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To post a link here to the blog with pics of my kids...here it is...Im trying to update it more often.

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We love beach night. On a weeknight we load the children up. We take blankets and sand toys. We stop at Taco Bell to grab dinner and then... we picnic on the beach. Its so much fun. We usually camp out behind one of the hotels so we have lights, but its still dark and the kids think that is great. They dig in the sand and hubby and I get to sit and talk. Its a very relaxing evening.

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My baby who will be 7 months old on August 10 has decided to just do it up good this week. He is rolling all over the place, crawling, sitting up and starting to pull up. Im just amazed. Last night we were at church and there were two other babies crawling around on  the floor playing. One will be a year old on the 29th and the other just turned a year old. He was keeping up with them. Grabbing toys and playing, giggling and crawling to the object of his desire. He was so cute.
Anyways, new month. I will post my goals for this month and a list of how many articles of clothing I allowed the kids to keep next week. Have a great Lord's day.

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from my vacation!! HAHA! Had a blast. The kids were great. We mostly hung around the condo in Orlando as its just to darn hot here in Florida to do ANYTHING before about 8pm. We did take in a dinner theatre one night with Pirates. Adrian spent the whole night arghing everything and everyone. We also went on this bike type thing. It had two bench seats and a basket in the front so the four older children and Roy and myself could all ride together. We paid $14 dollars to rent this bike and about halfway around the complex I looked at my husband and said, "Can you believe they convinced us to pay to do this??!?!" I also informed the children that in a few years THEY would be pedaling us around. We hooked up with my friend from North Carolina and two of her four children. Her children are all mostly teens now and two stayed home because of work. She laughed and said it was interesting being a "normal American" family with two kids. They went with us to the dinner theatre and the next day we all went to a place called Old Town. Its a bunch of little touristy stores and some rides.

Well I better sign off. I have a ton of laundry to do. Tata!!

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Sorry for the delay... we are trying to set up another computer and I have not had access to this one as much. Hubby needs it for all sorts of technical reasons which me being technically challenged I blindly agree to. :)

Anyways, we get to Atlanta without incidence which for us is a major accomplishment. Unfortunatly it is 950 degrees during the day in Hotlanta and we cant go outside from about 6 a.m. to midnight. We decide to brave it around 5p.m. when the children threatened to revolt in my sil's small and beautiful (there are some advantages to being kidless LOL) townhome. So we go outside with our brand new $7.56 slip and slide from Walmart. Of course my sil has a neighbor who lets her dog go wherever and does not clean it up so we spent a good deal of time cleaning up "Fluffy's" droppings. Then we were ready to go. The older two slipped and slided thier way to victory, while Tam was not quite heavy enough to slide to the goal. She would get about half way there and then sort of crawl, which was just funny. Finally she gave up and gave us her redition of So You Think You Can Dance, by doing dance moves down the slide. Even funnier. And of course my manly man little boy hates getting his head wet so he ran around the slide part and just jumped in the pool at the end. There was mud, there was water, there was giggles, and of course four happy little people. That was probably the best part of the trip! At 7 we decided it was time to get dressed and head out for dinner. Now where my sil lives there is this country resteraunt with a buffet that I LOVE! Its real southern food. I was so excited about going there. I noticed my three year old boy acting sluggish and whiny but I thought he was probably over heated and over exerted. We get everyone cleaned up and in the van when I turn around and the three year old is PROJECTILE VOMITING everywhere. We get him inside cleaned up and decide that we will not be dining out tonight... hubby and sil and kids minus Adrian went to Publix and we dined on subs and chicken tenders. Adrian was sick through the night but woke up the next morning bright eyed and semi bushy tailed. All the other kids seemed ok eating breakfast, running around playing so the adults spent time in the A.M talking about things we could do. The next thing I know Kelsie is in front of me in tears. She has just emptied her stomach. Well so much for Sunday. We ended up staying home Sunday and cooking out that night. Then the flies tried to carry Tamara away and we thought we should head back inside. Kelsie seemed to be feeling better by that evening. Monday we packed up and headed home. I realized that I had not been out of the house the whole time. Happy Vacation!

