Pics of my Valentine Present

For Valentine’s Day, I got a laundry room makeover from my hubby!!

Here is the before shot:

It’s a small room and I always just had stuff stacked on top of the washer and dryer. The shelves on the right were in the house when we moved in and they were about to fall off the wall.

I have always dreamed of having a place to fold and stack laundry in my laundry room. Instead, I usually did the laundry in our bedroom. So, there was ALWAYS laundry stacked and piled all over our bed and our room.

Not anymore!

After:

 

Ta Da!

This was taken before I actually even started using the room. (The boxes all over the counter are Valentine cupcakes. This was taken on the morning of Valentine’s Day. I had run out of room to put the boxes of finished orders in the kitchen, so I put them on my new counter top in the laundry room!)

The shelves are wide. I fold and stack laundry on the countertop and then there is room for 3-4 laundry baskets to go across on the shelf. The top shelf holds stuff that I don’t use often, like my 13 extra glass Pyrex casserole dishes :)

I can’t express how much I LOVE the new room! It has helped me stay on top of the laundry and it is so nice that in the last 2 weeks, there hasn’t been one time that Jas and I had to move laundry off of our bed so we can get in it. It all stays in the laundry room until it’s put away.

And my husband…once again, he has outdone himself. He started the project late on a Thursday night. He woke up early on Friday morning to work on it as much as he could before having oral surgery at 11am Friday. By Saturday afternoon, he couldn’t stand to sit around anymore, so he worked on the room and he finished it on Sunday. He did everything by himself. I helped him a tiny bit to remove the drawers from the bottom of the machines. It was quite an ordeal and he pretty much removed the screws and the drawers while holding up and moving the heavy machines by himself. They didn’t get dropped or get even the tiniest scratch on them. I just helped to balance it for a  few seconds so it didn’t fall and break his legs. He’s a stud. It sure does help to have a husband who’s strong and handy-- and who loves me enough to practice those handy man skills around the house.

Thanks so much for my gift, babe! YOU are THE BEST!!!

Gracie’s First Beauty Pageant

I’m not really a big beauty pageant mom… in fact, this was in 2007 and it is the only “pageant” she’s ever been in.

This is when we still lived in Carroll County I couldn’t wait to enter her into the Carroll County Cutest Baby contest. I’d been dreaming of having a daughter in the contest since I competed in the Miss Carroll County contest many years before I became a Mom.

I was still working at the bank at the time and this dress was made by one of my sweet customers for Gracie as a gift. I still have it in my closet and can’t wait to see if Khloe will be small enough to fit in it. And oh…to think of future grandbabies in this dress… it’s just too much! I just love the dress so much!

This is out in the hallway, trying to keep her happy before the pageant started. That profile always melted my heart! Those big eyes… and those chubby little cheeks…

On the stage

With Mamma.

She was the youngest one in her division that year and she was chosen as one of the finalists, but she did not place.

Probably because she almost gave the judges (and all of the crowd) a heart attack… I had let go of her hand when she walked out for the finalists walk and let her walk around a little bit by herself. She walked toward the edge of the stage and I just hung back a little bit. Then she took off running full blast towards the end of the stage! I took off after her as fast as I could, but there’s no way I could’ve caught her before she ran right off the edge. But, she stopped on a dime right at the edge and just peered over it. You could hear the whole crowd exhale! And then everyone laughed. I was both relieved and mortified… :)

It was fun though. Probably not so much for her, but for her Mom, it was fulfilling a dream I’d always had. I got it out of my system and that was that. The next pageant she does is the one where she’s old enough to ask me if she can do it!

And it was just last week, when she saw these pics, that she asked me if she could be in another beauty pageant. Here we go… she’s growing up on me…

My baby girl

This was my baby girl back in 2007.

Can she really be starting Kindergarten in August?

How can it be?

She was supposed to stay little!

And yes, those sweet little cheeks were kissed at least 500 times a day!

15 years of Valentine Love

Today marks the 15th year I've been his Valentine and he's been mine.

We were just kids,

but we were so in love.

High School Sweethearts

We've grown up together,

and had fun doing it.

We got engaged!

We got married!

We honeymooned in Mexico.

7 Months of Marriage... and "We're Pregnant!"

We had another baby!

And another!

Our family has grown, and so has our love.

Best Friends. Soul Mates.
Forever.
We may not have it all together, but together, we have it all.

