Our Anniversary...25 YEARS! When did that happen? Part II

Well, like I said earlier, we spent the day reminiscing about and visiting our past. Spent a chilly, but beautiful day together, and it's funny, it was quiet and I didn't mind too much...must have been the 'special-ness' of the day :D

We came home and after dinner, we had our beautiful anniversary cake from my sister! Here we are cutting the cake...

And the cake is being eaten...

When we cut our cake at our wedding, May 10, 1985, Tony wouldn't let me do what I did last night, and it was fun...so the next picture is what I had always wanted to do...

And yes that was a staged annoyance frown! We had fun with that and he couldn't believe I took the pic, but I just couldn't help myself... :D I'll have to work on that for next year for our renewal...everyone is welcome!

And this is how we spent today...

I can't wait til the day that the twins can 'Hop on Pop' as he is sleeping just like the boys used to do... :)

Good night all, God's many Blessings to you...

Our Anniversary...25 YEARS! When did that happen?

For me, it feels surreal...it just doesn't 'feel' possible, and yet everytime I do the math, it comes up the same...25! Unless I'm doing something wrong with my math, maybe I'm not applying the proper 'new math' rules...Did someone change the rules again without telling me?? :D Anyway, it just doesn't feel possible, and I don't feel my age either! I don't get it, but that's okay...time flys when you are having fun?

I am so happy we've made it this far. We wanted to renew our vows, but when we saw Slavka and Sandra, I wanted to have them more, so we didn't do the whole gown, preacher, meal thing...we felt we needed to bring them home and then celebrate our new family all at once, corny I know, but that's me! Take me or leave me...I always wanted a daughter, and now we're getting two! :D Complete family (maybe, we'll see what God has to say later)!

We didn't do a lot yesterday, we drove around Tony's hometown and saw places that we went to while we dated and visited his family grave and just reminiced about our early lives. I had a wonderful time, but Tony felt like he should have done more...little does he know what he is doing now will certainly benefit us all down the road. I love that he feels he needs to do more, I just wish he'd get that I never care what we are doing, I just love being together...he says it's a guy thing! Poor guys! :D

Anyway, Sunday was a special day, and I didn't realize that my sister was going to celebrate our anniversary on the same day as Mother's Day and my mothers birthday. She started her day creating a replica of our wedding cake, minus the cascade of butterflies along the side. This is the picture:

The color matched our wedding party colors and our original cake colors...I don't know what inspired her, but I'm not complaining! We were so blessed :D

She also gave us a beautiful silver anniversary frame:

I can't wait to have a nice picture to place into the frame :)

Well, that is all for now, I will blog some later since I have pics of us cutting and eating our anniversary cake! I still have 3 other days to make up for, and I really haven't run out of blog ideas, at least not yet... I'll see you and blog about last night! Hope you have a great day full of blessings!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day today!

My day was special. I spent the day at my parents house and had a nice time catching up. We celebrated Mother's Day, my mother's birthday and our silver anniversary. That was special.

Unfortunately Tony had to work, as did Austin and of course Cale is away and had to work all day. But I did have a wonderful time! I'll share what we received for our anniversary tomorrow since tomorrow is our big day!

See, I told you no pity party...I'm too blessed for one! And by the way, one of the biggest gifts was Austin getting high speed internet for the house...that means no more interuptions and more blogging and email for me! :) YAY!!

Have a blessed night!

Wow...36 + hours without internet...

Can really cramp my plans! Sorry I didn't blog, I would have if I had the chance!

I was hoping to keep up on how things were progressing with Christyn Joy, Chrissie, but not having the internet was like being on a desert island :( I had no contact with anyone...I didn't like it. The biggest issue was Chrissie updates. I really freaked when I got the digest from Lorraine and it was looking rather dark for her. But I know that God is bigger than anything we are going through, so that helped. Then when I told Tony my frustrations and how I thought it was all satan, Tony said it was all God...making me rely on Him and not the internet...wise, and that is why God put Tony together with me!

Anyway, Chrissie is doing better right now and we just need to remember to pray for her. God will take care of the rest!

Sorry for not blogging, I'll make up for the last couple of days over the next couple of days, I promise!

