Storage Galore!!!

 

Soooo.... I am still trying to climb out from under the rock of unpacking!!

 

  This is something that has taken so much of our time and energy.

Thankfully Jason's dad has been helping us!!!  Let's see we put storage our bedroom closet, girls' closet, boys' closet, laundry room, and you already saw our toy/homeschool room!

Medicine cabinet in our bathroom and mum put together some outdoor storage for us.

And of course we have been taking a break to do fires in the fireplace since Florida is having a cold snap.  I mean it has even gotten down to freezing ;).  

This was a huge project as our pantry had flimsy wire shelving.  Now we have beautiful wooden shelving :) in an L shape to hold so much more!

 

 

The cat has found a new hang out as well.

 

We went out with mum and dad to look and dream at an RV sales place.  Free entertainment and fun!

 

We had friends over for some fun!

 

 Loved using our 3 acres to play!

 All us British adults had fun too!!

 We drank English tea and strawberry Ribena along with some English goodies :) Yummy!!  

I think Michael is complaining or telling daddy he is silly ;).  

We also had a sweet visitor for 6 days through Cradle Care for Mother Goose Adoptions!  I did some work with her birth family and adoptive family as well.  She was very tiny and beautiful and is now with her forever family!  We are thrilled for them!!!!

We are now on our way to getting our Suburban fixed and on to a developmental and behavioral pediatrician's appointment for Michael to learn more about him.  This is one appointment of a series that will help us determine goals and what we can do to help him even more :). 

Whew!  Well all this organizing has seriously made me happy ;).  I am a complete mess when things are out of order- so think the last 2+ months...yea feels good to be getting things settled!  

(I did this post on my phone with the Blogger app, but it did all kinds of weird things??  So hopefully I fixed those now?)

Adoption Days and Birthdays galore!!!

I am well behind.  And so just to explain how my weeks have been since we moved.  Oh yes, we never do things easy around here!  We move in and immediately try to unbury ourselves from box after box.  Thinking of storage solutions and what goes where.  Today we just got a couple of things on our bare walls.  Put together all the bunks, shelves, and bunches of toys and books! 

Ahhh......but as I took the kids to pick out new bedding and towels as a part of their late Christmas presents.....we were rear ended.  Of course it took over 2 hours for the police report.  THANKFUL that we were all safe since I had 7 of our babes with me at the time.  Then we took in a little baby girl through cradle care (since I work with Mother Goose Adoptions) and I am working with the birth family.  Did I mention my parents in love flew in earlier this week too?  They are staying with us for a few weeks!  :) 

Needless to say - we are a little swamped ;).  Wouldn't have it any other way!! 

So here is Matthew's Adoption Day!!!  YEA!!  It was November 27th and all these pics were taken on my phone since my battery recharge quite working for our camera. 

Legos, dart guns, and star wars that's what our boys are made of!!! 

He chose oreo cheesecake- YUMMY!!!!!!  We are so thrilled to have Matthew in our family!!!  He came to us as a tiny (under 6lbs) baby and at just a little over a year we were able to adopt him.  Matthew has a sly sense of humor, loves to put things together and take them apart, create new things, and is great at giving hugs!!! 

Andrew had his birthday on December 6th!  He turned 12 and is officially an oldest if you like. 

As you can see he is great at loving the youngest. 

Legos are his world!  NOT JOKING!!

We bought him a book of world records for fun. 

Ice Cream Cake- with peppermint flavoring.  So peppermint M&M's, peppermint chips, and chocolate sauce too! 

Love that smile!!!! 

My only confusion....I can't find Elizabeth's birthday pics or Michael's adoption day pics???  Praying I can find them.  This move has had us all discombobulated.  ;) 

It's all good!!!  Holding a sweet blessing from heaven as I type!  Praying that things go well and she is united with her family by Friday!  Please pray with me.  This case has become complicated and the adoptive family, the birth family, and this sweet girl need permanency!!  Just praying for God's beautiful plan for their lives!!!  

CONGRATULATIONS TO CHANDRA AND ALTON!

 This beautiful family welcomed home their newest son November 18th of last year.  They had been working with us since July.  Sometimes we feel that we just don't know how God is going to give us our next child, but when He whispered in this family's ear through their daughter.....they knew. 

We started the adoption process in late Jan 2013... several miscarriages and a complicated delivery with our younger daughter, convinced us that it was time to move forward with the adoption process we had already been considering for awhile.  We felt like God was calling us to adopt and we found that as we answered the call, He smoothed our path every single step of the way.  We were blessed with the opportunity to work with true adoption professionals who guided us from the very beginning.  We also had the prayers of many friends and family members as we moved forward.  

Our home study was completed mid July and we started working with CAC, applying to different agencies, checking email constantly, and WAITING!  We did present but were not chosen... we did want to present but did not get our profile and application in on time...  we did wonder if we could do this financially...

