Vacation funnies......

Well, a lady told us that a shark was in the ocean. Darrell said "yeah, they live here". LOL

We went putt-putting. All four of us (Darrell, me, Luke and Emy) got a hole in one. Tessa grinned alot.

We stayed on the ocean front. FUN

We stayed on the 16th FLOOR.

Luke peed off the balcony (did I say 16th floor?) HAHAHA. Can you say butt cheeks? I looked over, saw him from behind and just about DIED right then and there!! LOL Then I laughed and thought, so what! what a memory!!

Tessa threw a binky over the edge....we found it the next day in the parking garage---wonder what that bounced off of?

We almost met Vanna White....she has a condo where we stayed. we are assuming she was in the penthouse above us......Emy and I kept missing her :(

Emy got a hair wrap.....weird, but cute.

We spent LOTS of money. We went to several fun places to eat. Planet Hollywood, Cracker Barrel, KFC, Chick-fil-A, a pancake house.

We PLAYED. All day. Every day. I loved it!!!!

The only thing I didn't like? the parking garage. can you say CLOSE quarters??

Went to Family Kingdom...rode lots of rides.

I showed the kids where my mom and dad took me during summers. I know North Myrtle Beach well. It has grown up alot, but basically is the same.

Next year we are going to spend 2 weeks at Oak Island.....how about them apples??

I realized that my Emy is growing up at the speed of light. How can I slow time down? I love her. right now. and her littleness is slipping away. She is more of a young lady now, sweet as sugar and speaks like a grown up. Thank you God that she still sneaks into bed with me. It feels like old times. In the words of Emy..."do you remember when I was an only child"? Yep, I sure do. You sure would be lonely now with no one to fuss over. You are making memories of your own and don't realize it..

Loving my job as a mommy. It's my favorite.

Santas, Leprecauns, fat fairies, and elves.

My goodness, I haven't blogged in a while. I feel like I have so much to say. This summer has been one of the best summers I remember. I have taken two weeks off to be with my family and enjoyed it so much. Makes me think, geez, why do I have all these bills? If I didn't, I would definitely be a stay at home mom! My kids are some of the funnest kids around...(is funnest a word?)

I will start with Emy. She is blossoming into a beautiful young lady, with somewhat of a smart mouth....she is just like me, of course. She is very sarcastic at times, but fun loving and so sweet at times, my heart just melts. The first week I took this summer was July 4th week. We stayed around the house and just hung out. We went bowling this summer and to some birthday parties. We swam ALOT!! The second week I took, we all went to the beach. I splurged and we stayed at Myrtle Beach, opting for an ocean front condo with a pool AND lazy river. Now we are broke again :) but it was so worth it. That was the most fun I've had in a really long, long time. We camp alot and I just realized during that week at the beach, camping is more work for me than it is fun. lol. But it is a lot cheaper so I see alot of camping in my future :)

Emy has learned how to dive this summer. She loves Justin Bieber and all the shows that I can't stand. Disney TV is not my fave :( Neither is Nickelodeon. I prefer the Hallmark Channel, old movies or watching DVDs. Emy is developing into a great big sister. She watches Tessa for me in the mornings so I can shower and dress without worry. She helps me feed her and she changes her diapers every so often. Tessa adores her and loves to kiss her smack on the mouth with her appreciation :)

Emy just started back to school. Can you believe I have a 3rd grader? Unreal!! Although my 3rd grade teacher retired a few years ago (I really wanted Emy to have him as her teacher), she got two great teachers and we are all looking forward to a great year! Emy did get placed with one of her best friends, so it is good....so far, so good. Her favorite subject is math :)

Emy also learned the most verses in her classroom at church this time around. She just moved up into the next class. I'm so proud. She is extremely bright and loves to learn new things!!

Emy is also into girl scouts and gymnastics. I have a brag a little here. Every semester since she started gymnastics, she has moved to the next level. There are red stars, white stars, blue stars, gold stars and then starts levels for competition. Emy is already in blue stars!!!!

Emy's friend, Maggie M, introduced us to a great traveling game which will explain the title of my post. Have you ever paid attention to how many different colored fire hydrants there are on the sides of the roads we travel daily? Around here we have red (baby santa), red/white (santa), green (leprecaun), yellow (fat fairy), red/white/green (elf), and even at the beach we saw a DALMATION one!! We keep score and it is a loud game but it is fun and keeps them way occupied!! If we call one wrong, a point gets taken from us. :) Thanks Tracy and Maggie!!

Moving on to my sweet boy, Luke. Luke is going to preschool for one more year. We decided to hold him one more year so he will be ready when he starts Kindergarten. He has been home for 3 1/2 years, so he is doing really great! He loves books and cars. He can spot a mustang or a dodge pickup truck a mile away.

