Overwhelmed ...

Tonight I am so overwhelmed with the responsibility of parenting. Not overwhelmed in a bad way but overwhelmed with gratitude that He has blessed Cameron and I with three little ones to parent. Then to add to that, He has blessed us with an opportunity to parent someone else's baby. The realization of this brings a huge lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. Literally causes me to lift my hands to Him and praise Him for choosing us to raise Andrew, Parker, Piper and now Joleigh.
I strongly encourage you to visit my friend Andrea's blog. Okay, so we've never met but if I have a kindred spirit out there... it's Andrea. She is currently in Ethiopia picking up Isaac. You really should read her latest post about meeting his birth mother. Your heart will be richly blessed.

And then we were...

27 (twenty-seven) is the natural number following 26 and preceding 28. Twenty-seven is the smallest positive integer requiring four syllables to name in English, though it can be unambiguously defined in just two: "three cubed." Thank you Wikipedia for all the useless info about our new number:)

Texas Vacation

We went on vacation a couple of weeks ago to visit my cousin Amy and her husband Brian. They live in Denton, TX. We had tons of fun. We spent one afternoon @ a Fort Worth kids science museum. The boys LOVED it! They had the coolest 3-D video/ride exhibit. Piper was terrified. Bless her soul;0). Here's a pic of the recycle exhibit:

Amy and Brian kindly watched Piper for a couple of days so we could go to San Antonio with the boys. We spent one night there and then went to Sea World the next day. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed looking at sharks and whales but our favorite thing to do was feeding the dolphins. If you were really quick, you could pet one for a few seconds during the feeding. Quite the experience!
Piper had a good time in TX and really loved Amy and Brian's dogs. Her favorite was Queen:).

Here are some pics of Sea World (and yes, all of these pics were taken with my iPhone, I was too lazy to get out a real camera;)

Continually moving down...

We are now number ....

God has continued to break my heart for the children on the waiting list. I literally just stare at their faces over and over. I've begged Cameron to let us take them but in all honesty, we probably wouldn't be allowed to b/c of the birth order rule. They try really hard to not place out of birth order, so our daughter will most likely be younger than Piper. We are VERY excited about finding out who Joleigh is and are in constant prayer for her and her birth family. Honestly, some days I just feel a little overwhelmed about the whole thing and question, "are we crazy?" but then God reminds of His plan for us. When I look at it through human eyes, it's really hard to make sense of it all but when He gives me His perspective, I am so overwhelmed with gratitude that He is choosing to bless us with another one of His children. I would gladly sacrifice comfort, finances, sanity (some days;) to be blessed by another one of His children.
The can collecting is still going strong! We've raised just over $1700 since late November! Someone said the other day, "I bet your kids are going to look back and say remember that year we collected all those cans and ran over them with our car" hehe... I hope so! We are definitely known as the "can family" and I am so thankful for that. SO grateful God is using aluminum to make a difference in the life of a child and a difference in the life of those giving.

A little of this and that...

We are now number 33. There were no new referrals this week BUT a sweet baby girl was taken off the waiting list so we went down a number! There's a little girl on there who is 5 that has captured my heart but we are not eligible to adopt her b/c she is Parker's age and they do not do "artificial" twinning. I'm at peace with the fact, she's not who God has chosen for us but my heart still aches for her to find a home! Please pray with me for her.

School is OUT!! YAY! We are leaving Tuesday to go to Texas to stay with Amy and Brian and can't WAIT! They are going to watch Piper one day/night for us so we can take the boys to SeaWorld. They will LOVE it... maybe not as much as me, but they will LOVE it:).

Andrew finished up his first year of Kindergarten and Parker is on his way next year. Hard to believe! Parker did GREAT at Kindergarten screening. I was so proud of him. God really put my mind at ease and helped me see he is totally ready. His Asst. Principal went over the scores with us and she said, "he did as well on this test (PPVT) as he possible could have... he scored like he was 8 1/2 years old." Parker said, "WOW!!" I was so glad his first experience @ school was positive.

Some of the BEST news we've had lately is that Cameron got a job at Acxiom. He was laid off in October and has been feverishly hunting since. While it was hard, we knew and trusted He was taking care of us and providing for us. It has been such a blessing for Cameron to be home. His severance package has practically paid for our adoption cost, all but the travel. He was able to be home with Parker and Piper almost all school year. He helped teach Parker how to read. It has been a time he will cherish forever. His job doesn't start until June 21st so we have a couple of weeks off together. We are so thankful for how He cares for us. We are also SO thankful that He has burdened us to live well below our means so this time without a job wasn't financially straining. He is GOOD!

Fundraising is going well. I am a little nervous with the school year being over b/c my fellow teachers/students were the bulk of my can raising. I trust He has funds in store for us, though. We've actually raised almost enough for one trip to Ethiopia which is GREAT! We're just trying to raise for our second trip. I've been taking pics to help raise money, too. Yesterday I took some sweet pictures of the cutest newborn named Ella.