Filled!

We are doing well! This is possibly one of my favorite seasons in this life He's given me. Yes, I'm busy and exhausted. Yes, I'm terribly proud that my kitchen and living room are CLEAN while the rest of my house is dirty;). Yes, there are times that the whines of a 3 yr old or defiance of a 2 year old get to me... but oh the JOY, pure JOY I am soaking in on a daily basis. I LOVE LIFE!! Always have really but I love it even more right now. Teaching the boys has been such a blessing for me. They are both doing so well right now in school. They'd rather be playing but they never really complain about having to do work which is such a blessing for me right now. Piper is SOOO incredibly eager to learn. I have no doubt if I spent just a handful of minutes with that girl she'd be reading in no time. She's a sponge. She desperately wants to be able to do the schoolwork they are doing and will often whine "but I just can't READ!!". She can entertain herself easily. She has SO many imaginary friends, it cracks us all up. Joleigh is just a little ball of sunshine. She is content usually in all circumstances. She'll definitely let you know if she's been wronged;0) but she just plays her little heart out day in and day out.
I know God has blessed me with such an amazing amount of contentment. Life has been a whirlwind over the past few months but God has been an ever present strength for me. He has given me a great group of women who have traveled down the adoption path and have poured life into me. He fills me daily with joy and when I lay down joy is still bubbling over. I know I'm the kinda person that easily gets on others nerves b/c I'm just "so happy" but really why shouldn't we be?!? I am a sinner chosen and saved by grace and I pray that I will always be filled with joyful praise!

Life is Full!

Things around the Wallace house are good. Andrew and Parker have really enjoyed having the week to play together since Andrew has been out of school! Piper is all over the place. She constantly wants someone to be singing so she can dance to the beat;). They each fill our house with joy, joy, joy! Cam is currently awaiting a position to open up for interviews at HP and in the meantime, he's playing Daddy Daycare;). I told him he can't call it daycare when he's only watching his own. Prayers greatly appreciated with this awaited interview!
The adoption has kept us busy over the past 6 weeks. We have been on the great adoption paper chase and it is exhausting. We have been watching Hague adoption videos and taking quizzes. We have learned so much. It has been quite the journey and we're just beginning. God has proven Himself so real through the process already. During the decision making process, and sometimes still to this day, we have had questions and doubts. Some of those are:
1. Will this baby feel at home in our "oh so white" family?
2. How will the children be treated b/c we are an interracial family?
3. Are we ready for 4 children?
4. Are we ready to face the unknown challenges?
5. Will we be able to fund this adoption?
6. Will we learn how to fix this baby's hair?

Satan constantly throws these questions in my mind. In the beginning of the decision making it was really hard. One day I knew it was the right thing, the next day... I felt confident it was a mistake. It was as if Satan and God were warring over this decision, well, they were!
Every time I would gain His perspective I would remind myself that EVERY reason I had to doubt had nothing to do with HIM! It had nothing to do with eternal issues. God has been so good to remind me of His promises and bless me with His perspective.
1. This baby (Joleigh) will be part of our family and we are more than capable to care for her.
2. God will be glorified through this adoption... He already has been in many, many ways!
3. Our children will learn greater lessons through this blessing than we will ever know!
4. Joleigh will know she is loved beyond measure! Although we only have 3 children under our roof, there is no doubt there are 4 living in my heart. I can barely think of her without a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.
5. God has GREAT plans for our family and will give us many opportunities to praise and glorify Him.
6. We will learn to cling to Him through the waiting and praise Him through the storms.

Thank you Lord for your faithfulness! We are so undeserving and you are so gracious! Thank you for allowing us to praise You... what greater blessing could we have? Please use our family to bring you glory. Keep our children close to You and open their eyes to Your goodness!

Play date with Grandmommy

Grandmommy always takes her grandkids on a play date when they turn 5. Andrew got to go on his this past Saturday. He was really looking forward to it and talked about it all week:). They went to Marketplace to have lunch and then afterwards Grandmommy came and picked up Parker and took them both Christmas shopping. She's brave, being that it was the Saturday before Christmas!! They got to pick out presents for Piper, daddy and mommy. They are very excited about their presents. I'm impressed with their abilities to keep secrets, too.

Are we going to the North Pole?

