Adoption Blog

We started an adoption blog. Check us out at One Day Closer.

Baby Talk

We have several friends who are pregnant or who have recently had a baby. Sawyer and Jax have been asking for a baby sister for a while now, so the fact that most of their friends are getting baby brothers and sisters only adds to their desire. The following is a conversation I had with Jax yesterday over lunch.

Jax: I have a baby in my tummy.

Me: You can't have a baby in your tummy. Only mommies can have babies in their tummies.

Jax: Oh! (l00king at my stomach) Let me see the baby!

Me: Well, I don't have one in my tummy right now. Mommy is not having a baby.

Jax: Put a baby in your tummy, Mommy!

Me: No, I am not going to have a baby. Mrs. Megan has a baby in her tummy and Mrs. Lea does, too.

Jax: I want to see Mrs. Lea's baby.

Me: We will see him soon. He is Elli's baby brother.

Jax: I want my baby sister. Mommy. Where is my baby sister?

Me: She is not in my tummy.

Jax: Ok, I want her to be in my tummy.

Catfish Festival

We went to the catfish festival in Winnsboro with the Strain family last Saturday. Justin used to go every year when he was growing up, but the boys and I had never been.The kids got their faces painted. Sawyer didn't want to get his done until he saw that Jax got a sucker when he was finished.

They had fun listening to Big Al Cherry. Sarah and Jax loved dancing. I tried to post a video, but it isn't working. If you go to my Facebook you can see it.


The boys ate huge corn dogs and we all shared a huge lemonade. Justin and I had the catfish. This picture of Sawyer was taken not long before he threw up all over my leg. Besides that little incident we all had a great time. When we got back to Monroe the kids played in Todd and Megan's backyard. We ended the day with dinner at Danken Trail and ice cream at Eskimos. They were filthy and exhausted after a long napless day. I think we all slept well that night.

Step of Faith

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling, God sets the lonely in families..." Psalm 68:5-6

When Justin and I decided that we would like to become parents, things did not quite go as planned. We decided to be foster parents while we waited for God to give us a child. We knew there were many children who needed a loving home and we had one, so it just made since for us. We instantly fell in love with the sweet children who were placed in our home. I remember praying one day and telling God that I was completely o.k. if we were never able to have biological children. I thought we would adopt all of our children and that was fine with me. Little did I know that I was pregnant with Sawyer.

The Lord has blessed us with our two boys and we are so thankful to Him for this, but the desire to adopt has not gone away. I remember tucking Sawyer in bed when he was about 2 years old and listening to him thank God for every member of his extended family and for all of his friends. It struck me how awesome it was to have so many people who loved our children. We know full well that there are children who do not have that. There are an estimated 145 million orphans in our world today. These children go to bed each night without a list of people who love and care for them. These children have no one to call "mommy" or "daddy". These children whom God created in His image may never hear of His love.

Now that we are settled into our new home and the boys are not babies anymore, we have been talking about adding another child to our family. We feel that God is calling us to do this through international adoption. We went to an Adoption for Life conference in February that was just what we needed to motivate us to take the first step. For the last few weeks we have been talking to adoption agencies, home study agencies, and adoptive parents. We hope to apply very soon and get this process started. We don't really know when or how we will adopt, but we know God wants us to step out in faith and trust Him with the rest. We are going to start an adoption blog soon, so that our friends and family can follow our journey to baby Bufkin #3.

Birthday Boy!

Sawyer turned 4 on Friday. We had a great weekend celebrating his birthday. I must say he has been talking about his birthday for the past few months and I think it lived up to his expectations. Now, Jax is ready for his birthday. I guess we will planning his for the next 6 months. Oh, to be a kid again. The festivities began on Thursday. I made ice cream cone cupcakes for Sawyer's party at MDO.
Then on Friday, his actual birthday, we had a birthday breakfast together. Sawyer requested pancakes and Justin made them for him. I added the syrup, whip cream, and m&ms. This was quite a treat compared to his normal breakfast of cheerios and bananas.
My Grandma made both of these cakes for Sawyer's party. He wanted a Geo Trax cake. They turned out really cute.
This picture was taken before Sawyer decided to "help" decorate. He added a few things to the cake and this Mommy was not happy. I heard him tell Justin on the phone, "I tried to add some stuff to the cake, but mommy didn't like it." We were able to salvage it for the most part.
Sawyer's party was at Bayou Gymnastics on Saturday. He had a blast playing with his friends. The staff did a great job and I just sat back and enjoyed the party.
I can't believe my Sawyer is 4.
He was so cute when it came time to blow out his candles. He blew them out one at a time.
We decided to stop by Johnny's on the way home for Sawyer's favorite meal. I think he ate about 5 pieces of pizza! The Steven's joined us and it was great to catch up with them.
We ended the exciting weekend with a trip to the circus. I think Jax would like to join the circus. The entire time he kept saying, "I want to ride that horse. I want to jump on that trampoline (the trapeze). I want to play with the elephant." He was thrilled that he got to meet a real clown. Sawyer was not a fan of the clowns, but he liked his light up sword.

Super Bowl Sunday!

We tried to take a few pics of the boys before the Super Bowl. We were all so excited to cheer on the saints.
Here is Sawyer's intimidation face. I am pretty sure this is part of the reason the Saints won.
Sawyer kept saying, "this is a really special day." When I tucked Sawyer in bed last night and was walking out of the room, he yelled, "Everybody say go saints! Everybody say go super bowl!"
Here is Sawyer showing his excitement before the game. Jax on the other hand was cheering on the penguins! Go Saints! Go Penguins! It was a special night indeed.