All the kids are fine now. No one else got sick. We are planning another trip up there in the fall. Im leaving the kids at home! LOL

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Well we made it back...mostly alive, I guess. Events of the weekend had my husband remark at one point...."Do ya think God just wanted us to stay home???" It all started Friday. I went to pack the suitcases and discovered what I always discover before a trip. Someone used all the clothes in our closets and did not bother to wash them when they were through. How rude! So I began the olympic marathon of laundry. Now, keep in mind everytime I go through this I think next time Im going to start packing two days before and then we can just hit the road....well there is always next time. Our departure time was set for 7pm. At 8:30pm my sweet honey was finishing loading the van. About the time Im getting Jonathan into his carseat and telling the kids to stand by the front door I hear, "Mommy, Tamara hit her head and she is bleeding." The correct version should have been, "Mommy, Tamara cracked her head wide open and now there is blood gushing out." When I saw her there was blood everywhere. Apparently the children decided that when I asked them to wait calmly by the front door I really meant jump around and act foolish. Which is how said child obtained the head injury. Now as you experienced moms know head wounds are often a lot worse than they look. Hers was not bad at all after getting cleaned up some. We called the experts, mom and WebMD, and decided we would still go on our trip. But as it was now 9:30pm we decided to sleep and leave in the morning. So we set the alarm for 4am. At 5am I went to check on the baby who was fussing and noticed the time. I got everyone up and to the car. We made our token stop at Walmart... because you must go to Walmart and pick up last minute stuff before every trip. We were on the road by 6:30.

To be continued.....

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Just wanted to let everyone know that my smart, hard working husband got a long awaited promotion. This is great for many reasons! The number one reason is that although he is a bit introverted he has been working super hard on the phones for the past almost 6 years in customer service positions. This is way out of his comfort zone and it drains him to be on the phone all day with people. His new job is doing sales and marketing analysis so he will be researching products for his company, deciding if they are useful and figuring out ways to help the salespeople market the products effectively. This is a great opportunity for him. Another reason we are excited about this is it is a huge step up in the company for him. He has worked very hard to get here. And of course the pay raise will help us accomplish some of our pay off our debt and home improvement goals. It will also enable us to give more towards our church and the mission field. So anyways just wanted to send a shout of GREAT JOB, HONEY and PRAISE THE LORD out for this awesome work God has done in our lives.

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I am such a happy mama. Im thrilled to have all of my ducklings under my roof all day long. I love being the one to read to them, the one to listen to thier lunch time jokes and banter. I love teaching my girls how to cook and clean. BUT alas.... I do occasionally get tired of my children. Yes, I will admit. After spending all day and night with them for three straight days Im ready for a trip out. Usually its a walk or a side trip to Walmart with my mom, its just a few hours away from, "Mama guess what?" or "Mama, Adrian wont stop whining." or "Mama can I....?" I have actually been made to feel guilty about this from other moms. No one I know personally really but in the blog world, I have been called out for not enjoying my blessings. Believe me, I enjoy my blessings. I worked hard to get these blessings. I prayed with tears, sweat, frustration, anger and bitterness. I still plead with God daily to open my womb. I KNOW my children are a blessing from the Lord. But I dont think there is anything wrong with just going for a walk alone sometimes, or browsing the fabric department at Walmart without telling the kids to stand still for 5 minutes. Even Jesus had to leave the disciples and be alone sometimes.. :)

I love my children. I pray daily that I will be the mother they need. I beg God to guide me in wisdom where they need me.. If I run in errand in the evening when daddy is home, I tend to take one or two with me for some bonding time. But about every 3-5 days I need about two-three hours of kid free time. I dont think that makes me a bad mommy. Actually it makes me better because in those two-three hours I really start to miss my kids and all thier little ways. I see more clearly something bothering my six year old. I notice as I walk and think about the children something I might have missed in the busyness of the day. While I walk I spend time praying for my children, for thier salvation, for thier faith, and for thier future spouse. I come back refreshed and rejuvinated. I love the time I have with them and cherish every moment as much as I can, but the time I have away from them is relaxing and restful and I wont feel guilty for it or apologize for it.

