We're All In This Together

Hillsong sharing their heart!

My Baby Boy is 1

Notice my stitches in my finger :-)

It's hard to believe my sweet baby boy is one! He is such a joy! No matter how bad my day might be, one smile from him makes it all better! He is sitting so well now and is on the verge of crawling. He's trying, but he's traveling backwards instead of forward. He loves being tickled and has the funniest little laugh! He loves grabbing hair and earrings and he eats pretty much anything you put before him! He loves playing with his block and anything he can bang together and bite on.

We invited family and a few friends over for a soup lunch for Eli's birthday. Cole had to leave early that morning to take SK to Auburn for a track meet. About 8:30 I finished preparing the soups and had them in their crock pots and I began cleaning up the kitchen. While trying to save a little room in the garbage can by putting a smaller can inside a larger one I managed to slice my finger open on the lid. Blood splatters all over the place (thankfully the soups were on the other side of the kitchen) and the kids went crazy. Jon Cole immediately took charge and began cleaning up my mess. I then had to call my mom to see if she could pick up the chicken fingers and cake on their way in and thankfully Cole's mom was able to come stay with the kids while I ran to the ER. It was interesting trying to get dressed, brush my teeth, wash my face, etc. while holding my sliced finger that kept bleeding since it was cut on the inside of my pointer knuckle. I drove to the ER and thankfully it was not crowded. I kept mentioning that I had a LOT of people coming to my house at 11 for my sons 1st birthday party:-) They were very nice and moved as quickly as possible. I made it back home about 10:30.... 30 minutes to spare. I had not planned on wearing a ball cap to his party and I had planned on doing a little more cleaning, but at that point I was just happy to be there and thankful that the soup was ready and for all the people that came to celebrate Eli's special day! I will always remember getting my first stitches at Eli's 1st birthday party! As you can see, he REALLY enjoyed his cake! Looking forward to many more celebrations with you sweet boy! Mama loves you sooooo much!

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Psalm 139:14

Happy Birthday Zoe!

  

We celebrated Zoe's 11th birthday with friends from school at the ice rink! This year Zoe transferred to Trinity with the rest of her brothers and sisters!  It's so nice having them all together and knowing that she is not only being taught academically, but more importantly, spiritually!  I spent a lot of time in prayer trying to determine if that would be the best fit for her.  Trinity is not very diverse in make up, but we are quickly helping to change that :-)  I was fearful of how Zoe might be treated and if she was academically prepared for a college prep curriculum after only attending school for 3 1/2 years.  Once again the Lord has been merciful to us and she is right where she needs to be!  The other students, teachers and staff have all welcomed her with open arms!  This is joy to my soul!  It was such a blessing to hear the other moms talk about the things their children say about Zoe.  What stood out most is that none of their comments had anything to do with skin color, it involved her personality, her smile, her kick ball abilities :-)  etc.  I know that 4th grade can be a tough grade socially and I am rejoicing in the class that she has joined and their loving and embracing hearts and how they have all ministered to us and been a blessing to our family.  

Thank you Lord for the gift you have given me, our family and our community, in Zoe!  It has been both amazing and a joy to watch her grow and mature in so many ways.  I wish I could claim some responsibility for it, but you alone Lord receive ALL glory!  Thank you for taking us down a road that we never planned and for not allowing our fears of all the unknowns to prevent us from missing out on all the joy that we have been given in this precious child of yours!  Thank you for allowing me to be her mom!  I continue to be greatly blessed!

Happy Birthday Mom aka Nanna

Dear Lord, today I turn to you to give you thanks for my mother. With your own gift of life, she bore me in her womb and gave me life. She tenderly, patiently cared for me and taught me to walk and talk. No one delighted in my successes more; no one could comfort me better in my failures. I am so grateful for how she mothered me and mentored me, and even disciplined me. I am thankful for the blessing she is now to my children.

Please bless her, Lord, and comfort her. Help her loving heart to continue to love and give of herself to others. Strengthen her when she is down and give her hope when she is discouraged.

Most of all, Lord, on my mothers birthday, give my mother the graces she most needs and desires today. I ask you this, in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior forever and ever.

Miracle In Franklin

Beach Bums

The 6 youngest kiddos and I decided to take a last minute trip to the beach with my parents. We had a wonderful time together and I am thankful for the wonderful memories and for these images to always help me remember. Oh, how I love photos!!! These are some of my favorites, but the rest are all here.

What's for dinner? Rice and beans!

This month we have joined Amy in her pay it forward challenge. We are eating beans and rice for dinner Sunday through Thursday (taking Friday and Saturday nights off) and the money we save we will be donating to help pay for someone else's adoption. You can read about it HERE. It's been pretty nice not having to come up with a meal plan :-)

When I first mentioned this to the kids I was met with some resistance.... "I have to have meat", "I can't eat just beans and rice", etc. Those comments confirmed that we needed to do this. We are so spoiled and have every need and pretty much most wants met. This has been a great way for our family to focus on the needs of others. What feels like a sacrifice to them would be a blessing to billions all over the world.

I would challenge you to listen to the sermons titled Faith Loves, Faith Acts, and Faith Sacrifices by David Platt. They can be downloaded for free from itunes under "Brookhill Audio". (when you finish those, start working your way through his radical series) I warn you ahead of time they they will challenge you and hopefully change you and I look forward to seeing the fruit of this faithful preaching for God's glory!

Another sweet bloggy friend, and fellow Alabamian wrote a beautiful post that mirrors my thoughts that I haven't found time to put into words so I leave you with her post to ponder!

