Oh Baby!

Oh, Happy Day!!!! Babies Babies Babies!

Congratulations to my friend Heather who got her adoption referral from Ethiopia today! It is a boy and apparently has some beautiful eyes! They have been waiting since August and are just overjoyed at having their new baby boy in NC soon!

And my friend Dawn who also had twins today! A boy and a girl - healthy and happy. She struggled to get pregnant with these little ones and it is a true blessing to share in this joyful time with her.

Congratulations my friends! So happy for you and I can't wait to see all these little sweeties!

Wrappin' Up the Weekend

Well, recital is over for this year. B had a great time and had two amazing performances. She comes alive on stage and you can really see in her face how happy it makes her. After her Jazz number she came running back stage to me exclaiming how much fun she had.

This was the first year I helped back stage and it was such a different perspective! There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm with all the girls running around, changing customs, rehearsing, refreshing their hair and makeup and just playing around with each other.

I was just amazed at how much hard work goes into these recitals and how they pull it off to make it look so easy. I will never look at a performance again in the same way.

Here are some shots of all the Little Red Riding Hoods. They were part of a much bigger Sleeping Beauty production and just did an amazing job!

Hubby's parents were here and we had a nice visit with them. My hubby and his dad love to grill out, so we did that both nights and it was even cool enough one night to eat out on our deck. We also got a chance to enjoy our new patio!!! It still needs some work and I will show a picture of the completed project later this week, but for the most part it is such a nice addition to our backyard.

Try as I might to make the new patio look perfect with a cute side table, Adirondack chairs and candles it was inevitable that my kids would put their plastic Little Tykes red, yellow and blue picnic table on the patio. They declared it the perfect spot for them to enjoy their meals for the rest of the summer and to draw and color pictures. Oh well, it is only temporary. It's all only temporary, right? Pretty soon, their little legs won't be able to even fit in that table and I will be selling it in a garage sale with melancholy memories.

Hubby and Bubby are off playing golf this morning. Last night, an older neighbor boy across the street gave him some of his golf clubs he had grown out and Bubby was beyond excited. And of course, Hubby is beyond excited. It is one of his greatest joys to share one of his greatest loves (golf) with his little guy. I actually got a little misty eyed watching them leave this morning in their semi-matching golf shirts.

So, here we are beginning another week!

Oh, wait.

I just realized.

I am home alone.

Without any children.

To do whatever I want for a few hours.

What am I doing sitting here blogging? I guess doing what I want, but hey, I could actually go for a run without worrying about where my kiddos are! I think I will go do that now.

Toodles,

We Pray for Children

My friend, Cindilee, sent me this poem a couple weeks ago. She asked me to post it and I didn't because of some computer issues. I ran across it tonight and knew I needed to post it right now.

My friend is a Compassion International advocate and often gets me to go along to help hand out packets to sponsor children with Compassion. It is an honor to hold the packets in my hands and help people sponsor these precious children. This poem reminded her of these children.

I do sponsor a child. His name is Fabrizzo and he lives in Peru. I wish I could sponsor ten of these kids. I can't, but maybe I can post this poem at my friend's request and it will touch the hearts of 10 people who would make the choice to sponsor a Compassion child.

You will be blessed by doing so. I have been.

We pray for children
Who sneak Popsicles before supper,
Who erase
holes in math workbooks,
Who can never find their shoes.

And we
pray for those
Who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
Who
can’t bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
Who never “counted
potatoes,”
Who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,
Who never go
to the circus,
Who live in an x-rated world.

We pray for
children
Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
Who hug us
in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

And we pray for
those
Who never get dessert,
Who have no safe blanket to drag behind
them,
Who watch their parents watch them die,
Who can’t find any bread to
steal,
Who don’t have any rooms to clean up,
Whose pictures aren’t on
anybody’s dresser,
Whose monsters are real.

We pray for
children
Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
Who throw tantrums
in the grocery store and pick at their food,
Who like ghost stories,
Who
shove dirty clothes under the bed, and never rinse out the tub,
Who get
visits from the tooth fairy,
Who don’t like to be kissed in front of the
carpool,
Who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
Whose
tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And
we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat
anything,
Who have never seen a dentist,
Who aren’t spoiled by
anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep
Who live and
move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be
carried and for those who must,
For those we never give up on and for those
who don’t get a second chance,
For those we smother . . . and for those who
will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

Ina J.
Hughs

Kids Earn a Free Book

My friend sent me this link to Barnes and Noble of how kids can earn a free book by doing some summer reading.

Check it out. My B will be all over it.