Doesn't get much better....

than fishing with your daddy at Center Hill Lake at dusk. He caught croppy, I didn't catch crap. It was still awesome tonight!

Who Am I?

I was relaxing in a hot bath this morning with bubbles, candles burning and a nice glass of freshly squeezed juice......who am I kidding? Actually, I was taking my three minutes of peace bath this morning and it hit me full force that God created ME. We all know that, we're taught that from an early age, but do we ever stop to thank him for our body, our mind, our soul, our heart? I am bad about constantly complaining about my weight, my hair, my cankles (not a calf, not an ankle...it's a cankle), my boobs, my headaches, my funky spot on my nose, my stomach, etc. when in fact, GOD MADE ME!!!!!!!! Although I have sinned about a million times since he created me, he loves me the way I am and I am forgiven. So why shouldn't I love myself the way I am?

James 1: 18 "In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his choice possession."

James was writing this to the Jewish Christians that were spread out among the different nations. If you get a chance today, read James 1: 1-18....it really spoke to me today. My goal today is to try not to be so hard on myself.

This should tell you about my day so far....

A few things to consider before going to a walk in facility or the ER:

1* if you need a dentist, please go to the dentist. Do not go to the walk in doctor's office and/or ER wanting pain meds for your teeth. Chances are you won't get it. Go to a dentist.

2*if you can't afford your pain medicine, I can't help you. I've given you all my samples and more than likely you are the person that calls me 40 times a day complaining about the fact that you don't have the money to get your scripts filled and you drive us nuts anyway....so save the breath, save the phone call....this is not the bank. I can't help you.

3*if you have any type of venereal disease and it's confirm that after testing your blood for it, PLEASE save yourself the trouble and don't act like you don't know where you got it. If you do know where you got it, we don't need to know. We just need you to know you have it and we really hope that for the sake of the population at large that you will treat it.

4*if you have dental pain, please read line 1.

5*if you want us to fill out 32 forms for you to take a leave of abscence for your "back pain", please consider being nice when you ask us to do this for you. We are a walk in facility, not your primary care doctor. We would love for you to go to a primary care doctor since we are an walk in clinic and usually "back pain" is not that urgent.

6*if you show up at 8:15am and can see the BIG sign on the door that says we open at 8:30am, please don't act upset that I opened the door at 8:30am. It's not my fault that you were early. I was on time.

7*if you have dental pain, I have a great dentist in the Rivergate area that I would be happy to refer you to. I am sorry you don't have dental insurance, but guess what, today that is not my problem.

8*if you don't want to wait to see the doctor, I am really sorry, but that is a decision you are making, not me. Trust me when I say I am working my tail off to get you back to the see the doctor as soon as possible, but when I have a person on line one yelling at me about her worker comp papers, line two wants to know why they should have to pay their bill, and you are in my face about the fact that you have waited in your chair for four minutes, you really aren't helping to speed things up. I have been going to doctors for almost 30 years and trust me when I say, if you can find a doctor where you don't wait, I want his/her phone number.

I am working hard on not judging today....I am definitely being tempted.

Adoption Talk

One of the things I have learned in our adoption process so far is how to use the correct terms for adoption. I was used to saying "she gave her baby up for adoption" when I should be saying "she formed an adoption plan for her child." Sounds silly, but it really is important that adoption be viewed in a positive light because it is. What do you think of when you think of a birthmom? I was guilty of thinking that most birthmoms were 13 year olds that got knocked up. The reality is that the average birthmom that chose an adoption plan for her child last year at Bethany Christian Services was 24! If you think about our culture today and how easy it is to just take the morning after pill (trust me, it is easy to do and most health departments don't think much about it anymore b/c it is so common) or go have an abortion, we should truly be putting these women in the spotlight. Yes, they have had pre-marital sex....but they are choosing LIFE for their child. How many people do you know that have had an abortion because they didn't want the baby, didn't want their family to know they were pregnant, etc? I personally know three people and although the decision they made was years ago, it greatly affects them just as much today. Birthmothers are just that...they are no less of a mother because they were selfless enough to give their child a better life. They still get swollen ankles, back pain, indigestion, crave weird foods, wear maternity clothes....the only difference is that they don't go home with a baby. They go home with swollen boobs, post-delivery belly, daily reminders of the fact that they don't have a baby at home with them. Think of how many times you see a pregnant woman and ask them when they are due? what they are having? picked out names yet? Birthmothers deal with the same questions and trying to decide how much info to share. They deal with questions from ignorant, nosy people like "why would you just give your baby up?" or "why didn't you just have an abortion?" Think of what they deal with day in and day out.

