This evening I had the opportunity to go visiting teaching. I am so grateful for the amazing power that we sisters have. I am amazed at the inspiration that we can truly have on behalf of those sisters we teach. I have a great companion who always has such a great positive perspective on everything. She is so great at really applying the lessons to our daily lives. From this months message what really stood out to me was how plain and simple the Gospel truly is. The covenants we make are so beautiful and eternal. How wonderful!
I am so grateful for the sisters that we get to visit. They are all so wonderful and so sincere. For various reasons most of them are without their spouse a lot of the time and I am so impressed by their determination to push on. They are such amazing and special people. I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to get to know each one of these beautiful sisters! I learn so much from each one of them. How truly blessed we are to have this amazing gift we call the Gospel!
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Happy Birthday Saige!
I am so horrible! Our little Saige turned 2 this past week...on Saturday to be exact. I cannot believe how fast time has gone. It seems like just yesterday she came into our lives. She is one beautiful little girl. She has the sweetest personality and is such a "Michael"!
I love how much she loves her daddy and her Grandpa. She so loves her Aunt Kiki too!! She reminds me so much of my sister. She is sassy when she wants to be, can be sooo stubborn, and can melt your heart the very next second.
Here are some things that I want to remember about little Ms. Saige on her second birthday!
- Her "happy hands".
- Saige finally started to walk this year! This was a huge accomplishment for this little one!
- Saige loves to say prayers. During our nightly family prayers she has the first part memorized..."Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for this day".
- Saige is truly happy most of the time.
- Saige loves to help her little baby brother Gage. She always says "Hi Gage".
- Her high screams.
- The way she looked in the Temple a few weeks ago when she joined our eternal family! She truly is a little angel from Heaven.
She is such a tremendous blessing in our lives. I am so grateful to be her mother and to love her and guide her throughout this life. She is so pure and innocent. I am so blessed to literally be surrounded by little angels every single day. I have so much to learn from them and their pure trust in others. I love being a mother and especially to my sweet Saige Michael Durham! Happy Birthday Sweetheart!
P.S. I will post pictures of her party after this weekend. Her and Michelle's birthdays are only three days apart so for now we have a combined party!
I love how much she loves her daddy and her Grandpa. She so loves her Aunt Kiki too!! She reminds me so much of my sister. She is sassy when she wants to be, can be sooo stubborn, and can melt your heart the very next second.
Here are some things that I want to remember about little Ms. Saige on her second birthday!
- Her "happy hands".
- Saige finally started to walk this year! This was a huge accomplishment for this little one!
- Saige loves to say prayers. During our nightly family prayers she has the first part memorized..."Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for this day".
- Saige is truly happy most of the time.
- Saige loves to help her little baby brother Gage. She always says "Hi Gage".
- Her high screams.
- The way she looked in the Temple a few weeks ago when she joined our eternal family! She truly is a little angel from Heaven.
She is such a tremendous blessing in our lives. I am so grateful to be her mother and to love her and guide her throughout this life. She is so pure and innocent. I am so blessed to literally be surrounded by little angels every single day. I have so much to learn from them and their pure trust in others. I love being a mother and especially to my sweet Saige Michael Durham! Happy Birthday Sweetheart!
P.S. I will post pictures of her party after this weekend. Her and Michelle's birthdays are only three days apart so for now we have a combined party!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
What an amazing experience!
So this morning Lonnie and I had the opportunity to take our entire family to the Temple! I thought that this would be a wonderful day but I had no idea how truly amazing it would be. I am so beyond grateful for the Temple and for the opportunity that I had to be there today. I am keeping this post short but I promise to write more and share more pictures later. Thanks to everyone for your love, support, prayers, and faith. Good night!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Randoms
Okay. So it's been a while since I last posted anything. So much has happened. School has started for Michelle and Mason, which is fantastic!! I never thought that I would be one of those parents who is excited for school to start. Boy...was I wrong! This is Michelle's second year in preschool and if you ask her who her teacher is she will tell you Miss Allison. This was actually her teacher last year, but she insists that she is her teacher. This is Mason's first year in preschool. I cannot believe that he is old enough to go to school. I'm kind of weird about dates and I thought that is was interesting that his very first day of school was 3 years to the day that we received him in our home! Interesting.
I also attended a fascinating seminar on picky eaters. Any of you that know my children know that Mason only likes and/or eats about 10-15 foods. His sensory system is so sensitive. Anyhow SAARC was putting on this free seminar. It was amazing. It is incredible how much there is to learn about eating. I took pages and pages of notes and I am so excited to implement some of the ideas. Hopefully some of them will work. The Dr. that gave the seminar is from Colorado. She has a full service clinic up there. Depending on how things go...we may have to take him up there. Hopefully not though. We are still waiting to get into a nutritionist. I'm sure we'll figure something out.
This Saturday, as many of you know, is another very special day for our family. Saige and Gage will be sealed to us! I am so excited! Another interesting thing about the date is that this will be the day that Gage turns nine months. Saige looks absolutely angelic in her beautiful white dress and Gage looks so studly in his little white suit. Man...I love these kidddos so much! We have been so blessed. It's hard to believe that we are all done with CPS and our family is complete (at least the adopting part)! It has been one heck of a journey but there truly is no more glorious moment than to see them in the House of our Lord. I look forward to Saturday and only wish that we could stay in the Temple all day with them. I am so grateful for my membership in this wonderful and amazing Gospel. It has blessed my life tremendously. I am grateful for the testimony that I have of so many simple and plain truths. I am grateful for a wonderful eternal companion who truly displays Christlike love. I am grateful for the Temple and for the opportunity that I have to go and worship and learn more about my Savior. I am grateful that I know that we can all belong to an eternal family. I am grateful for my soon to be complete eternal family!
