2 years ago...

I have a thing for dates. Don't ask me how I remember most of them, I just do. 2 years ago today, I babysat Woody and Buzz for the first time. I took a cell phone pic and sent it to PK with a caption that read, "our sons?" I knew right away they were special.
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A few days/a week later, we got to watch them for a week while their foster family went out of town for spring break.
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We knew we'd adopt them after that. They were our sons.
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When they left after that first week I mourned. They were just 20 minutes away and I could visit them whenever I wanted, but I missed them deeply! Going from a 3 year old and 5 year old to a silent house is a huge differnce- a big gaping hole. In the waiting period, we were at Double Dave's for lunch. It was about 45 minutes from our house, and about 20 minutes from where Woody and Buzz were living. It was not likely that we would run into them there.
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Imagine my excitement when they walked in. Imagine my elation when they walked up and sat at our table. Their foster family apologized. Obvioulsy we were not sorry, and I asked if they could eat with us. So, Woody and Buzz ate with us while their foster family ate a table away.
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Another time, their foster mom told me that Buzz would wake up crying in the middle of the night calling for me. Not his mom. Not his foster mom. Me.
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Another time she mom told me that one day Woody asked out right if he could live with me.
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It was little moments like that that I cherish. These sweet boys were our sons. From March until July. They should still be with us. I know Romans 8:28, but the way it all ended was just wrong. It is amazing that it has been 2 years. They were 3 and 5, now they are 5 and 7. UNBELIVABLE. Man I miss them.
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Click here, here and here to see a few posts about our boys.

Money Pit

My step dad told me about a movie called, "Money Pit," years ago. These people buy a house and then one thing after another goes wrong- something like that. Honestly, our house is no where near a money pit- PRAISE JESUS! But, I was quite discouraged today to tell the truth.
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We bought way under our means, like half the cost of our house in Houston. We should have this house paid off in about 5 years! wahoo! GREAT feeling! We want to get debt free and then live on little and give the rest away to the orphans in Africa. Seriously. I am not being Miss America, that is really what we have been called to do. So getting this house was very exciting, knowing we were getting closer to fulfilling our calling, being obedient to God, and helping countless orphans.
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I thought we would need to replace the floors, paint the walls and move in and voila! HA! Not quite. I had a little pity party for myself today when I saw how much elbow grease/time/money etc this was gonna take. Now don't get me wrong, we will be putting minimal money into it and in the end still have it paid off in 5 years. It will just not be as easy to just move in.
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We have to finish tearing out carpet, carpet padding and nail boards, temporarily fix up the kitchen cabinets, paint the concrete floors, (temporary fix), sand/paint the walls, move in and by Saturday.
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After Saturday we must decorate, buy kitchen appliances, (we have none), redo the entire bathroom, tear down the sheet rock in the playroom and replace that, (this little tid bit broke my heart- I was so excited to set up the playroom immediately). Once the playroom is done I can begin decorating Briar Rose's room, (more on that in a min).
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In the future, we will put down real floors, and redo the kitchen cabinets.
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Beisdes all the work, the real discouragement I had today was that it wouldn't be complete when we moved in. Most of this will be done over the next year, (kitchen redo may be after we pay off the house). I hate the idea of having to wait, but we will be in this house for at least 10 years, so it will all be worth it.
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See, so lots of work and it won't be cheap, but Mr. Incredible will be doing it himself so it won't be expensive either. HE ROCKS! I am the wall painter, room decorator and handy man helper, but other than the painting and decorating- he does most of the work. :)
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I got discouraged today and I so wished I had the shape of Africa tattooed to the palm of my hand so I could look down at it and remember why we bought this house in the first place.
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Then I looked out our front door and saw so many kids outside playing, parents pulling their kids in wagons, etc. I thought to myself, "Thank You God for this lovely neighborhood." Then as we were closing up for the day, (we are staying at the hotel until Saturday Praise Jesus), we got to meet our next door neighbors. They are older than us, the husband is into working out, the wife is a nurse and is into crafting. Hmmm, Mr. Incredible loves to work out, living next to a nurse is so awesome for Sweetpea, and I love to craft! PERFECT NEIGHBORS! PRAISE JESUS!
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My discouragement started to return to encouragement and excitement, especially when I sat down and made the to do list- the end was in sight. We can do this! Don't get me wrong, I DO NOT regret buying this house. The layout is perfect for us, and it is/will be a great house. I was just a bit discouraged that everything was not going as well as I had been planning.
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One other bit of discouragement: with all the projects, it will push us back in the adoption process. We were going to train in April, but now we will do our training in June. :( So Lord willing, Briar Rose will join our family this summer. I was looking forward to her coming this spring, but I know ROMANS 8:28 is true.

Sweetpea has been a great "helper..." she chills in her stroller while we work, (take note of the floors- living room).

I was sanding the walls today so here are my mask and "goggles." lol
She loves me, and boy do I love her!

