5 kids...for real.

(I've thought and thought about how to write this post...so I finally just decided to sit down at the keyboard and see what comes out.)

We are so very excited to be adding another kiddo to our family. But in reality, kiddo #5 was actually the first. Let me explain...

Over nine years ago, before Jason and I ever ever met, he fathered a baby out of state. He told me about his daughter, who was an infant back then, on our first date. He has always helped financially and stayed in contact with the mother, but there was never a relationship, which was a mutual decision by them both. Jason was here...she was there...they went on with their separate lives.

Until now.

We'd like to introduce you to Alexis....

"Alex" is this amazing, gorgeous, crazy-smart little girl who just happens to look just like her Daddy. She's brainy like Aidan, and creative like Hannah. (Qualities that I've always claimed they got from me, but now, getting to know Alex, Jason is trying to take credit for all the great qualities! Whatever!)
:)

 Our hearts feel like they are literally about to BUST. We feel so lucky to be able to be part of her precious little life. She still lives out of state, so we met her a few weeks ago several hours away at a noisy Cracker Barrel. Jason and I both had butterflies as she approached...and then it was just perfect. She talked, we listened. We learned about her likes and dislikes, and how she just loves school. I'll have to say, she's a pretty rockin' awesome nine-year-old.

I can't explain to you what an amazing, blessed situation this is. Alex's mom and I became instant friends. We talk and/or text nearly everyday...I have truly gained a new friend! She's this incredible, Christian woman who has always put Alex's needs first. What a wonderful relief Jason has knowing that his daughter has grown up in a safe, Christian home! She's happy and healthy and knows the love of Jesus. This situation could have had so many cruddy endings, but instead, it's awesome! God is SO good!

Alex has been dying to meet her brothers and sisters (we didn't take the crew with us when we met her) so she'll be joining us for a long weekend this weekend! Yay! WE CANNOT WAIT! Seriously, we are all giddy like we are waiting for Christmas around here. Aidan, Hannah, Macy and Houston - oh my goodness - they can hardly handle their excitement. They spent about 30 minutes yelling "WE HAVE A BIG SISTER! WE HAVE A BIG SISTER!". (And just to let you know...Aidan is so stinkin' relieved it's not another little kid. He's been asking for an older sibling for a while now. Little did he know!) They are LITERALLY counting down the hours until she gets here. (45 hours and counting....)

My girlfriends have asked how I am doing with this. I really can't explain it. There is such a PEACE knowing we are doing the right thing. Jason and I have talked and talked over this happening the past several years. And now it's such a peaceful, wonderful feeling knowing that we are COMPLETELY in the middle of God's will. Nine years ago he knew the timing of this. He knew how open and accepting the kids, Jason and I would be to sweet Alex. He's prepared all our hearts. And for those of you who know me pretty well, you know that I'd totally be "Ms. 19 Kids and Counting" if Jason would let me! The more kids, the merrier! I'm excited about the role I get to play in Alex's life. I'm even more excited about seeing her develop relationships with her Daddy and siblings. I'm busy planning a fun weekend for us, and can't wait to see her siblings attack her with hugs when she pulls in the driveway on Friday evening.

Life is good. God is great.

Stupid monkey bars.

Before...

After...

I took Houston, Hannah and Macy to the local school playground after dinner to play on Saturday evening. We were having a great time when Houston fell from the monkey bars ladder (about 3 feet) and landed wrong. He came to me whimpering, and as soon as I saw his arm I knew what had happened. It was completely distorted. I was by myself and couldn't reach Jason (at home with Aidan) so I called my Dad and he took us to the Hendersonville Hospital ER. Jason was there not long after we arrived. They pumped him full of painkillers and took xrays. They showed it was a horrible double fracture breaking both bones in his forearm, with severe displacement, probably needing surgery. They sent us to Vanderbilt Children's in an ambulance (scary for me, awesome for Hootie).