Luke's teacher adores him as does his sunday school teacher and basically anyone he meets. Luke is special and it is apparent to everyone he meets. We are having a little trouble with him stuffing his pockets with crayons from school and brings them home, but we are working on that. He prays over his friends at school, laying hands on them. He prays for us as well. He is a sweetie.

Luke loves his sisters, is very protective of them. He loves to babysit Tessa and loves for Emy to read to him. He likes to watch movies with all of us. He especially likes Barney and Cars.

Please pray for Luke, as I am unsure if public school is the right road for him. We will see. I plan to start him at Emy's school next year in Kindergarten, so we shall see. We have a year to work on it, so we have started the work hard process at home as well as at preschool. Luke is 6 and will be 7 when he starts Kindergarten. I can't bring myself to think that is a bad thing.

Miss Tessa is almost 9 months old! She has two teeth, is crawling, pulling up, and cruising furniture. She is so much fun at this age. She still gags and chokes easily so I am taking the additional foods really slow. She likes to eat baby food and yogurt and mashed potatoes. She loves mango, applesauce, pears, and the girl is crazy over ice cream!!!

Everyone adores her and of course we get some looks when we are all together. Who cares? This is my family, made several different ways. If someone wants to look, let them. I have three adorable kids they are staring at :)

Darrell and I are doing well, we are extremely busy, we both have full time jobs and come home tired.......but really, we are having a great time with these kids. We just realize that every day is a precious gift. We try to embrace life as a family and we are having a blast!! Well, time to close. Tessa has crawled under my feet and I need to go and watch Mickey Mouse. MEESKA, MOOSKA, MICKEY MOUSE!!!!

Lots of photos will follow soon in another post!! Later y'all.

Hello again.

Enjoy these pics!!

(above--Tessa 7 mos old)
Siblings.

Siblings + friend.

pool party!

Luke had fun too, fishin w/ papa martin..

pool

Tessa didn't enjoy diapering her head :)

Tessa 6 months old.

My brownie!!

Who is grinning bigger? Luke or the lion?

Tessa loves to swing!!

Well, summer is half way over or it seems to be flying that fast anyway. It's depressing almost to see how fast time goes when you are spending time with the ones you love.

My mom and dad just celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary. I told Emy that I sure was glad they got married way back then because if the hadn't, wouldn't be here and neither would she! Wow! Scary thought, right?

Happy 4th of July everyone. Emy finished up the 2nd grade with a bang, is so ready for 3rd grade. I'm so proud of her! She is learning things at lightning speed and she loves to write very long stories which of course I LOVE to read....they are so Emy.

Luke is going to have to endure another year of preschool because he just isn't ready for Kindergarten yet. He is doing so great at counting, ABC's and writing his name. He has a great imagination and wonderful sense of humor! I'm proud of him as well!! He is a trooper. He just had an orthopedic follow up and they are not going to brace his legs or boot his legs (what great news?!) and the doc said "see ya in 2 years". Now that is a blessing for sure.

And little baby Tessa? Not a baby really. She is now 7 months old and she is a mess.....she has bonded well with all of us and she loves to be right in the middle of her big sis and bro's chaos...she loves to sing, swing and eat...she is a funny, happy little girl. She is, as we say in the south, MAMA ROTTEN! That means she likes me the best, of course :) just kidding (wink).

What if...

Have you ever asked the question what if? It's deep if you go there. Tread lightly with these two very heavy words. I mean, think about it, really think about it. What if....

What if I had not worked a job since I was 14 years old...
What if I had made the cheer squad that year...
What if I didn't buy a car my senior year...
What if I didn't choose to work EVERY weekend my junior/senior years....

I wouldn't have met Darrell. (what if I wouldn't have given him that one chance?)

What if I had finished nursing school...
What if I had gotten a killer job right out of high school...

Then I wouldn't have the job I have now, I wouldn't know the people I know now.
I wouldn't be the same person.

What if I had said no...
What if I wanted someone with lots of money...
What if I didn't marry for love...
What if I wanted more THINGs in life...
What if I would've said NO to International adoption...
What if Darrell and I saw color...

I wouldn't have my sweet Emy and my precious Luke. (what if I had turned them down just because they were considered "delayed" and "weren't perfect"?) My mind can't get around that one---it's just scary.

What if I didn't believe in miracles...
What if God had given up on me...
What if people around me weren't praying for miracles in our lives...
What if I believed in abortion...

I wouldn't have gotten to experience life within me.
I wouldn't have my Tessa.

What if we have moved to the beach that year...
What if we didn't live where we do...

