It's a Golden Life

I'm not sure how its possible, but our littlest man is 18 months old (as of yesterday May 21).  •weighs: 24 lbs, height: 30.5 in. (Short and round) •size 5 shoe, 12-18 month clothes, some 18-24 shirts •loves cars, trucks, dirt, books, food, the bath •sleeps 12-13 hours at night, still takes 2 naps during the day. (Trying to move to just one, but the kid loves to sleep!)  •finally has in all four molars! Those were terrible.  •says: this, that, peese (please), cheese, uh oh, mama, dada, chi chi, a version of Haly that I cannot pronounce, hiii, awwwkward (thanks to his sister and brother),  signs for more, I'm sure there are others that I cannot think of right now.  •we are working on: manners. Big time. He is quite passionate about the things he wants to do or when he wants to eat. Patience. I am constantly reminding him to wait patiently. Hitting. He discovered hitting. Just for fun. He gets a time out and a stern talkin to. If we say "nice mama" (or who ever he...

Why?? There are many who have asked, Why adopt when you have three children of your own ? Or- Why adopt when you are able to have more children ? The manner of which we are adding another child to our family chose us . While D and I had our ideas about our family, God's plan (as always) is much greater than ours. We had talked about adoption before we were married, and decided it was something we would want to do. That concept was still far off until February, when we were both brought to the conclusion that now is the time.  What began as our own apprehensive pursuit caught fire as Jesus impressed on us His heart for adoption . Jesus was adopted by his earthly father, Joseph! (Luke 2:41) God adopted us. As Christians, we are all adopted into the family of God through the death of Jesus on the cross.  He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will in Ephesians 1:5. God is a father to the fatherless. God loves and de...

D preached this past weekend on the Gospel of adoption. While I was away for the weekend and missed it live, I listened to the podcast. I think it was probably a good thing that I wasn't in the audience Sunday. I would have been weeping the entire sermon. I may have been quite the distraction. As we are moving forward in this process, I am learning new depths of emotion. It has only been a month since we embraced the calling to adopt. God has broken me in places I didn't know I needed to be broken. I have searched out stories and documentaries on adoption. The facts I am learning are heart breaking. My eyes are opened to a whole world I ignored. I had known orphanages existed, that is true, but did not know the details. I was fine until I started learning the details. Adoption has drastically decreased in the past 5 years due to new laws and implementing new systems. While the aim of this process is to protect the children, it is harming them in the fact that they are stuck...

"Even in our own hearts, we see the influence of sin. We are in a battle, and we feel it every day. No matter how badly we want to honor God, sin screams at us from all sides, begging us to rebel against God and pursue our own desires. We struggle with temptations, and we have a hard time making sense of the things we see happening around us. Every one of us has had a profound sense that the world is not now as it was intended to be" This passage from the book I am reading for community group study, (Multiply by: Francis Chan), hit hard today. As I am in a very busy season of life, sometimes I sulk and just say, "I just want to do what I want to do, when I want to do it." I just want to fulfill a sudden desire in my heart to go to Target and get Chevron printed crib sheets. It is difficult and takes a lot of self control and discipline to keep pressing towards the mark. My children-They will not stay 1, 3, & 5. They grow by the day and are developing into li...

Parenting is a journey. I would bet money on the fact that you could not find one person who will tell you that they had or even have it all figured out. Even those who strongly believed that their children "would not act/be this way or that". Each child is their own person. They are born with their own personality. Even though my children are siblings, they have completely different dispositions and brain make up. While some children are more prone to obey/listen well/be laid back, there are other children that will be quirky/ energetic/ require more directive guidance. I used to think my children would all be pretty much the same child, just in boy or girl form. Ya know what? They are all completely different. It honestly took me until my third kiddo to grasp that concept. While I have a more laid back child as the firstborn, the second time around was not the case. I have an energetic, sassy, spunky, needs re-direction often, receives the majority of the spankings, sw...

Halynd has been saying the funniest things lately. Just this evening, she picked up a 1/2 inch drill bit that had some dried rust colored paint on it. She got a shocked look  on her face and asked, " What did you do with this?? Did you kill a giraffe?" Donovan and I laughed so hard. She also has an Arkansas southern twang. No one else in the family has one. So, when she has something sarcastic or funny to say, her draw makes it that much more funny to us. Some things she has said recently- "You fuzzy head." "Oh, nuts!" (when she spills or drops something, especially when eating) "You make da best food in da whole whide wuhrold" (in the whole wide world) "You build an awesome... ( office)" (To D about the bookshelves he put up when she first saw them) "I love Jesus more den da whole whide wuhrold"  "I'm going to brush MY HAIR !!" (When she gets in trouble) "Close your eyes, SUpwRISE...

Well, after lysol-ing and bleaching everything, and sending warnings to parents the influenza A virus got through our defenses. Paxton woke up around 9:30 last night with a weird cough. My initial reaction was croup. His cough was barky and he was struggling to breath afterwards. So then I thought-strydor. I gave him Advil, realizing he was in some pain. I also set up the humidifier and added vaporizer to the mix. After many attempts to lay him in his bed, he would not sleep. It was too hard for him to get comfortable and every time he closed his eyes, it seemed as though he would have a coughing fit. So, I resorted to bringing him in my bed. I thought he would be able to get more comfortable with daddy and mommy next to him. He cried on and off from 12 am-3am, when I noticed he started burning up. I took off his shirt, refilled his cup of water, and tried soothing him. With no avail, daddy stepped in. Pax immediately stopped crying and snuggled into D like that's why he had been...