Rihanna's Date with Daddy

Rihanna had a date with Daddy yesterday.
Troy tries to take each of the kids out on a "date" once every month or two, and Saturday morning was his first time to initiate Rihanna into this family tradition.  She was not so sure that she wanted to go at first; we have seen her warm up much more quickly to me than to him and I think that she is just having to learn that men can be trusted.  Anyways, when he gave her the option of taking her clothes-shopping during their date, her eyes lit up and she gave in.  (Hmm...now why hasn't he ever given ME that option for our dates?)  Off to Gymboree!
According to Troy, Rihanna was a quick and decisive shopper.  She walked in the doors, made a few swooping circles through the merchandise and laid out her 5 choices.  Troy said, "Pick one." And she immediately pointed to a darling little peach dress.  (As an aside, his comment was, "That was the best shopping experience that I ever had with a woman!"  I tried not to be offended.)
Then they headed to Waffle House, and Ri got to taste the yummiest waffle on earth, at least in our opinion.  Troy ordered all these other items so that she could sample them, but she was satisfied with her waffle, so he came home sporting an extra pound or two.  
Ah, the smile on her face when she walked through the door.
I swear, one date with that man changed that girl.  (This I can identify with.)
She bounced off the walls for the next hour.  (Literally.  It drove me crazy.)  She seemed more secure.  I really don't think I am just reading into this.  He gave her the gift of two hours of love, attention, and affection, and I think he might have won her heart.
In the mini-van later that day, she busted out with a story from her past about "Mama D".  This is no small thing, as I can count on one hand the number of times that she has initiated talking about Mama D since we got her on May 11th.  And then a couple of hours later, ANOTHER story about Mama D.  Again, amazing.  Rihanna is so lucky (oops...Christians are supposed to say "blessed"!) to be adopted into the Bird-a-well home (This is how Ri says her last name, even after 6 months of trying to teach her otherwise!) where the Greatest Dad on Earth just happens to live!  What are the odds?!  I think that the Lord might just love that little girl. :)

As Hillary said...

It really does take a village. No, I haven't gone liberal, but I do keep hearing the words of Hillary Clinton in the back of my mind as I try to parent this brood of children, and realize every day that I could not do it alone!  "Village" may not be the best word.  "Church" might be more accurate, since so much of the help we have received have been from our awesome friends at Perimeter Church.  Especially since we don't have any family in town, they are our Atlanta family, and I don't know what this transition would have been like without them.

Just for fun, I will mention a few things that the "village" has given us...
*$13,000  towards our adoption and legal fees.
*At least 20 home-cooked dee-lish meals.  (I just had to start cooking again this week...isn't that amazing, 2 months of food?!)
*2 months of formula for Alana
*Hundreds of diapers!  We may run out of kids before we run out of diapers.
*Lots of cutie baby outfits
*A closet full of size 5 clothes for Cate and her new "twin" sister Rihanna who happens to wear the same size.  Including...
*Beautiful holiday dresses and red wool coats for the girls from my fave kid store, Gymboree
*Babysitting...including 2 date nights...ah, glorious
*yard work
*Hand-me-down toys to keep my preschool class (Cate, Will, and Ri) busy
*Childcare for Alana so that me and the kids can go to the gym (Alana can't go until she is 3 mo old, which is 20 days from now, not that I am keeping track or anything!)

Such a big, huge thank you to y'all for loving us and helping us out.  We still need it and probably will for a while.  When you give to us, it is like God is giving to us, and we feel so loved by you AND by Him.  No doubt He adores these little girls, and He has rescued them (by bringing them to us) AND He has rescued us (by letting us parent them)...because He knew that we needed them just as much as they needed us.

Full Van, Full House, Full Hearts

Yesterday we left Johns Creek, Georgia, as a family of 5...and came home a family of 6.  Full van, full house, full hearts!  Emphasis on the FULL.
In fact, the only thing that is empty is our bank account!  (A little adoption humor)

The end of our "ten days of waiting" was at midnight on Tuesday.  At about 10pm I took a benadryl so that I could actually sleep and not stare at the ceiling for the next 2 hours.  Then I woke up around 1am (small bladder!); I got up and realized that we had passed the midnight mark without a phone call, and did a little dance in my pajamas...she is OURS!!

