Easter 2012

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day!! My husband has taken the kids fishing and swimming this afternoon. I am headed to take a nap!! I hope I can turn my brain off long enough to sleep!

Easter Sunday

The first Easter for Hannah and Haylee in our family.
Haylee said to me this morning, "I am glad I am in your family." She melted my heart. We have difficult times, but many joyful ones as well.











All of the kids and our entire family in front of the beautiful cross.

What a difference...

a year makes! I can see a huge difference in my girls since last Easter. They visited the weekend of Easter, but went back to the foster home the Saturday night before Easter. They participated in our homeschool Easter egg hunt last year. Below are pictures of last year and this year...

Last year...

This year...

I had to post the picture of Haylee with a blue mouth because this shows so much of her personality. They all had a great time at the Easter egg hunt.

Being like Jesus...

I read this post on another blog. It was very meaningful to me, so I thought I would share.

The post reminds us that we need to love our children with unconditonal love even if they make our life very difficult.

Warning...Lot of Christmas Pictures

One thing Haylee asked for long before Christmas and continued until Christmas was a bonnet like Laura on Little House. She was so excited to get one.






Each girl received an Amer*ican Girl doll and an extra outfit. Morgan was thrilled to get hers and the new tap dance outfit



Hannah didn't ask for much, but was very excited with everything she received. We had a hard time getting her to tell us anything she wanted. We knew if the other girls received something, she would also want the same thing.








As we do every Christmas morning, my husband made pancakes. I found mini red and green white chocolate morsels for the pancakes, so they were very festive. We had a wonderful morning!!

I melts my heart when Haylee and Hannah say they are so glad to have a mommy and a daddy. Haylee had said numerous times that this is the best Christmas ever!! I am so happy God placed these girls in our home! It makes my heart ache for the many children still in foster care.

Permancy definately makes a difference. Since our finalization, the girls have improved a great deal. I wonder if it makes a difference in most children adopted from foster care?

Christmas...part 1

Morgan woke up with a temp Thursday morning. The fever continued until last night. Needless to say we didn't get to travel to have Christmas with my parents. Haylee and Hannah were very disappointed because they have heard about our traditions and wanted so bad to be a part. We weren't comfortable going with Morgan continuing to have fever. Of course, my parents traveled today and brought all of their presents and the leftover banana pudding and chocolate pie. They were both delicious!! The kids were all excited for them to arrive today. I wish I had my camcorder recording when Haylee opened the horse to go with her American Girl doll. She was so excited! It was so sweet. Hannah said they had never had a Christmas like this before. They got presents they wanted. I guess you get presents in the foster society world, but maybe not want you want. I was happy for them. They were so excited to get skates and a horse for their dolls. They have had a blast riding their skates outside today.








I don't mention the sweet big brothers very often. Below are pictures of them opening the presents my Aunt gave them. We are a divided family, part Auburn and part Alabama.

The girls were in a Christmas Musical a few weeks ago. They did wonderful!! I am so proud of how far all three of the girls have come since Haylee and Hannah joined our family in April. They had a movement part to two songs.

My sweet husband gave me a surprise 40th birthday party. This is a family picture taken at the party.

Joy

I went to bed thinking about "joy" and woke up thinking about it also. I feel like I am always correcting someone, asking someone to do something, completing a chore, ect. I feel like since April, when the girls came, I have not been able to relax enough to just enjoy my family and my life. I really want and need to try to slow down and enjoy the journey. I want to so bad, but the busyness always seems to take over, or the children not doing what they are supposed to be doing.

I turned the big "40" yesterday. I wonder if that is why I am thinking about this?

I believe God wants us to have joy in the journey. I am going to really focus on hugging, laughing and visiting with my children more. I realize "visiting" sounds silly, but I am usually task focused and not just talking with each of them.

Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving. We have an average size tree, but the girls both said they have never had one that large or pretty. This brought tears to my eyes. I am so lucky to have them as my children!! Each child picked out a special ornament at Disney World. My husband let Haylee and Hannah hang their ornaments first.

Haylee after she hung her special ornaments. She picked out Belle in a glass ball. You can see it on the tree next to her.

Hannah hung her ornament next. Both girls had fun decorating the tree.

Of course, Tucker, Alex, and Morgan also hung their special ornaments from Disney World too.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving went pretty well. At times, Hannah and Haylee would not know what to do. They would just come and look at me. I believe they weren't used to having so much free time. We weren't having school of course, so they could just play. They definately do better with structure. As the weekend went on, this improved. Hannah struggled more with the holiday. She seemed to be on the outside looking in many times. She would just be by herself watching. I am not sure what she was thinking. My husband and I believe she really struggled the week before because of the arrival of the holiday. During the time when the family was here I believe she was taking it all in to see how our family acts. I found her staring at me many times. She spent a lot of time watching everyone. She was trying to outdo Morgan many times. I wish I could read her mind.

Light School Days

Today is Monday, which means time to finish up school. We are pretty much finished for the school year. We had standardized testing last week, we have finished all of our textbooks. During the summer all of my kids have to continue to read regularly, the girls will work in their BrainQuest workbooks that review all academic areas and the boys will work on their Boy Scout merit badges. We also will finish our History book. I am letting them play outside this morning and we will continue school after lunch. We will also have "home ec" once a week. We don't have any help with cleaning the house, so I have five great helpers that can help me get the house clean. We try to keep it pretty straight, but the toilets and sinks get pretty gross! We have cleaned the house twice since the girls have been here and it has gone pretty well. We are learning the difference in windows and mirrors, cleaning and straigtening, honesty and lying. Wow, isn't it amazing how the last one creeps into everything!!

Mother's Day went well. The girls seemed to handle the day well. One girl has asked to call the Foster Mom the last few days. We tried twice last night and could not get in touch with her. How long does this continue? How long should I allow this to continue?

Mother's Day

I received many cards made with love this morning. Morgan gave me a few sweet cards, as usual. One of the twins gave me six or seven. Hearts, notebook paper, construction paper, puppets and many other precious cards. They all said something about thanks for being my mommy. One said, "I wish I could come out of your tummy." How sweet!! The other daughter had one card with many sweet things. She said she knows I still love her when she fights with Morgan, when she is scared at night and thanks for buying them clothes when they needed it. Wow!! What a sweet morning!!

I am so very blessed!!

Mother's Day

Tomorrow is suppose to be a happy day. I am blessed to be the mother of five beautiful children. However, for my two new daughter, is it different? One daughter asked to look at her birth family pictures today. My parents were here, so we all were able to browse them together. I am not sure what is going through their little minds. Did they want to look through the pictures because they are missing her as we talk about celebrating Mother's Day? How sad that their birth mom has no idea where her babies are on this special day. I can't imagine not knowing where my children live. How hard is this day for them? This is the first holiday they have had in our house. I hope it is a happy one.