Growing with joy!: 2010

Shocking

>> Thursday, December 30, 2010 – adoption, family, life

Finally a picture of me with all my treasures

This is quite the accomplishment. Now I just need to add Eli.

We have been getting into a nice routine lately.

This week alone I have taken all 5 of them by myself to get haircuts, to 3 restaurants,

Walgreen's, the grocery store, target the Magic house, and blockbuster. I find myself

constantly counting to 5 to make sure they are all there. There have been a few times that I

felt like someone was missing and I look down and realize...oh! Zoe is in my pocket {which is

what we call my Moby sling}.

Let me make it clear that I am not saying that these are easy tasks and we just go prancing

in and out of these places. It seems to take 2 hours to get everyone dressed and packed up.

Usually one of the kids is unhappy or whining about something. We always have to take a

potty break right at the moment we are farthest away from it. Getting everyone in and out

of the van looks like a circus act and I never seem to pack enough wet wipes. Everything

takes longer...but that is OK. We don't have to be perfect. Many people look at me shocked

that I am out doing these things with my small herd of children. Oh the looks I get. If I

could put a camera on my back so you could see. I even had a lady ask me if I was a day

care. I said "nope, just extra blessed."

One thing I do like though is the curiosity and the questions about my family that allow me to

talk about adoption and all the children out there that need homes. Especially now that I

have Elizabeth, Max and Zoe, I can't help but think about all the others. I know I can't

adopt all the other's. I couldn't even come close, but the more people that we help think

outside the box and consider adoption the less orphans that will be out there.

I have had so many people say to me, "I have always thought about adoption but we never

took the next step." I even have one {brave} family that wants us all {yes all 7} to come over

to their house for dinner to talk to them more about adoption. All this makes me jump for

joy inside. So please if any of you are considering adoption. Ask, Ask, Ask! I would love to

pray with you, talk to you, help you in any way possible. So many people have helped our

family along the way.

I have trouble hearing things like

"They are so lucky to have you guys!", "You are such an amazing Mom!" or "I could never do

it, I don't know how you do it?" I am not some Mary Poppins. I am so so far from it.

I am just a normal person doing what God called me to do. I am impatient with the

kids sometimes, I don't serve homemade dinners every night. Some days it seems to take all

day just to get everyone bathed and dressed but that is OK. The orphans of this world don't

need some Mother Theresa Mother, they don't need a big house or a wealthy

family. They just need a real family to love them as their own. To show them God's love. Eli

and I said yes without knowing how we would handle any of it, but I can honestly say God

has worked out all the details. We are so blessed to have these children.

How could you resist!

This boy!

>> Monday, December 27, 2010 – life, love, Max

This boy

would let me

hold him

all day

If I could

and sometimes we try {grin}

1 Month

>> Tuesday, December 21, 2010 – adoption, love, sisters

I am blown away with what can happen in a month.

What I have learned about the human race.

A month ago things were very different.

There have been so many ups and downs lately.

Our family grew by three and two weeks later my sister had her baby.

4 more kids at Christmas this year. I think this Christmas is going to be extra magical.

Then a week after my sister had her baby one of my very best friends in the whole world

had her little baby Charlotte. Wow the world is going to be a better place because of these

kids. We also found out that we are going to receive a grant that will cover almost half of our

adoption costs. When we said yes to these kids we literally had no idea how we were going to

pay for the adoption expenses. God has totally been providing for our new family of 7 just as

I knew he would.

On a sad note. In the last month there have also been some tragedies. One of my friends

from high school found out that her husband had a tumor in his brain. He immediately got it

removed and they found out it was cancerous and spread to his spine. They have 3 young

children and such a heart for God. Through it all they have been praising the Lord and

trusting him. They are so inspiring. Please pray for them as they continue trust in God

through this situation their names are Tiffany and Cory.

Then a little over a week ago a Daddy died. He was the father of a little boy in Ayla's

preschool class. A young father. A young family again. He died instantly when he was on his

way home from a work party and a drunk driver struck him head on. That family is now

grieving and having to face the holiday's without him. I couldn't imagine. That could have

easily been me or my husband that died. Wow, life can go so fast! Pray for the Rose family as

they face Christmas without their husband and Daddy.

Last Friday my Grandma Lucia Emma took her last breaths and went to join her husband in

heaven. She had been suffering from Alzheimer's and a stroke. So I am so happy that she

has the peace of Jesus now. Selfishly I miss her. I have missed her for awhile now though.

