What to get the husband for V-Day?

I have been thinking a lot the past couple days about what to get Rick this year for Valentine's Day. Chocolate is out of the question because of his "diet", as well as anything expensive because I am broke. So I did a little Pinteresting because that always helps my brain and I came up with a few cute ideas to share.

1. I thought this idea was PERFECT for Rick. He eats SO many fruits and what cuter way to send love then making adorable little signs for your fruit? I will absolutely be doing this.

2. As silly as this sounds and perhaps a bit immature (only because I know my sister did this for her boyfriend in High School) I have always wanted to do this for Rick. I think it would be super sweet to come up with 52 things I love about him...Honestly, I am not sure if I could come up with that many......I have to go another route and come up with maybe....5? HAHA...I am kidding. I can easily come up with 52, I will share this with you when I make it :-)

3. I REALLY love this idea. I will be making this. I think it is so cute! The scabble letters are adorable too.. I am sure I will do more but I came across these and I think they are to precious not to share. :-)

I would love to go out on a real date with Rick. I can NOT tell you the last time we did that. No clue. I think it is very important for parents to have that time together because if their relationship is strong and loving it sets a wonderful example for the children. SO. I am fingers crossing that we go out and I can get fixed up and FEEL beautiful for my husband on V-Day. Lately, my self esteem is non existent and that needs to change....maybe a night out is just what I need.

Giving MAD props to Adoption Parents

I was contemplating on what to write today, so I asked on my social networks what would be a good topic. I was given a few great ideas but one friend emailed me her family's wonderful story and I can NOT wait to share it with you all. I literally stayed up until almost 1 am talking to her about everything and I still can not wrap my mind around everything she told me. I am going to go ahead and let you know there are SEVERAL things I can not share with you all because I was asked not to, but when we go to bed tonight please take a moment and thank God that we are in America.

Here is a brief story on how this amazing family started their process written by Erin.



Well it all started wayyy back...about 12 years ago. My parents were foster parents since I was probably about 7. When I was 11, my parents got a call that they were bringing twin babies (I think about 7 months old. One boy named Manny and one girl named Sasha) to our house. They were born very premature at only 23 weeks and both weighed only a little over a pound at birth. They were both born with detached retinas (blind) and both had surgery to correct it. Mannys worked and he can see normal...Sashas didn't so she is legally blind and can only see lights, shadows, and outlines of certain things. About 3 years ago Sasha really started to feel left out since she didn't know any other kids that were blind and she felt different. My parents had been seriously considering adoption since a friend of the family adopted from overseas. Their friend told them about the agency that they had went through ( I opted this part out because I wasn't sure if Erin wanted to share the source). 


On January, 2012 my parents went on the website and were scrolling through all the little faces that are listed for adoption. One little girl really stuck out to them, Sarah. She was 5 years old and was listed as blind and also had cerebral paulsey and they instantly knew that they needed to make her a part of the family. So, then, I had to go look at her and then I saw Anna, same thing...she was 5 years old and also blind and for some reason I just fell in love and had to show my parents. They felt the same pull to her so they decided to adopt 2 little girls. It took about 2 years to finally get them home. They were both in Bulgaria but Sarah was in a very bad orphanage so she wasn't fed or taken care of properly. She only weighs 25lbs at 7 years old. Anna on the other hand was and she was taken care of very well. She is a typical 7 year old who loves to play dress up and barbie dolls. They came home on Dec 11th. They just had their first doctors appt yesterday. Sarah cannot walk, she only does an army crawl, but they have an amazing doctor and hopefully within a few years of fattening up and building muscle she will be able to run around!

So. That was quoted from Erin. You would not believe what this family has gone through to adopt these two precious girls. SO many children need a home overseas and let me first explain something...I have always been the one to say HEY. We need to adopt our American children, they need homes too. But after hearing about how bad these environments are for these children I feel we must do something. I totally cried for a LONG time last night because my heart just broke and broke for these precious babies.

I was given permission to share this, and THIS is the most shocking thing I have ever heard. I was told that a friend of the family recently adopted two girls from Bulgaria, the girls ages were 12 and 16.

The 12 year old wore INFANT clothes. INFANT. Can you imagine? The 16 year old was the size of Gabriel. Yes. A 16 year old young woman was the same size as my 1 year old.... Can you fathom this??

I literally can not and the more I think about it, the harder my heart hurts. I want to do something. I do not have the finances to adopt a child but I am going to figure something out to do. These precious poor children need care.

Please watch this video to get an idea of what it is like for these angels .



I am going to share some photos with you all of Erin's 2 new wonderful sisters :-)

This was the first visit...and the first time that Erin's mom and Anna met. On the left is Anna's Baba (her caretaker). On the right is the director of the orphanage.

This is also the first visit. Anna had picked Erin's mom a flower.

This is the first time that Sarah and Erin's mom met.

Erin's mom and Sarah (First visit)

Here is the second visit. This was Erin's mom picking up Anna to bring her home. Anna kept saying "Go to America? "

This was the second visit. They were at the hotel after they had picked Sarah up. Anna was helping feed Sarah.

Here they both are now. Anna was taking pictures of Sarah. They are both blind but Anna can see a lot better that Sarah. Anna can also see better than Sasha (Erin's other adopted sister).

I really hope and pray you all enjoyed learning about this amazing family as much as I did, and tonight when we tuck our little ones in let's be so thankful we are blessed and able to be the parents we are and blessed to be in the country we live in.

Please pray for children all over the world who need a home and need love. If you are ever able to adopt what a wonderful blessing you are making in our world and thank you.

Also THANK YOU to Erin for sharing her family's wonderful story with me and you all!

52 Weeks of Rick: Wk 1

Going in to 2014 I wanted to share more with you all about my husband Rick. He truly is my soulmate, even on days we bite each other's head off, I still wouldn't want to be with anyone else.

Rick and I got together in 2002 when I was a freshman and he was a senior. He was a Varsity Football player and even got a scholarship to go to a college up North. He chose not to go, because of love, although I didn't pressure him one bit to stay. I graduated a semester early and we were married in June of 2006. We have been together for a LONG time.

Rick is a truck driver at a large eastern electric company and works lots of long hours.
His passions besides his children of course are Carolina Panthers Football, Duke Basketball/Football, and playing XBox360...which please don't get me started on that because I hate video games, but he works hard and deserves to do what he wants. He is a wonderful man and I love him so much. I am so blessed to have him.

Surprise Visit

Yesterday I woke up to a text from Joni over at Six Cherries saying she was going to come visit me! What a wonderful surprise because Monday was a super rough day and I was thrilled to have her come over because it has literally been months since we got together...which totally sucks because we live 30 minutes apart. Life keeps us so busy and days turn into months, which doesn't need to happen anymore. We must make time for each other!

We seriously had such a fun time! Joni came loaded with goodies...she said guess what? Today we are baking cookies! And we did and it was FUN.We baked four batches of all kinds of homemade goodies and they were amazing. 

We chatted while the kids played and when we were done baking Elijah and Gracie each were able to make their own snowglobe. They enjoyed it SO much. Gracie carried it around all night and talked about how much she missed Elijah...She even kissed him on the cheek..Her dad would flip if he knew.

Tonight we will have another fun time because we are going to a HUGE church festival in Raleigh. We are all so excited. Pictures to come tomorrow! For now enjoy the ones from yesterday.