PotterMama

New Things

2012-01-31T18:43:00.000-08:00

So many thoughts stirring in my head- bare with me!

-I am really excited, thrilled, to be joining Scentsy as a consultant! I have yet to meet one person who sells and does not enjoy it. I know consultants who are up in the director ranks, and I know consultants that put in an order every few months and they all have the same great things to say about it. I'm excited to do something that is mine, will help me to meet new people, and I am excited for the opportunity it will give my family to give more, fundraise and to do extra things.

-We found out today that we are actually not able to get a foster placement yet- until our change of address comes back from the state. I'm ok with this, I had a feeling we were not done yet, and we weren't! So, we continue to wait.

-My friend got a call for her very first placement tonight- I am so excited for her! We were licensed the same day, but she didn't have all the extra stuff to go through (because we moved) like we did, so they have been licensed and waiting for a little under two months now.

-We have been spending a lot of time outside lately. I've found that my kids do best if we are outside for 1.5-2 hours a day. Walking, swinging, kicking the ball, riding bikes, whatever. It makes the day so, so much smoother. It helps that the weather has been beautiful, spring like temps!

I actually have updated pictures to post, too! On my other computer- go figure :)

Pinterest Food Find Reviews

2012-01-28T16:10:00.000-08:00

I'm addicted to Pinterest, surprise! Who isn't ? Who doesn't love spending countless hours at the computer browsing pictures of food to make, homes you will probably never have, projects you will probably never get to, adorable puppies you will probably never have...because once they go on my carpet they are all of a sudden much cuter in the picture, and of course vacations you will never take...unless you hit the lottery. Or don't have kids.

This has helped my new years resolution so.much. You have no idea. My "Cook more!" resolution (that I probably should have never made-gaining too much weight this pregnancy!)

Anyway, it is so easy to find and "pin" (save) recipes, and there are so many good ones....sooooo many.......... it's like an amazing cook book that is so much easier to use than a cook book. Heaven sent.

I have made a handful of things from my pin board already- so I'm going to review them and let you know if it's worth the time making, and what tweeks (if any) I made.

Pasta Salad from here. I give it 4 out of five stars.

-Really easy to make. Boil the noodles, add ingredients, mix, chill and eat.

-It calls for Feta Cheese, I used feta. However, it either a) needs a different kind or b)needs mozzarella too. I'm just a cheese lover- so maybe you wont think the same.

Either way- we will be making this again in the spring/summer.

Skinny Tuna melt from here.

Quick, easy, yummy, and really low in calories! Five stars.

I didn't follow her recipe exactly, I used sara lee 45 calorie bread, kraft 60 cal sliced cheese, tuna (I made it the way I always make my tuna) and tomato.

Cinnamon bread from here.

4 out of five stars.

The recipe is sketchy, confusing. First batch didn't rise (my fault), second batch had huge air holes in it. It was good, if I was a better bread baker it probably would have come out better. I might try it again to see if I can get it perfect.

Baked oatmeal from here.

Will not try again. This recipe is too complicated, calls for too many things. It turned out like a bread, very thick and dry. I have found much better, easier ones to make.

Zesty penne from here.

Loved it, will be making it again. The most tedious part is cutting everything up, but it's worth it. Very good. Five stars.

Parmesan honey pork roast from here.

3 stars. It has more of a soy sauce/Asian taste to it. I wont make it again, it wasn't awful, but I'd rather try something else.

Homemade french vanilla creamer from here.

5 stars, will make again. Very good, but very "Strong". Had to use double the amount of milk.

Bacon chicken ranch pasta from here.

4 stars. Will make again. I'm not sure why the lady says its healthy, its a carb with bacon, sour cream and ranch. Just because it's low cals does not make it healthy.

Crock pot chicken tacos from here.

Five stars, love it. Will make it again very soon. So simple, so quick, SO good.

From here.

5 stars. Will not buy "chewy" or "granola" bars again! These are so easy, and SO GOOD! I'm making them again this week.

Apple sandwiches, had no link. (apples, pb, chocolate chips. Or you could use nutella, honey, raisins.)

5 stars, kids actually ate them. Will make again.

Baked cinnamon breakfast bites from here.

Five stars, melt in your mouth good. So easy and quick, I'd rather make these over than cinnamon bread! Will make again soon!

Nilla wafers, banana, pb, sprinkles from here.

3 stars. Very tedious and time consuming. They don't keep long (banana gets old, wafers get soggy). Cute, but I wont be making again.

Graham cracker, nutella, banana from here.

Five stars. Had these for snacks today, very good. Kids loved them, they were easy and healthy!

I will review more next week! I actually have a crock pot peach dump cake from P slow cooking as I type!

We're Done!

2012-01-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

Really, just beginning. I'm actually tearing up thinking about the past thirteen months of waiting, of papers. Of inspections. Of made-up deadlines that were never met. Of wondering if this is what God want's us to do. Of wanting to give up. Of wondering if there is a need. Of waiting more. Waiting longer than we ever thought we'd have to, all to get to this moment. Ok, not this moment, because we are ultimately waiting for the moment a state worker brings a scared, broken child to our door asking us to love them.

But this moment- where we are licensed. I mean, licensed and inspected. Licensed and not "pending" on the call list. Licensed....and there is nothing holding us back from getting a call for a child! We are finally done with the PROCESS. We are an "active" foster home! While I am extremely happy, relieved and excited...and I am also very aware of what is ahead of us...or what we think is ahead of us....

The wait.

We wait for a over a year...to wait some more. Who knows how long this wait will be? So far, it's been 11 hours. It's a different kind of wait, though. A more anxious wait, the "I'm keeping my phone with me and on at all times" kind of wait. A curious wait. I wonder when we will get a call? I wonder how many children it will be for? I wonder what they will look like. How old will they be? How long will they be here?

A friend of mine who was licensed the same day as us in our county has not had a call yet (it's been a little over a month). My logistic mind keeps telling me that means we will be waiting a while, but I know that God has this. I know that our criteria for the kids we can accept is different. I know that each child's circumstance is different. I know that the worker's don't go by a list of who has been licensed longer...but what family is the best match for this specific child. I know that the wait of any other foster parent or family has nothing to do with ours. Imagine the feeling when sitting in the FPA meeting on Monday and one lady said she waited for two years between placements. Two years?! Talk about discouraging. Come to find out it was because her home was under investigation. (huge sigh of relief)

His timing is perfect, he is never late. I do wonder how long he is going to keep us waiting this time. Isn't 13 months long enough? That was over a year for him to use to prepare us and grow us. But...

God knows what he is doing. His delays are always purposeful. When we dare to live by His timing, great things happen.

"Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31)

So, we will wait for that call. For the first call, the second, and however many there are after. In waiting we can pray for the children who will enter our home, pray for our family when we take them in , and pray for their birth parents. Oh waiting, how did I get involved in such a big waiting game again? ;-)

FPA

2012-01-23T19:44:00.001-08:00

Tonight I went to our first FPA (foster parent association) meeting. It was pretty much what I expected, a lot of older couples and older single women. Talked about basically everything we already knew. Mentioned upcoming meetings and conferences, answered questions, introduced everyone. What I didn't expect to see was...KIDS! A lot of people brought their foster kids, and it was nice to see them, actually see physical kids in the system...they DO exist. It's not just some figment of my imagination. Real kids in the system. A sweet 23 month old boy, two year old twins (a boy and girl), a sibling group of three boys (somewhere from 9-15) and others that were in the next room over so we didn't get to actually "meet" them.

As expected, some of the other foster parents were complainers. Some know-it-all's. Some didn't say a thing the entire time. We were the newbies.

Our worker walks us out to the car "hey I found your baby registry!" Huh? I didn't make a registry for this baby? And what? How in the world did you find an old baby registry of mine? Google of course, I guess I should have expected him to stalk the internet for me. These people know more about us than we do.

In the end, we will be going next month- hopefully it will be a little different. Hopefully we will have a foster child by then, too. It's so odd to be in this sometimes. Saying we want a foster child...is like saying we want something to happen...we want these kids to be taken away so we can take them in. Mr. and I we're talking about this tonight, sometimes we feel guilty about saying we "cant wait for a kid". Like we're saying "please don't feed your child for a week someone, so we can take your child!"

But really, fact is there are kids that are being abused and neglected all over the place, all over our town. What we really mean is- we want them to be found. We want the children who are hurting who nobody knows about yet- it's not that we want it to happen, it's that it IS happening. It is happening, and when the children are removed we do want them. So when we wait for a child, it's not because no child is being abused right now. It's not that no child is being neglected or hurt, or hungry, or alone. It's that nobody knows about them yet, but we will be here when they do.

2012-01-20T18:46:00.001-08:00

I finally had time to sit down and read some of my favorite blogs. Seriously, one of the things that get's me really motivated to continue on with foster care instead of veering off into adoption, are these blogs! They remind me why we started. Maggie at Popp Life is one of the blogs that inspired me to look deeper into foster care, way back when. Seeing how messy it has been, how sad & hard, and how beautiful it has turned out for their family makes me more and more eager for that first...second...twentieth call.

And while we are on the topic, look what we got in the mail today:

Paperwork. Annual paperwork for our agency. Funny how we are having to renew everything before we are even done with the process! It's been that long, but we are so.close. to the end, I can "taste" it! We had our fire inspection yesterday, all was great. Health is on Wednesday then it's on! We are also heading to our first FPA meeting on Monday-hoping to meet other ~~young~~ foster parents ;)

On another note- it's... ~~seven o clock on the dot..I'm in my drop top...~~ Friday night, I'm sitting in front of the computer chomping on pretzel sticks (at least it's not chips, right?). All of my kids are asleep, my husband should be home any minute, oatmeal is in the crock pot for the morning, and my weekend is going to be the same as any normal weekday. Because everyone is off but my husband, not complaining, just saying.

Another article I wrote was posted on The Cloth Diaper Whisper , because I am slightly obsessed with the cuteness of cloth, and besides....who doesn't want to hear about how I store my dirty diapers before laundry day????!

I will leave you with this...

my sweet middle sister. Over the weekend we took big sister on a date, just her and mr and I. We were planning on taking middle next. Well last night, because my husband is pregnant too..he brought home pizza AND cake...at like 9pm! (and no, I did NOT call him and ask him too!) Middle just happened to be awake and snuggling with me, so I couldn't just tell her to go to bed after seeing all the wonderful carbs, calories and fat dad just brought us. We ate pizza, talked, ate cake, listened to her talk, drank a glass of milk, listened to her talk (she is quite the talker!) and she was finally about the hit the floor. We tucked our sweet girl in, and deemed it as our date night with her, she was happy. As a matter of fact the first thing she said when she woke up was "Hey Lie-lee! Wast night Mom & Dad let me stay up and we ate pizza and chocwate cake and I got to stay up". Love this girl.

Baby Boy

2012-01-20T18:02:00.000-08:00

22 weeks!

Yummy new family favorite

2012-01-20T17:09:00.000-08:00

I must say- my new years resolution to cook more has been the only resolution that is going really, really well!

One of our new favorite things for breakfast is REAL (not packets) oatmeal, in the slow cooker. Yum! Yes, I've been a mother almost five years now and I've never made real oatmeal, until now.

My friend gave me a wonderful recipe for apple cinnamon oatmeal

6 apples, chopped.

2 cups of oats

1/3 cup sugar free syrup

2 tbs brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1.5 cup of milk

pinch of salt

Mix all the ingredients together, put in the crock pot. You can cook it 2 different ways, on high for 30-45 minutes (great for mornings!) or on low for 7 hours (great for making the night before, which is what I do!)

Enjoy! Super easy, so yummy!

this & that

2012-01-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

-Our fire inspection is, tomorrow! So we spent the day today making our fire escape plan and waiting around for maintenance to replace all 5 of our very expired smoke alarms. We are last minute people.

-We received an updated picture of our Compassion sponsored child, Bernardo, today!

He is getting so big, and pretty cute! He will be 9 years old on my birthday! (feb.9th)

We started sponsoring him when he was a skinny little 6 year old boy. He has blessed us SO much. We also discovered that Compassion "revamped" their writing to your child online section. Now you can pick a cute stationary to use, write your letter, AND upload pictures that will be printed out on the bottom of his letter. So much easier to get him pictures this way! Picking a second child is very, very tempting....

-This week and some of last has been filled with pinterest projects/cooking. I am hooked to that site. I've made basic bread, cinnamon bread, homemade laundry detergent, new homemade (yummy) snacks for the girls, and I've made great lunch ideas from there for Mr. I still have list's and list's of things to do from there!