I guess I just feel that whether or not God gives us another child, we have already learned so much. My eyes have been opened to another world that many of us don't think about b/c we aren't faced with it. I hope that I have helped open your eyes too....our adoption experience is not just ours, it is yours as well....it will affect everyone we know. My prayer today is to try not to judge...it is still very difficult for me especially in my work environment, but I try to remind myself that it is not our place to judge and that helps.

YARD SALE RESULTS

I have had a ton of emails wanting to know about the yard sale so I thought I would post it here. We had so many wonderful families donate to the cause and I wanted to take a minute to say a special thanks to the Russell family, Andrews family, Horton family, Carman family, Jonathan's parents, my parents, all the awesome craigslist people who donated stuff to help raise funds. My dear mom, Angie, Jonathan and I started about 6am on Saturday morning and finally packed up around 2pm Saturday afternoon. Final count? $850!!! We are very excited and immediately stuck the money in our adoption savings account.

On top of that, we received an email from our agency this morning stating that they had "several" african american babies due in the next few weeks and not enough families, so we are really trying to speed things up! The director even told me today that they would start showing our profile as soon as all reference letters are received which is a huge blessing! They usually won't show a profile until all interviews and training is completed so we are really excited. I am going to start working on our "PROFILE" tomorrow night and have gotten lots of great ideas from Bethany's web forums. I can't wait to put together the book that the birthmom will read. Isn't that exciting!

Isn't it amazing that God created another child for us? Aren't we blessed that he loves Jonathan, Anna, Isaac, Luke and I so much that he wants to give us another child! Even though I am really getting excited, the peace that is within me is amazing. You would think I would be completely stressed out with everything that is going on but instead I feel like I am just as cool as a cucumber.

I have mentioned the following verse a few times before when it comes to our adoption journey. I continue to come back to this verse over and over again. I hope it will give you all peace today!

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Best Birthday Present Ever....PART 2

Yeah, I know...I promised this several days ago, but give me a break people. I am adopting a kid, moving in three weeks and it's a holiday weekend. Glad to know you are reading though and truly, I am just kidding, my lazy butt should have posted sooner!

Ok, so best birthday present ever....part dos. My dear, wonderful hubby is an amazing man...great dad, great laundry doer (yes, he does the laundry-another post on another day), awesome Christian leader, etc. One of the things he lacks is a good gift giver. Now, I don't mean to sound harsh...but if a TLC crew stopped him on the street one day and said, "name one thing you suck at?" he would immediately answer "giving my wife gifts." I am not kidding.

One mother's day he gave me a book on how to be a better wife and mother. He didn't do this on purpose. He was running late and just grabbed a book. Note to self, check the theme of the book before wrapping. At any rate, with the big 30 rapidly approaching as well as our 10th anniversary (yes, I have put up with sucky gifts for 10+ years but hey, I still love ya baby), he wanted to really prove that a great gift could be done. So let's set the stage.

Three or four years ago, we went on a cruise with my mom and dad, their best friends Patti and Ronnie and our friends, Walt and Lisa. After getting one of the worst sunburns of my life on day one, we headed indoors on day two. Now, this is a little embarressing, but hey, I shoot for the 100% honesty so here goes. We went to an art auction. Not because we liked art (heck, we knew NOTHING about it) but because there was free champagne. Sad but true.

