Overwhelmed…

Yesterday was a very overwhelming day for me, but overwhelming in a good way!!  A few weeks ago I was trying to think of ideas for something for volunteers at our yard sale to wear.  I thought about t-shirts, but I didn’t know if I wanted to incur the expense that would come with that.  I was sharing this with Mrs. Janet Simpson, a lady in my church, and she had the idea to get aprons.  I thought it was a great idea, so I got on ebay and found some for super cheap.  She said that she would make them cute, and she enlisted the help of two other ladies to help her sew!  Well, last night, they gave them to me a church, and they are SO cute.  They worked and made 25 of these in 1 day!!  And, every apron is different and unique.  I just love them, and I love their hearts for being willing to help!  Now, all of our volunteers will have something to wear and something to take home as a token of our appreciation!  (Men that are helping, don’t feel obligated to wear one!!! Ha!)

Here I am with the sweet ladies that worked so hard!  Are the aprons not ADORABLE!!  As they were giving me the aprons, Mrs. Janet mentioned that mine was different.  Before she pulled it out, she said, “We made yours different.  We wanted it to be special, and we wanted you to know that this whole process is not about us, and it is not even about you, Michael and your family, but is it about CHRIST! That is why yours have a cross on the top.”  Of course, I just started crying because it was such a reminder that it is about HIM. All of this is about HIM and our obedience.  Can I just tell you that I was overwhelmed and thankful!

Ben, the guy taking our picture thought it would be funny to get a shot when none of us were ready.  I thought it was pretty funny!

Another reason I was overwhelmed yesterday was because when I went to our mailbox, there were 3 cards with checks for donations for our adoption.  Completely unexpected….all on the same day.  I just cried as I opened them and read the cards.  The sweet words were such an encouragement to me…more than the ones that sent them will ever know.  GOD IS SO GOOD. He is our Jehovah Jirah.  He will provide, and He is faithful!

A Little Late…

On Saturday before Valentine’s Day, Myla and Michael had their Valentine’s date.  Myla had been looking forward to it all week.  Before they left, we baked brownies for them to take to several shut-ins from our church.  They delivered those, then headed to Holli’s Sweet Tooth!  Myla was sure to tell everyone in there that she was on a DATE with her Daddy!  So sweet!  After Holli’s, they went to eat lunch at Chick-Fil-A.  If you give Myla a choice of where to eat, she will pick Chick-Fil-A every time!!  I love to see these two together.  They have so much fun!  Myla and Selah are two very blessed little girls that have a father that loves them so much and is so sacrificial in his time with them!

About to head out the door…notice Myla had to have her purse!

Giving kisses!!

And this was Selah, covered in her breakfast, after they left…she was excited to have Mommy all to herself!  She is a momma’s baby, no doubt!!!!!!

2 Weekends Away..

Two weeks from this weekend, we will be having our yard sale fundraiser!!  I am so excited, but it is becoming a bit overwhelming!!!  I have had so many people telling me, “I have so much stuff for your yard sale!”  I am so excited and thankful for those who are taking the time to clean out and donate items to our sale, as well as those who have volunteered to work!  Together, we are going to get this baby HOME!

This weekend, we have been busy working on yard sale stuff.  First I made signs to place around town the week leading up to the sale!  I worked Friday night and made 4 signs.  I was so proud of myself until I realized that I had not put the location of the sale on them!  Oh well, we will just put those in the yard of the church!  Today I made 4 more and will make a few more before next week!  I want it to be well publicized!

Another thing I did this weekend was clean out closets!  I can’t believe I’m posting these pictures, but I’m just keeping it real!!  You know when you start a project, then it just becomes one big mess before you can make sense of it again!  Well, that was Selah’s closet/room this weekend!  Of course, she was in there with me pulling stuff out the whole time, too, which didn’t help!

More of Selah’s room!!  What a mess!

I worked on Myla’s closet too, and pulled out clothes and shoes that she has outgrown.  What is it about putting up clothes that are too small that is sad?

This is the den, where stuff just kept getting piled into…  All of it has finally been moved into our..

garage!!  I have affectionately nicknamed our garage “Sanford & Sons”!!  It is a MESS out there, but I am trying to get it somewhat organized!

I can’t wait for this sale!!!

Finally…

I just ordered a camera!!!!  I’m so excited and can’t wait for it to come in.  I have missed having one SO much!  Pictures are coming back to the blog soon!

I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

All You Need Is Love…

God’s LOVE, that is!!!  As I think about love on Valentine’s Day, I can only think about the unconditional love that we get from our Heavenly Father.  We get love that lasts and love that is faithful, no matter what.  I don’t know about you, but I would much rather have that than roses or a box of chocolates.  My sweet husband knows this too, which is why he always makes me things for occasions such as Valentine’s Day, and can I just tell you, I treasure those things more than anything.  I am so thankful for all of my “loves” on Valentine’s Day, and quite honestly, every other day of the year!!

