Children's Museum

Last week Brian decided to take a day off and work on his application for his professional engineering license. Apparently this thing is quite a process so a full day still didin't get it done. But at least at this point he is finally started it. This has been hanging over his head for quite a few years now.  After this follows a huge test. Yuck!

So I tell you all of that because it meant we needed to get out of the house for as much of the day as possible. This lead us to the Children's Museum in Commerce. It takes shy of an hour to get there and a few hours to play with lunch sounded like a great plan. And it was! I invited our little friend, Lyla hoping that would encourage Natalie to play and not have me follow her around the entire time. That worked too! The girls never get much time just the two of them so it was nice to see them interact. I want them to grow up as close friends. Both being adopted and biracial, I like that Natalie will have someone else to relate to her exact situation.

As you can see they were both thrilled to be snapping these pictures=)

 

A little fishing was in order for the day.

 

This place was basically a very large room with different sections/play areas set up. There was anything from a grocery store to a kitchen to a pizza place and more! I loved this little hand print picture here talking about body heat.  Natalie really seemed to enjoy the bubble room. There were two large hoops you could stand in and bring up a bubble around you. Fun times! I could never get a good picture because I was trying to keep the girls from swimming in the bubbles. Natalie had already stepped one foot completely in it!

 

I love this one with the two girls!

 

 

  Randomly enough we ran into my friend, Susan and her 3 kiddos while  we were there! By about 11:30 or 12 we had the entire place to ourselves. I couldn't believe it! Another random note was that we had both packed picnic lunches so we gathered around a huge tree right outside the museum and had lunch. It was a beautiful day to enjoy a picnic. Susan asked the lady if we could come back after lunch and she was so generous to let us. So, the kids played about another hour before we decided to head on back. It was going to be perfect timing for my two littles to nap in the car so I was thrilled (turned out neither one fell asleep though)!

 

Of course we had to have a group shot before we left! This was the best one I took of about 5 shots. Susan's kids were perfect in every one. My two hoodlums were looking and pointing every which way but forward!

 

We had a great time and successfully killed 90% of the day so Brian could work=)

 

Updates

I looked back at my last post and didn't realize how long it had been. We have been really busy, and blogging just fell behind as usual.
First, an update on the Adoption Ministry.  We officially have a name! MOSAIC: Adoption & Waiting Children Care Ministries
We are currently working on a logo and mission statements. The last couple of weeks have been busy planning for our 'launch.' On October 14 and 21st we will have a table set out in the foyer of our church with pictures of each family starting the ministry. We will also have bookmarks with Adoption-related resources for individuals to take away, as well as some agency information. If people are interested enough they can fill out a card with their information so we can contact them with more information regarding upcoming events/plans.  On the 21st we will have a lunch after the service for all those interested. Our team will each share our personal adoption testimonies and how God called us to start this ministry.  Once we find out more about the interests and needs of the people, we will begin praying and deciding how God wants us to move from here.  This is exciting! Please be praying for God to move the hearts of the people in our church.  There is so much we can do as the hands and feet of Jesus with this ministry. It's not all about adopting, but simply taking care of the 'widows and orphans' as stated in James 1:27

Second, an update on our adoption journey round 2.  Nothing new. That was a killjoy, huh?! Ha! I tried to come up with something, but this is the hardest part of the journey. Waiting. Preparing our hearts, praying for our baby and birth mother, enjoying the time we have with a precious little 2 year old, and waiting.  We are very much looking forward to the annual fundraiser for our agency. This is where they get most of their money to do what they do so it is SO important! This year we finally get to attend since I don't have to worry about taking a day off from school to go. It is October 30th from 6:30-9:00 pm in Waco. It's a time to celebrate adoption, pray for waiting families, and raise money for the agency. Thanks to my dad being retired, and mom having a flexible job with time off, they are so gracious to come and keep Natalie for us that evening. If they couldn't come we would have had to take her with us (not a fun event for a 2 year old), and stay in a local hotel (that's not in the budget) because of the late evening! Thanks, mom and dad!

Third, an update on our fundraiser. We have had several more precious donors helping us piece together our puzzle. Many of you have asked me if it was too late, or if you could still donate and the answer is YES. Here is a link to the original post describing how to do that.

 

 

 (sorry this one is a little blurry but I was too lazy to get out the good camera, so I snapped with my camera)

 

This girl and her pictures. Either her eyes are closed, or she's looking at you not smiling, OR she's smiling and her eyes are looking off to the side at something else! Sheesh!

Sewing 101

The second reason for our week long trip to Arkansas is for my sewing lessons.  I never learned how to sew (I can barely do a button, and actually Brian is better than I am), but I also never really wanted to learn. Mom and Granny both tried to teach me. Granny was insistent on getting me a sewing machine for graduation. I tried to deter her but that's like telling a mule to stop and go.  I come from a line of stubborn, you see=)  The sewing machine sat for years until I handed it over to mom to use. 

Then Natalie came.  And she was in need of cute, crafty shirts.  With ribbons and bows. And her mother couldn't do it! Not good. This is when I decided I actually WANTED to know how to sew. I couldn't just let all my crafty friends take over.  Not that I will ever be as good as say, Kayla, but good enough to get done what I want for my own daughter. She might be my only girl, so I couldn't let this time of my life pass by.  Now that I'm not teaching, I have time to learn.

So the sewing begins...

My new simple beginners, all I'll ever need machine! Thanks mom!

After only two lessons I can thread my bobbin (yes, I know what that is now), and I can sew things like this:

Ok, ok it's just a scrap, but I was still excited.

Baby steps folks. I'll get there.

