Happy Halloween

Good Afternoon Everyone -
I couldn't help but post some cute pictures of IV today! She is 10 months old and so sweet! We love her more and more each and every day! I'm sure all families say that ... but I just do love her so much! So can anyone guess what IV is going to be for Halloween? She's too small to eat candy, but I still think she looks just precious!
Before:


TaDa.......


Little Miss Ladybug!


I don't know if I told you she started walking around last month! Right before she turned 10 months she just started toddling around ... even though she's only 17 pounds!

Here is IV and the proud Mama AJ..... I hope that everyone has a happy and safe Halloween... keep the pictures coming! I love that everyone shares! I enjoyed Owen's and Iliya's so far! They are so cute! Love to all your families! MJ

The Nanny Diaries Post ...

So I'm sure all of you knew that I'd have to see The Nanny Diaries Movie.... I'd read the book when it came out quite a while back. The movie itself was very hard for me to watch. Not because I have a bad situation where I nanny at .. but because I've been in the main characters shoes where you just love the children so much you just wish that it was different than it really is... in other words from my point of view I've always been dreaming of the time when I'd have my own children and I'd be the 'Mommy' - the one that they wanted at night & when they had a boo boo or an owie. I'm trying hard to focus on the positive things in my life, such as family, friends, my weigh loss, exercising, 4 wheeling. I don't have the money to start my adoption and I'm afraid things are just not going to come together for me. Although I wonder in a sense if the reason why I can't afford things right now is because it's not the time for me to start or I'm just not waiting and being patient for God's plan. There are somedays, I just feel overwhelmed by the fact that I'm working two jobs and I'm still not able to save the cash to get through the first part of my adoption - my goal has been to save up enough money to get through submitting my dossier. Right now I only have enough money to get through the homestudy visits. I guess I'm wondering if anyone else has struggled through this point in their adoption journey waiting to have the cash to start is just frustration. I keep thinking that I'm working on myself right now & I'm loosing the excess weight (I'm down 46 lbs. & have only 54lbs. to go) and getting healthy so that I'll be able to be a great mom to my child, so in my own little way I am working on the process. I haven't had much luck w/ searching for a new job that makes more money so that I wouldn't be forced to work two jobs to make ends meet, but I know that I need for that to happen because when I have a child I won't be able to work evenings, nights, and weekends anymore because I'll want & need to be home w/ my child. Something else I've been thinking about is going overseas to Russia to just volunteer in an orphanage. It's just that it would use up the money that I've saved towards my adoption. I've got plenty of vacation time left. I actually have 11 days of vacation left for this year and to volunteer in Russia they are two week stays. It would just seem like while I would be doing well for the children that I'd be helping in the time that I was in Russia I wouldn't be working towards the goal of adopting a child on my own. Which brings me to another thing that happened not to long ago... while I was talking with a family member... (who I'm sure did not mean any harm by the statement) the comment was made that now that I'm losing weight that I'll be able to have children the right way after I get married. The comment hurt my feelings very badly not because I wouldn't want to have bio children if I was married but because even if I get married I would still like to adopt because it has touched my heart and my very soul. So after trying to express that fact .... I was informed that if I could have my own children ... why on earth would you want to go through adoption it's so expensive and time consuming. The person just kept on about the cons of adopting and my heart just felt so sad and weighted down by the fact that I wasn't being supported in wanting something because I felt like it was the right choice for me. Have any of you had similar experiences?
Also I want to say Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of my blog friends who prayed for my sister. After some trying times she is back to herself for the most part and has been doing great! IV is still able to breastfeed and everything has worked out wonderfully. All the prayers worked! Thank you all so much.
I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in so long, things have just been so very busy w/ work and the fall season. I've been spending as much time as I can w/ my family and also working as much as I can w/ the christmas season coming up soon! I enjoy all of your blogs and thanks so much for sharing your journeys and lives w/ me. - MandyJo

Prayers for my sister...