This morning Myla had a Valentine’s party at MMO, but I got the times mixed up and got there too late!  Oh well!  When I got there they were playing on the playground since it is such an amazingly, beautiful day!  I wasn’t there very long, so I didn’t get many!  Myla LOVES all of her Valentine happys that she got from her friends and chose to eat those instead of lunch, of course!

Myla and Grace – BEST friends!!

Grace usually doesn’t want to pose for pictures for me, but today she was all smiles!  I LOVE this picture!!!

Here’s my littlest love!  Don’t you love those chubby cheeks, double chin and teeth!

Selah with Mrs. Laurel.  Don’t you love when someone offers to hold your 20+ pound baby so you can take some pictures!!

After we left the church, we headed to pick Michael up and go be fingerprinted like criminals at the Sheriff’s Dept.!  We had to be fingerprinted for our background checks for the adoption.  I’m glad the county jail is a place I don’t have to visit very often!!!  Eeeek!  And, of course, I couldn’t take the camera in, so there are no pictures to document that step!

11 Months…

I am 6 days behind in posting Selah’s 11 month pictures, but it has been a crazy few days.  She really turned 11 months old last Friday, the 4th, but I was running around like crazy that day trying to leave to go to Atlanta for the Created for Care Retreat.  I got back on Sunday night, and Michael’s grandmother passed away early Monday morning, so needless to say, I’m just getting around to doing it!  Since I’ve done every month prior, I didn’t want to miss one.  My camera DIED last night (which I’m very sad about), but my friend and neighbor, Susan, let me borrow her fancy camera this morning to take Selah’s pictures!

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Dear Selah,

Again…it blows my mind that another month has flown by and now you are almost a year old!!  It is crazy, crazy, crazy!  You are continuing to grow and change every day, and you still add so much joy to our family.  You are starting to add a little grief to your sister though because you constantly want what she is playing with and you will follow her around and pester her until you get what you want! 

I can already tell you are going to be quite the strong-willed child.  You have an opinion, and you don’t mind “sharing” it…i.e. screaming about it!!!  You are pretty relentless in your quests to get what you want whether it be a toy and you wanting me to pick you up.  I spend most of my day with you attached to and pulled up on my leg crying for me to pick you up!  You are a momma’s girl, no doubt, but your daddy comes in a close second.

You are a GREAT eater!  You have not turned anything down that I have offered you!  I really don’t even know what your favorite is because you eat everything just about the same.  You do love mandarin oranges, bananas, green beans, chicken and beans.  But, really, you basically like everything, which I am very thankful for because your sister is SO picky!  It’s nice to have a good eater! 

You LOVE your duck pacifier so much!  People think it is hysterical because it does look a little strange to have a duck hanging from your mouth!  We did leave it a church last week and you didn’t sleep very well that night.  I went back that next morning and thankfully found it, and you were so excited to get it back.  You will even say, “Dah, dah” when you see it.  I guess you are trying to say “duck”.  We are pretty good about leaving it in your bed all of the time because we have had too many tragedies with your sister’s pink dogs through the years…we have lost them everywhere! 

Speaking of things you say, you are constantly “talking” or making noise.  You say mama, dada, bye bye, dah (for duck), na na, my my (I think you are trying to say Myla) and you just started saying “thank you”.  It is so sweet!  When we hand you something, you say “thank you” so clearly.  I’m so upset my camera died because I was going to get you on video saying it.  I guess I need to start working on you saying “please”.  Also, last weekend, when you were in the nursery, Katie walked in and when you saw her, you said her name!  I’ve heard you say it one time, but Mrs. Katie was so excited! Another funny thing you do is that whenever Oskie barks, you kind of grunt and say “hu hu”.  I think you are trying to say “hush” because that is what I say when he barks.

You still love bath time.  You would stay in there for hours, I think.  You and Myla love to play in there together!  You are also still a really good sleeper, especially at night.  You got to bed at 7, and you are usually up at 7 am.  You used to consistently sleep until 7:30. I am kind of missing those mornings!!  Your naps are kind of sporadic, but you still take both a morning and afternoon nap.

You still love your big sister, and like I said earlier, you want everything she has!  It doesn’t matter what it is or what other toys you have in front of you, you want what she has.  And, you love to pull her hair!  We are working on that!  You still love your ball popper, and I would say your favorite toy is anything that you can put in your mouth.

You just cut a new tooth, which makes a total of 6!  The last two that you cut were easy…I didn’t even know you were cutting them until I saw them after they had broken through.  I love your little toothy grin!

Needless to say, you keep Mommy on her toes every day.  You love to explore and get into whatever you can find!  We love you so much and couldn’t imagine our family without you!  We can’t wait to celebrate your first birthday!  We are going to have a party with your friend, Charlie, which will be so much fun!  We love you, sweet girl!

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Selah has also figured out how to cover her face and play peek-a-boo.  She decided to play during our little photo session today….

I just LOVE that smile!

