It's A Girl!

Check out my birthday present, oh she is so sweet. Today is my birthday and to those of you that said I was as cute as Paige you are true friends and I thank you.

As many of you know we got our little boy puppy a couple months ago with plans to spoil him but also use him to be a stud man for a little girl or 2 someday. Well we have already had several people saying they want puppies when we have them but we had a problem because we didn't have a girl.

We have been on the search for a girl but let me tell you that finding a girl was not an easy task. Yesterday I thought I had finally found my girl and then at the last minute God showed us this precious little beauty just minutes before someone else was coming to look at her.

We can't bring her home yet because she is still too little but it will only be a couple more weeks.

I need your help though! We need a name for her so we need ideas. I have never done a blog giveaway before but this seems like the perfect time to do it. If we use a name you give us I will find something special for you so please give us your ideas. Chris said since our boys name is Snickers he doesn't want anymore candy bar names.

PS Anybody want a puppy in like a year or so???

Paige's Birthday Party

Isn't she cute? Did you see the cake? It was supposed to be a Barbie cake but for the first time ever I totally messed up her cake. I had to call M*ijer for an emergency cake. She loved her princess cake though and it was yummy.

Chris had set up their swimming pool for the party but it ended up being too cold outside to use it. They decided if they couldn't swim they needed to wear swimsuits anyway.

Paige was so cute this year. She was so excited about all her gifts and the expressions on her face were priceless.

Stay tuned my birthday's tomorrow but I'm not as cute as she is.

Thankful Thursday - Paigie Turns 4!

Well this Thankful Thursday I am so very, very thankful for this 2nd miracle child of ours that is now a big 4.
As most of you know all 3 of our children are true miracle children. Most people decide they want to get pregnant and within 6-12 months they usually are. That's not how God works in this house. We suffered 4 years of infertility, started the adoption process for Guatemala, became pregnant with our first miracle child Amaya and had to put our adoption on hold until she was 9 months old.

Well, it wasn't time for us to adopt yet because God had even bigger plans than we did. When Amaya was 9 months old I was nursing and we were being careful if you know what I mean. I started feeling like I could be pregnant but how could I be when I was nursing and being careful. I finally decided I better take a test but Chris would think I was nuts because we shouldn't be pregnant. I decided to take the test in middle of the night and it was true.

God had given us a second miracle child. It was truly a miracle we got pregnant with Amaya but a second child 9 months after the first and while nursing and using protection. God knew this child was to be part of our lives.

I was sure I was having a boy the whole time because my pregnancy was completely different than Amaya. With Amaya I was deathly sick. With Paige I felt fine and actually I felt good most the time until at 30 weeks she decided she didn't want to stay in my tummy anymore. I had 7 weeks of pre-term labor with her, bedrest and many, many trips to the hospital to stop labor. At 37 weeks they put me in the hospital to induce me because she had gotten so big. I still laugh that for 7 weeks she wanted to come everytime I stood up until they wanted her to come. Well I got to the hospital and it was showing I was already in hard labor and I didn't even know it because I had already been having contractions for 7 weeks.

Paige came into the world just a few hours after they were supposed to start inducing me (ruined the doctors plans that night). When Paige was born she wasn't breathing right and they wanted to run her straight to the NICU but I couldn't let them take her without them letting me see her first. It was several hours before I could hold my precious miracle baby. Paigie spent about 5 days as a NICU baby but then finally she was all ours.

Paige was the best baby ever. People thought something was wrong with her because she never cried she just slept, ate, slept and ate.

I can't believe 4 years have gone by already. Today Paige is a beautiful little girl (no longer a baby). Paige is a mini version of her momma (this scares me sometimes). Paige has the funniest laugh, loves to giggle, loves to cuddle. Paige is a true blessing and miracle from God.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY my precious Paige!

Happy Gotcha Day Jaxson!!!

It was one year ago today that God showed us what the miracle of adoption was. It was one year ago today that we were able to look in our sons eyes for the first time and touch his beautiful (beat up from the orphanage) face for the first time. It was one year ago today that I held him in my arms and was able to wipe away his tears for the first time.