Before everyone woke up Wednesday morning...you know, the ONLY quiet hour of the day...I spent some time praying and reading and I was struck by this most amazing thought...Even though, when Alana's birth parents conceived her, they were not trying to do so...that was not their plan in any way, and probably was not even on their minds...God was making baby Alana for Himself and for us, knowing that she would be a Burwell in about 9 months, knowing that HE had plans for her and for her big sister Rihanna...how awesome that He can take things that look like mistakes and say, "This child is no mistake at all...I have made her for My glory and for the good of the Burwell family and all those who will know and love her."  I was just amazed at Him as I sat and thought over that one for a while.


Yesterday felt so peaceful, as if we had just walked right into the center of God's will and were experiencing His blessing.   We traveled to Macon...us, the kids, and our dear friend Gail Hatcher.  Miss Fran, who fostered Ri and Alana, was there to put Alana in our arms and to celebrate with us.  The Covenant  Care staff gathered around us with hugs and prayers and a virtual photo-shoot...I felt a little famous.  Our big lunch plans were at that 5 star restaurant Chickfila!...because you know, when you have 3 preschoolers and a 12-day-old baby, going to a real restaurant in the middle of the day is not exactly a good option.  So we rejoiced with nuggets and ice dream cones! 

Alana is just a doll...beautiful little lips and cheeks, mild-mannered (so far), and that sweet little newborn cry gets me every time!  I watched Troy fall in love with her before my eyes...pretty cool.  Kind of like the way he fell in love with me the first time WE met.  :) 


We are so excited to share this with y'all!  Thanks for your support, love, meals (thank you Amy James for organizing that!), prayers, well wishes...keep those prayers coming.  And please come see us...believe me, you would not be a disruption...my word, you are a lot quieter than 3 pre-schoolers and a hungry newborn. 

 

The Longest 10 Days of Our Lives!

In TEN short days...but they seem very long to us!!...we will hold our new baby girl in our arms!!  Most of you know this wonderful news already, but Rihanna's birthmom was pregnant when she chose us to parent Rihanna, and the plan all along has been for us to adopt not only Ri but also her baby sister!  On Friday, August 26th, she was born!  She weighed in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and measured 19 inches, which makes her the exact size of Cate Burwell at her birth!!


Yes, we are a little out of our minds to adopt 2 children within 3 months.  But you know what God did for us...He led me to pray for a "sibling group" (as it is called in adoption world) for MONTHS before actually starting our adoption process.  God put it on my heart and I begged Him to do this for us, and so when it came along, even though it is a LOT and our lives are going to be crazy for a few years (or forever??), we could say, Well, this is what we asked the Lord for, and if He has done it, how could we say no??!!  I think that prayer is really more for US than for God anyways, and this event has proven that to me.

Okay, back to those 10 longest days of our lives...for those of you who are not totally familiar with the adoption process, each state has adoption laws that are unique to it.  In Georgia, a mother may sign papers to give up the rights to her child, but she must wait until the baby is born and is 24-hours-old.  Then she has 10 days to change her mind, so to speak, and say, "I want to parent my child after all."  Sometimes babies-to-be-adopted are directly placed with the adoptive parents as soon as they are released from the hospital, as Will was...this is a double edged sword for the adoptive parent...what joy to bring home that baby immediately, but what fear that the birthmom may change her mind and want the child back.  So, in many cases that our agency works with, a foster mom will step in and care for the baby for that 10 day waiting period; then, when the adoptive parents do get to meet their babies and take them home, on day 11, it is forever. 

In steps "Miss Fran".  Fran has been a foster mom for our agency for 20 years!!  (God bless her!)  She has cared for 100 babies.  Really, is that not amazing?!  Fran fostered Rihanna for a month between the time that her birth mom (remember we are calling her "Mama D") gave up her parental rights to the time that Rihanna moved in with us.  Fran is so awesome and Rihanna adores her and mentions her every day..."Miss Fran did this with me...Miss Fran gave me this...Miss Fran loves me"....  As God would have it, Miss Fran is taking care of Ri's little sister, our little girl, as we speak.  She was released today from the hospital and went straight to Fran's arms.  

