I am thankful, thankful for many things....I need to remind myself of the many wonderful and amazing blessings the Lord has given my family this year. I do not want to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas and forget why we celebrate it in the first place. I will be the first one to say I stress way to much over what to buy people but this year I am trying not to do that, yes I want to get that perfect gift but the truth is most of us already have the perfect gift, so today I am reminding myself to rejoice in all the things God has given us and enjoy this wonderful time of year.Can I do that?

This Christmas I feel somewhat different than what I have in years past, I am feeling a little guilty that my children will have an abundant Christmas and many others will not. That has always bothered me but this year it does even the more so, I guess knowing that this time last year our little girl was living on the streets with nothing, never ever had any type of toy just kind of puts things in perspective a little bit. My prayer is with those less fortunate than ourselves.

I am thankful my boys have gotten to see that life is not always easy for everyone and that we are all so blessed to have the things we have and to have each other.

Caden and Resiana's homework one night this week was to write a letter to Santa, so considering they cannot spell yet I thought the most simple way would be for them to tell me what they wanted to say and I would write it down and then they could copy it. So we began and I was willing for them to say anything no matter how out there it may of been. I started by asking Resiana first what she wanted to say to Santa and she replied "I dont know" so I asked Caden and boy did I ever get a surprise. In his exact words with no hesitation -

"Dear Santa, will you please bring all the dear children that are pitiful a new home, bed, clothes, and toys, and please come sooner than we thought and I love you more than toys." he continued also by saying please do not let the children be eat by cockroaches anymore,but I left that out of the letter. I was amazed, I sit there just looking at him not sure what to say and then all of the sudden his eyes got big and he said "Mama all them kids are gonna be so happy when they get their new house and bed" at that point I was fighting back the tears, he thinks he has saved the world by asking Santa, I did not have the heart to tell him any different. Oh the in nonce of childhood.

Merry Christmas to everyone and once again Thank You so much to all of you that said a prayer for our family this year

Disney World

Just let me say it was Magical....

Thankful

I sit here tonight thinking of how thankful I am that my little family is complete, that next to me lies a sleeping baby that God has allowed us to have and what joy his little smile brings and how easy your burdens seem to roll away when you hear his laughter, I am forever grateful that God has given him to us and what a gift he truly is. I am also thankful that our little girl will eat her first Thanksgiving dinner in a few days, that she has a home and food and clothes. She has flashbacks from time to time but most often you can just find her playing with her BFF which is her brother Caden. She is still so grateful for the smallest things that I take for granted. She was excited the other day when getting dressed that she had lots of clothes to choose from and began to tell me that when she lived in " the park" she only had one clothes. Resiana is such a happy child, full of love and laughter. I cannot really imagine her life before she came to us, its really more than my mind can comprehend but I am amazed that this little girl who once spoke broken English and peeked inside every trash can we passed is now just a normal little girl who loves to play and loves school and loves life. She is doing amazing in school, she is constantly going around sounding out every single letter she sees on anything from the hairspray to the milk jug, she has caught on so well. There was a time when she did not know the simplest of things, such as a refrigerator, window, blow dryer etc. now she is no different than her brother just a normal five year old. This time last year I was the mother of two boys with no thought of what God had in store for us, I was totally satisfied with just the boys and thought we were complete but never dreamed how sitting and watching footage of the terrible earthquake in Haiti would change mine and Michael's life forever, that through that tragedy we would feel the tug upon our heartstrings that God had more children out there waiting on us, even Carter felt it and through his tears asked if we could adopt again, we would of loved to have adopted some of those children but after doing some research found out the government had put a hold on all adoptions from that country but still we felt the "call" and in less than two months later a precious little girl walked into our lives and forever changed us, now we are whole....... Michael, Crystal, Carter, Caden, Resiana, and Crimsyn!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween... We have had an eventful day filled with lots of fun for the kids. The kids had their Halloween party at school and then tonight we had our church Halloween party, the kids had a blast, Resiana was so excited even though she had no idea what all of this was about, all she kept saying all day was is this Halloween day, I guess my best explanation for Halloween is just that you get to dress up and get candy since It really has no meaning otherwise, anyways it was truly a fun day and night for the kids. Caden loves dressing up and would of wore any costume, Carter on the other hand has give me a fit about dressing up since he was three years old, he thinks its dumb but I made him as usual but I did let him take it off after a few pictures, anyways life is wonderful even though it is a circus around here sometimes, and getting everything together for four kids sometimes gets a little crazy, for instance tonight before going to the party we were all getting things together to take to the party, the food, costumes, candy etc, and in the chaos Crimsyn's bottle got warmed and put away to take with us, after getting to the party and unloading everything Crimsyn is ready for his bottle, but the bottle is nowhere to be found, we searched high and low but no bottle, so Michael had to go home and get him another bottle but no one knows where in the world the bottle went, at the end of the night when we were passing out the candy to the kids, in the bottom of the basket , under all the candy was the bottle...Who knows??? We are one happy family, a little crazy sometime but nevertheless Happy!!! Happy Halloween Everyone!!

