6 Months!

Layla's going to be 6 Months old tomorrow!  Holy cow......
So I have no idea what her measurements are because her next Dr's appointment isn't until later this week.   Lately she's been:

• Sitting up on her own.
• Eating her feet.
• Eating lots of solids.
• Mimicking sounds you make at her.
• Rolling all over the place.
• Attempting to walk while you hold her hands. (This explains her total lack of drive to crawl)

Wordless Wednesday

House Update #2...or is it #3?

A lot has happened on the house front in the past 3 weeks.  Here a brief rundown of what we've been up to:

• We finished ALL of the unfinished projects in our house!  Yes you heard that correctly.... We even put shoe molding down over all of the tile and wood floors we installed (this has been 3 years in the making).  I'm so proud of Ryan for finishing all of this stuff.  Our house looks NOTHING like the house we originally bought.  Every wall, floor and cabinet has been changed throughout the whole house.  Heck we even added a room...
• The house is officially on the market.  We've got an open house this Sunday, so please feel free to stop by.  I personally wont be there but our awesome agent Chris will be.  I'm pretty sure he's going to have free pizza too....
• We AREN'T buying the house I originally showed you.  That house was already built, and the seller decided that they didn't want to put a contingency on it.  I personally didn't feel comfortable putting a contract on a house without a contingency of our house selling.  After all, we aren't made of money and it wouldn't be smart to end up with two house payments, even if our current house was rented out. 


• We ARE going to build a house in the same neighborhood as the first house I showed.  We love that location and we really like the pool feel of the neighborhood.  The house we are building is a tad bit smaller than the other one, but honestly, I think it fits our needs a little better.  Plus, we get to build on a MUCH nicer, bigger and flatter lot.  This also means that I we get to choose all the finishes and colors.  If this is going to be our "Forever" home, then I guess I should make sure it's everything I want it to be. I'll post pics of the new home when we start building.    Oh yea..... did I mention that we're getting a Double Porch?  (dream come true.....)

So what do you think?  Love it or Hate it?

My Biggest Mistake

Oh you of little faith

Christ says to Peter looking straight at me

why don’t you act like you say

and stop trusting in ordinary things

it’s been your biggest mistake

and you want revival

want amazing

but you must trust in this name

it’s all you got anyways

come on and trust

do you remember my name

I am Emanuel

Lord of Lords

you are my hands and feet

to tell the nations I am worthy.

Come On And Trust by The Dirt and the Flood

Mommy Time

So I realized a couple of days ago that I haven't really had any "mommy time" lately.  I'm kind of ashamed to say this, but I haven't had my hair cut and/or dyed by a professional in over 2 1/2 years.......  Yikes.....   That's not to say that I haven't had my hair cut/dyed, but sometimes you just need to suck it up and let someone who really knows that they are doing fix you up.  About once a year I get this itch to do something crazy with my hair.  Last year, I dyed it almost black....and chopped it all off.  It was fun, but not really what I want this time around.  I want to go lighter.....and maybe BRIGHTER?!?!?!  I need to keep it long because I'm in a wedding this June and my hair takes FOREVER to grow out.  So here goes......  I think I'm going RED.

What do you think?  Terrible idea, or GREAT idea?

On the Lighter Side....

I've posted a lot of heavy stuff lately, probably because God's been breaking me with some heavy convictions. So today I'll keep it light with some Layla goodness.

My brother and his gf visited this past week all the way from Seattle. Layla absolutely adores them, and I'm pretty sure they adore her too.

Layla has recently mastered the art of sitting up. She now basically refuses to sit back.....ever. We walk in the stroller and she sits straight up. We take a bath and she sits straight up. We play with toys and she sits straight up. AND then she falls over trying to reach something and freaks out until she uprights herself. She's practically always smiling when she is doing her new thang. I'm guessing she is pretty proud of herself.

Also, she's got this new MichaelJordanTongueStickingOutOfTheSideOfHerMouth thing that she likes to do AT ALL TIMES right now. If you look real close below, you can see it. Pretty stinking hillarious and adorable.

The Questions Answered: Fostering *Amended Version*

I've been mulling over this post for a couple of days now.  I'm not sure if I've got my thoughts completely worked out, but I need to give the writing a chance to make sense.  Here goes.....