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I meant to post yesterday, but dinner turned into a fiasco and I just flat ran out of time.

I am married to a real man! A man not afraid to tell it like it is. A man not afraid to be a Christian. Im married to a man who on our way home from our Easter trip led our 9 year old to the Lord. A man who struggles in prayer over our children's souls. He was not raised in a Christian home, but he wants to make darn sure his kids are! He cant wait for them to get saved. He cant wait for them to ask him questions about God and the Bible. He is soooooooooooo smart. He knows things in the Bible that I dont know. People at church are always commenting on how smart he is. He is a great husband. He does not get mad when he comes home and the house is a disaster and my daughter and I are agonizing over additon facts! He lets me vent when I need to (but then sometimes ruins it by playing devil's advocte!!) LOL. He holds me when I need to be held. He tells me he loves me so many times a day. He kisses me before he leaves for work. He makes phone calls Im too chicken to make. He gets up with the baby on Friday nights so I can get a good nights sleep. He always asks me what I want for Christmas and then gets it for me. He wanted to propose to me in a horse drawn carriage, but the driver would not stop talking. Instead he proposed to me at a fort under a tree in a thunderstorm. He took me to Walmart after he proposed because thats where I wanted to go. He makes me laugh.

I love my husband...can you tell??:)

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One big happy family. Daddy, Adrian, Mommy, Jonathan, Karly, Tamara, and Kelsie at the courthouse on adoption day.

I am really hoping my mom has some better pics! LOL

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Four of my little darlings on adoption day at the courthouse.

Tamara, Karly, Kelsie and Adrian.

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We are now the proud parents of five incredible children. I was hoping to get some pics up this week, but they are on my mom's camera and she was called out of town suddenly today so I dont know when I will get them. I have a friend who took a great pic at the courthouse of the kids so if she emails them I will post them.

Today is our first day of homeschool and everything went smoothly. I have to purchase a few more things and we HAVE to get to the library. Hopefully I can do all that after Bible study tomorrow.

I have to go get ready for dinner at a friends house now, but I hope to have a little more time tomorrow for writing. I have missed this. :)

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Well hubby ended up in court last week and the judge set an adoption date for April 28 at 8:30am. I have confirmation from the lawyer and the boys worker now Im waiting to hear back from the girls worker. I hope to know for sure today so I can plan next weekend. I will try to keep you all posted.

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Would someone please explain to me WHY? I have to be a licensed foster parent AFTER I have adopted my children. I have really had all Im going to take of this. I have to renew my foster care license. The whole joy of closing my home was I would not have to worry about health inspections, classes and monthly visits, now they say oh yes you do for at least 90 days after the adoption. Im thinking about taking my kids and moving to Canada as soon as the adoption is complete just so the state wont be part of my life anymore.  Im so sick of this. Every day its just one more thing and its all because people cant do thier jobs.  If I screwed up at my job everyday, when I was working, I would have been fired. It makes no sense. Believe me when I tell you I am recording this adoption experience and once it is finalized I will be sending letters to as many people as I can. The sad part is we were hoping that one day we could adopt more foster children, but now we wont be doing that. NOPE! At least not from the state. I almost got my license through our local Baptist Children's Home, but decided not to at the last minute because our state license came through. Now I find out that two or three people who adopted from the Baptist Children's Home breezed right through it. Of course I would not have the kids I have now, so I thank God for that.

