Prayer request....

I love being a foster mom, we enjoy having Doodle Bug in our home and desire more than anything God's best for her! Please pray with us daily that if God's best is better than forever with us that He will prepare our hearts for that! We are so desperately in love with this little girl and I know that our Lord and Savior has a plan for her life and we are eternally grateful for the opportunity to be a part of it, even if only for one chapter!

We have known from the start that we will have children come into our home and then return to their rightful home and we know when the time comes for a child to leave that we will mourn but please pray that we will also dance with joy and thanksgiving for the time we had and the restoration that occurred!

I know without a doubt that God created me to be a foster mom and to love on children and plant seeds in their life so that they will come to know Him! Please pray that this call remains my primary focus and that I remember to hold on tightly to His promises and loosely to His children!

These days...

Our Doodle Bug is 7 weeks old
She has long eyelashes and beautiful eyes,
She kind of grins when you talk to her,
Her cyst is almost gone(PTL!)
She still has an “Alfalfa” curl
She is holding her head up like a pro
Finding her fingers and chewing on them
Yelling out for attention
Playing on her tummy
Having staring contest
Eating 4 oz every 3 hours
Sleeping a little better and
Grabbing attention and melting hearts of everyone she meets!

Life of the Party!

So our little doodle bug is not only a huge hit with us, our family and friends but everywhere we go!

I went to a bridal shower on Sunday and took her with me and random people gwaked at her for a while and one lady even sat down and said "Who's baby is that?... I'm gonna hold her." and proceeded to remove her from the arms of a family member!

She began daycare yesterday and when I picked her up everyone in sight told me just how precious she is(like I don't know). Her teacher said that everyone kept coming into the room wanting to love on her and hold her. They were amazed at how laid back and alert she is. So thrilled to have her in such a great daycare! My neice and nephew went there 6 years ago and the first thing they did when we walked in was asked how they are doing and how my mom is... so comforting to know that the children they care for make a lasting impression on them; shows that it's more than just a job for them.

Last night @ bed time she spit up once and then slept for 4 hours and after eatting @ 2:30 she spit up once more then slept 4 more hours. Such a huge improvement since for the past 2 weeks she has spit up several times and is fussy for a couple of hours before getting good rest. I don't want to jinx this but we are definatley going to try to repeat last night tonight.

Friday= Doodle Bug day!

I'm taking tomorrow off to spend time with my little doodle bug! I love just hanging out with her! I need to get some house work done but she likes to hang out in the kitchen with me so that shouldn't be too much of a problem! She has already learned how to make fresh apple bread, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies... I'm sure there were some non-sweets that we made together but for some reason those things aren't memorable to me! We have been talking about it and I'm pretty sure that she wants to go to culinary school and work as a pastry chef at the family bakery when she grows up... no matter where her forever home is she will always be a part of our family!

On another note, she has been spitting up a bit more these days but it is def. way worse and kind of slimy when she is in bed... what's up with that? I think it might be part of why she has been fussy at bed time but when we pick her up she is just as happy as can be and doesn't act like she feels bad. My sinuses have been acting crazy and I have major drainage when I lay down so maybe she is dealing with some of the same?

Shaun's dad is leaving on Saturday to go on a mission trip. He and other members of Black Oak Heights Baptist Church will be serving the Lord in Nicaragua! Pray for safety as they travel and that the Lord is softening the hearts of those who will hear the Good News!

...

Some days you have to seek comfort in knowing that you are right where God wants you to be...

Some days you have to grin and bear it...

Some days you have to sing...

Some days you have to sleep...

Some days you have to cry...

Some days you have to laugh...

Every day all you can do is try...

No sweeter sound...

Right now I am listeninig to our little angle cry her self to sleep. She's full, dry and warm and so very tired! We are trying to get her used to falling asleep in her own bed; the first week or so bed time was a cinch but now she cries and fights sleep! (it really stresses Dad out but I have learned to tune it out) I'm a fan of letting her cry for a bit because I don't want to get to a point where she refuses to sleep in her on bed but at the same time if she is screaming the whole time she is in her bed she might begin to think that her room is a horrible place... oh what to do!?!

The good thing is when she wakes up in the middle of the night for a feeding she goes right back to sleep with no problem! She is still sleeping for 3 to 4 hour streches and we are alternating nights getting up with her since we are both working. (I am blessed with such a woderful husband)

We are slowly but surely getting used to our new life as (foster)parents! We have been out to dinner a few times and shopping several times and every time S has been so laid back!

It's amazing how much we love her... with wreckless abandon! I could never imagine not loving any child in our home with my whole heart but I love with parts of me that I didn't know that I had!

We are so amazed at how God is working in our lives through this little girl and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for our future!

Please pray for her birth mom, that the Lord will make Himself known in her life and that she will surrender to Him and that He will restore her to His intention for her life!

My blog ate my update…

So sorry that I am so bad at updating this thing! I really want to do a better job at this so that I can look back and see all the frustration and the joy that it has brought us!

So I guess it’s pretty obvious that we were finally approved as foster parents! We got the call on May 25, 2010, while we were on vacation, letting us know that we were finally approved. That Friday as we were packing up to head home from Floridia we got a call from placement about a little boy that we had to decline because we were 9 hours away from home.

Needless to say when we got home we went crazy washing clothes and linens for the nursery. Fast forward to June 9, when we got a call for a sibling group. We declined this placement because we really felt that our first placement should be 1 child since we had never had a child in our home. That night I was talking to a friend who reminded me to pray and make sure that that decision was not one made in fear because if so it wasn’t from the Lord. I prayed about it felt at peace, knowing that the next call was for the child God intended to be placed in our home.

The very next day, June 10, 2010 @ 1:30p.m. I received a call from the placement caseworker who started the call by saying “it’s me again, one of these days I am going to call and you are going to say yes” without her giving me any details about the child or situation I said “today is the day” when my phone rang and I saw that it wad DCS my heart jumped for joy because I knew that this was God’s intention for us, who we had been waiting for!

I was told of a 2 week old little girl who was 5 lbs 4 oz. I was told that she was born into a not so great situation but by the grace of God it seemed that she was healthy.

I rushed home to sterilize bottles, never would we have dreamed of our first placement being such a young child!

By 4 p.m. I was at our home by myself with the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen! Of course I wasn’t home alone for long! Many friends and families stopped by to meet our big blessing in a tiny package!

Today Shelby is 4 weeks old, and has been with us for exactly 2 weeks! The past 2 weeks have been a blur but full of joy! When I am up at 3 am feeding this little girl I can’t help but praise God for her, there is no doubt in my mind that this is what He created me for!

Shelby is healthy and happy, she makes eye contact when we talk to her and coos and grunts in response to us! She eats well (about 3 oz every 2.5 hours) and loves her beauty sleep! She not a huge fan of bath time and hates being changed but she is learning to tolerate both! She likes when Nestle kisses her feet and puts up with our kisses! She has the cutest grin and makes the funniest sounds! We are in love!

Thanks to everyone who has loved on us and prayed for us while we waited on this little girl! Thanks for all of the things that you have provided to help us make our house a home for her! I said to someone the other day that she is going to be spoiled and they told me that there is no such thing as a spoiled child… just a well loved child!

Please pray that she will continue to develop normally! Pray for her as she gets ready to start daycare on 7/12/10! Pray that the cyst on her head will go away on it’s own!