So we go to the art auction, sunburned and thirsty with Walt and Lisa and the art director on board was amazing. I learned so much in the next two hours and believe it or not, I only took one sip of the SUCKY champagne. I learned about Picasso, Monet, abstract, but most importantly, I fell in love with an artist named Carrie Graber. Her work was amazing (she mainly paints women, CLOTHED women) but what struct me so much was her shading and the fact that she was my age. Her talent is AMAZING and you can't help but just sit and stare at her work (at least I couldn't) I was dying to buy a print, but the PRINTS were $1400 so alas, I loved her work from afar.

When we got home, I immediatly bought a book about her work and dropped hints about how much I would love to have a Graber. We tried to find galleries here in Nashville that showcased her work (there are none) and I watched ebay trying to find some sucker needing money and selling a piece cheaper than normal (didn't happen)

A year later, we went on the same cruise again with the promise that if they had the work I loved, we would buy it. We found out it was sold out. I was super sad but happy to have saved $1400 for the PRINT.

Fast forward to the gift. My husband (ON HIS OWN) contacted the gallery that represents Carrie and had her commission an original oil on canvas of my favorite piece. Since it was sold out, she couldn't replicate it, but I actually like my version better. It is called Finishing Touches and the biggest difference in the one on my wall and the one in the link is that mine has a lamp and a hanger on the bed. It arrived a few months ago with a note from Carrie to me. The best part is that she threw in a PRINT of one of her new works....which is hanging in my dining room.

Now, you might not love Graber's work like I do, but I think anyone can appreciate the amount of time and effort my hubby put into the best gift I ever got. I love you Jonathan and thank you!

The Best Birthday Present Ever....

The big 30 for me is June 23rd and we found out last night we are closing on our new house June 22nd and moving the 23rd!!! So I get my sister in the neighborhood on my 30th birthday. How awesome is that? Oh, and Jonathan, you really did give me the best birthday present ever. I will put the "story" on here later today so you get all the credit and all the ladies swooning over you!

Cancer

Just typing that word makes me scared...

I don't like cancer. I have known too many people with it and I have lost several friends to it. And now I might have it.

I went to the doctor today about the lovely spot on my nose. He thinks it is either very advanced pre-cancerous, but more than likely the early stages of skin cancer. He also found a spot on my forehead. I start a chemotherapy cream TODAY which I will use 5 days a week for the next 6 weeks. I go back in July to see if the cream has helped. It will only help if it is pre-cancerous. If it is indeed cancer (and he thinks it's cancer because it is deep), I will have to have surgery. NOT FUN. He said this particular spot is difficult to do surgery on only because there is no extra skin so when they remove the spot, they have to do reconstructive surgery at the same time. GOODY. Do you think they can jack my boobs up at the same time?

As soon as I came home, I hit the word and this is what I found. I have always loved this passage and it immediately made me feel better today reading back through it.

Philippians 4:6-7
Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you NEED, and thank HIM for ALL he has done. If you do this, you will experience GOD'S PEACE, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Phone Call #2

I actually got this phone call yesterday...this one won't be quite as funny, but goes to show you the average IQ of the people that call on a regular basis.

Phone rings and I answer in my sweet urgenty care type voice, "Urgent Care this is Brea!" A sweet lady starts to explain to me how she was JUST in with strep throat a few days prior. When she came in to see the physician, she brought her daughter in the room with her even though she was the only one being seen. After testing positive for strep, the doctor examined her daughter's throat and found that she, too, had strep throat. He wrote the mom enough prescriptions for both her and her daughter, even though TECHNICALLY we didn't see the daughter (are you following me so far? If not, back up to the beginning and start over) She went on to tell me that he had even given her a script for cough medicine (by the way, I still haven't figured that out, but ok). After she explains ALL OF THIS TO ME in her sweet little voice, she then says, "I am calling to see if you can phone in my daughter the same cough syrup." I politely tell her that I need to get the daughter's chart and I put her on hold. I spend the next five minutes trying to find the daughter's chart (I can't), trying to find the daughter's file in the computer (I can't) AND then I finally pick up the phone and say (in my nice urgenty care voice), "Mam, I am not finding your daughter in the system, has she been here before?" She says, "well, no, but I was hoping he could phone in this prescription for her." I explain to her that it is against the law for us to phone in a script for someone we have never TECHNICALLY seen and that she will need to bring her daughter in. She sits there and there is DEAD SILENCE and just when I am about to say something, she says (in her nice sweet voice), "ok, well let me back up. I was calling to see if you could refill MY cough syrup!"

