Kiddos

This past week my brother-in law, sister-in law and their kiddos came down to visit. I snapped a few pictures while they were here. I don't have any pictures of us adults though because none of us really like having our picture taken.

Look at Ava in the picture above. She must have toppled over and ended up on her face.

These pictures with the  inflatable things is called Monkey Joe's. Basically just a bunch of these bouncy slide things to burn off energy! Once we get a child we will be going here!

Hard Time

These past few days have been a little hard for me. I'm struggling with not knowing. Not knowing when they will call again or if they will call again. My heart aches to have little ones running around here. I so badly want to take as many children as God would give us out of the system. I just can't imagine never having any children. I don't care if they aren't biological they will still be my kid. How long do we keep on keeping on before raising the white flag and saying we're done. Accepting the reality that maybe kids aren't His plan for us. Maybe we will forever be a party of 2. This breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes as I type it. We might never need a bigger kitchen table, car seats, high chairs. I've been saving coupons for diapers, wipes and kid-type snacks, only to throw them away because they expire.

It's been almost 3.5 years since we began the journey to starting a family.  I know many people that struggle with infertility wait much longer than this. I feel for them and I understand their heartache and how real it is.

Just had to share a little bit of what was on my mind.

Trusting that His mercies are new tomorrow and praying for a better day.


Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

New Perspective

Hey all! Happy Memorial Day weekend! Its definitely going to be a hot one around here tomorrow! I'm planning on staying inside as much as possible.

I know I've mentioned that Aaron and I are taking a trauma training class this month. The classes have been going very well. We've heard a lot of other's experiences and their ways with dealing with certain issues. I think their experience will definitely help us be better foster parents and hopefully care for the children better.

We did an exercise last night that really helped us put into perspective what the children may be experiencing. They gave each of us 5 index cards and had us write down the 5 most important people in our life. Then she came around and randomly selected one of our 5 people and took them away. She did this 3 more times so we were only left with one of our 5 most important people.

As she was coming around "taking" our people we were all trying to bargain with her..."oh no don't take that one" or "no you can't have her/him."

I think we each felt a little traumatized because it was so quick, sudden and unexpected. It took us by surprise and we had no control over who she took. We didn't get a say in any of it.

It made us think that a lot of times this is what the children go through. All of a sudden Mom and Dad might get taken away and the child doesn't have any idea what is happening and they don't have any say where they are going. Say that child gets put in foster care and is with a different family unrelated to the child. Now the child has lost his/her parents, possibly grandparents and siblings (because most families aren't willing to take more than one). Regardless of how great the foster family they live with is, the child will still feel the loss of those people.

No wonder these children come with their "invisible suitcase" of emotions, thoughts, and feelings about themselves that they carry around with them. They could have been told they were ugly, stupid, a burden, its their fault that mommy and daddy have problems and on and on. We as their caregivers need to help them "unpack" that suitcase and repack it with whats true. Can you imagine how you would feel if that is all that you were told about yourself?

This exercise not only helped us understand these children better but also to remember to always be thankful for the people God has in our life and not to take them for granted.

Sometimes This Wait Seems Harder

I've been so praying and wishing that we would get another call regarding a placement soon. But, so far nothing. It seems so odd that we got a call from our worker two times in one week back in February and not once since then. Its been about 3 months since she called on those children. She says things have seemed to be a little slower. I try to keep in perspective the rotation system that the agencies go on. I believe once a child comes into care an agency will take that child and then the next agency gets the next child. I'm not sure exactly where Family Core falls in that rotation. So, if a baby or younger child came into care and went to a different agency and then the next child was 8 or 10 and went to Family Core we wouldn't get that call. This same thing could keep happening over and over again, which could also be part of the reason for not many calls. They say things start to pick up once school gets out, so we shall see. I talked with one of the ladies at our trauma training and she said they got licensed in April (a year or 2 ago) and didn't get a call until December of that same year. They ended up waiting about 8 months.

Its frustrating because during the PRIDE classes the instructors talk about how there is such a great need for foster parents but it still seems like people wait quite a while. Weird that the agency we were with before of course had slowed down as soon as we got approved and now this is slower too. Last year around spring time they had about 14 moms pregnant that were due soon that they needed to find homes for those babies. I'm sure some of the babies would have been returned home eventually. If the parents received the help they needed and completed what they needed to in order to get them back but maybe not all of the babies would have gone home.

