Made to Love

I haven't posted in a while but I thought I would do this ipod game that Brooke put on her blog.

Posted by Brianna at 12:1o PM

1. Put your iPod (itunes) on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing this as well as the person you got this from (I wont be doing that ;)-Brooke put that but I won't be doing that either. :)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
These Days

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
You are Everything

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
You are a Child of Mine

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
The Time of my Life

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Big House

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Born Again

WHAT IS 2+2?
The Gift

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Back in His Arms Again

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Everything Glorious:)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
What if I Stumble

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Boomin'

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
He Will Carry Me (lol!)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
It's Been a Long Time

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Life Inside You (lol! :D )

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Don't Dream it's Over

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Letters from War

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Closer to You

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Take it All

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Something to Say

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Superman

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Give me Words to Speak

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
These Days

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Give Me Your Eyes

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Leaving 99

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Let Me Love You

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Walking Her Home

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Moments

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
The Moment of Truth

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Made to Love

I'm not going to tag someone but anyone can do it!

My monthly post :)

Well, here I am again!

I didn't fall off the face of the planet or anything. Just in case anyone was wondering. :)
Posting has just been towards the back of my mind lately.

We got a 3 year old little girl a couple weeks ago. She's a C name.
We're only going to have her till the beginning of December.
She's a very busy little girl who just needs a little structure and attention. She's keeping us very busy. :)

Anyway, in case you're wondering what the picture was for, little J had his first birthday! Yay! He's getting so big. He plays peek-a-boo now. Only with one hand though. Some people think he's just smacking himself in the face. :D
We still don't know what's going to happen with him yet. We haven't heard any bad news yet. So that's still giving us hope that he'll be ours someday soon.

Cold weather is finally here and we are all enjoying the cozy mornings and nights. My Dad is itching to light our wood stove. We've held him off so far. :-)

Daisy is here this weekend. I swear she gets cuter with every visit.

I got toncilites again last week. Not fun. It feels like someone lit your throat fire. Then me, always willing to share, decided that Brooke was a little too healthy for her own good and that she also needed toncilites, so I shared and Brooke got it a few days later.

We're all healthy now though.

Anyway, I gotta go, till next time,

Brianna

Good News Yesterday

We got some good news yesterday. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but J has this vision problem called Nystagmus, it's basically where he can't focus his eyes on anything and it makes his eyes go cross-eyed sometimes and he can only see close up.

No, don't worry that's not the good news, the good news is is that sometimes people have the progressive kind of Nystagmus where they can eventually go blind, and Yesterday my mom took J to his doctors appointment to find out if he had that kind, and he doesn't! His eyes won't ever be normal but they won't be getting worse. When he's older contact lenses are supposed to help.

Anyway, today I have P.E. we're doing soccer right now. I hate soccer, I'm more of a basketball and softball person. Frenchie's social worker is also coming over to talk to us about her.

Hopefully we'll hear good news.

Everybody is still coughing and sniffing here. Brandon's asthma is really bad and my cough sounds like I have Tuberculosis or something. :)

Anyway, just wanted to post the good news about J, I have to go give him a bath now.

We have this vanilla oatmeal baby wash, it smells so good!

~Brianna

The last two weeks

Well, here I am again. The title of my blog doesn't really do it justice, it should be "Brianna this Week", or "Brianna this Month". :)

The last two weeks have been a roller coaster.
We think little Frenchie is going about every other week. We'll get ourselves prepared(not that that's possible) and then we'll get a call that it's not happening yet. Well, we got a call like that this week, from her aunt who was supposed to take her, to make a long story short her and her husband aren't doing it any more and quit. The county had some problems with the uncle, well, he has a DUI on his record, and they needed him to take a few tests just to confirm some things and make sure he was safe, well they refused and told my mom they were done.

We were all very shocked and surprised. If little Frenchie was in my family I would do anything to get her. She is precious. We all love her but can sence another heartbreak coming. They want to move her with her mom in 6 months while she's in rehab. If you ask me, rehab is no place for a baby. Whether or not her mom is there.

Little baby J is still with us and reminding us every day that God has a plan for everything. We thought we lost him last summer, when we got him back we were all overjoyed. He's one of those baby's that when you look at him you can't help but smile. He has gotten very attached to us and we can't imagine life without him, he cry's when my mom walks out of the room. We might lose him though, we have one of those social workers that think they can't tell you anything, we have no idea what are in the plans. All we can do is pray that they'll see that his mom is not a suitable place for a baby who needs extra love and attention.

We also had Daisy this week, yes a whole week, we picked her up and her mom said "I'll call you next Wednesday". Yes that really happened. We had a great time with her and we were all very sad to see her go yet again, but based on the whole "See you in a week thing" we're sure we'll have another visit soon.

Well, about the other people in our family, every single of us caught a cold this week. So amid all the coughing and blowing of noses we've been trying to get on a good schedule for some things, it hasn't happened yet. :) My dad has a good job now, we're just praying that it will last through all the economy trouble.

