresh pico de gallo over the top of them.

It just seemed WRONG!

After much convincing, I tried it and discovered that they had

FOREVER

changed my famous cabbage rolls...

I loved it! With all of the new and wonderful things I'm learning regarding Mexican cooking, I think I should write a cookbook titled...

"My Daughter Married A Mexican"

LOL

Having Reiko, Gabby and many of their friends now in my life, my eyes have been opened to so many new things and I love it!

Now, many have asked what are Cabbage Rolls any ways?...So I've decided to step by step photo journal the recipe for everyone. So here we go...

Pico de gallo

(Remember, I cook in bulk because our Family Dinners feed many. The recipe I give you is more for a regular size family meal.)

1 lg. onion

2 lg. tomatoes

1 bundle of cilantro

2-3 fresh limes

3-4 hot peppers

generous amount of sea salt sprinkled over the top

I always start with the onions. I guess chopping them is not my favorite thing to do, so I like to get it over with at the beginning. I have one of those fancy choppers that help make it a bit faster and less painful. LOL I see these choppers all the time at garage sales... Pick one up the next time you see one and you will love it, I promise.

Here is my little helper.

He was working really hard at it too. hahahaha

Now that he's finished and grown tired of the project, I re-chop them and make sure I do enough for the pico and also set some aside for the cabbage rolls later.

Next, I chop up the tomatoes. Gabby says that all the ingredients should be chopped about the same size to look right. He also told me that the colors of the Mexican flag represent tomatoes, hot peppers, and onion...Red, Green, and White. The staple ingredients in most Mexican foods.

Too funny!

Cilantro

Make sure you wash this pretty good. I've found lots of dirt sometimes within the bundle. Remove the stems and chop away.

Next, add the limes juice.

I use a glass juicer I picked up at a garage sale.

Yep, I'm a sale junkie. I see them all the time.

Awesome item to have in the kitchen and works great.

And finally, I chop the hot peppers with my chopper and add the salt. Be careful to not inhale the pepper fumes....

OUCH!

Talk about cleansing out your brain...

BY FIRE!!! LOL

Mix it all around and put it in the frig until dinner time.

Cabbage Rolls

(Again, remember pictures show bulk cooking for our Family Dinners. The recipe is for a much smaller amount. If you want to bulk cook ...double or triple the recipe)

1 lb. hamburger

1 lb. sausage (hot)

1 onion

2 can (80z) tomato sauce

Mix

2 c. cooked rice

Salt/ Pepper

Spoon into steamed cabbage and top with tomato sauce

Cover in tinfoil and cook 1 hour at 350*

First I precook the rice so it has time to cool a bit before I use it.

It's hard to see this picture but this is the precooked rice set aside to cool. I also added the onions that I chopped and set aside when making the pico.

Here is another of my kitchen helpers.

Bailey is attacking the meat with a force not to be matched. :)

She's mixing the hamburger and sausage in a lg. pan to make sure nothing spills out.

You really want your meats to be blended well.

Next she's mixing in the rice and onions. You just can't do this any other way but to use your hands.

That's why you want that rice to cool.

Once that is all mixed you want to blend in 1 can of tomato sauce, salt and pepper.

Then mix it all really well.

In a separate bowl, de-core your cabbage and place in a bowl. Fill the empty core with tap water and place it in the microwave for a few minutes.

Cooking the cabbage slightly this way will allow you to easily pull the off the layers of leaves without breaking them.

Once you have a pile of leaves ready, begin scooping the meat mixture into the leaves, wrapping them tightly, and placing them snugly into a lg. cooking pan.

Once you have the whole pan full of rolls, top them with the other can of tomato sauce. I also like to chop up the left over cabbage and tuck it all around to cook with the rolls and absorb the juices.

It's yummy.

Cover with tinfoil and bake.
Here is what they look like when finished cooking.

And... Oh Man, do they smell good!

You can't have Cabbage Rolls without Fruit Salad. It's tradition.

While your Cabbage Rolls are baking, it's time to prepare the fruit salad. My friend Di and Addison were making it.

Fruit Salad

1 can chucked pineapples

1 can mixed fruit

2-3 apples

2-3 bananas

1 handful of chopped nuts

1 lg. spoonful of sour cream

First thing you need to do is drain the pinapple juice into a bowl and use it for dipping the apples and banana slices in. This will keep them from turning brown and ugly. Once you dip them in the juice, spoon them into the fruit salad bowl.