I told Andrew and Parker this morning that we were going to go see Santa and get our picture with him. Andrew said, "Are we going to the North Pole?". My good ole pal Diana found Santa for us and gave us the heads up to where he was. The boys had never met Mrs. Claus before so it was an extra special treat. Parker was really shy and didn't want to sit with Santa until mommy did :./ SO... we had a family portrait made with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Piper was giving her usual "you're a stranger" face until she got a good glimpse of Santa and then she melted into tears. All in all, it was a wonderful visit to the North Pole.

Relaxing Saturday

Ahhh... a moment of silence. Parker and Piper are sleeping. Andrew is out helping daddy clean the garage.
This morning I took Parker and Andrew on a play date at Chick-fil-a. They were really excited about it :). Before we left, Andrew said he had a fortune cookie and the note said that he and Parker would get some ice cream to celebrate their play date :). They were very good and enjoyed playing with the other kids.
Last week we started giving the boys an allowance. We've been using the Tessy and Tab sheets and they're GREAT! They each have a chart with their family contributions listed as well as jobs listed. They have the opportunity to earn $1.00 a day (a quarter for each job). Their jobs include making their beds, picking up toys, putting up clothes and getting ready for bed on time. They get paid right before bed every night and they're always SUPER excited. Before we began this, we told them that since they'll have their own money, mommy and daddy will no longer buy
"things" for them. They would have to save their money to buy what they "wanted". We explained what type of things mommy and daddy would provide but all of their wants will have to come from their money. They are both saving up for bicycle helmets:). They're so excited about it. They made 75 cents the first night and Parker said, "do we have enough for our helmets?" They both have over $6.00 right now so it won't be long. They also have to save 20% of their money (they already have an account at the credit union so they'll go deposit some monthly) and they will give at least 10%. Andrew said he wants to give his to the kids in Africa :) so we may just add it to our sponsor child.
This week was Andrew's first week to be back home... bless Mrs. Mindy :). I'm sure it's a lot more work for her to keep them together. They are excited about being together again though. They do well together for the most part but sometimes get a little rowdy OR get a little mean. Parker is so excited to have Andrew back home. Every morning before I leave he says, "is Andrew staying home today?" I am so relieved that we decided to keep Andrew home and start him in Kindergarten next year. As a mom, I was really worried about sending him when he was still 4 and so much younger but being there and observing I felt confident that he definitely would benefit from being home. My main concern for him was being the youngest when he was older. I had no idea how much younger he would be than everyone. About 1/2 of his class is 6 already (most of them are older b/c their parents kept them home a year) and there's only one other child that is within 5 months of his age.

Yesterday while Parker was getting ready, he grabbed some socks out of the drawer and apparently there were three folded together. He was a little perplexed and held all three up and said, "WHAT.... do I have three feet?" Park is always good for a laugh:)

Happy 7 month Piper Jane

Piper Jane is 7 months today. She is definitely going through some major stranger danger right now. My cousin Amy and her husband Brian came to stay a few days and Piper was not about to let them see her smile. It was so funny. She is such a momma's girl. She did actually warm up to Brian and Amy not long before they left but it took quite some time. Today we decorated our tree. The kids had a great time. The boys were SO excited to put up all the ornaments. Mrs. Mindy made some with them last year and they were really excited to get those out and hang them up again:). I took a couple of pics of Piper by the tree. She's doing pretty good at sitting up.
We all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We loved spending time with Amy and Brian. Amy and I went shopping on Black Friday and got a Wii Fit. It's been super fun! I told Cam I'm gonna be "bowed up from the flo up".. hehe.. just kidding but it is QUITE the workout!

2 for 1..

I just had to snap a pic with my phone of our first bag of recycled trash. Since I work at a Green school, we have recycle trailers on site all the time so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to start recycling. Cam thinks I'm a little overboard because I'm policing what he throws in the regular trash now but come on now, if we're gonna save the earth, let's save the earth:).
I had Cam put the trash bag by our "I am thankful for" tree so I could upload a 2 for 1 pic. I got this idea from Krista, although I'm sure her tree looks much better than ours:)... I'm hoping to start a tradition where we'll always put our tree up on Cam's birthday (Nov 3) and then take it down the day after Thanksgiving. I'm going to keep our leaves so we can look back on them later. It's been fun. We make our leaves at dinner time and sometimes when I have forgotten the boys have reminded me.
I've been sick today with a SORE throat. Tonight I made some Wassil and we all sat at the table with our coffee cups and wassil. It reminded me of a time when I worked at the Christian Book Store with my dear friend Lanna. On Saturdays before Christmas we would serve wassil so they had it written on the calendar, along with the names of the workers who were to work that day. I remember Lanna seeing the calendar and asking "Who is Wassil, did we hire somebody?" :)... ahhh.. I always think of Lanna when I drink Wassil:).

