In a month...

Well lets see.  It has been a month since my last post and let me see if I can briefly update you....

Been unpacking for what seems like forever!
Taylor has had a couple of Travel Ball tournaments and we have done really well, we even got to play in a World Series tournament and beat the best team there.  We play this weekend in Enterprise against a bunch of teams we have never played against.  GO CV SOFTBALL!!
We signed up to play Fall Ball..
We started school...  Yes we have been in school over a week.  We have a first grader and a fourth grader and LOTS of homework each night between the two.  They both love their teachers this year.
We survived VBS!!!  We had our first VBS at the Fort and we survived... 
We enjoyed all of our Fun Fridays together... The last one we went to White Water and we all had a blast!
My sister got engaged and we are all in the wedding in December, we got to go dress shopping and all got fitted for dresses.

I think that is the big things that we have done in the last month.  We still have Gabe with us and he is crawling now.  Will try to update again before next month.

On my mind

It has been quite some time since my last post.  Since then we have been very busy.  We moved back home, we have been continuing our work at The Fort Church and it is growing, we took a trip to the beach, we had all-stars tournament ( and won), and we had our first travel ball experience.  Also in this time we got Gabe back.  The Aunt decided that it was not going to work out to have Gabe placed with her.  It breaks my heart to see kids tossed around.  What kind of system do we have?????  I have learned over the last few months of fostering children that our system straight up SUCKS!!!!  If yesterday's trial of Casey Anthony wasn't enough for an indicator.  A woman that murders her child gets away with it.  I can't be the judge of the woman.  There is only one true judge.  Where is justice in this world we live in????  For example, we had one child that lived with us that had been in and out of the system since they were 6.  They were placed with a sibling that was only 5 years older.  A 22 year old individual will be the primary caretaker of a 17 year old, a 13 year old and a 5 year old.  Tell me how in the world is that in the best interest of the child???  We had another child that was obviously abused by a male.  She would not look at Adam and was VERY disrespectful to him.  I woke up the first night she was in my home and found her sleeping with her hands down her pants.  She told me so many stories.  She had been thru more at 4 years of age and seen more things than I have.  When i told our system about it, I was told to take notes just in case it ever came up in court.  She was placed back with a family member.  Where is the protection of that child???  It saddens me to know that we pay all these tax dollars and our children are in this type of danger everyday.  These are just a couple of the stories I have more.  My stories don't even break the ice of the children that are in custody of the state.  I remember that I was told when we first started that foster children have a vicious cycle to break.  Once they end up in foster care, then their children are likely to end up the same way.  I have seen this to be proven true.  There are beautiful children that could be adopted by families that would love them and give them the world, but our system is so deranged it wants to protect the parent... NO WONDER PEOPLE PAY THOUSANDS TO GO OVER SEAS TO ADOPT.  I never understood why people would do it, but now I do.  I just had to rant and rave! 

Little Man!!!!

I found out today that Little Man will be placed with his family this weekend.  I am very excited and very sad all at the same time!  We received him on Feb 22, which is almost exactly 4 months ago.  He was 2 months old when we got him and we fell in love with him immediately.  He went right along with us everywhere we went...  church, shopping, ballfields, practice, you name it he was there!  Everyone commented on what a turn around and what a great personality he had.  I have to admit he RARELY ever cries, well unless Tillery is trying to play with him like he is a baby doll.  I know my family was blessed by the time that he spent with us.  Here is a pic to brighten your day !

All- Star

Just when we thought our lives were going to slow down....

Tillery and I have been enjoying our afternoons together when Taylor and Adam are at Travel ball practice.  They have been practicing about twice a week and we have a tournament in three weeks.  The girls that Adam picked to play on the team are a good group of girls and from what I can tell enjoy  and play well together.  The parents are great too!  There are a lot of dads that stepped forward to help and you can tell that they want their child to excel at softball.  Which is a MAJOR plus on a travel team.  We decided to join with CV Baseball Academy and be their first girls team.  They have nice facility and for a small monthly fee we can enjoy the place :)  Adam particularly likes it because they can now practice rain or shine and it is a great place for Taylor and Tillery to get their lessons in.

We just found out... ( well we knew for a while but couldn't make an official announcement until June 4th) that Taylor made all-stars! 

