Birthday Boy

Yes! There is a birthday boy in our house today! He is a little goofy, a little immature and a WHOLE LOT OF FUN.....

My dear husband is 40 today!! But here's where the goofy and immature comes into play....

Happy Birthday Dear! Hope you enjoyed your cake!

Been A Rough Week and A Half

Sorry everyone! It's been a rough week and a half and I really am not ready to talk in depth about much. My uncle Albert died on July 18th of esophageal cancer, so I had to travel to Ky. last week for the funeral and then yesterday (July 26th) my great aunt Una died of lung cancer.

So it's safe to say that I am emotionally and physically exhausted at this point. But I wanted to get on here and share some funny pics and what keeps me going when I feel that I have nothing left to give.

My 14yr old, having a jealousy moment!!! Poor Arlyn!

Yet another moment! She's a nut! Kierstyn thinks she's an infant again!

This man keeps me laughing! Even when the world makes me wanna cry! This is his dumpster treasure!!!

Yes! Even in the drive thru! He wore his treasure!!! This is my dear husband everyday! So slapstick and humorous! But I love hime anyway! :)

What A Difference

What a difference! Arlyn went from this..

To this..

What a stinker!!! But Hey! It's success!!!

Now! what you've all been waiting for..PROOF!

If you look really closely, you will see me standing on a television, looking for dumpster treasures!!! LOL

When Good Intentions Aren't Enough

I write this post sitting here in total confusion. I admit that sometimes my intentions are good but I think that they cloud my capability. All that I want to do with my life is first, surrender to God and let His Will be done thru me. Second, I just want to raise my babies to the best of my ability, I want to be a loving wife, and last but not least, I want to help children in anyway that I can. Wether that be by adoption, advocation, foster parenting, volunteering, or just by any other means possible.

That being said, I do believe that my heart is big but I really need to wrap my mind around what my husband and I can really handle and take on in our lives and family. As most of you know, Arlyn has been getting sick alot lately and it scares us to death everytime! She is a tough cookie but she is oh so fragile at the same time. We are working on trying to figure out what is causing these bouts of tummy trouble and everytime, we have to think "Is it something more severe"??? Us, as parents, know that when our babies are sick, the world stops and our "mamma bear" mode kicks in, and they are the center of our attention in those moments.

So in these past few days, I really had to stop and think, "Do we have any business adopting another seriously medically fragile child"??

You all, I just don't know that answer! I really don't! I know that our hearts would be in in for the long haul but do we physically and mentally have what it takes for 2 fragile babies??

I am going on prayer and letting God lead the way as we finish up our paperwork. I also have to share that there is another family that has appeared and will be going into consideration along with us for baby boy. I am not saddened by this, but I am seeing that this may be God's way of telling us to let go or fight even harder for this child.

Either way, this child will get a great family and he will be loved beyond belief!! I will let you know how this unfolds as we take this journey and follow our faith.

Things I Have Determined

I have determined that my daughter is destined to have crazy hair!

That my dog is a bit "challenged"!!

That my husband can make me laugh so hard!

My children can "actually" play together without fighting!

Teenagers are just aliens from another planet!

AND...That When I'm Down And Doubting Everything That I Thought Was Solid. That God Steps In And Holds My Hand Thru It All!!!

It's been a tough week! But I think it's getting better! Praise Be To God!

Anyone Awake??

At 4:35am??? Well, I am and I just got done mopping my kitchen floor! This is the second night in a row that I cannot sleep. When this occures it usually means I'm stressed about something. Hate to say but I am...

I guess my question is...How far do we go to accomodate our special needs kids?

It seems simple, we would do anything right?? But just think about it, if you have a child in a wheelchair, that needs a main level bedroom, a full bathroom, and space for all of the equipment that the child may need(wheelchair, stander, mats, etc.), and your current home is just not cutting it, what would you do? First you think of trying to modify your home, but when that may be impossible, then you think of a new home. But what if that seems impossible? Many people in this economy cannot just go out and buy a new home.

