Drywall…the new “black”

I’m not fond of painting with preschool children running around. However, we found a great deal on a larger freezer than our little 5 cu foot (which is now for sale…any takers) which means that getting the boys’ new closet, aka our old master closet, painted and our new wall where the old master closet was painted needs to be stepped up. Okay, that’s confusing I know. I want to get this project which has been going on for over a month now finished so we can get the boys room organized. I don’t have anywhere to put the new freezer, because we’re going to gut the utility room, clean, paint, put new flooring in and reshelve but we can’t do that until we finish the project we’re working on now.

So, I painted today. I hope to get most of it done today and then tomorrow we’ll have just a little to do. Mark is going to put in shelves in the closet to put/organize the boys’ toys (or lack thereof if Ace keeps refusing to do his job…that’s another story) and we’ll be ready to tear up the utility room. I can’t wait!!!

All that being said, why do we paint???Drywall should be “in” sometime soon. Maybe half finished painting with little toddler hands all over the wall will come back in style.

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Soccer Camp

Zoe announced last fall that she would like to take Soccer the next year. We only allow one extra curricular per year (besides church stuff…which is getting cut back on too), so we waited. Meanwhile, my wonderfully dramatic, all very sensitive princess has fits when it’s “too hot” before bed. Sweating…no thank you. Running and getting hit or kicked…not on the top of her Most Wanted list. But she’s persisted that she wants to play soccer.

So, I signed her up for a camp this summer. She has her pink tennis shoes (which may be getting too tight…gotta check on that) and her ever so cheap (no joke…I was surprised) shin guards that are pink. We just need some shorts that can’t double as underwear and we’ll be set! I just hope I can survive the week of whining! I know, she’ll probably surprise me and love it…but I have some serious doubts.

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I Just Don’t Know

I don’t know what to post this morning. I’m so very sad for Denny & Vickie and their whole family. For Zoe’s best friend who lost a cousin. I’ve been talking to God and just telling Him that I don’t like what He did. I know He had to do it. I know it was all in His plans. But I hate it. For little Emma and her family. For Kennis and her family. It’s hard and not fun. But He has a reason for it all. I see it so often with Kennis’s family and how they have reached out to others. I doubt they will ever know the full impact Kennis’s life has had on people. Not only that but their living through it being such a witness to others. I still hate this for all of them.

I guess, all I need to do is repost this video. God always has a plan A. He doesn’t choose different routes. He knew when Emma first was created…well, He created her, that she was going to be everything that she was. That she was going to be here for two months only. I am so grateful that He is in control. I just pray that He brings the peace and love that Denny, Vickie, and their family need right now.

Smith Family Story from Matthew Singleton on Vimeo.

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In His Glory

Please pray for one of the ministers from our church. He’s the one I’ve been posting about. Baby Emma went home to be with her Heavenly Father today. As a church family, we are all hurting for her and for Denny and Vickie. Please remember them in your prayers as they say good bye to their precious daughter.

They dedicated her and their raising of her to the Lord on Sunday. How fitting, that she is now fully with God. Fully healed. Not hurting. She is wrapped in her Savior’s arms. Whole.

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For His Glory (Part One)

We’ve been talking a lot at church about how everything we do is for God’s glory. So, I thought I would start off our adoption adventures discussing this as well. I’m actually writing this, probably pretty well in advance before I post it. The reason being, that we want to make sure we are really on the road to adoption and in God’s will. We want our sweet blessing from another country to really be for His glory.

That being said, I will share how we started this journey. There is a couple from our church who have adopted two (maybe three, I can’t remember) children and are in the process of adopting three more. I spoke with her back in January about adoption and asked if I could contact her when we were ready to start our adoption process. She wholeheartedly agreed, so I’ve been waiting for God and His timing. He’s also used the time from January until now (May) to prepare our hearts and lead us to a country. I’ll get to more about what country God has lead us to later.

I’ve been waiting, sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently. Until this week, I’ve really felt God telling me it’s time. Not only that, He put Jennifer, the mom I wrote of earlier, in my path on Wednesday, and I felt God all but yelling at me to talk to her. I really just have two main questions to ask, but I know that these two questions are what will get us really started on this road to adoption. Anyways, I chickened out. I disobeyed God because I was finally getting started and I was scared! Most of you know that when God is speaking to your heart, He will be pretty persistent. I felt Him telling me again, on Thursday, to call her. This time, my excuse was that I hadn’t spoken to Mark. However, the thought, stayed in my head all day on Thursday. And God told me to talk to Mark last night. I did and he agreed that if I felt that strongly that we were being led to call, then I needed to call.

So, I called her over a week ago. She was a wealth of information and pointed me to what I pray will be a great homestudy agency out of Marietta.

We’ve got the paperwork for our homestudy and have already started working on it and our dossier. Basically, anything and everything about us has to be put on paper and notarized…I just hope we don’t have to count how many times we go to the bathroom!

