Please pray for Eden and Beth!!!

Hello all, I got some sad news this weekend. A friend I have made through adoption really needs prayer right now. Her daughter Eden whom she brought home about a month before we got Ade, has been really sick and the Dr.s tell her they are pretty sure it is a very rare terminal illness. Please pray for a miracle and that the dr is wrong! Beth is a single Mom and she has done an amazing job with Eden! I can't even imagine what she is feeling right now!

Beth is the friend who checked in on Ade for me while she was in Ethiopia. She reported to me how he looked and his personality! I cherish those reports! Please please please pray for a miracle for Beth and Eden!

Max-a-roonie is 7!!!!!!!

Today is Max's 7th birthday! I really can't believe he is already 7. I see him as 5 still! He had a great day. He had a family party and got some great gifts. We don't do birthday parties around our house, it is just too much. What we do if anyone cares:) is we give the kids money and take them out shopping to pick out what they want. They LOVE this and it is a lot less stress on us! On their actual birthday we have family over and get some decorations and a cake and celebrate with family! It is a great system for us. We have 3 birthdays in 3 weeks so it gets a little crazy around this time of year!

The reason we have done this is because when we first moved into our house, I was in the hospital for what they suspect was meningitis! I came home with a pic line in my arm and I felt guilty because it was Ella's birthday and I hadn't spent much time with her between having surgery, the move and then being in the hospital. So like a fool!!! I let her have all 17 girls from the 1st grade to our house! Uhhhhhh WHAT WAS I THINKING??? I'll never do that again! It was so awful, they were fighting, bored and Ella just had a complete meltdown, so after that I said we are done with birthday parties! And we save money this way too!!! I mean 1st graders can be completely dramatic!

So on with Max. He is such a blessing to me. The boy baffles me though! He is the most kind hearted sweet boy, but he can turn on a dime and be a monster!!! I am constantly amazed at him! Some of my favorite things about Max are:

He is so kind.
He is a friend to all.
He is sooooo funny!
He loves to snuggle.
He is almost ALWAYS running around the house in just underwear!
He is very loving.
He is very spunky.
He never stops moving.
He is extremely athletic.
He has a heart for Jesus.
He can flip and jump like no other.
He loves apples.
He can get so fired up so easily.
He is seriously one of the cutest little boys I have ever seen!
He is super stylish.
He loves music.
He can melt this mamma's heart!!!

There are many more things, but this is all I can do tonight!

7 years ago tonight, I was staring at my 5 hour old baby boy so excited I got my boy! I was trying to figure out who he looked like and probably said a zillion times, "he is so little!" He had a rough start coming into the world, heart rate kept dropping and it was scary for a moment. Then he wasn't gaining weight and he was a happy to starve baby! Yes, I thought I was feeding him well and actually, he was just starving! LOSER MOM!!! But he caught up pretty quick. He was also allergic to milk. So he had a rough start and he was a few weeks early! Love me some Max and are so thankful to be his Mamma! Happy Birthday Max!!!

Happy 5 months home!!!

So it has been 5 months today! And to celebrate poor little Bug has a fever and yucky diapers and yucky nose! Poor guy, he actually got up in the middle of the night which he NEVER does that! Pray for him to feel better please!

I was looking back at pictures from when we first brought him home and I can't believe how much he has grown! I mean really he is getting so big! And looking older! His personality has really started coming out! He is so funny but yet so serious. He is more silly and crazy when he is at home with just us! He kind of acts like his Mamma!!! He loves it when I am silly to him. It is so great. He always thinks I'm funny! It's good to be appreciated!:)

I think back on that first month and it was definitely the toughest month with him not napping and just getting to know each other. But I have to say all in all we have been really blessed with a smooth transition! He loves us and we love him!!!

Some highlights of our first 5 months:

Thanksgiving
Christmas
Play dates
Relaxing his hair!
I think I FINALLY found the right products that work for his hair!!!(That is huge!)
He talks a lot!
He LOVES basketball and really knows what to do with a basketball!(Makes my heart happy!)
He loves his family.
He LOVES to dance and sing.
Being home for his siblings birthday!
Taking off his diaper at nap and smearing poop EVERYWHERE!!!
His first snow.
His first basketball game.
Loving on his mamma and dadda!
Getting so excited when Joe comes in the door!


There are many more, but my morning brain is not working so well. He is great and we are all blessed! Have a great day!

Go Lions!!!

My 4th grader is playing basketball again this year and they are in a tournament this week! It has been so fun watching them as they progress. They are starting to come together as a team and it is awesome to watch them! They had a game last night and it was SOOOO MUCH FUN! They played so well and as a team. Ella was on fire last night I don't even know how many steals she had, she had some great passes and she is a defensive specialist! Plus she scored 6 points! It was awesome. I can't wait to watch her tonight!