I am switching piano teachers yet again. The lady I had said she was too busy and couldn't handle another student right now. She gave us someone else to call though. I still have a piano student also. I'm loving to teach more and more.

Being a piano teacher might work well for me as a career. I'm not sure about it yet though. It's just good because I can work out of my home, that will also work well in the future with the big family I want. I can be a homeschool mom but still make some extra money for my family.
Yes I am a little ahead of myself, I'll be 18 in January and it's not like I need to sign my life over to one specific thing yet. I also have though about being a social worker. We've met some good and some bad workers. I want to be a good one and make difference in that field and actually try to do what's best for the child. Sadly, that's not how it is out here.

As you can tell from the picture I am hopelessly awaiting the arrival of fall weather, it hasn't really come yet.

Anyway, I hope you haven't fallen asleep, till next time,

~Brianna

P.S. I kinda feel like this incredibly long post sounds a little depressing. It's just cause I'm tired and still a little stuffy from being sick. My life is hectic write now but I'm not sad or anything! lol!
I love all the craziness that goes on and I am happy that I am surrounded by my family and friends, not all my friends though, we miss you Flynn's! Anyway just wanted to clear that up. :)

Awanas and other things--creative, I know :)

Wow, yeah, no one should take me seriously when I say I'm posting regularly again. :) My life has been hectic lately and posting has kinda been towards the back of my mind.

For an update in the last week or so, well, hmm, little French baby is still here, She'll be going to her aunt soon though, and we still don't know much on what's going to happen to baby J. We love him and we'll keep him for however long we can. We went to Awana training last night at our church, I am now an official Sparks leader. Yay! I've done sparks for a couple years and like the age group, they're K-2 grade, and so I decided to do it again! Brooke is doing Cubbies(3-4 year olds)and this is Brandon's first time doing Awanas and he's doing T&T boys. They thought the boys needed a man in there group. :)

We haven't seen Daisy for a while, hopefully we'll get her this week. Her mom told us that asks for my mom when she wakes up.

Anyway,P.E. is fun, I'm starting piano lessons again on Monday, Brandon's college schedule is killing him, he's gone all the time, and I still don't drive. My mom keeps forgeting to get me a drivers handbook, I have to think long and hard if I'm going to forgive her or not. :)

We got free tickets to a water park from our friends and we're going tomorrow so I most likely won't be posting then. Hopefully I'll start posting more and won't forget as much!

Again, thank you for reading my sporadic posts!

~Brianna

Baby food doesn't match my hair :)

I think I have the smell of baby food permanently burned into my nose and ground into my skin. :) Not that all baby food smells bad, some smell ok. But when you get it flung at you(or, I should say sneezed at you) by a giggling 10 month old, well, then it's a different story.

He apparently forgot to tell me that he felt a sneeze coming on right as I put the spoon in his mouth. :) I learned 2 things that day, start to recognize the signs when J has to sneeze, and sweet potatoes, don't match my hair. Good to know.

Anyway, my P.E. started yesterday. It was pretty fun, not too hot. There's a lot of new people in my class this year. There aren't as many people this year though.

We took a walk today with the baby's. Little french baby in a front pack and J in a stroller. A friend came over and walked with us too. We also had Chessie our dog and B.J. who we're watching for a few days. He's the pug, I think Brooke posted of picture of him on her blog.

While we were walking this really big pit bull started following us. It was a little scary. I hate pit bulls. No offense to anyone who has one, I personally would just rather have a toy poodle or a golden retriever. :)

Quick update, Little French baby, who, by the way does have a french name, is going to an aunt anyday. We'll miss her but we know she going somewhere safe. We haven't heard anything about what's going on with J, his mom missed her visit yesterday, we were very happy.

Daisy could also use prayer. For her safety and security, that her mom would continue to let us see her,And that her mom would treat her right. I don't want to post about everything that's going on with Diasy because it would make this post very sad and deppressing. I'll just say that her situation isn't good.

Anyway, both baby's are up and my mom's making dinner so I should go.

~Brianna

P.S. To end on a light note, I'm pretty sure that Gerber baby foods smell better then Beechnut baby foods. Correct me if I'm wrong. :)

Hello Again!

Ugh! This computer won't let me add a picture!

Anyway, Hi everybody! I have been extremely caught up in everything that I have totally forgotten to post!

We still have the little French baby. She's supposed to go to an Aunt soon though. :(

We got our first little boy back! The one we had back in May and June. His name is also J. So now I'll be calling the baby girl we have who is also a J little French baby like Brooke. :)

We are so happy to have J back!(the boy)

He's 10 months old now. We're not really sure how long he'll be with us for. He's really fun baby to have! He's so cuddly and he gives you hugs and kisses!