The coaches from all teams picked the girls from the league.  The league decided to do two teams for their age group this year.  We have an 8 year old team and a 7 year old team.  Adam and Shawn Austin are coaching the 8 year olds and Curtis Greene is coaching the 7 year olds.  The thing is we may end up playing the 7 year old team in the tournament.

So just as we thought things were slowing down now we are practicing for both teams.  Adam is only making his team practice once a week since his entire team made all stars...  Thanks for the break!!!!

Actually we enjoy our time at the fields and both Adam and myself and the girls have made some really good friends there.

SO if you aren't doing anything next weekend.. Please come out and support your Phenix City Girls Fastpitch League in the 8 and under Regional tournament! 

We are proud of you Taylor and wish you the best!

Sweet Summertime!

We enjoyed our quick trip to the beach this past weekend!  We are looking forward to returning very soon. 

360 Degrees

WE'RE BACK!!!!!

This is what came out of my mouth when my neighbors saw me unpacking over the weekend.  One of my neighbors came across the yard very slowly and when she saw it was me moving items out of a truck and into our home she broke into a sprint to hug my neck.  She told me that she was so glad that it was us!  That she had missed us and that nothing had changed.  The next morning I was unloading my vehicle and the neighbor on the other side was watering her flowers and said "Are you guys moving back" and I said "We're Back!".... 

Yes we moved back into our home this past weekend...  We made a decision that the best thing for our family right now would be to move back into our home.  We moved out of the house last summer and put the house on the market.  We moved into a home for abused and neglected children.  We fostered and I believe that it was an experience that we will never forget.  We had a total of 7 chldren stay with us over the period of 9 months that we were there.  The stories that these children carry will forever be etched in my heart.

We're Back and working on getting settled in ....  The one GREAT thing about the whole move...  I got brand new paint inside and out, brand new carpet, new roof, and my front door refinished!  Its like a new home!

CV Softball Girls

Last night Adam had the first practice for the 8U softball team.  They officially decided to join and be a part of the CV Baseball Academy.  They have been wanting a softball team to join them and Adam's team will be the first! 

 

I will keep you posted on our tournaments and games as they come up... I believe our first tournament will be in Auburn towards the end of June!

Play by Play

So last week completely flew by....

The girls had their end of year parties at school and completed another grade.  We enjoyed spending Thursday celebrating with Tillery.  She graduated kindergarten that morning and then she chose to go have lunch at Fudrucker's.  I took off and the girls and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing at the house.  So I now have a first grader and a fourth grader!

Last week we also wrapped up the regular season of fast pitch softball.  We played Tuesday night and I will have to say that was the best game I have seen our little Ladybugs play!  We played again Thursday night and pulled of two wins this last week and closed out our season.  Now we will be playing all-stars and we are going to play on a travel ball team this summer.  Oh the hot days of ballparks are not over!

We also had another celebration this weekend.  We invited lots of friends over Saturday for Taylor's birthday party.  We had a luau out by the pool.  Taylor made out great with a i-pod touch and lots of itunes gift cards.  She had a great time Saturday and finished it off with spend the night company.

Yesterday at church we hosted a BBQ for all of the people coming to church with us.  It was great.  We even invited the church down the street to bring their members and join us for some fun.  Our church had about 257 this Sunday and overall we fed over 300.  The food was great and relationships are beginning to be made. 

We closed one chapter in our life this weekend also...   Tamra moved out yesterday.  Tamra has been with us since November.  Wow life with a teen is quite a bit different.  I absolutely dread my children getting to that age!

The last celebration we had this past weekend was a birthday celebration with all the Tillery family at country's BBQ.   We celebrated and ate with my grandmother for her birthday.  It is always great being with family!

The best part about my weekend was having my Friday off.  Now granted it was jam packed with errands this week.  That was because someone had to pick up everything for all of our parties this weekend.  But the girls went right along with me and we had a great time...  Here are a couple of pics of the girls having fun this weekend despite the hustle and bustle

As we begin a new week we look forward to my Friday's off this summer.  I promised the girls after we move this weekend that each Friday we will do something special just us and their dad (of course) if he is off.  This week will be filled with packing and moving back into our house.  We are trying to get as much of it done as we can....   The girls are officially on summer break and got to sleep in this morning and enjoy being at home with a sitter..  They were so excited!  I also enjoyed this too....  I didn't have to drag them out of bed and make lunch boxes.  We begin practice this week for travel ball.  We have another celebration Thursday night at the pool for our Ladybug team party.  We are going to enjoy our extra long weekend and move as much as we can before we head to the beach next week...

