Lily's 6th Birthday

It's hard to believe Lily is 6.  It's even harder to believe I have a 7 & 8 year old and was technically a Mom before Christylee- even though I didn't know my own kids then.  We celebrated with Lily at Jerry and Nancy's house.  It's always fun to catch up with them and see all the kids.  This was the first birthday Lily invited friends from school.  We had hotdogs and chips for lunch.  The birthday cake was delicious.  Lily got a ton of presents. Happy 6th Birthday Lily!

                                                      The Girls

                                          Grayson, Jacob, Me, and Robert

                                                      The Birthday Group

                                              Making Homemade Dragons

Farmer's Market

The kids have never been to the Rivermarket Farmer's Market before, so on Saturday we took the opportunity to go.  They liked looking at all the produce.  We let them each pick out a pumpkin from a vendor. We got squash, corn on the cob, new potatoes, and okra.  I fixed all that with some grilled pork chops for dinner.  The kids had a good time.  Afterwards, we stopped at Krispy Kreme for dessert!

Fish Fry

Dad's Rotary Group had their annual fish fry at Camp Aldersgate.  They invited us and the kids out to enjoy the festivities.  We had a great time listening to the band and eating catfish.  Kingston, Chris, and Summer joined in too.  The kids got their face painted and we enjoyed buying baked goods at the country store.  It was a great time.

Mills Park

Luke and the kids and I had a great family day today.  It was MUCH needed for this family of 4!  The morning started with the kids going to spend some time with Dr. Mike at the clinic.  He wanted to spend some time with them as well as see if being around even more animals would help their behavior.  After that, we went shopping.  We came home and rested for about an hour.  Later this afternoon, we all went to Mills Park.  We walked the entire walking track as a family.  The kids had fun playing on some of the bars along the track.  We ended the night with Little Caesar's pizza and an Ariel movie.  The way their behavior has been lately, it's so nice to have a relaxing "normal" family day. 

Learning in the process....

The past month since the adoption finalized has been a whirlwind here in the Williams household.  Behaviors have been ramped up, peeing in the house is happening more,  defiance is well known, and lying has reared its ugly head again.  The kids are trying to push us to see if we will break.  Trust me, over the past month I've been bent over severely but am still standing.  There were times I thought I would break, times I wanted to break, and times I just wanted out.  Most days I still feel that way.  It's just part of the process of parenting kids from hard places.

Today, I went to the dentist.  I love my dentist.  His staff is wonderful and he is wonderful.  I was reminded while having my teeth cleaned that Luke and I are doing a good job.  We're doing what the Lord called us to do.  It's not easy.  Not easy at all and in times it's downright impossible.  However, Lynn reminded me of something today.  She said, "It seems impossible to you, but that's so that you can say it was totally the Lord....not you."  It made perfect sense. 

This afternoon, as I sat doing my bible study in between making dinner and visiting with the kids, Asia spotted my bible open.  On one of the pages it said "Best of Parents."  I'm not sure what verses it was referring to in 1 Thesalonians, but she saw those words.  She read them out loud.  She looked at me and said, "You and Daddy are best parents.  You love us no matter what."  I looked back at her in tears and said, "Well, I'm glad you think that because sometimes I feel like I do a really crummy job."  She just put those blue eyes on me and said, "Well, even when you get mad, you still love us." 

So, when times in this whole process seem impossible, when I want to walk away from it all, and even when I say things to them I totally don't mean, they still see the big picture.  For today, in this hour,  it makes this process seem worth it.