My children would not get to see their grandparents every weekend--such a sad thought.

All of the what ifs in the world just don't add up for me. God chose to bless me with this family, these children, and all I had to do was accept it. What if? That question will never be answered, but I really don't care. I love my life. I love my family. God loves us and sent His son Jesus to die in my place. What more do I need?

I have more than enough, don't ya think?

International Adoption

• 
  
  So, here I sit, sad tonight because I know deep down in my heart that Tessa will be the last child we bring into our home. Not by choice, really, but by circumstance. It's funny.....how I say "bring into our home", like Tessa is adopted too. I have cracked myself up because I catch myself saying when we "brought her home" or "when we got her". I never say "when I had her", "when she was born". I guess I'm so used to saying those things about Emy and Luke--when they came home and such. Funny.

• 
  
  I am sad that I won't be able to bring another baby home from another country. International adoption is such a blessing that I challenge all who read my blog to try it just once--it will so bless you. It takes hard work, resilience, prayer, hope, patience, love and kindness. There is a butt load of paperwork to complete, a whole lot of money to pay at each stage of the adoption, and so much waiting......and waiting.......and waiting. It is all so worth it in the end. I will challenge you to this as well--if you can't adopt a child internationally or even domestically; how about becoming a foster parent? Or donating to an orphanage? Or donating to an adoption agency to help someone else financially? Please consider doing this--it will bless these families and these children so much.

• 
  
  My heart is so open to more children but my pocketbook is closed firmly. Unless there is a miracle waiting around the corner, my family is absolutely complete; "we are a party of 5".

• 
  
  Don't get me wrong--I'm so thankful for all of my blessings. I love each of them so very much. My life is absolutely whole and complete and I thank God for all of my kids and for Darrell. They are my world and my life and my heart.

• 
  
  Think about my challenge to you--try to uplift some of these waiting families--give a little. If you can't give money, you can pray for them, you can call them and tell them you are thinking of them and that you love them; you can send them a card or email of encouragement or post to their blog.

• 
  
  So, that's it really. That's what was on my mind so that is what I posted.

• 
  
  Later y'all.


• 
  
  Cindy

3 kids!

Yep, I've got 3 kids. I find myself wondering how in the world that happened. I was married and then BAM! 3 kids. My head spins with how fast my life is going by. I'm almost 40 years old--good grief! I have been so blessed by God already. . . He truly does give you the desires of your heart. When I was little, I played house and babies all the time. I wanted Prince Charming and I got my Darrell. After a long day at work, he is my stinky, smelly Darrell. But, he does have a job for which I am very thankful. He is my Prince Charming. I did fall for him after one date you know. I don't know how many hours I used to spend (when I was about 5-6 years old ) listening to those read along records (yes I said RECORDs). It would ring a little bell when I needed to turn the page. I think that taught me more about reading than school actually did. I hated school until I was in 7th grade. Then I loved it. I became a cheerleader and it really brought me out of my shell (I think I had a shell-haha). Back to the read along records. . . I used to read all the time about princesses and princes and wishes coming true, fairy tales, and happily ever after......well, here I am 30 something years later and I truly have my happily ever after. I have married my true love. He & I have adopted two precious children from a poverty filled country-brought them home thinking somehow that I was blessing them. Yeah, right. If you only could see how these two sweeties have blessed my heart, soul and life. I am the LUCKY one, blessed one, whatever you want to call me. Someone said the other day--"those kids are so lucky to have you". I see it as Darrell and I are the lucky ones....Sure I filled out paper work and we paid a little money for the fees. . . that's small potatoes. These two kids were taken from all they knew. We smelled different, looked different, spoke a different language. We are white, they are brown. We have a southern accent. All they had heard was Bengali and they had only seen brown people. Can you imagine what went through those kids minds? What did they think? Where were they going? Would they ever get something "good" to eat again? Its really hard to imagine. I know that Emy transitioned easier than Luke. She was 14 months old. He was 3 years old. Luke hid cookies in his pockets when he started preschool. We found cookies broken in his pockets for a good 6 months after he started preschool. they've come a long way, baby! I'm so happy to be blessed twice by international adoption. If you count my nephews, I'm blessed x 4 by international adoption. I'm happy to have experienced pregnancy and birth of baby Tessa as well. That was a blessing from God as well. She is a true miracle of my life. Actually we have three live miracles in our house....how many do you have?? So this weekend, every time one of my kids got on my nerves, after correcting their actions and telling them what they needed to hear, I tried to turn my face toward Heaven and thank God in the name of Jesus that he put them in my life. I am here to nurture and nature them into adults. They are little people that I am forming into my future. That is a scary statement my friends. It worries the snot out of me. At night, when I'm so tired I can't hold Tessa anymore, I call on my Prince and he takes over. When I need help in the mornings I call on my older children to help with the baby and when I am alone, I start counting...... my blessings, I name them one by one. Darrell, Emy, Luke, and Tessa. Thank you God in the name of Jesus that you placed these special people big and small in my life. I am so blessed...I love them so much!