Until my next blog, Happy Monday!

Under Attack

A few blogs back I blogged on how stressful everything has become in our home...  As a result we have been attacked!

The laundry monster has invaded our home! He has completely taken over!  We are at his mercy of finding clothes we can wear!

I raise the dirty pair of white socks as a surrender flag!  I give up you win... You will be taken to the Laundramat this weekend, so I can box you up and move you home!

Waterfalls and Waterguns

This Saturday the girls wanted to go down to the waterfall to play.  Adam was away doing a wedding so the girls and I headed down to the waterfall for some fun.  We walked and explored! 

I could not get in the water it is still way to cold for me but the girls didn't seem to mind.  They were not real keen on how nasty it was but after a while that was okay too.  They found a board that went across the water ( see pic below )

This was taken right before they decided to stand on the board and jump.  Well bless Tillery's heart...  no matter what she tries to do she gets hurt!  Taylor bounced her off and right into the water...  Taylor and I both laughed along with Tillery at first, then Tillery began to scream very loud.  She would not stop to tell me what was wrong... I am thinking we have a broke toe, ankle, etc....  She finally took a breath long enough to tell me that she had a splinter in her heel.  I got it out and she was much better that is when I noticed the nice gaping hole in her knee that was pouring blood.  Nice description isn't it!  Well I convinced the girls it was time to go so we could doctor Tillery.  We got Tillery all fixed up and I went in because they said they wanted to play outside a little longer and this is what I found when I went back out to check on them....

The happenings this week...

Well we officially began our last week of school yesterday!  Well Taylor did anyway...  Tillery woke up with a high fever and sore throat ( again ).  Her diagnosis once again STREP THROAT... that makes the 7TH time since January.  So therefore her tonsils will be coming out in the next couple of weeks.  I used the day yesterday after we returned from the doctors office and pharmacy to do a little packing.  I don't think I have ever been so ready to move :)  Last night the girls had practice for the last two games of the season.  We have one tonight and the last one will be Thursday night.  Well the last Ladybugs game.  Then we begin Allstars and Tournament team practice and games.  We started our four day work week this week.  Not quite liking the 7:30 start time but I just keep thinking Friday will be worth it!  This week we also have Tillery's Kindergarten Graduation and lunch in her honor!  Then we have Taylor's 9th Birthday Party Saturday.  And If that wasn't enough we are doing a BBQ lunch for all the people at the church this Sunday.  I will update on all the events later....  Happy Tuesday! 

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day.  I know that I did.  We had a wonderful service at church and then had a great lunch with friends and spent the afternoon with family out by the pool.  Well the girls did... It is still a little to cold for me!  I received a Pandora bracelet from my girls

I am extremely excited about this because I have been wanting one.  There are lots and lots of clips, charms, and beads that you can add to your bracelet. The first charm that the girls picked out was...

This is the first of my collection... I can't wait to see which one I get next!  Thanks girls it was a great day!

38 YEARS

Just wanted to say Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad!!!!

Decisions... Decisions...

