Writings From The Desert

That title could mean so many things. Writing from an actual desert (yes it does mean that), and writing from the desert of our lives. You know...those times when we feel depleted, dry, thirsty for more. Do you ever feel that in your life as a Mom and a wife? Because I know I do!

Well...have I got a treasure for you. One of my oldest and dearest friends in the world (literally) lives in the desert of Dubai, United Arab Emirates with her 3 adorable kids...as her husband pastors a church there. She and another pastor's wife of the church have become good friends and decided one day that they wanted a place where Moms could come for inspiration, a little humor, and of course solid Biblical truth to guide us on our journey.

On that mission, they have just launched their website, Domestic Kingdom.

In beginning to put together the blog and write material for it, they came to this conclusion:

"The topic we kept coming back to was how we needed to see the eternal significance of what we do in the everyday “normal” of our lives. Both of us are desperate to have our hope “built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” But that perspective is very, very, very, very, very difficult to maintain. Especially when there are times when all you want is to find a quiet corner of the world and curl up into a little ball and turn off your restless brain and take a nap. I’m willing to bet that you are probably overdue for a good nap, too. But I also suspect that we are not alone in our struggle to imitate God, walk in love, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances."

My dear friend Gloria and her friend Samantha have composed book reviews, write about intentional motherhood (a topic dear to my heart), AND even throw in a little inspiration for our homemaking tasks. Domestic Kingdom is sure to be a big hit amongst us all as we seek to know Christ, love our husbands and children deeply and sacrificially, and do all things for His glory and the advancement of Christ's Kingdom.

Y'all head on over to Domestic Kingdom and give them some love and don't forget to tell them Laurie sent you!

Support Adoption!

A blogging friend of mine asked if she could use our title to make bracelets as a fundraiser for their upcoming adoption. How fun is this?! They are waiting on their 2nd child to come home and are charging $5 a bracelet. If any of you are interested in purchasing a bracelet to support adoption, please check out Mandy's blog.

Jasmine is 5 months old!

Our baby turned 5 months old on Saturday. I tried to get our traditional butterfly chalkboard pictures, but this time we had a bit of a problem with that. The girl would not sit still! She has gotten so active this past month and surprised me by reaching an important milestone on her 5th month birthdate...

That's right, she rolled over. And over and over again. I could hardly get her to sit still. And when I propped her up into a sitting position, she just squirmed her way down so she could roll! Oh good grief. We are proud of her milestone but not ready to deal with a baby on the move. :)

I did get some really stunning headshots, though.

There Are a Few Things Wrong With This Picture

First of all, his shirt is HUGE. But that was the smallest size the school had, and Fridays are spirit day. He loves to pull his socks all the way to his knees like his cousin K insists on doing...but as you can see this pair does not quite mesh with his overall look. And you may or may not have noticed, but his shoes ARE on the wrong feet. This is what we call a hot mess in our house! But he is working the jovial...does-it-look-like-I-care-face.
You go, Jayden!

What's Up With The Fam?

With the start of school, we have been busy, busy busy!

Our friends from church left this as a surprise on our doorstep on the first day of school!

I took advantage of the school supply sales to stock the kids at home. Each child got a journal that we will be doing various writing practices in, and a pencil box of supplies. When Isaac does his evening workbook that I have him do, the little kids will now have things to keep them busy too!

I have to keep their school supplies organized on top of the fridge because my kids have a way of leaving a wake of STUFF everywhere they go. Brand new boxes of crayons have been broken and lost before within hours of being opened. This Mama has got to be proactive!

Isaac has been working through Brain Quest's first grade book. He is doing so well I may be able to graduate him to the 2nd grade book at the end of this semester! We also get level 2 readers from the library. It has been fun to choose level 2 girl books to have him read to Vivi.
They are currently going through Strawberry Shortcake and Barbie together! Fun. He is doing so well in school. His teacher wrote to me on the second day of school,"Isaac is such a joy!" Yeah!!

These two continue to be the best of friends! When they are mad at each other we will hear, "Jayden you not gonna be my prince!" and "Vivi, I not marry you anymore! I marry Mommy!"

But mostly they are two peas in the same pod!
It is very much like having twins...they even wear the same size pajamas.

Baby Jasmine is plowing through her first foods, trying to scoot when on her tummy, and sings and screams so loud we say she is working her pipes to be the next Jennifer Hudson!

This child grew over night! Billy says to me "remember when she was small?" :)

Her latest skill is holding her own bottle which she now insists on doing every time.
This is a child that wants to be in control of the goods!

