Where the Heart Is

Something has been on my mind a lot lately. I thought maybe I shouldn't write about it, but it just seems right to tell you all.

 A thought that keeps creeping in while I am helping Isabella work on decimals. That twinge of hope that sings to me while I am scraping dried eggs off the dishes. An inkling that tosses itself around in my mind while I am rocking Victoria at 3 am.

Should we, could we, adopt again?

Could we really do it? Or do we just say, well, we have already helped enough, it's just too hard.

There's just so much to stand in our way. So many questions.

Our house really isn't that big (but I think even if we had a huge house, everyone would still be hanging out in the bathroom with me anyway).

We are not wealthy. We do not have $20,000 set aside to bring another little one home.

Am I kind of disorganized? Yep.

And you all know what kind of cook I am. Just pass me the french fries.

Geez, we need to paint our family room! And don't even get me started on my old couch!

There's just a lot of stuff that we don't have. But, for all our short-comings, we do have something important.

LOVE! 

To some, our family might seem like we don’t have much to give to another child, but I hope that God believes that we do. 

Can we love another child with reckless abandon? Absolutely!

 We have enough space in our hearts.

We have the determination to help another little struggling soul. We are not afraid of challenges and hard work. We don't want easy, we want to make a difference. We stick together in the tough times.

We are ready to make sacrifices, even if it means I will never eat fast food again!

Adoption has enriched all of our lives and changed us forever. I can't just pretend that I don't know what's happening to children all over the world. That it could have been me. It could have been any of us. Can I just go on about my day, eating a cheeseburger and forget about them?  No!

What if we had thought it was just too hard to adopt Victoria and Francesca? What if we were too scared of what might happen?

We would have missed out on their beautiful spirits! 

What if we had thought that Isabella was too old  to adopt(she was almost 7 when she finally came home)? What if we had listened to what the doctors told us about little Catherine? I feel dark inside just thinking about it! 

So, I ask all of your opinions. Is it unfair of me to ask for help to adopt again?

Here are a few blogs which really touched my heart recently:

http://lovesransom.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-life-redeemed-by-love.html?spref=fb

http://www.nohandsbutours.com/2012/07/03/when-enough-is-enough/

"If you have a child is drowning in a lake, do you have a moral obligation to pull the child out? Well, almost everybody would say yes. But what if the lake is a mile away? What if it's a continent away?"
                                                                                                                                                                          - Mia Farrow

                                                                                                                                                              

"It’s not what you believe that counts, it’s what you believe enough to do." 


Thank you all for listening! 

Monday Moanings

Yea, yea, I know it's Tuesday....whatever. It's been that kind of day.

Rainy all day and muddy paws everywhere.

No naps.


Can you believe these two sweet little angels would cause a bit of trouble?! Say it isn't true!

Why must I continue to collect samples of poop when we all know they still have the dreaded parasite!


But I was brave. I collected. Then, there was a leak somewhere. That is bad, very bad.


I have been informed by the experts that I will need to obtain yet another specimen immediately.


Noooooooooooo!!!!


Gotta go have some M&M therapy now.

The Big Bash!

I know you all have been dying to know the big question about my birthday. Did I really get to sleep late? Not exactly, but I did get to eat some delicious, crunchy homemade eggs! Definitely worth waking up early for.

Someday we will get birthday paper.

So exciting!!!!! More for my stash!

Francesca thought MY jellybeans were all for her!

My future Picasso.

These are oven mitts, but we may turn them into puppets.

Isabella drew me a picture of my dream boat.

and she also got me some fabulous wind chimes.

This is a flying cat from my sweet animal lover. 

I was really touched by Elliot's present. He got me a heart necklace and told me that every time I looked at it to remember how much he loved me. So sweet!

Jen sent me some presents in the mail! I was so excited! The kids wrapped them up for me.

Thank you Jen! Such a beautiful cross! When the light shines behind it, it really sparkles.

We like to party hardy!

