Children, Children Everywhere!!!!

It's our first summer having 4 kids. This is some of what that entails:

• We got our foster daughter "P" (4 years old) at Spring Break and then her brother "J" (8 years old) came May 1. "P" went to the beach with us for her first time in April. We went with some of our best friends, The Burns, to Edisto. She loved it! That trip was such a sweet time of relaxing with friends! We all went again ("J"'s first time!) the middle of June to Fripp. Jeremy and I loved watching both of them experience the beach for the first time. "J" did not want to come back to Greenville.

• It's also our first summer joining a pool. My super smart amazing husband told me that we needed to and what a fun place it has been! We can go and easily stay 4 hours.

• All four kids did VBS at Taylors First Baptist and loved that. I loved the 3 free hours each morning :)

• "J" and Harper did swim lessons at the Y for 2 weeks, 4 days a week. They greatly benefited from that.

• Calahan is doing a golf tournament every Monday morning.
  

• Jeremy and Calahan start football July 11th. It's a big commitment, 3 nights a week.
  

• Jeremy and I are going on our 3rd mission trip together. This year we are heading to Eleuthera , Bahamas. Our church supports a precious family, The Fastzkie's, there and I look forward to seeing and being part of their mission first hand! (If you want to pray or financially support us that would be great! Email me and I will give you the prayer list.)
  

• 4 moms and 11 kids from our summer playgroup went to visit The Espinosa family in Allendale, SC for a couple of days. They have been part of playgroup for the last 4 summers but have recently moved to Allendale. It was an adventure! We were able to be part of their ministry at the Boys & Girls Club. I loved seeing how the Lord is using them to bless and encourage others in a different part of the state.

• We kept 2 of our nieces for 3 nights recently. 6 kids was CRAZY! I feel like I didn't even get to enjoy them because we were just managing 6 kids between the ages of 9 and 2.
  

• Jeremy taught adult service at Grace last weekend. He taught 4 services. He taught from Proverbs 3 on Parenting. He did a great job with the text. The Lord has blessed us with numerous resources to aid our parenting journey and Jeremy was able to share some of that. You can hear it here: http://www.gracechurchsc.org/resources/grace-teaching

• Hanging out with our GREAT community group for fun events! It has been fun building relationships with them.
  

So that's some of life these days. Busy. Not boring in the least!

Foster Family"ing"

In October our family began fostering. Our first foster children were a sister/ brother duo, "M & M". We had them in our family for 5.5 months. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. Our biological children did fabulous. Harper's new little sister was a year younger and loved the same things Harper did. They played together so well. Our new "little buddy" was 4 and had a speech disorder called apraxia. He was precious. He won our hearts immediately.
We enjoyed several holidays together!
I struggled to connect with our foster daughter. She was hard, my heart got hard. Ugh.
I miss them a lot! Praying for them to heal and have a healthy, safe family to raise them.
Tomorrow we will receive our second foster daughter "P". We are very excited. It is going to be a totally different experience just having one new child. She will bring her own issues that will be totally different than the first go round. Our family will be stretched and challenged and hopefully grown in the Lord all over again.

Peruvian Adoption Final Answer

This is the latest on our adoption from Peru. Our precious twin boys who we have prayed for for 4.5 years have been adopted. Below is the email we just received.

The kids were placed with a Peruvian couple in their mid 50's!!!!! A Catholic couple who have no children and only got aproved to adopt in November. I can not tell you how much this has broken our hearts, but even with all the visits and recommendations we gave there was nothing we could do. We have cared forand invested in those boys since birth. We did not even have warning. They did not even have to do the regular process and stay with the boys last week like everyone else. I am very discouraged over this as iknow you are too. I know that your hearts were to adopt these boys.
I can only tell you that the other day I got share Christ and to lead them and two social workers to Christ! I also explained to the couple that during the next two weeks while they are going through the adoption process (before it is final) that if they do not want to keep them they can be adopted to a Christian family in the states. They said that they would keep this in mind.
I did have you on my heart to call you tonight, so I am glad you wrote.
Again, all of our hearts are aching in this situation, but it is in the Lord's hands.


We don't really have any solid emotions. Just extreme sadness and confusion over the last 4.5 years. The death of a dream. The loss of thousands of dollars. The fear that we did something wrong. Mad at the injustice of it all. The last 13 weeks we have been fostering 2 children. This has brought to surface a reality check on what adopting 2 spanish speaking 5 year olds would have been like. What having 2 more children in our family looks like. The "real life" struggle to parent 4 kids. We still wanted to have the twins!
Please pray (like you have been so faithful to do the last 4.5 years) that we will trust the Lord. That we will trust Him for the money, heart break, injustice.