And me...well...I am tired. A lot.
This has made me quite emotional lately...but I am managing.
Just waiting for this weather to COOL off!

First Day of School

The boys started school today.
Vivi's first day will be on Sept. 6th.

Jayden's backpack and lunchbox arrived on Friday in the knick of time!

Here is Isaac outside the school with the principal and in class with his First Grade teacher.

I am thinking he will be quite close to her height by the end of the year!

Jayden's Adoption Story

I always have new readers and because of that, I want to make sure that our story is easy to read for those who do not want to scroll through the mundane to get to the meat!
So for you, new reader...and for those that just love a good story....here is how we came to adopt our second son.

In the spring of 2010, we made the decision to adopt a third and final child. We knew we very much wanted a baby boy...African American...so Isaac would not be the only brown skinned family member. We went with the adoption agency we had adopted Vivi from because we loved them so much. Throughout the month of May and June, we did our paperwork...had our home study...and began our fundraising. On the very day that our agency approved us at the end of June, we got a very unexpected phone call. It was our old CPS caseworker stating that Isaac's birth mother had given birth to another son who was now two and half years old. He had just entered foster care for the first time and being that she knew where the case would likely go...asked if we would be willing to parent him with the intention of adopting him if parental rights were terminated. We were shocked and thrilled! When she told us his him name was Jayden, I just couldn't believe it because that was one of the boy names I loved for our next child.

We checked with our adoption agency who approved us to take him while remaining in the domestic infant adoption program. We felt it was only by God's timing that we got the call for Jayden as we were waiting and approved for a baby...instead of a month or two before we had begun this process. It was a very strong calling on our life to not stop our family with three, like we had originally planned...but to open our minds and heart to the very real fact that with this CPS call, God had chosen for us to have four children.

A couple weeks went by and we were allowed to go to the CPS office to meet him.
Here is where Isaac met his brother for the first time.

We waited an agonizing 5 weeks from when CPS called, to when they brought him home. We had prepared the whole house for his arrival, setting up bunk beds in what would now be the "boys' room", purchasing personal items for him to have, and of course preparing the kids to welcome a brother who was not the little baby they had expected...but a big toddler!

Jayden came home on July 28, 2010.
We quickly folded him right into the family and tried to make up for all the time lost.
He was calling me "Mama" by day 2 and crying if I left him to run an errand. He went from an expressionless face to laughing and playing in no time despite all he had been through in his little life.


We would have lots of work to do to make sure he knew he was safe and now in a home where kids had a routine, bedtimes, and healthy eating and exercise. We spent a year fighting for his rights medically...fighting for his right to stop birth mother visitations that upset him....bringing his beloved cousins who had been raised with him into our home for the holidays and once a month following...fighting for an adoption date to finally get this boy a forever family.

We took this journey with him, not knowing for sure if he would get to stay.
But feeling right away that he was already our son. We were his family. We prayed through the termination of parental rights, we received the first letter ever from the boys' birth mom, beautifully written to them and us. We cried at times, we yelled at times at "the system" that was so broken...and we got on our knees and thanked our Savior for bringing our boy home.

And on the morning of July 27, 2011...the day before his one year homecoming...we went to court with loved ones in tow, and made him our child forever.

Jayden Isaiah.

The second son we always wanted, the third child we had hoped and prayed for... but who came in such an unexpected and glorious way.

A story only our God could have orchestrated.


**below are the year's worth of blog posts detailing his journey to becoming our child.**

Meal Series

I promise I will one day post about something other than food! Ha!

But for now, I have gotten good response from my friends when I post on the topic of feeding kids healthy. So I thought in honor of a new school year I will start a blog series titled:

What's For Dinner? and Whatcha Pack Me, Mom?

The dinner posts will be on Thursdays and the lunch box posts will be on Mondays until I grow tired of the whole thing which will likely be sooner rather than later. :)

So for my first What's For Dinner?...this is what was for dinner:

I love these wheat sandwich rounds. They are much thinner then a bun and can be used for breakfast too, toasted with all kinds of toppings *Cream cheese and crushed pineapple* or filling * egg sandwich*. But for this meal they were used for dinner with a Gardenburger patty. Kids do not mind these at all if you toss a piece of cheese on there! These are cooked in a skillet easier than a grilled cheese sandwich! I add lettuce, pickles, tomatoes and ketchup for a traditional "burger" OR avocado slices and pico de gallo, and spinach leaves for a little south of the border.

Our side dishes were this potato chip substitute: baked crunchy fries, but I would recommend sweet potato fries instead. The vegetable was a broccoli slaw mix tossed with light Italian dressing.
They loved this! I also use the slaw mix dry in pitas and wraps.