We still see Daisy on the weekends. We're praying that that will continue. Daisy's mom acts like she doesn't really want her around. It's really sad for Daisy. She wants to stay with us. She cry's every time we take her back. We're praying that one day her mom will realize what's best for Daisy and give her to us. It probably won't happen but we still want her mom to always know that we're here.

Anyway, I'm back posting! It'll be nice to talk to everyone again!

~Brianna

Daisy and J pictures

I thought I would post some pictures of Daisy and J. Or as Brooke calls her 'LFB', Little French Baby. :)


This is Daisy with her guitar. Or as she likes to call it, her "atar".












Here's little J.













Her again. While Brooke gave her a bottle.













Daisy "reading" to her baby's. It was so cute! She just kept getting book after book, sitting on the bed, showing her baby's the book and saying, "This one?". Then she would actually turn the pages and act like she was reading to them!

She's growing up so fast. :(







Daisy during a much needed nap.

She passed out on my mom.











Daisy with her baby's.

Ever since we got J she been obsessed with playing with her baby's. She loves J too. She always comes up to us, puts her arms out and says, "Hold her?".







Anyway, I could go on and on, but I won't. We have to take Daisy back and drop Brandon off at college. He has a political science class tonight.

We should find out in the next few days how long we'll have J.

I'll post with the news. Hopefully it will be good.

~Brianna

P.S. Sorry about the spaces, I still haven't figured out how to fix that! :)

Today and this week

Hey everybody!

Been a while since I've posted. We still have little J. She's doing really well. Daisy is here this weekend too.

I have to get a Sunday School lesson ready so this post might be a little short.

I went to a softball team practice today, just to play with the team and see if I wanted to join.
Well, it's kind of a long story but basically, it's not gonna work out. That's ok though, my P.E. program starts in a couple of weeks so I'll just look forward to starting that.

I'm also nursing a charlie horse that won't go away. It hurts so bad! Ice packs are my friends. :)

We went to my great aunts 80th birthday party yesterday. It was nice seeing everybody.

I have this giant bruise on my leg from sliding at softball(yes I wore knee pads but they kept falling off). I'll have to take a picture of it.

We were called on 2 little boys this week. The social worker got it wrong though, they needed them in a different city. We're still waiting for another little one to come along and steal our hearts. Hopefully we'll get a call soon.

I should go,

~Brianna

We got a baby!

Yes, it's true!

It's a girl, she's 6 months old, blonde hair, blue eyes, and absolutely adorable.

The social worker called us at 10:00 at night on Thursday(I've been a little busy to post since then)while we were watching the Olympics and we got her at 1:30 in the morning.

We've never gotten a baby that late before. We were so surprised!

She's doing really well and is starting to be more relaxed and she smiles all the time now. She's French actually! She's got a J name. Her full name is very French sounding.

Daisy was with us too this weekend, we have to drop her off tomorrow. But, we're pretty sure we'll have her again in a few days.

Anyway, just wanted to post with the news.

~Brianna

Update

I haven't posted in almost a week(as you can see). I guess I have blogger's block, or poster's block, whatever you want to call it.

We haven't gotten any babies yet(believe me I would have posted then). Nothing really exciting has happened.

My song on Sunday went well. I played an arranged version of the hymn "How Great Thou Art", and all these older ladies kept coming up to me and giving me hugs and crying! It was really funny!

Brooke and I feel really bored with no kids in the house. It's like we don't know what to do with ourselves. :) We only been getting babies and toddlers for a couple years so it's not like we've always had them, I guess when you're used to filling up bottles, changing diapers, giving baths, and playing peek-a-boo and hide and see with wild little toddlers it's hard to go back to everyday life. :)

It's not like my family is hoping kids will have to go into foster care, we just know there are kids who need a loving home. And we're waiting patiently. Well, I'll be honest, we're not exactly patient. We're trying our best though! :)

I have to prepare a Sunday school lesson later. I'm filling in while the lady that usually does it is on vacation with her family. I'm teaching 3-4 graders. They're in the middle of building their own little miniature Tabernacles.

We're also keeping busing watching the Olympics. I swear Michael Phelps is part fish. :)

Anyway, just though I'd give a quick update.

I'll post with any news,

~Brianna

Rantings

I'm really tired, so this post might not make much sense. :)

Today we all got up at 5:30 to go to a book sale. Yeah, 5:30. As in 5:30 in the morning. And, I couldn't fall asleep till about 1:00. So I'm barely functioning on 4 and a half hours sleep.

I'm playing a song on the piano at church tomorrow, "How Great Though Art", so I have to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow.

Monday, I'm sleeping in till noon.

Gosh, I hate alarm clocks. Just when you fall asleep, beeeep, beeeep, beeeep, beeeep. Ahhhhhhh!

Okay, enough of my rantings(for now anyway).

We were supposed to get Daisy this weekend, then her mom called and said she was going to be gone for a week. Apparently she forgot to tell us till we were 2 minutes away from her house and she was already on the freeway. I hate it when that happens!