I have the feeling that there a few people out there that are confused/concerned about our willingness to foster children, but haven't been able (for whatever reason) to ask us about it.  I'm just going to go ahead and answer what I presume would be your questions to us. 

• You just adopted a child....why do you feel that you need to now foster more?  Is 1 not enough?
• Layla was a gift from God that I love with all I am.  However.... God placed a passion in our hearts for orphans and children who are in need.  That passion doesn't stop with Layla.  God knew all along that she would be our daughter and she is a perfect fit for our family, but we know, without a shadow of a doubt, that she isn't the only child that we have room in our hearts for.  As we soak in the precious moments with her, we can't deny the fact that God is breaking our hearts for children who don't have their needs met and love lavished upon them as they deserve.
• Are you guys running into this blindly? 
• Sometimes it may seem like I just throw things out into the blogger world from left field.  This isn't the case.  I spend a great deal of time thinking and praying over what I'm going to write long before I write it.  Fostering is no different.  I've spend the last couple of months specifically asking the Holy Spirit to show up in my life and ask me to do His will, regardless of how uncomfortable it makes me.  *You should never ask this if you don't really want it to happen, because it will.*  So he placed a tiny seed about becoming a foster parent in my brain and in our hearts a couple of months ago.  We've been praying diligently about this and feel that we are very close to deciding to make it official.  (More about this later)
• Don't you know the risk involved?  Those kids have so many issues....
• Children in foster care generally have issues because their parents were never around, didn't care, or were abusive.  These kids come from bad situations, but generally aren't bad kids (there are exceptions to the rule obviously).  We don't expect to change every child that walks into our home.  We do expect to show them Christ and provide them with as much love and opportunity to succeed as we are able.  We fully understand that some kids will act out.  Windows may get smashed and things might get stolen.  Honestly, I'm ok with taking that risk.  If we are able to help just 1 kid see Christ, then its worth it.  (FYI: We will probably only take children that are elementary school aged so that my work and our youth don't interfere with our time with them.)  A lot of these kids need a loving hand to hold, and if we as Christians won't take a step out of fear and do something to love them, then who is going to?  Every child is worth saving.
• What kind of time frame are you looking at?  Don't you have a million things going on already?
• We won't even consider fostering a child until I am done with school, which should be sometime this summer.  Layla will also be 1 in July.  There is a possibility that I will be able to begin teaching next school year.  This would be ideal as I would have breaks off with the kids.  We might begin the process of getting licensed to be foster parents long before we actually get any kids placed with us as this could take a while.
• How do you know that God is calling you to be a foster parent?
• This is where the Holy Spirit shows up and starts doing crazy stuff. 
• I just finished "Kisses from Katie" by Katie Davis of Amazima Ministries.  She mentions the importance of Luke 12:48 to her life and her sacrifice.  Luke 12:48 = "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required."  Ryan and I have been blessed beyond belief.  Our marriage is sound, our finances are strong, and we have been given so much love our entire lives from both our family and friends.  God prepared us well to be put in a situation where we are required to GIVE.  Loving someone who may not love you back IS a sacrifice, but we would be entirely wrong if we thought that God would want us to keep all the love and blessings He has given us to ourselves.  Did I mention that people who know nothing about this or each other have been telling me to read this verse over and over lately......  Can you say Confirmation?
• Let's face it and be honest for a second.  We are scared of practically everything.  Fear is what drives us to do a lot of what we do each day.  Fear of what some crazy kid from foster care will do to your furniture, or fear of how people might percieve you and your ever changing, never perfect family keep a lot of people who love kids from becoming foster parents.  We hear the horror stories and decide that there is no way that we could pour our time and hearts into a kid that is just going to get taken away from us.  I'm completely afraid of all of these things, but I know that God is bigger than my fear.  God is absolutely going to put me in a situation that I can't handle....and He's going to handle it for me.  All he wants us to do is say "Yes."  He's already got some master plan all laid out for us if we'll just tell Him we're willing and let Him do the rest.

I think I've covered most of my bases.  Seriously though, I'd love to talk to anyone about this that still has questions.  I'm sorry if I come across as harsh at all in the way I worded anything.  I'm doing my best at letting it be ok if not everyone agrees with us on this one, but I still get defensive at times and I'm sorry.  Guess I'm still learning how to deal with that aspect......