DONE AT 2:05!!

Well, it's finished! I have updated my blog! It only took me 3 hours! I hope you enjoy. For your reading pleasure I put everything in backwards so that when you read it, it will be in the correct order :) I tried to go month by month to fill you in on what has happened since May, besides adoption stuff. From now on, I will try to do a better job of keeping it up. By the way, I have created a new blog about our adoption. It is a private blogspot so if you would like to be invited to that email me and let me know. I will not be posting much adoption stuff on here as I don't want the entire world to know details of our adoption.

Visiting Aunt Deb.

We took a trip to visit Aunt Deb. in Wabash. Colten had a great time and it was good catching up with her and Uncle Randy. Besides the two dogs that Colten loved to feed vegtables to, he found lots to play with at their house. Colten with Aunt Deb. And by the way, I do not neglect my child. As you can see Aunt Deb. has on a winter coat and hat and my son is in a t-shirt. It was May and not freezing out (well maybe in Aunt Deb's opinion). My Aunt is from Florida and does not adapt to cold weather well. So don't call CPS on me :) Colten with Uncle Randy. It was Colten's job to keep Uncle Randy awake as he was very sleepy due to a bad night. ...Uncle Randy's motorcyle and remote control cars he puts together. (I'm just glad Colten didn't break them.) He sure enjoyed racing those cars! Go figure...two things he likes best, cars and racing! ...and yes, it's a slot machine. This kept Colten's attention for quite some time, for many reasons. 1. You put coins into slots. 2. You push buttons. 3. It makes really loud noises (we couldn't figure out how to turn the volume down and it was LOUD!) 4. Money spits out at you! And that happened often! Colten was rather a pro at this game! I think my Aunt wants to kidnap him and take him to Vegas! Hey, not a bad idea to fund our adoption??? Is that wrong?

MAY

Well, I think this is where I left off the last time. We were beginning to start t-ball, and boy was I excited! What was I thinking?????? Sure, my kid was the cutest one on the field but boy was he the most frustrating one. Words of wisdom, don't put your 3 year old in t-ball!!! Colten loved t-ball for the first 3 games. After that it was all down hill. I think his best position was catcher cause he was too busy throwing the ball back to the picher that he didn't have time to do art in the dirt :) I know all kids play in the dirt, but my kid refused to do anything you asked him to do. All he wanted to do was play in the dirt. But, it's all in the past now and I have cute pictures to show for it. That's all that matters right? Now, I think he's wanting to play soccer! Oh Boy! Here we go again. This was Colten's first big hit!!! His first time up to bat all season and he got a hit! What a slugger...and yes he's a lefty. On base and ready to run it in for a score! This is the most alert he was all season! No joke... I actually caught him paying attention!!! What a pro. ...and this is where it goes downhill. "But," you say, "he's chasing after the ball...that's good!" No in fact the ball wasn't even hit. He ran infront of the pitcher in the middle of the at bat to run across the field to say hi to his grandma and papaw Lee watching from the crowd. That's Matt chasing after him and bringing him back to his position... ...A good father/son talk... ...and there went the focus! This is what the rest of his t-ball career looked like. At least he got to hang out with one of his best buds Caleb.

JUNE

Bill, Matt's brother, graduated from med. school which gave us a good excuse to take a mini vacation to Florida! We went in with his brother and stayed in a beach house. The beach was right across the road, and Colten remembers it vividly to this day! He loved the beach. He asks at least once a month if he can go back. He enjoyed the QT with his cousins. Every chance he got he was in the water. Probably 2-3 times a day, we went to the beach. Pretty much the whole day. He'd go in the mornings with his dad, come back for lunch, take a nap, go for an afternoon swim, back for dinner, and end the day with a romantic walk on the beach! Here are a few classic moments with Uncle Bill that I loved! I can only imagine the thoughts going on in Colten's head, cause his Uncle Bill is the coolest person to ever walk the face of the earth, in his opinion...not saying your not cool Bill, but personally, I think his mom is the coolest!!! "it's pretty simple, you just throw the board down and jump on it!" "No Uncle Bill,...really, I think you should use this one. Look it's got a cool dolphin on it!" I'd love to be back on the beach right now. Sitting in the WARM sand, listening to the waves crash in, and see those beautiful sunsets! Every night we had an amazing scenery. God is a great artist!!!