Hoping you all have a VERY HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!! I know that I will! :) Love to all!

Pity Party At My House On Sunday!

Well here I am again. I thought I'd run out of things to blog about, but my children and family keep me going... :)

Really, there won't be a pity party, but the day won't be nearly the same as it would if I had all three of my boys and my beautiful little girls with me! I found out today that my youngest son, Cale, Austin and Tony had planned to surprise me by flying Cale home for my birthday in 2 weeks. He called Austin and told him he can't make it home for mothers day or my birthday...that made me sad. I really miss Cale...phone calls don't take the place of hugs and 11:00 pm kitchen talks that we have when he is home...can you tell I miss him? I am, and have been, praying that he changes colleges and moves back here, but unfortunately we raised him to be an independent young man who enjoys being out on his own, and he likes his friends in KY... :( So, I am like a good number of mothers who have to hear from their children that live or attend college far away from home. I guess I am just happy that he is here in the US, he could be a soldier in Iraq...always an upside...

Speaking of upsides, next year at this time, I will have my princesses home and yes this will be my last mothers day without daughters, and maybe I will be blessed enough to have all of my sons here too! Then my mothers day will be complete! :D

Have a great night! I know I am!!! :D

Well...This is a record for me!

I think now, if my math is correct, I am 1/7th of the way to forming a habit...it takes 21 days to form a good habit, and this is day 3 :D We'll see how long this lasts...

I will start with an update on Chrissie...God is Amazing, not that I, or anyone should be, surprised! It looks like things are looking up for our little Serbian Sensation! Just keep her in prayer that she continues to do as well as she is doing...To Our God Be The Glory!!!

We had another 'quiet' day, the kind I don't like! But on the up side, my middle son, who is still living at home, is spending more time at home...I'm not going to lie, I'm one happy mama! I don't think many people understand families that are close. I actually caught an eye roll from someone who thinks it's ridiculous that Austin is still at home. Not all children that stay at home sit around all day playing video games and eating mom and dad out of house and home! He contributes his share of chores, pays rent and works full time. That is what is required of him...and he is good company, too.

I have always had a dream that we would someday own a huge home with enough room that all of our sons would be able to live with us, with their wives and all of their children...What can I say, I really enjoy being a mom! And yes, everyone, with very few exceptions, thinks I'm off my rocker! If I'm off my rocker, should it be a surprise to anyone that we are going to adopt? I think not! :D So now my dream is expanded to include Slavka and Sandra and their husbands and families too! But that won't happen for a really long time...Tony says he isn't going to allow dating until they are in their 30's...so that's that! ;) ROFLOL

Well, I actually did do some things today, I planned where we are going to relocate the bunny and how to re-arrange the house to organize and get started on the bedroom for the twins! So see it wasn't all that quiet I guess...

Well, it's Tuesday night, I need to go start getting ready for bed now because my favorite family is coming on tv at 9:00...the Duggar's!!! Tony doesn't like it when I watch them at night because when he dreams at night the Duggars are usually in them. He calls them Duggar Dreams...poor hubby :D

I hope everyone of you has a great night!!

Wow...Here I Am Again.

Well this isn't a record yet, but I'm blogging for the second day in a row. :) I'll start by telling you that Chrissie still needs prayers, she has another big day ahead of her tomorrow. We're praying for her too, and her wonderful family...

Well, then Tony received an email today from a local BMW dealership for an advisor position he applied for the other day. The manager seemed to be interested in Tony's transfer to Indiana a few years ago...don't know why or where that is headed, but this dealership has other stores in Florida and New York State...hmmm... What next? :D Maybe a move again? Bring it on Lord, you know we'll go anywhere You wish...

Tony and I had a great quiet day together, but we really need little ones to keep us young, I felt old and I don't like that... cuz' I'M NOT!

One of my best friends told me a few weeks ago that she had been praying for a way to raise money for us to bring the twins home. Well, she said He told her to paint pictures, so she painted us three sweet pictures and we just got them today! I am not sure how I am going to sell them, I think we'll do some type of 'give away' on this blog or my fundraiser blog, we'll see...

