Privacy Consideration

I have been considering making our blog private for a while now. I think I would feel more free to share my heart here if I knew who was listening. Any thoughts?

Stuck in the Muddy Mud

So, I have done some silly things in the past, one of which was lock myself in the garage...actually I've repeated that mistake a few times. But today was too funny of a goof up not to share.

"J" and I had a perfectly pleasant morning complete with an appearance from Spider man and a lot of cape wearing. When it came time to go to his weekly OT appointment, we headed off on the 20 minute trek to the clinic. I was feeling quite accomplished because we were on target to be early even with the stop to get gas. We were happily cruising down a 2 lane dirt road when the truck in front of us dropped his ladder out of the cab of his truck. The ladder didn't hit us, thank God and landed right in between the 2 lanes on the road, directly on the double yellow (do not pass) lines. At this point I start honking my horn and trying to get the man's attention so he won't lose his ladder. He keeps waving at us, thinking I guess we are someone he knows. I follow him all the way into his neighborhood where he finally pulls over to see what I want. He kindly thanks me after I inform him of the lost ladder and where he dropped it. He offers for me to follow him back to the road as I have totally lost my way in the unknown neighborhood. Here is where I make my first big mistake. I should have parted ways when I found my way instead of curiously following the man to see if the ladder was still there. In case you were worried, it was and someone had very kindly taken it out of the road and leaned it up against a fence. Did I mention the area is a tad bit more rural than other areas nearby and apparently everyone there is quite thoughtful?

Even after the detour we are still going to be on time to our appointment, that is until I try to turn around on the narrow 2 lane dirt road. I pull into what looked like a driveway but was really a very short, narrow rocky path that let to a fence that had a sign on it that read "Beware high voltage." Not the best place for me and my precious "J" to say the least! I was too chicken to stick my tail end out there in the road so I made my 2nd major mistake. I tried to turn around on the dirt driveway that was surrounded by mud. Yes, we got stuck in the mud and the harder I tried to get us out the worse it got. Mud was flying everywhere and at that instant I wished I had a SUV instead of my low lying Saturn sedan. I tried to explain to "J" to be calm, but we were stuck. It's almost comical that the boys often pretend their toy cars are "stuck in the muddy mud." It was for real no matter how much I wished we were pretending. Just then "ladder man" pulls over and offers to help us. I laughed about how I paid it forward and the return was much quicker than expected. Our bald super hero for the day and another kind gentleman who stopped to help made a make shift tow cable of what looked like an old fire hose and pulled us out of the mud. The lady with ladder man commented that this is what you call "southern engineering."

Despite the antics, it was an excellent opportunity for me to clearly show "J" the value of helping other people. At one point he asked to get out of the car while the men were trying to get us out of the mud, probably wanting to help. I got to tell him that when he is a man he can help other people like our friend the ladder man was doing for us now. I love any chance to plant seeds of character in my little men! We needed a good car wash anyway and the boys got a kick out of that experience too!

Look what I got...

from my boys!

SO sweet and pretty! Jeff's officially entered the busiest time of his year and is working at least 6 days a week, this week 7. He works until the wee hours of the morning and then rests a couple of hours before doing it all over again. It's exhausting...for all of us! Thankfully we took some time out this weekend to enjoy a marriage conference at church. Jeff had to work Friday night but I represented for us-go team Albus! We had a long week complete with 3 visits from agencies regarding our "foster home" so some quality time was much needed!

Recent Happenings

These pictures have been uploaded to blogger for days just waiting for some clever commentary. Unfortunately I'm afraid I'm all out of clever. Sorry people, but I'll do my best! My pictures are lame I know-hands, back of heads, and other random things but these glimpses show a bit of what we've been up to.

Legacy 685, our churches adoption ministry had a sweet home coming celebration for us and one other family. We shared our story and our boys got to show off a bit too.

Speaking of show offs-look who was Falcon of the Week at school recently. "A" and I made this book all about him to share with his class. He also got to bring a show and tell item (a car of course), and put items in the estimation jar-you guessed it-cars again. Our guys always have at least one car in hand at all times! I find them all over the house daily wherever one boy hid them from the other one!

I am now the proud mother of 2 pro basketball players in the making. Both boys are by far the smallest on their team, but they are oh so cute in their uniforms. Little "J" is #7! Go Spurs! He spent the first game reaching for his coach to pick him up and running over to sit with us. Thanks Gran and Poppa D for showing your support and watching the games! The boys loved having you there!

