Home of my Dreams.

I'm looking at our possible next level/last home online. (no we're not moving, just seeing what's out there) and I see these amazing places and spaces. I think "Oh, that's so beautiful, I wish I had a place like that." Then I think back to what our house looked like before we moved in and how we felt about it. I remember dreading the whole process because I didn't think I'd ever live in a place that nice.
 
And here I sit 5 years later. This house barely resembles the place we bought. There's dings and dents and scratches and a few signatures. There's spills and stains. There's lots of missing knobs. (seriously, how does that happen?)....I remember breathing in a huge sign of relief when we closed. I remember walking into this mansion of a house. And promising to keep it clean.

See here's the thing. The people who lived here were older, with two late teenage daughters. Of course it was perfect. We come flying in with a 5, 3, and 1 year old. Then we added a dog, a brood of puppies, another dog, a cat, another cat, fish, hamsters, hermit crabs, not to mention the four other babies that have come and gone and come.

Right before we listed the old house, we spent about $3000 fixing it up. New roof, new trim and paint, new bathroom fixtures. All the things I had wanted. Why did we do that? Why did we wait until we were leaving to give the house the things we had wanted all along.

So, this house with all it's dings, stains, and missing knobs is getting a makeover. Slowly, one room, one appliance, on knob at a time. I want to enjoy this home before it's time to move on. I want someone to walk into my home and feel that same magical feeling "this is our house" when it comes time to sell.

Here's to a shiny, ding free, knob filled year!

The Winner Is......

I used Random.org to create a fair drawing. The winner was number 6-----Bri, with the comment of: "Brought my daughter home just before Christmas in 2011, finalized in June 2012. Congratulations on your upcoming finalization."

Congratulations Bri, I will be in contact to get this ornament sent out to you! Also, congratulations on your finalization and your baby girl!

2012 Recap.

Every year is fun and wild and crazy. I have to say that our 2012 took the cake. In one year we gained two children. :) Unless you've had twins, I'm not sure many people can make that claim.

January~Started off on a sad note. M's visitation would start. He would be leaving us from Thursday to Mondays. Sucko matic.

February~Visitation continued. Waiting on news for the final hand off. Time seemed to be moving really slowly. And really quickly. As a family we were making a choice about foster care. I couldn't see having to say goodbye again.

March~Oh March, Jackson turned 8. He got to throw his booster seat away. Oh happy day!!! Early in March we got a call. A 12 month old baby girl. With some delays. We thought about it. We said yes. We went and met her. She's was 20 months old, which was better for us, she was a smily wobbly little girl. We had to wait about a week until she came home with us! We are in contact with her Great Aunt and Aunt and various relatives. Early on we realized there were underlying issues. The calls to specialists started. Then, oh then, on March 22nd, I drove M to his home. I cried as I handed my baby boy over. It was awful. In the words of Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say about that.

April~Shane, my baby, turned 10. That's two hands. We got a call from M's grandpa asking if we wanted a visit. We got baby boy for a few days before Easter. We took him home on Saturday before Easter. There was a hearing for him, I called the social worker to see how it went. She called me back on Wednesday. She wanted to know if M could come back. Of course we yelled YES! And he came home.

May~We learned that M would *probably* be ours. It was a long wait to find out for sure. We started our hiking, by we I mean the boys. Lots of fun Cub Scouts events. A fun spring. We started to see specialist for Carlee. Shane and Jackson got to go to DC and Baltimore with our homeschool group. They had a great time. It was fun to hang out with them. Mom and Breezy went with us too.

June~Summer time! Everything with M's case seemed to be at a stand still. Carlee was getting the care she needed, we were waiting on a few more appointment. 

July~Steph came to visit for my 31st Birthday! Carlee turned two. Fun summer stuff happening. We got some good news on M, but we were still waiting!

August~Women of Faith! Oh, what a great time. My cousin Amanda came to visit. I hadn't seen her in two years. Then at the end of August Johnny and I got to go to Forks. A four day vacation, just the two of us. Oh, it was heaven. Lots of hiking to amazing places and beautiful sights. It was a magical time.

September~School. That was about it.

October~On Halloween we signed our intent to adopt papers. One of the happiest days of my life. In October we also got a crushing blow about Carlee's health. We've regroup and are on a path to do what's best for her and she's improving!

November~Lots of waiting. Waiting for court dates, waiting for specialists, waiting. Thanksgiving was a fun and loud event at my mom's house. The boys went hunting. So our freezer is stocked. Black Friday was it's normal tiring, yet super fun event.

December~Sammy turned 7. I can't believe he's seven. Life is crazy. And so full. M's paperwork is with the lawyers and waiting on the judge to return fro vacation. Christmas was a swirl of paper and bows. M had the best time opening gifts. We're ending the year with joy in our hearts for 2013. Both of our babies will become ours, legally and forever in 2013. So we close out 2012 the way we started, the way it will always be. As a family!

