The Christian Crew

 Reality is- about 80% of our group pictures are like this! I know its asking quite a lot to get everyone to smile all the time but, Hey, we can DREAM! Tree house fun!  We love the Tarzan Tree house - its fun and its about Adoption:)  JUNGLE CRUISE- OR JINGLE CRUISE Playing at he Tarzan Tree House! Playing on Tom Sawyer's Island- perfect chance to ditch crowds  Mater!!!  Mid- Day nap break- totally worth it and you miss the BUSY times:)  Waiting in lines- luckily we hardly ad waits:)  On the ferris wheel with Brielle!  Classic carousel rides and funny grandpa Danny!  CUTE BOWS for cute girls  The Ferris Wheel fun:)   We always ride the train to see dinosaurs and get off our feet for a bit:) Slade crashed   READY to splash it up!  we took the girls at night for a bit but, only lasted a few ride...

I'm not sure if you have noticed when looking at people's adoption profiles or not but, lots of them start off with the Basics on How great of an Option They are and how grateful they are for you looking at their profile, taking time to read their letter, how hard this choice is for the expectant parents and how courageous you( the expectant parents) are etc. The rest of the profiles of some are almost like a beauty contest- Pick Me, We are the typical Ken and Barbie, or We are the Most Fun and we Travel but, what I am seeing is a huge void of  Honest, open, Vulnerability! MANY profiles are wonderfully Open and honest and I LOVE THOSE ONES! Putting your family out for the world to see and to be judged is one of the Hardest things adoptive couples have to do. Not even counting the super nosey evaluations, background checks, credit reports, blood tests, financial records, psychological interview and personal references we have to Endur...

Me being NUTS on the Leap of Faith! I have just experienced an amazing weekend! These last couple of days I have been surrounded by 25 incredible birth mothers and a birth father too!                                Our Colorado chapter hosted the 1st Annual High Adventure Birth Parent Retreat at Wellington Lake! It's the first time I've tried putting a retreat of this magnitude on and It came together beautifully with the help and donations of many wonderful people, God and friends!  We all tried really HARD things like the Leap of Faith, the catwalk, zipline, and the HARDEST was the high ropes courses. We enjoyed yoga, hiking, canoeing and water play on the lake and the birth parents had open group sessions throughout. I know it helped them a lot but, I had no idea what this experience would do for me... You see, we...

    Mother's Day was Wonderful - lots of flowers , homemade truffles , breakfast in bed , the kids singing at church, steaks for dinner , angel food with whipped cream and strawberries for dessert and great company too!  I couldn't have asked for a better day (minus a touch of whining that is in every day)...   I just didn't think I would LOSE it today and cry during class! We discussed Christ's parables about the lost sheep, the woman's lost coin and the prodigal son. The one that hit me the most was the woman who had 10 coins and lost one...   "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents" ( Luke 15:8-1...

Happy Mother's Day to you all! This day holds many special memories for me. Both good, sad & all that made me reflect on the kind of mother I have and the kind of mom I want to be. I remember the 4 years of being married and not being a mother yet- the first 2 were fine but, the next two STUNG and I was even asked to talk on mother's day at church, that 4th year . It was a small dagger in my side ( mainly b/c we didn't share with others that we were trying and miscarrying )  as I went on and on about the beauty of motherhood , while I lacked being one, due to infertility issues. But, it was only 9 months after that when I became a mother! I never gave up hope that it would happen one day! Because of an incredibly selfless birth mom, Kara, I sat that 5th yr of our marriage, in the pew, holding this sweet little baby so tightly! Brielle was a dream baby and we were just embarking on what Parenting was really like. The 6th year, I was p...

We headed out to UTAH on a SECRET TRIP to meet JESSICA- and to SEE if we would bond the way we did over the phone/ email etc...  Let me back up a bit... Our first contact from her was via email on April 7th!  We were setting up for an adoption conference  that day and we had just finished our CPR class and told our caseworker that we were switching to Foster care b/c we were ready and wanted to see what it was like. He went on about how a cute couple in Grand Junction just got an email from an expectant mom. That night- I got home and we had this email in our inbox too!!! "Hello, my name is Jessica . I am not entirely sure how to go about this but, i am seriously considering adoption, my due date is May 24th and there are a few families that i have been considering. I don't really have any questions for you at the moment but if you have any please feel free to email back. Thank you. Please respond by: EMAIL" WE FREAKED OUT! I told our case worker the next d...