dancing

one of my favorite pastimes is dancing with my boys. most specifically with kaleb. we probably dance at least 30 min every day. we will put on a pandora station and just rock with it. it might be some rockin' grits or tobymac. other times it's "the smooth kind" as kaleb likes to call it, with a little michael buble or john mayer. every now and then he will request a little "boom boom clap" which means some disney teeny bopper that my other kids enjoy. but nonetheless we have a blast dancing. kaleb is a great partner. he will say "mom, may i have this dance" then proceed to slow dance. his favorite is dancing cheek to cheek. we saw it in an old movie and he thought it was awesome. he love to twirl me but likes it when i dip him. he's hilarious. zeke loves to cut in and would dance with me as long as i'll let him. josiah and israel are at that age where they are too "cool" to dance with mom. but they all enjoy it when we start our air band and rock out to skillet or grits. it puts a smile on my face to see my boys enjoy music as much as me. of course brian joins in every chance he gets. oh, and lately our new favorite has been the stevie wonder pandora station. love the variety of some old school like the temptations with a little bit of the new. the boys totally dig just about any kind of music.

fantastic 4

i apologize for being gone for the past few weeks. thank y'all for being so patient. i've been frustrated that i haven't been able to get my new blog design up because our photoshop is currently not working. so i just found something random for now. just know the design will change again soon...

with that said brian and i are in the pursuit of a sibling group of 4, the fantastic 4! we met them over dinner a few weeks back and they have already been over for a weekend visit. over the next few weeks they will visit a few more times and we will begin preparing to make the permanent transition of moving them home with us. needless to say we are crazy busy preparing to grow our family by 200% in the coming weeks. and the even more crazy part is that these fantastic 4 are boys! can you believe we are about to be parent's of 4 boys? this is so much bigger than what i ever thought God had for us when we started this journey 19 months ago. i'm a little scared, very overwhelmed and about to jump out of my skin because i'm so excited.

now i can finally start this nesting stuff. what i thought i might have a few months to do i now only have weeks. we're looking at bunk beds, checking out schools, driving a mini van, and finding every extra space in our small 1200 square foot house. gosh, i am praying we can buy a house soon. but as crazy as life is about to get we have such peace about bringing these boy/little men/fantastic 4 into our home and believe that God will equip us for anything that comes in our path. because just like the title of our blog says...one step at a time.

gigi's little garden

some of you know my mother and some of you do not. she is one of the most incredible women i know. it's a blessing to be her daughter. she has taught me, encouraged me, pushed me, and showed me by example how to seek the Lord. one thing that i love about my mom is she is an amazing writer especially when it comes to writing down memories. and since she will soon become a grandmother she has started her own blog. i have know doubt you will enjoy it. she will make you laugh, cry, and just enjoy the moment. so hop over and make sure to follow her for her thoughts on being a "gigi"! gigislittlegarden.blogspot.com

beans and rice

after my post on facebook earlier today i got several comments about beans and rice so i wanted to post more details.

for the past 35 days (or the month of september) brian and i took the challenge of eating beans and rice for one meal every day. usually this was dinner. i read on one of the blogs we follow Building the Blocks. the challenge was to remind us to be so grateful for what and where the Lord has placed us. we are so privileged and spoiled with all that we have to eat. it doesn't take much effort or time or even money to come up with a good tasting meal. and we always have to have variety. it's just doesn't seem right to have the meal more than twice. so needless to say 35 days was a long time of the same thing.

the first few days our stomachs ached so bad. i was so full but my body just felt yuck. i just imaged all these children around the world who eat this for 3 meals a day with no complaints. there little bellies bloated yet nothing nutritious about what they were eating. brian and i were spoiled that we did get to have something else throughout the day. we could eat a banana, or carrots, or a sandwich, or whatever else we had around the house. and i must add that we didn't fully take the challenge that we wanted to. i did flavor up our beans ALOT. so that might have defeated the purpose a little. but nonetheless it got us focusing on something more than ourselves. every weekend i made a huge crockpot full of beans to last us through the week. i do have some great, cheap, and easy recipes if you would like them.

our second reason for doing this challenge, like our friend's blog spoke about, we wanted to pay it forward. we have been so blessed financially on our own adoption journey that we asked God to use us to bless someone else. by eating beans and rice for a month we were able to cut our grocery budget by more than half while still buying necessities like toiletries, fruits, veggies, laundry detergent, and even stalking up on diapers. it's amazing that when you set a budget you find you really don't need a lot of the things you would normally buy. we were able to take what we saved on our grocery budget and pay it forward to another adopting couple.

it's nice to eat meat again and have a little more variety in our diets. i'm totally going to need a detox after all those beans. God really opened my eyes to how blessed i truly am and that serving others is why we are all here. is there something you can cut back on or give up in order to pay it forward? i will definitely do this again, especially when we have kids.

all about jackson

sorry i've haven't posted. as you saw i was sick earlier this week and then all of a sudden the week was over.