They had to put him to sleep to set his arm once there, but he didn't have to have the surgery. (Praise GOD!) He is in a soft cast for now (to allow for swelling), and will go back this week to see if he will need the surgery and to get a hard cast. It was a long, emotional night - we spent a total of 10 hours in two ERs. Having to put him under anesthesia totally freaked me out (while the 20 minute procedure took over 40 minutes) - but we all survived. He's still in pain, and sleeps a lot due to the Lortab pain killers, but all-in-all he's handling it like a champ!

Here's a look at how his arm looked from the top...I'll spare you the picture from the side. Seriously.

Never in my life would I have thought my baby, at three years old, would be in a cast. However, we always figured Hootie would be the first to break a bone - he's a bruiser. Praying to continue to avoid surgery and for him to recover quickly.

This blog post brought to you from the sunny, Gulf Coast beaches...

We were pretty nervous, but it looks like good ole Tropical Storm Debby just skipped on by us! (So sorry to you folks vacationing in Destin and PCB!). We had some ugly skies, and a ton of wind, but not a single raindrop! Today we woke up to gorgeous sunny skies! So we are living it up here on the Gulf!

New Video!

Jason and I are FLOORED by how many views we've had on our initial adoption video. At LEAST 17,000! Wowzers! It's been amazing how many emails I've received from people in the past year who have watched the video, and have then contacted me telling me they were prompted to adopt! Just goes to show that Little Miss Macy hasn't just changed OUR family, but so many others!

So, Macy's been home for over a year now, and I figure it's time for a new video showing what this spunky, funny girl has been up to. Enjoy!

CLICK HERE FOR MACY'S NEW VIDEO!

( Or click on to the link to the right ------> )

Blessed

It's been a busy day, but even in the hustle and bustle of this Mother's Day, I've still been able to pause and realize just how very blessed I am. I've got four amazing, funny, healthy children. Out of the four, I have one that was born two months premature, one that was given a 0% chance of survival inutero, and one that I was led to on the other side of the world. Blessed - yes! Amazed that God has chosen me to trust with these four little souls - oh yes!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommas out there! And a HUGE celebration goes out to all my Momma friends in the adoption process that found out AMAZING news this week! My friend Shannon got her referral this week (Haiti)! So did Laura (Ethiopia)! My friend Fran is meeting her new daughter this week (Ethiopia)! My friend Cindy is FINALLY able to proceed with their adoption as they are officially in IBESR (Haiti)! My friend Stacie found out she's traveling next week to bring her son home (Congo)! My friend Susan is meeting and bringing home her daughter this week (Philippines)! And one of my dearest friends, Emily, is bringing home her TWO daughters this week (Haiti)! (I'm so geeked up for the homecoming Wednesday I can hardly stand it!) These friends all followed our adoption process with Macy, and it's been incredible being along side them during their process! 

Bunny pictures this weekend!

For all you local peeps....Amanda Humphrey Photography (that's me!) will be doing Easter portraits with live bunnies again this year! This has been a huge success the last two years, and I look forward to doing it again this year. I'll be doing them at Hazel Path Mansion in Hendersonville, on Gallatin Road (across from Wendy's), on Friday and Saturday mornings 10am to 1pm. No appointment necessary, it's first come, first served. Cost is $25 and that will cover your session, and a cd with 8 to 10 edited images on it, along with the copyright release to reproduce them however you wish. Cds will be ready before Easter.
Tell your friends! I'd love another big crowd this year!
*Note: There's a slight chance of isolated storms on Friday and Saturday. We will be doing the pictures on the beautiful covered porch, and will be shooting rain or shine! Spread the word!

More Stupid People.