Oh well, whenever her mom takes her somewhere, as soon as she gets back she calls us and we get Daisy for a good long visit. Of course it's not nearly long enough, but it's all we get for now.

We were actually called on a little 2 year old girl who needed a home on Friday. It ended up not working out though. The county placed her with a different agency. So now we have to wait till next week.

Anyway, I should go practice my song. Pray for me! :)

~Brianna

My future car :)

Yes, it is.

It's a Dodge Sprinter,it seats 12 with option for more benches, and is very roomy.

Our friends just got one, and I LOVE it! They currently have 5 kids. The sixth is on his way from Haiti soon. You can check out their story here http://godseesandprotects.blogspot.com/

While this is not going to be my first car, it is definitely in the future

This has been the family joke since we first saw this car, or bus I should say, everyone knows I want a large brood someday so now whenever we see it, someone says, "Look, Brianna's future car". I think I want dark blue. Hey, planning is good. :)

Now, you may be saying, huh? Well, I plan to have and adopt a bunch of kids when I get married. So I'll need a very large car. I want to have some of my own kids. And I also want to adopt.

Most people that know us would think that none of us would ever want to think about adoption again after our hearts were broken with Daisy. Not true. Losing Daisy was one of the hardest things we've ever gone through and I hope we'll never have to go through it again.
But, it was worth it. There are little ones who need someone to love them. And yes, unfortunately heartbreak is almost always involved in the process of adoption. But for some reason you keep doing it. And keep praying that that little one will finally be in your arms.

We went on the list to take babies again. So, now it's back to waiting for the phone to ring, and jumping every time it does. No, I don't know how we or anyone else does it.

But somehow, we do.

~Brianna

"It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Recipe for a Foster Home"

My mom found this in daily devotional for foster and adoptive parents and I thought it was adorable so I'd share it with all of you.


"Recipe for a Foster Home"

~1 large house(easily rearranged to meet needs as they arise)

~1 large yard(if space is limited, a nearby park will do)

~1 medium-size family(willing to share EVERYTHING)

~rules(not too rigid, adjustable with age/ability)

~unconditional LOVE(cannot add too much)

~sturdy furniture(need not be new)

~1 large vehicle(kept in good repair)

~clothes(assorted sizes)

~a few toys(don't worry, they will multiply with little effort)

~strong church family(optional, but I have seen recipe fail without it)

~good professional help(not optional, to keep asking until needs are met)

~extended family(optional, but very desirable)

~joy

~laughter

~patience

Add foster child, marinate in LOVE and give ample time to adjust. Heart may become tender. If so, feel sense of accomplishment. Enjoy for the duration, however long.

-from Swings Hanging From Every Tree by Susan Stone.

I'm back!!!

Hey everybody! I'm back!!!

Actually we've been back since Monday but I've been busy and haven't found the time to post.
We're all trying to clean and organize the house to get ready to take in foster babies again. Finally!

Anyway, the Las Vegas trip went well. My Grandma's doing a lot better. We've all been joking with her that she'll soon be running marathons. She had a hip replacement by the way. :)

I'm on the last two chapters of the 530 page book I've been reading for-well I'm not gonna put down the exact amount of time, but it's been a while. I'm looking forward to starting Obsessed by Ted Dekker. Then I have another Ted Dekker book to read called Blessed Child. I also want to read the second Left Behind book. I read the first one a while ago but I haven't read the one yet.

I haven't chopped my hair off yet. I'm not sure if I want to. You only need eight inches I think but I still want my hair to be long after I cut it, so I'll probably wait a little while.

My mom, Brandon, and Brooke are at a book sale right now. I was teaching a piano lesson and they left me alone. How dare they! :)

Anyway, I thought it was time to catch up. I'll probably go pop in a Smallville or something.

Talk to you all later! Thank you for your prayers!

~Brianna

Getting ready

Hey!

I'm taking a break from packing and washing clothes to post.

We're leaving for Las Vegas at 6:00 in the morning tomorrow.

Well, that's the goal anyway. :)

My grandma is having a hip replacement and we're going to visit her in the hospital.

As you can probably tell that whole getting on a new posting schedule thing I talked about in my last post, hasn't exactly happened yet. I guess like Zoe said I'm feeling a little uninspired too.

It's finally starting cooling down more at nights where I live. It's usually 15 to 20 degrees cooler at night, but when it's 100-110 out during the day, that's not much. I actually have been felling cold the last few nights! Of course some of it could have been from the bout of tonsillitis I've had the last few days. One of the symptoms is periodic fever. Which I had. Along with headaches and earaches. Yes, poor poor me. :)

Anyway, we'll probably be back by Tuesday. So hopefully I'll be back posting by Wednesday or Thursday. My brother has a laptop that he brings with him, but, no internet. :(

Well, the dryer is going to beep any minute so I should go.

Thank you to all of you who read my sporadic posts. :)

~Brianna

VBS pictures

Whew! Busy week! I haven't had time to post at all!