That's where we are at! Purchasing a new home is just not possible for us right now and our current home, although spacious and beautiful, just cannot be modified the way we need. So what do we do? this would not have been a problem a few months ago as Arlyn is still so tiny and she will be able to be carried up and down stairs for quite sometime. BUT.. we have a "pending" adoption of baby boy that is already 3 and 25 pounds and very stiff with Cerebral Palsy. This is where the "panic mode" kicks in!

I am clumsy enough as it is and I tend to fall down stairs very well by myself. *SIGH*
I panic bringing Arlyn down, so bringing baby boy down! Really scares me!

But God has intervened, I think, and brought us a new situation, a new home. One that will work for our family, one that has the right amount of bedrooms and bathrooms, one that has "extra" space for our kids that we don't have currently. This home also has a pool that I feel would be good therapy for Arlyn and baby boy!

So what's the problem? It's not in our town, it's upheaving my family once more to a new location, it's still in a neighborhood and I sooo long for country, it's scary to be in a small town that you have never lived in before! This home is about 35 minutes from our town so it's not like it's on the other side of the world but still it's not here.

So what do we do??? I am at a loss. My husband is at a loss and now I'm losing sleep over it. It's times like these that I would love for someone to just tell us the right decision. But I know someone will, GOD! I am trying to listen, but listening is so hard sometimes!

So I ask for prayers, as I sure do need them for guidance and a clear head, and SLEEP!!!!

Thanks for reading and listening to me whine a little in these wee hours.

God Is Working In The Mehring House!

If you are friends with me on Facebook, then you know that at 1a.m. God showed His Hand at our house last night! It was magical and glorious!! Let me explain(a little).



We are ready to adopt again and we feel called to adopt special needs children. I have been networking for a few months and inquiring about a few children that I have found. Sometimes you never hear a word back about these kids but sometimes....you get a call and that's what happened. We got a call about a special needs little boy. I was told of his situation and I told them, "Sure we are interested". I was given his care taker's phone number and was urged to call her and learn about this boy. It took a few weeks to reach the care taker and once I did, she shared with me, many things about this precious child. Some things were typical and what I expected and some were terrifying!!



I told Jamie and we prayed about this situation. Then, I did what many would do, I just tried to put this child out of my mind. I told Jamie "We can't do this, he is too complicated and is that fair to our other children"?? Then I went on my merry way and inquired about more children.



A couple months had passed and I would think of this boy often and the strangest thing of all, is that I could never bring myself to call the social worker and tell her that we just could not take this boy into our family. I just froze everytime I picked up the phone. I knew the God was not letting me call. But how could we ever care for this child knowing what we were told??? I kept on resisting God's words to me.



On June 8th, our son Alex's birthday and the day of his party. My husband came running outside and said "You have a phone call". So I took the call and guess who it was????



It was this boy's social worker, informing me that they had to move baby boy into a new home due to "concerns of the caretaker". The worker urged me to call the new caretaker and discuss how baby boy is doing. So I gave it a few days, not even sure I wanted to call, but I did!



That's when God just took me by the hand and showed me who was boss! The new caretaker was an amazing angel, she reassured us that this boy was just fine and that he is worth every minute of care that he requires. I cannot even describe the feeling I felt after that call!!! What an amazing God we have!!!



So, now you're thinking "Happy Ending, Right"??? Nope! Have I ever told you all that I'm a little stubborn??? hehe

I was gung ho after that phone call and then we recieved pictures and that was it!!!! We were hooked! BUT....we had to update our paperwork and that requires time and money! So the race was on!!!



Now, in the mean time we got yet another call! This time about the 3 brothers that I fessed up to a few posts ago. We did go ahead and submitted our paperwork for consideration and as you know we came in second. But in the middle of waiting for the answer on the 3 boys, I just had this feeling that these were not our children. I told Jamie this and he agreed. It just didn't feel right. After we knew the boys were not ours, it then cemented yet again, who our child was!



