Moving.

So much has happened since last friday I can’t even begin to put it all down in writing. Short version: The house I am temporarily in charge of became a modified FBC house (4 live in staff, 5 children) and I have a 6-week-old preemie, a one-week-old with health problems, a 2 1/2 year old and a 5-year-old. This Monday I am FINALLY moving into FBC with Nicole. So I am working all weekend and packing (plus I’m sick ) then moving on Monday. We will have a 3-year-old and 5-year-old brother and sister and the two other kids we were supposed to have are leaving on Monday now. We will probably have a newborn but other than that I am unsure which kids will round out our family. I just wanted to give a short post because I am sure I will be incredibly busy getting everything situated next week. Love to everyone. This is my 2 1/2-year-old and my 5-year-old watching a movie on Saturday night.

At Last

I finally got a kid after waiting for 30 days! She is an adorable two and a half year old with the biggest, bright green eyes. She has an 11-month-old brother but he is in another house because I already have the two babies.

Long Time No See

It is impossible to update you on everything that has happened since I last posted (in April :S).

Now I am the foster parent in House I temporarily. I have two babies. There were both born in July, five days part. The little boy is the brother of my two girls I've had in House J since March and my little girl is 6 1/2 weeks old and only 4 lbs. She is so tiny and precious. I have never held anyone so small and beautiful! I am in limbo waiting for more children to be placed with me. Nicole and I are waiting (not very patiently) to move to FBC. We are told it will be the middle of September. I will not hold me breathe but hopefully it will happen soon. I just wanted to post a short hi and a few pictures and see if MAYBE I can get back into the blogging state of mind. I miss all of you!

My two girls just celebrated their 3rd and 4th birthdays last Sunday and today!!

Sending hot Texas love!

McDonald's Momma

It seems to be getting easier all the time! While visiting Joan's Dad in Medford, Oregon we stopped at McDonald's for dinner one night. I noticed an 86 Chrysler parked in the lot with the 80 year-old driver just sitting in the driver's seat. Even after we had gone in to order she still sat there intent on something in her car.

While we ate I watched her finally enter the store and order something for her dinner. I overheard the cashier say, "We only take cash or credit card. We don't take checks." She acquiesced, paid another way, and moved over to wait for her order to come out. When I looked up again she was trying to carry her handbag, a sack of dinner, and a cup holder with two sundaes and an empty cup for her drink. She got them over to the fountain drink stand just fine, but once she had filled the drink container I figured it would be more of a challenge than she could handle heading out the door.

I rose from my seat, walked up to her, and asked if I could help her. She looked up at my 6'3" frame from her 5' 2" inch height and said, "That would be real nice, thank you." I told her I understood sometimes how hard it is to balance everything and was glad I could help her. While we walked out to the car she asked me if I was waiting for my order and I told her no, "I was just finishing up my dinner with my family inside."

She thanked me again as I waited for her to get her handbag and dinner sack into the car before I handed her the cup holder. I told her I was glad to help and hoped she had a good evening.

I have found myself asking God to help me see ways in which I can help others each day. I have found people are usually very accepting when you ask if you can help them. I also have found it gives me immense pleasure to see them smile, where just before I only saw a frown or a worried look.

Yes, there are times I am so focused on what I want that I fail to recognize some else's need. Yes, there are times when I get frustrated at a long line or a person littering the sidewalk or the road way as if they were the only ones on a planet where everyone else picked up after them. Yes, I still expect people to thank me when I help, but I am learning that to live in the Kingdom of God we need to be ready to assist others in their walk, be it physical or spiritual. And sometimes we need to do that without receiving any appreciation at all.

I hope that we can all have the eyes of Jesus and see the need, share the compassion, and experience the joy, he brings, by offering our help to any who are in need.

Hoping we can serve all those still in need, in some way,

Pastor Randy

Change Sucks But It Happens

Since I last wrote a post so much has happened! My three sisters (the 6-year-old, the 2-year-old, and our baby) left on March 17th after being with us since my fourth day at Casa.