A little shout out to Oyin Handmade products! I got Ade some whipped rich almond buttercream and it is amazing. It feels like I am rubbing silk on him! And it smells sooooo good! I love their products, it is all handmade and organic!

Not too much to report today! Just wanted to give a couple shout outs!

My Baby Girl is 5!!!

Maya turned 5 on Tuesday, it was such a bitter-sweet day for me! I can't believe my baby girl is 5 already!!! She has been the baby for so long! She is turning into such a big girl! And she is oh so precious! We had a family party for her and she had a blast. Here are a few of my favorite things about Maya Jane!!!

-She is so spunky.
-She has such a kind and tender heart despite her sassiness!!!
-She is very sassy!
-She knows what she wants and is not afraid to express it!
-She has some great fashion sense!
-She has a tender heart towards others!
-She LOVES her mamma!
-She loves Jesus!
-She has so much flair to her personality!
-She loves animals!
-She's a good dancer!
-She has great hair!
-She is just plain AWESOME!!!

I could go on and on about her, but I will cut this short! She is such a blessing to our family and I can't even ever imagine life without her! She will always be our baby girl!!! Here are some pics of our big 5 year old!!!

Our Awesome Reunion!!!

We had 2 families come and visit us this weekend that we traveled with!!! It was so great to see them again! One of the families stayed for 4 days and the other family just came for a visit! It was so fun to see the boys together again!

Gizatu the 2 1/2 year old LOVED Max! It was so precious, he just followed him around and did whatever Max did and Max ate it up! Max told me one night before bed that he loved Gizatu more than he loved himself!!! I mean how sweet is that! And Gizatu remembered Ade, he kept calling him his birth name. It was pretty cool that he remembered him. Such precious memories!

Little Ade was a little unsure about the whole thing. He had a blast, but on the second day he got really clingy and seemed really overwhelmed. I don't know if his little brain can even remember, but it was almost like he remember his friends and all of us being together in Ethiopia! A couple of times I had to take him out of the room and go someplace quiet and play with him! And we all know how much he loves his daddy, he wanted ME!!! I was a little too happy about that.:)

It was a loud crazy weekend around here but oh so good to see some of our travel buddies! I will attach a few of my favorite pics for you all to see. If you haven't heard me say this before, Adoption is Awesome!!!:)

A Very Interesting Conversation with A Gal at Target!!!

This happened awhile back and I keep forgetting to blog about it so here it goes.

Ade and I were at Target and this lady who looks familiar comes up to me and says she has been stalking me around the store and then asks me if Ade is adopted. I jokingly say "NO"!!! I know I'm funny! Then she goes on to tell me how much Ade looks like "baby Louie". And for those of you who were as lost as I was, that would be Sandra Bullocks baby that she adopted from New Orleans! She goes on and on about baby Louie and then proceeds to tell me that she was at a toy store where there were these really expensive dolls on sale and one was Indian and one was black. She again made a reference to baby Louie and how much the black one looked like baby Louie! She said she bought the Indian one and walked out. When she got out to the car her daughter said, "Mom you need to go back in there and get that black baby Louie, because NO ONE WANTS THE BLACK KIDS!!!" Ummmm.......OK lady, thank you for that comment while I am with my black baby. So she was so proud that she went back in and bought the black one. How about you adopt a REAL baby Louie lady!!!

Just Add Hair Stylist To My Ever Growing List of Skills!!!

Ok, so yes I did purchase a kids "relaxer" kit from Wal Mart and apply it to Ade's hair! It was soooo funny! I have to admit that about 5 minutes into it I realized I may have been over my head! But I pressed on toward the prize! He has some really course hair and very tight coils! So I thought it would be fun to see what happens if we put the relaxer on it! So I strip him down, put him in the bathtub and start the process with 2 of my ever so helpful assistants!!! It was a fairly simple process and I didn't leave it on for the advised amount of time, I took off 5 minutes. I would have to say the best part of the process was Joe coming in from shoveling and asking what I was doing. I kindly told him he may not want to come up and see exactly what I was doing, because I didn't know how he would feel about me putting a chemical on his 18 month old sons hair!!!:) He came up to the bathroom and the sheer look of HORROR on his face made me almost wet my pants it was sooooooo funny!!! But the end result was ADORABLE!!! He has these big loose curls now and it softened his hair quite a bit! And Daddy LOVED it! He has an opinion on Ade's hair which cracks me up! He likes it long!!! I say score for the white mamma processing the babies hair!!!

So another funny story this week. I was on the phone to a friend having a serious conversation and I had the door shut when the girls pranced Ade in after playing dress up with him! I busted out laughing and my friend and I were rolling on the phone! Ade was so happy and he had no clue he was being laughed out! The sisters had struck!!! Watch out buddy, you have years of this ahead of you! Daddy didn't think this was too funny!