VBS went really well. We had the biggest group out of all the classes. Brooke, my mom, and I did 3-4 grade. It was really fun!

The music went well. I don't know if I mentioned this already but they had the youth worship team do all the songs, so I played the piano. That was fun too. :)

Anyway, I thought I'd put some pictures up. We didn't get to take as many as we wanted but we did get some good ones.

These are of Brandon in the play.

And at the bottom is D, who we got this week, sleeping.

Ok, my mom said that we can finally post her name!

D stands for.......Daisy!!!!! Her name actually suits her really well! We can't put up full pictures yet though. :(



The characters names are(left to right), Millie, Mikey(by the way the kid that plays him doesn't look like that, he's wearing a clown suit!), Dr.Jones, Zoe Clark, Ellie Chase, and Captain Taylor played by Brandon(kneeling down).









Them goofing off!














This was the set.













Brandon's the one on the chair. The picture's kinda dark.













This was today. They wrapped up the story at the beginning of the service.












Daisy sleeping.














Daisy still sleeping. Hey, 2 year olds need their rest! :)










Wow, it's so much easier to type Daisy then D!

I should go. Now, hopefully I can get back on a good posting schedule!

~Brianna

Amazon Expedition

Wow, yeah, I'm tired.

The first day of VBS went really well yesterday.
I was kinda surprised how many kids were there for the first day. That means of course there will be more kids today. It's pretty cool, for the kids that bring friends, they put there names in a bucket then draw them out to win free passes to a water park that's out here. I'd want to bring friends for that! :)

The drama thing that they have where they do a little bit each day to get the kids to come back to find out what happened went well too. Brandon was really funny in it.

The story is about a pilot(Brandon), a creationist paleontologist, a reporter, a flight attendant, and a brother and sister who's plane crash lands in the amazon jungle and then they have to find a way to be rescued. Of course there's this big plot and everyone finds out that the crash wasn't necessarily an accident, etc..etc..etc.. It's really cute actually. We're going to take pictures today and then I'll post them.

Anyway, I'm thinking of donating my hair like Brooke. I play sports so my hair has to fit in a ponytail. I might have to wait a while. My hair's pretty long though. It's really curly so it's even longer. I'll have to straighten it and see. Brooke is so much cooler in the heat with her hair shorter. That's one of the reasons why I want to do it. Now my hair feels like I have a blanket around my shoulders and neck. Just what you want in 100 degree weather. :)

I gotta go, busy day.

~Brianna

Not the right time

Hey! I haven't been able to post the last few days.

I decided to finally tackle organizing me and Brooke's room. It's a slow but steady progress. :)

As you probably read on Brooke's blog, we're not getting the boys. It's not the right time for our family right now with us possibly having to move because of slow work in our area and it probably would not have worked out anyway because the social worker told my mom that there was only about a 50/50 chance of it working out because the judge that's on the seat now in our county is more likely to give the kids back to the parents or any relative or friend even if it's not a safe environment.

It's pretty sick what they're doing out here, the California government is running out of money, so one of the places they're taking it from is foster care. And then it makes the kids suffer.

Anyway, Brooke might get her hair cut today. She's donating it to Locks of Love.

We have to go to Wal Mart too. Always fun. :) I have to get some sort of khaki looking pants for VBS. I'm supposed to look "safari-ish", whatever that means. I guess theres some safari hat I'm supposed to wear too. Except I probably won't be able to wear it because 98% of the hats I try on to wear, don't fit my head. Hey, I have a big head, and tons of hair, you try fittin' that into a hat! :)

It almost rained yesterday! I though it was going to start any second and then, there was the sun. :(

I gotta go, thank you guys for all your prayers!

~Brianna

More randomness

Wow, I've had a long weekend.

Sunday, we went to church barbecue at our pastor's house then later that day we went to a church softball game. Brandon and I played on the team, it was really fun. Brandon got a home run! The bases were loaded, I was on third, then Brandon comes up to bat and bombs one in deep left field.
We thought some one was going to catch it but no one did and and he made it all the way around the bases! It was really cool!

Then on Monday Brooke and I babysat our friends kids. They have a 4 year old girl, she's so sweet, she calls me "Binana". And one and a half year old identical twin boys who are absolutely adorable.

D's mom got her own house, or apartment actually. I wouldn't call it an apartment though, it looks more like a garage. Before, she was living at her moms house(D's grandma) and it was very, very crowded.

Brandon has play rehearsal today. I can't believe VBS is on Monday! Time flies fast sometimes.

Well, there's another random post!

Anyway, I'm boiling hot and I should go. It's supposed to be 109 tomorrow. Yuck! I told my mom we should move to Iceland in the summer. :)

~Brianna

Happy late 4th of July!!!

Happy late 4th of July!

I was going to post yesterday but I totally forgot till it was pretty late and we were watching a movie.

Whew! I can't believe it's July already!

