A Glorious Day

Today is a Glorious Day in HIS image and likeness :-) Today in Rwanda Phill's sister and her family finalized their adoption of Lincoln and Levi Cassada. We are so overwhelmed with joy and gladness for this precious day!! They have been on this journey for over 2 years and to see it all unfold is a true blessing from the LORD!! We are so blessed to be a part of this wonderful revelation of the Lords power! We love you Courtney & Pat!!!

Finally Friday

So happy that it is finally Friday!! Looking forward to a weekend spent with family. Tomorrow we are going to Reston Bible Church to help at Pat & Courtney's Stop Hunger Now event. Can't wait to make a difference:-) Soccer Games for Britt both Saturday and Sunday should be fun. Life is so busy but we love enjoying our time together!!

4 more days....

....Before we get to head to PA to see my family :-) I am sooo excited!! I LOVE being home more than anything, yes I call it home, I think I always will. We are gathering at my Aunt Pam & Uncle Bill's house. We love getting together there. They built their own home on top of a mountain and have a LOT of land. There is enough room for the kids to run around for hours. And enough space inside for everyone to gather together for an amazing time. We will celebrate March Birthdays and Easter all in the same weekend. Can't wait for it to get here!!!

It's Over

The stress of the week is over. I accomplished a lot this week at work. Have a lot left to do starting Monday however I am proud of the fact that I was able to complete several things on my check list :-)

So happy the weekend is here. Looking forward to spending it with my family!!

Stressed Out - Please Grant Me Peace

I am stressed out so much today. Someday's are easier than others. I try to stay positive and remain happy at all times but it can be hard and stress me out more at times. It is hard to do it all. Work full time managing people and work and answering to all of the requests coming down to you every day, manage a home full time, 3 kids, soccer, dinner, cleaning, laundry oh did I mention soccer, soccer, soccer, school functions, helping the kids with their homework, keeping up with a toddler, trying to bring this toddler up in the right way, he is 2 and tests the limits, is strong willed and loving all at the same time. Also add into the mix grocery shopping squeezed into the kids schedules, yard work (I just want to have time to plant flowers and that is just not working out), spring cleaning, painting, picking up from events, dropping off at events, and being a support of others in their times of need and crisis since I know He has placed me in all that is happening for a reason; His reason!

I am a full time working mother of 3, I work because I have to work, not because I want to work. I wish more than anything I didn't HAVE to work. I pray about His choice in my life. I know my life is exactly as He plans, but I do not always want to live it exactly as He has chosen. My life has not been easy by any sense of the word.

I know I should focus on the positive. I am thankful for ALL the HE has given me in life. I know I have plenty to be thankful for. I have been blessed with 3 healthy children, the most loving and patient and excepting husband in the world (not too many guys who grew up as my husband did, "pretty awesome" in his words, would be able to just open their heart and arms to a ready made family at 22 years old). We are all healthy. We both have good jobs. I do appreciate all of the blessings in my life. I just feel like is it all worth it? I bring home stress, I am short with the kids and Phill on some days. I have always struggled with carrying things with me. I can't just "let go" of things. It is who I am. I hate that about my emotional side.

My prayer every morning on my ride into work is for God to grant me peace in all that I am required to do. I remind myself that everything happens in His time, not my time. I get that but it doesn't make it any easier in the moment.

Just another Monday - or is it

Today is a beautiful day, it's 84 and sunny with no humidity. I ran a mile at work today outside around the trail. It felt so good. I love running outside. It has been so rainy since the temperature became high enough for it not to snow. I have been so down about it raining all the time. The rain has delayed soccer practice and games for my girls. I should be happy that I don't have to run all over creation and spend more money on gas. However that means that the girls are held up inside and are not so happy. Today they can kick the soccer ball outside and get out some energy that has been storing up inside. Today it is not raining :-) So it's not the same Monday that is has been ~ It is a spring Monday & I'm so very happy that it is!!

Finally the Weekend

The week was long. Work has been tough. My boss of the past 5 years retired Friday, I got promoted into his position so that is a plus. It is strange because I didn't think I would be effected by him leaving but I was sad. You get used to having the people around you at work everyday, they become like another family to you. So this is an adjustment in my life. I am excite about the change for me personally but he was my sounding board so it is going to be a very different world come Monday.