Geez Louise...

I need to plan something upbeat and fun to do the next time the CMA's are on. The past two years I've just happened to come across it while flipping the remote and end up crying like a baby! Last year it was Kellie Pickler's song about her daddy and this year Carrie Underwood had a horribly sad song. Then that guy that sings Honkey tonk badonk a donk... okay, I really don't know that song but I have heard it and am still shocked that there's really a song named that... anyway... he sang a song called "You're gonna miss this"... OH ... MY... Goodness!!! How depressing! Of course I just had to be folding tiny clothes in the floor and started crying thinking how much I am going to miss folding these sweet clothes.. especially those super hero pajamas. After I rewound both songs with DVR Cam threatened to steal the remote or pull the plug:).

Pumpkin Patch...

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch. We had a great time. It was late afternoon so it was PERFECT weather and very few people were there. The boys enjoyed looking at all of the pumpkins. We picked out a big one and daddy helped them carve it. Sissy just kind of cruised around in the stroller.





Last night we went to one of Andrew's friends birthday party. Andrew has been excited about it for weeks. He's been asking me, "are we going to Hayes's party tonight?". There were tons of boys there and they had the best time. It was a costume party and it was all outdoors with lots of activities planned. Hayes is in Andrew's class and he is so sweet. He's called and left a few messages on our answering machine. His mom always apologizes because she doesn't even know he's got the phone. It's so sweet! By looking at the pic, you can tell what's on Andrew's mine....

I wish everyday was a weekend day...

I SO enjoy the weekends! I have so much fun hanging out with the kiddos and Cameron. We've pretty much stayed at home all weekend because Andrew was sick. He's feeling MUCH better but still has a terrible cough if he gets to moving around too much. He hasn't ran fever for about 3 days. I'm sending him to school but am making him hang out with me during recess because I don't think his little body can handle too much excitement.
Today I made sissy some baby food. I steamed some carrots and some sweet potatoes and pureed them. She's not eating veggies yet but will be pretty soon. I'm just keeping them in the deep freeze until she's ready. She was eyeing them awful hard though... don't think it will be too long:).

As a mom, I've always said every stage just gets better and better. All weekend Andrew has been writing little stories. Most of them have to do with Spiderman and getting the bad guys. It's so funny!! I was sweeping tonight and found this behind the clothes basket.

Also, today while we were changing Piper she started rolling around the floor before we could get a diaper on her and Andrew said, "Piper has 3 hinies, no wait a minute, she has 6, WOW... she has 7 hinies!!" Poor Sissy, she can't help it she has so many rolls.

Who knew they all needed glasses?

Last night we went to check out our new school. Classes will begin there October 13th. We're all so excited. It's been pretty difficult housing 2 elementary schools in 1 elementary school building. Andrew is SUPER excited about his new classroom. It's HUGE. The entire school is just breath taking! It's going to be a LEED school, which means it's a green school. Almost all of the classrooms have an entire wall that is just windows. They're set to let in a certain amount of light which will cause our indoor lights to dim.
Several teachers have several boxes outside their classrooms that have FREE stuff in them and we found some super cool glasses:). All the kids just had to try them on:).

* Also, Andrew is feeling a little better. He's not had fever for about 36 hours, so that's GREAT! I learned a valuable lesson, when your child has pneumonia, don't let them try out the new playground.... even if it is for just a couple of minutes!

just like his daddy...

Yesterday at work, I was paged to go to the office. When I got there, I saw the nurse holding little Andrew's hand. She was worried about him because he said he was HOT but when she took his temp it wasn't even 94 degrees. He was as white as a ghost. I noticed he had a bandaid on his elbow and asked him about it and soon discovered it was the problem. He fell at recess and was bleeding. He said that after he touched his elbow he saw the blood and then everything got bright and he couldn't see. He was just about to pass out.... yep, he's just like his daddy. I won't mention any names..cough.. Cameron.. cough.. but someone passed out in the hallway of the eye doctor's office after getting their eyes dilated. Looks like little JuJu is gonna be just like daddy. 