She hasn't been fully there because of the Alzheimer's. Some of my best childhood memories

are with her. We had lots of sleepovers at her house. She had a way of making you feel so

warm and loved with her snacks and cozy blankets. I miss having a grandma. I lost my

other grandma years ago and whenever I see someone with there grandma I get a little ache

inside. I can't imagine how my Mom must feel loosing her Mom. I know she said goodbye

slowly through the years with the Alzheimer's. If I ever lost my Mom I know it would knock

the wind out of me for a very long time. The funeral is on Wednesday and I know it is going

to be a hard day for all of us. Jackson is the only one of my kids that really has memories

with her. This will be his first experience with death so I am praying that he will have peace

knowing that she is in heaven.

This month has been so full of emotions, so full of decisions and so busy. Almost the entire

month I suffered from Strep throat which I didn't treat until last week {Mom's can't get sick

right?} The doctor couldn't believe I had waited to so long to take antibiotics. Apparently it

is quite dangerous and would have never healed on its own. I was just to busy being a

mommy to go to the doctor. Which the doctor realized when I walked in with my small herd

of children to get a check up. On top of this Eli has been really busy at work. His business is

growing really fast which is a blessing but just a lot of work right now. Soon his business will

get to a point were it is self-running and he will be home a lot. So good things come to those

who wait. So even with me sick and home 6 days a week caring for 5 small children and Eli

having a ridiculous work load we thrived. God honestly gave me the best man out there. He

comes home from work and immediately takes over, playing, cooking, cleaning,

snuggling...whatever is needed.

Through all of these blessings, all this good, all this sickness and all this sadness

I have learned how many amazing people I am surrounded by. I really know who my friends

are now. I have a really long list of thank you's to write. We have had strangers give the

kids Christmas presents, clothes even a gift card to buy presents with. I have had friends

call with some encouragement and prayer right when I needed it. I have had friends sell my

jewelry for me and stop by with a homemade dinner. Through out these tragedies and

blessings I have seen people come together to take care of each other. It humbled me. I

need to give more. I need to help more. I need to encourage more. One of my favorite

quotes of all is

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.”
~Mother Teresa~

Which leads me to my beautiful daughters and their beautiful smiles. I was a little sad and

tired on Sunday. It had been a long week. I took the two older girls out for some Mommy

time. We went to a movie, to see Santa, road on a horse carriage and went shopping. They

made my day! There smiles immediately changed the way I felt. They have such a love for

each other. They are literally inseparable. Sisters and best friends...How lucky are they.

I want to be like them. They reminded me, I have to set an example. I want to have a joyful

spirit and rub it off on everyone I meet. I have 5 little sets of eyes watching me very

carefully. My mood affects them and I want them to be full of patience, kindness, giving

and God's love. The world needs more people like that and I have a chance to send 5 people

off into the world to change it.

{phew...no pressure}

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

>> Friday, December 17, 2010 – Elizabeth

My Elizabeth

turned 5 today!

Your first time celebrating a birthday and our first time celebrating it with you.

I am so blessed to have you as a daughter.

I have so much more to learn about you.

I can't wait.

In the month that we have had together I have learned:

Your favorite color is purple

You are the sweetest little girl I have ever meet (honestly)

You always put others before yourself

You are so excited about everything (I love this)

Your favorite book is Wacky Wednesday

Your favorite show is Dora

Your favorite food is Pizza and Ice Cream

You are gentle

You are frilly

You are a great dancer

You are almost always in a good mood

You will never turn down a snuggle

You are a quick learner

You can talk all day
You are an amazing sister

You are so loved

God has such big plans for you

There is no dream to big for you

I can't wait to be there alongside you in life

and watch it all unfold

Today I couldn't help but mourn a little over the loss of your other 5 birthdays that I wasn't there for. I know it was all God's plan. His plan is always the best plan. I know it was for a reason. I also couldn't help but to mourn for your Birth Mom. I am praying for her today. Today has to be so lonely for her. Praying that she feels God's peace today. Praying that she knows how loved you are. How your new Mommy and Daddy would go to the ends of the earth for you. What a treasure you are to us!

Happy Birthday my little blessing!

Snow Day

>> Wednesday, December 15, 2010 – adoption fundraiser, family

I feel like I have so much to say

So much in my heart and on my mind

I have been so busy these last couple weeks

I will have to wait until things settle down a little more and I have a little more time

to write and get it all out.

So for now I have a little video

Jackson had a snow day on Monday, we were bored so here is a little glimpse into our morning.

I love them.

Also if any of you have any last mintue Christmas shopping to do, I just got another order of jewelry from Uganda. It is buy 2 get the third 1/2 off. If you have any questions or want any more pics of it just let me know. I will ship it out to you the next day.