I've shared with you all before about all the lovely stupid people I've met since bringing Macy home. Stupid, ignorant, one-track-minded people. (Gosh, that doesn't quite sound like Jesus oozing out of me does it? Well, if I could think of a more Christ-like way of putting this, I might have tried. But I came up empty, so stupid it is.)
It was 82 degrees (maybe even warmer) today in Middle TN - perfect Spring Break weather if your destination is, well, Middle TN. I wanted to take full advantage of the sunshine, so we all took the tags off our  brand new flip flops and headed to the local Greenway. When this area of town was built a couple of years ago, I thought, "Oh great, a park with no playground. We will never go there." Well good golly Miss Molly, was I ever wrong. My kids LOVE this place. And I don't even take anything - like bikes or balls. They just go and run and explore. Today we packed a picnic lunch (courtesy of Sonic) and had us a fun couple of hours. Just when I was about ready to wrap things up, Aidan says, "OH! Let's walk up to the library and check out some books". Now I'm not one to crush my children's love for literature (erg!), so I dragged my legs and little ones down the path and headed to the library. The kids were great...even Hootie was making an attempt for using an inside voice. After finding their books they wanted to play on the kiddy computers, so I let them while I stood behind them looking at a book. I then see two women, obviously library employees, scurry by me whispering in a rather concerned tone. I could tell they were looking for something as they glanced up and down all the aisles. A few minutes later they came back up to where we were (by the way, we were the ONLY people in the children's room of the library today) and walked right up to Macy, tapped her on the shoulder, and say, "Sweetie, did your Mommy leave you here? Because we've been looking for her because we don't want you to be left in here all alone." I was literally three feet behind Macy. I say, "Excuse me?" And they say, "Well, my co-worker here thinks her Momma must have left her in here and children aren't allowed to be in here unattended, so she came and got me and we've been searching all over for someone." (Insert image of me seeing red right about... now.) I simply say, "She's mine. I am her mother." They reply with some "umms" and "ohhhs" and scurry off.
AGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! HELLLOOOOOOO????? They didn't even ASK if she was "with me" (which is what I usually get) or if I'd seen her mother. All they saw was a little black kid with no black momma in sight, and made their own assumption. And HELLO unobservant librarians, she and Hannah were even wearing coordinating dresses. And we ALL came in together. HELLLOOOO???? And if you are going to be so stupid, PLEASE do not do so IN FRONT OF MY CHILDREN. Poor Macy already realizes she's different than the rest of her pastey-white family...she doesn't need you reminding her in public.
Anywho.....
Other than our run in with Mrs. and Ms. Racial Profilers, we had a lovely afternoon....

Thank you, Dr. King

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

 

 

I have a dream today!

 

 

I have a dream that one day, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."

Hearing Dr. King's speech gives me chills. Reading about and seeing video of the racial separation that took place just a generation or two ago blows my mind. Even in my generation, as a family with a black child, we still get odd, inquisitive, and even disgusted looks on a daily basis. But as for me and my house...as for MY children...they are growing up in a home, and hopefully a generation, where seeing children of different colors and races holding hands and hugging each other is the norm.

Thank you, Dr. King, for helping dreams become reality. Because it wasn't an easy road to get here, and good gracious some people still have a ways to go, but how thankful our family is for a man to stand up for what was right, and to lead the way.

On the growth chart! At last!

A couple of weeks ago Macy went for her four year check-up, and lo and behold, the child is FINALLY on the growth chart! She's still a LOT smaller than the typical four year old, but she's in the ninth percentile at least! Yay! And just to let you know what kind of growth we are talking about: in one year (the amount of time she's been home) most kids her age gain about 2 lbs and grow about 2 inches. Macy gained EIGHT AND A HALF POUNDS and grew FIVE AND A HALF INCHES!!! (Afro not included in that measurement. :) )  And to emphasize even further....I'm not the healthiest of cooks. Like, not at all healthy. So if this child grew THAT MUCH in a year - it just from getting FOOD period! Not even healthy, nourishing food everyday. (To my benefit, we eat a LOT of fruit - just not too keen on the veggies around here. Unless they are dipped in ranch.) So there - the girls is growin' and on the growth chart! That's what some Southern cookin' and some family lovin' will do for a girl!