If all goes as planned, we will meet our girl on Wednesday, September 7th.  It sure does feel great knowing what wonderful hands she is in until then.

We will name our girl "Alana Lucille".  Alana is a name chosen to honor Troy's sister Lana.  Alana is pronounced A-lay-na, in case you are wondering.  Lana is the BEST and we all adore "Aunt Lana" around here; Aunt Jen (my sister) came up with the idea to use the name Alana after I mentioned to her that we would love to somehow honor Lana when naming the baby.  Lucille was the name of Troy's African-American "nanny" while he was growing up.  I am not sure that Lucille was actually hired to be the nanny, but she gave Troy so much love and care that I have always referred to her like this.  She loved Jesus and God used her life and character and prayers to have a huge impact in Troy's life.  She is with the Lord now but I SO hope that somehow she knows about Rihanna and Alana Lucille, because I think it would make her smile so BIG!

I can't wait to meet our girl; we will definitely send pictures!!  
Are we done having babies?  Absolutely not.  We want at least 3 more.  HA!!  just kidding!  We think we are done...I feel like when our baby gets here, then everyone will be home.  Then we can get the party started. 

Meeting Rihanna's Birthmom

This past Thursday was a big day for our family.  We met Ri's birthmom, and Ri was reunited with her for the first time in 3 months.  I think that we were all a little nervous about it, but overall, we were thankful to meet her.

We met half-way at a park so that we could let the kids play and run around while we talked some.  It was an emotional morning for Ri's birthmom.  She misses Ri so much.  I think it was hard for her to see that Ri has "grown up" some even in the past few months.  I know it was hard for her to hear Ri call me "Mama".  Sometimes when people hear our story, they say, "I can't believe that anyone would give away their 3 year old child."  Details are confidential, but you will just have to trust me when I say that she would much rather be parenting Ri herself, and that this decision to let us adopt Ri was absolutely selfless on her part and was made because she believes that Ri could have a better life.  

When we first arrived, we let Ri and D (this is what I will call her birthmom, for confidentiality) play for a while.  D brought her a few fun new toys, plus some of her old stuff.  She was most excited to see her "Runny Babbit" (I have laughed and laughed everytime she says it like that!) and she has kept it in her arms for much of the weekend.  After they played for a bit, Ri joined Cate and Will on the playground while we sat with D and shared with her about how Ri is doing.  We talked about her typical daily schedule, so that D would have a sense of what her day-to-day life is like now.  We told her about Ri's great appetite, her love for anything outdoors, and her awesome athletic abilities.  She shared a letter with us where she had written things that she wanted to make sure that we knew about Rihanna, everything from how much Ri likes strawberries to how much D loves Ri and misses her.  Like I said, it was emotional.

We brought D a gift.  It is a journal (yes, everyone who knows me knows that I have an insane love for journals).  It is called "All about Myself" and has 200 pages of guided autobiography, asking questions like, "Who were my heroes when I was a child?" and "What was my favorite Christmas tradition?"  I told D that I would love for her to write in the journal and then give it back to us so that we can share it with Ri someday.  I assured D that we want Ri to know her and admire her the way that we do.

We will see her again in a few months...she asked if she could see Ri a couple of times for the first 2 years that she is with us.  Our adoption agency is so helpful with this; they serve as "mediators" for us by setting up and being at these meetings.  (One of our case-workers comes to the meetings, as well as D's case-worker.)

I told her right before we said good-bye, "Now I know why Ri is so gorgeous...because YOU are just beautiful."  I hope that the Lord will give us the opportunity to "love on" D and to somehow be a part of her healing.  Pray for D, if you think about her.  

Happy Father's Day, Troy AND Rihanna!

