Thank you Jesus!

Thank you Jesus!

He is risen!

Happy Easter everyone!



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One

This spunky little beauty is ONE today!

This is a very emotional day because Eli and I realize how

lucky we are to get to share this first birthday with her

I remember the first day I held her 5 months ago.

She was a timid little thing. 

She clung to me for dear life for a good couple months. 

She spent most of her time in my "pocket".

Now she is a gorgeous little giggle box with a

head full of curls. 

 She trusts us now and she is quickly taking over.

She bosses all 6 of us around {seriously}.

She is just days away from walking and she is so proud of

herself when we all clap for her efforts.

Her favorite food is anything on Max's plate. 

Seriously I could give her the same exact thing as Max and

she will crawl over to Max's plate and eat off of his instead. 

Max doesn't find this to be so cute.

She is so loud and already has such a fun sense of humor.

She still loves her cuddles and hugs and I hope she never out

grows this.  I think Eli and I melt every time she hugs us. 

It never gets old.

Zoe Lucia God couldn't have given us a more perfect baby. 

I can't wait to see you smash cake all over your face

{because I know you will}

Happy Birthday!

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I am back

This little girl scared us.

Last Monday Eli was out of town for work.

Ayla woke up with a fever she seemed tired, was really

thirsty and wasn't interested in eating.  As a mom of five I

have been there before many times with sick kids. 

I gave her some Tylenol and let her sleep it off. 

She threw up a couple times.

We had a really long day outside the day before so I just

thought she was tired from the day before and needed to get

some extra rest.  She slept most of the day and drank a lot. 

I decided to have her sleep in my bed that night because she

had been throwing up and I wanted to keep an extra eye on

her.  She said she wanted to watch cartoons in my bed while I

got the other kids ready for bed.  So I was standing in front of

my bed flipping through different cartoons. 

While still looking at the TV I said,

"Ayla how about Max and Ruby?" 

No answer

So I turned around and there she was blue.

I ran up to her and yelled "Ayla, AYLA!"

No response.

Her eyes were rolled back and she was foaming at the mouth.

I screamed for Jackson to bring me my phone.

I quickly realized that would take to long and I needed to get

Ayla to the ER now. 

I had 4 other little ones and Eli was gone.

I ran little blue Ayla out the front door and yelled for help

while our hero Jackson started banging on our neighbors

door.  Ayla's coloring came back but she was lethargic.

Praise God our neighbors had just gotten home and

ran right over to stay with the other kids. 

I called 911 and off we went in the ambulance.

Once we were in the ambulance we were pretty sure that

Ayla had a seizure.  I was so scared though because she

barely reacted when they put and IV in her little arm.  I kept

thinking of her blue body and thinking could she have brain

damage.  The Ambulance driver's probably thought I was

crazy as I was praying out loud for Ayla.  The ER doctor

confirmed that she had a seizure and as scary as it was for me

to see her blue and unresponsive it was more common then I

knew for kids to have fever induced seizures.  It is a

hereditary condition that triggers some kids to get seizures

with a high fever.  I had never seen a seizure before or heard

of anyone in my family having one.  Now we have learned

that my sister in law has the same condition. 

She had a seizure as a child and never had one again.  We are

hoping that this was Ayla's first and last seizure.  They

monitored her for a few hours that night and

she slowly returned to her normal silly self. 

She was thrilled that they let her have two purple popsicles. 

I barely slept for a couple nights just watching her to make

sure she didn't get to hot.  So I was wiped out and then last

Thursday we went on a trip. It has taken me a few days to

get reorganized and caught up and make time to post this.

Seeing my daughter like that really knocked the wind out of

me.  In the few moments that she was blue and unresponsive

I was so so scared of loosing her. I suppose this really wasn't

as big of a deal as it felt in the moment but it made me realize

the blessings I have in my life. 

 I have 5 healthy children. 

My husband and I are healthy. 

My sister's, parents and in laws are all healthy.

I don't want to take that for granted.

Praise God for our health.

There are so many mommies, brothers, sisters, fathers, sons

and daughters watching there loved ones suffer and praying

for their health.  What they would trade for health.

Thank you Jesus for giving my family health!

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Ever think of adopting an older child?

