Have a Great Weekend!

This is going to be me at some point this weekend, we have been so busy with baseball games, work, and end of the year Banquets for this and for that, etc. etc. etc. and I promise to get all caught up with all of your blogs, and I have LOTS to post about so have a great weekend!! Love you all!!!

The Stork has Landed!!!!

OH HAPPY DAYS!!!! The Stork landed today and the referrals covered 6 days!!! Did you hear me?????? 6 days....who knows when the last time was when they covered that many days and rumors are saying that there will be more referrals in a few weeks!! Oh my gosh , I might just pee in my pants if that happened!!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF THE FAMILIES SEEING THE BEAUTIFUL FACES OF THE PRECIOUS BABIES TODAY!!! MAY GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!!

Today is our 37th LIDversary!!! She's coming, I just know she is!!!!! Happy Days are on their way!!!

OOPS!!!

I accidentally deleted my last post but its okay I will just say the most important part again. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH WHO COMMENTED ON MY LAST POST AND OFFERED YOUR HELP. You people are the best and I just love the heck out of all of you. Im sending you all a Giant Bear Hug!

ATTENTION BLOG FAMILY!!!!!

***UPDATE***** HELP!!!! ON MY SCREEN MY SIDEBAR IS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE IN THE MIDDLE.
CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH THIS???? I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FIX IT BECAUSE ON MY LAYOUT IT IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE??? JESSICA I KNOW YOU CAN FIX THIS, PLEASSSEE HELP!!!



BLOGGER IS ACTING WEIRD FOR ME SO WHEN YOU ARE ON MY BLOG DO YOU SEE MY SIDEBAR OR IS IT BLANK?????

THE NUMBER OF COMMENTS VARIES EVERYTIME I BRING UP MY BLOG SO SOMETHING IS ACTING FUNNY!! PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

THANK YOU SOLDIERS PAST AND PRESENT

Mothers Day 2009

After church all of us went to my Mom and Dads for lunch. It very well might be the last Mothers Day that my mom is aware of who I am, but for the day we tried to put that behind us and just enjoy the day. I got so many beautiful cards. I love cards because they touch my heart so deeply. Here are a few pics from the day. I got a new camera and laptop from Frank and Astrud so now we are set for China. My sister Kerry and I are collecting China and antique Punch bowls for our girls and she found this one for me on the side of the road...isnt it just so pretty. I love flowers! And my new table is on my front porch where I drink coffee and read my Bible in the morning. I love all of my gifts...I am a very blessed woman that loves her kids so, so much. I love my family and I have the greatest husband ever!!!! God is so good to me.

Astruds First Prom

Astrud went to her 1st Prom this past weekend. It was at Marion High School which happens to be our biggest rival. Always has been dating back to the 80's when I was in school. Who would have ever thought that is where my daughter would experience her first prom. She went with a very nice young man named Dustin who drives over her to be a part of our Youth group at church every wednesday. Here are some pictures from the big event.

OHHH!!! I am so IRRITATED!!!!

Before I start ranting and raving , don't get me wrong I truly feel for those families that have lost loved ones to the Swine Flu. But just a few minutes ago I received an email from our agency stating that the CCAA is delaying referrals due to the Swine Flu. So the picture up above is me, that is what I have turned into. There is no specified time on how long the delay will be!!!! So thanks to the MEDIA... the hytsteria of their story of the week ....last week has also delayed all of our babies homecomings!!! Do these people know how many people die every year to the "regular" flu???? No hysteria there! I am just irritated and Pissed off! What else??????

p.s. I have Astrud's 1st Prom and Mother's Day to post about , I will get to it soon.

Just a few things.....