The thought struck me last last week that Sunday would be a celebration not only for Troy, but also for Rihanna, as this would be the first Father's Day that she would have a father to celebrate!  How neat!!  I was warmed all day long Sunday by that thought, and I kept thinking of Psalm 68 and Psalm 146 which talk about how God is the kind of God who sees and takes care of the fatherless.  And sometimes He gives them a father!  Yay God!
All is well here in the Burwell home, and getting better every week as we continue to adjust.  Rihanna is developing in her speaking, sharing, dealing with conflict, and showing respect.  Don't get me wrong...there is a long way to go...but she is progressing for sure. And mommy is progressing in learning to do HER HAIR!  My friend Pamela Stringfield came over last week with hair products and talked me through the best way to wash, condition, comb, and style Rihanna's hair.  (Thank you Pamela!)  I keep telling Ri, "Mommy is going to learn how to do your hair really pretty...I promise!"  So, I am practicing now....for her sake, I hope I will prove to be a quick learner.

What I want to say to Rihanna's Birthmom

Our (wonderful and awesome) adoption agency encourages "semi-open" adoptions, which means that we as adoptive parents may get to meet the birthmothers of our children, and that we communicate with them via letters and pictures for the first 18 years of the children's lives.  What that means practically is that during the first year that we have the child, we will typically send a letter and pictures to the agency (who will then forward them to the birthmoms) either quarterly or monthly, depending on the birthmom's request.  Then every year after that we will send an annual packet of pictures with an update on how that year went and how the child grew.  
I really love this aspect of adoption, because I am grateful that the birthmom has chosen us to parent her child and this is one way that I can give back to her, since she has given so much to our family.

So...it is time to write the first letter to Ri's birthmom.  

It is hard to know what to write because our joy is, in a sense, her pain.  We are thrilled to have Ri, but in order for us to have her, SHE had to lose her.  I just thought you may want to read some excerpts of what we will send to her, and you can lift up a prayer that the Lord will use this to encourage her and affirm her decision to do something that was very hard because she wanted more for her daughter.  Most of the letter consisted of me sharing what Rihanna's relationship with each of our family members has been like so far:

Rihanna and Cate…well, they fought hard for a week but after that they have really started to adore each other.  They share clothes a lot.  They pretend to do each other’s hair.  They bathe each other in the “bubble tub” as Ri calls it.  They play house and dolls.  They whisper and sing and giggle when I put them to bed, since they share a bunk bed.  They love to get into trouble together.  I call them my little “ebony and ivory”.  (Do you remember that old 80’s song?)  Anyways, they are too cute and I pray that they just get closer and closer.

Rihanna and Will…They are so close in age, and so they are both learning a lot of the same things…how to use words when upset, rather than hitting or kicking or spitting, for example.  I think that Will has been jealous some, because he feels like Ri-Ri and Cate are SO close now, and so he has given Ri-Ri a hard time sometimes, BUT lately I think he is turning a corner and all of that is getting better.  This morning, he ran up to Ri and said, “Good morning Ri!  Good to see you!”  And then he leaned over and kissed her.  Ah, my heart just melted.  And then, knowing he had done a good thing, he stood back up, clapped his hands and shouted, “yay, Will!!”

Rihanna and Daddy… I have to tell you that I think that my husband hung the moon.  He is the best daddy ever.  And he is winning Ri-Ri’s heart.  She runs for the door every afternoon when he comes home from work, jumps in his arms and yells, “Hey, DADDY!!”  She loves to get a piggy-back ride from him or to sit in his lap.  She wants to talk to him on the phone when he calls to check on us.  It is neat to see her learning to trust him. 

Rihanna and me…I love that girl.  I love to get her in my lap and snuggle.  I like to read to her, sing with her (or listen to HER sing, depending on what mood she is in!), scratch her back.  She is so teachable and wants to learn all kinds of things.  We have been sitting down with flash cards and learning animals and letters and numbers, and she just really wants to press through and learn them, and I am so proud of her.  I am thanking God for her all the time.  

Lastly, just wanted to note that the picture above is from our "placement day" last Thursday.  That is when you sign a bunch of official papers that say, we commit to take care of this little girl legally until the day that we appear before a judge and request to take care of her forever.  It is a fun day because the agency staff celebrate with us and pray with us.  The woman holding Cate in the picture is Jill, our dear caseworker.  Also, Loren Rae is in the picture, to my left.  She was the one who first put Will into my arms on October 8, 2008, so she too is dear to us.

