Love...

A variation on I Corinthians 13

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in it's place, but have not love I am a housekeeper, not a homemaker.

If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn of cleanliness- not godliness.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh.

Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.

Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk.

Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.

Love is present through the trials.

Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive.

Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.

Love is the key that opens salvation's message to a child's heart.

Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection. Now I glory in God's perfection of my child.

As a mother there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of these is love.

Thank you to Assistant Pastor Robbie Fisher at Forest Hill Church for sharing this!

All the things we've been up to....

Here are a few things I've been meaning to share:

Eric and I are in a 9 week bible study at church, called Two Becoming One. In short, it's a bible study all about marriage. There are five couples, including us, taking it, and one couple that leads it. The couple that leads it took the class many years ago, and now lead it at least once a year. They said it so strongly transformed their marriage, that they love to share it with others. We've only done one week so far, but I've enjoyed it. Eric seems to enjoy it as well, but I can't really speak for him.

****************** (Means I'm totally gonna change subjects on ya!)

Eli is growing up before our eyes. He finally weaned himself from breastfeeding, at 1o months old. It was still shy of my one year goal, but I was thrilled he self weaned early. It had been almost THREE straight years that I've either been pregnant or breastfeeding, or both. And let me just tell you folks, I am happy to have my body back, all to myself! So, since he weaned, that meant sweet thing finally got to go with his big brother on a trip to the grandparents! That means I actually got some sleep last week. For TWO nights! It was amazing. I slept 13 straight hours one night. And could've done more if I wasn't starving, haha. I only got up for food, then went back to sleep for 3 more hours. Don't judge. I know you are jealous ;-)

Apparently Eli just did fine, without me or Fran. He's quite attached to the both of us, and has never cared for his Grandma. Well let me just tell you, he's seen the good life now. When we met in Columbia to pick him up, Fran grabbed him for some snuggles, and then he reached back for Grandma. Rotten already apparently! The grandparents strike again.

The kicker? Eric's parents will be here in March, and I can only imagine what new level of spoiled they will have my kids at!

*********************

I've known since I was a teenager I wanted to adopt child(ren) one day. I knew I wanted biological children, and I knew I wanted to adopt children. I love to read, and always have. As a teenager I read a book that discussed the lack of value for girls in China, and how many were abandoned. From that moment on, I always said I wanted to adopt a baby girl from China. Fast forward 15 years, and I'm crazy busy with my two boys, and the list to adopt from China is a good five years long. Craziness! But I've known for a while now that our family isn't complete. I don't have words to eloquently describe it, but there is someone, or maybe even more than one child, still missing from our family. So easy fix, get pregnant again, right? Absolutely not. Not an option. I have zero desire to house another human. Add to that the millions of orphans in this world who need a Mommy and Daddy, and having another bio child just isn't on our list of options.

That brings us back to adoption. I don't want to do a domestic adoption, because I'd want it to be completely closed, and that's hard to find. Most birth moms want open or semi open, from what I've read, and I know I couldn't handle that. Domestic adoption is also more expensive. BTW, domestic means from here in the US.

International adoption is an entirely new world to me, but I've been doing a ton of reading over the last six months. It's really been weighing on my mind the last 3 months. Each country has different requirements and different processes. China still tugs at my heartstrings, and they have a special needs list of children that really calls to me. What does all this mean? I don't know. I'm waiting for what I want, to be on track with what Eric wants, and for both of us to be on track with what God wants. That's THREE of us that need to get in sync! The long and short of this is simply to say, that if you are the praying type, please pray that God's plan for our family be revealed to us. We know there is a plan, we are just waiting for God to let Eric and I in on all the details......

Until next time,

Peace and love,

Some recent fun

Here are some pictures of our February fun so far....

Here Eli is tonight after some spaghetti. He (thoroughly) enjoyed it.

