No Referral for my Birthday.. but a lovely celebration anyway!

Thanks to all my family and friends who made my birthday weekend so special! I loved spending time with each of you and was so blessed by each of you taking time out of your day to celebrate with us!
Here are some very fun pictures from the last few days.... I am so blessed! 

 Carter and his Future Wife Mariah!

 My Parents... lounging at the park

 Big Man J on his board

 C and N going for a ride

 Showing us his swing... I see MLB in the future

 Plus, have you seen these muscles?! Sheeesh!

 My Buddy Heidi celebrating my Birthday at the Lake

 J on his class trip to the Lake, with his while class sitting there =)

Silly Noah... I think that is a water balloon...

Monday's.... a little different now...

This was me.....


Now into the WAITING WAITING WAITING I am actually excited for Monday's! I think every Monday for the last 4 months I have rolled over and said "Maybe this week??" to Ricky. And every time, he replies with a confident and sweet "I bet you it will be this week!"

Wishing.... Wishing.... Birthday Wishing!!!

Sooo.... It is almost my birthday and I can't help but think... "Wouldn't it be AMAZING to get a referral on my Birthday!!!" It falls on a Thursday so Bethany will be open!! I know it is out there, but man, if I could scratch all the other wishes I have ever made in my life and combined them all into this one...

I AM WISING FOR NEWS ON A SWEET BABY GIRL WHO NEEDS A MOMMA!!!! PLEASE LET THAT NEWS COME TODAY!!! 

World AIDS Orphans Day!!

Did you know that World AIDS Orphans Day is just two days away!

Nearly 20 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS – equivalent to the number of people living in New York, Paris and Rome combined. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, over 12 million children have been orphaned by the pandemic. Experts believe that millions more orphans remain unaccounted for in India, China and Russia.

.Would you join me in praying for these orphans? That God would move in the hearts of people all over this nation to bring HIV+ children into their homes to love and care for! Would you educate yourselves on what HIV is and how is can be a manageable disease here in the United States but is a death sentence across the globe!!!

Read more here:http://www.worldaidsorphans.org/

Looking for a way to get involved?? Consider AHOPE in Ethiopia!!! 

Once your eyes have been opened, you can not pretend to not know.....

Love for Anika

I am so excited to be participating in the Love for Anika project hosted by an amazing Adoptive Momma.

I know many of my beautiful friends and family are talented in ways I am not... so I am looking for a few things... someone to help me decorate, someone to help me get the word out, and a few people to co-host the food with me!! 

Then we need 9 people/families to come!!! Please read the original blog post here!!!

Comment or email me if you are interested!!! 

Trying to Live in the NOW

I am guilty of many things... but currently I am way guilty of wishing away the current and trying with all my might to make the future... the future with our Baby Girl in it... here now! I know I can't, but I have been really trying. So I am guilty of not being here in the now... missing moments with the boys and not sharing in how much I adore each of them.

Today I am making a promise to my blogger buddies (hold me accountable people!!) and to my boys:

Mommy promises to lighten up
To enjoy the noise and craziness of our life
To play more
To laugh more
To worry less
To be anxious less
To bring my mind back to here and now and less a half world away and in the future some time.

So here are some of the now.... more to come I promise! 

 Noah being his silly self...

 Noah and Nana playing (I said I would not put it on Facebook... )

 Noah and Mommy watching a 3D movie on date night with the boys

 Carter with his new Backpack from Auntie Krissyjo

 Jake getting his award at school... he his second award of the year for Academic Excellence

 Jake at his very first soccer practice... he was such a little stud!

 My men finding a treasure for their Geocaching adventures

 Me and my little Babe... We took this at his girlfriends pageant, which she won Miss Barstow

 Carter showing me how he can do "cool fingers"

 Man time in the back yard... I love spring!

Here is really the only place that Noah will eat when we are at Grandma and Grandpa's.... with his Grandpa

For the JOY he endured the Cross!

Today I was reading the following passage and wanted to share

Hebrews 12:2
.....fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For the JOY set before him... he endured the CROSS! Is anyone with me?!! People we are in a place of endurance... not the kind of being beaten and shamed but a place of endurance. And we WILL endure for the JOY set before us!!

Praise Jesus for this example and may this be the prayer of our hearts and our mind sets.... to endure for the JOY to come!