Birth mom pics!!

We had a great day with our birthmom M. (btw, Isaiah was giving Moriah a talk before we got there."Now Moriah, she is our birth mom, that means we got in her belly button, but then MOM was our mommy. You'll like her, she's nice" lol Like she has never met her, and she needed a grown up chat about the existence of birthmom. Hah!

visit with friends

Olivia and Esther the horse. You can't see it, but the 3 girls gave Esther a makeover with a tiny flower for her hair.

The three girls. A.E and Olivia, and J. All born very close together(still get blown away when I think K and I had babies the SAME day!!). Providing their mamas with countless photo opps for 7 years now. Now they are tall thin beautiful girls. I remember when they were two fat 5 week olds and one teensey 3 week old. *sigh* time flies when you're havin' fun.

The little girls-- L and Moriah. My baby is finally big enough to play with her friend. I got to hear adorable conversations!!A mama with a camera is a fly on the wall.

And these guys-- when did they turn into little men??? pre teens?? Voice changes. . . YIKES!

And here is Isaiah. He actually played this time. Ok, he did a LOT of running on the 4 acres too. But he played!! WITH people!! Very big for us.

We went to visit friends. Yay I drove 4 kids four hrs!(2 there 2 back) My 5 yo says n the way there "Yo mom, you are GUTSY" hee hee- that my friends is why we keep kids around. (btw what is he like 15 in a 5 yo body??) Anyway here are some pics. We visited the farm. There were 5 grown ups, 8 kids, and who knows how many animals. And I may have to sue-- their harmless looking bunny turned into NINJA RABBIT. lol I somehow missed getting a good pic of HIM.

praise God!

Well, The whole family went to Dallas for a trip to my Dr. Thursday. Due to abdominal pain she wanted to do an upper scope. SO, we stayed at a hotel, and I had a upper GI Endoscopy. yay.lol NOT. Ok so I was knocked out and all, but still, I am not good with this stuff. I found out my home scales are about 15 lbs off(!?!) Which started the anxiety ball rollin'. But the news was, everything looked good. Slight inflamation. She says no soda.:-( and lay off the spicey foods(!?) And that I need more anti anxiety meds. They took some biopsy samples to be safe and thorough. And also are testing for Celiac disease. It was a long 48 hrs and we are all exhausted. I am pretty good, but sore throat from the tube, and tummy feels a little nauseated. Also, I am still sleepy. I am mourning my Dr Pepper, but grateful for goodreport so far. I will be having the um, lower scope in a couple of months. Not really looking forward to it. But I feel empowered by DOING this step instead of letting myself worry about the what ifs.

News on El Salvador

Our Dear Ms M from our agency emailed me today to let me know the hold up in our girls' country. They have had a presidential election. (we are praying this president makes the adoption plans swifter and better!) They are trying to get social workers to go to the orphanages where they have children who already have families referred(like our girls) to get pictures. I am praying this will be soon. We want to SEE Joana and Guadalupe's sweet faces finally. I am finally finishing up the boys new room. (still praising God for the new bunk bed blessing) and will begin the new girls room as soon as possible! I can hardly wait. BUT making myself finish one project(room) before beginning on another. I will post pictures of the boys' room(drums included) in the next post. OH speaking of drums!!!! MY big boys are playig with Dan at the easter service. They are playing auxillary percussion. And they have a natural knack(plus a pretty great teacher) so at 9 and 11 this is a pretty awesome opportunity to join in the worship team. Even if just for one service right now. And Olivia gets to join in the dance part. I am so proud of them. I can't wait to see it. lol ok, to be honest hearing the three guys practise here in the house at top volume on all those drums. . . I have to have earplugs. But Dan assures me that when it is with the rest of the worship team it is awesome. :-) If you haven't checked my post "FDA" you can see the youngest drummer in our family. Pretty cute. She has a knack too. God is so good. We are priviledged to get to train the next generation of worshippers and it is awesome and inspiring.

Moore Homeschooling Photos

Audrey "reading" one of her favorite books from the Sonlight preschool list.

Elijah working on his Handwriting Without Tears Cursive.

The girls all putting up the March calender -- they LOVE this job.

Olivia takes planting these flowers very seriously.

And so does Moriah!!

I am loving our current curriculum! We have Sonlight for awesome books, and for History and Geography. Artistic Pursuits for art. Rod and Staff for Math(3 different levels there), and Rod and Staff science(all together read aloud lessons). Rod and Staff Spelling. Alphabet Island Phonics(3 different levels!).First Language Lessons for the Well Trained mind for 1-3rd grade. Primary Language Lessons for 3-6th grade. McGuffey Readers for all(but each in a different reader) Handwriting Without Tears for all(so 4different levels!) Speedy Spanish is from Rod and Staff also. We are having fun with that to. I bought us a Spanish Bible too. Really neat. So that is what we use for schooling the kids. Our Bible time is devotions where I think we need them daily, but the little kids are hearing 101 Bible stories(Sonlight, but Rod and Staff has it too in several languages!) I love watching them learn, read and have fun with this stuff(and learn diligence when doing their not so fav subjects!)

Homeschooling

This week we took three days "off" from bookwork. I was feeling a little guilty, because they were sick days for me. Then I went back through our pictures for the last few days and had to share. lol I was kind of amazed at how much we did and learned. These were real caught shots. . . no poses. My favs are of the kids reading.

the house makeover begins

After MUCH thought and mental rearranging and considering furniture we have need or need to buy/build, I think I have the rooms figured out. So now we just begin making the transformation happen. We are prepping for homestudy so this demolition can't last too long. My dear friend Teri has so graciously stepped in and gotten bossy to help me get moving because I feel so ovewhelmed I feel paralyzed! I have been trying to figure out the cheapest way possible to get beds. Target had a sae on some bunk beds and bedding. . . it was super cheap. I had them in the cart, THREE times, but God wouldn't let me get them. I just kept saying, Lord t hat is so CHEAP! And even had Dan's approval. My sister thought it was an awesome deal, my friend Lesley said, I can't believe you passed it UP! lol I told her, well God always gives me something better than what he says no about. ALWAYS! I said, just wait, I will show you! heh heh. So Teri says, hey, um we have a bunk bed set that has a loft, a desk, and shelves then a twin bed underneath that is low and on wheels. If you could trade us that queen sz bed we could call it a fair trade! WHOOHOO! So we are giving them the queen, and we get beds for two boys. Then for the girls, I found an online set of directions(free) to build a set of simple bunk beds that look sturdier than what we BOUGHT before. So Dan wants to build them for the little girls, then the new girls use the twin beds we already have. BUT I need to buy the 49.00 headboards I saw at the used furniture shop and paint them crisp white. I am REALLY excited now, because I can see it all in my head. I have a vision. The Bible says, people perish for lack of vision. Now I have it, I can move forward and DO it. The great thing is, it will all be really affordable. I will do a room by room makeover picture session too. ASAP. So that is my praise report for today. God has provided two beds I needed!