A lot of you know the miracle of how God brought Jaxson into our lives but if you don't you can read about it here. Jaxson was not a planned adoption. We saw his picture on the internet 2 years ago next month and we fell in love with him and just prayed God would bring him a good Christian family. Little did we know at the time God already knew he was our son. We had NO money at all to cover the cost of bringing a child like this home but that didn't stop God. God provided every penny we needed to bring him home in almost one week. We didn't qualify for Ch*na to bring him home, well that didn't stop God either. So like I said if you don't know his story go read it. If you do already know the story you can read it again.

One year ago this little tiny boy that weighed just 21 pounds at 2 1/2 years old had no idea what a family was and now God has blessed him with more family than he could have even ask for.

When we first got Jaxson a year ago he wouldn't let anyone hold him but his momma because he was so scared. Now he loves for his daddy to hold him all the time and today he even got his great grandpa to hold him.


Jaxson is no longer a tiny, little, scared orphan. Jaxson is in a family that loves him dearly. Jaxson is growing like a weed even though he is still small for his age. Jaxson talks all the time. Jaxson is crazy about cars and tractors just like his daddy. Jaxson loves the idea that he has his own clothes and his own shoes. Jaxson loves that he has a family.

If God has laid adoption on your heart don't let roadblocks get in your way. You can bring love and smiles to a child that has nothing. I don't care if you are 21 or 75 you can bring hope to an orphan. You don't have to be rich and you don't even have to be perfect. The kids don't care what you have, how old you are, if you are perfect or not, what you look like. There are over 143 million children in the world that need a home. What are you doing to follow God's command (he didn't give us an option it is a command) and take care of orphans? Take that leap of faith and give a child a home and you may just be the one that's blessed.

Goodsearch

Something I just learned about was http://www.goodsearch.com/ . Are any of you using this? Did you know if you use this site to search for things on the web that they will donate a penny for each search to the charity of your choice? A penny can really add up when people are searching the web.


You just go to the link and then it asks you what charity you want the money to go to. You can put whatever charity you want but I would love to suggest that you put Reece's Rainbow in for your charity. Every time you search for something you could be helping a child with down syndrome or with special needs to find a forever family.

By just searching the internet you can help little angels like this find their forever familes and bring smiles to their faces.
By the way I wish I could bring this beautiful little angel home. Oh my heart aches for these children. I'm putting this little beauty up on my side bar this week. Would you please take time to stop and pray for her that God would find a family for her and the other 143 + million children who need homes.

Paige Right After Her Dentist Appointment

This really was taken right after her appointment. She went in with better teeth than what she came out with.

OK, so everyone keeps asking how our yard sale went and if I met my goal for my girl puppy. The yard sale was Friday and Saturday last week. We did AWESOME on Friday but on Saturday we got rained out so I came short of our goal by just a little. We have been asked by 2 different people though if we want to go in on yard sales in the next few weeks so there is still hope for our little girl puppy.

Thankful Thursday

Today is a perfect day to do Thankful Thursday. Today is the 2 year anniversary of when God gave us our land. We know this isn't "our" land but God's land but we are so thankful that he is letting us use it. We are praying very, very hard now that God would sell our house so that we can start building on the land.

We both feel very strongly that God has a purpose for that land and we are ready to be there and to do whatever it is God wants us to on that land. If you didn't read the story of our land before you can click here.

One other thing I am thankful for today is that one year ago today I was finishing packing our bags. Dropping off our 2 precious children and saying the hardest goodbyes ever (I can't even begin to tell you how hard it is to leave your kids and go to the other side of the world unless you have done it). One year ago today was the last night we would be in our home only having two children. We would soon be on our way to our son. I can't believe a year has gone by even though it's hard to think it's just been a year since we have been in Ch*na.

PS We are having an Open House on Sunday. Would you pray with us that God would have the right people come to buy our house?

Thank you my friends!!!