Big news

In case you haven't noticed my best posts are the ones without pictures. haha

So, we decided to not go ahead with our friend being our surrogate. There were a few things that brought us to this decision.

#1 We have no urge to have another biological child

#2 The price was more than expected since we would have to pay for the worst health insurance ever

#3 if she delivered before the 9th month we would have to pay 100% of the medical costs.

#4 Our friend just experienced the loss of her twins, and I do not want that to happen

#5 Even partially paying for the surrogate charges (ie we payed for ivf a few times and it didn't take) would have ruled out adoption and we didn't want to head down that route

#6 Our appointment with the Dr's was cancelled because the dr needed the day off (I think that's fate)

#7 Best of all we are REALLY excited about adoption

So what does this mean? We will keep Peanut here until she goes home to family. We will keep our foster license open and up to date in case Honey's potential siblings become available, or if Sweet Potato comes back into care. I will tell our agency not to call me with referrals unless there is a 95% chance the child will lead toward adoption.

We submitted our application to a local private agency late night. This agency is really small and doesn't do many adoptions a year, but I love that they are small. I didn't like any of the other agencies in town

(**Side note- Our foster agency just called me with a referral for a 2 year old boy and I said NO! I NEVER say no. I am big into signs, which I know is crazy, but I hope that wasn't a sign that I should continue with fostering??)

I am really afraid that nobody will pick us because we have 2 beautiful little girls. When I was in high school I would read waiting family adds in a local paper. (I know this is weird, I mean I was a virgin, by choice, all throughout high school. tmi? sorry.) . I think I always knew I wanted to adopt. But anyway, when I read those adds I couldn't believe the people that had one kid and were trying to adopt another. I always thought they seemed greedy. Forget 2 kids! Oh the irony. So please pray that a woman sees the love we have for our kids and will chose us. I know it's in God's timing, but I would really love for them to be close in age to my girls.

Christmas #2

This was Christmas Eve, we spend it with the hubs family.

This is little Peanut in her beautiful Christmas dress. We don't know how much longer she will be with us, but it is looking like it will be months. We will soak in every second we have with her. She is a wonderful baby. I mean, truly the easiest baby (at least I think so. Some of my family don't think so, but they just don't know what to do).

After Church the girls were starving and ready to eat.

These dresses were so cute, but ran super small so when we bought one for Honey and it was too small we saved it for Pumpkin and bought a size 5 for Honey. She is TINY and no where close to even fitting in a 4T.

95% of these gifts were for the girls. My in laws love to spoil their grand babies.

Nana and Pop hold the girls down so there is some order to what's going on.

Mimi holding sweet baby Peanut.

Honey saw what was coming next and was trying to get Pumpkin to see what was coming.

AHHHHHH! They were so excited

Look at those faces. ahhahah

Pure joy. Their reaction to this was by far my favorite part about Christmas.

We found this hand carved rocker on Craigslist. It was a total win.

Christmas #1

I have an extremely large family on my dad's side. I am super close with my cousins in my age group and I love them like sisters. This was actually a get together the day before the Christmas Party.

I couldn't believe that my 3 and 2 year old were "old enough" to go into the parent free zone. It truly was (at least when I wen't down there). I had to make sure nobody was bleeding and to take some pictures, then I left them alone.

They were in good hands.

Don't my cousins make beautiful babies.

Waiting oh so patiently for the big man to call their names.

Sorry Santa didn't wrap your gifts better girls.

My sister, Pumpkin and me. Pumpkin and my sis have the same freckle in the iris of their eye. It really is the prettiest thing.

I don't make this stuff up. Everyone got a book of songs and we yelled out the page/ song we wanted to sing and everyone would just start going at it.

Christmas really is the best time of year.

(these pictures do not capture the magnitude of my family)

Full House

I was doing respite for my friend's foster kids and another friend came over with a little girl she babysits (she was also adopted from foster care, so I don't want to share her picture). It was a full house and a total blast.

I love love love these boys and wished they could stay with me forever. Their foster mom, my friend, loves them just the same and also wants to adopt them, should that be an option.

I really wish I could show you their sweet faces, because this house was full of beauties.

watch tonight

If you are ready to cry your eyes out please tune into CBS tonight to watch the foster child adoption program. I watched last year and it was really wonderful.

Lighting up the zoo

I love this time of year. The only thing that could make it better would be snow (and a baby). I had a dream last night that is was snowing and it was so beautiful. I ran outside and started taking a ton of pictures.

One of my favorite parts of the season is the festival of lights. It's so pretty and truly magical.

My parents came along with one of my brothers.

I really hope my brother finds a serious relationship soon. He is going to be one amazing father. The love he has for my daughters is out of this world.

My girls need a serious modeling class. How pissed do they look?

We came pretty prepared but couldn't find matching gloves for Honey, so I had to buy a pair at the zoo. I had to buy some for myself and my brother too. It was freezing, but that just made the hot chocolate that much better.

Gramp had Pumpkin off doing who knows what so she missed getting to pet the donkeys. She was so upset when they walked past her.

Getting flattened pennies.

With the flash one child disappears.

without the flash the other disappears.

My tiny peanut and me.

Our kids had so much hot chocolate they couldn't go to sleep. We took full advantage for the $1 refills.

It wasn't until half way through our trip, and after my mom suggested cutting Honey's string on her mittens, that she told me the string goes on the inside of the coat so they don't loose them... HELLO, that would have been great advice when YOU put them on her. hahah

You have to get there when it's still light out because it fills up quickly once the sun sets.

After we got home the girls were ready to party.