Joy!

>> Wednesday, December 8, 2010 – family, Joy

How do we wind the kids down for bed?

A dance party.

ignore the serial killer {grin}

And this is what happens to Daddy when he gets home in the middle of it

I hope you are having a joyful day!

Love today!

>> Sunday, December 5, 2010 – adoption, christmas, Elizabeth, family

The best part about having a big family is the holidays! Our home feels so warm and cozy! We put our Christmas tree up today. It meant more to me this year then ever before. This is Elizabeth, Max and Zoe's first tree {ever}. They are teaching me so much.

I ordered them stockings and they came in the mail earlier this week.

Max and Elizabeth's reactions blew me away. I have never seen so much gratitude, appreciation and excitement. Max carried his stocking around for a couple hours cuddling up to it like it was a blankie. Elizabeth kept going on and on and said "Mommy! You ordered this for me?! For me?! And it says my name on it? Mommy you are the best Mommy in the world. I have never had a stocking before! I can't believe you got me that for Christmas!" The pure excitement in her eyes melted me and I began to cry. I couldn't hold it in. It was such a touching moment. Her appreciation for just the empty stocking. No other presents. Wow!

We are all so spoiled. I want to be more like Elizabeth.

After we decorated our Christmas tree and hung our stockings

we brought the kids table to the fireplace and had hot cocoa, cookies and smores. It was so relaxing just sitting around enjoying each other and roasting marshmallows.

{don't worry we didn't forget about Zoe's stocking it is on back order}

If any of you out there are just slightly thinking about adoption. Do it. There are so many children out there that just want to be part of a family. Want to know they are loved and safe. If we would of let the fear and criticism get to us. We would have been the ones missing out. You won't regret it. We are far more blessed then we ever imagined.

Sisters

>> Thursday, December 2, 2010 – adoption, Ayla, Elizabeth, family, sisters

I am

so happy

they have

each other!

Prayer for a friend.

My friends husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor today. He needs surgery immediately. She just lost her 3 year old cousin a few months ago to brain cancer. As you can understand she is very scared but still trusting God. They are a young couple with 3 kids. Please please pray for them.

1 week

>> Monday, November 29, 2010 – adoption, Elizabeth, family, Max, Zoe

So yesterday marked one weeks since our family grew from 4 to 7. I feel so blessed that God trusted us with these kids. The first couple days flew by...it felt like there was so much to do in such a small amount of time. Somebody always needed something. It is has only been a week and it feels like they have been here forever. They settled into a schedule pretty quickly. Today was the first day I went somewhere alone with all 5. Eli is on our church worship team so he had to be there at 6:30 am to play for all three services. Which meant I was left to get all the kids ready, out the door and to church on time by myself. I was successful!!!! I took a picture in the van on the way to church because I was so proud of myself {I was stopped at a light}. We make the mini van look pretty mini, don't we?

After church we went out to eat and it was a complete success. They all behaved and ate so well. It honestly didn't feel any harder then when we would go out with just the two. I am sure it won't always be that easy. We did get a lot of looks of curiosity of our very mixed family but we were so proud of our family we didn't care.

Our Thanksgiving break was perfect. The kids were all so well behaved and loving to their new extended family.

On Friday I took the four eldest each out on their own one on one date with me while Eli stayed with the rest. It was so fun to have each of them to myself and focus only on them. I think this is something we will do once a month. I think when you have so many kids it is important to give each kid there own time.

I am not trying to sugar coat anything. I am exhausted every night when I go to bed. There is no way I can make all the kids happy at the same time. The house will never be clean again and we will probably always be tight on money. The adoption is going to cost more then we thought. I have had some criticism and concern from people who just don't have the same heart for Orphans as I do. They just don't understand why we would want to take this on. That's OK. I will save that for another post. We have also been blessed by lots of love and support. We have had people buy diapers, formula, clothes. We have had alot of people praying for us, encouraging us and supporting us every step of the way. I will also write more about this in another post. I know that these children were meant for us and this is what God called our family to do. Everyone is not called to adopt. God has different plans for all of our lives. I do hope that our story will encourage many more families to adopt or to help people who are adopting. There are so so many children out there that need a loving family. I would make the same decision a million times over. Our lives are so blessed with them here. They had never had birthday parties, Christmas or church before and we are so lucky to see it for the first time through their eyes. It really has been easier then I expected. I think it is because of how natural it is to love them. It is the same as if I birthed them, they are ours and we are the lucky ones. Here are the best picture I could get of all of them. This was Sunday afternoon, we were all in the play room playing Wii while Eli {tried} to nap on the couch.