We still haven't heard anything from the social worker about the boys. When our other social worker was here on Wednesday she said he's new to the case and is probably just really busy. We're supposed to call him next week. Well, at least we haven't heard any bad news. We're just praying that we'll find out soon.

We also haven't heard from N, the little 7 year old girl we had for a couple weeks. After she moved with her aunt she always called us every few days. We've called a few times but nobody answered. She's probably on vacation or something. It's kinda strange though.

Anyway, today Brooke, mom, and are finishing making decorations for our VBS room. It's a jungle theme so we're cutting out birds and butterfly's and making tissue paper flowers. Those are really fun to make. I'll post a picture of them. They're really cute.

I'm thinking of starting Obsessed by Ted Dekker. I'm reading another book right know, but I'm at a boring part so I might start reading one more. I used to read 5 to 6 books at once. I don't do that now though. It's too hard to keep track of all the story's!

Wow, this is a very random post, oh well. We're supposed to get D today. I'll post some pictures of her tomorrow. She's grown quite a bit.

Gotta go!

~Brianna

Waiting

We still haven't heard anything about the little boys. I don't know if I've mentioned his before, but their mom is pregnant again, we'd get the baby too if it worked out.

Waiting is one of the hardest things to do on the road to foster-adoption. When we were called on baby's before for foster care we always knew within a few hours if it was going to work out or not. It's been over a week and we still don't know yet. The boys county social worker is supposed to call us. He hasn't yet, and each day is getting longer and longer while we wait.

We all jump every time the phone rings hoping and praying that it'll be someone with some news about them. The phone has rang three times while I was typing up this post. A medical office, some guy speaking Spanish trying to get us to switch to Dish Network, and a telemarketer. Apparently we won a free cruise to the Caribbean. Yea.

Ok, yes I may sound a little depressed. Waiting is so hard. Not that I don't have things to do, a social worker is coming over later for an inspection. Yeah, I'll save inspections for a whole other conversation. They're somethin' else.

I just wish we knew either way. We've been disappointed many times getting calls, social workers telling us that they found a distant relative that'll take the child, they've decided not to detain the kids, and so many other reasons. When got the call from D's social worker, then our little D was gone. We hope this phone call will be good news. This case with the boys looks promising, but again, you just never know.

Anyway, I have to get back to helping my mom clean out the garage.

I hope the phone rings soon.......

~Brianna

D/VBS training/needed prayers

Wow, we've had a busy day. We went to church this morning, then we stayed late for vbs training.
I had to go in the nursery part of the time though because D , who's visiting this weekend, was having a hard time sitting still during it.


The VBS our church is doing is really cool. It's the Answers in Genesis Amazon Expedition. My mom is heading up the 3-4 grade group and Brooke and I are working with her.

We've had little D since Thursday. Her mom is finally starting to admit to us that she's having a hard time with her. She always tells us that she's so hard, and D's so wild. It's like, she's 2 lady and you let her do whatever she wants, duh! No, we didn't actually say that, we feel like telling her that though! :)

Anyway, We have to get our house ready for a social worker visit this week. There's a possibility of something happening with the 2 little boys we had in our house last week. Were not sure if it's going to work out so I don't really want to post any details just yet. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated! :)

I should go clean. Cya!

By the way, the picture is of my mom and D who finally fell asleep for a much needed nap after a long and busy day.

I've been tagged!

I was tagged by Zoe!

Rules
Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, answer the questions, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

Who is your all-time favorite author and why?
Hmm, like Zoe, I can't pick only one!

Who was your first favorite author and why?
Probably Martha Finley, I read most of The Elsie Dinsmore series when I was younger and I loved the way she described each character, and her books were very well written.

Ok, I'm gonna cheat and add another author. Walter Farley. He wrote The Black Stallion books and I loved those, I have a mostly hardcover prized collection.

Who is the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors and why?
Lemony Snicket. I've started going through A Series of Unfortunate Events and they're hysterical! He's a really funny and interesting author.

If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth?
Frank Peretti, Gail Carson Levine,Janette Oke, Francena H. Arnold,Lemony Snicket,
Ann Rinaldi, Ted Dekker,

Well, I don;t have 6 people to tag that haven't already been tagged.

But, I'll tag Lexi

Missing our little ones

We babysat two little foster babies this weekend while the family they're with went out of town.
They're two little boys 11 months and 22 months. They're going back tomorrow. We'll miss them, they were both very sweet and fun. We're not really sure yet if God has future plans for us with them, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
We also had little D over for a visit this weekend who, by the way, isn't so little anymore. Actually the little boy's are in the home D was in before we got her.

It's hard to believe that's it's been over a year since we went and picked up that adorable 11 month old chubby little baby. We thought we'd have her for three weeks and then she would be out of our lives. Now she's 2 and although her mom got her back, we still are blessed to be a part of her life.