He also had a pretty bad cough for the last few days, no fever, but a bad cough so I decided to take him to the doc yesterday and she said he probably had croup. He started running fever last night and has had a fever almost all day today. I took off today to take care of him. He's just been pitiful all day. His fever would've probably gone away if he hadn't hid the two Ibuprofen pills I gave him behind the couch cushion:0/. I told him he better be glad his fever was 102 or he'd be getting it!!

Parker and I went out this morning to play in the cool morning air. He kept running in to check on Andrew:) he loves his big brother. Tonight, after Andrew's fever broke, they went running around the back yard. It was pitch black, they both had on their super hero capes and were on a mission:). I took some video but am too lazy to upload, I'm actually too lazy to upload pics, too.. these were all taken with my iPhone.

For those of you curious about the spider situation at our house... look what we found on baby Piper's head...OMGoodness! No, really she was just getting a feel for different costume ideas for Halloween:). I personally think she should go as Mr. Potato Head's Sweet-thang:).

Also, Happy 5 MONTH Piper!! Yesterday was her 5 month b-day. I took her to the doc last week and they were teasing me that she's probably going to tower over me because she's currently in the 85% percentile for height. She also weighed 15 lbs. She's a healthy girl. She's not crawling but she's a highly mobile rolly polly.

It's been a little busy around here...

This week has been a blur. Parker was sick with fever at the beginning of the week, Sissy had a diaper rash and now Andrew has a horrible cough:(. I need to douse our house with some good ole' Lysol. We've also not had a lot of sleep around here:/.
I've been busy selling things on Ebay. I've sold most of my Fall maternity clothes. I decided to sell them all because I'm in desperate need of some GOOD shoes, which I'm bidding currently bidding on:). My feet are killing me at work. Seriously, teachers hardly ever sit down in an elementary school!
My poor dad had to have emergency surgery Friday night to remove his gallbladder. The boys were so sad when I told them Papa was in the hospital. Parker said, "is it a different Papa?". It was sweet. As far as the boys are concerned, you could substitute Papa's name for every Chuck Norris fact. They think he's tough as nails:). I've attached a pic of a note Andrew wrote to Papa and some words he was practicing spelling.
Yesterday we went to a John Rosemond parenting conference. We love John Rosemond. We were fortunate enough to hear him speak a few years ago and it was so wonderful to go back. He's also the one we got the excellent potty training advise from that helped us potty train the boys in a little over a day... good stuff!!

Oh yes we did...

take all of our family of 5 to the county fair. Hopefully poor little Piper didn't get lung cancer. As soon as we pull up, Parker fell asleep so I had to pick him up out of his car seat and put him in the stroller. If any of you have ever driven a stroller through dirt and HUGE power cords, let me just say I don't recommend it. Parker's poor head was flopping all over the place. He was SO sleepy, I couldn't wake him up. When he finally woke up he was super pumped about riding the motorcycles. I pulled him out of the stroller and noticed he's soaking wet. He had an accident while he was sleeping. We probably shouldn't have let him ride any rides but we figured surely the workers used lysol wipes between each kiddo;).
I was a little embarrassed that Parker was soaking wet. Little did I know I had reasons of my own to be embarrassed about. Rewind to about an hour before we left.... Parker found some hair clips that he wanted to put in my hair. I said, "okay but we have to take them out because we're about to leave". My hair was in the shortest ponytail possible and I let Parker put them all in my ponytail. Fast forward several hours.... I was rocking Piper that night before putting her to bed and sat back in the chair and realized I never took the clips out. That's right... there were 5 COLORFUL clips in my super tiny ponytail all night. I immediately started getting hot, you know that embarrassed feeling. I began thinking, "who all did I see tonight??" Then anger sat in. I said, "Cameron, COME here". I asked him, "Did you not notice something different about my hair?" He's like, "what, the clips?" He said he thought it was some sort of fashion statement. Oh my goodness!!!

Family Pictures

We went to my parent's for dinner tonight and I decided to take my camera and tripod to get some family shots. We haven't taken any pictures together since sweet girl was born so we decided to take some simple shots by the lake.