Please pray for us now too, we need to plan our yard sale, when and where, so I can plaster our neighborhood with flyers asking for donations and also send out an email and message to everyone we know... we really want it to be a success so we can finish fundraising for the first few things we need to do. Then we can move on to the BIG ticket items like grants and such...pray for success so we can bring our princesses home before October... :)

Well, I'm going to go now, I have things to do so Tony can surf for a while...hope you have a wonderful evening! Til tomorrow...

Let's see...

I know I missed blogging yesterday, but here I am and I think I have a new goal.. A Blog A Day, All Through May! Let's see if I can do this... :D

Just letting anyone not following along about Matt and Lorraine Patterson and their Serbian Sensation, Chrissie, who is four years old and underwent open heart surgery on April 19th. She seems to be doing okay. They are changing her ventilator today in hopes that she will feel better. She has a fever but drs think it's due to internal swelling of tissues, not necessarily an infection. She is an amazing little one and her family is wonderful. We are continuing to keep her in prayer, especially since she seems to be in more pain than she has had. Please pray for her and her family.

Now, I am also going to blog about my two princesses! They are beautiful in our eyes...yesterday I went to my mothers house to scrapbook and looked through my old pictures and noticed that Sandra looks just like me at her age! And she looks just like my Aunt Nancy and cousin Julie! I can't wait to unpack my pictures to see pictures of Tony's family because I think that Slavka looks just like Tony's mom...I'm really 'chomping at the bit'! :D Have I told anyone lately that I love those two sweeties!

A couple of weeks ago, right after Easter, I went shopping, not for the girls but that always happens :D I happened to find the Easter sale at Kmart and most of the decorations were 90% off. Well I saw their bunnies. The first one I found was this cute little pink one, at 5.99 regular price. I scanned it and found it was $.59 so I picked up two!

Then I was looking at the cute white one that cost $9.99, it was $.99, so I bought two!

Then there was the cutest, and biggest, purple bunny and he is usually $19.99, and he ended up being $1.99, so I bought two!!!

So here they are waiting patiently for their princesses to come join them! :)

I have chosen and bought their quilts, they are beautiful Laura Ashley Heirloom quilts! They are a bright pink with white daisy's all over them and they are reversible, white with pink/dark pink narrow stripes on the other side, and I bought them at Burlington Coat Factory at a fantastic price!

Awesome for them...now it will look like their new bunnies have a field of daisies to eat and sleep on while they are waiting!

Well, enough already, gotta go get dinner planned...Have a wonder-fun evening of Blessings! :D

Hmmm...Blogging AND Making Money At The Same Time, Who Knew?

Okay, so I logged onto my blog this morning and found out that there is a new program for bloggers to raise money. Apparently I can blog about books that we are using/reading for our adoption and if we use Amazon and somehow connect our blog to their site, we can make a commission on the sale. Interesting concept, I think I'll look into it...hey, it's another way to get these girls on their way home quicker ;)

I haven't blogged about our twins in a few blogs, so here is an update...they are still ours! We are still looking for ways to raise money to bring them home. Recently a couple of people have come up with an interesting way to market their fundraising venture. I would love to incorporate it into our fundraising, but I'm just not sure how it will work in my circle.

Here is the deal...

We have to raise $12,000.00 to $13,000.00 for the travel expenses and other expenses while in country. That means that if 1000 people donate $13.00, that would cover all our expenses and we would be able to get it done!

Now, I am thinking that we would print up flyers and leave them in the doors in our neighborhood and perhaps ask our internet friends to pass the word around the net with the girls sponsorship page address.

I'm not sure how it will all work, but please feel free to leave me messages and let me know if you think it'll work or if you have better ideas. Always open to other ideas...

On an exciting note, I now know my paypal account works! I had a person donate to my puzzle fundraiser for our twins and her donation is sitting in my paypal account waiting to pay for our home study fee! We are so excited, and I would so love to get all this 'stuff' taken care of quickly. Please continue to pray for us, we love those girls so much, and I am beginning to dream of holding them and rocking them a lot more often, which means my heart is going to ache soon, so I just want them here... :) Thanks!

Hope you have a fantastic day!

More Of God's Blessings...

Like I said recently, God has a way of placing things in perspective for me. This has been a difficult month for us here, and it's not over, but that is okay, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm pretty sure it's not a train...trains don't really run around here anymore!