So we are now almost done with our update and just resting as we anticipate a new addition within this year. Then!!! Yesterday, I found out that a child that waits in China is now available once again for adoption that I so adore. I guess I just have too much heart because this tore me to pieces! I would love nothing more than to bring this precious girl home! So I started franticly gathering all of her information and asking questions, and thinking that maybe this is a sign!



I texted Jamie to tell him as he knew who this little girl was and he seemed responsive to the idea. But then it happened. God needed to remind me who my child was! My husband texted me back and told me that "baby boy" was on his heart and he was excited about him. This spoke volumes to me!!! Jamie never gets excited about any child until he physically sees them! I knew that this was coming from above!



Shortly after our texting conversation, I recieved an email (this is where the 1am comes in). It was from baby boys caretaker! She once again showed her "angel status" as she wrote so many encouraging words! I just cannot believe how much God is in our home and our lives!!! I am just amazed!! So I will now stop the roadblocks and just obey my God!!! I am stubborn but I am faithful!



One more inspiration to me today, is the fact that today my dear husband has been so "adoption crazy"!!! He has texted me and has mentioned the gift of adoption a few times today! It's amazing!!! This is so unlike him! He told me that he is proud of our family and many people don't know the privelage of being an adoptive parent!! I am speechless and just in awe!



Our journey to our baby boy is far from over and I really don't know a timeline of the things to come. But I will share when I can and continue to let God lead the way!

This is why we should trust God's word and NEVER doubt it! He leads us to the most AMAZING gifts!

It Started Out Good!

My day that is! I took the kids to the park to play with their new friends, while their mom and I got to know each other better. It was a great time! Came home and everything was fine, Alex and Arlyn napped, Kaden and Lelah played upstairs, Kierstyn was gone with grandma. Life was nice and quiet.

Then the evening came and my mood just plummeted. It's like I was in a fog, just going thru the motions of a typical evening. Have you ever felt that way?? If my children was running thru the house with hack saws just cutting all of the funiture up in my house, I wouldn't even have cared! (YIKES TO THAT THOUGHT)

So I sat on my porch swing and just tried to figure out what was making my evening so funky. When all of a sudden, I hear a ....tap, tap, tap! Here's what I saw out our side entrance door.....

I look again to make sure I saw, what I saw!

Yep! Miss Arlyn was peeking at me!

That's all it took to help bring me out of my funky mood! Here are some more goofy pics, in case you are in a funky mood!

She is not impressed with her new SKULL sunglasses that her sissy Keke bought her!

Her dad does this to all babies that enter our home! Shirt or pants on the head!!!

Yep! It ended as a good evening!

The 4th of July

Happy 4th everyone! I hope everybody had a great fun filled holiday! Ours was great! Yesterday was our city fireworks and today was a cookout at my moms. I always eat too much though over this holiday! LOL

But last night as we sat at Jamie's moms house to watch the fireworks, I was thinking of last year at this time and the big changes that were about to happen to our family. See, last 4th of July we were about to embark on a journey of moving our family out of state to Tennessee. This was a BIG DEAL for us as my husband had lived in the same town his whole life! We moved on the 15th of July of last year. Arrived in the wee hours of the morning and were so exhausted, as you can imagine!

Our family was so excited to experience a whole new world, it seemed! The beautiful mountains, the millions of trees and the southern twang of everyones accents! It was so refreshing than boring Ohio!! So we thought!

My husband is a tattoo artist and went down there to work for his friend, it was exciting for him as he has owned his own shop for about 20 years now. But we soon discovered that the hours were not what we were used to. Jamie always had the freedom to come and go as he pleased from his own shop, now he worked 6 days a week 10-12 hr days. Not Cool!!! But that was the hours so thats what he had to do. So I had to manage all 4 of the kids at that time and establish schools, bills, the house, and everything else you can imagine.

The kids soon started school and life was getting routine. But as soon as the kids stated school and we seemed to have a "normal" going, we got an email! It was an email from our adoption agency about a baby already born. Yep! Miss Arlyn came into our family. As you can imagine, we were not prepared, not in the "baby item sense" or in the "paperwork sense". So it was a mad scramble! But we managed.