-I am 21 weeks along, already! It's going by fast, it helps that I have three little girls keeping me busy :) I feel him rolling around and kicking, even having the hiccups already- I love it. We are so very excited to begin filling up his dresser with little boy blue's, red's, and green's...and by Mr.'s request...blacks. I've gained a whopping 19 lbs already...I actually cried in my doctors office when I found that out- she assured me it is fine and I am "right on target", but seriously...I wasn't planning on gaining that much weight for the ENTIRE pregnancy, I'm already there and I'm only half way along. Sigh. Other than that awful news- all is great. We are going to be doing Hypnobirthing this time around- and I am so very thankful for a wonderful OB and midwife who are so supportive and encouraging of our "birth plan" and wishes. Now, if only I can remember to study my books every.single.day.. :)

-We are still very excited to (one day...) be welcoming foster kids into our home, and we are super happy that our inspections are being done now, we can start actually getting calls. We of course have no idea how this is all going to work out- 3 girls, a pregnant mom, a working dad, and 1-2 more kiddos coming at random times, for random amount of times...with possibly nothing but what's on their back and possibly many appointments to be scheduled and taken to. It doesn't make sense in our heads, but we know it's all going to work out somehow. Every child we welcome into our home will be here for a reason- God knows exactly what days, what times, what child and what mountains we will face with this, we are ready. More than ready, it has been over a year now!

-Oh, changes! We applied for big sister to go to our local charter school in the fall! Gasp! I know, a mom who actually cares about her children would never send them to school, and a public school at that! ;) Actually, I care about her so much I AM sending her, at least for now. Who knows, maybe we will LOVE it and all of my kids will go for all of their school years. Or maybe it's not all that great and we end up homeschooling later on. Whatever, we are open to each of our children's individual need. Schooling is not one size fits all, we have learned. Public school is not best for all children, homeschooling is not best for all children, and private school is not best for all children. Anyway- we will not know if she get's in until the first week of Feb. if she doesn't get it right away, we have to go to lottery...which is when they actually pick children's names out of a bucket. If your name is picked, you get in (limited space!). We are praying we just get in!!!! Pray with us, please?!

Other than all of the above, nothing much is going on. The girls are growing like weeds, speaking of growing, our compost bin is doing wonderfully and is filling up fast. Mr. is still the same, and all is well, God is good! :)

He moves the mountains!

2012-01-13T10:34:00.000-08:00

I remember having a conversation with a friend a few months back about all that we have "endured" and waited for during this licensing process. This was when everything was at a halt- for months. I told her that I wished God would give us a sign that this was what we were suppose to be doing- because so many times we doubted. I mean c'mon, surely God wouldn't make us wait a year just for our license. Then today as I got two phone calls, one to schedule our fire inspection and one to schedule our health inspection- I also remembered all the times God has moved mountains for us in this process, he has been here the entire time.

Every time I would get weary and start thinking of just pulling our file and not dealing with it- something moved. Something in the process was signed, finished or scheduled.

Every time we would think of just adopting because this process is just ridiculous- looking into agencies and countries and having our papers sent over to state adoptions- something moved.

Every time we would doubt if God was in this- if this is what he wanted us to be doing- something moved. More recent experiences, last month was super tough for me. I was so "done", I remember going to church one morning after having serious thoughts and talks with my husband about not doing this anymore, and the second the pastor got up and started praying for us- he was praying about people being discouraged and wanting to give up. I immediately started crying- it was totally for me. I was seriously at the end of my rope and ready to just let go, and he knew. A day later we were licensed.

Even though we've had our license for a month now- we are still unable to get children because we moved and our inspections had to be updated. This is what took so long in the beginning, it took 6 months for our previous home to be inspected. So from past experience, we knew having them updated was no simple, short thing. It was huge, and it would probably be a long, long wait. So we started by praying and fasting for our inspections to be scheduled. Just last week I asked a friend " Do you think I should call the fire marshal and dhec myself? Or just wait and believe that God is going to have these scheduled before this fast is over?" I really wanted to call. But I also wanted to wait and see if God was going to really pull through, even when I had totally cheated on my fasting a few times. I decided to wait. Why do I ever doubt God?

Last night Mr. and I were looking into adoption agencies who had programs in India- somewhere he and I both deeply desire to serve...or adopt from. Who knows what will really happen :)

Anyway, I got into my mood- my "Oh I dont care if our inspections never get scheduled, we can proceed with this after baby brother is born" mood. And that's all I thought about last night and even this morning.

Then today I got calls scheduling BOTH of our inspections- BOTH, in ONE day. I could cry, he ALWAYS sets us back on the right path, ALWAYS. And it's been exactly ONE month since we received our license, one month to the day. Not 6 months, it's not spring, we were really expecting not to have them done until summer...and it's also before the fast has ended. It's things like this that remind us that we are doing what HE want's us to do, even if it's not the most popular thing. Even if some don't think it's the most important, it is...because it's what we are suppose to be doing.

I'm so extremely happy/thankful/giddy/in awe/amazed/shocked/excited/ and grateful. God is so good- the wait is always worth it.

Lens Play

2012-01-07T17:57:00.000-08:00

Continuing to play with my new lens- I love it so far, and I think I've conquered the "light blurrs". Practicing on food- it doesn't move, it doesnt get impatient. So much easier than kids/people!

Bread Baking with a Kitchenaid: 101

2012-01-04T19:05:00.000-08:00

I made homemade bread! Wahoo! I am very proud of myself, as if I just accomplished the impossible.

I started with a super basic recipe. This recipe makes two loaves.

What you need:

Bread Flour

Yeast

Salt

Sugar

Butter or Margarine

Water

Oil

Non stick spray

3 yeast packs

Measuring cups

Measuring spoons

Roller

Two loaf pans

Mixer

I used the Kitchenaid pro 600 mixer, any mixer of any brand will do, as long as it has a dough hook!

Step 1- Place 5 1/2 cups of flour, 4 tablespoons of butter softened, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 3.5 teaspoons of salt and 3 packs of yeast into your mixer. Add your dough hook if you have yet to.

Before starting the mixer, have 1 cup of flour and 2 cups of very warm/hot water beside you.

Step 2- Mix ingredients on speed 2 for 20 seconds, then begin slowly adding the water. Knead for 1-2 minutes longer. (dough will be damp/wet/sticky)

Step 3- Slowly add the cup of flour, little by little, until the dough sticks to the dough hook and cleans the sides of the bowl.

Step 4- Take the bowl off the mixer. Rub your hands with a little oil, grab the dough and mold it into a roll. Place it back in bowl, cover the bowl and let stand for 20 minutes to rise.

In the meantime, spray your baking pans and lightly flour a surface for rolling your dough. Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Step 5- Your dough will have risen, take it out of the bowl and split the dough in half.

Step 6- Roll out each set of dough into a rectangle. Once rolled out, take one end and roll it to the other end (like a swiss roll!).

Step 6- Once its in a roll, pinch it together, pinch and fold the ends UP. Rub oil on it, and place it "upside down" in your pan. (With the seams in the bottom of the pan)

Step 7- You can wrap it and put it in the fridge to make for later, or bake them for 20-30 minutes now! You can also wrap them in saran wrap and freeze them before baking for dough later.

Ta-da! Yes, i forgot to take a picture of it BEFORE I had to try a slice :)

Now, onto making different kind of breads!

This isn't going to help my new years resolution...

Bringing in the new year/updates!

2012-01-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

I finally have time to sit down and write, it's been a busy 4 days into the year already! Where do I begin? Goals for this year? My current frustrations? Prayer list? Current book I'm reading to bring in the new year? What is making me happy tonight? Let's go!

Goals.

-Inspections done & out of the way.

-Small spring garden.

-Summer vacation to Lake Lure.

-Lose some baby weight, and of course give birth to a healthy, sweet baby boy!

-Cook! As in, all the time! I've been a total slacker the past few months with cooking and I am motivated to get back into it. I have my crock pot, kitchen aid, and lovely new le crueset wear ready to be used!

-Simplify our life-rid of unnecessary, wasteful excess.
-Organized, successful first half of big sister's Kindergarten year in the fall.

-Complete my one year through the bible reading plan (I love the youversion app!)

-Learn more, love more, give more, be more.

Current frustrations are also my prayer requests! Those two children we were told were coming to live with us, then a week later told maybe, then a few days later told no...still need prayer.

We were able to meet them this weekend- and it made me all the more frustrated and all the more confused as to what God is up too. We found out they rode here, from two states away, in the trunk of a small suv. Sigh, this was only one of the concerns and frustrations I have/had during our meet. I updated our private blog about it- if you are a reader, click on "our private blog" at the top and log in with your email address.

Along with the one year bible plan, I am reading 7 by Jen Hatmaker and already starting to cut down on areas of excess in our life. Once I get through the book, I will be able to decide better which areas/things that will be, if we will be doing the same thing this family did or something different, logistics etc. For instance- they cut down their spending to only 7 key locations. In our town, 7 locations to spend money is a big shopping day! We can easily cut down our spending locations to 3 places- the gas station, grocery store, and our large chain retail store for the items we cannot get at the grocery store.

What made me happy tonight? Besides my first four loaves of homemade bread (ever!) baked and sitting on my counter?! My husband! He has an interview for a job he has been trying to get into since the spring. For the past few months his supervisor and bosses have been "hinting" to him that he was going to get it, and his sup. even said "he has it" but he couldn't "officially" tell him that- and they told him today that he is a great candidate for it and they want to interview him! (finally!) I'm so proud of how far he has come with this company since starting there just 3 years ago (this will be his second promotion!). I love, love how hard he works to better himself at whatever job he is doing, and love how he will not settle for anything less than he knows he is capable of! I'm so thankful for him- he makes me smile :)

And for some random photos-

The girls are bikeaholics.

They have each had one scrapped knee.

Such a middle sister look

And, I made pot roast for the first time ever (this has already been a year of firsts!) on New years day, it was so yummy! I also got to try my new lens on potatoes (of all things :)

looking back on 2011

2012-01-01T17:08:00.000-08:00

Phew- God blows me away when I sit down and think about everything he has done in our lives/family in 2011! We are so grateful to have had a really wonderful year last year- and we are praying for many-many more!

January- We we're fingerprinted, background checked, and had our first home visit for our foster care license!

Fingerprints!

Picture of us waiting for our worker- something we have grown use to do doing! :)

February-

I turned another year older (22!).

(& got a griddle! )

We started and finished our training for our license- and we moved!

March-

We settled into our home, and little did we know we were beginning the "great wait" for everything else in our licensing process to move.

(look at my little baby!)

April-

My BIG girl turned FOUR small years old...tear.

We took a min-vaca to the Great Wolf Lodge in NC

May-

We had the opportunity to love on a family in a hard place. Writing this actually has me in tears, ugly cry tears- boy do I miss these little boys..

Still pray for these boy often- they made me realize just how hard "letting go" is.

Also- middle sister turned a big ole' 3 years old!!!!!!!!

May is also Foster Care Awareness month- so we got together with our church and hosted a foster care info. session.

Foster Care Video from Cornerstone Church on Vimeo.

June-

The boys left- to another state. Super hard/sad day. Couldn't even watch them backing out from the drive.

The day they left

We had and passed our fire inspection for our license, and we took another mini-vaca to wild adventures for fathers day!

July-

We had a wonderful 4th! Family and great friends with us, and we got to watch my cousin propose to his fiance under the fireworks!

We added THREE pets to our family

And I'm proud to say we still have all of them, alive!

Our little sister turned ONE year old!

Time flies...

We had our health inspection this month, and passed. We said good-bye to my best friend and her family as they moved to Okinawa

Miss them dearly- but so thankful we can still keep in touch daily!

We finished our future-foster-children's bedroom

August-

We "officially" started homeschooling big sister

We signed the last of our paperwork for our foster care license, and it was sent out to the state!

My sweet husband turned 27!

September-

We put our dog in a costume contest, as a chicken. He won 2nd place.

I got a treadmill, and started working out & dieting. Lost six pounds this month.

Hubby and I also celebrated our THIRD anniversary!

October-

We found out & announced that we are expecting our fourth child!!!!

We got a call saying our home sold, asking us to move in two weeks. We did.

Can I just say...MY how the trees and plants have grown since this photo!

And, we "celebrated" Halloween

November-

Thanksgiving! and we put up the tree/decorated it:

December-

Festival of lights with good friends

We received our foster care license!!!!!

Had a wonderful Christmas

And found out we are having a sweet baby BOY!

Great, great, great year! So excited for what God has up his sleeve for 2012!

Christmas is finally here!

2011-12-25T18:48:00.000-08:00

Seriously, I felt like a little kid this week! The week was going by so...slow, it felt like Christmas would never come! But here I am, Christmas night, all of my children are asleep. My sweet husband is working all.night.long and I am reflecting on all of the continuous blessings that are constantly being poured out on us lately-God is really showing off!

We spent Christmas eve with both sides of the family (blessed!). Santa came to the house and personally gave the girl's their gifts (pj's! "Traditional" Christmas eve present!) then Adam and I got to open our gift- our ultrasound results from the previous day!!

