New Blog

Hi guys!
After careful thought, I decided to set up a private blog. I know that can be a pain but I think that it is a good idea. If you would like to read my blog then shoot me an email and I will put you on my list ( after the comittee Ok's it. Hee Hee) Even if I don't know you and you are a friend of a friend, just email me and let me know how you have heard of my blog. Thanks so much! Sorry to make you work for it! I'll try hard to make it worth it!

email your request at mkmusic@msn.com

Sissy Got Stuck in the Grocery Cart

Content where she is at.

Ivy trying to push the cart with her in it.

Matt pulling her out.


It was really quiet so we started to look for Sissy. We found her stuck in the toy grocery cart. The more she tried to get out, the more stuck she got. She was just happy to be there.

Grandpa Elliott

Grandpa Elliott was down here for the Shepard's Conference at Grace Community. It was a fun but fast week. He got to see Sissy for the first time. We will miss him!

Great is His Faithfulness

Court was interesting today. We were in there for about 2 minutes. The Judge did not get the Psychological evaluation of the Grandparents from the DR. so that is put on hold until April 9.


The Grandparents applied for the same De Facto Parent Status that we did. They were denied and he granted it to us. That doesn't mean a whole lot but we are able to get "a little " more information and we can now talk in court.


So...basically everything stays the same until April 9. So, we have to still let them have her every weekend. I sat with my birth mom for about an hour and a half while we were waiting and talked to her.

Thank you so much for your prayers. Keep praying!

Psalm 19:21

OK, I had a mini breakdown moment of again begging the Lord this morning. I was dusting the girls' room and sissy was laying in her crib. When I moved to her side of the room she jumped up and reached for me. My plan was to leave her in bed, but I couldn't resist! I picked her up and hugged her tight. Tears immediately came to my eyes as I squeezed her and begged the Lord yet again to make her mine.

We ask you to pray again for court coming up this Monday. Alot of stuff could happen and we could lose her again. We have also applied for what is called "De Facto Parenting" and the Judge will rule on that also. (That is kind of confusing but you can google it. It just gives us a few more rights, because right now we have none.)

My Pastor, Scott shared this verse a couple of weeks ago and it has really helped me in my thinking. "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." It doesn't matter what anybody tries to do, what we all think...Sissy where be where she is supposed to.

As you know, this year the Lord is getting me where it hurts, my family and kids. I am learning to hold them with loose fingers as God is the one they ultimately belong to. I think, at the end of this year will Ivy still be any only child? Will we have 2 kids or 3? Only God knows, but I know that He is faithful and good and that will not change even if I didn't have any. I'm working hard at living what I say that I believe. Please hold us in your prayers this coming Monday and I will post an update.

Elmo /Ivy

This is what Ivy was wearing when I went to pick her up from Lynn's house today. She let her keep it so Ivy went to visit her dad at work like this. She is still wearing it.....so cute!

Ivy's First Trip to the Dentist

Princess crown for her princess clean teeth.

Counting her teeth.

Cleaning them.

Dr. Rose says no sugar bugs!

Chuggin' Along

I know people have been wondering what has been going on with us so here is a little recap.



Matt was gone to Palm Springs for his annual LDI trip. He was gone for only 3 days but it was good to have him back. He let Ivy take his work cell phone last night (against my better judgement.) He thought what harm could she do? Ten minutes later we couldn't find the phone, Ivy (of course) didn't remember where she misplaced it. We kept calling it and it would sound so close! Finally Matt was fishing it out from under the oven in the kitchen. I took pictures of him crawling on the floor with the broom and 2 little nosey girls jumping on him. But I am banned from putting them on my blog. My stomach muscles got a good workout from all of the laughing.

As most of you know, Matt and I switched churches in December. We left Grace community after about a year of praying about it. It is closer to home, our closest friends all go there, but most of all, we had such a big desire to be used more in the local church. We were really beginning to become convicted that we have gifts that the Lord has given us and we weren't using them as much as we would like or should. There are so many things that we miss about Grace but we have loved Placerita Babptist so much! I sang on the worship team this past Sunday , along with my first solo for Special Music. I was so thankful to the Lord for His goodness in guiding Matt and our family. Matt is in the orchestra and taking a theology class on Saturday mornings and we have biblestudy 2x a month 2 minutes from our house.

Ivy is loving preschool! She begs me to let her ride the bus! I explained to her that it is hard enough for me to let her out of my sight to go to preschool but I draw the line at letting a 3 year old ride the school bus. I am not cutting those mother/daugther strings for a long time! It has been hard on her to know that Sissy is gone on the weekends, but it is a good opportuinity to teach her how we take our desires to the Lord and let Him decide.

Lastly, something that I have always struggled with is being too much of an open book. I always share the good and the bad. (aka. Fat Mommy) but I guess that I figure that I don't really have much to hide. The Lord has taught me more about discretion over the last 10 years (mainly through my husband.) and I would like to think that I have learned to be more receptive to the Holy Spirit's wisdom. In saying all of that, I have been convicted over how much I am sharing/going to share about my current/possible future adoptions. I truly have always had good intentions in doing so, I LOVE the prayers being given on our behalf...and please keep them coming!!!! However, the part that I have been convicted about is sharing facts about other people's lives that are not mine to share. Trust me, I never meant any harm in doing so, I was just didn't think it through like I maybe should have.