Dump your dipped apples, bananas, pineapples and drained mix fruit into a big bowl.

Now add your big spoonfull of sour cream and chopped nuts. Mix well and refrigerate until dinner time. Some people like to add marshmellows but we don't because I like to keep down the sugars.

Now it's time to eat.

And this is how you do it! It may not look too pretty but OH MAN...is it ever good!!

Here Bailey is doing what some of the kids do... Passing the cabbage to Dad. LOL Our family dinners are usually so big that we use the entire house to seat everyone.

Love the closeness!

After dinner Gabby, Reiko and Pollo had some birthday gifts for Bailey and a few more for Levi.

This is the Hollister jacket Pollo bought for Bailey.

She was thrilled.

Levi got more of the dino collection and couldn't have been happier.

Addi, Heidern and Pollo

Dinner was good, the family was great, and the blessings of having everyone we call family in our lives is Awesome!

Couldn't be more thankful!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!! A VERY Cold Road Trip

2009-10-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been a really great but, cold and exhausting one. Bailey had her band competition in Manhattan, KS. We are kid function groupies so no matter how far they travel the whole family goes with them. This weekend we just happened to have our grandbaby, Heidern with us as well, so this was a full-fun weekend with NO SLEEP!

Can you see the exhaustion on my face? LOL

Michelle (Bailey's BM) and Kathryn (Bailey's 1/2 sister) came with us.

Couldn't imagine a road trip with out them. :))

Because we had to get up really early both of them decided to spend the night.

We had to get up at 3:00 AM to get everyone showered, fed, van loaded, get our Quick Shop coffee, and meet the bus by 5:00AM. Heidern and Levi loved the band music. They both were doing pretty good for getting up so early.

The band had an early practice in the indoor football field at K-State.

It was great that this practice was indoors because ...

MAN WAS IT COLD OUTSIDE!!!

Bailey is in the second row, wearing orange.

Bailey is so funny, she is wearing her pj bottoms. She said she didn't care ... it was early and way too cold to wear anything else. Hahaha.. Mind of her own and she doesn't care what others think about it.

Love it!

Me, Heidern (in a front pack), Levi, Richard, and Addi

My sweetie boy :))

He could hardly contain himself from wanting to drum on something. I totally expect this boy to be a drummer one day.

This is what little boy hair looks like when you're showed at 3:00 AM.

Can you see the genetic link? LOL

What a sweetie boy...

I completely enjoyed every sleepless moment we had our precious Heidern. Reiko says we spoil him and Gabby, her hubby says that all Heidern does is cry after spending time at Grandma's house because we hold him the entire time. LOL YEP...WE DO TOO!

The actual band competition was held outside in the stadium.

VERY COLD but, worth it.

Everyone was bundled with coats, and buried under tons of blankets. My parents live about 45 minutes from Manhattan so they came and froze with us to watch Bailey's competition.

Bailey is six back and she's the one that's a foot shorter than anyone else. Hahaha

Couldn't have been more proud of her.

They did really great considering how cold it was.

They ranked a 2. The highest rank is a 1.

This is me and my mom.

Heidern was snug as a bug, under the blankets on my lap.

After the competition, we snagged Bailey from a long bus ride home and instead took her with us back to my parents house. All of us needed some sleep and their house was roasty-toasty with a fire going in the fire place.

Awwww... everyone crashed for naps except for me and Mom.

We both were tired but I couldn't get myself to close my eyes and miss out on even a moment with them.

It's been forever since we've been able to get to Wilsey and see them at their home. I loved being there. Grandma told Levi that he could sleep on his very own little couch.

(She was kidding but he took her serious. LOL)

What a goof!

Addi and Heidern were snuggling on the couch together.

Grandpa, Richard and Bailey all found recliners, blankets and the football game. :))

I told them it looked like a nursing home.

Hahaha

It wasn't long until you could hear the doul snoring....

Poor Bailey!

Michelle and Kathryn found the comfy spare bed and crashed for some much needed sleep.

Mom and I watched the boys and talked as everyone else took naps.

Bailey holding Heidern while dinner was being set.

We had a throw together meal of hot pizza, pop, and salad.

Not too bad for how tired everyone was.

Heidern was feeling a bit sad because he had a bit of constipation.