Playing outside on Valentines Day. The weather was gorgeous!
This big boy can climb into his tricycle all by himself.
Eli at the park on Valentines Day

Drake at the park. The boys had on matching V-day shirts:-)
We made cookies for Drake's party at school. He was (really) excited.
Eli and Reese at superbowl festivities. They are only a week apart.
Me with my sweet boys before church one Sunday morning. I know they aren't twins, but I love dressing them alike!

Blog update coming!

Waaahhhhooooo! I am so excited that a blog makeover is on it's way! I've gotten really tired of taking the time to try and get my blog looking cute and updated. However, I really like it to be cute, because it inspires me to blog more often. I found a lady who does blog designs, and really like her work. So, with that said, she'll be starting work on my new blog tomorrow. I can't wait!!!

I hope to have time later in the week to write about a class Eric and I are taking at church, plus my boys trip to the grandparents, plus a little something extra that's been on my mind the past few months.

Family Update

We've been keeping busy around here with work and fun! I worked last wed, thurs, and fri, and now I have FOUR days off. Next time I'm complaining about working a 16 hour shift once a week, remind me that I frequently have long stretches off of work.

Saturday morning I took the boys to an event at church, and then that night we had supper club with our besties. This was our second month, and supper club has turned out to be quite the success! We all love it! Today we had a little celebration for Fran's birthday, and her actual birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 73 degrees, so we have a trip planned to a park in the afternoon.

I've started a new book, called "ME: The me I want to be." It's really good, and goes along with a video and discussion series that a lot of people at our church are doing. In a nutshell, it's about becoming God's best version of myself. It's really interesting so far!

DISNEY!

In one month, we'll be back at Disney! I am beyond excited, even though this trip will be much different than our last. I won't be sleeping in, or taking as many naps as I'd like, but that's okay. Instead, I get to see joy on my children's faces each day. And THAT makes all the sleep deprivation in the world worth it. I went to Disney for the first time in 2007, with Eric, and that was his second trip. He'd been as a child, but we had lots of fun on our "adult" Disney trip.

Here we were at the castle:

The only downside to the trip was having to wear my glasses the entire time, because I was having LASIK surgery when we returned. I do NOT miss glasses and contacts! Here was my Mickey waffle. They turn anything and everything into Mickey heads down there.
Minnie was totally feeling my husband up. Although, he was just my fiance at the time.
Fun times!!!
Even the ice creams bars were Mickey heads!
I'm so excited to go back to Disney, and take the boys. It's going to be a BLAST! We will be staying on site, and going to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. Fun times are ahead! I've got lots of packing, planning, and preparing to do!

Sophie's Birthday Party

This afternoon we took Drake to his classmate Sophie's birthday party. It was at Chick-Fil-A, and this was the first time he's been to a playground like that. He was a little shy at first, but quickly got the hang of it.

And up he went!
Could this birthday girl be any cuter? If we ever have a girl, you better believe she'll be wearing something just like this at her party!!!
He FINALLY came down the slide!
With Dad helping:-)

Time to eat.
This is Max, another school buddy.
Adam and Austin, the other two boys in the class!
He spotted the cow, but wasn't really too sure about him.
Making friends!
But then covered his eyes! It was really cute.
It was a fun afternoon. Once again, there were no photos of me and Eli, because I was wearing him. I should start doing self portraits of us, but they'd all look the same.

Drake's Second Birthday Party

Well, I'm a little behind in blogging Drake's second birthday party, but here it is! He turned two on January 5, and his party was on the 8th. I had a lot of fun planning it, and then preparing and decorating. My friend Keli Moore has a company (Bella Lyse) that does event planning and the such. I told her my general idea, and about a party blog that I love. She took that and ran with it, and together we got it all planned! Now, on to the pictures, because I know that's what you really want!

This is the only photo I have of Drake's shirt, that shows it well. So cute!!! I also got a onesie for Eli that had Thing 1/Thing 2, and said "Thing 2" on it. Unfortunately, no picture of that.

You can find the etsy shop that made Drake's shirt here.