And...

We are having a precious baby BOY! Three healthy little girls and one healthy boy- we are ecstatic! What a wonderful, wonderful Christmas gift!

We got home that night just in time to set out the cookies & milk, and tuck our little sleepy heads into bed. (note the half missing manger scene :) hey- it's hard keeping them all together when there are 6 little hands playing with them every day).

Christmas morning was fun & messy! My spotless home was covered in wrapping paper within seconds! So many gifts, so many blessings! We even (barely) made it to church & got to Praise HIM for all of the wonderful things he is doing and for his never ending love! Happy Birthday- Jesus!

Now, my home is still a mess. Toys and pieces all over the place, popcorn tidbits from snuggling with my kiddos and watching "Horton Hears a Who", dishes in the sink from Mr. making breakfast burritos for dinner - that's how we roll on Christmas.

Praying each & everyone of you had a blessed Christmas- too!

Christmas for our Family...

2011-12-21T11:07:00.000-08:00

This year we decided to sit down and really re evaluate our Christmas and make some changes. We discussed everything from Christmas trees, to mangers, gifts & (dare I say it) Santa. This ended up being our "experimental" year- maybe every year will be experimental? Maybe we wont ever have our Christmas down to a science as to what we will and will not do, let our children do/believe or not, we are not really set in our ways, that's just us.

Christmas is Jesus's Birthday, and that is the most important thing, and that IS what it's about. Jesus being born to save us from our sins by dying on the cross. Big sister slams the back of her body against the wall, sticks her arms straight out beside her and says "look mom, I'm Jesus when the mean people killed him!" , and she closes her eyes and sticks out her tongue. *crickets in the background* Seriously, only my kids!
So anyway- we are having an actual birthday party for Jesus, and I'm hoping it will stick and become a tradition. Cake, candles (with his age, 2044!), balloons, prayers, the story of his birth, and church. Not to mention all of the stories, songs, nativity toys and talks with our girl's about the real reason for the season.

Gifts? Yes we buy gifts. Yes we budget an amount for our children. Do we go into debt for Christmas gifts? No. Do we not pay ________ to buy a Christmas gift? No. Do we dig into savings to buy Christmas gifts? No. Do we open a new credit account for Christmas? No way, Jose. Do we spend so much on Christmas gifts that we can't afford gas to get across town(or anywhere)? No. Do we stress over gifts? No. Will our children ever be getting Ipads, Iphones, LCD tv's, cars or whatever the newest insanely priced overrated fads for Christmas? No. We buy what we can comfortably afford. Big or small. Expensive or not. Do we enjoy getting gifts? Yes! Do we enjoy shopping and wrapping and everything that goes along with it? Yes!

Do we give? YES! The second most important thing we make sure we instill in our children is giving to those in need, especially around the holidays. We start with Bernardo, our compassion sponsored child and his family. We take a couple names off of angel trees, and we buy for families we personally know who are struggling that year- and we let the holy spirit guide us if we are to give to other ministries/families. Our girls really enjoy helping pick out/wrap other people's gifts, and we all look forward to the letter we get in mid spring from Bernardo stating what he was able to buy with our gift. Last year he was able to buy a dresser, three pairs of pants, and new shoes!

We love Christmas lights. We love mangers. We love caroling. Baking. Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, the old Santa Claus movie with the winter warlock. We love Santa (gasp!).

Yes- Santa. The orphan who dedicated his life to giving & helping those in need. Yes- we know that Santa & Jesus's birth are not related. But whether we like it or not- Santa is all around us this time of year, so we do tell our children what a great man Santa was. We do let them sit on Santa's lap. We do let them believe. We do not make Christmas about Santa. As a metter of fact- I think Santa's name isn't even mentioned in our home on Christmas day. Not because I don't let it be- we just don't sit around talking about Santa- we are too busy with the birthday party. I love a blog I read the other night while googling about the negative and sometimes "holier than thou" attitudes many Christians have towards Santa:

"I never grew up feeling like Santa & Jesus's birth were mutually exclusive.

I don't feel like Santa means commercialism or consumerism.

Yes, manufacturers, toy stores, etc have manipulated the Santa image to sell products.

I do believe parents have used Santa to manipulate (read here scare) their children into good behavior.

I think sometimes Children may have a wrong view of Santa--like he'll bring them whatever they want. But that's not their fault. They have not been taught who Santa is. "

I could not have put it better myself. If Santa takes away from Christmas in your home, or if Christmas is about Santa to your family, or if you can't tell your children anything about Santa in fear of it taking away from Jesus Christ...that is your/our fault. Christmas is what WE make it. Christmas for my children is going to be about what I teach them about, what they see their Dad and I acting out. What example we set for them and what we instill in them from this Christmas out. Santa will only take away from the birth of Jesus if you allow it too, there is a happy medium. There is a balance. (please note: this is my opinion, and I do not care/judge if you dont do santa!)

What is Christmas like in your home?

Happy Homemaker Monday

2011-12-18T17:35:00.000-08:00

The weather in my neck of the woods:

	Tonight	Tomorrow	Tomorrow Night

Clear	Clear	Mostly Sunny	Partly Cloudy
42°F	38°	67°	48°
Feels Like: 42° Get FREE weather on your desktop	Low	High	Low

Things that make me happy:

Looking back on this year and ALL that God has done in our lives & family.

My home, even though it's messy & my to-do list is ever growing.

Hypnobabies Hypnobirthing books

The crock pot! Used it for the first time (ever!) tonight.

Book(s) I'm reading:

The Hunger games

What I'm enjoying on TV:

Catching up with Parenthood on Hulu- waiting for The walking Dead to come back on in Feb!

On the menu for dinner:

I made slow cooker chicken strogonoff - it was delish!

New Recipe I tried or want to try soon:

If cooking a ham for the first time is a recipe- I'm doing it Christmas day!

On my To Do List:

Ahahahaha!

Clean sweep of the house

Steam floors

Laundry & more laundry

Scrub toilets

Mail Christmas cards

Return library books

In the Craft Basket:

DO Christmas cookies count?

Looking forward to this week:

Christmas eve and Christmas day!

Baking with my mother in law

Family coming into town

My favorite blog post this week (Mine or other):

It's Worth It by Sarah's Dandelions

No words needed (favorite photo or picture, yours or others you want to share):

Lesson learned the past few days:

If we are passionately pursuing the things that God is passionate about, why do we waste ourselves questioning whether or not He will come through on our behalf?

On My Prayer List:

Two special little kids.

Our inspections.

Devotionals, Scripture Reading, Key Verses:

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. prov. 3.5

What happens next?

2011-12-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

I wish we knew! We are licensed- but still waiting on those darn inspections! As of today- (I say this because it can change at any time, and we are praying it will)-the two little ones I previously mentioned adding to our family...are not going to be placed with us- yet. Whatever that means. So we don't really know what's going on, or what's going to happen, or what our family is going to look like next week, or next month, next year. And I'm OK with that, actually. After over a year of trying to figure everything out and why it's not happening the way I want it to, and why it's taking longer than we anticipated....I've finally let go, and God will place the right children in our home at just the perfect time! That is one thing we are positive of!

"If we are passionately pursuing the things that God is passionate about, why do we waste ourselves questioning whether or not He will come through on our behalf?" -

Someone posted this today- just as I was writing this blog and wondering if I really even believe what I am saying. Timely and true! God is indeed passionate about these kids. Speaking of foster children....what "are they"- anyway? I know lots of people cram them into the Orphan care "section", but they have parents. They are not orphans. I am not obviously talking about the waiting children that are in the foster care system who are orphans and who are waiting. They have homes (even if not like ours). Parents, who even though are in some kind of trouble with drugs, alcohol, abuse, or whatever- are still their parents and it's usually a pretty sad thing to see TPR (termination of parental rights) even if we think the parent(s) didn't try hard enough. I guess it really doesn't matter. God is for the underdog- with or without parents.

It's here!

2011-12-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

Growing by TWO!

2011-12-11T16:20:00.000-08:00

Maybe.

We are anticipating the arrival of a sweet 5 year old girl and 2.5 (he might be 3?) year old boy come the first of the year. In three weeks, we will be a family of 7 and expecting the 8th! Yes- some days I feel I should check my temperature or at least give myself a few slaps in the face to make sure I'm really awake/alive ;) But really, there is no better way for our family to change & grow! Needless to say, we are very excited!

However, there is always the need for prayer! In this particular situation, we are praying that nothing changes in the next three weeks. That the well being, safety, health, and overall interest of these children will always be put first. Even if for some reason they don't end up in our family, that they end up in another loving home. Pray for them/us/this situation, please!

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." Matthew 18:19

We know God has a plan for them and for our family, and we are believing that these children will be apart of ours!

-Ps- We are moving the foster care portion of our blog to a new, private blog. http://www.fosterawareness.blogspot.com

If you would like to follow along our fostering journey with more detail, comment & leave me your email address so I can give you access to the private blog! In this blog, I will be giving just general information & updates.

Come Away

2011-12-04T20:05:00.000-08:00

My all time favorite.

To the North Pole!

2011-12-03T21:34:00.001-08:00

Last night we took our annual trip to the "north pole", which is really a large park decorated with thousands of lights, train rides, Santa, fire pits for roasting marshmallows, gift shops, rock climbing walls, food, carousels & more. It is a ton of fun for the kids, and this year we got to go with good friends of ours which made the trip even better!

Of course, we stopped beforehand at our favorite BBQ place and fed ourselves, I think my favorite part this year was watching the kids run and play and being with our friends (and the looks on the kids faces on the carousel, which my sweet hubby failed to capture completely).

Friends

Little sister, who is not looking so little....

Middle and little

Big and her best friend, G.

He's a ladies man already ;)

Little and her friend, K.

The old lady who lived in a shoe... :)

My friend and I, she is 13 weeks pregnant and I'm 14 weeks!

Little rode the monkey. Middle the giraffe, and big decided to ride on the bench, she thought it was the best spot ever.

mrs.claus

middle is weary of people she doesn't know

even Santa!

Until next year- North Pole!

Thanksgiving & Black Friday Happenings

2011-11-26T18:39:00.001-08:00

Feeding geese

This one had a hurt leg :(

Little sis. It was cold!

Middle sister on the swing, love this pic.

Little sister would rather attack me than smile!

my parents

Take 2

Hubby's mom & step-dad. Yes he is a giant, and yes she is short :)

Little sister and her "Meme" (aunt)

Classic. My two sisters and my three ragamuffins.

My mom & her mom

mr. and I

Yep- thanksgiving was a blast!

She loves her daddy

Prego woman hauling in a tree

Fire going, tree up!

So many things wrong with this picture

Big sister was the only one who wanted to decorate the tree!

Thanksgiving this year, I was most thankful to have my husband with us! As he was originally suppose to work but was scheduled off miraculously a few days before Thanksgiving! Both my family & mr.'s family live here, so we all got together and went to my sister's families house for a huge, wonderful, oh so yummy feast! By the way, I'm always pregnant during the holidays! So I have to figure that in when I look at my baby weight gain ;) Actually as far as I know I haven't gained anything, but then...I haven't been to the doctor(weighed) in over a month as well...

The kids played & played, we ate & ate...and ate, and talked in between. Then headed back to my parents house to sit and think about all we just ate, and have some pie after our stomachs settled. That's how we roll.

We got home around 7pm, tucked the kids into bed and left to do some black Friday shopping! Yes- we had a sitter here ;) This year I was so happy the stores opened earlier! I'd much rather shop at midnight than 4am. We stood in line at Target, and that was the best part because a)we had coffee b)we had company and c) we had a great entertainer! The man in front of us was cracking us up the entire time. So now, do you want to know my real thoughts on it?

-There should be tickets for "big deal" items. Target didn't hand out tickets. So when the door opened and everyone ran in, I saw tons of people loading up 2 & 3 of the "BIG deal" TV's into their carts and even though we were not there for a TV, I thought to myself how unfair it was for people to be taking that many TV's when many people who waited in line just as long didn't get one because of that. There should be a limit.

-This year was way crowded. I mean, the most crowded I've seen Target on black friday in the past three years. There was no order, everything was just randomly all over the store. For instance, we were buying a scooter for someone. So naturally we went to toys, stuck out the crowd...searched and searched....couldn't find them. Where did we find them, though? Why next to the towels and curtains in home goods, of course. This was the case for many, many things. The only things on the map were the TV's pretty much.

-Electronics. We were done but had to swing by electronics to grab two small items, not huge ticket items, not anything amazing, but we did need them and they were on sale. What did we find when we went to get them? A line. Not just a small line, but a line that started in electronics and went down to the back of the store and across the back of the store into toys. And, it wasn't moving. In order to buy ANYTHING that was in the electronic section or was an electronic, you had to check out in electronics. Which has two registers. That also kept crashing. So we get in line and wait. And wait. And prayed they still had the items we wanted by the time it was our turn up there. And we listened to the complainers behind us. And took turns standing in line and going to look for other things. And watched a fight almost break out over a fire pit. And listened to people ask the clueless employees questions about the sucky way they were doing it this year. And stared at the things in our cart and had to remind myself why we were here a gazillion times.