What rock does she think I live under?

The best part, when I pulled her chart after I told her NO and hung up...she works in a doctor's office as a nurse.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm

My Favorite Calls at the Clinic

I guess I knew when I signed up to work at the Urgent Care clinic that I would be getting tons of new material, but I am amazed every day at what I am presented with at work. I think I will take this week and post one of my favorite phone calls each day. Below is my favorite phone call thus far:

Phone rings and I answer "Urgent Care, this is Brea" in my pleasant phone answering voice. I hear "Yeah, Uh (pause), Do you guys test for transexually mitted diseases?" I pause as I am annoyed because I am SURE this is someone playing a practical joke so I proceed to say "Excuse Me?" in my best this is not a good day to be messing with me voice. He then preceeds to say, "oh, uh, yeah (pause), I was just calling to see if you test for transexually mitted diseases?" I then realize that he is NOT joking...he really wants to know if we do testing for this. I don't know what concerns me more...the fact that this person is having sex or the fact that he thinks it is really called that. I tell him "yes, we do" in my pleasant phone answering voice and hang up shaking my head.

We're getting a new neighbor....

and I am SOOOO excited...it's my sister and her husband!! (and baby Maggie and Dexter the dog)

So which house did they buy you ask? Well, they bought ours and we bought a house on the next street over. Yes, you read it correct...we are moving into house #5. WHAT??!?!!?

Totally a God thing which I WILL blog about right now. SO here is the story:

I called Katie Carman last week and left her a voicemail. As I hung up, she called me back not realizing I had just called. She was asking me where a Goodwill drop-off place was and I told her to bring it to our house as we were having the yard sale. THANKS KATIE! Anyway, later that afternoon I checked voicemail on my cell phone and it was Katie telling me that there was a yard sale right up from my house with a TON of baby stuff. So I went...and come to find out, the lady that lives there is the developer of our subdivision's daughter. She has twins that are 8 months old and she was at the POTATO meeting I spoke at last week. Small world huh? We talked and talked and I told her I had heard that her mom and dad were thinking about moving. She said that they weren't sure, but that her brother was definitely going to move. I asked her about the house and gave her my number to give to him. He called that night, we went and looked and loved it and began seriously praying about it. Fast forward to Saturday, we took our family to see it and they all loved it. Kept praying. Sunday morning Alie and Josh told us they wanted our house and so now we are all moving. Yes, the Freeman's are going to take over Victoria Place. Yes, we have lost our minds, but hey, life is REALLY FUN at our house!

So the new house is the next street over. Two years old....four bedrooms, soon to be 3 1/2 baths (we are thinking we are going to have him go ahead and put a third bath in the basement-he's a builder too), big bonus room, HUGE open rooms and a laundry room that is the size of my current master bedroom. I am not kidding, the laundry room ROCKS!!!

Don't worry, we won't hit anybody up to help us move, we are hiring the same guys that moved us 18 months ago. Just promise you will come hang out in our new digs.

I can't wait to have my sister and her husband one street over (in my house!!) The kids are so excited they can't see straight and the thought of her new baby Maggie and our soon to be adopted new child growing up together is AWESOME!!!

Welcome to the neighborhood!

Good friends....get you some!

Don't you just love a fun night out with friends? We went to dinner tonight with our buds Ray and Katie and had SO MUCH FUN! Seriously! GOOD TIMES!

I got into this deep thought once I got home because I stumbled across an old friend's blog. I hit some scripture for a while and then I came back to the computer to type this. We had a parting of ways almost a year ago and it made me a little sad to read her blog tonight as I do miss her, even though our friendship wasn't healthy anymore. Letting that friendship go was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life....Isn't it amazing how we can get so close to people who take so much out of you? And I think for a long time I liked being needed so much. And then I realized that there is a difference between a healthy give and take friendship and a free ride. And I still feel guilty for ending the friendship even though I KNOW I did the right thing...

