Mother's Day

We had a good Mother's Day this year.  The day itself actually flew by but it was enjoyed.

Caroline did a few crafts/projects at school that she brought home for Mothers Day.  One of my favorites was the "All About My Mom" worksheet.  Here are her answers...

I show my mommy I love her by helping her feed my sister.
My favorite thing to do with my mommy is crafts.
My favorite thing Mommy cooks is mac and cheese.
My mommy is really good at making mac and cheese. Maybe she was hungry??
I love my mommy because she makes lots of things for me.  Hmmm....

I hope her teachers next year do the same thing.  I've seen lots of people post theirs on facebook and they are pretty cute!

I'm so thankful to be a mom.  I love my girls and could not imagine a more rewarding (and challenging) role!

Fostering

We've been going through the process to become foster parents for almost a year.  We had a few breaks in the process for other things but finally completed it about a month ago.  People often ask why we are doing this and there are 3 reasons...1) All the books we were reading in Sunday School talked about us taking action.  I read a good quote recently that sums this up, "Instead of telling people you are in our thoughts and prayers, we should tell them you are in our actions and prayers."  2) Mark and I have always had a love for children (one of the reasons I fell in love with Mark was seeing him interact with children).  We met and dated while working together with a youth group.  3) We have always viewed our home as a gift from God that should be shared with others.  It's been a blessing to open it up to others.  These three reasons led us to pursue fostering as a way for us to serve God and give back to others.

Two weeks after all documentation was complete we got our first call.  We took in a 3 year old little boy.  He was with us for a week, until he was moved to a home that could care for both him and his sister.  I so wish I was allowed to post a picture because he was the cutest little guy.  He had lots of personality and an infectious little smile.

While the first week was super busy trying to get all his appointments taken care of, we were blessed by God and His people as little details were worked out over and over for us.  It's been really neat to see things happen and realize that they are due to God working!  People brought meals and shared toys and clothing.  Little things also meant a lot...Caroline learned to buckle her own seat belt and was able to move to the back seat of the van so our little man could sit in the middle.  An appointment that I knew was at 1:30 was miraculously moved to 2:00 on the day our little guys was leaving ensuring that we had plenty of time to say goodbye to him.  Those little things meant that God was watching over us in this new world of fostering.

We are already learning lots!  I think one of the biggest things is that we've realized so far is what a bubble we live in (and how thankful I am for that bubble - to some degree).  We heard all of these terrible stories in training and were horrified that those things could actually happen.  I think I swept those stories away thinking that they were just the extreme cases.  However, the situation with our first placement and a call that we received about another possible placement have made us realize that these horrors are real life for these children.  Mark always teases me about my big heart but his heart is growing like crazy too because we just want to take them all in!!  Although we don't know what is ahead for our family we've been repeating, "Let's trust God together."  We are looking forward to our next placement.

Girls...

We arrived at church a bit early the other day so we decided to take some pictures.  You can see that the process started out real well!

I got a few good ones though...

 

Caroline especially was into posing for the camera, 

while Libby ran away!

They have gotten to where they antagonize each other now,

but there are still sweet moments.  

Here are a few facts about Caroline right now...

• She loves babies - both dolls and the real things.  She will hold any baby she can get her hands on.  We often have to pry her away from cousin Macie so that she will play with Kelsey.  We also frequently tell her that we are the parents to which she responds, "but I'm a parent to my baby doll."  Who can argue with that?
• She loves to be outside swinging in the back yard or riding her bike.  We've been giving her some independence and letting her play outside by herself for short periods of time.  We live in a safe neighborhood, right?!
• She can fasten her car seat by herself.
• She is learning to swim without flotation.  If only we could get her to put her face in the water.  ;-)
• She loves to dance and has been begging me for months to put her in a ballet class.  We tried to take her in the fall but she cried through the whole thing.  She now tells me, "I'm not scared anymore Mom.  I'll be brave in dance class."  It's about to break my heart so we are working on getting her signed up.
• Caroline loves her mommy but she is a daddy's girl!

Here are a few facts about Libby...

• She is calm and easy going about 90% of the time.  She plays independently and goes with the flow.  I often wonder what she thinks about our home because there are ALWAYS people over here.  She's pretty sweet about sharing and just floats along like whatever mess we find ourselves in is normal.   However, that other 10% is complete crazy.  :-)  She loves to swipe at us when she gets mad or throw herself back on the floor if she is not happy with something you say.  I try my best to avoid that 10%.  
• Libby is a good little eater and still eats pretty much whatever fruit or veggie that I put in front of her.  I remember with Caroline there was a point when she realized she didn't have to do that anymore.  Libby is still going strong in the veggie department.
•  Libby also loves to be outside.  We borrowed our neighbors little tykes car and she has been flintstoning it around the driveway for days now.
• She loves to show us two with her fingers.  We think she's a genius and pretty cute too.
• She is starting to tell us when she needs to go potty or more accurately when she is actually going but at least it's a start!
• She loves to run around the house downstairs while Daddy chases her.

Preschool Pics

We are so cheap around here...we take so many pictures of our own that we never buy the professional ones done at school.  Here are the proofs we got back from her pictures this spring.  

I can't believe she is only 3!  She looks so grown up to me!

Easter!

Once again I am way behind so there will be few words and lots of pictures to come...

The girls and I traveled up to Cumming for William's annual Easter egg hunt.  It was so chilly that day but we still had a good time!

Caroline was the sweetest sister.  She gave most all of her eggs to Libby that day!

Here is she loving on her again!

The day before Easter we went to the egg hunt at church.  We had never been before but it was a good time!

Yeah for a family picture!

"Poor girls" the Easter bunny got all their goodies after having been on a food eating extravaganza in Charleston - thus there were many healthy options in the baskets and hardly any candy.  :-/

After church in the morning, we had some friends from Sunday School over for dinner and our favorite neighbors came over for an Easter egg hunt.  :-)

Girls, girls everywhere!

Our baskets overflow with the goodness of Christ - that is for sure!

"Birthday" Girl

Caroline's teachers were so sweet and asked if we wanted to bring in a treat to celebrate Caroline's birthday today, even though we have two more months before the real thing comes along.  Caroline was beyond excited about bringing treats to school!  I am always amazed at how calm and organized her preschool teachers are and all the activities that they teach them!  We enjoyed getting to drop in for a few minutes today to see everyone.

Libby enjoyed the cake pops as well!

Sweet friends!

Swim Lessons!

Caroline had her first ever swim lesson.  I'm not going to lie, I would be thrilled if her dream was to be a mermaid, just like mine was as a little girl.  :-)

She was a tad hesitant at first...as is her normal routine.

But she jumped right in like a pro and loved it!  She kept turning around and flashing us huge grins after her turn with the teacher.  She has become quite the "adventurous" girl lately and eats up the encouraging words from Mark and me afterwards.

Daddy and his girls.