My cousin Peyton, and neighbor Aidan did a great job with the sidewalk chalk! I asked them to write Happy Birthday, and they really did it up!
Door sign
I made the banner myself! My neighbors Aidan and Marley helped in the week before the party, and my Mom strung it together. It has a photo from each month.
I love this cake platter, but it unfortunately didn't fit the cake I ordered. It has interchangeable ribbons! We just kept it in the kitchen for some left over cupcakes.
The cute sign for the food table.
Apples and bananas are the snack eaten in this book, "Hop on Pop".
I ordered Dr. Suess plates with Drake's photo from here.
Yes, those are goldfish. For the fish in "Cat in the Hat". Plus, no two year old party would be complete without them.
This is our wine and glass rack in the dining room, transformed into our theme. It also has Drake's photo books, up to 18 months.


Part of the drink table.

Caffeine for the parents...
Juice for the kiddos...

The invitations, buffet signs, water bottle covers, and cupcake toppers all came from HERE. I really cannot emphasize how fabulous this seller was to work with. She was so quick, and I loved all of her work. She's already working on Eli's party:-)
The sign that went with his birthday book:-)
A Dr. Suess book of course!

The birthday crown that Drake refused to wear is from here.
The sweets table. The banner came from my friend Keli, but she ordered it on etsy as well.


The cupcakes are like Thing one and Thing two! Do you get it? The blue cotton candy is like their hair! So stinkin' cute. I added the cotton candy, but the cupcakes were from my favorite cupcake shop in all of Charlotte. Their cupcakes are to die for. UNBELIEVABLY good. SO moist. I can never eat just one. You should really try one if you are ever in Charlotte!
The cake was from this bakery. I was a little worried, because I've found that sometimes the cutest cakes are the ones that don't taste all that great. Well, that certainly wasn't the case with this bakery. I gave them a picture, and they created this tasty treat! The top was chocolate, and the bottom vanilla. Both were delish!

Candy bar! The wrappers on the candy bars were also from the etsy shop that did all of my other paper products.

We don't have one single picture of our family together. Eli slept through most of the party. And the ones we do have look like this...I might as well give up trying to get Drake to look at the camera.
Drake with his Marley. He sure loves this girl! There is not a better babysitter in this entire world!
Starting to fill up
I think Drake was afraid of his Cat in the Hat balloon animal.

The hit of the party were the people who made balloon animals! Eric had bartered with a client, and we got the bouncy house and balloon artists for FREE!!! We would have never had those otherwise, but we were happy about it in the end.

Blowing out the candle

Bouncing!!! He loved it!!!

Eli with his Marley!
We had neighbors, friends, church friends, classmates, and work friends all come to they party. Drake is one loved and blessed little boy! Here are some of the guests:

Jill was caught off guard, but Syler was ready for the photo.

Gen with the Hankster. Or Hanky Spanky. Or fine, just Hank.
The Sugars with the babies. (Long story made short, on a night out long ago, my group of girlfriends all ended up being called The Sugars.)
Michelle was such a good sport. I don't think I would attend two year old birthday parties if I didn't have a child who was attending:-) But her and Ryan came anyway, and played with everyone else's babies.
My friend Mel, with her daughter Reese. Who was obviously trying to escape! She is a girl on the move.

Meet little Jack! I hadn't seen him since he was a wee baby, like one month old. I could not believe how much he'd grown, and now looks JUST like his Daddy. I went to grad school with his Mommy!

Constantine loved his cupcake. I work with his Mommy!
Max and Drake trying to high five! Max is one of Drake's best buddies from school.
The madness of the gift opening
His classmate Greer gave him a big hug goodbye!
It obviously was too much for him, because he pushed her away.
Now he's into it;-)
The birthday boy had such a great time opening presents. I can only imagine how overwhelming it must have been for him, between Christmas and his birthday. He's probably confused as to why the fun hasn't continued.

Thanks for reading!

And if you'd like to know how I found the time for such a long and detailed post, it's b/c I'm sitting at the Honda dealership for an inspection:-)