Cha...cha...changes & the Thankful Season

 

It's been a hot minute since we've posted anything, but we're here! Let's catch you up on all the happenings and changes. 

We finalized adoption on our beautiful twins June 2020 just as the world began opening up again from Covid shut downs. Their case was a rollercoaster of emotions even until the very end when we waited to see if we'd have a virtual hearing for adoption. We ended up being able to go to the courthouse just us two and the girls. Other family members attended via Zoom, most of them from our attorney's office just down the road. 

It's hard to believe it, but Joey is a sophomore in high school now and about to start driving. 

Manda is still teaching special needs Pre-K with the same program, but she moved to a new school last year. I'm teaching 6th grade math now, and I am loving my middle school kiddos! We are so incredibly thankful for our school families. 

We have two littles, Bubby is 8 months old now and Lil Sis is 2 (almost 3). They've been with us since mid-May 2021. We don't know what their stories will hold in the future, but we will love on them for as long as needed. 

And the newest change is...we bought a house! We've been renting, but it was beyond time to buy a home. We made the decision to start the process around mid-September, and we slept our first night in our new home on Thanksgiving night. We are still in the process of slowly unpacking. 

Moving and everything right around the holidays plus having to be back at work has been quite a whirlwind. It's creating some shifts in our schedules, routines, and rhythms, and it's a bit of adjustment for sure. But we are so excited to be in our new home, and we're even more excited to decorate our new home for Christmas! 

We're in the midst of creating new routines and rhythms plus coming up with a set cleaning schedule to keep a handle on everything since we almost doubled our living space. 

Do you have a cleaning schedule you love? What routines and rhythms do you have in your home? 

Feeling Stressed, Blessed, and a Heartbroken Mess

We have always said that everything happens for a reason. We don't always know or understand the reason or the timing, but there's always a reason.

What's the reason for the current state of our country and the world? No one knows. What I do know is that my family is beyond blessed. We are stressed; don't get me wrong, we are stressed right along with everyone else. Let me explain...

Stressed
We are stressed about potential risk of illness for our family. We're worried about the health of our loved ones. We're worried about how all of this will impact the economy in the long run. We're worried about small businesses we love, especially the dance studio our kiddos go to.

Blessed
We are blessed to be able to be home with each other and our kiddos. We are trying to be intentional with spending time together. Of course, there's constant Disney movie marathons going in our house followed by the pretty regular dance party. We're spending time together reading, coloring, and playing. We're also taking time to to plan intentional learning opportunities for the girls. We've spent time outside with riding toys, balls, and bubbles. We are blessed have jobs that are allowing us to work from home and continue to be paid. This in itself is a blessing for us. But the biggest absolute blessing for our family happened just before all of this really started when I accepted a new job just days before our world shut down.

Heartbroken Mess
We are heartbroken for our students who don't get to finish out their Pre-K year with their teachers and friends. Honestly, we're heartbroken for ourselves, because March to May is such an incredible time to be in the classroom. We're sad for how Joey's 8th grade year has been cut short. While thankfully he isn't a senior in high school this year, this is still a big transition. I remember my 8th grade year very well and cherish so many memories from the spring semester of that year. He's missing out on his 8th grade dance and end of year celebrations. We're sad that Easter will look so different this year. Though we may just have a family egg hunt a couple of weeks late. We're also sad that we can't be with our family. We can't snuggle our new little nephew and hug the necks of those we love. Video chats help a little though.

Our Adventures & Ready for Summer

Some people think we are crazy. Maybe we are a little. 😝😜

Our life is full of craziness. Our life is always busy. Our life is full of some unknown.

But honestly I couldn’t imagine our life any other way, because our life is full of love.

While everyday we live with the question of what the future holds for Sister and Sissy, we also cherish those days knowing at least for now they are in our arms. They are safe, happy, and blossoming. They’ve been with us for almost a year now. They turned a year old just yesterday. They’ve grown so much. They are walking, eating table food, and transitioning to whole milk.

Our Lil Man is not so little anymore. I can’t believe he’s 13. And he’s almost as tall as us (like .5-1 inch shorter but I’m claiming it as long as I can). He’s about to finish his 7th grade year. He has changed so much in the last year. 

Manda is about to complete her first official year of teaching (4th year in the classroom). She has had a busy year with some challenges thrown her way, but she has been a champ and done an amazing job. I’m so proud of her and her dedication to her students. 