Thanks.

"Snow" Day's are not fun

A few thoughts about Greenville County "Snow" Days (ie a Rant)

- It is not fun to get 4 kids ready and at the door to leave for school and then your husband comes down and says "Did you check the news, Bill says the roads are bad". Crap. Yep there it is, fresh off the press, Greenville County Schools CLOSED!
- Public Schools being part of a county is bad for us a handful of times a year. The northern part of our county borders NC and yes, their roads are probably bad, they may even have snow. Us, we get rain and no school.
- I don't do well with last minute major change of plans. 4 kids inside all day when I had an agenda to accomplish that did not include them. ugh.
- Why do we call them "snow" days when we have wet streets? The term really excites my children, for no reason.
- We are about to have 2 weeks home with our precious children, why start early?
- Harper misses out on her Polar Express pajama day at school. I had spend $1 for her class hot chocolate cups, now my money is wasted.
-My friends need to get on the same page as me (Julia, Molly). We all need to have bad attitudes and heard hearts so we can whine and complain endlessly together. I don't appreciate Christ like friends on unexpected "snow" days.
- Jeremy still has to go to work on the treacherous "snow" day.


Wait, as I type my rant my children are all playing together wonderfully! No one is fighting, crying, or being ugly. We could make the cookies I have been wanting to make together. We could go and visit a friend. We are safe and warm inside our house. We could watch some of the Christmas movies that I have DVR'd. I can still get my tea from McD's. We could do a family Polar Express pajama day on blankets by the Christmas tree. My husband has a job. My kids are all healthy. I have fabulous friends who challenge me in my walk with the Lord. I am blessed. I am sorry Lord for my bad attitude.
Amen.

Blessings in the Hard Times

Hard times are hard.
We have been through several things recently that have been well, hard. In the hard times I am always amazed at how the Lord uses people to encourage us or bless us. He also reveals His Word to us in fresh ways. I am thankful that His word is alive and active for us.
There has been some new info on the adoption front. Not good. The past 4 years trying to adopt 2 precious little boys from Peru have been full of hard times. It only seems to get more challenging. One example of the way the Lord has blessed us by people has been that in the past couple of weeks we have connected with several families who have a heart for Peru, like us, and they have encouraged us and loved on us. Thank you Jesus for them. Thank you also for all the people who pray for us and continue to ask about the process.
2 examples of the blessing of His Word in the hard times are: Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24 and He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20
Psalm 31:24 reminds me that my ultimate hope is in the Lord. That if I am loving Him, He will strengthen my heart in the hard times.
Matthew 17:20 reminds me that even with my small amount of faith, if it is the Lord's will, that is enough for Him. He is in charge.
Jesus, please move the mountains in the way of bringing our sons home and if this is not your will remind me again of Psalm 31:24. Continue to teach us in the hard times and allow us to always see your blessings. Amen.

So much to think about...

This is always an overwhelming time of year for us. We have 6 graduations to (possibly) attend, graduation parties numbering in the teens, Senior night at Grace, soccer, and end of the year festivities at our kids schools.
To add to this:
- some of our besties are in Peru adopting the 3 children that they have been waiting on for 4 years. We are super excited for them. I can't get them out of my mind. They are doing wonderful and will be in Peru for 4-5 weeks. We skype with them several times a week and that has become a highlight in my day.
- a new Middle School Pastor and his precious wife and daughter have moved to town. I want them to feel welcome and to love Grace as much as I do.
- another BFF had her 3rd baby (1st boy!) Monday.
- We were able to serve our sister and brother-in-law by keeping our nieces for 4 days while they were on a Mission trip. It is crazy going back 5 years and having a 3 and 1 year old with you all day!
- Jer and I leave in 2 weeks for the student trip to Nicaragua. It requires MUCHO planning. Once you plan something it all changes and you plan more.

So.... during my spare time, haha. Really during some down time to help keep me from loosing my mind, I stumbled across Anita Renfroe. She is a christian comedian. I am not sure how people are so funny, just watch it!

Meet The Parents, The Keevers

Baahahaha!

"I'm not saying there is a competition but if there was we would clearly be the winners...."