I will try to write some more later about our Easter trip. We had a blast. :)

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We came back from Disney on Saturday. We had a great time. As we were leaving the park I mentioned to hubby that it was pretty uneventful this time. I dont have any stories to share, but hopefully I will have some pictures soon. The one thing I dont like about how Disney has changed is the characters dont walk around anymore. They have a spot and you go stand in line. We did that last time with Pooh and the Princesses and did not want to fool with it this time. We saw Mickey Mouse (WITH A LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG LINE) and I wheeled my strollered almost three year old little boy around so he could see him. He was so excited. He started bouncing up and down and yelling, "Mickey Mouse get over here! Come here! I love you Mickey Mouse." It was so funny!

As far as the adoptions go. They still have not happened. We had a tentative date set for the girls for this week, but since I got a phone call yesterday asking about a copy of my marriage license from thier worker Im assuming the paperwork was still not complete. I guess the most irritating thing is with the boys this is the worker's first adoption. She has struggled her way through it and is learning as she goes. She has had the help of the top adoption person at her agency and I cant understand why he does not look over the packet before she sends it out. This is like the third time its been sent back incomplete. The girls makes me a little madder. Thier worker is an adoption specialist. Meaning, this is her job. She only works on adoptions. How is it that her package has been wrong/incomplete so many times? I used to work for a payroll company. I was in the shipping department for a while. If I'd sent out an incorrect package too many times I would have lost my job. I really feel like there is no accountability here. I mean yeah the judge gets mad and threatens, but shouldnt thier supervisors be just as mad. Its mediocre work. Dont get me wrong. My kids have the nicest workers. And Im willing to cut the boys worker some slack because she is still learning. They dont have any adoption specialist at her agency so she has to put on another hat and learn more stuff. Of course what bugs me is if the packet is sent back once because it is incorrect does the Department indicate what is missing? If so, should it be that hard to fill in the missing pieces? I dont understand the whole process and no one can explain it to me from beginning to end. When I ask a question I get a vague answer.

Me: "Can you tell me what was missing from the packet this time?"

Them: "Well, its something to do with the flux capicitor. Not sure when they will be here, but we will let you know when it comes."

Ya see?!?! GRRRR!! :) or.......

Them: "We need a copy of your marriage license."

Me: "There is a copy in my licensing packet."

Them: "This is not your marriage license."

Me: "Its what I gave the licensing worker when we first started this process to become foster parents and she asked for my marriage license. Its the only marriage license I have...."

Them: "It looks like its expired then. We need an updated one with your marriage date on it"

Me: "(sarcasm) Can you tell me where to go to get a renewed marriage license?"

Them: "The court house probably."

Me: "Should I wear my wedding dress? Do my parents have to pay for this one or am I on my own? Do I have to marry the same guy?"

COME ON! My marriage license expired! Man somebody better tell my husband because we have been living in sin!!

These are the phone calls I deal with everyday. Yes I am on the phone with at least on worker, attorney, or adoption person a day. When this is over I will have gained patience of this Im sure. :)

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We are leaving tomorrow for another trip to Disney. We had three day park hopper passes and we used two days. We have to use the third day before April 15 so since we were all set to celebrate this weekend over the adoption and could not we decided to celebrate going to to Disney World instead. In honor of our trip I will repost an entry from my old blog about our last trip to Disney! Here ya go:

Monday, October 17, 2005

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You have to check out this blog post from Life In A Shoe. I laughed so hard...and added a few of my own!

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Well we got news today that after everything we have done to prepare for all the children to be adopted on March 31, the girls adoption date was set for April 7. Please pray that we can get it back to the 31st. We have family coming from out of town, parties planned and presents that revolve around the adoption date being March 31. Im trying to get as much prayer on this as possible. I know it seems trivial (its only a week!) But the girls are so excited (and so are mommy and daddy). I cant bear to tell them it wont be the 31st. They have been telling everyone it will be that day! Please pray!!