Matching Mondays

John (7) & Joseph (6)

Elizah

A special family has been praying for this cutie, so lets join them and praying for his family to find him soon!

Jazmine

Orphan Sunday

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Matching Monday

Damian, Casey, Keaton & Destiny

Aaron S.

Cole is beginning to get nervous, so someone PLEASE inquire about this precious boy!  

Do you treat them different?

While checking out at Target the other day the cashier was talking to Eli and then asked if he was my only child :-) When I told her I had 7 children a look of complete shock came over her face as she told me I didn't look like I had seven kids.  Assuming she was talking about my physical appearance vs still being sane, I explained that I had only birthed two. Well, that led to a bunch of other question, one of which was "do you treat them different?". I explained to her that they are all my children. They joined our family through different means but they are MY children and my love for them is the same.

That same night at church while discussing adoption and the upcoming foster training we will be offering I had a similar discussion. " Do you really love them the same?" She was using the example of her love for her children and that for her nephew and how they were different. I explained that while they are not my flesh and blood they ARE my children! I'm not just providing them food, shelter and care...they have my heart!  They had my love before I ever met them!  They didn't have to earn it or prove that they were a good "fit" for our family!  Whatever the future holds....good, bad, ugly...they are MY children and my love for them is equal and unconditional.  As Christians we should view adoption differently than that of the "world".  It's not just a means to grow our family to give us the desired family portrait we've always dreamed of having on the wall.  It's an opportunity to live out a visible gospel.  

When we confess our sins and repent and accept Jesus Christ as Lord we are Children of God!  We are adopted into the family of Christ and we recieve a full inheritance with no fear of it being "disrupted".  Our adoption is not dependent upon our good behaviors (praise God) because...."There is no one righteous, not even one"  We did /do nothing to earn our adoption.  It is offered to us freely, but it did not come without great cost and sacrifice.  Our Lord sent his Son, who was perfect and blameless, to suffer and die so that we could become his children through adoption.  God is the creatory and model for adoption and as believers we are to be imitators of Christ!  We too, must be wiling to go beyond what is comfortable and easy and be willing to die to self and be the hands and feet of Christ to these children who long for the love of family...and ultimately the family of Christ.  Does it make sense to the world for a family who is capable of concieving to choose to adopt? NO...but that's what he called us to do! Does it make sense for a family of 3 to adopt a sibling group of 3...and then another sibling group of 3?  No...but He called this family to do just that! Does it make sense for a young 19 year old woman to move to Uganda and run a ministry feedng hundreds of children each week and become a mother of 13? NO...but that's exactly what Katie has been called to(and you must take time to read through her whole blog!)! BUT IT MAKES SENSE TO OUR LORD!  

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27 

Don't be afraid to practice pure and undefiled religion and do something that seems crazy to those around you.  Scripture tells us that God's ways are not our ways.  Listen to His calling and His heart in the scriptures and pray for wisdom as to how He would use you!  

-- 

Matching Mondays

Today I'm advocating for precious Saul!  I LOVE this little boy and I'm praying his family claims him soon before I talk Cole into number 8!  When we did not think Eli's adoption was going to happen we began looking internationally again and we were drawn to two precious boys.  Saul in Hong Kong and Ezequiel in the Philippines.  I am so happy to find out that Ezequiel has a family committed to him, but sweet Saul still waits.  While we waited to see if Hong Kong would approve us, Eli's adoption began to look like it was going to happen again, so we held off.  At that time he was only able to be adopted from 2 stated which was very limiting, but his agency contacted me last week to inform me that he can now be adopted from ANY state!!! Hong Kong has low costs (as far as adoptions go) and travel is not required.  Look at that beautiful smile!!!  Is he your son?!?!?!  Praying for my sweet Saul and the lucky family that will get to call him son!

Happy 7th Birthday Jon Cole

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

Jon Cole and his requested birthday breakfast...blueberry waffles with syrup and whip cream!

It's hard to believe it's been seven years since my sweet boy was born.  It has been such a joy to watch him grow and mature into the young fella he is today.  We have been enjoying watching old home videos around here lately and it is amazing how quickly they grow and change.  This morning we were watching the video from Christmas when he was  1 1/2 and he got a Noah's Arc boat with animals and Cole showed him the box and pointed to Noah and asked who he was and he proudly yelled "Santa"....who else would you expect with a white beard at Christmas:-) This just made me think about both his physical growth and spiritual growth.  It's exciting to look back and see such growth!  

Jon Cole is a wonderful little "big" brother to Samuel.  He is always keeping an eye out to make sure he is cared for and it is such a blessing to see.  Jon Cole simply adores Eli and would spend all day holding and caring for him if he could.  He has asked multiple times if we could adopt another child with down syndrome, so I look forward to watching God continue to mature his compassionate heart and see where it takes him.  He has my type A personality and he also has some of my self diagnosed OCD tendancies and he is so predictable and funny to watch.  He is a rule follower and he helps me keep Emme in line (which requires a lot of help ;-) One of his greatest love languages is physical touch so I enjoy cuddlng with him and giving him lots of good squeezes and he also gives me the best back and shoulder rubs and I hope they continue for many years to come.  He loves being a helper!  He takes pride in doing work of all kinds and

he does it with a cheerful heart!  I love you sweet boy and pray we have many more years to cuddle together!  Happy Birthday!

But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory boh now and forever! Amen.  

2 Peter 3:18

Tears of the Saints

Matching Mondays

Nikita

Dwan

Sierra & Nicholas