Hey everyone I was contacted this weekend about a little girl

that is in urgent need to find a family to avoid being placed

into foster care.  She is a 7 1/2 year old beautiful little girl

who has had a rough start in life.  It is recommended that she

be the youngest child in the home.  The state is not involved

so it could be a quick adoption with just an adoption attorney

needed. Just message me for more info and pictures at 

 growingwithjoy@yahoo.com

Let's all pray for this sweet little girl to feel God's arms

around her in this time and pray that the family meant for

her comes forward quickly.

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Patience

God is really trying to teach me something

There are so many things up in the air right now, good things,

fun things but they can't seem to happen fast enough.

They are out of my control and there is nothing I can do to

speed up the process.

Anyone who knows me knows I like to do things fast. 

Once I make a decision I work non-stop to complete the task. 

Very soon I will know what God has planned and I am sure it

will be so much more then I could have imagined. 

Continuing to trust in him.  I know his "slow" timing is for a

reason.  I have been growing so much closer to him during

this time of trusting and praying.  Praying for so many friends

waiting for there adoptions to be complete, praying for so

many people suffering right now going through some of the

hardest times in their lives and giving praise for all the

answered prayers I see and hear on a daily basis. 

He never ceases to take my breath away.

Meanwhile I am loving life and who I get to share it with.

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Our Agency

Would you believe that these pictures were taken a few days

ago?

And then I took this picture just a few minutes ago

Where has spring gone?

Are all of you having the same crazy weather?

Many of you have been asking me who my adoption agency

is.  I can't believe I haven't mentioned it before because I love

them and I literally just stumbled into them by accident and

by accident I mean God's perfect plan {grin}

Do you remember when I posted this. 

We were worried that our social worker wouldn't release our

original home study to an out of state agency so I called

around to a few agencies in Illinois to see if we could work

with them.  I briefly talked to Jane at Family Resource Center

about our options.  They were one of many agencies I called

that day.  Little did I know that the home study hiccup was all

in God's plan.  Always remember when you are asking

yourself "why am I going through this?"  That it may be

leading you to something better then you could have ever

imagined.  If I would have never made that 5 minute call I

would have never met my 3 precious treasures. 

Family Resource Center has gone above and beyond what I

would have expected.  They truly care about us almost like

an extended family.  They go out of their way to do what is

best for all family member's involved.  This includes their

birth mom support.  Jane loved my children and fought for

them and worked tirelessly so that they could stay together

and have the love of a family even when there were a couple

families that backed out. 

During the long week that I knew they were mine but I had to

wait on paperwork to get settled so they could move in, she

immediately made us feel like their parents filling me in on

where they were and how they were being cared for.

On a professional level they get all the necessary paperwork

done quickly and efficiently.  I have there personal cell #'s.  I

literally never wait more then a couple hours for an answer

to a question.  If any of you are thinking about adoption I

highly recommend FRC and for any of you that are out of

state or are looking for a fast infant adoption of a biracial or

African American infants I would highly recommend Faithful

Adoption Consultants and heart to heart.   I was working with

them before I connected with FRC.  I was very happy with

their passion for adoptions and their quick match time.  After

they heard about our match with FRC they were so loving

and excited for us.  Courtney with Faithful adoption

Consultants actually called me as soon as she heard just to

encourage and pray for me.  I promise if you work with any

of these companies you will be in very good hands.  Before I

got matched with my kids I asked all kinds of questions to all

kinds of people so if you have any questions don't hesitate to

shoot me an email at growingwithjoy@yahoo.com

Their are so many kids our there waiting for their forever

family.

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Safe in his arms

I love this picture of Zoe and Eli.  There is nothing quite like

being all safe and warm in our father's arms.

Today at 1:15 there is an important meeting going on. 

I would love for you to pray. 

Pray for the meeting and pray for all the paper work being

filed.  Pray it ends up in the right hands and that it's filed

correctly.  There is so much up in the air about benefits the

kids may or may not qualify for. 

All of this has to be squared away before we can finalize. 

I get chills just thinking about finalization day.  I can't wait!

These benefits would make a huge difference in how we

could provide for the kids.  

So we are  trusting and praying.  

Since we committed to the kids

God has provided for us in more ways then we could have

imagined so we know either way God will take care of all of

our needs.  God knows what he is doing we are just like Zoe

being held in his arms.

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