JULY

VBS, VBS, VBS!!!! July was full of putting on many VBS programs! For our Amazing 80 journey we put on a VBS at my parent's church. We were the missionaries, and also at Ben Davis. I got the opportunity to lead worship at my parent's church which was so much fun! Colten enjoyed going to all the VBS programs cause he got lots of awesome snacks!! Not to mention he got to throw a pie in his Papaw Huff's face!!!! (thanks to his dad's great idea :) The VBS we did for our church was centered around the story of Noah's ark. So one night we got to bring Brandy, Colten's best bud! They spent a little time hangin out together. I love this picture! We also had lots of swimming in July as well. Our pool was a little high maitanace this year, but well worth it! Colten learned to swim on his own without the floaties this year! He was pretty pumped up about that. He does better when he keeps his head under water. For some reason head up signals, butt down and sink, for him. He mastered the cannon ball or the can opener by the end of July :)

AUGUST

August started off with a long Saturday for Colten but an exciting one for my sister. She graduated from Purdue with her masters and we decided to go and celebrate with her and go to her ceremony. It was a long one but well worth it! Grandma Huff stocked Colten up with lots of snacks, books, cars, you name it and she had it in the bag!!! From there we headed to a wedding with our tuckered out tike. Not just any wedding...a catholic mass! He did great! I was so proud of the little guy! He had a long day and was ready to go home after that! Colten also got to go to the races!!! He loves cars and since papaw Huff is the racing chaplain it gives us lots of chances to go to the races. So we had to squeeze on in before the season was over. At first he couldn't keep his eyes off the track, he liked the loudness too. We were hoping to see a good crash in the figure 8 races, but no luck...I guess that's a good thing!

SEPTEMBER

Not a whole lot went on in September. Colten noticed a lot of his friends were going to pre-school and began talking about school. So he asked if he could go to school. Well, I don't see the point in paying someone to do what I know how to do, and he gets plenty of social time with all the church activities we have going on, so we decided to set up school in the play area upstairs. We made a bulletin board calendar and I pulled out all my teaching stuff and we went to town! He is amazing me at what he can do and how much he absorbs!!! He knows all his letters and their sounds, he knows his numbers up to 10. He can ALMOST write his own name, if he feels like it :). But what has really surpised me lately is his beginning stages of reading! We were playing on the computer together, a game called, Reading Rabbit Journey (something like that?) anyway, it was having him repeat words like am, I, see, at, it, apple, and look. (sight words) anyway, later, it was asking him to choose the correct word out of 3 words and he chose the correct one EVERY TIME! He knew to look for the correct initial sound to find the word they asked for. I WAS AMAZED! You'd think after teaching for 5 years it wouldn't be that shocking, but this is my 3 year old. I'm gonna become one of those parents that I hated during teacher conferences who thought their kid belonged in the gifted and talented class :) Okay, I'm not that bad!

OCTOBER

Of course, the most important thing is that we celebrated my 29th birthday. I had a nice birthday spent with the two guys I love the most,...Matt and Colten! I'm not looking forward to next year! Colten and I got to carve a pumpkin. It was more fun this year cause he actually helped!! He enjoyed pulling the slimy seeds out but had a break down when we had to get rid of the pumpkin as it was decaying on our front porch. (He understood that though thanks to 'Sid the Science Kid'...thanks Sid!) It was pretty funny because as you can see the pumpkin once had teeth carved out. The older it got the more the teeth sunk in. One night as we were walking through the front door, Colten stopped to look at his pumpkin and said, "Mom, it looks like a papaw now!" We had a good laugh over that one. Also all month Colten had the treat of having his baby brother spend some time with him on Tuesdays. When our friends Tom and Stacey had their baby, Colten called him his little brother and it has stuck ever since. Stacey needed someone to watch the little guy on one day a week for the month and I had to jump on the chance!!! Here's Colten giving him a ride on his back...What a good big brother!

Murder Mystery

I helped Kathy with a murder mystery dinner...80's theme... for our trip to Liberia. We had about 85 people come dressed in their best 80's attire!!! It was a lot of fun. Matt and I were both nerds!!! AWW!!! I must say he played the part better than I did :) Here's some pics from our fun night... Our good friends Tom and Stacey had a great 80's outfit!!! We couldn't help but not forget a great pic of Colten's little bro. dressed as 'toadstool'. How cute is he??? Sorry, Tom and Stacey, look good too :)

3 year old pictures!!!

We haven't had the money to do the 3 year pictures yet, so today I finally decided that I would take Colten's 3 year old pictures myself, and save a little money!!! Why not? I set up a little studio upstairs and he thought it was fun! I was excited cause for the first time he actually smiled in a posed picture!!! And they turned out pretty good. Now I just have to make the effort to take them to Target and get them printed out! It might get done before Christmas! And of course....Colten had to have some goofy faces for some of his pictures. He loved these the best! He laughs every time he sees them.

