Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Those Early Moments

Being an adoptive parent, one of the hardest things is missing those "early moments."  When you bring in and/or adopt a child who is "older" in any way you most often miss out on baby pictures, baby "firsts", etc and as the child gets older those become harder and harder to miss.  

Many times kids have school assignments about being a baby whether that be bringing in a baby picture and "guessing the baby", or doing a growth chart through pictures, or the dreaded family tree.  I first encountered this with Olivia when she was in kindergarten and was asked to do one of those "growth charts" from baby to now (at only age 5).  Since she came to live with me at 3 1/2, we didn't have a lot of change in pictures.  I gave her some options such as a random online picture, drawing a baby picture, etc but she wanted to just use what we had.  It's been hard to have missed those moments and not even have pictures to share with her or others.

This week I was granted a huge blessing.  Someone Olivia and I met while on our two week visit to Haiti has been going to Macy's orphanage over the years since she arrived at age one, and shared some great pictures with us of her!  These are such a treasure and will be even more important as time goes by and she is home with us. 






Monday, June 23, 2014

Needing to Catch Up

Summer is here FINALLY!  But I have neglected this blog for WAY too long with end of the year "stuff" going on at school and work.

Our summer vacation this year has been in the works for over two years now and I can't believe it's actually come and gone.  Back then my mom and I discussed taking the kids (and ourselves!) on a Disney cruise.  She has always dreamed of going on a cruise and I was sure one would most likely not be in our future cost wise.  She generously was giving me a portion of money at the time and I suggested that we take out some to use on a cruise together and I would put the rest toward our adoption, which we did.  So just over a year ago we planned and booked our cruise, to take place in June of 2014 (which seemed so very far away!)  At the time we had had Macy's referral for a few months so she was booked alongside the rest of us and it was extremely bittersweet to say the least to have to remove her from our booking since of course she isn't home yet.

Nevertheless we had a wonderful time!  Here are a few glimpses into the dream that our Disney cruise was for us...














(Yes, I celebrated my special day on board the ship!)


(A blogger-turned-real-life friend and her daughter went on the same cruise!
We had a blast!)





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About Me

I am a single mom to four amazing kids; each of whom just happen to have been adopted. The first three were adopted through foster care, and we just completed an international adoption from Haiti. Our family has grown through adoption and I am all the more blessed to know each of my children. I worship a mighty God, teach Special Ed, love bargains, and am inspired by Pinterest... come along with us for the ride!


Olivia - 14

Olivia - 14

Braeden - 11

Braeden - 11

Liam - 9

Liam - 9

Macy - 5

Macy - 5

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What you should know about HIV

-HIV can NOT be spread through casual/household contact. HIV is not spread through hugging, kissing, shaking hands, sharing toys, sneezing, coughing, sharing food, sharing drinks, bathing, swimming or any other casual way. It has been proven that HIV and AIDS can only be spread through sexual contact, birth, breastfeeding and blood to blood contact (such as sharing needles). - HIV is now considered a chronic but manageable disease. With treatment, people who are HIV+ can live indefinitely without developing AIDS and can live long and full lives. - People who are HIV+ deserve to be treated with love, respect, support and acceptance as all people do. Additional information on transmission of HIV can be found on the Center for Disease Control website: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources

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Orphan Crisis

• 147 million orphans in the world
• 50 million orphans in Africa 
• Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS
• 16,000,000 have been orphaned by AIDS
• Every week, AIDS claims as many lives as American fatalities in the Vietnam War
• 854 million people do not have enough to eat
• Malnutrition is associated with the deaths of 5 million children under the age of five
• Every 2 seconds an orphan dies from malnutrition


Hence the title of my blog

Little Did I Know

Little did I know that the road would be so rocky
Little did I know that the trip would take so long
Little did I know that my heart could hurt so much
Little did I know that God is never wrong

Little did I know that love could be so powerful
Little did I know that a dream so far could go
Little did I know that God would place the right ones
Little did I know that my heart, so large, could grow

Little did I know that a dream has it’s own timing
Little did I know that this day would finally come
Little did I know that four souls would be sent to guide me
Little did I know that they would choose to call me mom

But God knew all along and He had a plan to follow
God knew all along that my dream would soon come true
God knew all along that we five should be together
God knew all along that I’d share it all with you