What I have learned from our adoption journey...

I know that Revelation is real and confirmation too. I know that God has answered all my prayers.(some quicker than others, some to refine me and in his time) That he is in my life and that many angels from heaven and on earth, have helped our family in our journey for that last two years.

I know that as a family we have grown closer, that our faith has become stronger and that we were given hope even in our darkest hours.
Looking back these last two years I can see where all of this has come about for me personally and for my family.

We KNEW as a family, individually and together that SOMEONE was missing. We could not deny it. There is something very beautiful and sacred about a family praying for a long period of time together, individually at ever opportunity to pray... meal time, family prayer time, individual prayer and prayers said in the temple... Praying with ONE purpose, ONE HEART and full of hope and faith while doing so. It brought us closer together to do this as a family.

Looking back, I can see where one of us might of felt down or less in faith about our journey, how the others who were strong were able to lift that person, we could lean on the other ones faith and testimony and become strong again. Our family unit has never been so solid until we had this opportunity to grow in such a spiritual manner. (I am thinking we must continue on doing this with other purposes that we agree on as a family)

It was such a blessing to see our children anxiously waiting to hear about our temple trips and what we felt when we prayed about our adoption journey. What comfort it brought my children to hear that, YES we are meant to adopt, That YES there is a special someone still meant to join our family and YES we were still on the right path. That peace, that revelation and that confirmation was the very food to our souls and faith that we needed to continue, as a family, to wait patiently for the Lord to tell us when it was time... (IN HIS TIME)

I am stubborn woman, I testify that God knows us individually because he knew I had it set in my head that we were getting an infant. He had to patiently and slowly soften my heart to his will, and open my mind to the idea of not an infant but a child and not just one, but 3. Over time, he truly did that.

Many times angels did attend us, in our prayers we all could feel them surrounding us and praying with us. Comforting us and cheering us on because we were doing all that we could possibly do to ensure these things would come about, one being living the way we knew we should to the best of our ability. Angels were there in my darkest hours, when I felt alone and faithless or full of doubt. They did comfort me... softly encouraging me to continue on in this journey. I felt them.

Then there were angels who came to our needing hour from earth (people) and who had been prompted to do certain kind acts of kindness that truly filled a need in our life. From just listening to me, to sharing how they knew we were meant to have another person too, to putting food in our house after the children arrived and I had no money to get us food, due to no time to rearrange our food budget that was already spent that month. To clothes and even toys for these children! The amount of help, love and support from others who truly wanted to be apart of this journey with us has been amazingly overwhelming and beautiful! I feel so blessed!

God answered many important prayers for me immediately to show me he was there and that YES these were my children. In Nov, I poured out my heart to the Lord, and had signed us up for pride classes to become a foster parent so we could open our adoption options up but that class wasn't available until February and an hour later, after praying on my knees and begging for direction, a case worker called and told me that a class was available that next weekend and our name came to them. THAT THIS NEVER HAPPENS, she repeated that several times. I knew God wanted us to do foster to adopt and had no doubt from that moment that our child/children would come thru the foster system.
Another prayer answered was when we got the children on January 5th, We were broke and had already gotten our food for the payday. I had nothing in the check book and I once again prayed how will I feed these children? I was thinking of going to the church for help but a dear friend felt the promptings of the Lord and had plenty of money left over on her food stamps and just showed up one day with a great amount of food to that filled our pantry and freezer! SHE HAD NO IDEA OUR DESPERATE NEED she just knew that she had to do this for us. How blessed I am that she followed that spiritual promptings. So many more prayers were answered, so many telling us that YES THESE THREE CHILDREN ARE OURS!

I must share that there were many trials and one trial that was difficult for me was so many people looked at us like, YOU HAVE FIVE KIDS WHY DO YOU WANT MORE? YOUR SO OLD!!! IS THIS MIDLIFE CRISIS?? EMPTY NEST SYNDROME? (because Virginia was leaving for College) I heard So many rude comments and received so many disturbing looks. It was hard to ignore and sometimes even hurtful, but I made it through all that... and I held my head up high for I knew what the true meaning of this life was... to me... its FAMILY! That is all that matters. That is what the whole plan of salvation is based around... FOREVER FAMILIES! At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks but what we know as a family. Together as a family we can do anything with the Lord on our side! And for us, this journey has proven that.

I am excited about the day I go to court and sign my name on the papers that I am indeed the Mother of these children. Then I will walk into the temple holding my families hands, kneel before the alter all in white as my other three little angels will walk in all in white and join us. Becoming our forever children! Making us a FOREVER COMPLETE FAMILY! I know that day angels will attend... MANY MANY ANGELS FROM EARTH AND IN HEAVEN! Oh sweet will be that day!

We signed!

So Monday the 21st we signed pre-adoption papers for all three little ones :) From the sounds of our case worker and now adoption worker the judge wants them adopted by June :)
That doesn't mean it will happen by then but sounds like they are shooting for that! I am just thrilled! The children are very excited too. They all want new names and have helped in picking them. They are so cute. There are days where they tell me what their new names are LOL :)
I can't wait for the day to share more pictures of our life and these children! Of our FAMILY! :)
I still find myself saying to myself," I am a mother of 8 children!" and ya know, it sounds so RIGHT!

1st Place Winner!

I am so PROUD of Kalene my 17 yr old. She gave a speech for a $2500 scholarship for college and WON 1st place :) I am so proud of her courage to do such a thing in the first place. I could of never done it! :) She is amazing and SHE DID IT ON THE FOSTER SYSTEM!

Keeping fingers crossed!

So tomorrow or Thursday we sign pre-adoption papers! So excited and nervous! :) Wish us luck!

our first family trip

We went to Rexburg to see Virginia :) It was such a NEEDED trip! Jesse and Todd bonded so much :) and I got away from everything that was stressing me out! How I wish it lasted longer than just two days!
I can't show all the pictures I want until these kids are adopted but I will show you one that I love because its my family! All of us were walking around campus with Virginia and it was so neat to see how big our family was! I just kept thinking WOW this is my family! People looking at us made comments sometimes, especially when we came out of an elevator and they thought we were done coming out and yet there were 5 more LOL :)



We stayed with our cousin Julie. We didn't get into her place till late but she has a beautiful home and it was plenty big for us as well! :)
I loved the mountains! They were so beautiful and full of snow!

The Highschool Musical and a Ball.....

My Mom (Grandmax ) Came to meet the three new children, see Kalene in the high school musical, "Your a Good Man Charlie Brown," and my other daughters had a masquerade ball :)