Back tracking...Mina's Birthday Party (December)

Mina turned 5 years old in December. She has really grown up a lot since we first met her 1 1/2 years ago. She had a great birthday party, with a lot of great surprises. We had the party here at our home and rented inflatables from a friend (let me know if you want his name...He's great and reasonable). It was sooo much fun, she really enjoyed it. It was really the first birthday party she has ever been given, so we wanted her to remember it, and I know she'll never forget it. We had invited her baby sister to the party, and after 2 hours of partying it became evident that they were not going to make it. Just when I had decided to start the gift opening, we got a phone call from her biological sister's new MOM (also adopted out). They had been driving around for 2 hours looking for my house and my phone number. They finally found my number, and made it to the party with a BIG surprise. All of Mina's sisters came. Including the one she hasn't seen in 2 years. It was very emotional, I think Mina felt every emotion a 5 year old could possibly experience. She was so happy. Check out these pics! She also got great presents, a bike, a kitchen, clothes, Hello Kitty stuff, Hello Kitty socks (which she wanted so badly), kitchen accessories, a lots lots more.




These pictures will mean a lot to Mina one day, that was probably the last time she will ever see her 7 year old sister Michelle. Fortunately, we will be able to see her oldest sister Montana and her "sisterbaby" Paige pretty often. She loves them so much, and the families that adopted both of her sisters live pretty close by! We are so thankful for that!

The Purple Rental Car

I AM SO EMBARRASSED!
As I told you in an earlier post we were in a car accident on Sunday afternoon. Well, God is good, and we were able to file an uninsured motorists claim. That only set us back $250 rather than $500 and our insurance premiums WILL NOT go up. YEA! So, we had to get a rental car, and obviously we didn't get to choose the vehicle seeing as how the insurance company pays 100%. So, we got a Hyundai Santa Fe. It is truly a beauty! HAHA! The car itself isn't so bad, its the purple color that is embarrassing. Of course, my 5 year old daughter loves it! I mean LOVES IT! She is so proud for me to drop her off in carpool in this baby, she thinks we should trade in the Expedition for this one. Just wanted to inform everyone so that you might hold your laughter as I cruise through the neighborhood!

P.S. After I wrote this blog, Stacey saw the car and swears the car is gray. However, I have always wondered if Stace was color-blind and now I think that has been confirmed. Just kidding, Stace. It is definitely a GRAY/Purple color. Gray with purple undertones perhaps. Not my choice of car colors no matter what color it is!

ONE MORE DAY!

February 29th is the last day of the 10 day wait for Mina.
As of tomorrow Mina's biological mother can no longer change her mind. I am so ready for tomorrow to come and go. Even though I feel like God has reassured us time and time again that she is with us forever, it'll be nice to have that deadline pass us by. We are going to a tea party on Saturday morning in honor of Mina's new name, and she is ecstatic. Mia planned this BIG DAY just for Mina, and she is so excited it's not funny. It has been planned for several days, and Mina wakes up every morning asking if today is the day. She gets a little bummed when I tell her 3 days left, 2 days left, etc. She actually has decided that we should all wear dresses to her tea party as well as her Adoption party, I informed her I don't have a dress to wear, and she informed me that I could wear my wedding dress! She is adamant about the dress thing. She even offered to buy me one with her piggy bank money! Sweet, Sweet girl. Anyway, Thanks to all who have prayed with and for us. We appreciate it. It is almost over!

Babysittin' the nephews!

So, my sister has been looking for a house for a couple of weeks now, and I think she finally decided they might try and buy a house in my neighborhood, they met with their real estate agent a couple of nights ago, and I babysat the boys! We had a really great time. My kids love it when Fickin comes over to play, so they had an absolute blast. They pretended that they were superhero's and talked of their dreams to ride their very own Spiderman skateboards one day. Big Dreams! Mina pretends she is Wonder Woman, and basically ignores them because they annoy her. They get on her "nervous." AKA...Nerves. That is like her favorite phrase. Anyway, I played with Ebbo. He is 9 months old now, and he is super cute. In fact, I see a little of Aidan in him. He is into everything though. I think I lost 5 lbs chasing him. He also enjoyed my rather large dogs, and climbing on Uncle Emmy! Check these pics out of our fun-filled night!