My husband said I looked high. Pale with blood shot eyes. My friend told him I looked like I was going to have a melt down, haha. In the end, even after waiting to get into the store for three hours and having to wait in another line inside for an hour- we got everything we wanted and saved oodles of money on it all. Hate to love it. Oh! And it was the first year my husband came with! (and his last, he says).

We did get to sleep in, until 11am! I felt like a teenager! We woke and headed out to get a tree! Our first real tree since Big sister was a small baby. A lovely 9ft frasier fur that smells ah-mazing! And looks amazing if I do say so myself. That got me in the mood, we then put up the lights outside and decorated the tree/house. We are ready! I almost started to wrap gifts tonight, but decided to at least wait until December to do so. I made (another) big dinner with all the Thanksgiving leftovers, and passed out before we had time to clean up! Thankful for today, which was spent c-l-e-a-n-i-n-g!

Thankful Thursdays

2011-11-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

It's 11pm! Thankful I made it online before midnight, so I could do my thankful Thursday post!

12 weeks pregnant and now in the worst part of pregnancy (besides morning sickness...). The "my regular pants are a bit too snug for comfort, but maternity pants don't quite fit right yet" stage. Thankful that we have made it this far, though, and that I should be getting back some of my energy soon!

Three weeks in, and we are almost, just almost, settled in our lovely new home! I have a few pictures to hang, and my husband has the daunting task of putting the play set together again...and we are done! We are slowly adjusting to the daily hustle and bustle of "city" life (ha!) verse living out of city limits in a very quiet neighborhood, at the end of a cul de sac where we were lucky to see one car besides our own come by. School kids during recess, street sweepers, homes being built, dogs barking, and blowers blowing are just some of the things we are getting use too. But we are oh so thankful for 1700+ square feet of home for our ever expanding family, our home, even if only for a season! God is good.

Thanksgiving is less than a week away, and even though hubby works, I'm thankful he get's off at four and still gets to enjoy dinner with us! His family will be coming to my families (parents) house again this year so we don't have to split our day at different houses. We are very thankful to live nearby both of our families, making the Holiday season even better.

Through parenting, pregnancy, marriage, education, family matters, finances and friendships to name a few...I am thankful to have oodles of information and research at the click of a mouse. That I have access to read, and read, and read tons of research, opinions, and facts about anything and everything under the moon- and most importantly, to be able to take what I've read, and pray about how to apply it to our current situation.

Mr. has been on "staycation" all week long (yes- we need to plan our vacations better. He had a ton of days to use before the 1st!) It has been a week of relaxation, family time, fun, laziness, and just hanging out. I'm thankful for the whopping five weeks of vacation he gets every year, allowing us to have this random week to spend together before the business of the holidays kicks in.

To homeschool or not to homeschool has been the big debate around the Potter house lately, as our 2nd schooling option for big and middle begins accepting applications in just one short month. I know all of the pro's and con's. I know all the "Christian" reasons and responses, I've heard over a few thousand opinions (literally) on both options. I've read. I've researched. We've prayed, and we are still not certain. However, I am thankful to even have options for our childrens education.

And most off all, I am thankful for my husband, and our three sweet girls (+one ;). I could not have picked a better family myself. Very blessed.

Moving, licensing, babies and more!

2011-11-11T17:59:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, I know :) That's what happens when you have to move your 1500sq foot home and family in two weeks, while you are newly pregnant and fatigue! That was two weeks ago and we are now finally settled and unpacked in our new home, which we love.

We are 11 weeks along in this pregnancy, time is flying and it's just the beginning! We are all getting more and more excited, and the reality that we are going to have another wee tiny baby in our family this summer is becoming more and more real. Four children, can't wait!

We are s.t.i.l.l waiting for our foster care license. Everything has been done since August, the state has our papers (they have had them for weeks). We are just waiting for them to send us our license! Our worker already has us on the call list- with "pending" next to our names. We have already had the walk through for our new home and new inspections scheduled.

We figure, God could have made this process faster if he wanted too, and he hasn't, and there is reason he hasn't. So we are patiently waiting for his perfect timing. Even our worker, who agree's that is has been ridiculously long, say's that for some reason it always works out for those who have to wait the longest- it always works out with the children and the timing turns out to be just perfect.

A year is a lot longer than we ever thought we would be waiting, just for our license, not even for a child yet. There have been many, many times when we would question if this is God's will for us. Why would it be taking so long? Maybe we aren't suppose to be doing this? Is HE in this? We are having our fourth baby- are we still suppose to foster? Is this a test or a trick? Then we listened to the Orphan Sunday live event on Sunday night, and one of the speakers said "If you want them, go get them, pursue them." Pursue them. Do what has to be done. Wait the wait. Complete the papers. Put up with the case workers. It is long. It is rough. It is testing and stressful, it does suck. But imagine if everyone just gave up because we think it's taking to long. Because we just want it to be done already. Because it's taking longer then we planned we start assuming that it's not what God want's us to do, even though he has brought us this far already.

We are not giving up, we know he has not brought us this far for nothing, we are a foot away from the finish line and we are finishing, even if it takes us three more months to move that one foot more. The children deserve it, they deserve someone willing to wait and wait and wait and wait for them. To go through all of the ups and downs to get to them. Hopefully we will have it soon...any day now! :)

Oh, and the Duggars are having #20! I'm happy for them- and I try really hard to not let all of the negative comments make me go off on a rant of why it's great that they are having more. I can't believe how mean people can be!

So, enough boring you ;) Here are some pictures from Halloween!

Cats out of the Bag!

2011-10-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

We are expecting baby #4 this coming summer!

Yes, we are excited, and yes, we are still fostering! (that is if we ever get our license....!)

The girls have already decided, if it's a boy his name will be Simba, and if it's a girl her name will be Nala. Middle sister even referred to me as having "Baby Simba in my tummy" today.

"Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. " Psalm 127:3

Hay, Horses, and Pumpkins! Oh my!

2011-10-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

One of our absolute favorite fall things to do is, of course, go to the pumpkin patch! We have a lovely farm here in town that has a pumpkin patch each year that we go to with ponies, hay rides, goats, pigs, pumpkins, tepees, small hay stacks, yummy food and canned goods, and lots of great scenery for the kids to just run out of all there energy in!

So here we are this year, it was quite chilly this year! I honestly should have brought a jacket vs. sweater! As you can see, the girls favorite part was feeding the pony. Big sister even said "Mom, if you got me a pony I would take real good care of it"... I'm sure you would, little one!

When did this kid get so big!?!?!?!??!

my clan :)

Recent this & that's

2011-10-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

It's Monday night, my home is a wreck. Only one of my three little ones are in bed, I have no plans on cleaning anytime soon. I am coming to terms with the fact that a) I have three kids and we are going to have more and b) it is impossible for me to keep it clean (to my standards) all day everyday, I have to get over it!

It was a rainy & dark day today (but the breeze felt oh so good!). We are a few days behind in school work, thankful we make our schedule.

I made my first Halloween craft! (pictured below) and the girls picked out their costumes! Aurora and Cinderella, and Snow White for baby sis. Big sister brought all of her money to the store (something around 40 cents) and said it was for her costume because she knows they cost five bucks, and boy do I wish they only cost five bucks! :)

It has been 7 weeks since we "finished" our licensing process...and we still don't have our license! I am so over getting mad or worked up over it, almost over even caring anymore! I can't do anything to make it happen. Phone calls, text's, emails, venting, wishing, praying, standing in the shower rehearsing how I'm going to tell our worker how much he sucks the next day...which I never do...just feels great to say it. I can't do anything, God has to do it. Nothing is going to work- he has to make them move. Which is very apparent, since one of my friends here is also in the same spot and has gone as far as calling the state and the supervisors...and that has got her nowhere as well! I am so not in control.

I had one of those completely corny "music ministry" moments a few weeks ago. A few days after we found out our life is about to take a crazy ride (for the better!) I was completely overwhelmed and wondering how in the world I was going to be able to do it, to handle it all when I am barely hanging on with what I have now. Almost in tears, I got in the car and turned on the radio- and what do ya know, "Strong Enough" by Matthew West came on and it was like God was telling me right then... don't worry, I got this. Nope, you can't do ANY of this, so let me. So it's now my current favorite song :)

And...enjoy some pictures! :)

Fall is in the air!

2011-10-03T13:15:00.001-07:00

Wahoo! We have had some seriously awesome weather the past few days! Highs in the low 70's, and we are moving every second of it. Here are my absolute favorite things about fall!:

Leaves changing and falling! The beautiful colors, and doing some really neat leave projects with my kiddos.

Pumpkin patches! Picking out pumpkins, watching my kids try to lift them, the great opportunity for photos, and carving pumpkins! I'm not a fan of baking and eating pumpkins seeds, though.

Warm lattes! Which I will only drink in cool weather :)

Hot chocolate, with extra marshmallows for kids, please!

Yes, I let my kids trick or treat, yes I let them dress up, and no- they do not think it's anything with satan or the whatever people think. Its pure fun, it didn't ruin me...I love it!

We dont live in City limits anymore- so this year I can't wait to have our own fire and make s'mores!

Cute sweaters! I love sweaters! (hate jackets!)

Favorite fall food? Chili, of course! A yummy warm bowl!

Can you tell I love fall just a little..? :)

Letting Go

2011-09-28T17:47:00.000-07:00

"I have to let go. I am not in control!"

The simple words hit me like a ton of bricks. It was as if I didn't already know this to begin with.

It was another young mom in our bible study this morning- talking about having to move and find a house in another state and deal with their home now, and having to finally let go and let God work it out.

The first thing that popped into my head was nothing about moving- but about our foster care licensing. Maybe it was the way she said it. So sternly, like a mother telling a child that they can not do something, that spoke right to me.

Funny thing is, I have known this. I have known that I have to let it go. But time after time, I still try to be in control. "Lord, this is in your hands. Praying for your perfect timing, you have to do this Lord." I would pray continuously. I would feel better for a little bit, and then I would be on the phone contacting our worker. Week after week. I fasted, but still let it consume me. Still tried to be in control, still trying to take things into my own hands. I was not even giving God time to work. Getting discouraged. Impatient. Angry. Annoyed. Frustrated. I was not letting go, even though I thought I had.

1 Peter 5:7 "Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you"

I came to realize tonight, that at the end of the day, I have two choices:

I can bring it to God, and then spend the rest of my day trying to figure out how I can "make things happen"....and continue to plot and get frustrated.

I can bring it to God with confidence, and wait on him to do it...and rest in his promises, he will cover me.

I am done, I am letting go, I am not in control.

Multitudes on Monday 54-64

2011-09-20T15:51:00.000-07:00

54. This is the last day of our lovely 5 day stay-cation with the hubby home. We have loved every minute of it and of course, wish it could last forever!

55. I ran 2 miles last night, non stop, in 30 minutes! Ok, super runners, this might seem a bit SLOW to you, but I am way proud of myself! I remember when running one whole minute would leave me dying! Thankful that I have kept it up and continue to push myself, only with HIS help! Honestly, I'd much rather lay on the couch and watch tv or blog ;)

56. I have been meeting lots of new women/friends these past few weeks. One of which is in the same spot as we are in the foster care licensing process! Same age range, same number of children, and they are done just waiting on the license as well! So thankful to have someone here who is in the same spot as we are.

57. We have a new neighbor with a five year old little boy who is over here constantly! My girls love him to death and I barely see them throughout the day, they would rather play! As a matter of fact big sister prayed at dinner tonight that she would never have to do school work again so that she can play with him all day long! Thankful for my kids energy and their age!

58. My sweet growing little sister, who says "mmmmmm" after she takes a bite or drink of anything, and loves loves her baby doll!

59. All the many people who have given us clothing or any items for our foster children! We were blessed with another full bag of boy clothing last night, all new and some with tags still on them! It is such a huge blessing, and such a stress reliever!

60. Our home! It's not too big, and not too small! I love our creativeness and ability to fit two sets of bunk beds in each room , showing that your home does not have to be huge to have a "large" family! It's cozy, it fits us, and I love it more every day! It helps that the weather is changing and is giving it a new feel!

61. Big sister took an art class on Monday for home schoolers, and she loved it! They all had a wonderful time, and I am thankful that there are so many groups, trips, classes and support available for home school families! Makes it so much more fun!

62. As materialistic as it may sound...I am very thankful for my tablet! I use it for everything! From blogging, social networking, browsing the net, tracking my weight loss, exercise, music, tracking my cycle (ok, maybe tmi, but there are so many awesome apps!), email, reading, reading the bible, writing my prayers/notes, games and uploading my pictures to it! Love it.