Our Itty Bitty Ethiopian

Our Big(ger), Sassy, Southern-Talkin' Sweetie

Luke 2:19

I love the nativity story. I never get tired of hearing the sweet story of our Savior's birth. The wise men, the shepherds....all of it. But since December 2005, the first Christmas I spent in the role of "Mommy", one particular verse has pulled my heartstrings more than the others. It's a verse that often gets overlooked. One that most people probably read quickly through, or even skip over.  But good gracious, how I "get" that verse.

"But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."

I "get" it. I SO get it. I get staring at your baby and wanting to just visually soak him in...his tiny hands, his perfect little mouth....wanting to remember everything about that one moment. Looking at him and wishing that time could just stand still. Feeling like your heart could just about explode from the depths that you love this child. Trying to wrap your mind around the fact that this is YOUR child...YOUR responsibility...a little life that YOU are responsible for molding. As a Mom, there have been so, so, so many times that I've stopped to "ponder them in my heart". These moments are usually at night, when I sneak in to their quiet bedrooms and see them sprawled out, mouths open, dreaming away. (Gah, don't they always look so stinkin' perfect then....even when they've been horrendous during the day...at nighttime they look like little angels). Many nights I've sat on the edge of four little twin beds, prayed specific prayers over each child, and just marveled at the thought that little ole ME is their Mom. And every.single.time it absolutely astounds and honors me that our Lord thought that I was fit to be their mom. I treasure these moments. I ponder the responsibility and the blessing. And oh, how unfit I feel. How there's never been one night that I've thought, "Yep, today I nailed it. Today I coulda won that Mom-of-the-Year Award". Nope. I sit there and think, "Geez, I blew it today. But thank you, sweet Lord, that I get to try again tomorrow. Thank you that You trust me with these four precious, amazing children, because I know I just couldn't live without any one of them.  You brought them through high-risk pregnancies, weeks in the NICU, even across the world to be my children - and tomorrow you are going to let me wake up to four little faces expecting great things from their Mommy. Thank you that I can expected great things from YOU to try to make that happen."

I don't take my title as Mommy lightly. I think. I plan. I stress. And being a Mom to a three, four, five and six year old isn't easy. But at the end of the day, when it's all done, I stop. I treasure the moments. And I'll ponder them all in my heart. Because no matter how badly I don't want it to happen, they ARE going to grow up. That sweet baby I rocked on Christmas Day 2005- well, he's six now. There's no more footie pjs or rocking to sleep or me being the only one to console him. Those moments with him are treasured up.

Merry Christmas from our family.



Miss Macy turns 4!

 Our sweet Macy turned FOUR today!When I look at how tiny she is, it's still hard for me to believe that she's actually that old. But GOOD GRACIOUS does she have the personality to make up for her height! She may be small in stature, but she's big in sassiness, attitude, and just out-right FUNNINESS (is that even a word?). And she's changed soooo much in the past year! I got tickled today because my bff watched the kids while I picked up the cupcakes today, and she said that Miss Macy used the word ya'll in the plural possessive form. As in, "I like ya'lls Christmas tree." Yep. We've ruined her. We took this precious child with this gorgeous dialect and oozed our Southern slang onto her, and we've just ruined her. Oh well.

As some of you may know, three of our four kids have birthdays in the same week in December. For real. Oh, and did I mention that our anniversary is thrown in there too? Yeesssssss.....and then Christmas. Genius on our part, huh? Well, the past couple of years we've been throwing one big party for the kiddos....as for right now they don't know any better. This year's party actually fell on tonight...on Macy's actual birthday. I'll share about the party soon....maybe tomorrow. But for tonight I just wanted to give Miss Macy B a big ole' shout out and say WE LOVE YOU, Silly Girl. And just can't imagine life without you!

No More Babies

As a kid I remember how my Mom adored my little brother. I mean, she loved all of us, but he was totally her fav.o.rite. Me, with my Classic Middle Child Syndrome, absolutely hated this. But there was no changing it. He was always cute. He was always funny. He could pretty much do no wrong. I always thought it was because he was the only boy. I was wrong...it was because he was the baby.