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I have a Bible verse that has become my favorite verse. It represents a promise God made and has kept in my life. When I read it I cry. When I think about it I cry. When I look at the children God has blessed me with, I remember this verse and I cry. Let me start with some background.

I decided when I was four years old that I wanted nothing more in life than to be a mommy. When I was in my preteen years I decided that 10 children should just about do it. During middle school I changed that to be "at least 10 children". Highschool was hard for me. Due to my neighborhood school being over run with crime I was sent to a public college prep school. I really never wanted to go to college. In my eyes I did not need college to be a mommy. I did the least amount of work in highschool to get by. Im pretty intelligent and in hindsight I should have done better. I did a few years of community college and that sealed the deal for me. College was just not in my future. I met my husband right after I turned 20.  Twelve days before my 22 birthday we were married. When we were dating  I almost broke up with him. He questioned the wisdom of bringing children into our world today. I looked at him in disbelief. "Im wasting my time!" I declared. "Im having kids!"  We worked through that and he said that he was not against having children, it was just a thought he'd be pondering. After we got married we decided to chemically prevent children for a year. A year later I stopped using the chemicals. A year later my cycle was still not back to normal. Things looked bleak. My mom mention foster care and I grasped that thought like someone on the Titanic would grasp a life boat. My husband conceded to looking into it. We started classes in October of 2002. In May of 2004 we got our license and our first placement. A beautiful blond haired, blue eyed thirteen month old boy. I fell instantly in love. We had other children come and go, but he stayed. In Oct of 2004 we welcomed two sweet precious little girls. In July of 2005 we moved in the sister to our sweet little girls. In January of 2006 our first little boy's mom gave birth to his little brother. We took him home from the hospital. On March 31, 2006 we will sign adoption papers on all five of these beautiful, wonderful children. We still have not been blessed with a baby of our own yet, but God has certainly blessed us with a housefull of kids.
Wanna know what my verse is???? I think it could be true inspiration to any woman out there experiencing infertility.

Psalms 113:9, "He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD."

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 I was just browsing a board I frequent with other fosterparents and was disturbed by something I read. One mother found out her fosterdaughter was smoking pot by reading her journal. I wanted to comment there but decided to blog about it instead. A few people told this woman she should never have read the journal. Another person went as far as to say the mom should not have been in the room without the child's premission or presence. I just wanted it noted here and now for my children's future benefit.

The only privacy you get in my house is when you are bathing, going to the restroom or changing clothes. Otherwise, doors are to be left open and mommy will be going into your rooms without your knowledge. I will look in your drawers, your closets, your books, your notebooks...whatever I want to look through. Maybe Im searching for something or maybe Im just nosey. Doesnt really matter. I dont need an excuse or a reason. I wont apologize for it. If I ever find anything in your room that indicates you are heading down the wrong road I will confront you with and you will not like it. I love you and will do everything in my power to keep you from making "typical teenage" mistakes.

My favorite commercial for awhile was these two parents slamming the door and screaming at each other, turns out they were preparing themselves to confront thier teenager about finding drugs in her room. I am not my kids friend, I am their mother. I am responsible for them. God has put me in charge of them. He has given me authority (under my husband) over them. I love my children dearly. I will do anything I can to protect them and if that means invading thier "privacy" then so be it. We have lots of time after they are grown to be friends. Right now I need to get them to the stage where I *want* to be thier friend after they are grown.

One more thing, I know a lady who was at the store with her 12 year old daughter. The young lady needed new school clothes. Unfortunatly, mother and daughter had different opinions on what clothes were appropriate. Now I was actually in this situation with my eight year old daughter once. Guess who won? The person buying the clothes. The mom. Unfortunatly between this other mother/daughter team the daughter won! When I asked the mom about it later she said it was just easier than having the child be mad at her. Oh, ok. ?!?!?!

I will say one more time. I am not here to be little Suzie's friend. Im here to be her mom and sometimes that means just being the adult!