How did we get here?

I wanted to share how we got to our choice of foster care/ adoption. There is so much answered prayer that has lead us here, and I will have to share about that another time, but I wanted to specifically share about how we chose foster care.

I always knew that I wanted to adopt a child. It is in my heart, I know God put that there, and I am thankful. It honestly surprised me to learn that some people do not immediately love all children. I always have. Of course having my own is different, but I have always wanted to love on every child I babysat, or watched in the nursery, or taught, or played with. I am not worried about bonding with a child and I am thankful for how this opportunity.

 When we started early discussions about adoption, international adoption wasn't really ever even brought up. I know we aren't called to do that, at least now. We have friends who have, and that has been wonderful for their families. Money plays a big role. It is a lot of money. But mostly I worry about the ethics surrounding international adoption right now. As Christians we are called to care for orphans. But are we called to steal them from their families and cultures? Not saying this is the case all the time, even most of the time, but it happens. I would love for the christian community to help these families stay together, rather than separating them permanently.
I thought this blog series was very informative, here is part 2 and Part 3. Also if you haven't read this post, you simply must. So funny! I am also about to read this book, nice and freshly downloaded to the kindle. Maybe I will share the review when I am done.

So international adoption was out, and pretty much the same for domestic infant adoption. We did like the foster care option though. I have known a few friends and friends of friends who have adopted through foster care and could not be happier. Not to say it wasn't a hard road, but definitely a happy ending. It pretty much costs nothing to adopt from foster care, so that is great for us. It is extremely rewarding, and I know it is going grow our faith leaps and bounds. Most importantly we want to be a foster family because abuse and neglect of children happens everywhere. It is terrible, but true. If we can be a safe family for a child, even if it is only for a little bit, then we are happy.

Blogging!?! Update on life

It's been awhile! 8ish months to be exact. In order to be a better child of God, wife, and mom I knew I had to give up blogging. It is not something that I am passionate about. I enjoy doing so many things, but blogging is not really up on that list. I still craft as much as possible and love it! My favorite hobby for sure. I think when I blogged about it, I felt so much pressure to have great, witty posts and beautiful pictures, that I stopped enjoying it. It has been so long since I blogged that there isn't even blog reader anymore!

So what have I been up to and why am I blogging now?
My hubby and I have been married for 8 years now and loving that man more and more each day.

I have been busy with my crazy boys, now 2 and 5. Brady starts kindergarten in a few weeks!

We have been busy with friends and family.

Going on lots of fun trips.

My mom and I had an amazing 13.1 mile hike up to the top of pikes peak. It was on my bucket list, and I am already excited for the next time I get to do it. So special being able to hike my 1st 14er with my mom.

I am training for a half marathon in October. The longest run I have ever done is a 10k so I am super excited  for this race. I am only at 4 miles at a time right now, so I still have a lot of training to do, and it is keeping me busy.

I have even gotten a few projects done too. This is my $5 garage sale find I redid. Loving it.

Hardest part of our year so far was loosing our lab Coco, she is so missed.

Overall we have been doing great and feel so blessed!

So why am I blogging now? We are on a path to expanding our family. We have always wanted to adopt and we are now starting the process. We have felt called specifically to foster to adopt a baby. We are excited about becoming a foster family and our hope is to one day have a permanent addition to our family. While getting more information and figuring out the process I felt a little lost. There are so many options and every state and county is different. So the main reason I am blogging is to share what we are learning and to share what our process is. Every family is different, so our path might not be helpful to everyone, but it may help someone. Of course on this road we cannot share any info or pictures of our foster children, but we can share what steps we are taking, and how God is working in our family on this journey.
I hope to explain in a lot more detail soon, and what we have been through so far. We are super early on, but if just one person can be educated in foster care or foster to adopt, I will be so happy.

Girls Night

I have been wanting to start having monthly girls nights. I eventually want to have a group of ladies to craft with and just be girly with. The first night was double duty. Girls night, while also helping out my friend Cathy who is starting out her Mary Kay biz. I wanted desserts and lots of them, so I knew I was not going to want to wear tight cute pants. I wanted the coziest clothes I could think of, so I decided on a Pajama party!

Only Problem with that is, I did not have any cute Pj's. I typically just wear an old t shirt or maybe some sweat pants. But that isn't fun, so I had to have some new ones. Christmas is coming, money is tight, and I have a ton of fabric, sooo that results in making some pants.

Actually made them into Capri's. I think they are pretty cute. I really like the soft satin ribbon bow. The picture on the other hand....

I sort of looked over this tute before I started, but I kind of just went with it.

Source: danamadeit.com via Melissa on Pinterest

They aren't perfect, one leg needs to be fixed, but good enough!