Oh yea!!!!! 

They even put a card in the mail for me because they know how I love to get mail!

My friend, Pam, painted this beautiful picture of me and Victoria's hands! So amazing! I will treasure it always! Thank you Pam!

Carol gave me a beautiful ring and a cool wallet, since my old one was duct taped. Thank you so much Carol!

The ring is called "A Mother's Love".

Ta-Da, the birthday cake! No, they didn't bake it, but it came from a super fancy bakery.

I gotta wonder what Victoria is thinking. "Geez, another cake, don't these people ever do anything else?"

Theresa came over for some snuggles with the babies.

Sadly, we don't have any more birthdays for a while, but wait, Halloween is only a few months away! Oooohh, gotta bake a cool, spooky cake......maybe bob for apples.

I know, maybe a haunted house.........

My Birthday Eve

It's no secret that I get really excited about birthdays around here, so you can imagine my level of exuberance since my birthday is tomorrow. But why wait another day? We celebrate New Year's Eve, Christmas Eve, why not a birthday eve?

Let the festivities begin! Since one of my favorite things to do is to travel and explore new places (even if it's just a little town in Georgia), we decided to take a field trip to an animal sanctuary called Noah's Ark.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died right after we left our neighborhood, so this is the only picture I got for the entire trip. I was quite distressed, so we picked up one of those little disposable cameras. Not surprisingly, I didn't have time to get them developed. 

Since I wasn't able to get any pictures, my wonderful children volunteered (or maybe were bribed with a Reeses Peanut butter cup) to show you what we saw:

Bear

Lots of ducks in a row. These were Victoria's favorite. She quacked for the entire trip. 

I really wanted to take a picture of the "Horse Town" store we saw, but alas, maybe another time. 

Besides seeing all kinds of rescued animals, we also went to the outlet Corelle store! What can I say, I am pretty easy to please. I am not much of a shopper, but I love buying plates, cups and mugs. I don't like anything to match, that way it's always a surprise to see what you will be eating on.

All in all, my birthday eve was quite merry. I have very high expectations about my big day tomorrow, starting with sleeping in until at least 9:00 am! 

The Cooking Virgin

I am sorry I haven't been around lately. With school just starting for Elliot and trying to get organized (or at least, kind of organized), I feel like I haven't had a minute to write. (Elliot was just overjoyed to pose for a picture, but in my house, if you want a ride to school, you pose!)

Getting up early has been wearing me out too, especially when I am staying up late at night, partying wildly with these two little night owls!
They do look rather rough in the morning, don't they?!

I have also leaped into a new project. I have decided to use my kitchen for more than just storage. Shocking!!!!

I have spent an unprecedented amount of time perusing the spice rack in the grocery store, trying to figure things out. I feel like I am learning a new language. 

Did you know my Betty Crocker cookbook can be used for more than just a step stool! (My mom will be so proud! She bought this for me years ago.)

Of course, the girls were thrilled to be involved. Our first adventure was to make baking soda biscuits. Unfortunately, I didn't have any Crisco, so we used coconut oil. We didn't have a roller either, so we used cups. They worked just fine!

Don't you love the heart shape! They didn't really rise all that well, but they were edible.

Anastasia was in charge of preparing the food in this giant pot for our special Sunday dinner.......

popcorn!!!! (it's healthier than McDonalds!)

Then I got a little too adventurous and tried to make homemade macaroni and cheese. The whole white sauce thing didn't quite work out. Things were bumpy and a little bit grainy.

We were quite proud of these cookies! I somehow over-estimated and we ended up with 10 dozen cookies. If anyone wants to have some, come on over!

Little Catherine requested meatballs and even helped make them.

They were a hit with everyone!

We're going to work on manners and the benefits of using a knife next week.

Our last project this week was fudge. My favorite!

Getting fudge on your nose is a requirement.

Hope everyone has had a great week! I promise to write more! I have some things on my heart that I want to talk to everyone about soon!