Summer 09 Vacation

We had been planning for a long time for our visit to Colorado to see our friends Dave, Jenni and Erin. The time FINALLY came on July 10.

We started out in the morning around 6:45 and went over to pick up Grandma Bierma (or Grandma B as the kids have renamed her). We decided to take Grandma B along because we were going right through where Aunt Judy lives in Missouri and were going to stop and see Jack's cousin Kenny's new baby so Grandma came along and stayed with Judy for the week while we traveled along.

The kids stretching their legs with Grandma BHaving some lunchMeeting baby Zoe and seeing her big brother IsaiahWe stayed overnight at Jack's Cousin Mike's in Kansas City to rest before the second leg of the trip. The kids love playing together, especially after being in the car for so long.
We got up early Saturday morning and began our long day of driving. I, again, very much enjoyed the drive through Kansas with the simplistic rolling hills and Jack sat and cracked himself up while watching the kids TV playing Ice Age. He's such a kid!!

After the LONG drive through Kansas we finally saw this sign! YAY!!When we got to Dave & Jenni's we were SO excited to see them! We went for a walk to stretch our legs and the kids found a puddle. Erin showed them how she has so much fun running and jumping in it. On Sunday we were able to go to church with them and then we were off to a house in the mountains that a couple from their church let us use for a few days.

Fun with Friends!The people who actually own this only use it two weeks a year!! They are crazy!!
Up in the mountains we were able to relax and have fun. We played lots of card games and got to be together without distraction. Jack and Dave stayed up playing golf on the wii and we all ate WAY more than we should've but it was lots of fun!

The scenery was unbelievable! Out the back deck was mountain upon mountain and out the front was the view of Pike's Peak.
Sunset when we were out having a campfire.
Beautiful cloudsYep, that's Pike's behind us :)
On Tuesday afternoon we drove back down and spent a few days hanging out at Dave & Jenni's. We, again, had lots of good food and fun! Of course our trip included a drive up skyline drive.
Dave, Jenni & ErinThe "crew" looking down at Dave & Jenni's houseWe were also able to play out in the yard some and I got this cute picture of my little ErinThursday is was goodbye to Colorado and on the road again. We went back to Mike & Leah's and were able to stay for a few days and have some fun. Friday we went to World of Fun and had Worlds of Fun.
Look closely....... Jack and Emma are on there!
Leah and I hanging out at the airplanes.

HA!The kids had a GREAT time and the night ended with some pretty cool fireworks!

On Saturday we got to go to this fun restaurant called T-Rex. For those of you who know the Rainforest Cafe, this is the same owners but just all dinosaurs. Very cool!Mike, Leah, Zak, Nathan & Madelyn
It was such a great vacation with tons of generosity from friends and family. With times being tough we were very blessed with a cheap but VERY fun vacation. The Lord continues to bless us with more than we could ask or imagine!

Fostercare Update

WOW, long time no post huh?? Well keep looking because we had a wonderful vacation this month and we were gone for ten days. I'll get that one up soon :)

BUT, I wanted to update those of you praying for us with foster care. We were waiting on our CPR class which is scheduled for Aug 13th and then they would be able to submit our application to the state for our license. Or so we thought......

Yesterday afternoon I think I had the most surprising phone call of my life! It was one of our case workers asking us to take a placement of four children!! All I kept saying was "I didn't even know we had our license!!!" (ask my mother-in-law, she was here!!) Turns out our application had been submitted in June and as of yesterday we have a license to care for foster children. WHOA!! I thought it would be at least the end of September. Anyway, the children were supposed to be removed from their home last night but it didn't end up happening. We are not set up to take four children but had told the case worker that if they needed a place for a few days until they found a permanent foster home that we would do it. So.... I basically had a heart attack all night. Even though it didn't happen, I'm very grateful for the whole situation yesterday because I realized that I really need to get into gear and be ready for a call any day. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as I feel God calling us to be ready.

Thanks!

Summertime, Summertime, Sum Sum Summertime!

So I don't have time for a lengthy heart felt witty post right now but here;s a quick update on what we've been up to so far this summer.

Daddy's been teaching Emma to drive the lawn mower. A few more years and maybe it will be her job :)

Daddy got a motorcycle FREE from a guy who brought his plane into work! Rides around the Block are FUN!!

Emma's friend Karissa went to camp LRCA with her this year. Church camp is the coolest!

