Child of my heart, a video for my daughter about adoption, healing and t...

Christmas is a week away?? huh?

I can't believe Christmas is a little more than a week away. WOW..we have been busy as bees at
our home. I was just getting used to the idea that it was "almost December" and now, here we are..a week away. When I realized what day it was, I ran to the kitchen and there was a symphony of banging pots and pans..never have I waited this late to start my Christmas baking. In fact, we barely get the Thanksgiving dishes put away before I start pulling them back out..I found myself in the kitchen until the wee hours of the morning baking treats for Gabbie's teachers, yes, the LAST day of school until break. well, I never...

The kids are excited!! :) Ava Grace is having a blast with our Elf on the Shelf ( Sam) As soon as her little eyes pop open in the morning she makes a mad dash to his previous spot, and then the hunt begins. Oh my how I love the squeal of laughter that comes after she discovers his new hiding spot. :) At the risk of sounding Cliche' she is growing like a weed..I can hardly believe that she has been home with us almost 3 years now, in some ways it seems like it was yesterday, other times, I try to think of life before her, and I can't. Sometimes I can't help but think about all of the times I asked God why he put 97 children in our home in the past 9 years and why, knowing the desire of my heart..did he send those 97 children to different forever families, and now I know, she was my daughter before she was ever born. God gave her to me in HIS time, sometimes I just get a little impatient. The other babies, are where God intended them to be, and how blessed are we that we still get to share in many of their lives. They are still and always will be our children. The only thing that comes to mind when I think about how many times ( and there were many) I questioned God, is to just say " I'm Sorry, I should have trusted you" which is usually followed by flowing tears and a million ( or two) "thank you's"
She is smart, funny, incredibly sweet, beautiful..add a dash of mischevious and you have our darling Ava Grace. :)
Gabbie, my sweet Gabbie. :) She loves music, it isn't unusual to walk into our home at any given moment that you won't hear her singing to the top of her lungs in her room..she gives a concert like no other! ( especially, when she thinks no one is watching ;) She loves peace signs, cotton candy, lipgloss, high heeled boots, purple fingernail polish and Justin Bieber. Gone are the days of the hairbows so big that you need a forklift to put them on her head..gone are the days of butterfly murals, smocked dresses and black patten mary janes. I have found myself smack in the middle of raising a preteen girl..how did we get here so fast?? She can get to a ringing phone faster than a mom on Black Friday. She is funny, witty, quirky, beautiful, add a pinch of Drama and you have our Gabba!

Logan, I can hardly believe as of July of this year, he is officially a man. He has always been one of the funniest people on the planet..You can not be in a room with him for long before you are doubled over with side splitting laughter. Not to mention he's got the moves like Jagger. Logan is my right hand man, I need something..and he comes running. I love that he has never been embarrased to hug me in front of his friends, I love that he invites them over and has them call me mom, I love how he is always on guard to protect his little sisters, He is a joy and I am honored to be his mom. I am so proud of the man he is becoming, sometimes I find myself sitting and looking at pictures of him as he was growing up, and while part of me misses that little boy, the other part of me is excited to see the direction his life takes. ( oh, and all the little girls around here think he's Justin Bieber) haha.

SO there they are..My gifts. They along with their dad, are the most amazing gifts I could have ever hoped to receive. I am blessed beyond measure. So while December has crept up on me and I have missed every festivity so far..I am content. Merry Christmas !!

An update :)

A friend of mine started a blog and well...that made me a little homesick. :) Life at the Bradford house has been busy to say the least. We said goodbye to our sweet "K" that we had the privilege to raise for over a year, that was tough. We miss him terribly but continue to pray every day that his life is filled with love and blessings. We haven been given the chance to take care of one year old baby "T" and one year old baby "J" until they are able to return home, If I said they keep me hopping, that would be quite the understatement!

Here is what's happening in the Bradford home~

Ava Grace is growing so fast, as much as I beg her to slow down, she just won't. I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since she became my daughter, I am in awe of her everyday and just can't believe my good fortune. She is funny, smart, sassy and totally squeezable. She turned 3 in Feb. and still tells everyone who will listen about her "princess and the frog" party. She loves people and if given the chance to talk your ear off, she'll take it. :)

Gabbie, Oh Gabbie. When people told me the drama that came with having a girl, they went easy on me. D.R.A.M.A. but, she wouldn't be my Gabbie without it. She is a straight A student and is very excited to be on her way to 5th grade. She amazes us everyday with her wit and charm.