I wanted to let all of you know that after lots of prayer and thought we will be moving back in to our home in the next few weeks. Let me start by saying that we have enjoyed the process and love the fact that we got to help out children. We enjoyed having each of the children that we had with us! Some of their stories were heart breaking but all the same we loved on each one of them! When we began our journey with The Cora House we agreed to help get the facility up and running and having children in it again. We turned the facility into a home and will work over the next few weeks to get it turned over to someone else. I am very excited about going back home! You know there is just something about a house when it is yours. I went by the house last week and stood in my empty living room and just cried. I have missed it! When we started fostering the concept of The Fort church was no where in sight. When this concept became a reality after the first of the year. I saw how busy our life became. I heard our teenage foster child say that she was stressed and it took all I had not to come unglued and explain to her what stress really was. Let me try to put it down here: work, being audited at work, family, my two kids and their homework every night, they both play ball and being at the ballfield 3 times a week and then making sure they get to hitting lessons once a week, making sure each night that they are fed, bathed and ready for school the next day, the 100 times that they have events at their school and need a parent to attend, my husband ( bless his heart I can't tell you the last time we spent time together ), helping him counsel with individuals from the church, helping him start a church & this took being in Fort Mitchell at least 4 days a week to now maybe 2, making sure his clothes are clean to preach in each Sunday, he serves on two boards, and works a full time job also, being over the children's ministry at our new church and developing it from scratch, doing lessons each week and making sure the teachers have all the supplies that are needed weekly, fostering a teenager, dealing with her social worker, dealing with teenage "mess", making sure she has what she needs, transporting her to and from tennis, fostering a 4 month old, taking care of a baby... need I say anymore!, dealing with his parents and social worker, having mine and adams social worker come for home visits, court dates for fostering, ISP meetings for fostering, making sure that the house is clean, making sure that there are groceries in the cabinets and trying to wash mounds and mounds of laundry.... IN ALL OF THIS I have found that something has to give for the sake of my family.. And if I hear another person around me say that they are stressed, I simply have no sympathy right now! Pray about it and keep on going.... That is what has gotten us through! With Prayer and the help of some friends I have come to the realization that we will be giving up fostering and focusing on our family and our church. Our stress will not go away by no means but we are going to be doing away with some of it. Our foster teenager will be going to live with her sister in Florida on May 20. At this time we will begin transitioning back to our home. We will take the four month old with us until he is placed back with his family or with another family. I have become too attached just to say here do with him what you can... He is a precious baby and we and all of our family and friends have completely grown to love him. So please e in prayer for us in the coming weeks to transition away from two individuals that have become part of our family and pray that we find the time in our day to move and get a home ready to live in and make sure one is in great shape when we leave. Just wanted to update everyone myself before you heard it from someone else.

Hot off the Press.... Free Publicity for The Fort

A few weeks ago we had a commissioning service at Golden Acres Baptist Church, this service was for all of our church planters.  It was the Sunday before Easter and the congregation prayed over us.  It was a very special service and there was one thing that Brother Ray said that really stuck with me.  We were all lined up across the front of the church and there is probably about 30 - 35 of us.  He told us now that you are making a stand, the devil will attack.  You will be attacked at home, work and with your religion....  WHOOOAAAA he wasn't kidding!  The 35 of us that took that leap of faith to come out of our comfort zone of being fed and going to church every week.  Left...  and we now do church for other people.  We had lunch with someone today and Adam and I laughed but it is very true.  We had to do EVERYTHING!  We even gave the illustraion of buying toilet paper.  Someone had to do it for the new church.  We kicked off Easter Sunday and had around 350 people.  HUGE, we were not expecting half this many.  That was on Sunday.  Well on Tuesday night WTVM ran a story

Russell County battles issues with church at element - WTVM.com - News Leader 9, Columbus, GA


This story was completely one sided with no truth what so ever!  BUT hey we got Free Press....
Then we had our second service and there was a small peice in the Sound Off section of the Ledger Monday

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2011/05/02/1561280/soundoff-for-monday-may-2-2011.html

Even more Free Press...  We also had an article in The Phenix Citizen last Thursday. I will try my best to scan in later.  You know we must be doing something right with the devil on our heels like this. 

Ephesians 6:10-17

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Here We Grow Again....

This weekend we welcomed a new addition to our family.  BROWNIE   A 6 week old Choclate Female Lab!  The girls are in love and carry her everywhere (poor Brownie)....

In the news....

My goodness... It is EXTREMELY rare that we sit down and watch TV.  We went non-stop all weekend and about 9:30 last night we decided to sit down a minute and enjoy our new puppy and eat some supper.  I got Gabe and Tillery to sleep and then decided that I was hungry.... I made me a bowl of cereal and turned on the TV.   I saw the headline on ABC...  Osama Bin Laden Dead.   WOW!!!! 


This has been 10 years coming and I don't think I ever thought I would see this day.  I remember the awful day that I really remember first hearing of his name...  It was September 11, 2001.  I had just found out the day before that day that we were going to be having our Taylor.  Adam had to pack up that morning and head to Mississippi to work storm damage.  I remember trying to get in touch with him for hours and the phone lines were busy.  I remember sitting and watching the news story about the first plane and seeing the second one hit the twin towers.  I remember very vividly all the events of the day as they went on. 