Today started with news about Chrissie, she was being weened off of the medication that she was on to keep her in a coma. Well, they didn't think she would respond to anything for about a week, and PRAISE GOD, she has been responding to her mothers, Lorraine, voice and her touch! It looks great that there is little to no brain damage and she can feel others. Her family has asked that people continue to pray for Chrissie as she isn't out of danger yet. They are still dealing with her heart and the possibility of infection and the list goes on...please continue to pray for little Chrissie. The fact that she is responding and is still living is a HUGE blessing from God!

Another blessing is that Shelley and her new son Kullen are almost home. It has been a very long trip and if we don't hear from them for a few days, we won't be too surprised! God is Awesome to have blessed them abundantly over in Bulgaria and Serbia with successful orphanage visits and such, but the bigger blessing is that they are finally home.

I'm still looking for a job, but in the down time, I have been able to come up with what I hope are successful ways to raise money for us to bring the girls home as well as bless Reece's Rainbow in the years to come.

And then there is the other stuff, like preparing our homestudy paperwork and planning Slavka and Sandra's new bedroom! I am turning their room into a 'garden party' bedroom! I am going to paint a field of wild flowers on the wall, perhaps a trellis with fake ivy climbing up in the doorway and I have the plans to their beds made complete with a picket fence headboard and footboard with bird houses on it... I also bought, on sale of course :) , a huge purple bunny, a medium white bunny and a little pink bunny for each of their beds. I can't believe I am actually going to be able to do this FINALLY! I saw a picture in a craft magazine years ago and I really wanted to do it, but my boys thought it was too sissy ;P, who would have guessed :D... and I can't even get Tony to wear a purple or pink shirt, so the garden theme wouldn't work in our room! We do have John Deere sheets and a John Deere quilt I made for Tony...maybe we can add some garden into that theme?

Anyway, I am really looking forward to what our Lord does this week in the lives of others...Hope your week is God Blessed!

God's Blessings...In Hindsight

Truly God has blessed many this week, in many ways. Here are just a few...

Chrissie, the little Serbian Sensation, as her mother Lorraine has penned, is still alive and fighting. We have been praying for her and her family since her open heart surgery began on Tuesday morning. It has been a roller coaster all week, she died twice and right now she is on life support, and she is alive. I have been humbled and brought to tears by the strength her mother and father, Lorraine and Matt, have shown through this ordeal. What amazing faith! Please go see their blog about their precious princess Chrissie.

http://allarepreciousinhissight.blogspot.com/

Finally it's time for Shelley, Kullen and Leah to return home to the US after such a long time away from their families. Praise God!

Others, even if it doesn't feel like a blessing at the moment, have been blessed with an answer of no it's not time to adopt. Another received a date for them to travel to pick up their son! Dossier's have been sent out! There has been a successful adoption, and now we're just waiting for the GOTCHA DAY!

Tony and I have finally been able to meet a family from Reece's Rainbow that live in Massachusetts, and they live just an hour from us! :)

I guess you could say that once again I am being blessed with peace about not hearing from any of the jobs that I applied for last week. I really can only look at it as God hasn't prepared the perfect job for me yet.

This week I have watched satan try to bring christians down, but all he did was succeed in bringing them to their knees...in PRAYER and PRAISE to our heavenly Father, our Great Physician!

An aside, I believe I read on Lorraine's blog that they had over 13,000 hits on their blog...take that satan!!!

What A Week! Praise God...

At least it feels like it has been a week already...and it's just Tuesday.

Once again my troubles have paled in comparison to others problems. Yes, God has a way of doing that to me...not a bad thing really, but it sure is humbling.

I thought my car was a major frustration, then onto the way I felt when people ignored things.

Then I got home...

There was Shelley and her brand new son Kullen and her friend Leah. Blessed to go visit orphanages but when they needed to come home, they couldn't. To top it off, Kullen is sick. :(

Then there was Chrissie and her heart surgery yesterday and her mothers gut wrenching plea for prayer for Chrissie...she had died and now is in a medically induced coma and on life support.

Now there is the little 6 year old special needs boy they found dead in a park in Texas, with no identification.