Fast forward a couple of decades. I adore my children. All of them. I adore them probably more than is healthy for one person to love four little things so much. But my Hootie is different. It's not that he's my favorite, because he's not. You are not supposed to have favorites as a mom (ahem....mom!). He's just my precious. He's always cute. He's always funny. And he can pretty much do no wrong. (Okay, he can actually do A LOT of wrong....I just forgive it a lot quicker than some of the other wrongs happening around here.) Part of me knows this has to do with him being our Little Miracle. (Zero percent chance of survival? I think not!) But good golly, the other part is because he's the baby.

And today my baby woke up, smothered my face with his hot little kisses, looked me square in the eye and said, "It's time for my burf-day Momma, and I'm not your baby anyyyymore." Ugly tears from me proceeded to fall, and he skipped off happily into the other room.

Happy 3rd Birthday to my Precious Houston James. You bring so much joy and humor to our family, and we love you to pieces.

No words necessary.

One Year Home!!!!

This time one year ago I was hurrying as fast as I could through the Nashville airport to get my family all together for the first time. Our sweet Macy was finally home. I can't believe it has already been a year. An amazing year of having the priviledge of parenting this beautiful little girl.

We love you Macy Bereket! You amaze us every single day!

Macy's First Time Trick-or-Treating!

This was Macy last year on Halloween.

Although we had custody of her, we were still in Ethiopia, so we weren't able to do the "Halloween-y" stuff (although dadblastit I was gonna have her looking the part in her festive dress!).

And this was her this year!!!

She LOVED trick-or-treating! And I mean LOOOOOVED it!

And honestly, we thought she would HATE it, because she hates anything with a mask. Or that looks like an animal. Or looks scary. Or weird....or ANYTHING. We figured we'd have a short night because she'd just totally lose it. But NOOOOO, this girl was skipping down the sidewalk singing "I'm off to see the wizard" and saying "Look at all my candyyyyyy!". I think this girl could do Halloween every single day of the year.

Our Wizard of Oz Crew....

So her first "American" Halloween was a huge success! Of course, it may have just been due to the sparkly shoes and the wig...but our girl had a great time!

Happy Gotcha Day, Sweet Macy!

It is surreal to believe that one year ago today our precious Macy was placed in our arms for good. She was tiny and bald and scared. 365 days later, she's a Southern, sassy, confident, growing little girl. And yes, she finally has hair. A head full of kinky, crazy, curly hair.

This time last year Macy had a year full of "firsts'' ahead of her. Of course holidays and birthdays come to everyone's mind. But she also had other firsts you may not think of...climbing stairs for the first time (for a three year old!), riding in a buckled carseat, taking a hot bath and then a shower, worshiping in church, playing on a playground, rolling in the snow, tasting sweet tea (I mentioned she's now a Southerner, right?), coordinating her squeaky shoes with her hairbows (she is SUCH a diva), been in a pillow fight, screamed through immunizations, starting preschool, playing hide-n-go-seek, outwitting her siblings, and the list goes on and on. This girl has had QUITE the busy year. And there's been firsts for us as parents too...learning to fix that head of hair has been a learning experience for me. And figuring out how to get a lodged jellybean out of her tiny little nose. And teaching her not to wash her hands in the toilet. Oh, the adventures we've had with our little priss.

Imagining life without Macy is hard. Not just because it seems she's been ours all along, but because it's honestly HARD to think of what HER life would be like if she hadn't come home to Tennessee. Some information we found out during our second trip to Ethiopia made us realize that if we hadn't come at the time we were there, she may have never been matched with a family. And then Ethiopia adoptions have all but come to a halt. (Oh how I pray for all of our friends still in the process!). And then the horrific famine. It makes me realize if we'd waited just a couple more weeks to mail in our paperwork or raise our money or ANYTHING - we would not have THIS child. OUR child. Gah....see how that's hard? See how we praise our Maker, then One that loves this sweet girl even more than we do, for orchestrating everything PERFECTLY to bring our daughter home?

We are so very blessed.