We took Daddy to Bass Pro shop on Father's day. They have great bacon cheeseburgers and we ate alligator too!

We went to the drive in for the first time with the kids.

They were very excited but......

Didn't quite make it through the second movie.

We had to cancel our camping trip to Raccoon lake so we set up camp in the back yard.

They love to sit in there and pretend that everything outside is something they are watching on TV. Weirdos!

Emma has been losing teeth like a true Indiana girl. She's actually lost that other front tooth since this picture.

Playing inside can be fun too when you pretend that you're packing for vacation!

We been able to have playgroup at the park!!

Swim lessons have been extra fun!

Bike rides around the pond and even a little fishing for Bass. Mommy even caught one!!

Hope you're having a great summer as well!

The Beginning of a Journey

A few months ago Jack and I had our hearts touched by a little boy that I had in the Love Notes choir. He has been bounced around to several different homes, seen many, many things that no seven year old ever should, is ADHD and has the sweetest heart if he's willing to let you in. As I got to know him over the past year we really formed a bond that I cannot explain except to give God the credit for allowing me the wonderful opportunity to be one of the people that he showed that sweet heart to.

As we discussed the ways that we could help this boy it occurred to us that there are so many kids out there that need love, consistency, love, boundaries, and more love. My friends Jen & Christy had formed a ministry called "Life's Little Dreams" which meets once a month to inform people about adoption and foster care. After a lot of praying with Jack, phone calls to Jen and research we decided that this was definitely where God was leading us.

We have currently been through 24 hours of training with 10 more hours of take home for an extra therapeutic aspect. We have signed our names several, several times, answered the same questions over and over again about our background, lives as children, how we are raising our own children and so on and so on. Tomorrow we get finger printed Monday we have our final home visit and then about 6 weeks from then we should have our foster care license. It has sort of been a whirl wind process but we know with the way things have been lining up that God has a special child/children waiting for us.

I'll keep everyone updated on here about how the process is going and try to keep up with this as we go through the process. Please pray for us to be prepared for the challenges ahead and also for God to prepare the hearts of the children we hope to help.

Thanks!

Playgroup update

Just thought I'd write a quick post and update on our playgroup meetings. We have still been meeting about every two weeks and we are really enjoying it (well, at least I am!!!). Here are some pictures of some things we have done. We are going to spend the summer of play group doing some fun outings like the park and maybe some swimming.

Story time is always fun and the kids do a great job sitting still and listening.

Snack time is a must!!

Miss Becky taught us to make butterflies out of tissue paper, pipe cleaners and ziplocks.

Miss Kat brought stuff for us to paint flower pots!!!We made some peek-a-boo pictures where you had to look through tall grass to see what is beneath.Today Miss Karen had us make color wonder picture frames for our daddies for Father's day!And of course what would play group be without some PLAYING!!!

Officially done with Kindergarten

Yesterday was Emma's field day at school marking the official end to her year of Kindergarten. I really can not believe how time has flown by this year.

First day of SchoolLast day of SchoolI find watching a child learn the most interesting and amazing thing ever. This year I think the greatest thing was watching her learn to read. She was reading small books with 3-4 letter words over the summer last year but now it is amazing to listen to her read. She speaks with inflection and emotion and amazes me every time she comes to a big word and just breezes by it. To just sit back over this year and watch her little brain make the connections to figure out what words are has been more amazing than watching her learn to walk or potty train or anything else I can think of. She has a short fuse so she does get frustrated very easily but I have learned how better to deal with that and once she gets it she goes! I'm so proud of everything she has accomplished this year and am looking forward to a summer of fun and more learning to get ready for the big task of 1st grade. Just typing that makes me sad. I'm not ready to let her be away from me so much but I'm so glad that I have the assurance that she has great Christian teachers guiding her and a wonderful Christ-centered environment to learn in. We've been so blessed.

Mother Daughter Banquet '09

Wow! I've been blogging for a year now! I started this blog last year because of this very event. We went to the Mother Daughter Banquet at church and Emma had all of her grandmas and great-grandmas with her and I just had to have somewhere to write about it. Here we are again one year later and so extremely blessed to have all grandmas back again plus Aunt April and her girls joined us too!

This year was a 50's theme and it was so much fun! We got all dressed up, had a soda shop type menu and some fun games including a bubble blowing contest and hula hooping. It was very nice to be able to share this evening with so many women we love.