I am happy to have this weekend at home enjoying the kids and Phill. I got to go to the Third Day concert last night. It was amazing!! A couple from our small group had an extra ticket and asked me to go along. It kicked off the weekend just the way I needed it to. Keeping me centered in Him and appreciating all that I have been blessed with!!

Happy Weekend everyone ~ Make is a GREAT one!!

Small Group Needs

We meet every Monday night with our small group. They have quickly become like family to us. There are 7 amazing couples with pretty wonderful children. We learn together, laugh together and support one another. It breaks my heart that one of the couples is going through a very troubling time. They are in GREAT need of prayers. We are not sure what the future for their family holds however we ask that you please keep them in your prayers. Their names are Kendra & Tom and their daughter Parker. My heart is breaking for their situation and I pray that God guides me in the way he wishes for me to support them.

Hump Day

Today was a busy day at work. It flew by and I still have a ton of work on my desk for tomorrow... Hoping everyday goes by fast so Friday is here soon! Phill and Britt are excited about going to the basketball game tomorrow. Thanks Alden & Dorian for making it possible. I am planning on taking Andrea & Ayden out for a bit I think since they will not be getting home until bedtime. Looking forward to sitting and relaxing with my wonderful husband tonight. I will post pictures soon.

Forever Friday

I am so happy it is finally Friday!! The weeks seem to take so long and it is forever until Friday gets here again. It is so wonderful to be done with the week and ready to hang out with my wonderful husband and kids :-) Oh happy day!!

Remember the Rain

Rain it is. Today is a rainy day. I always liked rain growing up. I used to run in the rain when I was little. It was simple, peaceful and just plain fun. I would run with my friends in the neighborhood for hours. We would find the deepest puddles that we could and we would run, jump and splash in them. Oh to be a kid again. Carefree and free to get wet and dirty and not worry about a thing. No worries about the fact that you would track water through the house or that there would be more laundry to do. No worries about anything other than trying to catch rain drops on your tongue and spinning in circles with your arms stretched out feeling the rain drops hit your face. Sometimes we forget what it was like to be a kid. For today I will have no worries, I am going to sit with my wonderful kids, enjoying the small things and remembering what it felt like to be a kid running in the rain!!

Family wishes

Family ~ It has always been such an important part of my life however I feel like something is missing. I have an amazing husband and wonderful children who I LOVE spending time with!! Don't get me wrong I appreciate them very much, I just feel like I am missing a piece of something.

My extended family is all so far away and I am sad that I don't have as much time with them as I would if I lived back home. My Mom is amazing and we talk as much as we can. We try to travel to see each other whenever we can. I just find that I am longing for something that I may never have. I have sisters, who I met when I was almost an adult. We didn't grow up together, we don't have that same bond and the situation with our biological father just make things difficult. I wish I had a sister to bond with. I feel so sad sometimes that I don't have that. Lately I really just feel alone. When my cousin Mandy lived here it was the closest I ever felt a "sister like" bond with someone. We loved being together, bringing our kids together to grow up together, Cousins & Friends. I feel like we are all missing out on something special. It makes my heart sad. We planned trips together, we wanted our kids to have one another and to spend time together (not just because it was a holiday or birthday). It was nice to have time together just because we wanted to be together :-)

I long to move back to PA and have an on going sister bond with someone. I want to have girl talks and visits just because we want to be together. I long for fun shopping trips even when we don't have to buy anything. I feel like staying in Virginia I will just lose this dream ~ forever! I try hard not to think about it, stay distracted and busy, however these days it is consuming me.

I'm Back

Ok so I know I have not been on here since I was pregnant. We had the website for a while which was great and once Ayden turned 1 we decided we would no longer keep it. I enjoy reading everyone else's blog's so I figured it was about time that I got back to our families posts. Things are busy these days (not much change there). The girls are finishing up soccer for the fall and getting ready for winter indoor soccer :-) So exciting for them, so busy for me! Andrea will be 13 next month, welcome teen years x2. I am bracing myself for it. Brittany is actively involved in a lot of school activities and is very involved in her small group from Church and enjoys spending time with her friends from church as well. She is such a joy in our lives!! Ayden is all over the place. He is such a "boy". I never knew what that truly meant until now!! He loves cars and balls, running and jumping and getting into everything. He hates to be dirty, which is about the only thing which is not "boy" about him. He is such a blessing to all of us! He will keep Phill and I young for sure. I will have to be sure to post some pictures soon :-)