63. A super sweet "award winning" dog who is sitting at my feet, and never leaves! He follows me everywhere! He even lays by the tread mill while I'm on it!

64. Thankful that God gives us hope! That he says, there will be an end to this foster care licensing, you WILL have your license, even if our worker is not doing his job- it will happen in HIS perfect timing!

Are you SURE you want to do that?

2011-09-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend we headed out to my parents house for their town's annual festival. Of course, being the wonderful proud-her-children mother that I have, every person we ran into she would blab somewhere in the there "and they are "doing" foster care!" Yep- sometimes I wanted to shove a snow cone in her mouth! Why? Because we rarely get good responses to this(ok, we do get the occasional "Oh my goodness your a saint! I just couldn't do it!" reactions) , so I'd rather not deal with the entire town and their opinions at all.

The worst of the night was a lady who looked at me with such a look, I couldn't tell if she was disgusted or just confused, with the thickest southern accent, and said "are ya SHUR ya'll wanna do foster care?!?!!?!" Before I could answer, my mom chimed in with "Oh they are passionate about children as you are passionate to savings dogs!" Yep. Dogs, bless my moms heart...it was a very awkward moment.

That night laying in bed, I suddenly felt like the town weirdo. Like I have to defend not only us and our decision, but the children too. I was reminded of what someone told me a few weeks ago, they said "foster care is very unattractive". They are right. Even I the first time Mr. mentioned the idea to me, I blew it off and told him what everyone says, that it would be to hard to let the kids go back. Then, that I'd be afraid of getting a child with 6 arms and 10 eyes who would try to burn our house down and murder us in our sleep. That was my ignorant vision of the type of children in foster care, and while not everyone thinks like THAT, I don't think they first picture of sweet little girl in a sundress and pigtails picking flowers and playing dolls.

But I also believe that people don't give the thought of foster care and the children enough time, to get past the rumors and labels, the bad rep. it often carries. Because truth is, there are sweet little girls who would love for you to dress them in a sundress and give them pig tails, who would love for you to take them to pick flowers and play dolls with. There are little boys who just want to play ball and run around the yard. There are good teens who want boundaries, who want someone to care, who want someone to take them shopping and to the movies.

It took me a few months to realize this, even after we applied I was nervous at first- until we continued to meet real foster families with real foster children, who were perfect. And by perfect I do not mean white. I do not mean young. I do not mean problem-free. I mean children of all ages and color, children with learning problems, growth problems, children with attachment problems who were kind. Who were thriving. Who were happy. Who were being loved. Who were behaving. Who had pigtails.

Children who were given the chance that so many people find unattractive and scary. Beauty. Who like me at first didn't want to think about, pushed it to the back of mind until God pulled it out, brought us to our knees and told us to not be afraid. That he will not give us anything that we cannot handle, and anything he does give us, any child he does bring us, we will be able to do it because he will be with us every single second. And that is the truth, and it is beautiful. God's redemption and love, his second chances, his call on our lives, and his demand to everyone that it is our responsibility to take these children who need homes and care for them and love them, just as you would BEG someone to take in your own child if they had any need and you were not there...no matter where they live or what they look like, no matter the cost.

What happens when hubby goes on "stay-cation"

2011-09-17T18:47:00.001-07:00

We buy light up swords and pretend to be Shera at the shrimp festival.

We hang out in the golf cart.

Yes- middle sister is literally busting out of this sweater...lol.

Chilaxin'

We enter our dog into a costume contest...an hour before the contest..bahah.

But he wins 2nd place! First place was just a god with a gamecock jersey. Give me a break...! Chickens...way cuter.

And, it's 29 days and I'm down 6lbs!

Stay tuned, because next we are going to the zoo! :)

Multitudes on Monday #43-53

2011-09-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

43. Having a completely lazy day with the entire family today. It doesn't happen often, and we all loved it.

44. I'm down 5lbs. (in 3 weeks) and I'm actually excited about my next weigh in. I've been working my behind off! (literally)

45. The weather is starting to cool down a bit, which means more and more outside time for us! Even little sister can't get enough of the outdoors lately.

46. God's provision in our lives, his test's, the promises he gave to us and the peace that we can rest in knowing that without a doubt- we are always taken care of and he is always working in us.

47. Encouraging, just plain fun friends that I have been able to get closer to lately.

48. The heroes of 9/11 who didn't look back, but went in when everyone else was going out.

49. Five day vacation for my hardworking hubby coming up!

50. The freedom of choice.

51. Three spunky little girls who are snug in their beds asleep.

52. Our country has so many programs, assistance, churches, funds, shelters, charities, services for our poor and needy to take advantage of. That we have a child welfare system in place that tries their best to make sure there are no children being abused, going hungry, falling victims of neglect. We are so blessed.

53. Our waiting period. Even though I don't like to wait, I know that God is using this time to shape us and teach us, for that I am thankful.

While We're Waiting

2011-09-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

On our license to get here (praying, crossing fingers, wishing on stars that it will be here Friday or sooner!) life is happening, and I am soaking up as much of these three little girls as possible:

(excuse the pile of laundry :)

We moved little sister out of our room this weekend (bittersweet). Her crib is in the same room as big and middle, but she has been sleeping in the pack n play in the "foster room" until we have children to fill that room. Thankful for large bedrooms!

I also finally bought bins and organized/labeled all the clothing for our foster children. We have seven 20 gal. bins of girl clothing (birth-2t) and only two bins for boys. Can you tell we have all girls? :)

I plan on spending this weekend making freezer meals for when we start getting placement calls. I know that our first placement is going to be on the busiest day of the week, when hubby is at work, the girls are having a bad day and my house is a mess(just my luck). At least I wont have to deal with dinner!

(I found these on the window above my bed during nap time. Big sister put them there, and has been checking on them every day)

What's this you see? Yes, 642 calories burnt in 34 minutes on my treadmill.

I don't know if that is a lot for a normal person, but it was a lot for me! I love, love, love this treadmill! The weight loss and aerobic workouts ROCK! The incline changing makes me actually work my butt off, and I love that I never have to do the same work out, there are so many to choose from (ok im sure eventually I will have to do them over again). I'm also registering for my first 5k in November. Yes- I was suppose to run a 5k last year. No- I never did, life got in the way and that 5k came and passed...not happening this time!

All of big sisters home schooling groups and club start up next week, and we are starting to get busy! Can you believe it's already fall? :) I'm off to bed so that maybe, just maybe...I can wake at a decent time in the morning!

School Days

2011-09-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

It is 3 weeks in to our school year, and I have learned a lot!

1) "School" doesn't have to be in the morning. We find ourselves sitting at the table at 4pm some nights starting our lessons. Beauty of homeschooling = Flexibility

Breaks are super important. At least for my girls. They need a break between each subject pretty much, to run out their energy and focus better when they come back.

Some days, everyone is crabby. Some days, big sister is just having a rough day. Some days, we don't have school because of it, and that's ok.

Field trips are fun, and we have lots of homeschooling friends!

Our first field trip to the dentist office.

Recess can be anywhere, anytime.

This day, we took a trip to the park.

And sometimes, we jump in the pool! :)

For going on a month into homeschooling, we love it! Yes- we have "pull my hair out, awful" days, but the good days make up for it 100 fold.

This and That

2011-08-30T18:51:00.001-07:00

We have had a stomach bug floating around :/ Why do people bring their kids to church when their other children have stomach bugs or just got over one a few hours ago??? Ugh. I cleaned my carpets and Ive done more laundry today than I have since I became a mom 4 years ago.

I decided Im not going to text, call, or email our licensing worker until he calls us with our license. Im pretty sure im driving him insane, but he is driving me insane!!!!! Today he says "I will let you know when your license arrives. Your excitement is good :-) a new chapter is begining soon". Its not excitement anymore, its impatience and annoyance. Ok, a wee bit of excitement. We are the ONLY family in this process for our county right now....whhhyy oh whyyyy are you taking so long to get things done!? So, this afternoon I prayed about it, decided to give it over to God. Im just going to wait for the call and trust it will be in Gods timing and pray Gods timing is...soon.
I would not be the least bit surprised if we dont get placements for months, only to find out that he forgot to put us on the list of homes. Not surprised a bit.

Ok, i totally promised myself i was not going to be one of those bloggers who is constantly bashing DSS and caseworkers. So Im done until its in our hands!

I have been participating in the SexyBack 2011 challenge with Carlos Whittaker. Ive lost 2lbs, its been a week and a half, and my next weigh in is Friday. Im hoping for 2 more pounds! What have i been doing? Im glad you asked. Its simple, three changes.

-Water. I drink water only. I drink 75oz a day, usually I try to drink well over 75, but not today. The easiest way for me to be sure Im drinking this much was to buy a $2 75oz water bottle, fill it up, drink it all throughout the day.

-Exercise. I do a different fat burning workout on my treadmill every day for 30 minutes. Once I hit my plataue I will up it to 45min. I could not exercise without my treadmill. Being a sahm, having three toddlers, my husbands wacky schedule, and not wanting to spend our extra money on a gym membership...its the one and only way that works for us. Rain or shine, day or night, i never have to leave my home. I bought a heart rate monitor to better track my calories while exercising (or mowing the lawn...cleaning attics..you know). So far I have been burning around 550 calories a day during my workouts. Not to mention, i feel better.

-Myfitnesspal. Wow. I cannot stress to you how much this app has helped me. It tracks my weight, daily calories, water and exercise intake, daily vitamins and nutrients, logs all my food, lets me set goals and tells me what I need to do to achieve them. This app has been my best friend for two weeks now. Its like a super better, free weight watchers. But by calories not points. Points are stupid. I have learned so much about food and my eating habits just by being aware of how many calories all my different foods are. So, i have a daily calorie intake and I dont go over it.

Weighing myself was enough to get me motivated. Everyone KNOWS that all you have to do is diet and exersise to lose...but actually doing it, making the decision to start and never stop, is much harder. Especially when you LOVE to eat, like me. But, the best part is that I still DO eat. Even go out to eat and do fast food occasionally while staying on track.

I have a friend right now who is going to a weight loss center here, its been 7 weeks and she has lost 35 pounds. Its so tempting...but I would never do it. For one, she pays $600 every six weeks until she stops. Too expensive. Its going to come back once she stops. Maybe not all of it, but it will come back. Its tempting when im running my behind off, sweating like a hog in a dessert...to just go get a weekly shot and be done with it. But its not healthy and its not the right way to lose. Anything that is worth it is never going to be easy or fast. Weight, or Foster Care :-) .

Dear Licensing Worker

2011-08-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

I love you.

But, I hate it when you give me unrealistic dates that things are going to be done by.

When we first started the process everything was going really fast, and you said "You should be done by Spring. April/Mayish". Well, spring is long gone, and I'm OK with that.

In May, you said our inspections would be in June. They weren't until late July and August. I'm OK with that.

We waited five months for our Health inspection because you thought it was already done, when it wasn't. I'm OK with that.

Wednesday, you said that you were mailing out our home study. You didn't. I'm feeling discouraged.

Wednesday you said we will be done well before the holidays. I'm wondering if we're going to be done before next spring.

Another Step Closer

2011-08-24T13:48:00.001-07:00

We are done! This morning our worker came over, we signed the last of our papers and answered the last of any questions. He will be sending it to the state Friday, and we should have our license in no longer than two weeks. It's been 8 long months of waiting (9 by the time we have it in our hands). Almost feels unreal. Are we really done? Are there really no more obstacles left? No more inspections or walk throughs...for now.

So soon we enter into another kind of waiting. Waiting for children. It was so real to us when we signed the paper this morning, " Number of kids: 2 , Age range: 0-5, Gender: either" ....please sign here. Official.

We are happy and ready, I think a bit in shock. How did I get through these past nine months? I am the most impatient person ever, I want everything NOW. Waiting is very hard, which why I laugh that we are working with the foster care system, a bit ironic. I will admit that so.many.times, I would get really impatient and just want to pull our file and adopt. Seems so much easier and faster. Pay the money, pick your child and in nine months later bring your child home and they are yours forever, the end (yes, I know there is more to it than that). We dont know when our children will be here, what gender or age, what they look like until they are on our doorstep. We wont know how long they will be with us. Sometimes we wont even know their history. We know its messy. We know its going to be hard. We know its going to hurt. We know God is going to get us through every obstable and every minute waiting, every unkown...HE knows. Its going to be worth it.

I.cant.wait!

Foster Children and Identity

2011-08-19T16:14:00.001-07:00

The privacy of a foster child is very important. I understand that.
But what I dont understand is all of the rules they have applied to foster parents, leaving the child with little to no identity when in care.
I agree with the "Dont tell anyone why the child is in foster care, their past, history etc" and I agree. Its no ones business.
What I dont agree with is not being able to have pictures of the child, or share pictures with family or close friends. I posted this question in a foster parent forum, and these were some responses I got:

Q: "When we get a placement, we are tossing around the idea of having a private blog in which only the people we choose can see it, in order to share with them pictures of the child & general information about our family. What do you think?"