Dessert was a yogurt parfait with raspberries, fresh peach, and a little topping of vanilla almond granola.

It was met with rave reviews! Isaac said about the side dishes, "Mom, can you pack these in my lunch?" Why yes, son. I certainly will!

Feeding Your Foster Child

This is a photo comparison of Jayden the month he came home (two and a half years old), and him 9 months later. The skin color difference is because of the flash on my camera lightening up the April photo, and the fact that he is darker in the summer.

But what I wanted to point out is his size difference. He has only gained 2 lbs. in a year and that is because of height. Which means he actually lost body fat. When he came home, he was accustomed to a diet of fast food burgers and burritos, ramen noodles, chips and soda. His teeth were literally rotting in his mouth...poor baby. And he was chubby.

My friend recently welcomed home her first foster kids, and the toddler boy is thick as well. His mother stated that he only liked to eat cold hotdogs and vienna sausages. Lovely! So she is working through getting him to eat a wide range of foods. Plus, he is hungry all the time and will cry for more food even when she has fed him plenty.

My advice to her and anyone welcoming a toddler into their home from state foster care, is to expect that they will have food issues. They may eat every thing in sight (Isaac) due to the fact they they were deprived. OR they may reject everything but mac n' cheese and chicken nuggets. Both my boys had to get acquainted with fruits and vegetables. Isaac was 16 months old, and even though he ate every thing I put on his highchair tray, and cried when it was gone, fruit reacted to his digestive system in a bad way for about a week as his body adjusted to fiber, so I had to introduce it slowly. Jayden flat out refused all fresh food. With him, I would give him the food I desired for him to eat first in a small portion with nothing else on his plate. When he finished it, I gave him the food he was more comfortable eating (anything soft...lasagna, pancakes, noodles). I slowly phased out foods that were not nutritious. For example, he loved cereal. He would eat it all day long. So I mixed what he liked (sugar cereal) with Kix a bowl at a time until I ran out of the sugar cereal and he was great with the Kix. Then I never bought the sugar cereal again. I did the same with fruits and vegetables...starting with soft canned and gradually introducing fresh/raw/steamed.

A year later, Jayden hardly refuses anything. There are things he doesn't like (eggs in any form) and will push around on his plate. But we don't have any food battles. Some things I dropped cold turkey (soda in favor of skim milk)...and other things I waited a month or two to let him have again (burgers and a few fries). Kids are very resilient and adjust quickly if you are consistently giving the healthy foods. I don't limit quantities with my boys because what they are eating is nutritionally solid. I only limit portions on junk food, treats, and carb snacks. Jayden was also anemic so it was imperative that he receive iron rich foods and vitamin C foods to be healthy. I didn't want to put him on an iron supplement if I could avoid it. For awhile I had to hide the "good" stuff inside foods he already liked...veggie Quesadillas, lasagna, sweet potato puree in pancakes, etc. But now he will take most things fresh and raw.

We have come a long way!

My Sprout

We have a farmer's market store chain in our area called Sprouts. Today was the grand opening of the closest store to our house. They were advertising all kinds of sales, free reusable bags, and drawings. So...I thought why not load up 4 kids aged 6 and under and head out there? Good thing for the Moby wrap and a really friendly lady in front of me in line, because our wait time to check out was a bit over 30 minutes. Fun times, Y'all.

We talk a lot about how food powers your body and sharpens your mind, so Isaac being our oldest is usually our junk food police, "Mom, isn't diet dr. pepper still soda. And isn't soda bad for you?" "Dad, are you sure you want to eat that bag of Doritos. That is just junk." Sometimes it is cute (like when he turns down icecream at a birthday party) and sometimes it is flat out annoying.

Recently it has been BOTH at the same time. Isaac decided one day that he wanted to try brussel sprouts. I guess he heard about their super powers from somewhere...I don't know. But I have never eaten them and was not so ready to give it a try. When I would come back from the store he would accost me with where was his sprout. To which I would roll my eyes and walk past him. The thought of cooking up a batch that I am convinced my kids will turn their nose up to, is not my idea of a successful dinner time. But I have to say I did cave. Last week at the Sprouts I had been going to, the kids and Billy were with me on a rare family shopping trip. Isaac went straight for the produce section in search of his treasure. When I went to check out, the clerk said "Only one brussel sprout?" I nodded and explained my oldest's fixation with the vegetable and my refusal to commit to entire side dish. "Huh," he said as he bagged it.

Daily Isaac has asked for this sprout and I do not know how to fix the thing, so I continue to put it off as it dries out in our produce drawer.