Usually family's aren't so blessed to keep in touch with kids that go back to their parents. It's like the parents are embarrassed that their child was in foster care and want to forget that it ever happened. They usually end up hurting the child in the end. The child feels like they've been abandoned, like the family they loved doesn't want them anymore. We are all relieved that D's mom hasn't made that mistake. D knows that her mom loves her, and she also knows that my mom loves her, and that she has a whole other family waiting to see her every other weekend when her mom lets her.

We've had little ones in our house who have suddenly gone back, we don't see them anymore and we miss them everyday.

Each one has a special place in our hearts though. M, the 8 year old little girl who started my family doing foster care and who's story is too long and sad to tell. D, our D, the one who, when she left, broke our hearts, but we continue to still be a part of her life. Little S, who I don't think I've ever posted on before, a special little baby that sadly went back to a bad situation, we pray for her everyday. J, Daisy's sister, who's sweet smile never kept you down, we see her also, but I guess she doesn't need us anymore, she loves to see us when we come to pick up D, but her mom is the one she wants to be with.
M, the 2 year old little girl who we instantly attached to, and who melted our hearts, her head of blond curls and all her dimples, her sweet and funny personality, her time with us was too short, we miss her everyday. C, the 3 year old we had for a little over a week then she was returned to a family member, she was somethin' else, we loved her though.
J, our first boy, the little guy with the adorable laugh, we kept him as long as we could, I guess he wasn't in God's plan for us. N, the unexpected little 7 year old, who loved us and needed us more then anything, her story ended good, she's in Tennessee now with her aunt who got to adopt her, we still talk to her too, I wonder if she really understands how many people love her.

I've been missing all these little guys a lot lately, sorry if this was really long.

People always say to us " Ho do you do it?"

If you're wondering the same thing, well, I'll have to get back to you on that.......

~Brianna

Las Vegas trip

Hey everybody!

I thought since I hadn't done it yet, that I would put some pictures up of when we were in Las Vegas or more like Boulder City actually. Brooke has some pictures on her blog too.

^These are Desert Bighorn sheep. It's Nevada's state mammal or something. They were all over the park laying down and walking around. It was pretty cool.



These are more sheep.

I think those big horn or antler things on his head means it's a male.











This is when we were with our friends on their boat on Lake Mead.

This wasn't the boat we were on by the way. :)
It's an old sunken boat they use for divers and stuff.








Brandon and Brooke, my bff's, on the boat














This was a cave looking thing we saw.

Sadly, our boat wouldn't fit underneath so we couldn't check it out. :(









A tour boat that floated past us.

It was pretty cool, it had this water wheel thing on the back like you see in old movies, and some of the people were waving at us.









This is a beach we stopped at, the water was too dirty to swim in.











Anyway, sorry if those bore you to death! The boat trip was awesome though! Well, minus the part me stepping in sinking sand, 3 times! It swallowed my shoe once too, but, luckily, Brooke dug it out for me. Thanks sis!

Gotta go, I should go check on little invalid Brooke. :)

~Brianna

P.S. I know some of the words are in the wrong places, but it's not working to fix them right now. I'll try to fix it soon. Sorry!

Hello again!

Hi! I'm back!

We have a lot of things going on in my family right now and could really use prayer, but I will try to find time to post as often as I can. :)


We have friends stopping by on there way to there family's house and they'll be here any minute so this post may be cut short.

Anyway, we've been in Las Vegas off and on the last few weeks. I really miss it there. We stayed at our wonderful friends house and we're very blessed by them.

We finally saw Prince Caspian. It was really good!

Uhh, it's so hot! Winter, come back!

I know, not really much to talk about, sorry! Thank you guys for all your comments on my last post! :)

I'll try and post again soon!

~Brianna

Bye for a little while.

Well, I just wanted to post and say that I will be taking a break from blogging for a little while.
My Grandma is having a few surgeries and we'll be going to Las Vegas off and on so I won't have time to post.

Feel free to come and check in every once in a while, I'll be back in a few weeks or a couple months at least.
Thank you for reading my blog, posting your comments, and giving me encouragement.

Bye for a little while.

Love,
Brianna.

N and J

Today was freezing cold, we had a social worker come over and it rained. That's pretty much it.
Exciting , I know. :)
Anyway, I thought since I hadn't put up pictures of N and J yet, I would do that today, since nothing really interesting happened. Well, J has his first tooth growing in, and N showed me how she does handstands(there's a picture below).





N and J playing outside.













Here it is, she was very proud of herself for doing this! And she thought it was funny that I couldn't do it. Hysterical, I know. :)












J's little feet. He likes to hold his bottle with them.
It's pretty cute!












N playing on a scooter. That's one of her favorite things to do.












Here he is again! J's really not that red, the camera just took the picture that way.










N playing on the scooter again. She was trying to see if she could spot the peacock the neighbor across the street has. I tried to get a picture but he(or she, we're not really sure)wouldn't move from behind the bushes. I think Brooke might have one on her picture blog though.