A: "I know some people did that. I think it is fine."

" Don't do it! You risk loosing your placement(s) if you break the rules....I know it's tough, this was my biggest complaint, I couldn't post any pics on my private Myspace page (wasn't on facebook initially).....our oldest out of the group was school age & her pic couldn't even be displayed in the hallways of the school.....we were also told we couldn't email their pics....PLEASE check with the children's social worker before you do this!"

"If your social worker says it is ok you are fine. Most will say this is ok.
You are not posting their names and will not talk about the case. You are
just sharing them with family like you would if they were at a family
gathering."

"A blog is still a no-no, but if you send a private e-mail to each person indvidually, then that is ok (at least in Wisconsin)."

" It depends on the case, and the worker - even in Wisconsin. With our case, we cannot send any pictures, print any pictures, allow any family members to take pictures, etc. We can take pictures, but not save them to our computer for now. There is always the possibility that a family member may print them and show them to someone else, even if told not to. We are unable to have any distinguishing pictures period...electronic, printed, any. So for Father's Day, we took a picture of the three kiddo's hands to give to each of our dads. That was the only thing approved because it could have been anyone's hands...but they loved it. :)"

"I don't think it has anything to do with birth parents' approval but a matter of safety issues for the kids....that's what we were told, that you never know who knows the children & could cause problems if they saw the pics & found out the kids' exact location, especially since some kids' biological parents do not know the location of the children for safety reasons....it makes sense no matter how aggravating it is."

"I filled out an emergency card once at a church and they published the foster child's FULL name in the directory...so be careful! I had to collect all of them and have them destroyed!"

"yes something to think about..thank you..We are about to have pictures made at church and do not want their full names for sure published..if they are still here at that time.. On Face book I just call them my grandchildren..would never put pictures."

First thing's first- the difference of rules not just in each State, but in each COUNTY vary so much! Friends who had health inspections just a few counties away from me had it totally different! Her process has been totally different! They are not allowed to home school foster children (we are). It's just amazing how everything is so different everywhere, yet we are all doing the same thing.

My response to this is- yes- privacy and protection come first. But really? I'm very surprised that they don't ask us to put a paper bag over the child's head and change their name when in public!

Will our child's name be allowed in the Christmas play program? No school picture in the hallway at school with the rest of the classmates? Having to confiscate and destroy every directory with the child's name it? No pictures anywhere? Not even their real NAME? Wait a minute, are we even allowed to tell people their real names!?! I mean, anyone can walk up to us and ask the child it's name- then happen to know someone who knows them etc. - I mean didn't they think of that? Why don't we just give the children a new identity! It's sad. These children are people. They are someone. They have names. They are a very big part of their foster families lives, yet the foster family is basically asked to keep the child on the "down low".

In (our) reality- we have better luck running into a birth parent or family member/family friend during our everyday errands and shopping then we do attending church & sharing a private blog with pictures.

As far as bio families "knowing where the child is" - whats odd to me is that we were told that they usually want the kids to attend the same school, be in the same part of town that they are from (if possible) etc. That doesn't make any sense if they don't want the bio parents knowing where the child is. They also mentioned that if they think the bio family is dangerous or out to find the child- they are probably in jail and not on the streets. Anyway, I understand some, and some I don't. I just think it's sad that nobody is allowed to know who these children are.

If you are a foster parent or have been, what are your thoughts? How do you deal with your foster children's identity when it comes to your family, church, and close friends?

Why I love homeschooling:

2011-08-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

In one week- big sister (4) can write her name, unassisted.

Handwriting, big and little I's.

We took my father in law to Charleston this week for the day. We had a blast, and we would not have been able to go if big sister were in public/private school.

Our local school board is planning on putting 5th graders into middle school, starting next year.

That just added to my already long list of reasons "why".

This is our recess:

You can't play in the rain at school. Just sayin'.

Happy Birthday!

2011-08-14T20:33:00.001-07:00

Happy birthday to my 27 year old, old man! (aka, hubby)
So far we have had a lovely weekend. Saturday we got to go on a day date together. Saw "30 minutes or less" , enjoyed lunch at our favorite buger place Five Guys, browsed at Barnes & Noble,and Target. Then headed home to pick up the girls and have birthday cake, only to be surpirsed that Mr.'s dad had come up from Louisianna to surprise him! So we got to enjoy a big family party.
Today we had a wonderful service at church, took long naps, then headed to the in laws for dinner and our nephews birthday party...in which adam was gifted with a Kindle, and I a Dell tablet, which I am testing out right now...and im pretty much in love! Everything I "need" plus the Nook app which I really wanted. Already started reading "The Help"!
Tomorrow we are headed out of town to some touristy things with hubbies dad before he has to go. Blessed with a really great weekend, hope you all enjoyed yours as well! :-)

Foster Care and Race

2011-08-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

This topic has been on my mind a good bit lately. Such a touchy topic- but over and over and over again during this process I hear/see/read people talking about how it's "great" that that families are willing to take in children of a different race, but that the child is not blind is going to see the difference, they should be in a home of the same ethnic background because we cannot meet the needs of a child the opposite race.

Personally, we are willing to take in whatever child needs a family. White, Black, Spanish, Asian...you name it. God did not see skin color when loving, serving, caring, helping and taking in people. Neither do we. We will love on, take care of, advocate for and pray for every single child that comes into our home with everything we have. I read this today, and it pretty much sums up how we feel about this:

"My husband, bio son and myself are white and we adopted two Haitian children. My Haitian daughter really struggles with the fact that we are white. She feels alone in a sea of white people and often says she wishes a black family had adopted her. I think in some ways I agree with her. I don’t understand the issues she faces as a young black girl living in a white community. I can teach her all I want that race doesn’t matter, but in her world – it does. She is discriminated against by other students at her school – yet she refuses to come home to be homeschooled as my bio son is. She’s my social butterfly and longs to be in an accepting group. I praise God that she has found that in our church, but even there – she is one of only 2 other black people – one of whom is her bio brother.

It’s a struggle that doesn’t seem fair to her – and my mama heart aches to know that I will never truly be able to understand that struggle. Would it have been easier for her to be adopted by a black family? Perhaps. However, would she have been adopted and brought to America for a better life had the government only allowed a black family to adopt her? Most likely she would still be living in poverty and sickness or even dead as she had TB when we brought her home. All I can do is pray that the Lord brings good people into her life – be they black or white or any other ethnicity – who can show her that her value doesn’t depend on the color of her skin but on Whom she believes and how she lives her life."

It may or may not be a struggle for us if we foster a child of opposite race, every child is different & we plan on prayerfully caring for each child's ethnic needs to the best of our ability, and trusting that God will take over and it will all be just fine. Our God is bigger than ethnic ratios, percentages, statistics, and negative opinions.

If you are a foster parent/adoptive parent- do you take race into consideration before accepting a child? Why or why not?

-Please note- I'm aware this is a touchy topic, please be respectful & do not take my questions or anyone's comment on my post in the wrong way. As we are at the end of our licensing process and nearing the "wait for a call", this is a common & honest concern and I am simply asking for your opinion based on your experience. Thank you! :) -

I got a text!

2011-08-10T10:25:00.001-07:00

Yes- only our licensing worker sends us text messages! Making him super cool...& sometimes he even says things like "cool beanie weenies!". He is a cool.dude. Now- if only he & every other government worker didn't take so long!

Word is as of today- he just got our DHEC report yesterday. "We will be done very soon "..he says.

Progress makes me happy!

First Day of School

2011-08-09T18:57:00.000-07:00

We made it through our first day of school! And, it was...

We really did love it. All three of the girls did WONDERFULLY on the schedule! Getting up before the girls, being dressed & ready for the day, having eaten breakfast & done my bible study all before I'm faced with three sleepy eyed cranky kids makes a huge difference in my day, and Mr.'s day. The best part was watching big sister learn, and write her capital I's! I already can't wait for Day 2.

Our "school room" is our dining room! Which, so far, we really enjoy not being secluded into one room. Our living room is long, and we had this odd extra space behind our couch- so we are using it for school related things as well :

My parents gave us this long wooden storage bench- so inside is storage, and we put our school books and library books as well as clothes for the next day on top of it.

I have a cute "system" for hanging the girls artwork as well as crayon storage etc to hang around here as well- will post pics when I have it all done!

And- the classroom-

Lovely Randomness

2011-08-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

-Tomorrow is "our" first day of school! Kids are asleep, house is cleaned, school materials are organized and ready to be used, and I'm very excited!

-Big sister {4} plays on the computer! Barbie dress up games. Sigh...is she really old enough to be asking to play on the computer?!

-One of our new favorite things to do is go to the library! We've always gone to check out books, but never to utilize everything they have for the kids. Today's trip, the girls checked out the kids computer area and enjoyed the educational computer games & headphones. One mom was doing her own work at a table nearby while her kids played games on the computers- I think I'm going to copy her! :)

-Nothing new on the foster care home front. I'm going to wait until Friday before I give my worker a call. That will be two weeks since our inspection- well enough time for him to do what he needs to do for us to be d.o.n.e ! Our friends who got their license in the mail just this past Friday got their first call today! Very excited to be following them in the beginning of their journey!

-Middle sister has two favorite books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Goodnight Moon. Big sister doesn't have a favorite, she loves them all. Little sister is starting to whine, a cute whine, but alas, a whine when she want's something. My sweet girls are growing way to fast.

-Mr.'s birthday is coming up, and he wants another tattoo..... :D I like ~~love~~ my man in tattoos!

Random Photos from the weekend:

Little & her friend, Jude.

What we do when it rains! :)

Kids on the computer..sigh....

We are NOT all that.

2011-08-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

I never know what to say when people tell Mr. and I how much we rock because we are becoming foster parents.

Or how many people tell us we are angels and we're great and I must be supermom and we are brave. We are this and we are that, blah blah blah. I know they have great intentions, and I know what they are meaning...but it feels so very weird and wrong to take any credit for anything that we are doing, because it is not US.

-We are not brave.

-We are not self-less.

-I am not supermom (ah ahaha, or even close.)

-We are not angels.

-We ARE thankful for all that God has done for us.

-We ARE acting because our eyes have been opened. And once they are opened, its very hard to explain.... but you cannot shut them. I stress on this all.the.time . God knows that we know about the 147 million orphans in the world. He knows that we know about the 400,000 foster children in the U.S. He is holding us responsible to do something about it. Its kind of like, we are obligated to (but also want to). Once you know, you cannot ignore it...your eyes will not shut.

I know we are a little crazy. I've been told that more than a few times. We don't know what we are getting ourselves into, and almost every day I hear that little voice saying "Just what do you think your doing? Your barely keeping your head above water with your three girls, and you want to bring in one or two more?"

But I know with a deep down certainty though, that God has called us to this journey. Because in and of myself...I am far to comfortable and interested in my own comfort to take the risk this involves just to suit my own fancy. I couldn't and wouldn't do this unless God out a fire deep in my belly that wont quit. He wont let it go. He gave me a passion to bring some little ones into this fold that we call home.

So that voice whispering in my ear...it isn't his voice. It doesn't bring me strength or comfort. It's the voice of the enemy, so I push it back and drown it out with the truth. I quiet the anxiousness it stirs up with reminders of HIS faithfulness to us, and refocus back to him, the one who's called us to journey.

So please...never ever,ever think that we are brave enough, selfless enough, smart enough, creative enough to do this thing. We can't do it, he is going to do it through us. He has the patience to fill out all of paperwork, he has the patience to wait, and wait, and wait on workers and appointments. He has the strength, knowledge and patience to parent these children and guide them. Because we cant, and we realize this every.single.day. Usually when we have been playing referee for hours, or when we are up-to-here with our patience, or when none of our discipline methods seem to be working and we are at the end of our rope.

He will equip us for what he has called us to do. It is not about us, it is about him. That is what we want you to know.

"Lord, you are great. You are really worthy of praise. No one can completely understand how great you are.Parents will praise your works to their children. They will tell about your mighty acts. They will speak about your glorious majesty. I will spend time thinking about your miracles. They will speak about the powerful and wonderful things you do. I will talk about the great things you have done. They will celebrate your great goodness. They will sing with joy about your holy acts. The Lord is gracious. He is kind and tender. He is slow to get angry. He is full of love. The Lord is good to all. He shows deep concern for everything he has made."

Psalm 145:3-9

Tuesdays Thoughts

2011-08-02T07:20:00.001-07:00

-Friday we had our health inspection & passed. Now our worker needs to type it all up, send it away to the state, & they send us our license! Soon, we pray!

