How I Met My Husband?

I got this from a fellow blogger's site. I thought it was neat so here goes!

Brent and I actually met when we were about 12-13 years old. We met at a band camp here in Russellville, AR. We were friends from that time on. In the meantime we both dated other people like teenagers do, but remained really good friends. We lived about 2 1/2 hours away from each other, so we really only saw each other at band events throughout the school year. At one point I actually dated one of his good friends! Our senior year in high school we met up again at yet another band event. We spent the whole day talking and pretty much ignoring everyone else there. We began dating shortly after that. We got married right after high school graduation and moved to Russellville to attend college where we had originally met all those years ago! Next week will celebrate 8 years together!

You can go back to fellow blogger's site and enter your story as well as read others' stories!

Enjoy!

Hiking

We had a family reunion this weekend. After it was over we went on a hike with Brent's brother and his family. Brent and Aaron grew up in the area and wanted to show us all a waterfall on the hike. So off we went. Brent said it wasn't far, but the hike guide said it was a two mile hike. It was so much fun. Now I'm not really an outdoorsy type of gal, but we did have a great hike. It was beautiful. We stopped at a big creek with lots of rocks and a great place for the kids to play and took some great family photos. (I'll try to post them, but I'm not sure if it'll work or not. I have to steal them from my facebook.) Then we went and saw a waterfall, and sadly I don't have a picture on here of that, but it was pretty!





This week is VBS at church. Aloha, Outrigger Island! We had fun with all the decorations this year. It's a fun tropical theme. The kids are having a great time. Chloe our neice that's Xavier's age is staying with us for the week to go with him. They're having a great time playing together during the day. Xavier is the only boy in our family, so he's stuck with girls most of the time. He doesn't ever mind though!

Xavier, Kynnadee, Chole, Karter, Naia









Chole & Xavier hunting for crawdads.

Patience

Lately I've been praying for patience concerning our kids. It's summer time here and we're home most of the day every day. We can get a little stir crazy. I've been trying to not get angry over little things. We've been using timeout with Naia per our adoption agencies rules for new adopted children. We don't want her to think that we treat her and the new baby any differently, so we've cut back(and I think I make it sound like a lot, but it's not, I Promise!!!!) on spanking and only using it as a very last resort. Every night, when the house is quiet I start to pray. I pray that I will have patience with my kids. That I won't overreact to little things. That they are just kids. That I have to teach them to do things the correct way, the way that I want them done. I can't just expect them to know exactly what I want. I know that people say when you pray for patience that God's going to send really annoying people for you to practice with! I've really been expecting the kids to overly drive me nutty, but amazingly they haven't been too bad! It's been a pretty good week so far!

I just finished watching an Adoption Story. I think my eyes stayed teared up the entire show! I can't believe that will be us in (keep your fingers and toes crossed) less that 8 months. We will be the ones that are struggling with a baby that doesn't know us from Adam, that wants someone that knows exactly what he wants. That will be us, exhausted, exhilarated, and completely stressed from being on a plan for 14 hours or more! (I'm not real big on flying...)
I can't wait!!!

Adopted By God

When we come to Christ, God not only forgives us, he also adopts us. Through a dramatic series of events, we go from condemned orphans with no hope to adopted children with no fear. Here is how it happens. You come before the judgment seat of God full of rebellion and mistakes. Because of his justice he cannot dismiss your sin, but becasue of his love he cannot dismiss you. So, in an act which stunned the heavens, he punished himself on the cross for your sins. God's justice and love are equally honored. And you, God's creation, are forgiven. But the story doesn't end with God's forgiveness.....It would be enough if God just cleansed your name, but he does more. He gives you his name.

-The Great House of God

Nona can we apologize in the front yard?

So the kids are at my mom's house for a few days! It's been incredibly peaceful around the house! Yesterday my mom had her hands full b/c not only did she have Naia and Xavier she had my brother's little girl Kailie there as well. Kailie is 3 1/2, just 6 months younger than Naia. They were wild! They either love each other or really get on each others' nerves! Well yesterday they were really getting on each others' nerves b/c my mom called me at 9:30 to tell me about their morning! After a good lunch and a nap, the girls were much better. They were outside playing and Naia came in and asked mom, "Nona, can we apologize in the front yard?" My mom said "What?" Naia replied, "You know, apologize, dig in the dirt?" My mom finally quit laughing and said, "Yes you can dig in the dirt!"

How funny is that? Naia's been trying to use such big words lately. Her favorite word about year ago was disgusting. Everything was disgusting! Oh she wants to be a "big girl" so bad. She can't wait for when the new baby gets here b/c she will officially get to be the big sister. This is something very important to her. She already tells me what she's going to do to help with the baby. Not the gross stuff of course, big brother Xavier gets to help with that stuff!

I read on another blog about someone trying to teach a four year old about adoption. Naia's around it all the time, so maybe that's why she understands it a little bit more. We were talking about the baby a few days ago and Naia said "But our baby will have another mommy & daddy first. She won't come from your tummy mommy." I'm so thankful that God is preparing her already for the difference of how this baby is coming to join our family.

What time is it?

Summertime!
It's definitely summer at our house! Sleeping late, not rushing in the mornings, ah I love it!

Lots of referrals are being made right now! Can you say excitement!!!??? We're about #8 on the list for a referral. Which is really cool. We may even have a referral by the end of summer. We haven't really gotten anything togeter yet for a baby! I bought one baby toy at a yard sale this past weekend! It cost a whole dollar!! I'm the world's greatest procratinator, so I'm sure a couple of weeks before we leave to go get our baby, that I'll almost be completely ready for a baby to come into our house!!