This year, I have focused more on our business, but I’ve subbed some too. I’m really excited about the adventures we are embarking on together. We love our personalized apparel and gift business, ASJ Creations[link]. We love getting to create fun, custom gifts for our customers and shirts they love. In March, we embarked on another adventure! We became travel agents, and started ASJ Travels[link]. We have always enjoyed planning big vacations for our family every summer, and we love sharing our love for all things Disney with everyone we know. Now we get to help others plan the trip of their dreams to Disney destinations and beyond! We love getting to help families plan trips to anywhere they desire!

We are so ready for summer!! This is the first year that we'll all be home together all summer. We'll still be working our businesses, but we neither of us will be working outside of the house this year! We have a few trips planned for this summer including Disney and short family beach trips!

Fostering Love: The Anticipated Yet Unexpected Call

Feb 2019 - Sister, Bubba, & Sissy

May 2018 - picking up Sissy from the hospital

Time to play a little catch up! We've had a busy 9 months!

After Sweet Baby C left us, it was 18 days before we received the call for our next placement. The wait for the call was hard since we had only waited 3 days after our approval call, but we also knew that we had a packed schedule and it all would work out when it was meant to.

Well...on the afternoon of last day of school, we received the call for our next placement. 4 day old twin baby girls. Had we received the call any day before then, we wouldn't have been able to say yes because daycare isn't an option that young. The timing was perfect, and we said yes to the exciting, scary adventure we were about to face.

Baby KA (Sister) and Baby LM (Sissy) have been in our care for right at 9.5 months now. Sister was picked up from the hospital and brought to us on the day we received the call. Sissy had to stay in the hospital just a little longer. We went and picked Sissy up two days later at the hospital. Sister and Sissy met for the first time (outside of the womb) at 6 days old.

These sweet girls have changed our lives and the lives of everyone in our family. We are so blessed to be able to shower them with love.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothering people. To mother is to "bring up with care and affection" or to "look after kindly and protectively".

Today, I ask that when you are out and about or when you see your various friends' posts on social media, please remember to be kind. Mothering comes in so many forms.

Whether you have mothered through birth, adoption, fostering, or just leading and supporting, thank you for caring for and mothering others.

Fostering Love: First Goodbye

Us with Baby C

Well the time has come to say goodbye to our first placement. Sweet Baby C has left our home and gone to a relative placement. We are happy that he has family that was able to get approved and take him in. We know that being able to be with family will be good for him.

However, it doesn't make our hearts ache any less that he left. We've cried and cried some more. We expected the heart ache, but goodness you really can't prepare yourself for it.

As we prepared for his departure and since, we've made it a point to put away things that were kept behind. Things like some toys, play pen, bottles, etc. that were ours. It has helped to not have these things still laying around as reminders that he left. Lil Man has been an emotional wreck this week as he doesn't do well with emotions, and he was really smitten with Baby C.

Honestly, we're looking forward to more placements. We know we'll get a call in the near future.

Did you know the state of Georgia has over 15,000 children in foster care? You can help by becoming a foster parent, becoming a relative placement (if you have a relative in care), becoming a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), or just reaching out to your local DFCS for information on volunteer opportunities.

Fostering Love: First Placement Call

Baby C has been with us for 2 weeks now. Yep that's right 2 weeks! Let's rewind a little...

So as you know, we received the call that we were approved on April 9th. Well on April 12th I received a voicemail while I was at my afternoon car duty at school. It was from our new foster parent case manager. She was introducing herself and letting us know they had a potential placement. As she said, "Yes, it really does happen that fast."

I mean wow! 3 days?!?! Granted, we were comping at the bit waiting for a call, because we know there's such a high need. But honestly, we didn't think the call would come that fast. And we thought for sure we would have to have the transition meeting before we received a call, but nope!

I instantly text Manda to get her to reach out for more info since I was still at work for my after school tutoring. She called me and said they had an 8 month old little boy, and we knew instantly that he would be the perfect fit for our first placement.

Once he was dropped off that evening, we headed to Wal-Mart to grab some necessities that we didn't have at home yet. Then we when home, snuggled, and got ready for Friday. Friday meant he had to start daycare. We definitely had some adjusting to do with our schedule, but we're figuring it out.

Like I said we received the call on April 12th. He's been with us for 2 weeks now. We're still somewhat adjusting to life with an infant, but it's definitely starting to feel more routine. We're all so in love with this sweet baby boy.

Lil Man has stepped up and is already a great big brother. The boys are both smitten with each other. Baby C adores Lil Man so much. Baby C really has just fit his way into our lives perfectly. We already fear the day that he may have to leave us. We keep reminding ourselves that's what we signed up for, but it doesn't make it any less scary. But one thing is for sure, as long as he's with us we will love him and spoil him rotten!