I probably won’t post much on this until we get accepted in to the adoption agency we would like to use. For now, pray, and if we ask you to do a reference, be nice :)…or at least honest.

Here’s what to pray for:
1. Patience on our part as we gather all our paperwork to complete the homestudy, dossier, and all the other things associated with bringing our sweet child home.
2. Our child/children who may be waiting on us now…for their health and wisdom for us to know when God shows us our child or children.
3. Finances! This is going to be expensive. Especially if God leads us to adopt more than one child at a time. We’ll be trying to do it without having to go into debt. To do this, we’ll need help and I’m sure I’ll post more on that as we go.
4. Go ahead and start praying that Zoe, Ace, Liam, and Josiah will be able to adjust to an instant little sister (or brother and sister or sisters). This will be an ongoing prayer of ours.

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Happy Mother's Day

Just wanted to take a moment and echo Abbie’s words about our “rebellion.” I think we have enjoyed this Mother’s Day celebration much more than any other one so far. It was nice to actually allow Abbie to have some down time and still be close by!

I would be remiss to not remind everyone what a wonderful mother Abbie is to our sweet children. Her love for them and wisdom as she guides them is nearly unmatched (sorry, dear, Mom has to take precedence there – love ‘ya, Mom!). I cannot easily express how thankful I am my kids have been blessed with such an amazing mother.

I love you, Abbie, and so do the kids!

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Happy Mother’s Day to My Mommy and Mom-in-law

I admit it. I’m a bad daughter. I didn’t do a card this year. I haven’t sent mom her gift. I’m just an all around bad daughter.

Mom,
You’ve been very special to me. You’ve put up with a lot from me over the years. But through all my mischeivous toddler years, into my uncertain elementary years, and on into my rebellious teen years, you’ve been there. You are now a great friend. Thank you for all you’ve done for me. Thank you for always being there. I’m so glad to have you on my side and always a phone call away when Liam gets into something!

Love you,
Abbie

I do have your gift, I just haven’t sent it to you. Here’s a picture! For all those who “aren’t” my mother and are wondering what it is, I made a scrapbook page about two years ago and put it in a frame. The next year I gave her another scrapbook page with a scrapbook album so that she could put the previous picture in the scrapbook and the new page in the frame. All the pictures are recent for the time and are usually taken around Easter. So, over time, she’ll have a big album and be able to see how much the kids have grown each year.

And for my mom-in-law, thank you for raising Mark! He is such a wonderful husband and a great father. I am so grateful that he had a mother to raise him to know Christ and how to care for me (and all my “high maintenance” issues) and our wonderful children. You are a blessing. I hope you enjoy the above page because yours is similar!

We love you!
Abbie (and Zoe, Ace, Liam and Josiah)

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For Mom

About five or six years ago, my mom gave me some irises from her bed to plant. They’ve really never done much. We combined them with some irises that my father-in-law gave me from his flower bed and put them in the back yard. This year, due to nothing on my part…I even forgot to trim them back this winter, they bloomed like crazy.

So, mom for all you do, here are the irises that you and DC gave me!


Pay no attention to the weed in the background!


My mom believes these are irises from my grandmother’s flower bed. She passed away almost four years ago (I was pregnant with Ace), so I am going to be excited if I have one of her irises blooming. I actually have two this color.

I also have white ones and a deeper purple one that I didn’t get pictures of this year.

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Family Worship

We’re entering a new realm of family worship. One evening the kids requested we sing. So, we did. Mark and I thought it would be a good opportunity to teach the kids to praise God through hymns (both old and new) and other praise songs. We’re up to three. Four, if you count the good ol’ “Jesus Loves Me.”

Here’s a video of the kids singing one of their favorites, “Lo, in the Grave He Lay.” What I caught, doesn’t really have Zoe doing her part which is, “Here we go,” right before we sing the chorus. Towards the end you can kind of hear Liam say, “Evrybody quiet.” Which is his “added” part. Please ignore my singing!

Someone(Josiah, we believe) had a little, hmm, how shall I say, bodily functions going on, so there was a little stinch at the beginning which is why Ace was holding his nose.

Oh, and did everyone notice my little ham (Zoe)!

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Muddy Feet and Other Childhood Pictures

This is all part of being a kid! Cute, nasty, muddy feet!


Ahhh, Sweet Josiah at 10 months!! My husband, clearly, is the better photographer. I don’t think I could have captured these sweet pictures of ‘Siah!
Liam swinging.

I’ve just figured out that I live in a zoo! In my Zoo, as you can plainly see, I have an Arctic Fox (that was mauled promptly after picture taking by a two year old), a seal pup, and a cute little panda bear who cheers for Alabama! Ahhh, what a nice zoo!

Is it almost summer!?! YES!!! Swimsuits had to be tried on before the summer kickoff!
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