I was telling Aaron today that sometimes I feel like this wait is harder than our adoption wait. With adoption you know it could be quite a while before you are matched. However, with foster care, knowing that kids come into care all the time you expect it to be much quicker. Especially since she called us just a few days after our first home visit, we can't believe we haven't heard anything since.

I think, is it a good thing that things are slower? That could mean less problems in the homes these children are in or it could mean the problems and troubles just haven't been realized yet.



We've been studying the book of James in church the past few weeks and I'm really enjoying it. We've been learning about trials, the nature of trials, how trials are different for those of us who are in Christ, what our attitude is to be in trials.

As far as the nature of trials we learned that they are inevitable. Verse 2 of James 1 says WHEN you encounter various trials not IF. Trials are also said in verse 3 to be various. We of course go through lots of different types on trials. Trials for those of us in Christ are a spiritual matter so we need to look at them from a spiritual perspective. They are directed by God's hand. As far as our attitude in verse 2 of James 1 again it says to consider it all JOY.

I love verses 3-4 in James 1, knowing that the testing of your faith, produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Trials of course test our faith and are an indication of His faithfulness to us. When we first experienced infertility and it was one disappointing doctor appointment after another I had a very hard time being thankful for this trial.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 In EVERYTHING give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Throughout this trial God is teaching and has taught me so much. He has exposed my weaknesses; ungrateful, selfish, wanting my will over His, not content, little faith in His word, and of course more.

Through God's grace I am thankful for this trial. First of all, because I've grown closer to God, and look at my relationship with Him as more precious than before, and how it opened our eyes to adoption and foster care, and much more!


Here are some of my favorite verses we've looked at these past weeks at church.

Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Romans 5:3-4 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;


I'll leave you with a picture of a Coca-Cola puzzle. I believe I posted before that I collect Coca-Cola. I had a puzzle downstairs that I hadn't done yet so last night I decided I would start it. Aaron and I finished it up tonight. I have two others that we've done that are framed and hanging up downstairs. I plan to get this one framed as well!

Thanks for reading!!

More Bags For Foster Children

Remember this post on making bags for children in foster care? I made a couple more recently so I figured I would post a picture of what they look like. The lady I give them to said they use them and its way better than throwing their stuff in a garbage bag. Sometimes I think how neat it would be if when we ended up with a child they came with one of the bags I made, or even one someone else made. It would make me feel so much better knowing their stuff wasn't just tossed in a trash bag.

If any of you out there ever feel like making any it only takes a yard of fabric. I could get them to the agency for you and I know the little kids would love them! These kids don't have much to call their own!

I'm hoping I can maybe get one or two more made this week!

Delicious Oreo Cupcakes

I found this recipe for Oreo cupcakes on Pinterest and thought I would give it a try. Oh boy were they good. The recipe was pretty easy too. I wasn't sure if I would like them or not. The thought of an actual Oreo on the bottom made me leery. I didn't think I would like the combination of the soft cake and crunchy Oreo. Some of the people that reviewed the recipe said the frosting was way too runny and they couldn't even pipe it on the cupcakes. I didn't end up having any problems with it and it turned out great! Aaron did the piping which is why they look so good!

Below are some pictures of how they turned out. It will definitely be a recipe I will keep and use again.

Boxers And Flowers

I don't know if I mentioned before or not but I've been taking some sewing lessons lately. I just finished a pair of boxers for Aaron! Hopefully he will actually wear them. Over a period of a couple days the project took over 4 hours to complete. I'm thinking that $8-10 for a pair of boxers at the store isn't such a bad deal. I don't think I could repeat this project without help. Maybe over time I'll be able to understand those pattern instructions but for now they seem like they are written in Japanese.

I stopped by my parent's house yesterday and stole some flowers from a plant in their backyard. I'm not sure what kind of flowers they are but every year they have about 6 BIG plants that bloom with all these big flowers on them! I thought they looked really good so I brought them home and put them in a vase.