I have been gone for a while and I will get caught up...I know I say that all the time. We are going thru quite a bit right now. 2 weeks ago , Franks 45 yr. old cousin Laura had a stroke and then a very large clot was removed from her brain and she has still not waken up, she has had a high fever and now she has a staph infection. Please keep her in your prayers and thank you in advance for that.
***********************************************************************************
We were in the ER with my mom last thursday. She is better for what she was seen for, but things are getting so hard and our lives are changing so much. For those of you far away, I am from a small town that goes back 5 generations in my family , so all of our lives there have been weddings, anniversary's and all things like that are always shared with tons of family around. This past weekend there was a very special wedding that I will share with you later and it was the first time that my parent's were not there. I know to alot of people that sounds like no big deal...but even at the age of 41 it was so hard for me that my Mom and Dad were not there. It just did not feel right, Just when you catch yourself having fun and laughing the reminder is always there that even though you are surrounded by family and lifelong friends that you love beyond words , your Mom and Dad are not there. We just can't take my mom to things like that anymore. It breaks my heart that my Daddy misses out, but at the same time he takes such good care of her and is so true to his vows. I just love my parents so much and am probably a little too dependent on their presence but that is just me. I miss my Mom so much, everyone does. It was a weekend of change for all of us and I have no other choice but to learn this new way of life. It is what it is and I know that my God will get all of us thru this, but nothing in life is promised to be easy.
***********************************************************************************

On a VERY much happier note, I found out last week that my friend Bailey is going to have a baby. #4 to be exact. She is a friend that I met in blogland and I love her >so much. You know when you meet someone and you just feel connected to that person...well that is how my Bailey and I are. I love her and her family so much and we have yet to meet in person , but that will happen one day soon. Her blog is The Martin Zoo, so if you can.. go congratulate her,she would love that.
************************************************************************************
The wedding I mentioned was some longtime friends daughter Nicole and her husband Cody. Nicole also graduated with Steven. We are very close to this family and love them so much. The other daughter Kortni is also getting married in November. Nicole was one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen. My neice Rayn was the Flower girl and will also be Kortni's. And I must add that I think that Rayn looked like the most beautiful Angel ever. Here are some pictures from the beautiful wedding.

ASTRUD LIVES!!!!!

Oh my gosh!!! Mom and Papa I am the only one without a car !!!! When am I going to get a car, please can I get a car???? Oh nevermind I don't need a car...Oh please can I have my own car? Emily is always late!!!!! Don't you all feel sorry for our poor mistreated daughter??? lol Well today the opportunity arose , and in order to save her and Emily's friendship and to save her life , Aunt Kerry and Uncle Ricky bought Astrud her 1st car, that she is going to start paying them back for. SO ASTRUD LIVES!!!!!

**Actually we are just so proud of our girl ,she is really such an incredible kid with a beautiful heart, and works so hard at living her life according to God's will that we truly are so excited for her!!!! ** (But now the worrying really starts)

Just something funny.....You just have to know that our neice Jade (13), is so loud, and outspoken and just hilarious all the time that you never know what she is going to say. So we are walking up to the car and the man is standing there , and Jade whispers, "Meme we are NOT choosing this car if it stinks inside!!! And we have to check the trunk for a dead body"!!!!! She just cracks me up, you should hear her repeat the Hefty stack of meat Hillshire Farm commercial!!! lolol


Taking her keys!!!!
Here she is with her "NEW" 2001 Oldsmobile Alero and she is still alive after waiting soooo long for her own car....she only turned 16 in January!!
Even though they are Dorks!!! It is so much fun seeing how excited they are!!!
Look how happy Emily is....now Astrud gets to pick her up!! And they are off to the carwash...the same exact car wash that I rushed to oh so many years ago in my first car!!!

The youth at our church participated in World Visions 30 Hour Famine this weekend. They fasted for 30 hours and raised money for the Hungry around the world. While they did this they also did tons of community service helping the elderly , picking up trash around the city, among other things. They built houses out of cardboard to sleep in. We slept in the playground at our church. The guys slept in another area and they named it "Mantopia". These kids are amazing and incredible!! Their hearts for Jesus and the unfortunate are truly inspiring. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed living it with these kids. Here is a group picture of all of us.

These 25 kids raised over $2100.00 in pledges. One $ can feed one child for one day. They made a sign of fingerprints representing each child that will benefit from their efforts. WOW! I am so proud of these kids.


The 25 kids were broken up into tribes of 5, and were given a country such as Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, etc. in which they learned facts about the Hunger problem in each country. They then competed as teams for food that they later donated to our local food pantry. Here are some pics of the fun. Astrud's team "Peru" won a few of the challenges, so here they are trying to look "tough"!