I also attended a fascinating seminar on picky eaters. Any of you that know my children know that Mason only likes and/or eats about 10-15 foods. His sensory system is so sensitive. Anyhow SAARC was putting on this free seminar. It was amazing. It is incredible how much there is to learn about eating. I took pages and pages of notes and I am so excited to implement some of the ideas. Hopefully some of them will work. The Dr. that gave the seminar is from Colorado. She has a full service clinic up there. Depending on how things go...we may have to take him up there. Hopefully not though. We are still waiting to get into a nutritionist. I'm sure we'll figure something out.
This Saturday, as many of you know, is another very special day for our family. Saige and Gage will be sealed to us! I am so excited! Another interesting thing about the date is that this will be the day that Gage turns nine months. Saige looks absolutely angelic in her beautiful white dress and Gage looks so studly in his little white suit. Man...I love these kidddos so much! We have been so blessed. It's hard to believe that we are all done with CPS and our family is complete (at least the adopting part)! It has been one heck of a journey but there truly is no more glorious moment than to see them in the House of our Lord. I look forward to Saturday and only wish that we could stay in the Temple all day with them. I am so grateful for my membership in this wonderful and amazing Gospel. It has blessed my life tremendously. I am grateful for the testimony that I have of so many simple and plain truths. I am grateful for a wonderful eternal companion who truly displays Christlike love. I am grateful for the Temple and for the opportunity that I have to go and worship and learn more about my Savior. I am grateful that I know that we can all belong to an eternal family. I am grateful for my soon to be complete eternal family!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Mr. Chubbs!
I know that it is not typical to take unclothed pictures at this age ... but I wanted to capture all of the RoLLs!
I got out the old big mirror and we had so much fun!
One more mirror shot!
I love this "little" boy so much! ;)
Friday, August 1, 2008
A Lot to Think About
So it seems like a lot has been going on lately. So many different things that come with so many different emotions. For example...I was reading a friend's blog and it just broke my heart. She and her husband are struggling with infertility right now. I know that it takes special people to be put through such difficult and challenging trials. Irregardless, I still feel for them.
I feel so guilty even bringing this up, but tomorrow is such a joyous occasion for our little family. Saige and Gage will officially become ours! Their adoption is tomorrow afternoon! We are so excited and cannot believe that it is finally here. I remember when we got the phone call for little miss Saige. Lonnie and I were on our way home from another dreadful hearing. We were overjoyed with the decision the Judge had finally made...severance and adoption!!! On our way home as we were turning down Bullard off of Peoria, we received a phone call from the CPS case manager. She stated that they were going to be pulling the baby and wanted to know if we were interested. Of course, we said yes! She was so confused when she came, but seemed so happy. She has overcome some obstacles herself and has made some tremendous progress recently. We are so grateful to have her in our family and look forward to making it official.
"Little" Mr. Gage. He was truly a blessing we were not at all expecting. We knew from the beginning that the birth mother was pregnant. However, we also knew that this was child number 10 for her. So, needless to say nothing new. We felt that our plate was completely full and that we had come to the decision that if we were asked we would have to say no. However, we obviously got the phone call and did a lot of praying. We knew that this was another one of our children. We said yes and picked up little Gage at the hospital when he was just 3 days old. I can't believe that he'll be adopted before he's 1.
Right now I am also so concerned for my little niece. There is something going on medically that her parents are trying to figure out. I hope that they are able to find the answers that they so desperately need. I pray that we as their family may be able to support them in any way possible. We love you Chad, Jenni, Kyan and Lola!
Okay...enough for one post. Celebrate tomorrow and search for answers this week!
I feel so guilty even bringing this up, but tomorrow is such a joyous occasion for our little family. Saige and Gage will officially become ours! Their adoption is tomorrow afternoon! We are so excited and cannot believe that it is finally here. I remember when we got the phone call for little miss Saige. Lonnie and I were on our way home from another dreadful hearing. We were overjoyed with the decision the Judge had finally made...severance and adoption!!! On our way home as we were turning down Bullard off of Peoria, we received a phone call from the CPS case manager. She stated that they were going to be pulling the baby and wanted to know if we were interested. Of course, we said yes! She was so confused when she came, but seemed so happy. She has overcome some obstacles herself and has made some tremendous progress recently. We are so grateful to have her in our family and look forward to making it official.
"Little" Mr. Gage. He was truly a blessing we were not at all expecting. We knew from the beginning that the birth mother was pregnant. However, we also knew that this was child number 10 for her. So, needless to say nothing new. We felt that our plate was completely full and that we had come to the decision that if we were asked we would have to say no. However, we obviously got the phone call and did a lot of praying. We knew that this was another one of our children. We said yes and picked up little Gage at the hospital when he was just 3 days old. I can't believe that he'll be adopted before he's 1.
Right now I am also so concerned for my little niece. There is something going on medically that her parents are trying to figure out. I hope that they are able to find the answers that they so desperately need. I pray that we as their family may be able to support them in any way possible. We love you Chad, Jenni, Kyan and Lola!
Okay...enough for one post. Celebrate tomorrow and search for answers this week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)