-Sunday we said goodbye to my best friend. It was harder than I had thought it was going to be. I guess I assumed it wouldn't be hard since I've been preparing for it for months & months now. I remember when she first told me they were thinking of moving to Japan...& even though they were just thinking, I knew they were going. But when the time came...it was hard. Many,many tears. I think the hardest part is going to be the time difference. When it's mid day there, its in the middle of the night here...vice versa. So I can't even pick up the phone to call her when I want. Ugh...

-Im in the midst of getting everything ready for school that we are starting next week. I decided last night not use Abeka math, so I'm on the hunt for a simple, fun pre k math lesson. If you have any recommendations let me know!
I originally wanted to begin our school days at 9am. However, with my husband's whacky work schedule & me not being able to wake up as early as I'd like, I think our school days will be split up between the mornings & afternoons. Ahh im glad this is our trial year.

I'm ready for fall. Cool weather, leaves changing, walks, my house smelling like warm cinnamon apple, little cardigans on my girlies, hopefully Mr.'s new work schedule and hopefully a new child or two added to our family.

Homeschool Mother's Journal- July 29

2011-07-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

In my life this week…I spent most of it nursing my sweet baby girl back to good health. Sick kids are no fun :(

In our homeschool this week…I completed our morning board, completely. I did another week of lesson plans.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…Groceries, church, we have to make a trip to the "big city" for a Michaels store :)

My favorite thing this week was… Having our DHEC inspection not only scheduled, but COMPLETED AND PASSED!

What’s ~~working~~/not working for us…Hmmmm. I think everything is working fine for us right now.

Questions/thoughts I have…My printer is printing weird, so my printing of homeschooling stuff has come to a halt.

Things I’m working on…My shopping list, getting through the book "A sane mothers guide to raising a large family"

I’m praying for…favor with our case worker! That he will type up our stuff and send it out soon!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

They have a room!

2011-07-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

We have our "future foster children's" room complete! (with the exception of blankets)

The black house/flowers are chalk vinyl chalk boards

You can see half of our fire escape plan:)

So happy it's finally done, and so ready to have little ones FILL it!

2011-07-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

"My nieces and nephews were in foster care for two weeks", she said. "When they got home, the oldest (7) threw out anything and everything that had to do with their foster home, down to the new pack of underwear the foster mom had sent home with her. She just wanted nothing to do with them or the experience at all".

Not the most encouraging story for an excited couple about to licensed to be told, but I found myself thinking about this all night last night after I heard it. So many thoughts running through my head...

-I hope our foster children don't leave here wanting nothing to do with us, and throw away everything we give them.
-Even though they will be young (0-5), I pray they leave feeling loved and secure. With good memories.
-I know that no child wants to be in foster care. I don't blame the 7yo for not liking her experience. Two weeks is not very long, so she didn't have time to bond or get to know the family, it was more like a hotel stay.
-I hate that in so many cases, the foster parents are the labeled enemies. As if we are the ones who "took" the children away. Birth parents and family often feel that way, though. If I think of myself in their position, I don't think I would like me either. Especially in the cases where the child calls the foster parent mom in front of his or her birth mom. That would be tough, and I would more than likely feel as if the foster parent was trying to "steal" my child. But, feelings aside, we are not trying to take your children.
As a matter of fact, we will be praying the birth parents every single day, to get it together so that their children can go home, because that's where they belong. Thats where they need to be( as long as it is safe for the child, of course). We are not the ones who secretly hope and pray for TPR, or publicly complain about the birth parents and case workers. We know that this entire situation is a mess.
-I know, we have not had a placement yet- so all of my feelings & opinions are subject to change...but I hope they dont.

This Friday...!

2011-07-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

We are finally having our DHEC inspection! The inspection that we have been waiting for since March! Just when I started to feel discouraged, like this was never going to happen. Like maybe we are suppose to be doing something else, God finally pulled through for us and got it scheduled!

Funny, Mr. and I were in the kitchen talking about our future foster children this morning when my phone rang! I saw it was our worker and dashed into our bedroom to answer. I let him vent for a while, he went on and on about how he called DHEC this morning and lit a fire under their behinds and how ridiculous it is that it's been months and they have yet to even call me...yada yada yada. To make a twenty minute conversation shorter, he told me that if they have not called me by Monday at 5pm he would get managers & supervisors involved. I hung up the phone happy, of course, even if it meant more waiting. I was happy that he was thinking of us and trying to get things moving, rather than us sitting in a file somewhere in the lost drawers of his desk, collecting dust. I was very skeptic about DHEC though, and figured they still wouldn't call. But...sure enough, about 4 hours later they called to schedule it! I was thinking that it was going to be weeks out, but God is SO good, because it is THIS Friday! Less than two days away!

So what happens "next"? After Friday, we are D.O.N.E with our licensing process! Our case worker will type it all up, send it out, and he says it takes 3-4 days to get back from Colombia. 3-4 days in government work talk.....I'm going to say 3-4 weeks. So very excited! SOON, we will be a licensed foster family and will have more little ones!

This calls for one of my favorite songs! Enjoy.

Morning Board

2011-07-26T23:14:00.001-07:00

I finally finished our morning board! It only took me forever, so it better last!
This year we included:
-Day of the week in both English & Spanish
- Bernardo, our sponsored child & Obama(looking for a picture of him), two people we pray for daily.
-Color of the week in English & Spanish.
-Temperature inside & out
-Bible verse of the week
-Daily weather
-Letter of the week.

We will do our board every morning before or after breakfast, whichever works.

Field Trips for our homeschool year:

2011-07-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

I am blessed to be apart of a homeschool support group that just started at our church this year, with many friends who homeschool their children & getting to know the families here that do, but whom I dont know. Blessed that there are so many options available for homeschooling families. Since this is a) our first year homeschooling, aka, the trial & error year... and b)it is "just" k4, I don't have to have everything together as seriously as I would if it was 1st grade. But, for my planning sake, I am trying to have it all together as best I can and make this year serious so that we can get a head start and have a better feel of whats going to work best for our family in our future homeschool years. Not to mention, my preschooler is pretty darn smart & could/should be in kindergarten, anyway!

One thing we are really excited to start doing is "Field Trip Fridays", where one or two Fridays of every month we take a field trip, with or without the homeschool support group. Our first trip is planned for next month, to the local Kazoo factory in our town. Here's my "trip idea" list for this school year:

-Kazoo Factory
-Dentist Office
-Fire Station
-Children's Museum
-Zoo
-Beach
-Pumpkin Patch
-Christmas Tree Farm
-Snow in the South ("fake" snow day in a town nearby, since we dont normally get snow)
-Plantation visit (we have many plantations around here, and one really close that offers a farmers market/vendors/and free face painting/horseback rides for kids)
-Nursing home (bring valentines to people in one of our nursing homes)

We will add/delete and edit this list as we get through the year. We have been to all of these places already, but I'm excited to be going again and making it an "official" learning experience.

Update

2011-07-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

-All is slowly coming together on the foster care home front. We are just waiting on our health inspection, which I am praying will be in the next few weeks. Then we will be ~~done~~ just beginning!

-Mr. applied to go to school under the GI bill, and was approved! It will also pay for all of his certifications. Huge blessing! God has been so faithful to my husband.

-My dear, dear friend is moving to Japan in one week. So bittersweet. Trying to squeeze in as much time with her as possible.

-Girl's are growing like weeds, and are as funny as ever. We start homeschooling next month, Big sister will be in pre-k and is very excited about starting. I'm just trying to get everything together and organized. Middle sister is, middle sister. Hubby found her in her room talking to herself saying "Colka dot dresses make me sooooo happy", love that little girl, she makes me laugh every single day without fail. Little sister is growing too fast. Walking and trying to talk, her personality is really coming out now, too. Not fair, I don't have a baby in my house anymore :/ For now, that is.

My friends husband made this to play at the going away party today. She is a labor & delivery nurse, and this video is of her with babies of friends she has delivered. Proud to call her my friend! Ps- I'm the last two photos :)

It's official.

2011-07-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have a walking, jabbering, 9-toothed, sweet, lovable...
One year old!
Happy Birthday to our sweet, sweet little sister. This year has been the fastest year of my life. It feels like a few months ago that I was late in my pregnancy with you. I remember every little detail of your birth, from the time I got to the hospital for a blood pressure check, to leaving the hospital with our third, 6lb 14oz baby girl. You have brought so,so much joy into our family, it is so bittersweet to watch you grow and learn. You are loved, little sis.

In case your wondering...

2011-07-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

We are doing great with the pets.
We took Tucker to the vet to get updated on his shots, and the groomer today to have him full serviced groomed, and they shaved him. Poor boy was in bad shape. He has hair, its just short and since he is so small it makes him look weird. And, leaving his head long and fluffy doesnt make him look any better with a shaven body. He is still a great dog! No complaints at all!

Zoo-zoo and Zoey are good, too! I'm not into cage animals as much as I thought I'd be, but Mr. and the girls love them, and Mr. does all of the cage cleaning & feeding everyday so I dont have to worry about them. Their little squeals are so cute, and not as loud as I thought they would be! Unless I'm close to them, I can barely hear if they squeal.

You know, just in case you found yourself sitting around thinking about us and our pets :)

Tonight, is one of THOSE nights.

2011-07-11T19:08:00.001-07:00

Tonight is one of THOSE nights. One of those nights that I read about something, and want to act. Tonight, I'm reading about the droughts in Africa.
Tonight I'm thinking of how many more Orphans there will be in Ethiopia because of this drought.
Tonight, I'm grossed out about how much I ate for dinner...and how long I left the water running today.
Tonight, I want to purchase tickets, fly over there with a HUGE plane full of food and water, and save them all.
God is so,so....so patient.
Tonight, I have all this "Let's ACT!" energy.
Tonight, I asked my husband what's holding us back from adopting from Africa?
We had nothing.
Before it was our debt.
But our debt is gone now.
I know we cant do everything.
Unfortunately.

Just praying that God will continue to direct us.
Praying that God will use this eagerness to act.
Praying we will always stay in Gods will.
Praying for Africa.
Praying for little "Bella".
Ugh
SO much hurt.

Introducing...

2011-07-10T14:07:00.001-07:00

Zoo-zoo...Belle. Big sister named her ;)

Zoey.

and...

Tucker.

How did we end up with this guy, right?

A family member was getting rid of a few of their animals, and asked us on Friday if we'd take him. He is a one year old Maltipoo, who is in desperate need of a good grooming(which we have lined up for him Wednesday). He is too good to be true.

-Potty trained. Quiet. Calm. Crate trained. Cuddly. Great with the kids. And, we wont have a pet hair problem after his spa date!

So far, he is a pretty great dog, I think we'll keep em!

Three kids + Three pets. We're even, and good, for now! :)

Picking a Family Pet

2011-07-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

If you are close to me, you know that I am not a fan of:

pet hair (the long kind...)

fleas

ticks

animals who have to be taken outside to use the bathroom multiple times a day

puppies or kittens (they are ADORABLE, but I don't have time to potty train either...and I don't do well with accidents!)

animals that make a lot of noise

With three kids, and (one or two, or many!) on the way, +OCD when it comes to the cleanliness of our home...all the above should make a little more sense :) Which is why picking a family pet is no easy task or quick decision. Two years ago we got a little beagle puppy (piper) and loved him so...but he was a tough puppy! He yelped all.night.long , and potty training a dog is very hard when you have morning sickness and two toddlers. So, we gave him to another loving family.

This time, we've done research as well as multiple visits to our local animal shelter and PetSmart, and have decided on two of these sweet, sociable cuties:

Yep. Guinea pigs. Never thought of our family as a rodent loving family (we're exactly opposite...) but we're making an exception for these little rodents that we've fallen in love with at PetSmart. They are small, they can hang out in the house as well as in their cage, they squeal with delight when their favorite human comes near or when there is food, they can get up to 12" and live up to 7 years, bathe them very rarely (they need the oil in their skin), and you need to feed them fruits & veggies for vitamin C (cute!). Plus, they dont smell unless your not taking care of their cage, and I dont have to potty train. However, they can be trained to use a litter box if your into that. They cuddle and are described as very sociable animals, and they bond with you!

(ps- I don't have to keep shot records & vet records for our foster care licensing, or worry about having children come in that are afraid of dogs/cats!)

Of course, we are getting two females (poor mr. , not even a guinea pig with the same gender) and have not picked names yet, but the girls have stated names along the lines of she-ra and zooley......yea.....we'll see.... ;)

Fourth of July in Photos

2011-07-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

We had a terrific 4th of July! Full of family, friends, fireworks, food, and an engagement! One of our best 4th's yet!

classic: here vs. there

2011-07-02T20:19:00.001-07:00

I know you've heard it one time or another, "Why adopt overseas when there are thousands of kids right here to adopt?"
As Christian's, I don't believe it matters. I think its where God is leading you, and he leads everyone different ways.
Orphans are orphans, no matter what country they come from, they are all children in need & children who deserve loving families.