Good Morning Everyone ....
I hate to start the morning out w/ bad news - but I need help with a prayer request for my sister. On Saturday night I was coming back from 4 wheeling and I'd had a rough evening anyway - my friend's trailer blew two tires on the way home from Nemadji forest so it took us 4+ hours to get home on Saturday night. We were all of about 15 minutes from home and I got a call from my brother in law EV that my sister AJ needed to be taken to the ER and could I come and get IV. Well you know me...we got there as quickly as I could and my sister couldn't walk her back pain was so bad and EV had put her into the truck and they were just waiting for me to get IV. So I scooped up IV and put her into the car seat and into my truck and took her home as EV took my sister to the ER. AJ has some kind of pulled muscle or nerve in her back and she is on pain meds and can't walk very well. The kicker of all this is she isn't suppose to lift any kind of weight for atleast a week. Which wouldn't be a problem if she didn't have a baby. So I kept IV overnight and then all the next day till about 5 p.m. I'm just asking for prayers not only for my sister to get better but so that she can stop taking the pain meds so that she'll be able to keep nursing IV. IV is a breastfed baby and so healthy and I would hate for my sister to have to give up this bonding early - because of her back. AJ has not had back problems before so I'm hoping that it will get better. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers. MandyJo

Oh and I couldn't remember if I'd posted a picture of AJ and I so here is one from a week ago Saturday night. We went out downtown dancing. We had so much fun. My sister is my best friend and I depend on her so much. I just love her and want her to get better more than anything! Love to you all and your families.

LEGACY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD

LEGACY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD

ONCE THERE WERE TWO WOMEN WHO NEVER KNEW EACH OTHER;
ONE YOU DO NOT REMEMBER, THE OTHER YOU CALL MOTHER.
ONE GAVE YOU A NATIONALITY, THE OTHER GAVE YOU A NAME.
ONE GAVE YOU THE SEED OF TALENT, THE OTHER GAVE YOU AIM

TWO DIFFERENT LIVES SHAPED TO MAKE YOURS ONE.
ONE BECAME YOUR GUIDING STAR, THE OTHER BECAME YOUR SUN.
ONE GAVE YOU EMOTIONS, THE OTHER CALMED YOUR FEARS.
ONE SAW YOUR FIRST SWEET SMILE, THE OTHER DRIED YOUR TEARS.

THE FIRST GAVE YOU LIFE AND THE OTHER TAUGHT YOU HOW TO LIVE IN IT.
THE FIRST GAVE YOU A NEED FOR LOVE AND THE SECOND WAS THERE TO GIVE IT.
ONE GAVE YOU UP; IT WAS ALL SHE COULD DO.
THE OTHER PRAYED FOR A CHILD, AND GOD LED HER STRAIGHT TO YOU.

AND NOW YOU ASK ME THROUGH YOUR TEARS,THE AGE OLD QUESTION THROUGH THE YEARS,
HEREDITY OR ENVIRONMENT, WHICH ARE YOU A PRODUCT OF?
NEITHER MY DARLING, NEITHER. JUST TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF LOVE!

I found this poem on alohababymooreblogspot.com & it was too precious not to share, I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did! - MJ

CSI, Weigh Loss, New Quote... and Inspiring Happenings

9/27/07 - Tonight is the first episode of CSI - Season 8. For all of you that don't know it's my favorite show! The only one that I really enjoy watching - I'm not really a big TV fan - more than anything I enjoy movies, but I love CSI and would even go as far as saying I wish I would've gone to school to be a lab tech or a field investigator. For all of you that already watch CSI - I'm sure that you know that Sarah has been kidnapped by the miniture killer & tonight we find out if Grissom and the CSI Team can find her in time.