Story time with Gracie

One day, Gracie was insisting that she already knows how to read. She grabbed a preschool learning book with Disney characters and said, “watch this!”

She was looking at the pictures that were available in this book and “reading” me the stories.

I just happened to have my laptop right next to me and it was turned on. So, I opened it up and started typing what she was saying onto this page.

For your story-time pleasure:

Aladdin

He said, “You know I’m gonna fall in love with you?”

She said, “No way!”

“You’re gonna fall in love with me, you know.”

“Ok, I’ll be there right at the ball.”

“Ok, let’s go there tomorrow.”

“We’ll get married tomorrow.”

The End.

Little Mermaid

“You know, I’m gonna fall in love with a prince?”

“I know!  Aerial’s fish said.”

“And you know I found a boot in the sand? and a fork? and a cup? and a bottle? and a tea cover. And all of the things were brokened.”

“I know, it’s so exciting to show my dad.”

The End.

George of the Jungle

“Do you know what I think? I think that I’m gonna pick bananas.”

“Do you know what i mean? Look at me! You know what’s stronger than me?”

“Ok, let’s go really quick.”

“No way, I’m not gonna come.”

“Too bad, let’s go.”

“No, no.”

The End.

Dumbo

“Dumbo went onto the top of the mountain before.”

“No way, I’m not gonna do that.”

“Ok, it’s gonna be a good picture.”

“No way, whatever.”

“Do you know what I mean?”

“No, not anymore.”

“It was a circus. And a mouse was on Dumbo’s nose.”

“No way! I’m not gonna believe that!”

The End.

Things are never boring when you’re around this little girl! :)
She has QUITE the imagination!

Pics from the first snow

There is currently LOTS of snow on the ground. Like over 20 inches of it!!  There is so much fresh, new snow from today piled on top of what we already had. I’m ready for it to be gone, but I have to say, it’s really beautiful!

These pictures were snapped during the first snow we had a couple weeks ago.

( I already had this post ready to go but had just never posted it, and I haven’t had the time to go thru the other snow pics I have and get a post ready…so those will come a little later!)

On this particular day, they stayed outside all of 10 stinkin’ minutes! After it took 30 minutes to bundle everyone up!

I had just mopped the floor ( I know, what was I thinking?!) so I made them take their wet clothes off in the garage and pile them on my car before they came in!

Then I made them some snow ice cream, which the kiddos enjoyed!

Who knew that this day would only be the first of many snow days in our future?!

6 Months!

Today, we celebrate 6 months on the official wait list for our baby girl.

On one hand, 6 months seems like a long time. On the other hand, it seems like we’ve just begun.

When we first started this journey, I thought we might be “in the window”- or at least getting close- for a referral by this time. The average time to wait for a referral was about 8 months. But, things have slowed down since we started and the average time to a referral is now around 10 months (or more). It looks like we may have at least another few months before we will get that long awaited phone call.

Some days, I am very discouraged when I think about how  things are not going along as I had hoped. Mostly, the thing I’ve been praying for since the beginning is that we would make it through court before it closes for the rainy season (approx August until October). Now, it seems impossible.

I do believe that ALL things are possible with my God.

But, I also believe that He is in control whether He answers that prayer or not.

I know that there is so much more going on in this adoption journey that is yet unknown to us, but God has it all under control and He’s in the details.

He will bring us together when the time is right.

I have a book of scriptures that I’m keeping as I read my bible and when I’m feeling discouraged, I pull it out and read them to remind myself of the TRUTH.

Here’s a few:

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. Psalms 145:18-19

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord! Psalms 31:24

Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God- soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He’s my God. Psalms 43:5 MSG

God, the one and only- I’ll wait as long as he says. Everything I need and hope for comes from him, so why not? Psalms 62:1 MSG

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

The other thing that I’ve been thinking so much about and praying for is her birth mother. The longer we wait, the more I think about her. About the tragedy that she will face in her life that will turn into joy in my life. The deep sadness that I feel when I think about what she’s going through. The hard and terribly sad circumstances on the other side of the world that will bring my daughter and I together. I might try…but I can’t imagine what that would be like.

What if this mother just isn’t ready to say good-bye to her baby girl yet? When I think about that… and if that is indeed what is happening… I sure do feel selfish for wanting this process to hurry up so much.

No matter how long it takes, I’ll keep praying for her and the daughter that we will share heart ties to.

Every single day.

I’m happy to be another month closer to her.

I’m ready.

God is good. ALL the time.