Welcome 2013

I am not making Resolutions, with a capital R, I am making ideals for 2013. These are some things I'd like to ideally happen. I'd like many of them to happen :) So here we go:

2013:

* Do one full load of laundry a day (including folding and putting away)*

*Start and finish all the adoption/foster care papers/copies*

*Find and start a family Bible study*

*Read out loud to the kids frequently*

 *Read something physical each day *

*Journal thanks often*

*Get finances in order and follow through*

*Start a small stockpile for emergencies*

*Follow through on Random Acts of Kindness(2 a month)*

*Family prayer time*

*Couple prayer time*

*Frequent date nights, even stay at home dates*

*Plan and do more family activities including everyone*

*Seriously stop sweating the small stuff, seriously*

*Send more real mail to loved ones and my support groups*

*Get updated on the small house repairs that I can do*

*Research other ways to get involved as a child advocate*

*Keep up to date on research and possible treatments for Carlee*

*Get outdoors more with the kids and just play without worrying about what I could be doing*

*FAMILY VACATION*

*Live, Love, Laugh, Hope, Pray*

Updates

So it's been awhile since I've been on here. Except for my giveaway. So a little bit of an update is in order.

We've been getting ready for Christmas. We've been busy. We started our decorating on November 1. So to be honest, I'm done with this tree :).

The big boys have been busy with school and playing. We're about halfway through the school year. Shane has become and avid Redskins fan, like AVID. My dream would be to get him tickets to a game. Jackson has been coming out of his shell and comes up with the funniest jokes. He loves science. Sam is Sam, wild and crazy and loving. He loves loves loves animals.

We've been to all ends of our area to get Carlee to specialists. We're done. Finally. She's doing really well. Our court was continued until January, so I have little idea of what is going on in her case. Though, we feel certain she's our daughter, it's going to take time to make it official. She's a fighter. She's spunky. She's pretty quiet most of the time, but will let us know when she wants something. We're working on communication. She doesn't speak yet, and we don't know if she ever will, so we're working on non-verbal communication and sign language. She's very tall in the 97th percentile, but tiny, only in the 40th for weight :) She's a sweet little girl who loves to be held and cuddles. We have an open relationship with her aunt and great-aunt and various other relatives. It's very nice to have these people in her life.

M is very nearly ours forever. We were hoping it would be done by Christmas, but our judge is on vacation until mid-January. So while we're a bit bummed, it's nice to have a date(ish) for our finalization!!!! He's a handful, all toddler, with a bit a baby left over. He's on track with all his therapies. And cute as all get out.

So that's the kids update for those (CARY) who have been wondering :)

Random Acts...

We're taking a page out of The Kelly's page and we're doing random acts of kindness. Now, I've thought about sharing this or not sharing this. "But you, whenever you do charity giving, let not your left know what your right is doing"(Matthew 6:3 Aramaic Bible) But without the Kelly's blog, I don't think I would have thought of this on my own and we would have missed out of a chance to give. So I'm sharing, not bragging. Maybe someone else will want to randomly share too. 

So today was our first day. They kids made a list of things they wanted to do and we wrote them on cards. 

Today we took coffee to the people at the poles that were outside with signs. People asked "how much is it?" over and over. The simply could not believe that it was free. The kids were amazed. "It's just cheap coffee" But I explain when we give without expecting anything in return it can really make someone happy. 

Our next stop was another polling place where we gave out cards with giftcards to Starbucks and Chick-fil-A. The parking lot was PACKED, so I dropped the kids out and let them run into the line and hand them out. People's faces ranged from really skeptical to tolerant smiles to outright joy. Two people left the LONG line to run to the van to thank us. It made us all happy to see how happy they were. 

So that was today. I can't wait to do the rest of our random acts!

Why Does Jesus Need A Refrigerator?

Whew, the questions these kids come up with. I had a dream that Sam was crying. He said "Jesus got lost, he's in my brain, but not my heart" So this morning I asked him where he thought Jesus was. He said "all around." And then I asked him if Jesus is in his heart. He looked confused. He knows this, we've just not pushed him into saying it. He said "Well, there's no refrigerator in my heart" To which I had to reply, "Why does Jesus need a refrigerator?" He said "Well, I know Jesus is alive, and you need food to stay alive, and there's no food in my heart." Oh sweet boy.....

We started a new One Year Bible plan with the kids. Right in Genesis the questions started flying. "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Gen 1:26)

"Who is the Us and Our, who is God talking to. How can he be talking to Jesus if He hasn't made man yet, there's no Mary...." Yeah, child the Trinity trips me up too.

Into Job "Why is God letting Satan do all that stuff just so Job will say he still loves God, poor Job"

Yikes, I guess we'll all be learning a lot in the coming year.