Forever Families

Here is the outcome from our event yesterday:

http://www.kcra.com/video/21689501/index.html

It was an amazing time and there were many families who came that were interested in Foster Care / Adoption and simply didn't know where to start. I am excited to think we may have helped even one child find a home!

Raider was put on the spot to share his story at the last minute and he did great. I have never heard him speak about his experience but he did outstanding! Everyone in the audience was crying and all day he heard what a great job he did! It was a real confidence-builder for him and I think it has shown him that despite his trials in life he has a special gift to help others because of his experiences!

The most exciting part of the event was finding a group of people who are passionate to help kids find homes who we can partner with in the future to continue to bring the message to churches in our community!

Ephesians 3:20 - God is amazing - to him be the glory forever and ever!

A Heart for Children

I believe God gives everyone certain spiritual gifts and more specifically God calls each of us to specific areas of service where we are allowed to be a part of God's great work. Ever since I was little I have known that God called me to work with children. In 6th grade I spent my recesses volunteering in the special education class. In junior high I knew I found my place when I participated in a class project volunteering to help children at the WEAVE center for abused women and children. Throughout high school I spent Sundays volunteering as a Sunday School teacher, Tuesdays running nursery time at St. John's shelter for women and children and summers teaching Vacation Bible School. In college I was blessed to participate in a ministry called Seavey Sunday, bringing Sunday School every week to children in a low-income housing area.

I share all of this not for my glory in any way but to share that each of these activities blessed me beyond belief. As I look over the happiest times in my life - they directly coincide with the times where I was serving whole-heartedly in an area where I knew God had called me to, rather than following my own path! In the last 10 years God placed on Micah and my heart a passion for children in Foster Care and although it is not something God places on everyone's heart, I truly believe that if we all listen to what God is calling us to, no matter how challenging it may seem at first, when we obey - he will give us the desires of our heart or change our heart in ways we couldn't know before and the result is nothing short of amazing!

November is National Adoption month and this Saturday 11/21 is National Adoption Day. Join us at Sunrise Community church to learn more about Foster Care and Adoption. There will be numerous agencies from the Sacramento area with resource tables and information to help you understand how the process works.

There are over 550,000 children in the United States in the Foster Care system today. Consider the amount of children who will not have a family to be thankful for at Thanksgiving or love them this Christmas. If you have ever considered foster care or adoption, if you know anyone that has or if you just want to learn more about what you can do to help children in need of families, PLEASE consider coming to our event on Saturday or passing on this information. If you are a church or community leader this is a great opportunity to learn more and be a resource for others. If you are not quite ready to foster or adopt a child you can also learn about how to help emancipated foster youth who just need a family to care about, give them direction in filling out job applications or invite them over for dinner at Thanksgiving!

Please pass this on to anyone you think may be interested! Thank You!!!!

Sacramento Regional Foster Care and Adoption Event

Saturday, November 21, 2009 11am - 3pm

Sunrise Community Church - 8321 Greenback Lane Fair Oaks, CA

Register at Assemblyman Roger Niello's office - 916-349-1995 or athttp://www.communityrenewal.net/

Lunch and Childcare will be provided.

"Defend the cause of the fatherless" Isaiah 1:17

"Be kind to widows, orphans, fatherless children and strangers. Share whatever you have with them." Deuteronomy 24:17-21

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

Our son Raider - adopted 5 years ago through Foster Care:

10 Years

This year we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary a couple months early with a mediterranean cruise. For our actual anniversary Micah had a work trip so we packed it up and went with him. We had a fun time wandering around Fresno while he was in meetings and at night, Auntie Bekah (who happened to be in town that week) babysat so we could go to dinner and a movie.

Happy Anniversary to the best husband ever. I couldn't possibly be happier!!

Hanging out at the very random nature museum:

Playing in the cool spaceship:

After the discovery center we headed to the mall. The kids favorite part was definitely the water fountain:

ANTM

Haylie loves to pick out her own clothes. I don't always let her go out of the house in her choices but she's so proud of her selection I have a hard time making her change. I found this picture the other day and had to laugh. This was from the summer. She came downstairs and asked me to take a picture of her. She was so proud of herself she was modeling for me.

Girls Weekend

This weekend I had SO much fun getting together with my girlfriends from high school. We stayed in San Francisco at the W hotel (thanks Sar) and spent the weekend chatting, laughing and shopping. We walked all around San Francisco, ate dinner at 10:30 on Saturday night, walked a mile back to our hotel at midnight (good job Bran and April) and slept in on Sunday morning. I think we all felt the same but I couldn't help reflect all weekend on how long I have known these great women and how much I love them. They are all so wonderful in their own way and I really feel blessed to have their friendship and support in my life. They are all so selfless and caring - I think we all walked away feeling built up and encouraged thanks to these great friends. We decided to make our girls weekend an annual trip and I can't wait for the next one!!!!!! Thanks for planning this one April.

Lynette, Me, Brandy, April, Liz and Sarah (we missed you Abbey!)

Riding BART - we were completely lost but we met the nicest girl who helped us find our way. We wished we got her name so we could be her friend on Facebook! :)
Shopping on Sunday - that's my new Old Navy jacket for 50% off! :) Sarah got a cute green one...

Princesses on Ice

One of my fondest memories from my childhood was when my Mom surprised my sister and I with a trip to Disney on Ice. We had so much fun on our little spontaneous girls night and ever since then I have wanted to do special things like that for my daughter. Haylie and I went to see princesses on ice and I just loved sitting with her and spending that time watching the show together. At the beginning of the show she said, "Mommy, I love being here with you." - Melt my heart!!!

Haylie's favorite - Ariel:

Haylie was so cute - every time one of the villains came out, like Ursula, she would look at me and say, "they can't come up here, no - they are just going to stay down there?!" looking for reassurance. :)
We joined our friends Megan and Abby there as well. They had much closer seats so half way through we were able to go sit with them.

Halloween

On Halloween night we did a little Trick or Treating around our neighborhood. The kids had a fun time knocking on doors. James just sort of followed Haylie around and Haylie helped show him the ropes of trick or treating. Although I think James had it down pretty good on his own - he would just stand there while they kept putting more candy in his bag and we would have to pull him away. After about 20 houses or so, Haylie said she was done and ready to go back home. I think she just wanted to eat the candy!

Campover

Last week Daddy went out of town so the kids and I decided to have a "campover" - that's Haylie's made up word for camp-out and sleepover. Raider set up our tent in the living room and we enjoyed homemade chocolate chip cookies and popcorn while we watched our doggie movie that we rented. Haylie, James and I slept in the tent all night. Now Haylie wants to have a campover ever day!

Trunk or Treat

We love going to the annual Harvest Festival at our church and of course the kids really love the truck or treat part where they can go from car to car and get candy. This year James was old enough to participate and it was very cute - he had no idea what he was doing but he knew he liked it - and of course he really wanted to eat all the candy!

Haylie, Kiley and Lea all wore the dresses we got them while we were in Spain. James was the cutest little dinosaur ever (it was actually a dragon costume but he likes to call it a dinosaur):

They loved all the games, bounce houses and especially this slide!!