Perfect for my fun evening with the girls.
We had, Peanut butter cookie sandwiches. So good! Recipe here...

Source: eatcakefordinner.blogspot.com via Melissa on Pinterest

Oreo Truffles, Cheesecake stuffed Strawberries, Some Popcorn

And just a good time with Pjs, make up, and friends. One thing I forgot to mention... Because a lot of my girl friends husbands are deployed or out of town, we had kids come also. There ended up being 11 kids, 10 of them boys! It was a crazy mad house. Still fun though! (Next time, no kids!)

Shoulda whoulda coulda

We are just going to skip over the whole "I am sorry I haven't blogged in forever, I have a million excuses" thing. I am simply lazy, and busy, but mostly lazy.
I do feel the blogging urge right now though. So here is just a little something on my mind.

Do you ever think about doing something, but never get around to doing it? And when you finally do it, you wonder what took you so long? You realize you should have done this long ago. This happens to me often.

Today, Bryson was once again trying to pull out everything out of my wallet at church and spilling everything everywhere, leaving my credit cards who knows where. Then later today he pulled everything out of Jeremy's wallet, mistakenly left on our bathroom counter. It was time. I was going to finally make time to get this baby his own little wallet.

For some reason Jeremy had an old wallet, and I had an old coach wallet (you can't throw that away!) So I found old cards I had given to the boys to play with, like old insurance cards and store loyalty cards. We always have a billion of those. I stuffed them all in the wallet, and voila.
I am telling you it was genius. Both boys were occupied with their little wallets for at least a total 45 minutes throughout the day. So why did I not so this sooner? I should have done this long, long ago! Now I am trying to decide if I should take away the wallets for a few days, and then bring them back.

This one is fun, the pen would make me a little nervous though.

Source: the-acts-of-grace.com via Melissa on Pinterest

Next on my list to keep my little guy busy....

Source: aspottedpony.com via Melissa on Pinterest

So you have to tell me, what is something that I should have done long ago? It's the simple things that make Mom's lives easier, and they are too great not to share! Hopefully see you soon friends :)

Blogging!?!

Shocked? Did you think maybe I fell off the earth?
I have thought about blogging often. But then I think, it has been so long, why start now?
For the record I started this on 5/27......

.......And started again 8/29. Don't know is it lack of motivation? Too busy? Lost interest?

Most of my spare time over the past year has been spent working on my Jamberry business. I do like it and it is going very well. However, my passion, the one hobby I love the most is sewing/crafting. I have not stopped, I just never blog about it anymore. I find time to do other things, so I think I am going to find time to do this as well. I have made quite a few things over the past year, but I have not shared them. Hopefully I can catch you up, and start blogging again!

I miss it. I enjoy blogging. I am going to shoot for once a week. Brady starts preschool again in a week, and that makes it just me and the crazy, now old baby 12 hours a week. He will still take naps so I am hoping to free up some time to spend working on some additional things I love.

See you soon? Hopefully less than a year from now :)

Black Friday Sale

I am not about promoting myself all the time, but I did want to share an awesome deal with you all! You do not even have to get out of your PJ's or fight the crowds to get it either!

This Thursday and Friday (November 24 & 25)
Purchase the Black Floral and/or Black & White Horizontal Stripes at
HALF PRICE!

Receive FREE SHIPPING on your entire order when a Black Friday Special is purchased.

Additional savings: Purchase 3 nail shields at regular price and get 1 FREE!
(3 for 1 offer does not apply to the Black Friday special)

What a great deal on some stocking stuffers, or as gifts to friends. And these styles are definitely some of my favorites, and this is a better price than I can even get them. I will be stocking up! You can head to my site on Thursday or Friday, and purchase them there, or contact me if you have any questions. 

Anyone else headed to do some black Friday shopping this year?

A few more gifts

I am not editing these photos or anything, just wanted to quickly share something. This week shall offically be called craft week, so I am going to have some great things to share once again. Poor blog, so neglected. 

Months ago now, I made a few gifts for some friends and their new babies. 

 My friend  Jennifer had a sweet baby girl, and her Big brother is just elated.

 Now they can matching shirts, and plus big brother feels included.

 Next up was another friend with another little girl. I Loved this quilt top. And I loved the idea of it quilted.
And then I started quilting! I feel like I ruined it. I did not pin enough, and I thought I was using differnet batting.

 Oh well, it is still okay, just very homemade looking, not professional at all.

 At least I can learn from it in the future.

Sorry, that was a bit boring huh? I promise, something good soon, I miss this little part of the web.  Hope you and you family have a very Happy Thanksgiving!