Just Because I Always Want To Remember....

How I felt at this moment I wanted to type this. The last 48 hours of my life have been the most amazing, scary, joyful, prayerful, uplifting, and crazy hours of my life. In that time, I truly learned what it means to get out of God's way. I learned how much I love my wonderful, amazing husband. I got to see (once again) how much I am blessed with my three biological children and how loving and accepting that they can be. I got to see how God takes your heart that is already so full of love and adds another spot for another child. I got to see that even though I didn't give physical birth to Mary Elizabeth, that I already love her like I did. I am so blessed. So incredibly blessed.

More pics...

Ok, so the connection in the hotel is not so great, but we are going to get more pics up if we can.....

By the way, I just LOVE her hair...can't wait to get some bows (Ali, I forgot them!)

From 3 to 4

Anna wanted to share with everyone about her big day! From Anna:

Today I got to meet my baby sister. She's very tiny and she has lots of hair. I can't wait to take her home on Monday (hopefully). We found out we could come and meet her yesterday and mommy and daddy have named her Mary Elizabeth Freeman. She was born August 7th and was very early and tiny....she only weighed 1 pound 6 ounces, but now she weighs 4 pounds 3 ounces. Here I am when I got to see her for the first time:

From Brea:

Can you tell Anna is super excited! Mary Elizabeth is so cute but so tiny. We are just so overwhelmed and SO BLESSED. We can't wait for everyone to see our new little girl. We are exhausted and have a big day tomorrow so here are the close up pics and I promise to post more as we get a chance:

Anna's 1st Visit to the ER

After our eventful day at High School Musical on ice, I didn't think we could have any more drama...boy was I wrong!

About 9pm on Sunday night (the 16th), Anna came in our room hysterical saying that her head hurt. Jonathan had literally just gotten in from the airport (he had been out of town since Friday). The only time she gets sick is usually with strep so I knew something was up, especially when she couldn't stop crying and whispered to me that she felt like she could pass out. After about 30 minutes, we decided to head to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. We dropped the boys off at my sister's house (thanks Ali and Josh for watching them) and spent the next four hours receiving the most expensive dose of Motrin ever. I was very frustrated that they literally did nothing, but also glad that they didn't feel it was serious.

Yes, I had my camera in my purse from HSM so I had to snap this pic:

After two more days of horrible headaches and an MRI at Vanderbilt, they prescribed some meds and diagnosed her with migraines. Needless to say it was a fun week!

High School Musical On Ice

Anna and I got to have an official girl's day on September 16th! For her 9th birthday, I got her tickets on the second row to High School Musical on ice (thanks to Angie for scoring those amazing tickets!)

We started the day off by going to Opry Mills and hitting the Disney Store outlet. Anna really wanted a Minnie Mouse costume for Disney and she found the perfect one there. Next, we headed to McDonalds on Broadway for some lunch where we met Margaret and John (Angie's sister and nephew). Then it was on to the Sommet Center and HSM! Anna was SO excited and to be honest, it was truly a GREAT show. I really enjoyed it as much as her....it was amazing that all those people could not only dance and act so great, but to be on ice skates to boot. Here is a pic of Anna during the intermission:

It was a great day and I loved having Anna all to myself!

Consignment Sale

I am working backwards from my list I posted last week....so the first thing I wanted to post about is the consignment sale. Many have emailed and asked "how did it go?" It went great...pure and simple. Yes, our sales were down just a bit but honestly, I really don't think consignors felt it because it was mainly the new boutique and Gymboree clothing where we noticed the sales being down. I think the fact that it was FREAKING HOT was what affected that the most....everyone tries to blame it on Davidson County going to dress code, but I honestly don't think that affected our sales much at all (if any). Kids still need clothing other than uniforms for weekends and Christmas break.

So what are my goals for the Spring 2008 sale? Well, I have a bunch of them. First and foremost, to find a bigger space. 500 consignors stuff stuffed into 8,000 square feet just isn't working. We need at least 10,000 sq. ft. and even more if we can find it. We need good lighting and plenty of parking. Other than that, I'm not picky. Keep your eyes and ears open for a space that fits that description in the Rivergate/Hendersonville area and I promise you, we will take care of you if you can help us out.

Second priority, to give more back. We already offer the 40 hour worker program which allows people to get paid for their volunteer work, but we piloted a new program with the Long Hollow Baptist MOPS group and another group this sale. We gave back. Both groups had to have at least 10 people consign and in return, we gave each consignors $8 fee back to the group plus a percentage of their sales which was based on how many consigned. I think it worked pretty great except that it was a paperwork nightmare and I am just now getting checks out to these two groups. What will I do differently? Honestly, not much except to sponsor more groups. I will know what to do and what not to do for the Spring 2008 sale so that I can have the checks for these groups at the same time I mail the consignor checks. So if you have a group that needs funds email me....all I require is that they are local and they have something worthwhile to use the funds for. We gave over $1,000 to these two groups so it definitely can help a group out!

Third priority, to get more organized. I think the sale itself is pretty well organized but we are looking at ways to get even more organized behind the scenes. A couple of things will accomplish this including:
1. Computerized Check-In. All the consignor will do is sign the waiver and be given their passes...the rest will be computerized where the person signing the consignor in will update all their information on the computer while they stand there. This will also allow us to send an email to all the consignors reminding them about pick-up and re-stock drop-off.
2. A program that allows consignors to see what they are selling during the sale. Something like My Consignment Manager (for those of you that are familiar with that). It allows you to print your cards out at home (therefore, no transposing numbers), consignors can see what they did not sell so they will know if they have something missing during pick-up, AND you will get your checks at pick-up.
3. Hiring some help. Getting a couple of my 40 hour +++ workers on payroll so that I can have someone to answer the phone calls after the sale, respond to emails and help get checks out (without us being up til 2am to get this done)

Will all this happen for the 2008 sales? I hope so but no promises. It will happen though and hopefully it will make our sale that much better!

6 Months and a day

First, a happy belated birthday to Chris Thomas...congrats on joining the big 3-0 club my brother!

Yesterday was 6 months since we started the adoption process. 6 months ago we had returned the day before from Disney with Kim and Chris and just knew it was the time to request information from the Bethany Christian Services website.

Six months later we had returned the day before from Disney with our family and I think deep down I just knew we would get THE call.

It was a really hard day although I think I did pretty good not showing it. THANKS to Kim, Candy, Angie, and Kelly for making me answer the phone throughout the day. It was definitely one of those days where I could have stayed in the bed all day.

Today is a new day....I am getting out of the house and promising to finally update this blog later tonight so check back tomorrow! GOD IS IN CONTROL!