That brings us to today and the grand opening of the appropriately named "Sprouts". I was digging in the freezer bin snatching up every single bag of frozen vegetables as they were a $1 a bag. Isaac says loudly, "Mom, what about the brussel sprouts?!! I can have them as a snack today!" Oh Good Lord. I looked around at moms literally with their mouth open and a perplexed look on their faces. I joked "Most kids want a bag of M & M's. Mine wants a bag of brussel sprouts! Go figure!" One mom in particular thought it was just "wonderful" and so I asked her how on earth I should cook, season, and serve these bad boys to my kids. I thanked her for her advice and moved on with the coveted bag in my cart, and a smiling 6 year old.

So tonight it looks like we are having brussel sprouts with dinner. woohoo.

Can you hear my enthusiasm?

I thought it appropriate that Isaac was wearing his Super Man t-shirt when this all went down.

Adoption Gifts

I wanted to share some of the personalized gifts Jayden got for his adoption.
Giving something that has his name on it was so special because we didn't have him from birth. So having more things around the house that he can claim and that I can save for his memory box, the better!

My friend, Shelly mailed him this book that has his name through out it.
It is from the company, I See Me.

It is really sweet and a wonderful keepsake!

The next thing is, my friend Lisa gave him a cute wooden toy with his name painted on it.
I love this! He plays with it everyday so it is very practical, but it will also be kept forever for him as a memory of his adoption and his childhood.

And finally, the last personalized gift was a recordable photo album given from my sister, from Hallmark. We put photos of his adoption day and party in there and on each page recorded what was happening and who was in the photo. As he turns the pages, it reads the captions you recorded. This will be a great way for us all to remember that special day!

Adopting a child from foster care who is older means they in many ways lose those months/years that they were not home with you. Anyway to make them feel like they belonged here all along...were loved and waited for...will help them to sort the pieces of their life when they are older. Thank you for the very thoughtful gifts, friends!

birthday

Next Friday I will turn 33 years old.

I am not sure how exactly I feel about this, if anything at all.

My birthday has never been met with much fanfare. It comes, I eat cake, I open the few cards and gifts that arrive and 24 hours later it is over and I am officially a year older. This year and the months proceeding my 32nd birthday...last summer.... have been a time of some real life changes. I have lost relationships that were dear to me, and in the midst of that have had to discover realities about life and love and family and friendships. It has been a year of pain and self discovery. It has been a year where I have had to say to God time and time again, "please carry me through this." And He did.
He brought a new church family into our lives, that have unknowingly ministered to my hurting heart. They have accepted me when I wasn't sure I was acceptable or had much to offer. Sure...I still carry with me the fear of abandonment I feel in every relationship, the thoughts of "things are good now...but they won't stick around forever." But I have had to step out in faith and trust that God has us right here for His purpose and glory, not my own.

I have had health issues this year that are still a problem and concern for me, even though the Dr's don't really know why my body is doing what it is doing. It doesn't scare me...it is a nuisance. There is too much life to live to be worried about what I can't control.

BUT despite the hardships I have faced in the past 12 months since I turned another year older, this year has brought about some of the greatest joys of my life. I could not have ever known that I would become the mother to TWO more precious children in a year's time. When motherhood does not come easy, you do not ever take for granted a family addition. At the beginning of last summer, I was the mother of a son and a daughter. This summer I am the mother of another son and a daughter. Four children. Four.
My cup really does runneth over with blessings upon blessings.

So this birthday, I will not remain focused on my failures and my short comings. I will focus on the way that my God continues to provide for me and love me in a way that is above and beyond any love I will ever feel on this earth. God's perfect, accepting, never ending, unselfish, pure and patient love.

Nothing can match it.

But I will say, the love of these two most perfect of birthday gifts... sure come close.

The Baby's Baby

I ordered Jasmine a baby doll and it arrived today.

The doll is an infant safe, soft body... has a rattle sound, and "crinkly" sounding feet.

She loved it immediately and was all smiles!
























Taking her first taste.

















Do we look alike?















She was flipping the doll around and giggling!















"Come here you little cutie..."

















"Thanks, Mom!"

Hawaiian Falls

For Christmas, the kids and I were given water park season passes. There are 3 within driving distance of 30 minutes or less (one is across the street from our neighborhood!)

So we have been 7 times now!! Yesterday we went to one we had not been to before. It was a lot of fun. My friend who is our pastor's wife kept Jasmine. Her 3 kids were super excited to have her. I am SO happy to have such a wonderful church family. Someone different has kept the baby every time we went. We are hoping to fit in 1-2 more trips before they close for the season on Labor Day.