Sometimes the right thing hurts and sometimes you miss your unhealthy relationships.

AND then you go out with your good friends who would never dream of completely taking advantage of you and you forget about that sad ending until you stumble on the blog again a few months from now.

Proverbs 18:24 There are "friends" who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother

How could I ask for more....

Anna had field day at school today and was brown as a biscuit when she got off the bus. She ran inside and was so excited that she had a mother's day gift for me (I convinced her to let me wait to open the gift) but she wanted me to go ahead and read this....

THIS is DEFINITELY going in the scrapbook....

Brea

Kind, sweet, cute, fine

Mother of Anna, Isaac, Luke

Lover of Dad, Jesus, chocolate

Who feels proud of us when we are wise

Who fears snakes, us growing up

Who wants to be fine, nice

Who would like to be a grandma and adopt

Freeman

This is the best gift ever! I love you Anna!

My Girls

I just had to share these two pictures....I found the first one of my best friend Kim and I on my computer tonight as I was trying to print off photos for scrapbooking. This picture was taken on Christmas Eve at church with our girls, Anna and McKinley. I LOVE THIS PIC!

The one below was taken by my best friend Angie and is a pic of her little girl, Alexandra, and her niece Katy. She bought the outfit today at Gymboree for Alexandra and I just love this picture...I have watched in awe as Katy has grown into a beautiful young lady! Isn't this a cute pic!! I LOVE IT!

Just had to share some pics of my girls! :)

Update

Ok, so I have had people asking me what happened at the meeting? How are the migraines?

Well, here is the quick and easy update and I will post more later.

Meeting was AWESOME...Jonathan and I learned so much and even got our formal application turned in yesterday (Tuesday). It took us less than 4 days which is a miracle...trust me, they want a TON of information. We actually had our first training Monday night which was also great. We are trying to decide about doing a yard sale to help raise some $$ to offset some of the costs (it will cost around $20K total) so let me know if you have some CRAP you want to donate for the big event.

The migraines have been better...they started me on the new medicine last Monday (April 30) and on Thursday night (May 3), I broke out into a really strange rash. To make a LONG and painful story short, the rashes kept going until Saturday and then they turned into bruises. On Monday I saw a specialist and they did a biopsy to confirm that it truly is an allergic reaction to the Topomaz and not something more. To top it off, I tested positive for strep throat. They all warned me that I would pick up everything the first two months working at an Urgent Care, but boy, when it rains it pours. So I might be MIA for the next few days, but I'll get back soon! :)

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY

Yep, tomorrow we go to our first "official" meeting at Bethany Christian Services and it lasts 8 hours. 8 hours is enough to overwhelm me, regardless of topic! Seriously, Jonathan and I are pretty excited and we are also excited to have sort of a "date" day together without the kiddos. Tomorrow we get our formal application packet for the adoption so we will have a busy weekend trying to get all that information filled out.

So did I tell everyone that Isaac and Luke registered for kindergarten last Friday? Yes, you heard me...kindergarten!!! Seems like yesterday I was at the ultrasound where they told me it was twins and now they are ready for school. Where does time go? If that doesn't make me feel old enough, I spoke at my twins club on Tuesday night (POTATO-Parents of Twins and Triplets Organization) about scrapbooking. Although the meeting was great, it was really strange because I hadn't been at a meeting in over a year and when I walked in, I immediately remembered that when the boys were young, I always wondered why there weren't a lot of members with older sets of multiples at the meetings. It hit me Tuesday night that I was a member with an older set of multiples. Sure enough, the majority of the members there had babies. It was great to meet the new members and to share with them my passion of scrapbooking and journaling. People always tell you when your children are babies to enjoy them because the time will fly, but you don't believe it until you realize that suddenly five years HAS FLOWN BY and they were right. I am so thankful that Mindy Manuel taught me how to scrapbook 8 years ago because my books are so precious to me and without them, I wouldn't have a record of the wonderful lives of my children thus far.