A few hours before the 30 hours was up the kids were asked to sum up what they had learned during this process and they made signs to express their feelings.



We had a candlelight service to pray for the starving people in the world, every 3 seconds a child dies of hunger.
These kids started fasting at 12:00pm on friday at school and at 6:00pm on saturday they were served a feast and here is Jena swapping some cream puffs for her and Astrud!!

Happy 16th Anniversary!

Happy 16th Anniversary Kerry and Ricky. I know this is not the picture that you would have chosen , but since he never lets me take pictures of him, this is it!!

The absolute most wonderful thing that has happened in the last 16 years is right below. Thank you so much for giving us our 3 neices, Jade, Lily and Rayn. They are each unique and wonderfully made. They are all such Blessings from above. In the last 16 years it has been very ,very few days that we have not gotten to love on, hug, kiss and even fight with these beautiful girls. Thank you God for every single second.
Jade Alexandria, our "FAMILY CLOWN"
Lily Victoria, our "AWESOME ATHLETE"
Rayn Olivia, our "LITTLE PRINCESS"

They are all 3 God's children and how blessed we are to have them.

3rd Times a Charm!!! (fingers crossed)

Oh I pray that the 3rd times a charm!!! This is a picture of the envelope that is going to the Department of Homeland Security for the 3rd time!!! God willing this is it, and I am so glad to have it all done, because all of thIs paperwork makes me nervous...Mr. Government we just want "Our girl"!!!

Do you notice the little Scentsy wax burner??? Well that package arrived on tuesday which happen to be our 3rd year LIDversary from Amy and Rick. I love it and it is just perfect. It was such a nice surprise! Thank you SO MUCH and we miss you all bigger than the sky!!!! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY AMY!!!

Yesterday I had to put in a call to our Agency, so I left a message and a while later when the phone rang ,Astrud looked at the screen and said , "Mom it's Greatwall". And after I got off the phone I looked at the caller I.D. and it hit me that one day soon the phone will ring and this is what it will say , and on the other end of that phone will be a lovely lady named Kim and she will be telling us all about our precious daughter!!! I know I am easily humored, but I just had to post this!!! lol


A GIFT FROM LIZ

My friend Liz told me that she had a present for me and it was this precious LADYBUG egg plate. I just love it and what she did NOT know... is that I collect egg plates! How perfect is that!!!!

36th LIDversary

Some of our Easter 09' Fun!

Here is my Easter present from my "Grandbuton" Joshua. He had help but these rocks were painted for MeMe and put in a basket that was left on our porch. I love every single one of them and it is the Best Easter present ever!!!!

I have a really big family and if I put all of the pictures here you would be sitting her a while, so here are a few. Easter is my favorite of all holidays for our Lord has risen!!!

Friday Fun!!

This cracks me up!!!! This is our 4 year old Grandbutton Joshua getting the Spa treatment before he got his haircut!!! Did I mention that he is 4!!! It amazes me that he sat still that long, it just cracks me up and makes me smile so big!!!

P.S. Thank you so much EDNA for your words and love to Kerry last night. We love you and would love to spend more time with you. And thank you for being so loyal to my blog, it means so much to me. Love and blessings, Kristy

Some things I want you to know Franceska...

Dear Franceska,

Oh babygirl how I wish I could see and touch your face. We are getting closer now and I am allowing myself to dream about what your little face will look like, how you will smell and feel. If you will look at me and cry or smile, or if you will reach out to me and touch my face with your sweet little hands. Or if you will just not want me at all, if you will want your Daddy first???

I am letting myself close my eyes and dream about the day that I first see your face. It does not matter where I am, if I am at work, or driving my car or even sitting at church I let myself dream. Your cousin Rayn left one of your Teddy Bears on the living room floor yesterday and as I sat in my office chair I looked in there and saw it and thought to myself , is that what it's going to be like when our girl is home????