I am still going to try and talk about court dates, etc. coming up because I believe that I need your prayers but I want to above reproach.

Thank you for your love, encouragement , and prayers. I'm thankful for it all.

Morning Conversation

The other day, Ivy, came into our bed to snuggle and our conversation went something like this....

Mommy: Ivy, do you think I am pretty?
Ivy: ,Ummm, Nah.
(The bed started to shake as Matt was trying to suppress his giggles.)
Mommy: Ivy, do you think Mommy is pretty? (I thought I hadn't heard her right the first time.)
Ivy: Nope (with a smile on her face)
Mommy: Why don't you think I am pretty?
Ivy:(really serious) Because of the yucky stuff.
(Now Matt was dying laughing in bed!)
Mommy: What yucky stuff are you talking about?
Ivy: Right there. (pointing to my cheek...I didn't even have a pimple on my cheek!)
So I did what any mother would do in that situation...I started to fake cry and tell her that she hurt my feelings. She started to get a little upset.
Ivy: I think your pretty Momma.
Now....that's what I thought!

Ephesians 3:20

" Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us."


As I sit down to blog, I have put a picture up of my 2 beautiful girls to look at. They remind me of this verse. I think of the stories of how God allowed them to come into our lives and I am thankful, humbled and blessed. Each one of their stories is such a great testimony of God's goodness in my (and Matt's) life. As if I would even dare ask the Lord for more.....


When the verse says "...far more abundantly than all that we ask or think..." I couldn't have imagined that He wasn't done with Matt and I yet but that is exactly what has happened. I wish I could share every detail but I can't, I will however share the important ones in hopes that we can all pray together and as I detail through my blog, we can all share in the excitement.


Things with Sissy are far from over, our next court date is March 2 and we are still praying that the grandparents are out of the picture, that they won't take her on that date and the weekend visits stop. However, someone that is very close to Matt and I, someone who we love as much as our own family, someone who (rightly so) wants to remain anonymous, sent us an email last Saturday and asked us to adopt her baby boy (due in June). Now....we would normally say "Are you crazy? We are going through a lot with Sissy." But this is someone who we feel like we shouldn't/ couldn't/wouldn't say no to. I know that this person had an appointment to abort the baby and I prayed daily that she wouldn't. She said that she wanted to but that Matt and I were heavy on her heart. We told her right away that we wanted the baby but we would have to pray about it because we have no money to adopt this baby! (That is why we went through the foster system to get Sissy, because it was free.) I fought right away the thoughts of being anxious about the money, knowing that the Lord has shown me with both of my girls that all things are possible through Him.


Matt and I began praying, called our shocked parents, called our adoption lawyer, talked to Sissy's social worker to see if we could do it. In the first week (through some really sweet and generous friends and family.) We have almost $3,000. We estimate that it is going to cost about $10,000. With that money coming to us in less than a week, we felt that we could call our birth mom and tell her that we would adopt the baby. I got the sweetest email from her afterwards, saying how much she was in tears at our response and overwhelmed by the love that Matt and I have shown her. We have only been able to email but we are both excited to talk on the phone.


Prayer Requests: Needless to say that one request is our finances for the adoption.


Our 2ND request involves Sissy. It is against the law to have 2 adoptions go on at the same time. That means Sissy needs to stay in foster care until the baby's adoption is final. (The Judge could take her out of foster care and move it to adoption at any time.) But now we don't want that. We want her to stay as a foster child in our home until the baby is adopted and then have her move to adoption. That is really possible as the court takes forever in terminating parental rights.


Whew! That is alot but we are so thankful for all of the prayers given to us so far across the country. I am excited to blog about this and have you take another adoption journey with us. We will have 2 going on at the same time! I hope it is in His will for us to have this baby and Sissy, either way, we are trusting Him! Love you all!

Happy Birthday Matt!

Matt, Happy Birthday! I think that you have grown more this year than any year I have known you. Your obvious love for the Lord is etched all over your life, whether it is playing legos for a couple of hours, getting up early to study the Word, changing diapers, challenging me with Scripture, putting others above yourself, giving baths, loving and encouraging your friends, and loving me more than you love yourself...Your girls are proud and thankful to have you in our lives. We love you daddy!

Seriously.....

Keep praying!

1st Day of Preschool

Today was Ivy's 1st day of preschool. I had her tested in November for her speech articulation and she was behind like I thought. They wanted her to come to preschool when she turned 3 where all the kids in her class have her articulation problem so they can work on it. She goes twice a week and then a speech therapist comes in once a week to take her out of class and work with her one on one. It is all free through the state and it looks really nice. They do everything that a normal preschool does and I think she will love it.

She was so excited when she woke up and knew she was going to school. It took her awhile to understand that Ty and Jaden weren't going to be there. ( I think she must have heard them talk about school because she kept saying that she was going to play with Ty and Jaden there.) She gladly posed for pictures outside. Then...it started to hit me...my baby is already off to school. I called my mom after I dropped her off (when she saw the playdough on the table she was in heaven!....didn't even really say goodbye.) My mom didn't answer so I just cried a little on her answering machine. At least I still had Sissy in the back of the car. I can't wait to pick her up and hear about her day. I really missed her. Time goes by too fast!

Happy Birthday Hollie!

Hollie, We love you and hope you have a great day! You are one of our favorite people. We love Our Hollie!