Logan will officially be a man in July!!! I can't believe it's been almost 18 years since I sat in that hospital room thinking I had just given birth to ET. Thank goodness the Dr. told me that it's normal for a baby's head to look like that after 21.5 hours of labor. What a handsome man he turned out to be, wouldn't you agree? He is such a joy and I couldn't be more thankful for the kind of son he is. He is so talented and so funny, oh but this boy is funny! :)

So in a nutshell, it has been one of the busiest years of our lives, and a very trying year as well, Terry's work is almost non existant, we just keep praying and we are keeping he faith that things will turn around in that area of our lives, but never do we forget how blessed we are to have each other, and these amazing, amazing kids. God is good!! :)
.

I have a new website! :)

So I had to let my website go a couple of years ago when business was so slow, but of course after I did, I started getting busy again! I have mostly been selling on Etsy and Ebay, but I stumbled upon Wix, a great little site where you can design your own website for FREE. Of course you can always upgrade to a paid site with more features, but until I see how busy I will be, I think the free site will suit me just fine! :) I even got to design it myself..love that! You can use one of their templates and just add to it, or you can design it from scratch which is what I chose to do. anywho...here it is! :) send me a message and let me know what you think! :) ( keep in mind that it is still a work in progress! ;) )

Pied Piper Originals

So yea...Ava Grace is 2 now!! ;)

Her birthday was in February, but I wanted to share her big day. The child is an absolute NEMO fanatic. Do you know how hard it is to find NEMO party supplies these days? I did score some paper goods from ebay, but other than that, I was on my own. We didn't get to spend her first birthday with her, Her adoption party was a celebration of her 1st birthday and a welcome to the family party combined, even though she was over a year old. I just needed those 1st birthday pictures for her baby book, we weren't too far off..she was 14 months old. Hard to believe that she is already 2 and been with us for over a year now...how time flies.


( we had a bubble machine, she loved it)
The party table

blowing her candles out, she didn't quite get it. :)

My sister and I stayed up all night making her cake

it was great together time..I loved it, she is still in FL

so it was nice to spend that time being creative together!

I don't normally like character clothes, but I wasn't going to deny my sweet pea a NEMO outfit for her special day. My intention was to applique it all, but time got away from me so I ended up painting it instead. I made her a hairbow, necklace, bracelet and shoes to match it and we were good to go..she loved it..and I love her..so there ya go. ;)

It was a good day..lots of love shared, lots of tears shed..happy tears..Well, I can't go now without sharing the story..I was a bit teary all day, just kept pinching myself y'know? this is really my daughter, I am really throwing a 2nd birthday party for MY daughter..those kinds of things. I thought I had myself composed by the time we started to sing Happy Birthday. Terry was on one side of her and I was on the other and as we were singing, she reached out one hand to Terrys face and the other to mine, stroked our cheeks and said " MY MOMMY, MY DADDY" in the most loving little voice. well..I dont have to tell you that the tears started flowing, not just from Terry and I, but I looked up and everyone around us was crying. People that listened to my fears that she didn't really know that I was her mommy because for so long she called everyone she saw mommy. In that moment, all of the confusion was gone....Indeed, it was a very, very good day!! :)

So, it's been a while

Oh goodness, I promised many more posts after our adoption, because of course I had to brag and show her off, what I didn't realize is how limited my time was about to become. I can't believe it's been almost a year since my last post!! I would say life with 3 kids is amazing, but what I NEED to say is, life with FOUR kids is amazing! :) No, we haven't adopted again, but we did decide to still foster, something we thought we would not do anymore after adopting Ava Grace, we did take a year long break and decided that it's just who we are, it's what we do, and as happy as we were, we just missed it..meeting all of those precious little people who have changed our lives in so many different ways..I came to realize that I needed them, as much as they needed me, and so here we are..I believe right back where God intended for us to be and who knows.. I may be putting another adoption announcement up again in the future ( don't tell my husband I just said that! ;) ) and so we are lucky enough to have been trusted to raise 8 month old baby "K" for a while. I can't post pictures of him, but trust me when I say he is simply scrumptious!

Alot has happened this year, our first Christmas with Ava Grace was wonderful, I think we all had more fun watching her than we did anything else! :) something wacky is going on and I can't seem to load pictures, I will get to that tomorrow because you simply MUST see how the kids are growing! ;) and there is some crafty goodness going on in my house too!

Happy Autumn