Whats this????? A POST??????

Yes, I know it's been FOREVER since I have posted on my blogspot but I have BIG news!!! We have been waiting and waiting to hear anything from our adoption agency, and we finally did yesterday! We have a baby boy in Monrovia, Liberia!!!! He is 5 months old. I stare at his picture all the time! I can't look away. He's got the most contagious smile in this picture that I can't help but smile every time I look at it! Colten is super excited about being a big brother! He sort of is a big brother to his little brother Garrett, but in his words, "We get to keep this one!" He tries to take a lot of the babies home with him from church. He's so excited to have one of his own now! He's going to be an awesome big brother! I just want to give praise to God for our little boy. I have spent the last two weeks searching for God's will and calling out to Him and He is so good!!! How faithful He is! I feel like the scripture in Isaiah 40 "they will rise up as an eagle in the sky!" I want to end this post with a scripture that I wrote on my heart when I was going through one (probably not the last) of the roughest times through this process. It was just a few weeks ago when I realized I was longing more for a child than the Savior and had to get my perspective right again. God gave me this scripture to encourage me and keep my eyes focused on His will and His timing... Jeremiah 29:11-13 I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. Then you will call my name, you will come to me and pray to me. And I will listen to you. You will search for me. And when you search for me with all your heart you will find me." He DOES listen, and He WILL be found if you search with all your heart! God, you are so good! Keep me focused on You!

Been So Busy!

Life has been so busy lately and just when I get a chance to relax it seems like there's something else that I've got to accomplish! It never ends. And it only gets worse with summer right around the corner and all the events Matt has planned for the kids at church. Matt's getting the 'rummage' fever again...it's that time of year. With all that said, that is the reason I am just now getting around to posting again. It has been awhile and so much has happened since I last posted a message. We are still waiting to hear anything about adoption stuff. This is the hardest part...waiting, waiting, waiting. At night we always pray for our baby in Africa. So now Colten makes sure he prays for HIS baby in Africa. He thinks he's getting one of his own! The weather has been awesome so Colten has been spending alot of time out in the yard playing and helping me garden. He usual quits on me after 5 minutes in though and leaves me by myself or wants me to come and do what he's doing. He needs a brother or sister so badly! I was reminded the other day that this year I don't have to tear down a classroom. I can't believe it's been 1 year already! It feels like I've been on a really long summer break! It's gone too fast and Colten is growing up so fast! Matt keeps bringing up the fact that Colten will go to school in just a few short years. I tell him I don't want to hear it...I'm sure you know that only encourages it! I guess one good thing is it makes me spend the time now,cause I'll regret it later.

T-Ball

Colten is on his first t-ball team. Matt is his coach, we'll see how that plays out on the field! He really enjoys it because he has a couple of friends from church on his team. His team name is the 'Angels'! Ironic?
He was so excited cause he had his first game last weekend and grandma and papa Lee were coming to watch him with Uncle Bill! But, the game was canceled due to rain. He argued with us all morning about that one!...."No mom, I do have a game! It's not too rainy!" Here is a picture of him making a 'big swing' as he likes to call it in practice.






He's funny to watch because he is like Matt's little twin out there and assistant coach. He has to do everything Matt does! One day at practice he was trying to catch the ball and the girl next to him caught it and her dad cheered really loud for her and she said, "did you see that dad? I finally caught it!!!" Colten was up next and of course he missed it. He came running over to the fence to inform me that he didn't catch the ball. (moping the whole way of course) I gave him the ol' slap on the behind encouragement of 'keep tryin' bud, and off he went happy as a lark!!! I think it will turn out to be more entertainment for me than him, but I'm sure I'll have some good clips to share in the future!

Circus

We went to the circus back in April. We learned two things....
1. They will sell ANYTHING at a circus and get your money any way they can.
2. Colten wants to be a clown...Go figure!!!


My camera died right after the big cats performed so I didn't get many pictures. We saw lions, tigers, (no bears...sorry)camels, elephants, horses, dogs, and the cutest little clown. There was a little boy who was dressed as a clown and entertained while they set up different things. His name was Jim Bo and Colten loved him. He talked non stop about him for the entire week to follow. I think he liked his moves. The boy danced alot and juggled.

Colten also got to ride an elephant! All by himself! (Well without mom and dad) You should have seen them whippin' those kids on and off of there to get as much money as they could in their short 15 minutes! It was comical!

Exciting News!

