Adoption Finalized

I have been so busy with my precious ones, that I haven't had time to blog about our exciting adventures and news! But with things settling down, I am trying to make time, because documenting our memories is important to me!

Josiah's adoption was finalized on April 17th, 2014, and Mason's was finalized on June 24th, 2014. After Jojo's adoption, we celebrated by having friends and family over for dinner, and after Mason's we all went out to dinner with family to Carrabba's.

They were both emotional days, as we were finally relieved to call them ours forever, and to give them our last name, and to say goodbye to caseworkers. It was a long journey for us, an emotional roller coaster, but well worth it! I have loved them as if I birth to them myself since the day they were brought to me, absolutely true love at first sight, it does exists! But with constant visits with caseworkers, it was a painful reminder that they were not truly mine yet, and the risk of losing them was always there. But now my worries are over, and our days are filled with noise, mess, feedings, diaper changes, toys, laundry, normalcy, and everyday mundane and love. I asked Skylar and Maddox recently if they remembered life without Mason and Josiah, and they both said no, lol. They complete our family, and we're all in love.

The day of adoption, it felt as if my husband and I were on trial for how much we loved and wanted our boys, and the judge found us guilty of being true parents to our boys! Mason even tugged on everyone's heart strings when Mitch was called to the stand, Mason cried out for his daddy, and the judged laughed and asked for Mitch to bring Mason up to the stand with him! Precious :)

Below are the photos of our happy adoption days.

(above picture is our first night with the boys, March 12th, 2013)

2014 Birthdays

This year with the arrival of our 2 precious adopted babies we were able to celebrate 4 children's birthdays!

The first 2 were in February, Josiah's was February 7th, he turned one, and Mason's was February 26th,  and he turned two! We celebrated with a mustache themed party at home with family and friends.

In May, we celebrated Maddox's 8th birthday. We took him to Frankies Fun Park to celebrate with his friends.

And this August we celebrated Skylar's 10th birthday by taking Skylar and her friends camping, where they were able to swim and canoe in a lake, zipline,  and enjoy a slumber party in the cabin.

We also had one more very special birthday, the birth of my niece Ashlynne, born on July 25th! 

We're Moving to Georgia!

We are very excited about a very big move to Georgia! It has been a dream of ours to move out of the city and into the country. We will be renting a home on five acres with a pond, chicken coop, and a goat barn, while we save to build a country home of our own. And best of all, we'll be close to family!

We have plans to raise chickens and goats, build a small garden, and let the kids fish in the pond. We have so many new changes coming our way in the next couple of weeks. Not only a new home, but Mitch is transferring to a new store, and the kids and I will be starting a new homeschooling program, Classical Conversations, where we'll be meeting with tutors and other homeschooling families once a week! The kids are very excited! We'll also need to search for a new church. We look forward to the new lifestyle, and making new friends, and being closer to family!

In the meantime, I am drowning in  boxes!

But, boxing up has been a great excuse to clean out, throw away, and donate unwanted or unused clutter. 

Our move to Georgia and to the country will be an adventure, and interesting as we learn as we go how to raise chickens, collect eggs, plant a garden, can our vegetables, and even milk a goat! We're excited and we can't wait to go! We are thankful to God for opening up all the necessary doors to make this move, and the dream of  homesteading possible!