We got "the call" on a Friday afternoon in October.  We had just finished loading up the car with our 4 year old and 2 year old daughters, getting ready to go out of town for the weekend.  As we were walking out the door, the phone rang.  'There is a beautiful, healthy little baby boy who was born Wednesday.  His mom signed adoption consents yesterday.  He is ready to be discharged from the hospital, would you like to come and pick him up?"  We both started crying.  Our prayers were answered in the most amazing way!  We were blessed with our beautiful son and God also provided us with a financial miracle- exactly what we needed for his adoption.

  We met our new son at the hospital at 4 pm, by 7 pm we were at home introducing him to his two thrilled big sisters.  He is 12 weeks old now and we couldn't imagine our family without him.  We had been praying that God would bring us the baby that he had in mind for our family.  It amazes me to know that from the moment he breathed life into this precious baby boy, He knew that he belonged with us.  God is so good!  We are so blessed!  God has answered in a way that was more wonderful than we could have ever imagined.

What a beautiful baby boy blessing!! 

Have you ever thought about adoption, but don't know how to begin?  Maybe you think it is too overwhelming?

Want to ask more questions?

 It has been our pleasure to help so many families walk their adoption journey.

Call me 813-360-7368

or email wrights@christianadoptionconsultants.com

I'm Baaacccckkkkkk- with pics!

 So I could try to explain how crazy it was thinking every day for more than 2 weeks that we would move.....today....only to find that oh nevermind- maybe tomorrow?  Yep- it was a little crazy! 

Going without washer and dryer, internet, Netflix, dvd's, games, 99% of toys, not having outdoor toys because well- let's just say a neighbor who was far from friendly, and minimal food.......was.....ummm......like crash course fasting!!!  And we SURVIVED!  It also taught us many lessons about ourselves.   

 The day before New Year's Eve we finally MOVED IN!  HOME!!!!! 

Of course the day after New Year's we had septic issues ;) you know for added enjoyment!  Oh and our oven takes over 30 minutes to heat up.  Thanks to amazing friends not afraid to play with septic systems we solved that.  Our oven will hopefully be replaced soon, and we are working on some electrical issues too! 

**Yes we had an inspection, and yes our realtor is AMAZING and helping us work through the issues.  There are some others, but I will spare you the details because WE ARE FINALLY HOME!!!!

 So in the last week- we have made a lot of progress!  This is our toy/homeschool/spare bedroom. 

 Things are all up on shelves, but it is hard to organize until everything is out of the box.  Therefore making it a challenge- which just means although a lot of things are on the shelves they will have to be reorganized ;). 

 As you look into our closet here you can tell that we need to get more storage!  He he he- actually those banker boxes are all empty, but I am saving them to put those things you store- like photo books in as opposed to the boxes they are in now.  I know I am crazy.  Got it.  After the last couple of months I am pretty sure I have earned a whole new level of crazy!!! 

 I know without a doubt that people who brought us meals, helped us load up the truck, helped us unload the truck, and those who have been praying- WE ARE SOOO THANKFUL FOR YOU!!!!!!!!! 

I can't even begin to express the crazy in our home.  If you have moved with children from hard places you may have noticed that change is hard for them.  As in it may throw them to a whole new level of intensity.  This has certainly been true for some of our kiddos and I totally get it.  Unfortunately it kind of throws a wrench into the fact that it is hard enough for Jason and I to cope at times.  Throw in a bunch of complications and I earn certifiable onto my resume.  :) 

 BUT WE ARE HOME!!!!!!  For that I am so excited and thankful!  This is the girls' room.  Note again we need more shelving storage in the closets so the extra bits are on top of the dressers.

  Joanna is such a poser- she is now sleeping on her own!  (She usually slept in the same bed as Abigail).  Big Girl!

 This is the boys' room and Joanna couldn't help herself.  I think she just doesn't get enough attention??  ;) 

 This is our wonderful getaway room!  LOVE IT!!!  IT feels amazing- mostly because with a few exceptions I shoved all the boxes directly in the closet the first day.....just so I could have a room where I didn't stare at too many boxes!  :) 

 This chair right here- that is where I am right now- typing this post.....relaxing with my new extremely soft blanket that I bought myself for Christmas! 

So I am praying that your Christmas and New Year were amazing!  Ours were definitely ones for the memory books.  We had a great time and are settling in enjoying being silly and starting to make memories.

One new tradition we have started since being here is nightly stories with mom.  What is that?  Well it is where I make up a crazy story- walk the short hallway between the girls' and boys' rooms and make the silliest stories up.  Of course I use their names in it for extra giggles and enjoyment.  

There have been so many birthdays and adoption days....so many other posts swimming around in my head.....Michael has made some huge leaps of progress..........and of course new babies coming home through Christian Adoption Consultants that I can't wait to introduce you to!!!!  For now....I will stop because tomorrow is another crazy unpacking day...and my hubby started a fire in our fireplace.  :) 

It feels great to be back.  I have missed my blog time!