I was very shaken up and so sad. Then we got a 2-month-old little boy on the 18th who was absolutely beautiful. Then my 3-year-old that had been with us for 6 months left on April 6th.

(This picture won't turn for some reason)

Again, just absolutely devastated, but I turned around the next day and left for a long weekend with Zach in LA! While I was gone our new baby left and we got two brothers, 2 1/2 years old and 1 year old. They are adjusting quickly. Now we are a household run by boys! The whole time I've been here the house majority has always gone to the girls. Alice, one of the girls that lives in the house with me, is moving to another house :( Needless to say there have been more than a few changes in the last month. We still have two open spots in our house so we could be getting new kids anytime.

My Life in Pictures

Use your own captions :) My kids, the rodeo, my family, my boyfriend!

Camera Happy?

Interesting thing I just noticed while uploading hundreds of pictures. I took over 550 pictures and 43 videos in the span of 12 days. Oh the joys of having something so wonderful that it commands the need to take so many pictures. . . children :)

Toothbrush Chronicles

In the next couple days I will post about my wonderful trip home but that post will take some time. I just wanted to throw this out really quick because I thought it was cute.

Last night during snack before bed my three-year-old and I (and a volunteer) had this conversation regarding her toothbrush. I will refer to her as C and the volunteer is V. She was sitting at the table eating her raisins and I was coming back from the bathroom.

C: Emily what are you doing? (picture in a cute little kid voice)

E: I was getting your toothbrush ready. It's calling your name. ( not meaning it literally)

V: Do you hear it?

C: Yeah (nods very seriously)

V: What is it saying?

C: (here she shouted her name as if the toothbrush was yelling her name)!

We all bust up laughing. She was totally sincere.

I responded in a little high pitched voice, E: Come brush your teeth with me.

And without missing a beat she yelled back, C: I'm still eating right now!

She didn't even crack a smile :) It was the funniest thing. Maybe you had to be there but it was so cute.

Happy Monday! Don't take life so seriously

Seek Beauty

The church I attend has a bookmark with the "Rhythms of Ecclesia" on it, six things to keep in mind each week. Seek beauty is one of them.

• Take time to capture at least three snapshots of beauty each week.

I cannot think of a truer expression of God's beauty then in His children. So I wanted to share my snapshots of the week.

I wish I could show pictures of their laughing faces. These are just three of many. Have a blessed week and remember to Seek Beauty.

Baby D

I've been meaning to post this for over a month now..Our baby can STAND on her own!! She stood without holding onto anything for the first time when she was only 8 months old. On the 24th of February she turned 9 months old and the day before her 9 month birthday she took her first steps. She is getting too big too fast. She is definitely going to be walking all over the place before she is a year. We like to call her our genius baby :)

And One Month Later. . .

Our brother and sister who came in January.

Three cuties watching a squirrel play on

the fence outside the window!

I cannot believe how fast time goes. The first month of 2011 is already over! I hope everyone's new year is turning out better than they hoped. At Ecclesia (my church) we are talking about Heaven. It is a really neat thing to focus on at the beginning of a new year. "A vision of the future changes the way you live today." This is the key point we have been focusing on for the past couple weeks. When you believe in Heaven it will make you live in a radically different way.

So a quick recap of my life for the last month.

I am not sure how many of you knew that I was living in another house at the beginning of January. One of the girls that does FBC (family-based care) is on her own. She is the only adult living in the house and takes care of the children 24/7 by herself. She has been here a couple years and is awesome. Anyways, she was taking a much deserved vacation and someone needed to babysit her children while she was gone. That's where I come in. I took care of 4 children age 2-7 for a week and a half on my own. Here is a picture of the 2 and 3-year-old, so cute!