Poor little guy!

He finally had his moment and was feeling much better...

In fact, he was up for playing with (me) Grandma all night long.

He was quite the happy boy!

It was fun, and we enjoyed our time with everyone. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of Kathryn and Michelle other than the one of them sleeping. We took pictures but I took them with her camera and don't have them here to upload.

The next morning, Reiko met us for church to pick up Heidern. It was hard to let him go back to Mommy. I just love that little buggard so much!

This Man Makes My Heart Go Pitter-Patter!

2009-10-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

What truly defines a man is the love he holds for his family

Michelle (Bailey's Birthmom) is taking some college courses and is struggling with a math class. So tonight, after working a long day's work, laying tile, my hubby still took time to hold his grandbaby in one arm and help Michelle understand her math homework.

I'm so proud of Michelle...She's working so hard and doing so well in her classes and the love for my wonderful husband is overflowing.

Let me tell you ladies....
There is NOTHING more sexy than a man who loves to hold babies and helps with homework.

My life is so blessed....

Love you Honey!

Sweet 17

2009-10-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday

Bailey

This morning I woke to the phone ringing... It was Michelle, Bailey's Birthmother. She called hoping to catch Bailey before she went off to school and wish her a happy birthday. Unfortunately, she missed her; Bailey had just left. Michelle and I talked for quite a bit reminiscing the day that Bailey was born. It touched my heart so much as we talked and shared our memories of the day that forever changed both of our lives and bound us together.

I couldn't help but tear up as we talked and shared our hearts.

(Michelle, you can wake me any time for such a sweet conversation.

I love you lady with everything!)

Remembering her tiny toes, tiny chubby cheeks and such a sweet cry is all I could think about today.

Wow.. it's been 17 years of wonderful!

For Bailey's birthday, we decided to celebrate with some special friends of ours.

Their daughter, Stephanie and our Bailey were born ...

The same night

In the same hospital

By the same Dr.

Within hours of each other

And

Just rooms apart.

The most amazing part was our families, when the girls were born, didn't know each other. It wasn't until we decided to put Bailey into public school, in the sixth grade, that the girls met and became friends. Bailey was so scared to ride the bus the first day and Stephanie came up to her and was the first person to befriend her and make her feel welcomed.

(Thank you Steph)

It wasn't long and they figured out all they had in common.

So to celebrate the girls turning 17, we all went out for Mexican food at El Mezcal. I couldn't see celebrating their birthday without having Bailey's birth mother Michelle (and her family) there as well. It was so much fun talking about the night the girls were both born.

It's such a small world and still amazes me that these girls found each other and bonded not only as little babies, together in a nursery, experiencing their first breaths of life, but also as young girls starting their first years of middle school together.

How cool!

Stephanie and Bailey (Bailey is in front)

This is the wild cake I bought for the girls. Bailey asked what kind it was and I told her ...

It was just a big pile of Yummm! LOL

The guys at the restaurant all came and sang Happy Birthday to the girls in Spanish.

It's great fun to embarrass them like this. LOL

Here's most of the gang. Stephanie's family (Clark, Jamie,Denise, and Stephanie), our family (Bailey, Richard, Levi,and Addison) and Michelle and her daughter Kathryn are on the ends.

(Michelle, you are hoot in this picture...I love it!)

Here's Kathryn, David, and Michelle.

I told Michelle that I wanted to scoot our tables together so I could better eat off of their plates. :)) She laughed and said... Umm...I'll share my kids but not my food! LOL

I was thankful I was not drinking anything when she said this or I for sure, would have had it coming out my nose.

Way too funny!!!!

Addison and Levi (Every time we ask Levi to smile he closes his eyes. We finally figured out to ask him to show us his teeth and then he smiles. Obviously, I forgot to ask him this time... LOL)

Me and my Michelly...

She hates this nick name I have for her, but it's who she is to me so she tolerates me calling her it. I just can't think of a better way to express my love to her than that she's ...

"My Michelly".

Stephanie being just who she always is... awesome!

Great picture Steph!

Bailey goofing off and wearing the cake lid. It actually was quite funny to watch her try and get her big head back out of it.

Now, that was a picture I wish I'd gotten. hahahaha

gifts...

We had a blast and the food was great! Couldn't have ever imagined life could be so sweet with our amazing daughter.

I'm just in awe!