Rihanna's 2 Week Anniv - Starting to Bond

Thank you all so much for your kindness and prayers.   God has really done an incredible work in our family over the last week and a half.  I know that he has been answering your prayers for us and we are so grateful.   The kids are really starting to bond.   Cate and Rihanna are acting like true sisters and sharing each others clothes and dressing each other.   It is fun to see what they will come out with each time they dress.   There is more peace in our home.  They are sharing better and getting along so much more.   Ri or RiRi as I call her, is taking 2 hour naps and going to bed at 8PM without too much of a fuss.   She calls us Mom and Dad without any hesitation.   I really feel that she has peace that she knows she is safe here and this is her forever home.   

The kids love to watch American Idol and we are sad it is over.  We would let them stay up and watch it with us if they were good.   All 3 of our kids want to be performers and each one has their own microphone.   Cate and Ri both have their own guitars as well.   During American Idol they sing and dance to the songs.  It is very precious.    They also have their favorite CD's they like to listen to in the car and Will's favorite is a nursery rhyme CD that has a song called "Polly had a Dolly".   The song ends with "yes I will, will, will" and Will thinks they are saying his name and say's "That's me!"   So we got them to perform this song for you in American Idol fashion.   You can see the link on You Tube below:   Enjoy!

Polly had a Dolly

Kind of like Triplets!

Kind of like having triplets...that is what it has felt like this week to take care of a 4 year old, a 3 year old, and a 2 1/2 year old.  You should have seen me today trying to get all 3 kiddos ready for a trip to our friend's pool...swimsuits, crocs, cover-ups, sunscreen, floaties, towels, toys, lunches,...oh my word!  I thought, I am crazy...why didn't I want the "easy" life of one or two kids?!  But I didn't!  It just did not feel like we were done yet; there were supposed to be more Burwells!  And even though there is more noise in our house, there is more peace in my heart, because God brought us this little girl.

A big huge thank you to those who are praying for us!  I swear, I have "felt" your prayers and seen God doing good stuff in our family.  Rihanna has made some good steps forward this week.  She is hitting and pushing a lot less, and obeying more, and more quickly.  I have heard her say "please", "thank you", "no thank you" so many times this week.  She is sleeping better.  She is calling us "mommy" and "daddy".  She keeps pointing to Cate and saying, "THAT my sister!"  She loves to help me do things around the house...and even is trying to assist me in changing Will's diapers, which you can imagine he is NOT crazy about.  She wants to serve and help...I can see that in her.  And the highlight of my week was yesterday when she jumped up in my lap, threw her arms around my neck and said, "I LOVE YOU MOMMY!"  I am really encouraged.  I know there is probably far to go, but I thank the Lord that He really does give you those daily encouragements, as if to say, "I hear you and I am at work in this girl's life."

 

Hopefully we will be able to be out and about more sometime soon and y'all can meet her!  She is beautiful, such a cutie, and you will love her smile and laugh. 

It's a worthy fight

Rihanna is a blessing to our family but it has not been without difficulties.   She has had no formal structure or discipline in her 3 years and does not know how to share or treat others or express herself when she does not get her way.  We are going through intensive training with her but it is tough to say the least.   I encourage you to pray for Cathy as this will be toughest on her as she will be caring solo this coming week for the first time as I return to work. 


However this experience reminds me of an incredible story of a child named "Little Annie":

Speaker Zig Ziglar tells about "Little Annie" Sullivan, as she was called when she was young. Little Annie was no stranger to hardship. She was almost sightless herself (due to a childhood fever) and was, at one time, diagnosed as hopelessly "insane" by her caregivers. She was locked in the basement of a mental institution outside of Boston. On occasion, Little Annie would violently attack anyone who came near. Most of the time she generally ignored everyone in her presence.

An elderly nurse believed there was hope, however, and she made it her mission to show love to the child. Every day she visited Little Annie. For the most part, the child did not acknowledge the nurse's presence, but she still continued to visit. The kindly woman left cookies for her and spoke words of love and encouragement. She believed Little Annie could recover, if only she were shown love.