I want you to know that you are so loved already without even knowing anything about you , not even knowing if you are born yet. Your Daddy who has always been the silent one , said the other day that he daydreams about you and thinks about you all the time. We pray for you, the nannies, all the babies, the waiting families, and all of the birth mothers everyday. For your birth mothers worst pain is going to turn in to my most joyous of all feelings. And yes that breaks my heart, but I pray that somehow she will know how much you are going to be loved by your BIG family. All of your brothers, sisters, sister in laws, aunts, uncles, and cousins are waiting patiently to get their arms around you.

The last thing I want to talk to you about is your Nonny , my Momma. First you will have the best Poppy in all the world and all of your life I will tell you the stories of how much a Hero he is to me . Not only for being my Daddy, but for the way he takes care of your Nonny.

You see Nonny has Alzheimers, she is only 66 years old and we are losing her more and more everyday. I need you to know that in her day to day life there are things she just does not know how to do anymore, we have to watch her every single second. But you need to know that everytime I say your name, she remembers immediately who you are and where you are coming from. She even expresses frustration because you are not home yet. It astounds me that she still knows about you, and it truly makes my heart smile. I know that God is keeping you in her heart, and I am so very thankful for that. I feel panic everyday that by the time you come home, she just won't know anything anymore, but I think I have learned to give it all to HIM. I can't do anything about it anyway so I will just continue to pray about it.

There are some things I want you to know about your Nonny. She was a stay at home Mom, to me, Aunt Kerry and Aunt Kim. Your Nonny never really drank alcohol but was always the life of the party. Now you have to know that she could cuss like a sailor and tell a really nasty joke like a beer drinking, tooth sucking, gut sticking out, crack showing hillbilly, but she always had a heart of gold. She was always quite a talker, and I would imagine thats where I got my gift of gab from. She was always laughing, and joking around all the time. There was a time back in the 80's that she cut darn near every boys hair in La Vernia High School. She would take a suburban full of guys after they graduated to City Public Service in San Antonio (electric co.), every tuesday since that was application day, just so they could get on there and have benefits and retirement and a good job. That is just the person she was , always looking out for others.

All thru school with all of the tryouts and this and that she always headed these things and always did all the work. Your Poppy was a railroad man so he was out of town monday thru thursday so most of this stuff was done while still being mom to us three girls, keeping the yard done, the house in order and also taking care of grandparents, and various other older relatives.

All three of us were in all sports, I was a Cheerleader, in Dance Team, FHA, 4-H, all three of us raised show hogs and sheep and she never falted on any of it. She was at every single thing we did. I will never forget the look on her face the night I was crowned Homecoming Queen, I looked up to the crowd and I will never forget the look on her face. I was a typical teenager with the typical teenager attitude at times and I can remember thinking that she was so old fashioned , etc, etc. etc. and now that Astrud is 16 , and probably really thinks I'm a dork that does not know anything , I feel guilty for having those same thoughts about my momma.

Franceska I need you to know that at an earlier time in this life , your Nonny would have loved you so much. She would have been so incredibly proud of you. She would have given you things even when she knew that I would say no, she would have constantly taken you shopping, you see your Nonny has always been about clothes, clothes and more clothes. She would have cheirshed every single second she had with you . I know all of this because it is exactly what she did with your big sister Astrud and big brother Bubba. I can't tell you how many little trains, cars, dolls, the hard plastic ones, (lol) , just things like that, that they both have had thru the years because Nonny would be in a Dollar General, Family Dollar, or a Wal Mart somewhere and would just have to buy them something. It was always something that they just would put on the dresser or something, but it was from Nonny!!!!

I want so badly to know that when I am loving on her that she really "feels" it, I want so badly to see her with you while she still knows who you are, I want to see one of her real smiles as she looks at you ,but I don't know if that will happen. I just want you to know how much she would have loved you. She has always been the Perfect Nonny. She learned from the best...you see her Mom was my Granny and my Daddy's mom was my Grandma , and let me tell you it just didn't get any better than that!!!! God bless you little girl. My prayer is that God will put a hedge of protection around you, and hold you in his arms until we can get there to bring you home. Please , please CCAA speed things up so we can all get to our babies. I don't have any more fight left in me, I just really want my girl to come home.

I love you , Mommy

I apologize for having such a heavy post, but it is just what I am feeling today. I know all of you will understand.