Orphan care in itself (Foster care and adoption) is hard & messy. I heard someone state before that adopting through the Foster care system is "the easy way". No adoption is "easy". There is no adoption without pain & hurt. There is no adoption without COST. The country does not matter when it comes down to it.

An orphan from overseas is no different than an orphan from our very own town, and when presented with the never failing question of why adopt over there and not here, that is exactly what I would say.

We are fostering because we know it's what God is calling us to do right now and that's what matters. Maybe an international adoption is in our future. Maybe not. Maybe adoption from the Foster care system is where will adopt from. When the time comes, our decision is going to come from him. Not from opinions about which country is the neediest, which way would be harder or easier, or which is trendier.

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Homeschool Mother's Journal- July 1

2011-06-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

In my life this week…

We took a two-day vaca. to Wild Adventures with the girls. We had a great time, but it was tiring! We needed a vacation from vacation! Now, we are home, unpacked, and I'm doing my best preparing somewhat of a schedule for this coming school year.

Oh, P.S, we have a treadmill now, and I love it, I'm on day three! :)

My favorite thing this week was…

Traveling with my family.

I’m reading…

Forgotten God by Francis Chan

I’m cooking…

I made spaghetti & garlic bread tonight.

I’m grateful for…

Being able to take random trips with my family. Being able to stay at home with my kids, even though I have many days that I want to go apply for jobs...!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Chore Charts

2011-06-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to making the girls chore charts today, now that I'm in "getting ready for our first year of homeschooling" mode. I printed them from Homeschoolcreations , laminated them, and used velcro tabs to stick the chores to the chart. Pretty neat, and big sister loves hers! She has done all of her chores today plus middle sisters, because middle sister is not into the chore thing. She wants to sit her time out seat over bringing me the dishes from the table. Seriously, this little strong willed girl is going to be the death of me! But, I do love her so, and we are trying to find a way for her to get into doing her chores and making it fun for her. And no, she doesn't care if there are prizes, candy, or money involved for doing them, either!

Bay-cay-tion

2011-06-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

Want to know where we've been?

"Mini Bay-cay-tion!!" of course!

I know I'm a little biased, but these kids are pretty much the coolest ever.

We took a trip to Wild Adventures over the weekend for some fun, and fun we did have! The park was empty almost the entire time, it rained and cooled everything down...and my kids rode rides! Yep, my big sister rode roller coasters and one of the biggest water slides at the park! And middle sister came out of her shell and rode her first roller coaster and water rides! Her favorite was the bumper cars, she laughed the entire time we were on them. It blows my mind that we have children old enough to do these things with!

Next bay-cay-tion (which is what middle sister calls it), we are going to the beach to do NOTHING. We were worn out, and needed a vacation from vacation! But it was well worth it :)

Meanwhile, back at our house, we were having our much anticipated fire inspection! Finally!
We were so blessed to have a friend stay at the house for the inspection, and when we found out the fire marshall was going to be an hour and a half late, she stayed and was late for work. So blessed to have someone we could really depend on, we didn't have to worry about a thing, and we pray God blesses this sweet lady big time.

We are on.step.closer..!

Summer Reading

2011-06-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

Big sister started her summer reading list today! I printed a summer reading chart offline, and picked the books from Sonlights pre-k curriculum and changed/added some of my own. We enjoyed our time together today reading:

Here are the rest of the books on her list for the next week:

If any homeschool moms out there know of a good program/lesson in Spanish to use for pre-k/k-5, please share!

he's a comin'!

2011-06-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

Until this very week, I never understood why every Christian I knew wanted the world to end and for Jesus to come back. I would always here people say "Jesus is coming soon!" when something bad happened (like 9/11, earthquakes, tornadoes, pretty much anything), but I hoped he wouldn't. I knew bad things happened, but I also lived in a bubble. I never thought of the world as a dark, sinful...awful place. Even now, it's hard to call it that. It is beautiful....very beautiful...but oh so broken.
This week is the Casey Anthony trial. This week an 8 month old in a town not even twenty minutes away was drugged with oxycodone, pain killers, and had all of his tiny toes broken. This week, a nine month old two hours away, died from his father leaving him in a hot car for four hours...on fathers day. I am begining to see just how broken the world is...when parents can murder, drug, abuse, forget, and harm their very own children. It.happens.to.often. Child abuse is not uncommon. Child abandonment is not uncommon. It's so sad, its weighing so heavy on my heart. I can't get the 8 month old out of my head, and while driving today and thinking of him, I realized I am finally OK with Jesus coming NOW. The world is so mysterious. There is so much beauty...everything God made. The sunsets, the sunrises, the ocean, the animals, birth, the laughter of my children, people, babies, weddings, people giving their lives to Christ, missionaries, parenthood, those who are doing great and wonderful things for God...the list can go on.....
Then there is also so much pain. So much hate. Crime. Drugs. Abuse. Addictions. Murder. Sin. War. Lies. False Gods. You name it...
God has a great, great, great amount of patience.
If I sent my son to die as a sacrifice for someone, and they still choose to harm each other, I would have come back after the second chance, I would not be able to watch it all.
Isn't it weird how sin, is sin? How here on earth, we like to put "ranks" on sin...but to God, me gossiping today is just the same as Casey Anthony murdering her little girl. It's different when you look at it that way.
I know that we will never understand the world and how God works and why he does what he does. Even in a situation where a child is in a coma with 10 broken toes, God has a plan bigger than we can ever imagine. Tonight, I am ever so thankful that I can stand on his promises when I hear of the awful abuse and neglect of children right around me.

Money. Cash Money. Dough. Dollas. Green.

2011-06-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

I have come to realize in our licensing journey that in a sense, foster parents do need fundraising. But fundraising in a different way. More like, donations. Trying to get ready for two kids in 9 months may not cost $25,000 , but it still costs. Especially when you don't know what age/gender or how many children you will have in your home at any given time. Beds, mattresses, bedding, cribs, car seats, age appropriate toys, a few outfits at the least, high chairs, bottles, formula, shoes etc. Of course, you may not need ALL of this, depending on the age range your family picked.

I know, some will say..."well, don't you get paid to be foster parents?" or "doesn't the government give them money for that stuff?" Money is a topic not talked about very often in foster care, but many people I have talked to always tell me "what about the people who do it just for the money?"

Yes, the government does give foster parents a stipend every month for taking care of the children. Is it enough to be doing it just for the money? No. As a matter of fact, you can babysit a child in your home for only 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and make more a month then the stipend you receive for having one foster child in your home 24/7 for months/years.
My advice, if your in it for the money, just open an in home daycare. You will get paid more and have the children in your home for half the time.

Another factor in the "doing it for money" is qualification. I know that during our application process, it varies in each state, but you have to have a surplus of income after your bills , entertainment, and savings etc. and provide proof that you do(hooray for being debt free!!!). They don't want foster parents to be dependent on the stipends, because if they are, what are they going to do when a foster child leaves their home and they are no longer getting that money? It is not uncommon for foster parents to spend well beyond their stipend in order to care for the child in their care. So if a foster parent uses the stipend and still needs more, they need to have that extra income of their own. And also , if that child becomes available for adoption and you want to adopt he or she, you will no longer get that stipend once you adopt. You will need to be able to afford it on your own. Its pretty important that you do not become dependent on that money. Which leads me to....

What the stipend is actually for.
It is not for me to go buy a new car and use the stipend to make the payments.
It is not for my husband to buy a new gaming system with.
It is not for us to go on a shopping spree with.
It is not for us to throw big get togethers with.
It is not for us to put our foster child in respite care and use to go on a second honeymoon.
It is not for me to get my hair and nails done.

It is for the expense of caring for the child. Yes, it takes money to raise and care for children, and usually, it takes a good bit. That is why we receive stipends. For the extra $80-$100 on the grocery bill. For the extra $60 for the child to play soccer. The extra $20-$40 tennis shoes because the old ones are now too small. For the extra tank of gas you spend every month taking the child to and from visits with their parents and/or therapy sessions. It costs. Unfortunately, most monthly stipends would not even cover all of the things I just mentioned. Thats where your money comes in. (the foster parents money)

Yes, the government does give you (at least in our state) $100, once a year, for clothing. Will $100 buy all the clothes, shoes, pajamas, socks, underwear, coat, bathing suit that a child needs for an entire year? You guessed it, not even close. Even if you only go to the thrift stores, you are going to exceed that amount, fast.

Most foster families are not rich. Isnt that weird? Why is it the middle and lower class people who are so open to taking on these children? Why arent more people who live in mansions and make millions a year usually foster parents? Even half a million. Two hundreds....lets face it. Most foster parents are not even in the six digits. Including us! But why? Why aren't the six digits and millionaires a big percentage of foster and adoptive families? I do have a theory on that- I will save for a different post.

So, it absolutely rocks when people donate and give to foster families. And not money. Ok, money is great, but we have been extremely blessed and thankful to have received two twin mattresses and box springs (almost new!) An entire Abeka homeschool curriculum to use with our children and our foster children, a high chair, a pack n play, a car seat and 2nd pack n play (that we didn't need so we donated them to the CPS office for them to use for emergency placements), and many have given us clothing, shoes, books and toys for the future children who will be placed with us. It rocks! We feel as if we have been given $25,000! Because everything helps. Because only if your rocking out in the millions, would it be simple to go buy everything you need for one to two children, 0-5 years old, both genders, for one month up to a few years.

So to all the generous and supportive donaters that have blessed us, you rock, and you are making a difference!

Thankful Thursday

2011-06-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

My, it has been much to long since I've done a Thankful Thursday! Today, I am thankful for:

The local pool! Where we spend 4 to 5 days a week during the summer. Big sister goes under water, goes down the water slide alone, and jumps into the pool now! At the start of the summer she would do nothing! So proud of her, she starts her first set of swim lessons Monday!

The opportunity to homeschool our children. Tonight as I was browsing curriculum for big sisters upcoming pre-k/k year, I was reminded that not everyone has the option or the opportunity to stay home and homeschool their children too.

My friends. I just love them. Period.

Coupons,thirst stores, and craigslist! We have great resources at hand to help us become better stewards with our money! Who doesnt love a good deal?

Kids! I am thankful & excited that the families in our church are GROWING! Realizing that Children are indeed a gift from God, and "bigger" families are becoming the new "trend". Love it. Always makes me wonder when our next one will come along...be it through foster care or birth!

Wahhooo!

2011-06-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

Our fire inspection is...SCHEDULED! For this month, too!

So very excited to know that a) we are not just a stack of papers shoved to the side of our workers desk. b) God totally showed us favor in this situation, being that we wont even be here for the inspection! But its still going to be done! c) The "end", or should I say the "beginning" is NEAR.

Funny how one night I wrote this blog about how we have not heard anything about our inspections, and I was getting really anxious & feeling like its never going to happen. Prayed. The very next day, it was scheduled! Then, a road block because we will be out of town that day. Prayed. It's still being done! God's timing, though seems like forever sometimes...still rocks! I love that we can rest and be comforted by his promises, and how he sends us reminders along our journey telling us again...that this WILL happen if we just let him do his thing, and stop trying to be in control.

Happenings

2011-06-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

Lots of lovely, crazy, fun stuff has been happening in the Potter house!

We took the girls to the drive-in for the first time this weekend to see Kung Fu Panda 2. They were fabulous! (they can't sit through movies at the regular theater) They sat in their chairs the entire movie. Big sister fell asleep, little sister ate animal crackers the entire time :)

Then, we headed to a city nearby for Mr. to take the first part of his CCNA test! He has been studying off & on for years! And yesterday, it paid off! He passed!!!!!!!!

We are so very proud of him! We spent the day shopping, eating and celebrating!

Unfortunately, there is no new news about our foster care license.

Waiting.is.hard

But, it will be worth it.

We have the bedroom done! Well, we are waiting on one more thing, then I will post pictures!

Waiting is Biblical.

2011-06-03T19:57:00.000-07:00

Waiting is hard.

Waiting is testing.

Waiting just plain sucks.

But, waiting is biblical. Most everyone in the bible was waiting on something. And God always came through, of course, because he keeps his promises. I have to continue to remind myself that we are waiting for a reason...that God uses our wait to work in us, despite what we may think, it's not just a waste of time. I found myself laying in the children's room last night & praying over it, praying for the children who will be sleeping in those beds...playing with those toys. Laughing, cry, jumping on the beds. That I will continue to wait on God, that I will use this time he is giving me to draw closer to him and pray pray pray for the changes that are about to happen in our life, and the lives of the children who will be with us.

It will happen. One day, that room will be filled...not a single day late. (Habakkuk 2:3)

And, one of my favorite songs to end... :) (pause my music at the bottom!)