My lovely husband suggested I write about something funny that was said each time in my post, so I think I will take him up on that! I was playing Farkle with Max and Maya yesterday and Maya burped, So Max looks right up at her and says, "Maya, you just burped right in my beautiful face!"haha!!!

And then Joe and I kissed each other and Maya gave us a nasty look and said, "Yuck, you just kissed right in front of my face!" Oh child! She has no clue how blessed she is!

I hope you all have an awesome day!

Snow Days=Grouchy Mamma!!!

The kids have been out of school for 4 days straight now! 2 of them being snow days! Didn't we just have Christmas break? I know I sound like such a bad mom, but thank the Lord they are going back tomorrow! The first day was great. The kids had fun, we were all excited about being home, but today was not so much fun! The kids were doing all they could to irritate each other, they were fighting and I was OVER IT! And it was too cold for them to go outside. To top it off, I can usually escape in my car to get a pop and the kids like taking a ride, only Joe took my car and I had no way to leave! That equals a grouchy me!!!

I know I am a grouch and I totally am acting like a jerk! But I just couldn't let it go today! I was a grouch! And quite honestly, the kids were getting on my nerves! I didn't want to clean up one more popcicle spill, and yes they did eat these on a freezing cold day! Or clean the kitchen one more time. I had already done most of the laundry and put it away and cleaned the kitchen again! I was being a selfish baby!

But Praise be to God, He rescued me!:) Tomorrow is back to school and I am so excited about that! I think the kids are ready to get back too! And I need to be counting my blessings! At least I had a warm home to be in. Food in my kitchen and 4 kids to drive me crazy!!!

Adoption Can Be Hard!!!

I have been reading several blogs lately that are written by discouraged people! Adoption is hard and it is not easy! The waiting process can be daunting. Some people worry about finances, some can't pass court, some are wondering if they can love an adopted child as their own! Some are just fighting the Lord in what He is calling them to do! It is hard.

I don't believe that everyone has the call on their lives to adopt! I believe that if you think about it and it is on your heart you should go for it. That you should press on until the Lord finishes the adoption or He shuts the door. Satan can be so tricky at times, he likes to create doubt in our minds, because he doesn't want to see the Kingdom furthered. The enemy can really play tricks on your mind. But God is not a God of confusion! He will direct us.

Also, I have been following a blog about a family who is losing their daughter that they have had since birth. She is 2 maybe. I can't even imagine the heart ache that goes along with that. I have only been Ade's mommy for 4 months and I can't even think about someone taking him away from me! But the most awesome thing this couple has said in their blog is through all of this that adoption is still wonderful! And they still totally believe in it! WOW! I would hope that I would be like that if that were happening to me.

Some people I read about are having a hard time attaching to their adopted child or seeing them as "theirs". I don't want to sound like I am perfect, but PRAISE GOD, I haven't struggled with that AT ALL!!! Before I got Ade's referral I was in love with him and he was MINE! He is mine just as much as Ella, Max, and Maya are mine. He is MY BABY! Try and tell me otherwise!:) We have been really blessed with his transition and I'm sure his age had a lot to do with that. We were prepared to love him even if he rejected us and I'm sure it would have been really hard and really scary had he not bonded so quickly to us. Adoption is scary all the way through. I second guessed myself a zillion times through the process, but now I know it is exactly what God wanted for our family.

Adoption is hard, but adoption is biblical and beautiful and God never said the road would always be easy, but He did say He would never leave us!!!

Oh Yes I Did!!!

Oh yes I did just walked up to I think he was a Chiefs player at Houston's on the plaza and his beautiful gal and ask him how he did his hair!!! They were both so sweet and kind to talk to a weirdo like me, but he gave me the number of his "barber" and said he would hook me up! He had really cute hair and his gal was gorgeous! They were both very helpful! I told them I was getting most of my advice from "white moms" who adopted black children! And of course I had to show them a pic of Ade! Joe was just laughing! So yes, I am that kind of mom!

On another note, I saw a sibling group on Holt's waiting child list with a precious little girl and boy! The eyes of the little boy just stirred my heart! He was so sweet. I asked some questions about them without Joe knowing, he would flip a lid!:) So this morning I woke up thinking about them and I was getting Ade ready and I asked him if he wanted a baby sister, he looked straight into my eyes and "uh-uh" as in no!!! I guess he likes his arrangement as it is, being the king of the castle! I laughed so hard. So come to find out, Joe and I don't meet the requirements for the adoption, I am too young and we have too many kids! So if anyone is interested in adopting these 2 precious children I can get you the website! They are so on my heart!

I will attach a picture of the "king" and his dorky Mamma!!!