My prayer today is that those who lost loved ones in the tragedy on Sept 11, 2001 find peace today!

Here it Is!

Here it is!!!!  Our mailer we have 55 days to get these out!  It is getting exciting and all coming together!

96 days and Counting!

SO IT IS OFFICIAL!

GOLDEN ACRES AT THE FORT WILL BEGIN ITS FIRST SERVICE EASTER SUNDAY...

ADAM WILL BE THE PASTOR OF THE CHURCH...

We have known about this and prayed for some time that this would happen if it was God wanted to do.  We had our first meeting this past Sunday and now it is time to start rocking and rolling!  We have a LOT to do and 96 days to do it.  We have  a good core team that will step up and lead.  I am SO excited to get to know and grow closer to these people in the coming months.  This will be an extension of the awesome church that we attend now.  We have been given the opportunity to take what we have in Phenix City to the people of Fort Mitchell.  I just wanted to update our family.  I will post more later as the information becomes available...

SO with that being said come worship at The Fort on Easter Sunday 2011!

National Champions!

WAR EAGLE!

We watched the championship game Monday and it was definitely a nail biter!  Heartattack Auburn as they were named at the beginning of the season pulled it off!  What a game!  The girls painted their faces at the house and we cheered on the Tigers.  We have decided to take them over to Auburn next Saturday for the Championship Celebration!  I think I am more excited than they are....

WAR EAGLE!!!

Last night we had so much fun!  We took the girls to Auburn for their first women's basketball experience.  We were in the new arena and it was very nice!  Last night was daddy/daughter night so I decided to tag along too.  We were late as always...  We saw so many Phenix City people when we arrived.  The girls got their bucket of popcorn, dippin dots, and a drink and were set to cheer on the tigers!  They were selected to play in a game at one of the timeouts which was loads of fun and even got their picture on the screen!  I will post pics later...  The highlight of the night was getting down on the court and taking our picture with Aubie!

What is Reality TV Coming To?!?!?!??!?!

Okay so I must admit I have greatly appreciated my two weeks away from work!  We enjoyed spending lots of time with family and each other, a little shopping, and movies!  I also found some time to actually sit and watch TV, which is something I rarely do!  I came across a show that I think is absolutely disgusting!  While it is CRAZY, I still find myself completely intrigued by these insane girls on the show.  The show is BRIDALPLASTY on E.

There is a group of engaged females that are competing for the wedding of their dreams.  But during the competition just like all reality shows someone is voted off each show.  This in itself brings out the bridezilla's and catfights among the females.  The twist to each show is that each episode they have a competition and the winner of the competition is safe from elimination but get this they also get the plastic surgery of their choice.  So the girl is taken away and comes back to the home that they are all staying in all black and blue.  This show is not for the weak.. BY NO MEANS!!!  The episode that I watched it actually showed the girl getting a nose job and the surgeon breaking her nose.  The show is insane! 

New Years Eve

This New Years we decided to hang out at the house and bring in the New Year with friends!  We ate LOTS of yummy food and had a lot of fun sitting around and catching up from our Holiday hustle and bustle.  We shot fireworks and set off BOMBS. Yes BOMBS...  I think the men had more fun playing with explosives than the kids.   We all stayed up and rang in the new year together and after we did, we got to sing Happy Birthday to Breanna Wood ( Michelle and Larry Wood's little girl).  She is a New Year's Baby and we celebrated with Dora cupcakes. Here are just a few pictures that my sister in law took that night...

New Years Resolutions

I am going to bring in the New Year with a few "New Years Resolutions"

1) Read my bible more

2)Pray to God more often and ask for his guidance instead of trying to do it on my own

3) Help Adam out with his ministry work more

4) Put my family first!

5) Organize my house!  

6) Tackle the dirty clothes monster that multiplies the dirty clothes stacks every night while we sleep

7) Sell our house!  I would like this to happen as quickly as possible... If you know anyone that is interested in a great priced house let me know!

8) and of course... Lose weight!

9) keep this blog updated more ;)

There is my list, let's see what we can accomplish

Happy New Years!