LOTS OF PICTURES

 Miss Smiling Tessa

 Luke getting sugars

 How rude!

 Lukey Boo

 Thumbs up Mommy!

 Luke feeding baby sister---he loves this!

 Look carefully---she killed the giraffe with her thunder thighs!!!! LOL

 Sisters!

 Intense expression!

 Emy was very HAPPY to have Josh's iPod

 Huh?

 Sisters talking and telling secrets.

 Emy chose to take Ma to the "Me & My Gal Dance" for girl scouts.

 Love the outfit.

 Complete with PINK hair--to match of course.

 Pretty smile. We were strolling outside for this one!

 Napping on the couch.

 Funny girl.

 My 3 babies.

LOVE the hat!

Thanks to my friend Ronda for this precious little hat!

Normalcy

Is that a word?  I have felt like there is not much normalcy in my life since Tessa made her grand appearance.  Do I love her?  ABSOLUTELY!  MORE THAN WORDS can express it.  Does having three children make me crazy?  ABSOLUTELY!   It's hard to explain.  It just seems like Tessa has always been here.  And I'm so very thankful to have all my babies. Life is so.......exhausting......but is even more fun.

It's just a different kind of normalcy now.

Miss Tessa feels much better today--actually since yesterday.  Last night she wanted to pull an all nighter.  So we did.  She talked and cooed and smiled.  And I looked at my wonderful little miracle and smiled back.

We told secrets.

It was so worth the loss of sleep.

I love her.

I am a mommy of 3.

WOW!  God is so good!

Time marches on.....

Time is just flying....Tessa is 3 months old.  Emy is halfway thru 2nd grade and Luke has 2 permanent teeth already.  Geez.  I'm completely and totally worn out today.  Tessa had her 2 month shots a month late. I refused to take her because the flu bug was crazy here.  I don't want to take her anywhere.  She had diarrhea terribly bad last week.  She is gnawing on her hands.  Do you think she could be teething this early?  Geez.

I'm exhausted today---did I say that already?  Tessa and I have walked around the house, rocked, bounced, swung, talked, read, sung. . . we've done it all today.  Plus, we have napped quite a bit together in the recliner--no better feeling in the world.  Poor Luke and Emy.....I feel like they are getting the short end of my stick LOL.  I don't know how mothers of 4, 5, 6 or more do it.  Three is really stretching my limits these days.  I know, though, in the end that God doesn't give one more than they can handle.  So here I am, handling it.

Have a great weekend guys.  Mine is going to get better--starting now!

Gotta to go and rock a sweet, precious baby.....but first, I think I'll play a game with my Emy & Luke.

Adios!  More pictures will be posted soon--I promise!

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY #3 LUKE

 He has been with us for 3 years.

 I love this smile!

 This is from his first week home with us.

And the same smile---LOVE HIM!!

My Luke.

My little man.

My huge blessing from God.

He has manners.

He has a quick temper.

He has quicker hugs & kisses.

He has a HUGE laugh and a GIGANTIC heart.

He no longer puts food in his pockets...He knows he's gonna have a next meal.

He knows our love and he knows God's love and he knows that Jesus lives in his heart.

That's my boy, my Luke, a great little brother and a great big brother.

I love him with all my heart.

He says "Mommy, you are the best cooker". 

From Luke--that IS THE BEST COMPLIMENT EVER! I'll take it.

Happy 7th Gotcha Day Emy!!

I can't believe another year has gone by. Emy is 8 years old and so different than she was when she came off of the airplane.  The biggest thing on her back then was her eyes!!

Her eyes are still very expressive.

My beauty queen.

My sweetie pie.

My Indian princess.

Our blessing from God.

Happy 7th Gotcha Day Emy!!!!!

Getting some weird comments--please email me.

If you would like to continue to see my blog, please email me your email address and identify yourself.  That way, I can invite you to view my blog.  That way, I can keep away the riff raff. I'm tired of comment moderation and if I invite certain readers, I can keep everyone else away.

Thanks everyone.  I will give you a couple of weeks to get this information to me so I can invite you.

Have a great week!
Cindy

Pictures, pictures everywhere!!

 1st real bath!!!

 Luke's 6th birthday!!

 Tessa is 1 month old

 Emy getting spa treatment from Luke

Christmas play at church