Eventually, doctors noticed a change in the girl. Where they once witnessed anger and hostility, they now noted an emerging gentleness and love. They moved her upstairs where she continued to improve. Then the day finally came when this seemingly "hopeless" child was released. 

Anne Sullivan grew into a young woman with a desire to help others as she, herself, was helped by the loving nurse. It was she who saw the great potential in Helen Keller. She loved her, disciplined her, played with her, pushed her, and worked with her until the flickering candle that was her life became a beacon of light to the world. Anne Sullivan worked wonders in Helen’s life, but it was a loving nurse who first believed in Little Annie and lovingly transformed an uncommunicative child into a compassionate teacher.

"How do you account for your remarkable accomplishment in life?" Queen Victoria of England asked Helen Keller. "How do you explain the fact that even though you were both blind and deaf, you were able to accomplish so much?"

Ms. Keller's answer is a tribute to her dedicated teacher. "If it had not been for Anne Sullivan, the name of Helen Keller would have remained unknown."

And so it goes. Just how far back does the chain of redemption extend? And how for forward will it lead?

Day 3 with Rihanna!

I hope you did not miss our awesome post from yesterday about our new little girl, Rihanna!  Our blog website lost a bunch of posts from all over the place and really, can a new mother of 3 be expected to re-create what was lost??!!  

Anyways, this is day 3 with Ri (or Ri-Ri, as she calls herself...or Ri-na-na, as Will calls her).  We are doing some "cocooning", as my caseworker calls it, trying to stay together and home a lot so that Rihanna feels safe and taken care of, and so she is not afraid of us going anywhere or giving her to another family.  She is really enjoying having a brother and sister, except when one of them is playing with a toy that she wants!  I am doing a lot of role-playing and coaching to teach them how to handle these situations.  This has been 3 days of intense mothering, and I am so thankful for my small group (from church) who came and cleaned our house and brought us meals this week.  

The hardest time for Rihanna has been bedtime.  Either she just doesn't like bedtime in general (like most kids) or she may be afraid of Troy and I leaving her alone, although she still has Cate to keep her company.  When we leave the room for bedtime or naptime, she screams until I return.  I have to scratch her back to calm her down and then she falls asleep.  

I keep looking at my THREE kids and thinking, oh my gosh, this is crazy!  We know up's and down's are coming, but I have to say that it feels so good to know that we are giving a real  home to a girl who did not have one.  It makes me think of the Bible verses, "God defends the cause of the fatherless" and "he sets the lonely in families".  

Burwell, party of five

As Cate Burwell would say, "We got our girl!"
We are so excited to announce that God has already answered our adoption prayers and brought little Rihanna to live with us.  We heard about her situation a few weeks ago and started praying that we might become her "forever family", as they say in adoption world.  We met her on Sunday and she and Cate and Will just fell in love with each other right away...as Troy said, "it was like they were separated at birth and are finally back together!"

Rihanna is a newly 3-year old.  She is tall (Cate's size or taller!) with long legs and long fingers that seem made for playing basketball, if you ask me.  She has a great, huge laugh.  She calls us "Mama Cathy" and "Daddy Troy" and hopefully at some point will naturally shorten that to Mama and Daddy.  She is bright, loves to sing, loves to ride her bike and play ball.  

She moved in with us yesterday, and as a new mother of 3, I am already WORE OUT!  It is kind of like kid-training...teaching Rihanna how our home works, and teaching Cate and Will how to respond to this new sister.  We are trying to lay low and stay home a lot over the next 2-3 weeks so that we can all get used to this new life.  Pray for us when you think about us!  We have felt that doing something like this has been a "calling" that we have both had since before we ever even met, but that doesn't mean it is going to be easy, right?!  Anyways, IF we ever make it out to a nice restaurant again (??!!), that will be our line... "Burwell, party of five!"

The Best Six Years of my Life!

On April 1st, Troy and I celebrated SIX glorious years of marriage!  oh my word, I adore this man.  Too good to be true.  But I live with him, and he IS.  I still can't believe God has given me this awesome gift, and sometimes I wake up and think that i am still single and forget that--oh my goodness!  there is a gorgeous man in my bed!  And although he has the hottest calf muscles you have ever seen, it is his HEART that I still love the most. 