Happy Gotcha Day to our spunky, little girl. We love you more than you'll ever know.

Happy Meetcha Day!

One year ago today a tiny, sick, quiet, little girl was placed in my arms. The moment was surreal. That child we had been praying and dreaming about for the past 12 months was finally, FINALLY with us. Just like the day I birthed my other three kiddos, it's a day I will treasure forever. Jason and I sat anxiously in plastic lawn chairs waiting to be introduced to our Macy Bereket. When the Head Momma walked in carrying our tiny little girl, our hearts just about burst. It was love at first sight. I didn't blog about it then, but those first couple of minutes with her were of course joyful, but also nothing what we could have prepared for. Macy was MUCH smaller than we had expected. And I know I had read that a lot, so that really isn't big news. But along with being so small, she also had very poor torso control, and had a hard time walking. She also had a lumpy noggin'. Lumpy enough to cause Jason and I both to be concerned. She acted lethargic and loopy. And no matter what we did, we COULD NOT get that girl to smile. We thought something could very well be wrong developmentally with her. On top of all of that, she was really sick with some kind of respiratory funk. I was worried out of my mind. Back at the hotel that night we laid in the bed and decided that no matter what the future held, we were committed to adopting her. She was the child for us.

What makes that kind of humorous now as we look back on it is that there is NOTHING wrong with that child. When we went back to Ethiopia just three weeks later to bring her home she was running and jumping and smiling and talking. She was a COMPLETELY different kid. The lumpy noggin, which she still has (you can't tell with all that crazy hair!) ended up totally fine. Just part of her makeup. She was healthy and happy and gaining weight. Like I said, a totally different kid. Looking back, we believe that due to her illness, she may have accidentally been over-medicated. Probably some kind of cough syrup or something. Because she was loopy and lethargic like she was drugged up on something.

So our original "Meetcha Day" was awesome, and alarming at the same time. But good gosh what a difference you can see now! That funny little girl has more spunk than all three other kiddos combined. And some A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E. Whew!

What an amazing 10 months it's been! We love you Macy B!

One year ago...

One year ago today we loaded our bags...

boarded some planes...

traveled 17 hours....

to meet our daughter.

To read about the beginning of that trip, click HERE.

School is in session!!!

My kids are ALL in some kind of school! Aidan started KINDERGARTEN (sniff...sniff) and Hannah, Macy and Houston are all in two-day Mother's Day Out. You may THINK that I do a happy dance when everyone is dropped off, but no....those are the days that I work, so no watching soap operas and eating bon bons for me. (As if.)

Aidan L.O.V.E.S. kindergarten. I mean, the kid could do school every minute of every day, and it still would not be enough. In fact, he is rather upset that he has a four day weekend this weekend. And remember all those crying fits fears I had (HERE) about him starting school? Well, those were relieved when I met his precious teacher. She's been teaching kindergarten for 19 years, and she knows her stuff. In fact, being in her class almost makes me miss teaching. Almost. He's already come home telling me words in French. Oh, how I love my little nerd.

The other three kiddos are attending two-day-a-week preschool about 3 minutes from our house. Hannah is in Pre-K and has a teacher she's known for a while. She's my crafty one, and is really enjoying her class. Macy, who I wasn't sure about putting in school yet or not, LOVES it. She talks about it ALL WEEK LONG. She has Hannah's teachers from last week and just prances on in like she owns the place. Houston, who I fully expected to scream bloody murder and cling to me for dear life, thinks school is wonderful because there are trains there. Thank you God for trains. So NO crying from ANYONE! Even me! It's been a great transition for everyone!

Whoop whoop! Pumped for school!

First day of preschool!

In they go!

Aidan goes to meet his sweet teacher, Ms. Tracy! So that's it! Jason and I are entering into a new "season" as Aidan starts big school. And then next year Hannah will start. And the next year Macy will start. And then the next year, (if you can pull him from my grip) Hootie will start kindergarten.

And I will sit at home and cry.

Or watch soap operas and eat bon bons.