At the lake... more pics

Here are some more pictures from the lake today.

Perfect lunch dates and my ministry..

Cameron is off every other Tuesday and gets to spend the day with Parker and Piper. Today we thought it would be fun if he and Parker came to eat lunch with Andrew and I. My mom came by and watched sweet little Piper for us. It was a lot of fun. Cam picked up some pizza and we all sat on one of the back tables and ate together. Parker was really excited to see Andrew and Andrew was SO excited for Parker to get to see where he spends his days. Afterwards, we went out to watch Andrew play with his friends at recess. It was so sweet! 

This is my 10th year to teach but my first to teach in an elementary school. I am really enjoying it. One reason is because I truly feel my job is my ministry, definitely a calling. God gives me such a love and burden for each of my students. I spent my first three years at Jacksonville High. I LOVED that place. I think of those students ALL of the time. I'm constantly trying to figure out how in the world to get a hold of McKinley, Lamar and Terrell (yes, I've tried myspace and facebook). My heart aches because I don't know how they are doing. The next three years, I taught in a behavioral hospital. I loved it, also. I believe God has gifted me with a love and passion for kids who have "issues". I have spent many nights in tears and prayer over my students. The last three years, I have taught in a Jr. High. I loved it so much. I LOVED my students. I hated it when they moved up to the high school. God gave me the most incredible opportunity to bring the "world" to my students through teaching about the kids in Uganda. Our Jr. High kids were on FIRE for those kids in Uganda, raising over $7000 to help build a school. I'm so proud of them and truly believed their lives were changed forever. I think they really got it and that's saying a lot for Jr. High kids. I am so thankful for each student that God has allowed me to spend time with. I'm so excited to be working in the elementary school to try to make a difference early on for these kids. God has blessed me so much throughout my career with my masters, National Boards and even a couple of teacher of the year awards but NOTHING compares to seeing that change in my students. A little fellow that I've been "mothering" for the past two years sent me a text tonight. He leaves for Job Corp in 2 weeks. I am SO proud of him and pray so much that he will stay the course. The Lord also gave me the opportunity to share Christ with this young man. I tease Cameron all the time that my goal is to change the world, one kiddo at a time:). 

Zoo day

Last weekend we went to the zoo. We had a great time and the weather was PERFECT!!! The boys loved all of the animals. Piper seemed to have a great time, too. While she was napping on daddy's shoulder, a butterfly came to share her burp rag:). The boys thought that was really neat.

What are those gorillas looking at?

Andrew, Andrew what do you see?? I see a Gorilla looking at me.

Quality Time

Okay, I'll share...

I told them to go outside and play....

and they DID. They found the "most awesomest" mud puddle ever and had tons of fun! I actually encouraged them to go find a mud puddle and play in it. They were too messy to come in the house so I dumped pitchers of water over them before they could enter:). Andrew said, "this is the best day ever".

but I'm too sleepy...

Andrew was so sleepy this morning he didn't wanna go to Kindergarten. Since we've had Mrs. Mindy watching the kiddos for the past 3 years, we've never had to get them up and take them anywhere. They're use to sleeping in and staying home all day so it's an adjustment for Andrew to have to get up. He only whined a few minutes and then was excited about the day. Parker and Piper have been really good. I worried Parker would cry when we left but so far, so good. He enjoys playing with Mrs. Mindy and Catherine. I hate it for him that Andrew is gone but I think he'll be okay. Piper has been a sweet baby. She usually is asleep when I leave.
Anna asked about how it is having to leave Parker and Piper.. I miss them both a lot and hate to leave them but I know they are taken care of really well. Also, it's comforting to know that I'm gone during the day time when they're napping. Piper sleeps several hours throughout the daytime so I get to spend a lot of sweet time with her when I get home. I almost feel like I spend more quality time with them (and I'm definitely more patient) when I'm working than I do when I'm home in the summertime. I'm VERY thankful God has given me the career I have so I'm able to be home a lot with the kiddos. I also love the kiddos that He places in my classroom. I'm team teaching this year 1/2 the day in 3rd grade and 1/2 in 5th grade. Today I taught the 3rd graders how to write a cursive l. Isn't that cute??? Their little hands were killing them from practicing all of those loops. I think I'm going to like teaching elementary just fine.