LOVEly Weekend!

We had a great Valentines weekend! Jeff is still working a ton due to the end of year 10K report scheduled to be completed (hopefully) next week. I was a little nervous he wouldn't get off work in time Friday night for us to go out for our Valentines dinner. We had already reserved and paid for the kids to be cared for at Parent's Night Out at church, so I really wanted to get to utilize it. Jeff did have to work a hour or so late, but we had plenty of time to have dinner at "Our spot", the Grotto.

Here we are enjoying our favorite dessert, the Italian wedding cake! YUM! You will notice in this post that I am quite the food/animal photographer. Try not to be jealous, but it's true, I have skills!

Jeff had to work after the boys basketball games Saturday afternoon, but Sunday we celebrated as a family.
It started with my attempt at a creative "I heart U" donut breakfast and goody bags for my littlest Valentines. The boys have wanted to go to the zoo for weeks, but Jeff's work schedule made that difficult. So, Sunday afternoon we surprised the boys with a trip to the zoo. It was a great way to spend our first Valentines Day as a family of 4! How lucky am I to have 3 sweet valentines?
Meerkats are very popular at our house!! Jeff and I even got hooked on their "reality show" a couple of years ago and were bummed when it ended!
Daddy giraffe and baby were super cute!
But not as cute as my sweet boys, walking hand and hand. Our new header includes a close up of their sweet hands. Totally melts my heart! Yes, J has a monkey "leash", no we didn't have to use it. He loves his Curious George back pack so he wanted to wear it anyway and we tucked the tail in so it didn't drag the ground. Yes, we are "those parents", but you would be too if your kid was known to take off running at Olympic medal worthy speeds with no regard for his personal safety!
I like this photo of the stoic tiger, J's favorite.
Both boys loved the monkeys, all different varieties! These guys' eyes cracked me up!
As did the pouty lip of this little gal apparently sad to be single on V-Day.
The boys could have watched the orangutan swing around all day!
TOTALLY captivated!
This king of the jungle was also very popular with our boys! We visited him and the tiger a couple of times! We didn't quite see everything in one day even though we stayed until closing. No worries though because we got an annual membership and will definitely be back soon!

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentines Day! We have begun the celebration with donuts, goody bags, and have plans to go to the zoo a bit later on. I couldn't be happier to be sharing Valentines Day with all 3 of my loves!

Daily Dependence

So I try hard not to get on soup boxes on here because in general I don't want to offend anyone, but today it may seem like I am on one. Perhaps I am, but what I really want to convey through all of this is our faith in God's sovereignty and our love of our precious boys.

We are going through a particularly difficult junction in our journey as a family with daily reminders of how fleeting it all could be. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this particular experience is not something most families encounter. Perhaps just foster/adoptive families and families who journey through life threatening health issues share this practical daily need to treasure every moment. We are in the midst of doing just that and truly I am so grateful that I have the honor of spending every day with our boys, especially at this time of uncertainty. Speaking of uncertainty, it has placed a tremendous strain on all of of our earthly relationships. Friendships that once brought mutual encouragement, have become distant and injured by very vulnerable emotions. At the same time, a couple of friendships have flourished and grown and provided me in particular an outlet to share my heart freely without fear. For these I am very grateful. One sweet friend recently drew my attention to the verses that follow the verse we have on the boys wall. I have begun praying this truth over us and our boys. The entire passage of Isaiah 43 is awesome but here are some particularly powerful verses for our present circumstance:

When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.

³ For I am the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I give Egypt for your ransom,
Cush and Seba in your stead.

⁴ Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life.

⁵ Do not be afraid, for I am with you;

Through these verses I am reminded of God's characteristic of sacrificial love which protects His children at all costs!

While praying recently about our situation and seeking God's wisdom. He very clearly gave me another verse which I pray many times a day to center myself on His sovereign plan for our family and His ultimate will to receive glory. Again, the entire chapter brings comfort but this little phrase is always on my lips:

^{Psalm 46:10}

"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

Please continue to pray for us as we grow closer to God and to one another during this difficult time of uncertainty. Your prayers and encouragement on our behalf truly mean more to us than we can express!

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!