We received some exciting news today. We had contacted someone that we know in Liberia to ask them if they would like to help our agency look for a baby for us and they were excited about the opportunity! We heard back from them today and they said that they will be traveling to the orphanage early next week! I am so excited to see what God has in store and to see His perfect plan laid out before us. I have been amazed so far of how quickly and smoothly He has made things go and I get chills thinking of what we could hear next week from them. I would like to ask all of you who read this post to please pray for our baby. Please pray that God would have a baby waiting there at the orphanage for us. Pray that his/her needs would be met until we can get to them. Pray for Danny's safety as he travels there, and pray that God's plan will continue to work itself out that we will be in awe of Him! GOD IS SO AWESOME! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

Adoption News

We are getting more and more excited every day now! Last week we FINALLY got all of our paper work in! Of course the paper work is never finished completely, but for right now we can say we have done our part and are just waiting. Our homestudy will be turned in this afternoon and our agency will send us a power of attourney thing to sign and from there we get put on a referral list! It's becoming more and more of a reality for me that there is a child in Liberia that God is watching over and protecting and has designed just for our family to love. I can't wait to meet him/her! Colten still thinks there is a baby in my belly everytime we try and talk to him about it. Hopefully we'll get him to understand, but he is so excited! I show him pictures of babies in Liberia and try to explain to him that we will have a baby like that soon and he gets all giggly! He is in a phase right now where he loves babies anyone. He'd kiss them to death if I let him I think. Here are a few pictures that I got off one of my favorite blog spots and a cute video of some beautiful baby girls. It makes me even more excited when I see these! (DON'T FORGET TO PAUSE THE MUSIC AT THE BOTTOM SO YOU CAN HEAR THE SOUND ON THE VIDEO)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I couldn't forget the boys!!!!

Missing Spring Break!

I know after the first big snow here at our house I had posted a blog about things I miss about work, since now I am a stay at home mom...and loving it by the way! But there are little things that I really miss. Like in the winter I missed all the snow days. Because it was a time when I actually got off work and had a relaxing day. When you stay at home and the snow comes it is not really relaxing cause you just want to get out of the house! Well I was hit with another realization of what I miss about work...SPRING BREAK! As a teacher you looked forward to spring break the most because it is during those months where you have been cooped up with indoor recess for months and you can see the end in sight. The kids are getting on each other's nerves and fighting constantly. You can't move their seats to fix the problem cause they've already sat by everyone in the class. There is no new way to re-arrange the seating. And usually we would get away for a few days which was always fun. This year, I have no spring break and it really stinks! I was emailing with a friend the other day and realized that this is the first time in 22 years that I haven't had a spring break!!! 22 YEARS!!!! Needless to say I'm having a little withdrawl. And it doesn't help that all my friends have school aged children and are leaving for spring break somewhere with their kids. Matt did stay home for a few days and worked around the house last week which was really nice. We didn't go anywhere special but just having him around was cool cause you get caught up in the business of life and it seems like there are few days that we get to spend together all day as a family! So these are the things I miss about work. You notice it isn't really 'work' that I miss it's all the time off work??? ha ha! That's great!

Spoken To...

I was hit hard today while reading a friend's blog spot. As many of you know our family is in the process of adopting from Africa. We felt God was calling us to help by offering our love to a child who needs it. I will let what I read speak for itself and maybe you can get a glimpse of what breaks my heart. It's from a missionary in Africa. This is what God sees when he looks at the world. We have a team in Swaziland, that nation in Africa where nearly half the adult population has the AIDS virus. I received this email from Gary Black in Swaziland today and it wrecked me:"The team found a four week-old laying on its dead mother yesterday, they kept it - we are getting it to the abandoned baby hospital Friday." What do we do with this? That's my son's team down there. I don't know about you, but I'm outraged by a world that produces situations like this. And while that may seem like a world away to many, for my son, it's as immediate as it is heart-wrenching. The only thing that appalls me more is that so many of us Americans who can do something about this are more interested in stuff that will only ultimately burn up in the big fire. God help us. God, help us to wake up. Help us to see how much you love the widow and the orphan. God help us to break as you are broken up over this four week-old. God, help me to lose this tortoise shell religion that sheds these kinds of tragic situations like water. Forgive me God for not praying more. Forgive me for not emptying my bank account for your little ones. God, we have lost true religion. We have sought finer sanctuaries and better parking lots. We have tried to fill our church pews with seekers, but we have not sought your children dying on their mother's chests. We need to see a way out of this mess that we've got ourselves in. God, help us in this 21st century mindset that we've acquired. I don't even know what else to pray." I was reading in Philipians today and God spoke loud and clear to my heart again on this same topic. The passage is Philipians 2: 5-11. Basically it speaks of how Christ came to Earth to become a servant and humbled himself to obediance to the point of death on a cross. Earlier in the chapter 2:1-4 Paul is telling the Philipians to be humble and "Do not be interested in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others." Just like Paul spoke in these few passages as painful as it descending is the only way to greatness. Jesus obeyed for the sake of love and we as His followers and the recipients of His love are called to do the same. Jesus says that the two greatest commands are to love God and to love others. That is what motivated Jesus and that is what should motivate us. I'm not saying we all need to go out and adopt. I'm saying God is calling all His followers to go and love others and be interested in other's lives not just our own. We come up with so many excuses as to why we can't. The truth is we can...everyone can pray. It cost nothing and there is so much power in it. By the way, WE don't do anything. It's all God's doing. We are merely the vessels that he works through. There was a time when I thought I couldn't do anything then I was reminded, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Paul says in Philipians 2:13 "God is working in you to help you WANT TO DO and BE ABLE TO DO what pleases him." Please pray for the mother and fatherless. Pray for their little lives and their salvation. That they may be given the things they need today. And if your bold, pray that God will allow your heart to be broken for the things that His heart breaks for. As His followers He has a lot of work for us to accomplish for Him.