It kind of placed my troubles on the back burner, so to speak and now I am able to concentrate on praying for others and their difficulties.

Yes, I am praising God for making me Aware of others. I'm glad He re-focuses me and shows me what is really important. Thank you Father for your correction! :)

Hope everyone has a great night...and please pray for Chrissie!

Please Pray For Our Friends!

r HisWe are asking for prayers for Shelley, our friend, her newly adopted son, Kullen, who happens to be sick, and Leah. They are in stuck in Bulgaria after adopting Kullen and they are waiting to fly home, but the volcano erupted while they were in another country visiting an orphanage.

We are all worried about them, Kullen especially because he sounds like he has a sinus infection. So please, pray for their safety, finances and ability to get back home. And pray for her husband and other members of her family while she is away.

We all know that God is still on His throne, but asking for His help is what we are supposed to do...Thank You! Have a blessed day! :)

You Know, God Is Really Amazing!

Okay, while I was steaming and sad this morning, I did leave out a positive detail...we are blessed with my oldest son who is a tow truck driver. He towed the car to Tony's work for free. And Tony works on cars for a living, so for about $30.00 he was able to replace the timing belt and it was done already! :)

God really has blessed us! Oh, and I freaked out too because I lost an envelope of money from our budget, and we found it in the car!

Praise God! He is Awesome the way He takes care of the details :)

Have a wonderful evening and enjoy your family!

Anger ends in GRRR...

You know, if I laughed as much as the time spent aggravated lately they would haul me away in an ambulance! :) Yes, I admit I am finding more to complain about lately, but sometimes I think I am righteously angry. Let me explain...

Today I dropped Tony off at work, on a Sunday AGAIN :( Righteously angry? Yes, in a perfect world, but not so much here. Once again satan wins. On my way home with the car, suddenly the car dies without so much as a sputter or cough. Righteously angry? You bet, I was going home to get ready to go to church to so I couldn't go. satan won. Still righteous? Not so much, it's a car and cars break. The timing belt broke again for the second time in 5 months! Righteously Angry? YES! Better quality components put in the cars would be helpful. But let's face it, it's a car and cars break! So not really righteous...

While I sat for an hour and 15 minutes on the side of the road waiting for assistance with my flashers going, not one person stopped or looked at me to see if I was okay or if I needed to call someone. Righteously angry? YES! I was pulled over at a stop light too...roll down your window and ask me if I need anything? You can't always assume that someone has a cell phone or that they are okay enough in that type of situation. What has happened to everyone? I understand that people are creeped out about stopping in these situations, but you can't stop, roll down your window and ask if I am okay or do I need them to call someone for me? And to top that off, I recognized 2 cars that drove by as members of my own church. Righteous anger? YES indeed.

I posted this on my fb status and one person mentioned that we all have crosses to bear and sometimes that means covering our eyes...not quite sure I knew what that meant, but I reminded her that I felt like the samaratin that was ignored by the priests and pharisees. Anyone remember that story?

Two things struck me this morning as I saw the apathy in God's people:

1. Any one stuck on the side of the road is some one... someone's mother/father, son/daughter, brother/sister, grandmother/grandfather, aunt/uncle. Turn the table and say the person was YOUR (fill in the blank) and no one stopped to help?

B. If I am invisible to God's people, then does that mean that we will ever receive help from my christian brothers and sisters to bring our twins home?

The cost of stopping this morning would have been 5 minutes and they may have been a few minutes late to church. If time, as precious as that is, can't even be spent on making sure someone is okay, then how can I believe that they will spend precious dollars on making sure that two of God's children have a forever family? Righteous Anger...GRRR...YES!

I don't make a habit of stopping for people that are with others or are visibly on the phone, but if there is one bit of doubt, I will turn around and make sure they are okay and have someone coming for them. I don't ever want to have to look Jesus in the face and give an account to Him that I was going to be late to church or dinner and I just didn't have time to stop. Righteous Anger...GRRR... YES!

GRRR...But Hopeful!

We gotta whole lotta GRRRin' goin' on!

With tax day in our rear view mirror, we are grrr'ing because the state we lived in before was just a bit greedy, so any hope of having a tax refund to put toward our adoption is out because we owe! We don't owe a lot, but enough to be a pain in the back side! That made us rather annoyed!!! GRRR...