J in his bouncer. He likes chewing on the little fish that dangle on there











Anyway, American Idol, Smallville, and Dancing with the stars all ended till the fall, I don't know what I'm going to do at night now! :) I might have to read instead! :)
I better go. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

~Brianna

Sunburned :(

Ahh!!! I have really bad sunburn!

Today was the last day of P.E.(sniff) We played softball and I played first base the whole time so I was standing in one place for a long time and it was really windy and sunny and I got so burnt! :(

My team did win though, 22 to 13!

I thought there was sunscreen in the car so I ran out the door to get in the car before P.E. and we took off to go and we were about half way there when I realized, no sunscreen!

Yeah so I pretty much look like a cherry or a strawberry or whatever you want to call it. I'm pretty tan so usually I don't get that bad of sunburn. But today I did. It's hurting to type so I'm making this short. Well, that's the plan anyway, who knows.

David Cook won American Idol!!!!!!!

I thought David Archuleta was going to win. I was so shocked when they announced David Cook's name! He is better though.

My Grandma's here on her way to Las Vegas to see her brother.
She's leaving her dog B.J. He's a pug. I'll post a picture of him. He's pretty cute. He looks like a moose compared to Chessie!

Anyway, I better go, it's late and my arms are on fire.

~Brianna.

My uneventful day. :)

Today, we sang in the choir at church, thankfully we got there on time! We all woke up on time too!

It's funny, I don't know what it is, but for some reason, I always wake up about 10 to 15 minutes before our alarm clock goes off. It's kind of annoying though because I could use that 10 to 15 minute sleep.

Yeah, and I got out of bed this morning, it was still dark by the way, and I tripped and fell.
Luckily I didn't fall on anything. My foot got caught in the pant leg of my pajamas and down I went(hey, I have big feet, sometimes I don't know what to do with them!).

Our garbage disposal practically exploded last night. Well, I guess it didn't explode, it wasn't draining so all the water dangerously close to flooding the house. It started running down the sink and Brooke and I(at 10:00 at night when we should have been sleeping to get up in 7 and a half hours)had to take pots and pans and go dump water outside. Luckily we called our friend who's a plumber and between him and my dad they got it working earlier tonight.

Then because we had no sink and couldn't wash the dishes we went to Subway to get dinner.
They were out of everything including my favorite bread, Italian herbs and cheese, so I had to get this honey out bread which actually wasn't that bad.

Anyway, I guess I'm done ranting, if I think of anything else I'll come back and edit it in. :)

Well, it's late and I need my sleep(I know it says like 8 something at the bottom, but that was when I first started this post. Now was the time I could finish it and it's 10:57 to be exact. Just to clear things up that I don't go to bed around 8!).

See ya!

~Brianna

It's summer. :(

Ugh. It's so hot!
I don't understand, a couple of weeks ago it was pretty cold, now, all of the sudden, bam!, it's summer. I hate summer. Well, I guess I don't hate it. I like certain things about it. Like pool parties, all the fruit being in season, cuter clothes, oh yeah, and the Dry Town water park opens up where we live.
But I'd much rather be freezing then boiling.

If you're cold, you grab a blanket from the closet and curl up on the couch.
Being hot is more uncomfortable. I mean hosing yourself off outside can only last for so long.

Unless you're one of the lucky ones who gets blessed by having a pool. I'm no one of those people. :(

Anyway, I guess I should stop complaining now :).

Tomorrow we have to wake up at 5:15 to go to choir practice at church before the service starts.
I hope in my delirium I don't walk out of the house without my music or something! Pray for me! :)

~Brianna

Pictures.

Well, since nothing really exciting or interesting enough happened the last few days to post about, and since I finally know how to put pictures up on here(go Brooke!), I thought I would post some random pictures of my family.






This is D. She likes her tummy!
This is also when her hair was long. Her mom chopped it off. Now she really looks like Dora the Explorer. :)










Me in our backyard tree. This is the picture on my profile.












My awesome mom!













Brandon, Brooke, and me after we came home from P. E. and decided to take a run in the sprinklers. This was a couple of years ago by the way so Brooke is a couple of inches taller now.
Oh yeah, and Brandon's slouching, he's really about 5 inches taller then me.



















My house last winter.














Brandon flying D up in the air last year.
Sorry, funny view, but I can't really show her face!








My mom and D when she was just learning to walk.
And our entire Little House on the Prairie dvd collection!













My dog, Chessie. Got to love her.









I just finished teaching a piano lesson, and Brooke, Brandon, my mom, and J abandoned me while they went to pick up something at Cosco so I'm all alone in the house. I never know what to do when I'm home alone, usually I just pop in a Smallville and wait. Now I'm posting and trying to find some food, I'm starving! Well, not really, but close. :)
Anyway, I gotta go.

~Brianna
Sorry, I know there's giant spaces, but I have no idea how to fix them without deleting the pictures, so I have to wait till Brooke gets home.