Reflecting

Obviously I am not good about keeping our blog up to date, but I do want to remember the craziness of our lives at this stage! Our kids are growing up. Darrin graduates from high school in 6 days! I am happy and excited for him and feeling ever so proud of myself for what I accomplished too. It wasn't easy being a young single mom, I had my mom and dad who I am forever grateful for their love and support. I could not have done it without them. And of course my wonderful husband who became a part of our lives when Darrin was just 20 months old. We faced a lot of challenges those first few years and now we are watching our oldest graduate and begin the next chapter of his life, it is amazing. When you are younger it is hard to imagine 20 years later and now here we almost are. It is pretty hard to wrap your brain around. When the kids were all little it was hard. Everything was hard, grocery shopping, cleaning, walking the endless halls at church, you wonder if it ever gets better. It most definitely does but we are just busy in different ways. I spend more time in the car than I do at home. There is baseball practice, football practice, band practice, birthday parties, trips to the ER, and it goes on and on! The best part is watching my kids grow up and the people they are becoming. In 18 months we will have 4 teenagers, that is scary! Well technically Darrin will be 20 by then which is even scarier. I love that we still have our little ones at home too. As we prepare for our older ones to begin lives of their own we still have the joy and excitement that comes with starting school, losing your first tooth, learning to ride a bike and all the other joys of childhood. It is great.  We have had 2 foster placements in the last 2 months, it has been a crazy emotional journey but one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences of my life. My kids have been wonderful, they are accepting and loving and helpful in all ways when it comes to the babies. It has been heart warming to watch them develop a tenderness for these sweet kids. I am asking alot of them too when it comes to loving them and then having to let go. I will never say that it is easy because it's absolutely gut wrenching but to see my kids develop and show compassion and unconditional love is worth it. Summer is fast approaching and we have no plans. The plans we started to make got thwarted by a trip to the ER and a cast so the beach will have to wait! Kyle will be in summer school until mid July so it looks like we will be close to home this year. Hopefully we will be able to make a quick trip to CA before the crazy football season starts. I have a plan to keep my kids busy, I just have to implement it and stick to it but I am looking forward to it. I want to be more involved with them and I think I have found a fun way to do that I just have to work on it. Hopefully it leads to a lot more being done around the house and a lot more fun together. We shall see.