Notice the floors are a black/brown mess. We will be painting the floors gray, (see my practice square?), until we save up for our real floors. You will still be able to see the texture, but at least the color will be uniform and will match the decor.

Beginning of the sanding process. EXHAUSTING.

Notice the floors... and the yellow wall used to have wallpaper- I got most of that off- still need to finish that. And of course all the colors you see will be repainted.

The girls' playroom. Missing floors and base boards...

...as you can see, the previous owners enclosed their garage to make this room. They did not do a very good job. The sheet rock did not go all the way down to the floor. The texture was not properly plastered. The sheet rock was not properly attached to the walls. The base boards we not properly attached. This is why we will have to tear it all down and re do it. This room is really where the discourament hit.

Sweetpea's room. The dots COULD have worked with her decor, but once again the room was less than perfect...

marks everywhere

I am going to have to repaint this whole room before Saturday, (as well as the living room and dining room).

It may be hard to tell, but this whole room has to be redone- notice the tub?

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Besides the encouragement from God today, something else encouraged me. I do enjoy decorating, and if this house was perfect, I would get it all done this week. Since I have to wait, it will allow me to stretch out the decorating- giving me something to do later. I have something to look forward to, (you know, to keep my mind off of waiting for Briar Rose).

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And my biggest encourager is my smallest blessing. All while we worked today she sat in her stroller and chatted away. Could never love her enough:

Keepin' Busy

After church we're heading back to the house. We have so much work ahead of us, and we're not moving in until next weekend because of all of it. Yikes.

Here is a pic of Sweetpea eating her first meal in our new kitchen yesterday. :)

What we're up to...

Pom Pom Princess

Sweetpea has said "love you," for awhile now. Wednesday she said "I love you," for the first time. To Mr. Incredible. It was awesome! Now she says it pretty regularly. On Thursday she spoke with him on the phone. She has pretty extensive conversations with herself on the phone, but when there is a person on the other end, she gets stage fright. Not yesterday! :) She said, "Hhiiii, I love you, Byyeee," to her daddy. So special.

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I know kids change everyday, so seeing her grow everyday shouldn't be that exciting, but it is! She has barely changed in the (almost) year and a half since she came home to us- she weighs only 20lbs, has only grown a few inches, can scoot, (which was very exciting but still). Most babies change so much and physically speaking she hasn't changed that much at all. Of course cognitively she is right on schedule, and in many ways ahead, (Dr's words not mine). :) We haven't gotten to see the physical growth so seeing her grow in others ways is extra exciting! She matures everyday in her speech and cognitive understanding. It is such a joy to see! Not to mention the physical changes that are happening. She asks to stand up all the time! Once we get into our house and get her back in physical therapy, I think it won't be long until she is walking!

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In other big girl news:

I finally dove in a did Sweetpea's hair. Mr. Incredible always comments on how long her hair is getting and that we should cut it, (he loved it when it was super short this time last year after her surgery). I always tell him that 1. I LOVE her free wild hair and 2. I have been DYING to give her pom poms- when it got long enough. :) Finally pom pom time! :)
With her new hair, we pulled out one of our frames for the new living room and did an impromptu photoshoot- hotel style! lol

The sketch may be cheesy, but look at her sweet face!!

Ok, so this is really strange, but I still love her sweet face and hair details :)

Kissy lips!

One more that is strange, but I just like how these highlight features differently than the normal shot did

Sweetpea posed herself. When I took this shot, all I could think of was those cheesy photography studio shots, "gazing into the future" or whatever. lol

She decided to count during the shoot. She can count to ten, but can only show the number one on her hand, and as you can see in the pic, she tries really hard to do 2,3,4 on her hand too! lol

I tried to get her to smile so I told her to say, "Hi" to Nana Nell! It didn't get her to smile, but she very animatedly said, "hhiiii Nana Nell!" All while waving, (she had to juggle the frame to figure out how to hold it and wave at the same time). :)

She loves to "brush" her hair :)

She still doesn't have enough hair to do just 2 pom poms, so she had to have a third in the back. Oh, and my lines aren't perfect yet- hey, it was my first time. :) PS, After her nap later that day, her hair looked less than perfect. How do I keep whispies from happening? HELP!

Calling all prayer warriors!

Update: thanks for praying. Keep praying for this miracle baby! Here is her mother's blog if you would like more info.

Prayer warriors: there is a baby girl in desperate need of prayer, RIGHT NOW! Please pray! And pray for her mommy too! Sorry to be vague, but just pray please!

March Madness

We closed on our house yesterday, and today we get to move in! Well, start working on it, we will be in the hotel a little longer waiting for our stuff to arrive. At the end of this month our house will officially be sold! (see pic below that the bff sent)

Our adoption process hasn't moved since January. Its kinda hard to have a home study if you don't have a house. ;)

So yeah, we're moving into our new house, selling our old one, and beginning the process to bring home Briar Rose. March will be mad indeed!

Praise Jesus-we wouldn't have ir any other way!