Created for Care…

Yesterday I returned home from probably one of the most wonderful weekends I have ever had in my life!  I, along with around 250 adopting mommas, attending a retreat called Created for Care.  Words really can’t tell how amazing this weekend was to me, and I am still processing all of the information I heard, and God is continuing to bless my heart with all of the wonderful ladies I met.  It was such an amazing feeling to be worshipping and fellowshipping with SO many like-minded women.  I think it is safe to say that anyone you may mention the “orphan crisis” to would have a feeling of sadness, but these women, along with their families, have a passion to do something about it.  We heard from many wonderful adopting moms who have adopted 6, 7, 8 or even more children. They shared their struggles as well as their victories in what the Lord has brought them through.  We watched an intense documentary on the “street children” of Uganda and how they are literally dumped off at a virtual prison and left there with no basic needs because they are deemed “unlovable” or “difficult”.  I mean, seriously, talk about me doing the “ugly cry”.  I will share more stories on here as I process through them, but my heart is so full right now that it is hard to try and think of putting it all into words.

The details of the retreat were unbelievable.  The centerpieces at each table on both nights were SO cute.  I am so sad that I didn’t get a picture of my centerpiece from Friday night because it had the Ethiopian flag along with a little homemade cloth black baby doll.  Our nametags had the picture of the flag from the country that we were all adopting from.  The speakers were incredible.  God’s presence was almost palpable in that ballroom.  I am so thankful that I got to be there.  It was a little surreal because I got to meet so many women whose blog I read, but had obviously never met them in real life.  As my friend, Alison, said it was like meeting all of your best friends that you’ve never met!

Me, Lenora and Jill

If we look a little tired it was because we were up until around 2 am talking!  Lenora and Jill are both adopting from Serbia.  It was such a blessing to get to travel and room with these two!

Me and Alison – I was so excited to get to meet Alison in person.  She was the first adopting mom I emailed about adopting.  She has been so encouraging!  Such a precious woman of the Lord!

Me and Amy – She has the CUTEST little boy from Ethiopia named Elijah.  Seriously, I could eat him up!

Me and Kelli Jo – Lord, have mercy, I love this girl. She was so sweet and funny!  She has 3 little boys, and now she is finally getting her little girl from Ethiopia!

Me and Courtney – She is adopting from Ethiopia as well.

Me and Andrea – She is the one that God used to put this whole thing together!!!  What an incredible job she did, and I am so thankful that she was obedient to do what the Lord asked her to do so all of us mommas could be blessed this weekend!  She has a baby boy from Ethiopia, Isaac, that I got to see this weekend too.  So precious!

This was Saturday night at dinner – All of us in the picture are All God’s Children families.  There were more there, but we did the best we could getting everyone in a picture!  I love to see the community among this group of women.

Me, Lenora and Jill Saturday night at dinner.  I even won 2 door prizes!!!!  I never win anything, so I was SO excited!  I won a beautiful necklace and earring set as well as the DVD of the session on African Hair Care that I had attended since Lord knows I am going to need that!!!!  Sweet Lucy Lane’s momma, Kristi, did that session, so I was so excited to get to attend it.  And speaking of Lucy Lane..

SHE WAS THERE!!!  I really had to keep myself from just running up to her and squeezing her to death.  I was so excited to see her and get to meet Kristi.  Their video is what inspired us so much and broke our hearts for Ethiopia.  I had to have my picture with her, and thankfully Kristi didn’t think I was crazy…at least I hope she didn’t!! 

I had so much fun at the retreat, but I can’t tell you how excited I was to get home and love one my two babies!!!  I missed them so much, but it was such a wonderful weekend of renewal and refreshment for me as a mom.  The Lord really taught me this weekend to have an eternal perspective for my family…not just focus on the daily grind.  There is so much more!  I also missed Michael so much.  I am so gracious to God for giving me a husband that is like-minded.  What a blessing to be on this journey with him.  He is such a great Daddy, and I knew these two sweet girls were in great hands with him.

I’m sure you will be hearing more about the retreat in posts to come.  There were so many people that I met that I wished I had pictures with, but we were all running our mouths so much that sometimes we forgot to take pictures!

Ice, Snow, Retreat and Dresses!!

First of all, it snow/iced again today, and can I just say…”I’m over the snow and ice!!”  I couldn’t live where it was like this all of the time!  The main reason I am frustrated with it today is because I am supposed to be leaving in the morning to go to the Created for Care retreat for adopting moms in Atlanta.  I have been looking forward to this since October!  I think it’s going to be okay, but I am going to be so disappointed if the roads are bad and we can’t travel!

Oh, well!  The reason I really wanted to post tonight was to show you the ADORABLE dresses my friend, Katie, had made for the girls!  Yes, she is the same one that had my t-shirt made.  She is so thoughtful!  Are these not the cutest dresses ever?? I just love them, and I love Katie’s heart because she already loves this “new” baby as much as I do!  God has blessed me with her friendship so much!

This is one side… With the continent of Africa to represent their new little sibling!

And then it reverses to this side with their monograms!  LOVE THEM!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures from the retreat next week!  I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!