New Baby Site

OK, as you all know we have been tracking our pregnancy in our online pregnancy journel and I know everyone is wondering what happened to our journal entries. Well my wonderful husband decided that he really wanted something that could continue with the baby after he is born. Soooo, with that said, he has now developed an actual web page for our new bundle of joy. I have moved my entire journal over to the new web page for all of you to enjoy. It also contains family pages, photo albums with the ability for you all to add pictures and save them to your PC, fun polls and quizes (please be sure to give us your input) and also our baby registry info along with any events that we may have. I am replacing the link above the ticker with the new website link. This will be Aydens own personal page once he is born, complete with his first pictures, polls for us to use in making choices (check them out they are fun) and many more fun things to watch him grow. The web addresss is www.aydenphillip.com. Enjoy it please! Don't forget to sign the guest book.

Dad & Daughter's Fishing Date

Andrea has been showing an interest in fishing since the spring. Yesterday morning Phill took the morning off of work and he scheduled a "Fishing Date" with Andrea. It was so much fun. They got their poles ready Monday night and set off first thing Tuesday morning for Burke Lake. It was an amazing time for the both of them. He is such an amazing Daddy. He just continues to bring such amazement and joy to our family. What a blessing. Here are some pictures from that day.

What an amazing time of bonding and fun for Daddy & Daughter!!

Pictures

We have posted pictures to our pregnancy journal from a photo shoot Phill took me on this weekend. The link to our journal is above the baby ticker on the left side of this blog. Enjoy.

Our Beach Trip 2008

Here are some photo's from our beach trip to the outerbanks.

First stop is the farmers market.

Now we are off to the beach!

















Mandy & Jake at Dinner, then off to golf.












Toasting Marshmallow's.... What fun!!






A Night out to Tale of the Whale... Our favorite place to eat!















Final Stop....Go Carts!

Our Anniversary

Today we are celebrating our 3 year wedding anniversary. The time has passed by so quickly. It seems like only yesterday we were getting ready for the big day, all the excitement of planning and registering and celebrating. The wedding was such an amazing event itself with all of the people who we love so very much and the memories that we were blessed enough to make. Now sitting here thinking back to that day it is so exciting for us and to think that we are once again planning and registering and celebrating the next big event in our lives.... Our very first baby! We are so very blessed to have been given this gift. We will spend the day home from work, so exciting, just enjoying one another and remembering that incredible part of our life. We plan on going out to dinner tonight, just the two of us. (Thanks Mandy) We will remember each of you today and the part you played in the memories of June 25, 2005!

Ready for the weekend.

We are so happy that the weekend has arrived. The past few weeks have been wonderful. Andrea finished up soccer with a win of the championship, it was last weekend in the 100 degree weather which was a challange but with lots of tents, water, wet wash clothes and parents armed with spray bottles we managed through it. Two games, hot hot days and one amazing win. I am so proud and happy for her. The girls finished up school for the summer yesterday. So nice!! The girls have begun their daily ritual of hanging at the pool with their friends. They have grown up so fast it is hard to believe. Brittany had her first sleep over two weekends ago. That was so much fun. It was the sleep over for her birthday back in March since it was basketball and she was on all stars she was never able to have her big 13th sleepover so we waited until the pool opened to have it. It was amazing to be a part of and watch. She has made such wonderful friends. I am very proud of the young lady she has become. I continue to update the baby journal often. Things are going great. Please log onto our journal for updates. We have posted our new ultrasound picture from Monday. The baby now looks like a baby, amazing to see!! I also added a baby ticker to count down to the birth both here & on our journal. (Thanks Courtney)

Back to the swing of things

OK I know it has been forever since I posted on here. We have been going through somethings which have been filling our lives. We found out in April that we are expecting a baby. This news was so very exciting for us since we had been trying for 10 months. No sooner did we find out that we were expecting I started spotting which continued up until last Friday. It has been a roller coaster for us so we have just really been focusing on the baby and praying for things to go well. We did start an online pregnancy journal which we would like to share with all of you. The link and all the information for what has been going on is http://www.babycrowd.com/jr/online/ourbabyjourney/welcome.html

I hope each of you will continue to check back on how things are going through our pregnancy. We have our first ultrasound picture posted there as well.