Here's an update on where I'm at with my weight loss - I'm down 37 pounds. I know a few of you have asked me what I'm doing and the biggest thing is my brother in law EV - is training me. Personal training is something I never thought I would end up doing but it's worth the work & it is hard work. It's definitley 20% of losing weight. The other 80% of losing weight is what you eat. So I don't know how everyone feels about eating a certain way but if you are interested read on and if not ... then skip it & please don't read. Losing weight is 80% what you put into your body. You need to drink water which we all know - but don't put processed foods in your body. I have stopped drinking pop, juice, alcohol, coffee and have limited my beverages to organic skim milk and good old water. I don't eat processed white flour anymore. I don't eat hardly any food that's been processed. I only eat whole wheat bread w/ whole grains, fresh fruits, fresh veggies, lean meats, proteins, such as egg whites, legumes, and brown rice. Sometimes to add variety I'll eat protein bars or protein shakes - but I carry the protein bars w/ me incase I get into a pinch where I'm hungry and there are no healthy choices. The weight is coming off and for the first time in years I feel good, tired sometimes from working out - but healthy overall. I know I used to drink a big coke and just keep going when I was tired and now I go to bed early when I'm tired. I'm fitting into clothes that I haven't fit into in years? Actually I don't remember when I weighed this amount because I'm guessing it must have been back in high school or shortly there after? I eat 5 times a day - I know there are a few people out there who have been worried that I must have been starving myself to be losing all this weight but that isn't the case. I'm actually able to run for short periods on the treadmill something I've never been able to do before. Not that I actually want to post my start weight and my current weight but my goal is about 63 pounds that I have left to lose. I've gone from a size 22/24 to a size 16. I just want to be a healthy parent for my child and since I'm going to be a single parent, I think having healthy attitudes toward eating and food is going to be important. I don't want to pass down my bad habits to a child. That is just not fair. I know this in not for everyone and this isn't about me trying to be 'perfect' it's about me being the best parent I can possibly be & if it means that I have to wait a little while to get started on my journey because I need to get my head in the right frame of mind and my body in shape then so be it. I know that w/ out the support of the Lord and my family I wouldn't be where I am today. I also know that I can do this! If anyone has specific questions or comments that they'd rather not put down for me in a comment because they are private please feel free to post a comment w/ your email addy attached and I'll email you!

I haven't really blogged much lately it's been more of a post here about prayer requests or something I've done on the weekends. More over not really thoughts on where I'm at with my adoption pursuit. I wanted to tell everyone about my weight loss because right now I know that I'm focusing on the weigh loss and I know that if I can make the weight loss happen, I can raise the money for my adoption and go through the what if's and what will I do. I guess what I'm trying to say is when I started my weight loss track on July 11th - I took a leap of faith & I was forced to trust in God, myself and EV my trainer that if I followed the path laid out for me that I would be able to do what I had started out to do. This does not mean that I'm planning on waiting till I've lost all 63 pounds before I send in my application. Just last night I re-read through my application and I want to send it in, but I'm still concerned about the financial aspects.

Inspiration... on Monday night and Tuesday night of this week, I spent time w/ IV. On Monday night my sister AJ has a volleyball team that she plays on and EV her husband is usually training people in the evenings so IV and I hang out at my house during volleyball (there is a strict no child policy at volleyball - I'm guessing it's a Mom's night away type of thing). IV inspires me and reminds me that it is my dream to be a parent and while I love being her Aunt and I love her more than she'll ever know - it tells me that I can't wait until I'm the mom. On Tuesday night was AJ & EV's anniversary of the first day that they met so I offered to watch IV so that they could have some couple time - a romantic dinner out! So IV spent the night at my house and she is just a joy to have around in all senses of the word Joy. She is learning her signs (all done, more, eat, drink), she's learned to say 'Manda', she can say 'icky' when I change her dirty diaper. She has started to stand on her own in the past few weeks. IV walks between furniture as many as 4-5 steps on her own. She loves the bath and I love doing her hair! I can not wait to be a mother to a child who needs one. IV shows me every day that I was meant to follow my dream of adopting and that when the time is right everything is just going to be wonderful. I believe it will be. I'm going to leave you with a quote that I found on one of the other blogs that I read this past week and some pictures of IV and IV & I together. May all of you be blessed.

This is right after IV had a bath and was all jammied up as I like to call it!





Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. ~Earl Nightingale

*IV always holds my hand when she falls asleep, it's one of the things that I love most about watching her... someday when she's older I can't wait to show her this picture and remind her just how much she is loved and how much love she gives as well.