Every year we do something so fun to celebrate our anniversary...10 yearly predictions.  (I adapted this idea from something that they do on the "Bert Show" every January 1st.)  We go out to eat, and then we pull out sealed envelopes that contain 1o predictions that we made a year ago on our previous anniversary, things that we thought would certainly happen in the next year.  By a year later, I have usually forgotten most of what I predicted.  We read the predictions to each other (we make separate lists) and give each other a point for every prediction that came true.  They must be somewhat detailed and two must be about "world events".    This year, I won!  I got 8 out of 10...wow.  Troy has won 3x and I have now won the past 2 years.  Then we each write out and share our predictions for THIS year.  It is too fun!  One prediction that we both have...plus hope and prayer...is that by next anniversary, the Lord will have brought us a new baby for our family.  We will see if we called that one correctly.

Oh, and I must give a shout out to Troy's sister "Aunt Lana"...bless her awesome heart, for the 3rd year in a row she has kept the kids all weekend so that we could have a weekend to ourselves for our anniversary.  I do believe that, before last weekend, the last night that we got kid-free was last year when she did this for us!  What a HUGE gift this is to us and to our relationship, and we prayed that God would reward her BIG TIME for what she did for us!!

Dave is changing our lives...

...Dave Ramsey, that is. 
We are in his "Financial Peace University" and we are loving it!!!!  I have always thought of us (especially Troy) as very good in the financial arena, and we realize now that we were still not where we needed to be financially.  But now we are trying to get there.
The word for 2011 is "Frugalicious".  That is what I am shooting for as I grocery shop, go to the mall (or rather, don't go to the mall), etc.  For example, yesterday I went to my very favorite store on earth, The Pottery Barn Outlet in Dawsonville, GA.  I was on a frugalicious hunt for new bedding for Cate and Will, since they are now "roommates".  Now this is tricky, finding bedding that is not too girly for Will and yet not too boyish for Cate.  I found a good option, but for the comforters alone, the cost was going to be about $200, and yes, that was the OUTLET price.  And then I thought, what would Dave say?  He would say, That's not good enough.  So I asked the sales girl, what is a more frugal option?  She remembered some duvets that had just been marked down and showed me over to the frugal aisle.  They are the pattern that is called "Happy Children" and was perfect for boy AND girl.  So, the original prices were 129 for the twin and 149 for the full, but the new and improved and frugalicious price for each duvet cover was $17!!!!!!  Anyways, that is my new life...hunting for major bargains.  All that to say, Dave is changing my life and I highly recommend his class.

My Weekend in St. Louis!

Ah, I had a much needed mommy break this weekend...I traveled to St. Louis to speak at Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian Church.  I got to share with a wonderful group of ladies on Friday night and much of Saturday.  I was WORE OUT afterward, but it was worth it, for them (I think) and for me (I know). 
I missed Troy within the first hour that I was gone.  It took me another 23 hours, but I did finally miss the kids too!  ha!  I think that it was just nice to walk around without children needing me, hanging on me, wiping snot on me, etc...  Troy is such a trooper to keep them all weekend so that I could have this opportunity!! 
It was fun to reconnect with dear April Barber, one of my Berry College friends, and Becky Kicklighter, a friend from way back in high school  (thank y'all for getting me this gig!)
I spoke on "Your Story"...meaning... knowing, loving, embracing, and sharing the story of your life.  It was about seeing the Lord in the events of your life...what He was up to, even in the hard stuff.  We laughed, we cried, we talked a lot...a true women's retreat! 

Welcome to Our Newest Adventure

Well, I could call "starting a blog" our newest adventure, and I guess that technically it is, but we have an even bigger and better one that is on the horizon.  We are in the adoption process again!  I am nesting like crazy and Troy is getting our finances in order and we are asking God to bring us a little baby boy or girl sometime in 2011.  We are adopting through Covenant Care Services; they helped us to get Will and we just love them!  They predict having several bi-racial babies who will need adoptive homes in the next several months.  We are excited and we plan to use this blog to keep YOU posted.