The last Month

The last month has been FULL!!

We were excited to welcome our new nephew, Joshua David into the world about 4 weeks ago. I just couldn't stand not meeting him right away so we loaded up the big van and headed to St. Louis. We drove during the night and spent the next day visiting with them and drove back that night. So fun! 

The next weekend the girls, my Mom and Aunt flew to Orlando for a quick trip to visit my cousin who is working at WDW for a few months. We had a blast!! We did all things princess starting with dinner at the Grand Floridian meeting Cinderella and her mean step-sisters. 

Thank you to Betsy for getting a job at Disney!!!

We celebrated Jake's birthday on the 4th!!

He turned nine and got a parakeet for his birthday.

He named him Alex and we are enjoying him!

The next weekend was dedicated to the project Fostering Christmas Care! 

This was an idea that popped in my head in October. To say that I was blessed by this project would be an understatement. 

Several of my blogging buddies all posted about this on the same day and we launched a fundraising effort to purchase Christmas gifts for the children in our county foster care. At first we were hoping to raise enough money to buy gifts for 19 children who are placed in homes through our agency. However, it just exploded and we were able to raise enough money in just six days to buy gifts for ALL 93 kids in care in our area.

We had a wrapping party last Sunday and people who donated were able to come a wrap the gifts. 

It was an amazing afternoon! So many people came out to wrap the gifts and it blessed my heart to see so many people care for these children in sad situations. 

My heart aches for these kids and it overwhelmed me in a good way that so many others felt compassion for them and gave. 

One person called me up and said they wanted their entire bonus to go to this project.   

Two days later we headed to court for a PC hearing for our little guy!

The caseworker, myself and B's biological father testified. 

The attorneys asked me to talk about B's bond with our family, how he is treated etc....

It was great to be able to say that he is loved and treated exactly the same as our biological children. 

I actually said to a friend the other day, "When I had b....." Ha!!! 

This makes me so thankful for our families who have fully embraced him.

This sweet baby boy has no idea he is not a biological relative with all the love, attention and care he gets from Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins.

He is easy to love with his sweet, affectionate personality!

And, this last weekend, we headed to Knoxville to spend time with our Tennessee family!

We celebrated Jeremy's Grandma's 80th birthday. 

She is a wonderful lady. I love her sweet, happy personality.

It is obvious that people love her. She is funny, talkative, kind hearted and welcoming. 

We've been busy making lots of memories the last month!! 

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving and then birthday month :)!