Picture Post

Reflecting

The last few days I have been thinking about the way our lives have been blessed and how much God has given us this year, the two children he has added to our home and the love and joy they have brought, healing Crimsyn after bringing him home just in time. Wow we have had an amazing year, with many ups and downs, laughter and tears. God has taught us so much through our children all of them, but in most recent times through Crimsyn and Resiana. I never really understood the exact meaning of trusting the Lord and I know it can be said for many things "we need to trust the Lord" but through this experience I think I found out a little of what trusting the Lord was about. I remember a few days before we got the call to come back and get our baby, I was so distraught and felt part of myself was questioning everything why why why???
I did not want to be that way but I was struggling knowing what precious little Crimsyns life would be like. One day I was praying and I told the Lord he was worthy of the praise no matter what and that I would do my best to be the best even though I did not understand and I think I realized it was not for me to understand at the time, no my hurt did not go away not even in the least but he spoke peace to my soul, in a way only he could, the comforting hand of our dear Saviour...Today I am so thankful he has lifted that burden and brought so much joy to us with the GIFT of baby Crimsyn, for I know he belongs to God and we have been allowed to love and cherish him. The love I have for my childrens birth family is so great, to be given the chance to love and be loved by my children is my dream come true and the joy our children brings is the most fullfilling experience I have ever had, being a Mother is simply amazing, and I thank God daily, I have alot to learn and I need wisdom but the challenges that come along with motherhood cannot even be compared to the joys of motherhood.

As you all know Crimsyn fell very ill shortly after he came to be with us , as we were in the hospital with him it hit us of how God brought him home to us just in time, in time for him to get medical help and to have such precious people praying for him, while we were in the hospital the Lord sent him so much help, help that could of only came from him, in ways that no amount of medicine could of done..He truly is a miracle...

Our children our the happiest little kids in the world, Caden came in the living room one day while I was holding Crimsyn and said "Mama we dont have to cry anymore" they love him so much all of them but his big brother Carter is soo crazy about him and loves tending to him, he will sit forever and hold him if we let him, the little ones love him to but would rather be playing with each other, they are still best buds ( I could count on my one hand in the past six months how many times they have argued) they love each other so much and want to be together all the time, its precious.

Resiana is doing so good in school, her teacher said she is a social butterfly and everyone wants to be her friend. She still is the most grateful child you have ever seen, she will recount things that happened in the "park" from time to time and it is simply gut wrenching, I dont think she realizes how disturbing it really is, that was just her life for nearly five years. She is so normal though as if she has always been here and been our child, she is just our little girl..We are thankful beyond measure!!!

Blessings

Thank you Lord for your Blessings on our Family!!!!

We are so thankful for baby Crimsyn.....We are so thankful that God has allowed us to be parents, I remember asking God to let me be a mother however he seen fit, that if there was a child out there that he would allow us to have that I would do my best to teach him the ways of the Lord to the very best of my ability, sometime I feel so unworthy to be the mother of these four wonderful children but I look back to that prayer I so diligently prayed for six and a half years, and I know without a doubt that God choose me and Michael and Carter, Caden, Resiana, and Crimsyn to be a family, and our children know that God put us together in a different way than most families but that they are special and loved beyond measure....When Carter was around two years old we began to talk about him being adopted and what that meant and we would tell him the story of how he came to be ours and he loved to hear me tell him about it and when it was nap time he would want to hear it again and again and through the years he understood more and more and seems very content in knowing that God had a plan for all of us... When you ask my children where they were born they usually say " In My Mama's Heart"

and that is exactly how I feel, they are the children of my heart, the love of their father and my life , we are so very thankful and could never praise God enough...



Crimsyn is doing wonderful!!!!! The kids are crazy about him, always wanting to help feed him or change him...They think he is the best thing in the world and so do we, I do not think he has been laid down more than three or four times in these past five days, we cannot get enough of him...We just want to shout it from the rooftops CRIMSYN IS HOME!!!!!!THANK YOU LORD!!!