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Ok about 3 weeks have passed since I started the first half of this post and never finished. Ugh! The good news is that now I can show you that I have sewn 2 shirts for Natalie!!

The one on the left is obviously for her birthday. A matching bow of some sort will soon follow! The one on the left will also have her name monogrammed at the top by my wonderful friend, Kayla! Now if she only read my blog she would feel so special that I not only gave her one shout out, but two! Her loss=)

 

Now I have a few more ideas for shirts and pillowcase dresses for this girl but my goodness I can't find the time for all my projects. I thought being home was supposed to magically cure that problem?! And what do I think I'm going to do when there are two kiddos......or three!

 

 

 

 



Arkansas Visit

Since we have back to back home games in Fayetteville, Natalie and I decided to spend the week in between with my folks! Now that I am not working, I can do that. Love that freedom!  So far the weather has been just great, so I'm glad we have been here to enjoy it.  Monday was rainy so we stayed indoors. But that wasn't a problem because Mimi was ready for Natalie........

with a kitchen!

 This is Natalie's newest craze. She loves to play kitchen. We have a mini one that was given to us (Thanks, Meghan!) and she just loves it. Don't tell her but Santa will be leaving her a big one this Christmas morning. Hopefully one similar to this, but used and cheaper!

Tuesday cleared up so Poppi, Natalie and I spent some time on the big red truck! Mimi had to work unfortunately=/

One of my favorite views: The view headed to my parents' house. My second favorite view is the one topping the hill to Fayetteville and seeing the campus laid out on top of the hill. Ahhh love it!

Natalie enjoyed her ride and kept asking Poppi to go in the water again. I guess she liked the splashing, squishy sound!

 

Our next venture for the day was visiting Mimi at work so all her coworkers could meet Natalie. They hear about her all the time so they were all so sweet to let us interrupt their work day. Natalie of course was mute nearly the entire 30 minutes we were there. And for all of us that spend any amount of time around her know this is a miracle and bad timing. ha! She was a bit overwhelmed at all the oogling faces in front of her. She did just wake up from a nap. We then headed off to a local park to enjoy the beautiful weather.

 

Perfect picture

 

A perfect end to a perfect day.

 

 

 

 

Family Fun Day

Saturday we went to the Dallas. Zoo for a family day of fun. Most of our weekends lately have been busy busy, or we have been cooped up inside, and I was dying to get out just the three of us to do something different. So we did! And thanks to some sweet Birmingham friends, we got to go for FREE! That's great for our budget=) We headed straight to the Children's area and Natalie wanted to ride the pony. We were expecting her to freak out as soon as we tried to put her on the pony but we were pleasantly surprised that our $2 was not wasted! She loved it and kept asking to go 'gin, daddy.'  Her Poppi would be proud that she loved the horses!

 

We took a minute to let her wade in the water. That is just the neatest thing they have there. I need to remember to bring her a change of clothes next time so she can get as wet as she wants!

We were pleasantly surprised again when she wasn't afraid to go in with the goats. She just walked up to them and started patting them. The only time she got a little shaken was when she was petting one and another one was playing around and bumped Nat with his booty. If Brian hadn't been there it would have knocked her down! He caught her but she was a little shaken for a bit. One goat was fired up and ready to fight/play. She kept rearing up and head-butting the others. There was a group of them having a pow-wow (bottom left).

 

We only stayed about 4 hours which suited us and Natalie just fine. We missed the entire second half of the zoo but there is always next time! Since we didn't pay for the tickets we were ok with this. As you can see, she was tuckered out!

 

 

And the WINNER is.....

Thank you all so much for leaving your names and your thoughtful comments. I am thankful that we are able to share our story with so many.  I am also thankful for those who care so much to faithfully follow our journey! I hope God speaks to each and every one of you in some way through our journey. Whether it be a call to adopt, to support someone who is, to start your own ministry, to pray for those who are adopting, fostering, or going through the struggle of infertility, or just to learn more about the orphan crisis. And without further adieu......

The WINNER IS..........................WENDY!!

Wendy- If you will FB me your address I am sending you a copy of this book, and another little treat.  Thank you for taking the time to read our story.  This is one of our favorite adoption books given to us.

 

My challenge is that you will do one of three things with the book:

1) Give it to a family that you know has adopted that may not have this book already,

2) Give this to someone that you know is struggling with infertility, and share my blog with them, OR

3)Keep this book for your own family to educate your children about adoption (chances are they will come in contact with someone in their life that is adopted or was an orphan)

 

 

For any readers out there that didn't give me your name I would still love to know who you are even in my little giveaway is over!=)

 

Let the Ministry Begin!

We have been given the thumbs up for an Orphan Ministry at our church!! God is so good! We should be meeting with about 4 other couples (2 I haven't ever met) in the next week or so to get the ball rolling! I'm so excited!

As I was reading in my latest book, Adopted for Life (thank you, Susan for sharing), I came across this thought:
"This adoption could very well be a catalyst to create a more adoption friendly environment in your church and neightborhood."
God is doing that now!  I'm so thankful I get to be a part of this!  If so many can follow our journey, and see that God is GOOD, maybe, just maybe others will reach out to give these babies a home, too.  Maybe that's you.......

After all, how can you resist a face like this?







In an effort to see who my audience is, please LEAVE A COMMENT with your name. I'm thinking about doing a little contest to celebrate all my supporters.  By Friday evening, I will randomly draw a name and let you know if you are the lucky winner. I'm sure the prize will have something to do with ADOPTION. Or maybe RAZORBACKS.  Or some other fun TREAT. The possibilities are endless. So go ahead and leave your name!