Again it has almost been another year since I posted. We did indeed adopt. We have been blessed with beautiful girls all three sisters. They have brought tons of fun and excitement but as with any children, they came with trails.

I thought the years of working with our original special needs kids would give us the experience we needed to parent these wonderful additions. I was quite niave. The amount of abuse that these little people have endured makes you question all humanity. How can a human treat another the way our girls were treated? You see it on the news but it is just really so abstract. Nothing you can relate to.

I felt so disheartened about how I could help them recover. This is a recovery process. I am so grateful for the Lord to help inspire us to do things or say things that are helpful but not at all my normal instinct.

This is the next big journey for our family. To help the girls heal, to help them learn to trust and allow themselves to be loved. That sounds pretty easy but when you realize love means pain and "mom" means hurt. It seemed such a daunting task. It is a family affair. Our oldest now 16 gave me a quote the other day, "If we call a situation or a person hopeless, we are shutting the door in the face of God." Nothing is hopeless and miracles happen everyday.

May our beloved girls be granted the miracle of healing.

well, it has only been two years since i last wrote. time flies but now i feel impressed to write out my feelings. We have been trying to adopt and finish all the paperwork for a specific sibling group of 5. yes, I realize that would make 11.

it didn't start out 5 but they were the kids that called to our hearts. yet here we are paperwork finished and filed and now the county won't even look at us. they see the large fam on the homestudy and bump us out of the running. well, on thing we have learned over the years and through having sooo many of our own that those kids need an advocate! We are fighters and we will continue to fight for them until we have exausted all possiblilties. Wouldn't the government want them in a loving family instead of fostercare?

That is not to say that fostercare parents aren't loving but they are temporary. we can afford it and want to be there for each of these siblings. i'm just trying to remember the cross stitch i made as a child. "I didn't say it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it!" Amen!

The Fall Garden

We are so excited! We made our first garden and it was from scratch!
Sheridan and I have been working for months to get our compost
established. Then we went to the farm and got horse poop. We have
conquered ants with the help of Star Bucks coffee grounds and gotten
over the gross out of Black Flies Larva! Once all this was done we had
a beautiful pile of compost.

Our beautiful tree went on to another life and was cut and ground down. It was 70 ft tall!
The silver lining was, it made a great spot for a fall garden. We used what we had lying
around including our wonderful compost and after a lot of work we have it planted!
We'll keep you posted on weather it produces anything. :)

Here is Sheridan and the turtle who almost ruined it all! See post below for more explanation!


He, i'm guessing, ended up being a snapping turtle so he did have to go back to live with his family.
We didn't want another brush with wild animal bites and animal control this year! That story is
for another day. :)

BIG TROUBLE in a small car!

As most of you know we recently had to down size our lovely 15 passenger van for the more gas friendly Honda Mini-van. It has been a joy at the pumps but a true disaster on any drive.

I could not stand the fighting anymore. I have resorted to stopping the car on the side of the road but that lost it's effect quickly. Last Sunday I took my shoe off and threw it at Simeon and Irelynn wailing on each other in the backseat! My aim was off so I had to borrow other kids' shoes to get the point across!

Now that you have a vivid picture of my life in the car. I think I have found the answer!!!!!!!

We live off a relatively private mile long road, sooo weren't they surprised when I pulled the "desperate housewife" and kicked four of them out of the car. It was a blistering day as they happily jumped out and said "no problem!" Sheridan took off running since she runs that mile stretch with me. I called her back to walk with them all. She was not happy.

I drove in my airconditioned car beside them as they walked along. (I wouldn't want to get arrested:) I thought all was going well and that this was making quite the impression when Sheridan makes a very cool discovery. A baby turtle. I was totally going to lose out because of this adorable baby turtle! You've got to be kidding me. The sour faces were turned upside down and smiling and giggling the rest of the way. AHHHHH. BABY TURTLE!!!

After a week of baby turtle he has now gone to find his family by the lake. He is no longer rubbing his presense in my face. :) However, all was not lost. The car rides have improved. It wasn't until today, a week later, that Payson had to walk home. He walked all the way in his church cloths. For anyone who knows Payson it was amazing and he didn't even complain or beg to get in the car. He paid the price for hitting and did it well. I was very proud. I'll be more proud when the hitting stops.

This is the new rule.

If you hit, call names, cause or take part and any contention in the car you will walk that mile home. Rain or shine 30 degrees or 100 (i'll give you water) you will walk. I do remind them about the impending hurricanes.

If you are a frequent offender you will be dropped of a little farther away each time.

Honestly I think this one might work!

Looks like I am posting backwards. I'll figure it out soon!

This is Irelynn and Larkin with Daddy.











Rich and I never get our picture together. Look who snuck into the picture. Couldn't bring myself to crop her out. :)













What a beauty! Larkin has yet to grown much hair but it is so white.

They are looking at a plane that touched down.

Oddly enough it was a Southwest plane?! No explanation was ever given to the orange and blue bird sitting on the runway.