P.S. I didn't just leave Mina out of these pics, she was in the shower whenever I broke out the camera! Otherwise she'd be in every picture! She is a total HAM!!

A few more pictures!

I am in the process of picking out my beach portraits. Yes. I know we took them in October, but we have been kinda busy. Anyway, I am trying to pick out the ones I want and figure out sizes. As I was revisiting these amazing pictures I decided I would share a few with you. A few that you haven't seen below. I am very lucky that I have a very talented mother. She did all these beautiful portraits! Thanks, MOM!!!




Love this! This captures her first trip to the beach! She had a blast!



I love this one! That is her. She laughs like that everyday! Love it!

One of my favorites of A. He didn't exactly cooperate for these pictures.

Say a little prayer.....for us!

Hello ALL! Well, we have officially hired a a nanny for the kids so that I can work a couple days a week. I call her a nanny, technically she is probably just a babysitter, but I like the sound of NANNY better! Anyway, tomorrow will be her first day. My mother-in-law usually picks the kids up from school on Wednesdays, but has recently gone back to work and will be unable to do so. We are very SAD! The kids are really sad. They went from seeing Nana every Wed. to maybe seeing her on the weekends. However, they really seemed to like Blair and are looking forward to their time with her. We actually took her to lunch today just so I could see her in action with the kids, and I was very impressed. She is fun, but strict with them. Aidan really liked her, such a blessing. He can be such a booger if he doesn't like you. She is really smart, too. I am hoping she'll rub off on them, or at least teach them something. She is a graduate from Emory University and is debating on whether or not to head to medical school! YEA!!! Anyway, just say a little prayer that she is as great as we hoped, and that the kids continue to enjoy having her around.

Birthday's Galore!!

February is a very busy month for us. We have 4 very important birthdays, and of course Valentine's Day. We have my nephew on the 15th, my brother on the 17th, Mina's sister on the 17th and my aunt on the 24th. Lucky for me, my aunt doesn't have birthday parties anymore. However, the other 3 do. On Saturday the 16th, we had G's party at 2 and Mina's sister party at 2. So we had to be in 2 places at once. We ended up staying for the 1st half of G's and the 2nd half on Mina's sisters. Then, this past weekend we had my little bro's. It was at a children's museum downtown, and it was a lot of fun. The kids loved it. So, the past 2 weekends we have been to Monkey Joe's and to an interactive children's museum. We are all played out. Here's a couple of pics of the past 2 weekends. Over to the right is Mina's Sister, Isn't she gorgeous! I bet Mina looked just like that at 2 years old. Mina absolutely adores her sisters!

We waited patiently for 18 months, and we can finally say...

ADOPTION!!!!!

Yes. Mina is finally going to be ours forever. We couldn't be happier. After 18 months of hoping and praying, her birth mother signed the surrender papers. We are so excited. She will have her name legally changed to Mina, and of course she will share our last name. She is thrilled. I think she finally feels a sense of relief, that she won;t be taken away from us, and that she truly is our child. We didn't need a piece of paper to tell us that, but it sure is nice to have it. We will be sending out announcements very soon, and will also be having a party in honor of Mina. Thanks for everyone who has prayed diligently for this outcome. WE LOVE AND APPRECIATE YOU!

Did you miss us?

Sorry! I didn't realize that it had been 3 months since I had posted. A lot has happened in 3 months. We are doing well. The kids are growing super fast, and they are into everything. Mina is really enjoying school and is going to start soccer next week! Yea! One more place for us to be. Just kidding. She is really excited, and we are glad she is ready to take on sports. She loves to run, so if she can kick the ball we will be doing good!
Aidan is a maniac. Busy as ever. We have had a lot of doctor's appointments lately, but we seem to be making some progress. We have ruled a lot of different diseases out, so that it definitely a plus. I am starting to think that he is just a kid that runs fevers, and for whatever reason has epilepsy. So, we will see I guess. Emory and I haven't had such good luck lately, but we are praying that our luck will change. Our jeep is in the shop getting a new engine, and we have been sharing a car for 5 weeks....Now our only working car (the expedition) is going to be in the shop after we were the victims of a hit and run yesterday. WE ARE FINE, the car however, not so fine. Anyway, we've been through a rough patch this past month, but we will pull through it. Anyways, keep checking for new posts and pics!