It's Offical

I'm offically a STAY AT HOME MOM!!!!!

Any advice?

Birthday and Field Day

Here are pictures taken at Gracie's party and a visit to her school from me, her sister and Aunt Laurie to bring her lunch and treats for the class and pictures taken on field day. She had a great birthday and tells us she feels older. We took her out Tuesday to her favorite restaurant and she was extremly kind and generous towards her little sister. Rusty and I commented several times about how impressed we were with her behaviour. When we were in the van I told her again how great she had been and how much I appreciated her treating her sister so well. She told me "Mama, now that I'm 7 my brain knows how to treat my sister, when I was 6 it didn't know any better but now that I'm older it does." Hmmmm, I should have told her she was 7 last year (LOL).

The pictures are not in the order I wanted them in but I'm tired and I'm not in the mood to edit so I'm just going to leave them alone and call it a night. The party was first, lunch at school and then field day. I guess it doesn't really matter though.

Happy Birthday Gracie

Happy Birthday Gracie! I have pictures from her party this weekend I will post later but I thought everyone would like to see what a 7 year old looks like first thing in the morning.

Her favorite breakfast, cinnamon rolls and bacon.

Special Prayer

Will you say a special prayer today for this wonderful family?

Count Down

I only have 5 days of work left! I can’t believe after 15 years of working for the college I will be home full time. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. I know this is what God has called me to do. He allowed me to stay in the work place for many reasons, which I’m grateful for, and now I am starting a new chapter in my life and it is exciting and I’m looking forward to it. I know I will be met with many new challenges and it’s not always going to be easy but I can’t wait to see how the Lord is going to use me in this new role of stay at home mom. What opportunities will I have to share the love of Christ? Who will He put in my path to be a blessing to me? How will He use me in new ways to minister to my girls and my husband? How will He use me in my church? Will He have me lay down some things or will I take on new responsibilities? Most importantly how am I going to grow spiritually? I want so much more of Him and I want to be the wife and mother and the Christian woman He wants me to be. This is why I am so excited about this new adventure. There is so much potential and I’m looking forward to new ways I can serve Him.

Pray for the Chapman Family

Will you join with me and pray for the Chapman family over the next couple of weeks? You can go to Steven Curtis Chapman's managers blog and read his post from today.

Mothers Day

I am truly blessed to be their mother! Oh, I have days where they make me want to pull my hair out and days when I wonder if I'm doing this parenting thing right. I'm like any normal mom out there and certainly no saint, but I will have to say that I don't take being their mother for granted. I think because they are adopted that makes them extremely special to me, and I remember what it felt like before they were in my life. I don't dwell on it and I don't wake up every morning and say "Oh, let me see my beautiful adopted daughters!" No, it's more subtle; like a brief thought of thankfulness, a little daily reminder that the Lord heard my prayers and He answered them. On Mother's Day the thoughts run much deeper. I think this holiday, along with Father's day, has such a deeper meaning for those of us who have adopted. It's even hard to put into words in this blog. Bottom line, I am grateful and will never forget nor take for granted what I've been given.

Happy First Gotcha Day!

It’s hard to believe Laurie Alice has been with us for only a year because I feel like we’ve had her since the day she was born. I think back when Rusty and I decided we would go the special needs route on our adoption journey. I was nervous but I knew we were doing exactly what God had laid on our hearts. It’s funny that she would be special needs because I don’t even think of her as a special needs child. She is our daughter who happens to be cleft affected. During our waiting process she was the special needs child who would be our daughter. Most of the time I don’t even think about it unless she gives us one of her big belly laughs and I happen to see the inside of her mouth and then I’m like “Oh yeah, I forgot about that”. She is such a sweet and compassionate little soul. I say little soul because she is already wise for her years. I think this has happened from her 2 ½ years in an orphanage. At 18 months old she could dress herself and one of the Nannies told us that she liked to help pass out the shoes every morning to the children in her room. I can tell she was taken care of and came from a good orphanage but I still think she has seen and done things most toddlers never have to experience.

I love this little girl with all my heart and I think WOW we could have missed this if we had decided to do what we wanted rather than what God had chosen for us. Oh sure, we would have received a lovely little child I’m sure we would have fallen in love with through the traditional route but we would have missed out on HER heart warming smile and HER adorable little nose and all the thousand other things that make HER special.

Sweet Laurie Alice, always know that Mama and Daddy and Gracie along with MeMa and PaPa and your great grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins LOVE YOU SO MUCH and thank you for adding so much to our lives. You truly are a blessing to us all. HAPPY GOTCHA DAY!!!!!!!!!!