Colten's 3rd Birthday

One more game...pin the car on the race track. Colten wasn't very good at this one. But he had fun being spun around by his daddy. And he got to be Lightning McQueen so he was pumped up!

The famous race car cake! Colten was so excited when he saw the cake. He actually ran around the house looking for his racing shirt and put it on and told me that Tyler (a race car driver my parents know) was coming to his party and was going to let him sit in his race car...the poor guy was crushed to find out that wasn't happening...but he loved the cake!)

I also made these cute little candy cars. I even thought about those kids allergic to peanuts, but kinda forgot that alot of kids Colten's age don't know how to chew gum. I caught one little girl after she had eaten 3 pieces! OOOOOPS!


Colten loved all the attention when we sang 'Happy Birthday' to him. I can remember him just looking at me and smiling from ear to ear! Doesn't he look so old in this picture!!!!


Colten had a slew of presents to open. Matt helped him out with them. It was funny cause while he was opening all his presents all the other kids were checkin out the 'loot'! It was the funniest thing! I love the chocolate on his face too!

It's a good thing he got this microphone for his birthday. He had to use it after each present to say 'thank you' to his friends. Most of the time you still couldn't hear him though!
After all the presents were opened Colten couldn't wait to play with his toys...either that or Tom couldn't wait to help him play with his toys, I'm not sure which????

What a party! On his actual birthday, which was Wednesday, we got to go to the airport, to pick up Matt. Colten was excited about that because he loves airplanes. On the way home we asked him where he wanted to go for his birthday and he said, "Hobby Wobby, do they have food there?" We didn't go to 'hobby wobby' we ended up going to escapades. Matt loved it cause he got to chase him all through the tunnels, might be a little sarcastic there. But Colten mastered it on his own and didn't need any assistance from us. I've already decided next year's going to be a little more low key! It was fun but expensive in the end!

Colten's 3rd Birthday

Well, the party was great! Colten had a blast and can't wait for his next birthday. The cake that I made turned out to look like a car and not a bus (that's a plus!), but the lollipops didn't look so great, but everyone thought they tasted great so that's what counts I guess. Looking back at some of these pictures I just can't believe how old he is getting! I heard someone talking about kindergarten the other day and thought, I'm not even going there....I want it to slow down! It's fun to watch him learn new things and grow and change, but then you look back and wish it wouldn't go so fast! Thanks to all who came and made it so much fun for him! I know he appreciated it and it wouldn't have been the same if he wouldn't have been able to share it with his friends and family! Here are a few pictures from the party, (I say a few and there's a ton!)

We started off with some painting! That didn't last long for the boys. As you can see in the next picture there are only girls left at the table painting! I think Colten painted a whole 3 minutes on his car! A swipe of orange of course and black!

I was trying to think ahead because I knew there would be older siblings there. I thought they would enjoy putting a race car together more than painting a little car. Little did I know that it was like rocket science trying to get these cars together and it ended up keeping the adults more occupied than the kids!

Matt had made a race track around the room and we found these cute little race helmets! Colten and his friends had races around the track on his toys. This is where the boys spent most of their time!!!
Of course the adults had to join in on the fun too!!! They couldn't resist! Matt and his brother Josh battled it out in a crab race around the track! I can't remember who won, I'm sure they both would have been disqualified for not staying on the track...you know those Lee's everything turns into a wrestling match :)