I can truly say I got a small taste of what being a single mom would be like. I did everything from speech therapy to packing school lunches to cooking and cleaning everyday. Needless to say I was very exhausted by the time 8 o'clock rolled around every night. They are great kids and so cute, but I missed my kids and it was great to go home. And sleeping past 6:00 am was also a plus.

The week I returned we were down 3 staff people in my house so we were beyond busy. Then Zach arrived on Friday, looking as handsome as I remember! It was great to finally be able to show him my life and introduce him to my kids. We mostly spent time around the house but we did go to a nearby park, hang out with my new friends, try some fabulous restaurants, and attend my church. I really enjoyed being able to go to church together again. The trip was way too short and it was soon time to say goodbye.

Some pictures from the kids playing outside. Our new little girl. She turns 3 in March and is super cute with big chubby cheeks. She has the most adorable little voice and calls me eh-mah-me (it kind of sounds like mommy out loud) because she can't say my name. I love it.

Juliette opened her bedroom window to say hi and the kids were all excited. They took a quick break from bike riding and were very fascinated about her bedroom since they are never allowed upstairs. Our little girl in the middle (in the blue helmet) needs a hug before anyone is allowed to leave the room she is occupying. She always runs down the hall yelling, "A hug, a hug!" This is what we would say she is "famous" for (other than her crazy dancing). She is holding her arms open in the picture asking Juliette for a hug. I love the complete faith of children. They trust that we will never let them down and will stand vulnerable with their arms wide open. Even a hug from the second story is possible to them. She was really standing ready for a hug; this is the cutest thing in the world.

Helping push the trike. They are great little helpers.

I had to vacuum out one of our cars so I brought our 3-year-old out to help. She wanted to put her seat belt on while she sat int he car. She helped vacuum a little bit but just enjoyed sitting in the car buckled up watching me vacuum. Little kids are so funny, they just like to be involved.

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged. The next one will be sooner! I miss everyone and all my roommates were on my mind today after picking up my 6-year-old from school. We were talking on the way home about how she has a "big girl" bed and she is getting so grown up. She commented (completely sincere), "Yup, soon enough I'll be in college!" I couldn't help but laugh. The way she said it cracked me up. Little kids always want to grow up so fast and can't wait to be adults. I feel like I wish I could slow time down. It seems like just yesterday I was heading off to college and I cannot believe how fast it went. A little shout out to all my Corner House girls. I miss the experience I had with them in our home and the wonderfulness (yes a word) of Whitworth, but I am also so excited about where all of our lives are taking us now and the future that awaits each of us. A picture of the future should make us think about how we are living our lives today, but it is so easy to get caught up in focusing on next week or next year when today is what really matters.

Happy New Year!

Dancing!

I can't believe it is already 2011. Right now I am sitting and waiting for a phone call to go pick up two kids. They give us a time window and then we just wait for the call to go get them. The anticipation is very exciting. We are given names and birth dates and we know nothing else until we get them.

We decided to let our kids stay up on New Year's Eve. The two-year-old made it to 10:30 but the older two stayed up till midnight. We watched a movie, played Twister, watched the ball drop, and drank sparkling cider with sweet potato fries (kind of a staple at our house right now). We let the kids "sleep in" the next morning, as much as young kids sleep in, and just had a relaxed day and watched the Rose Bowl parade. We had a big New Year's Day dinner with all the staff and watched The Little Mermaid. The holiday season has been very fun with the kids. With such a large family (7 staff and usually 6 children) it is really fun when we all hang out and sit down to dinner together. It feels just like being part of a big, noisy family.

We sat on the couch for

half an hour watching

a thunderstorm.

Artists in the making.

Cute in wings.

Our baby is pulling herself up on her own now!

Our beautiful 3-year-old!

I did her hair :)

She loved watching the sweet potato fries cook.

She was fascinated by the orange color.

Playing on a scooter outside.

Just thought I'd share some cute pictures from the end of 2010. I wish everyone many blessings in 2011!