4 year olds are totally enthralled in everything the coaches have to say as you can tell...

This was "J"s favorite part-the post game snack. That's Mommy's boy!

"A" is #5 on the Kings. He's getting the hang of it, but was a bit too excited at times so we are working on remaining calm and playing kind.

That's my "A" in the huddle, a full head shorter than all his teammates. "A" is very popular at school, especially among the girls. Ugh...this momma is SO not ready for that! After his first BBall game we rushed off to a birthday party for a couple of his biggest fans-twins Claire and Kate. A fun Build a Bear party was a great way to finish out a great Saturday afternoon.

This is Claire-guess who is just over her left shoulder. Yep, "A" definitely caught her eye.

Thankfully her super cute sister, Kate was able to focus on the camera. She cracked me up! She asked if she could dance while they sang happy birthday. Totally something "A" would do! She and "A" have the same moves-arms and legs swinging in total bliss when they dance!

Give Life

We will update you on our fun Saturday of basketball games and birthday parties soon, but today we are focusing on a prayer of thanksgiving and intercession. This week we have all been praying for the country of Haiti and the families forever changed by the devastation. One family we know of has adopted 2 children from Haiti, one of which is still in the country. Please join us in praying for the Ivey's and their son, Amos as well as all the families experiencing similar heartache and fear.

Today we also stop to pray as a part of Sanctity of Life Sunday. Many of you probably took part in this day of remembrance and prayer that seeks to shed light on the dark issue of abortion. Houston is especially broken today because tomorrow the 2nd largest abortion clinic in the world will open here. You can read more about the effort local churches are making to make a peaceful stand against this facility and for the unborn at this site. I encourage you to watch the video as well which only takes a few moments but will surely change the way you think about this issue.

Today in the service I was reminded to pray for our children's birth mother for the very first time. I have let her remain nameless and faceless in my mind until today, mainly out of fear of the feelings I might have towards her. Her name is on the children's birth certificates, which I have but I never really took note of it. I could chose to hold such anger towards her for the choices she made which have had life altering effects on them. The choices she made that did not protect them and instead harmed them are always on my mind. This is where I have been, but today I chose to be grateful that she chose life for my boys. I will forever be endeared to her for that, because of them. I will also pray that God will capture her heart for Him and make her a new creation for His glory.

Psalm 139

13For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

15My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

In Rememberance

We got home at 3 this morning. Yes, "A" still went to school, Jeff went to work, and "J" and I followed our regular Wednesday schedule with the addition of picking up the dog from the pet hotel first. It was a hard 12 hour drive home, especially for Jeff who did the lion's share of the driving. But, it was all worth the sacrifices we made to go pay our respects to Jeff's sweet Granny. She passed away on Friday night and we left Sunday evening after our welcome home celebration to drive all night to the pan handle to spend time with family and remember Lori. I wrote about Granddad and Granny in this post about our recent holiday trip. Praise God we saw Granny then after having not seen them since our wedding day and the boys got to meet her. Little did we know just 2 weeks later she'd be gone. We just wish the hello and goodbye weren't so close together! Here is a photo of Granny that was taken with our boys and Granddad during our trip.

She lit up around them and it made my heart happy to see the joy they brought her! Please pray for Granddad as he grieves and determines living arrangements. He and Granny had moved to Amarillo for the care she needed and he no longer wishes to remain there without her. We will miss you Granny, but we are so glad you are with Jesus!

God's Provision through the Journey

I have spent the morning reminiscing in preparation for a very important day in our family. Tonight we will be having a "welcome Home" celebration to honor ours and other families who have recently welcomed children. This is probably as close to a "baby dedication" as we will get and so we are very excited to share our story with other families walking this beautiful road to adoption! We have been asked to share a few words about our journey to adoption and how we have seen God's hand in the boys lives since they joined our family.

I cannot look back on our journey without an overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude washing over me! It was unexpected and unconventional, but it brought us our boys and for that we will be forever grateful! It started over a year ago in November 2008, just about the time our adoption ministry at church had their first meeting-this is definitely no coincidence! We have had the opportunity to be prayed for and ministered to by sweet families at exactly the time we needed it most. My prayer is that now we can do the same and really grow in leadership. Since it's beginning, the group which began with a handful of people considering, having already adopted, or pursuing adoption has grown and many children have found their forever families. It doesn't get much better than that!