But, on a happier note, I have just applied for 4 jobs, 3 receptionist positions and 1 retail within 15 miles (round trip) of our house! I left one of the places hopeful today, the office manager was not in today but is in on Monday so I should hear something from her on Monday! YAY!!!

So please, if you are a prayer, please pray for this job! I really liked the place as soon as I walked in. I'm not a psychic but I had a really good feeling about it. We'll see if this is where God wants me! And thank you for the prayers...He is the only way to get through all this!

So now I have to get rid of this sinus headache because I have so much to do, a room to clean, organize for a yard sale, get my daily chores completed...but right now, healing!

I sure hope you're have a fantastic day! Bless you!

I guess I don't understand companies anymore. I was really excited to see that Target was hiring, then when I went on line to apply, the Target in our town isn't hiring, one about 18-20 miles away is. So why did they advertise there then? Aldi did the same thing last fall, when I inquired with them and was told it was for a store about 18 miles away from my house. Aldi may pay alright, but I am not going to travel 20 miles to go work in a retail store that isn't going to pay me more than minimum wage, especially with gas prices on the rise again :( So it looks like we are still waiting...

On a brighter note, I have started digging out the room that will be the girls bedroom! I am moving things and re-arranging to fit everything where it needs to be! :) Just trying to keep busy while I wait for a job! I just can't contain my excitement!!! :)

Soon girls...mama and daddy will be there as soon as we can! :)

The Waiting Game...

Well, I put in applications today, and I will again tomorrow. If we can do it before our homestudy is complete, we are also going to apply in the next week or so to the Both Hands Ministry through LifeSong Ministry. Both Hands is a project to help a widow and at the same time you are earning funds toward your adoption. You can earn up to 10,000.00 in funds. What a huge chunk of money just for spending a day volunteering to help a widow! Wow, what a blessing...

http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/bothHands.html

Please check it out. What a way to help widows and orphans :)

Getting Ready To Go Out...

Looking for a job AGAIN!!! Something has to give soon. And I am noticing other job opportunities as we are out and about, soooo....

I am going to Target. I figure if I get a job there, that money will go toward our immediate adoption expenses, and maybe there will be a discount? I saw a beautiful comforter/sheet set that we want for their room! And some furnishings for their room, too. Not to mention all the pretty clothing for girls there :)

Also, Babies/Toys R Us is hiring. Either place will work for the same thing, adoption expenses and discount for future purchases. Just praying that something comes available soon! God is Great and He will provide what we need! :)

Have a great day!

Happy 28th Birthday Christopher!!

You know, I woke up today with a thought...my oldest son Chris is 28 years old today! WHAT...where did the time go??? Boy did I feel old, but then I remembered that Chris is my oldest! I felt so much better because my youngest son, Cale is just 20! WHEW! :D

28 years ago today was Easter Sunday and Christopher was born! I went into labor with him on Good Friday, was in labor for 36 hours and the dr. finally gave up and did a c-section. I was young and he was my first! God gave me my son and He changed my life. My sister and I are totally the opposite, like night and day! My sister was always the babysitter for all the cousins and neighborhood children, and I wasn't and I loved that! That is until that fateful day, April 11, 1982 when I became a mom! I absolutely fell in love with Chris and have LOVED each of my children and have been in love with children ever since! I have taught preschool Sunday school, high school Sunday school. Children are the future...we really need to invest in their lives in a big way! Investment starts with love...

We came back in town last year right on his birthday, so celebrating happened a few weeks later, but this year we are going to celebrate ON his b'day and are having his favorite...grilled barbecue chicken, potato salad and Coke! We missed doing this while we were in Kentucky.

We loved our boys and really did have a time of it trying to raise each of them, in different ways, and sometimes had to question whether we'd make it through every stage...but we are happy to say that Chris is exactly how we raised him to be. He is loving and caring, would give the shirt off his back to help someone (even in the cold) and he is a great kid!

He is looking forward to the twins getting here, and I think they will really LOVE their big brother Chris!

Happy Birthday Chris...we're glad we're home again to celebrate your day! We love you! :)