Smitten

Ashley, Austin, and Baby Charlotte came to visit last week. Jax was quite smitten with little Lottie! He seriously could not keep his hands or his lips off of her. Right after she got here he looked right at her and said, "You no no leave, Lottie! You no go home." He really wanted to keep her, but Ashley and Austin just wouldn't have it. He also said he wanted her to sleep in his crib.
In the morning we let him hold her for a picture. He was so excited! I honestly think he got more excited about holding her than he did about opening gifts on Christmas morning. No lie! He loves babies, especially Miss Lottie. My mom also visited this weekend and he told her all about holding Lottie to take a picture. When he found the baby in the King Cake he said, "Look it's baby Lottie in the cake."
I hope the Perry's visit again soon, because my baby boy is smitten with their sweet baby daughter and so are we.

New Year Interview

I decided to interview my children at the beginning of the new year. I want to do this every year to see how their answers change. I saw this on someone else's blog and thought it was a cute idea. Sawyer is 3.5 years and Jax is 2 years old. Jax is a very sarcastic little 2 year old, so many of his answers are just silly.

What is your name? S: Sawyer J: Jaxon
When were you born? S: Marchcember (guess we need to work on the months of the year) J: I don't know
How old are you? S:3 J:2
Who is your mommy? S:you (looking at me) J: "Merdit"
Who is your daddy? S: My daddy is called Justin J: Buzz Lightyear (laughing)
What does your Mommy do? S: cleans the house J: watch a movie
What do you love about Mommy? S: I love giving hugs and kisses to you. J: Jesus
What does your daddy do? S: He tries to trick me. J: goes on airplanes
What do you love about Daddy? S:when he lays down with me J:muffins
What is your favorite color? S:blue J: red and yellow
What do you want to be when you grow up? S: an ambulance driver J: a firetruck ( guess we will be well taken care of in an emergency)
What is your favorite food? S Macaroni in my tummy J: marshmallows
What food do you not like? S: rice J: dog food
What is your favorite animal? S:elephants and monkeys J: cow and zebra
Where do you want to live when you grow up? S:in an ambulance truck J:at Texas
What do mommy and daddy do after you go to bed? S: get me water J: give me spankings (we have been having some bedtime battles lately that sometimes end up in Jax getting a spanking. We do not go in and spank our children when they are asleep.)
What is your favorite song? S: Father Abraham J:ABCDEFG
What is your favorite movie? S: Bolt and High School Musical J: Nemo (don't even know if he has seen this movie. He loves toy story and I am pretty sure it is his actual fave movie)
What is your favorite kind of ice cream? S: chocoalte J: chocolate chip
Where is your favorite place to eat? S: Johnny's Pizza!!! J: Johnny's Pizza!!!
Who is your favorite person? S: Jesus J: Miranda, Ethan, and Phil (sorry Aunt Sam)
Who is your best friend? S: Jolie J: Jolie, Preston, Sarah, Ellie, Bubba ( he kept naming all of his friends, until I went on to the next question)
What is your favorite toy? S: tool bench J: chipmunk (he got a chipmunks toy in his happy meal last week)
What is your favorite book? S: Dr.Seuss J: Miranda book (I have no idea what this means)
Who is your brother? S: Jax Jax J: Jolie and Sarah (laughing)
What do you like to do with your brother? S: I like reading books to him. J: playing geotrax
What is your favorite thing to do? S: jump J: play on the playground
What does your brother like to do? S: jump J: play airplanes

I had so much fun doing this with the boys. I think it's great that the only question they answered the same is that they like to eat Johnny's pizza. I can't wait to see how they change this year.

Our Jesse Tree

Last year around the holidays I attended a wonderful Women's Ministry Event at our church. It was an all day event for women of all ages and there were various classes available that were all focused on the holidays. I went to one about holiday entertaining and easy holiday desserts among others. One of the classes I went to was all about the Jesse tree. I had never heard of a Jesse tree, so I was interested to learn more about it. Basically, it is a special tree that may be set up during the Advent Season. Each day you read a Bible Story from the old testament and add a new ornament to the tree. The tree is name after David's Father, Jesse, and is based on the verse "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots," Basically it is a family tree for Jesus. I thought it was such a good idea and something I would love to do with our family. Last year the boys were a little young, but this year I decided to go ahead and start this new tradition.
I searched the internet and found a lot of resources. You can order ornaments, devotions, etc. What I discovered is that there is really no wrong way to do it. I saw beautiful homemade ornaments and at first I was quite intimidated. I am not crafty at all and really don't have the time to make elaborate ornaments. I almost chose to just skip it, but then it hit me that the look of the tree is not what matters. What matters is that I am teaching my children about what this season is truly about. I am so excited to teach them about the family of Jesse and all the people through history who helped prepare the world for the coming of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

We decided to do our Jesse tree every night before the boys go to bed. Last night we read about creation. We actually didn't read the first 2 chapters of Genesis. We pretty much looked at a story in their children's Bible and discussed creation. The boys are pretty familiar with the story, so they helped tell it. I was surprised at how much Jax got into this part. He kept saying, "God made clouds. God made animals. God made trees."

Next, I let Jax put the first ornament on the tree. I just bought a little tree at Hobby Lobby, but you can do any kind of tree or branch. Sawyer colored a creation picture. I decided that every night we will alternate with one boy coloring and the other hanging the ornament.

Here is our tree with one little ornament. I just printed these little pictures of an earth for our first ornament. Tonight I will let them hang the picture of Adam and Eve that they color. There really is no uniform idea as to how we will do our ornaments. We are just going to do the best we can to make it personal and special for the boys.

Sawyer asked me today why our tree only had one ornament and I told him that we will add one every night until Christmas. I told him that tonight we would learn about Adam and Eve. He said, "Adam and Eve didn't listen. We shouldn't learn about them, because they made bad choices." I told him that we can learn from people's bad choices so it will be ok. He is too funny sometimes.