Charlie Brown ICE

this past weekend brian's parents were in town and they took us to see the ICE sculptures at opry mills. the theme this year was charlie brown. we went saturday night and let me just start off saying that we sat in traffic for about an hour and a half from the exit ramp till we finally got in a parking spot (the first one we saw). i suggest if you want to go make sure to go on a weekday at some random time :)

after what seemed like forever sitting in traffic we waited about 30 min in line for ICE. it really started raining as soon as we got under the tarp. that really stunk for the people behind us. well if you've ever been to ice before you know that is is SUPER cold. so they give you these giant parkas to where inside on top of your coat. it was pretty hilarious seeing these little kids with these parkas on. they looked liked giant blue marshmallows. once we got inside it was about 5 degrees. FREEZING! but we had an awesome time. the sculptures were magnificent. it's crazy what they can do with a block of ice. they even had slides made out of ice. of course brian and i had to go down :)

it was awesome to see all the charlie brown characters sculpted in ice with the different colours. here are a few of our pictures to share. enjoy...

Parents As Tender Healers Part 5

we were really excited to go to our class this morning. we had a panel of different workers within the department of children services. for a saturday morning we had several people on the panel. we spent about 2 hours listening as everyone described what they did and how their job worked within the system. it was really interesting all the people it takes to take care of one child. and while they were all talking you could hear how desperate they were for good resource parents.

brian and i had come with a list of questions we were anxious to ask. some questions were particularly related to our case and some were very generic but we felt were important. well after the 2 hours of listening to the panel and a few of us asking very general questions we took a break to get some breakfast. well as soon as everyone was done eating the panel said they were leaving. what? what about all our questions? we were a little upset that no one got to ask any of the questions we had all written down over the last week. it was a little frustrating to hear these people talk about how much they needed great resource parents however a few of the panel gave off the impression that this class was a waste of their time. ok, here is a room full of families anxious to be resources parents, who have given up there past 2 months of saturdays, and don't have to be here, and now you either make it impossible to become a resource parent or make it so unimportant in spite of how desperate you are for them. doesn't make any sense.

before we left we were able to pull one of the workers aside and ask a few of our specific questions related to our case. we were so happy that we got some positive feedback. which brings me to a huge HUGE prayer request. i'm sure you saw my blog earlier about having a few unfortunate events happen this week. well i (audra) was let go from my job last monday. we know God is in complete control and his timing is perfect. we have no idea how this will affect any of our adoption stuff. it could very well put everything on hold until i find another job. please pray for God's guidance and favor. pray that he will open the right doors. pray that he will open up something that i could do from home so i'm not having to switch jobs when the kids come. we're so anxious to move forward in this foster/adoption process and after today we know what our next step needs to be. we just need to be in a position where the state will approve us to take care of these kids. thank y'all for lifting us up during this time of unknown.

Happy Anniversary, My Love!

celebrating 4 years with the love of my life. here is a look at our past 4 years...

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

a new day

today is the beginning of something new for us. these past few days have been filled with unfortunate events and unfortunate news but "TODAY IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE. I WILL REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT!". i'm resting in that and i'm counting on that. i wish i could share more details with you but it will all come soon. just please be in prayer for our family and we continue to follow where God leads. pray that we will be so attentive to his voice and will not miss his direction. pray that our hearts will continue to remain patient as we wait on the Lord.

parents as tender healers 4

we're half way done with our PATH classes and we are more than excited. it's been so much fun spending time with other people with the same passion as we do. we've be able to connect with some pretty incredible people through this journey. we pray we will stay in touch for years to come.

yesterday we learned about disciplining children. discipline. how do you decide ahead of time how you are going to discipline your children? we had this same discussion before about a year ago when we had to answer several questions for our past homestudy about discipline. all i can say is that it will all depend on the child. each child will probably respond differently to different disciplines. so we will just have to wait and see.

we also talked about crisis. we've all been through different crisis in our lives. and if you've ever had a teenager then you probably experience a crisis every day. well the kids in the foster system have also experienced at least one if not several major crisis already in their lives. and as soon-to-be parents we recognize that crisis will happen and we will roll with them. i think brian and i make an excellent team when it comes to dealing with crisis. we are both very level headed and can make decisions in the midst of chaos. brian is very patient and i'm a "this is what happened and this is what we need to do" kind of person. it makes for a great team. i have no doubt that there will be things that are harder than others and we can't prepare for but we've got a HUGE God who can take care of anything.

over the past few weeks we have seen how much of a hold satan has on all these children in the foster system and around the world. it's true that he does have a will for their lives. and every time we hit a bump in the road someone will ask us "don't you think this is God's way of telling you that this isn't the road you should be taking." it's actually quite the opposite. with every bump we hit i believe God confirms to me more that we are exactly where we need to be. so many people would give up but these kids NEED someone to advocate and not give up on them. we will fight until we are blue in the face. we will not go down that easy. satan has no idea who he is messing with. we hope to have some more news to share in the coming weeks but for now we just appreciate your prayers.

we are alive

i'm sure most of you have been wondering where we have been for the past week or so. we were sick with the flu several days before thanksgiving which was no fun at all. then we went to spend thanksgiving in the mountains with brian's parents. we did a little midnight shopping and ate lots of yummy thanksgiving. the friday after thanksgiving we got a phone call that brian's grandfather (who lives in nashville) had taken a turn for the worse. he had been in and out of the hospital for the past several months with pneumonia. we got back to town friday night with brian's parents. brian's brother and his wife also drove in to town from atlanta. brian's grandfather passed away peacefully in his sleep the saturday morning after thanksgiving. it's been extremely sad to think of all the things papa (that's what we all called him) will miss but he was a believer and we know we will all see him again soon. it was also a miracle that all of brian's cousin's and their children were all in town. the entire family was there to say goodbye and it was incredible to lean on each other. papa was so proud of his family. all his grandchildren our believers and making a difference every day in the world we live in. it's just awesome to be a part of this wonderful family. we want to thank everyone who has been praying for our family during all of this and we are at peace knowing papa is with his beautiful bride feasting with our Heavenly Father.

new design

do you like our new design? i have been looking for something "wintery" for a few weeks now and haven't found anything that i liked so when i couldn't sleep last night i decided to make my own. i know it isn't spectacular but it's fun for now. i hope you enjoy for a few months till i get bored and want to change again :)

i pray you had an wonderful thanksgiving. i pray you were able to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you!