Arlyn came home in about a month of age and then we started all over again with a new "normal". Things were a little scary at times with her reflux and the state of Tennessee was taking its sweet time getting her health insurance established. So many specialists would not see her only her pediatrician.

As we came back to Ohio in September for our first visit back and Arlyns first meeting with both of our families, it just felt wierd to be back and in the "familiar". We had a great visit and hated to go home but it was time. I admit that after that visit I became homesick for Ohio! sniff sniff

Life went on but I realized how miserable I had become in TN. I had no support, no one to talk to, our finances were miserable and the last straw was the Arlyn still had NO INSURANCE!!!! So no dr. would touch her! I cried almost every night and just knew where I needed to be, back in OH!!!

I told my dear husband what I was feeling and he was not a happy guy at first. But he came to realize the need at least for Arlyns sake! So we made the hard decision to pack back up and move back to OH. We moved on November 15th and haven't looked back!

Since we have been back, life is good! I look at Ohio differently now. I always thought I hated it here but for now, at least it's home! I love the support that I have, and the new friends I am making. I love my church and am getting to know some members. I love the farmland even the plain old fields.

So a year ago today, our lives changed tremendouly. We moved out of state, and back again, we have a new precious addition to our family, and we realized even though our move was brief, it made a huge impact on us all. I took a few pictures last night before the fireworks, I didn't get all of my kids as they were scattered and playing but I did manage to get a few pics.

My Oldest, Kierstyn(14) and I

Miss Arlyn in her red, white, and blue

And of course Alex trying to stand still for a pic

A Mixed Bag Of Nuts

Yes, this post is a mixed bag of nuts.

There are a few things on my mind and this is going to be a post of them. Today is Jamie and I's 15th anniversary. WOW! 15 years! We had some say that we wouldn't make it 6 months! Guess the joke's on them!! We were supposed to be at a luxury hotel with our own private pool tonight but family comes first. Jamie's uncle passed away a couple of days ago and today was the viewing and tomorrow is the funeral, hubby is a paw bearer(sp?) and that is more important.

We also have a sick little princess tonight as Arlyn has a tummy bug again but she's in good spirits, so we are thatnkful for that. So we will just have a belated anniversary sometime this month. I am just greatful for the time I got to spend with Jamie today. I am such a blessed woman to have such a devoted, tolerant, loving husband. The poor man does up with alot! :)

Next Topic

Discipline!!! I have 2 kiddos close in age, Lelah 10 and Kaden 9(well almost). They can be the best of buds or they can be the worst enemies. Their favorite past time is tattling on each other and it drives me NUTS!!!!!

So today as always here they come, to tattle. Well, Lelah has a little habit of jsut doing things nad I quote "Cause I want to"!! Yes, rules do not apply some days to her because I guess I missed the memo that she is the boss!

Kaden on the other hand, has a nasty habit of tormenting the cat and his younger brother Alex. So today I thought I would give them a dose of reality. I went into their rooms and dumped all of their clothes out of their dressers, just threw them on the floor. WHY???? Because I wanted to!!!!

Oh, the look of disgust on their faces was priceless! They spent quite a bit of time folding and puting all of it away, and then I said "I might jsut have to do that again cause breaking rules are fun"!!! Let's just say they are not happy and I think they are fretting that I might just do it again! ;)

Last Topic(I think)

I promised that I would fess up to what was going on this past Monday when I knew more. So Here goes.. We were being considered for a sibling group of 3 boys, ages 3(twins) and 10 months. It was a close and tough decision we were told by our worker but we are the "backup" family. If for some reason, the chosen family cannot proceed then we will be called. We were ok with the decision as we know God has a plan. We do have a few more kids that we are being considered for and I am sure that God will lead us to our child. I am just glad that these precious boys have found their family.

I have a couple pics to share tonight. First is jamie and i today on our anniversary. We tried to take the picture with Jamies phone so its the best we could do.

The other is our anniversary cake that I made for us, strawberry poke cake! Yum! Enjoy!!