so on to this post titled "all about jackson". jackson is our almost 3 year old, black lab mix. We adopted him when he was about 6 months old. i remember going with my sister to the Happy Tales Humane at the factory in franklin (the best place EVER to adopt a pet). as soon as we walked in i saw jackson and his puppy dog eyes pierced straight to my heart and i knew he was ours.

the first few weeks he was really scared of any male he came in counter with including brian. so he spent a majority of his time at my feet or behind my legs. he was so cute. he hardly ever barked. wasn't super hyper. already house and crate trained. and he loved us. it was a match made in heaven. he really is the most awesome dog ever.

if you have seen the movie own a pet or have seen "marley and me" then you know the kind of impact a pet can have. i don't know what we would do without jackson. he sleeps at the foot of our bed curled in a small ball that i have no idea how he fits. he isn't a big dog, just topped out at about 50 pounds but he could do some damage if he needed to. he is very protective of me. he wouldn't hurt anyone unless i asked him to.

he loves to run. he could run all day if we would let him. he also enjoys chasing butterflies and any other flying insect. he likes to catch them in his mouth then let spit them out and try and get them to fly again. he also loves cheese and peanut butter. he loves a good clean blanket to lay on but absolutely HATES it when you fold laundry. he will run to the farthest corner in the house while you are folding laundry. he's a wimp and we know it but we love him anyways.

he fits so perfectly in our little family. he will always be our first baby. and yes, i am pretty sure he knows that life could change for him in an instant too. he does everything he can to get our attention right now. he would go and lay in the baby's room all day if we didn't have a gate up to keep him out. i think he thinks the baby stuff smells good. he will be so great and gentle with the baby. i have no doubt they will be best buds.

so now i would like to share a picture with you and you tell me if you couldn't love this face

the bailey family day of fun

monday was a rare treat for the three of us. brian and i were off on the same day, it wasn't raining, and we had NO plans. so we took full advantage of the day. we started off with our free chick-fil-a lunch (thanks to our sports t-shirts) then headed over to edwin warner park for a picnic.

jackson very much enjoyed the waffle fries.

after our picnic we headed over to the dog park so jackson could play with some friends. there wasn't very many other dogs there. and i guess we have turned jackson into a lazy dog. he used to run and run and run. now he just sat there in the shade.

we didn't stay long. but it was a great afternoon out. riding around with the windows down just enjoying the company. however, we did find that jackson has a favorite new place to ride in the backseat.

what a wimp!

my husband

i know it is often said with both adoption and pregnancy that the mom is ready before the baby comes and the dad is finally ready when he sees the baby. well that isn't true for brian...

i remember the moment i fell in love with brian. he was playing with a group of kids. it spoke directly to my heart and has been impressed there ever since. even still to this day to say brian is amazing with kids is an understatement. and these kids that he so deeply loves aren't even part of our immediate family. it is such a God thing. we are so blessed to have so many friends around us with little ones. brian can't get enough of them. one family has a 17 month old little boy and every sunday brian says "i need some joses time!" i wish i had pictures to share with you of how awesome my husband is. God has designed him to be an incredible father. he is so gentle and kind yet you know he is control, which makes a child feel so safe. he isn't grossed out by weird smells, crying, screaming, spit up, or anything else that comes with a child. he isn't even tired out by their crazy energy.

no, my amazing husband won't finally be ready to be a daddy when we get a baby. he is a ready now! here is to believing, Lord!

sweet spot

tonight i went out to where our youth is having their summer camp. brian has been out there all week. brian has been involved with the jr. high at our church for the past year and a half. he's incredible with those kids. this week he has been working days but then going to camp in the evenings and staying overnight. i know he wished he could have spent the entire week out there but he was able to take today off and got to be super involved.

for those of you that don't know brian and i met at camp. we were both leaders. it was my second summer at the camp and brian's first. he was in charge of all the summer staff (that means me). so yeah, he was my boss. i fell in love with him by watching him interact with the children of one of my favorite cities, new orleans. i remember this specific time we were at a block party and he was playing soccer with this group of boys and i said out loud to my friend "God created him to do that right there." brian is totally in his sweet spot when he is investing in the lives of children.

even though tonight i was just there for the worship service it was still a blessing to see brian and the kids that God is impacting through him. i couldn't help but shed a tear as i watched these kids when the light bulb when off in their heart and they "got it". you know what i'm talking about. the moment when you realize how in love you are with God and you want to scream from the rooftops how much you love him. as i stood their worshiping, i also felt like i was in my sweet spot. it's something so special to be involved in the lives of the next generation. allowing God to use you even if it just to pray for them and intercede for them.

i wish there was a way brian and i could both be involved with kids full-time and make a living off of it. that would be sweet. God did not create brian and i to work behind a desk for long. i'm so thankful that brian is involved with our jr. high kids at he is making a difference. i help out in the nursery with the younger ones. again, if we could just do that day in and day out it would be incredible. i'm praying and believing it will happen!