Friday, October 31, 2008

One BIG HAPPY FAMILY!

I thank God today and every day for all the members of our family whether biological, adopted or a member of our family of Christ. We are just so blessed to have so many special & extraordinary people in our lives. Some may find our family odd, too large or even weird. The adoptions of our children have been a blessing in more ways than one. God has chosen to weave some wonderful relationships into our lives. ALL starting with the decision at my conception when God chose to place me with my adoptive parents aka "MY REAL PARENTS". I have been much more thankful for this than normal lately. WHY?? because if they would not have raised me... where would I be? I feel I would honestly be A MESS-I don't think I would have Christ in my life, I don't think I would have the heart for children and adoption that I do. So thanks to all of you who have accepted me, my children and the whole Keller Family that we have evolved into! Whether you are an aunt, uncle, cousin, brother, sister, parent or friend of ours-we thank God for you today for being part of our BIG HAPPY FAMILY!

Yesterday started super early as a family from our home school group (4 people total-mom, dad, brother and sister) came to watch the little ones as Tori and I set off for Wichita for a BUSY DAY! I was up, had lunch in the crock pot, instructions written out, clothes out for everyone, Brendan's school work for the day ready & bags packed. Tori got all her school work done on the way there. I miscalculated the time it would take to get to Wichita. I was to be there by NOON and realized quickly I was running WAY BEHIND! Luckily, so was the conference I was suppose to be at! We arrived about 12:15 and sat with Cristi, Loretta and Angie (my girls:) at The 2008 Kansas Governor's Conference For Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect. I received The 2008 Recognition Award from the KS Alliance For Drug Endangered Children for my advocacy work during the awards luncheon.


After I received my award, the MC of the lunch-Susan Peters of channel KAKE Wichita invited Victoria on stage with her (keep in mind this was a luncheon of around 400 people). She told Tori what a blessing she was and asked her how she felt to be blessed by adoption. Tori was so nervous and beet red-she froze up! So finally she asked what her favorite subject in school was and she blurted out "math!" and Tori doesn't like math much-very cute and TONS OF APPLAUSE! I hope and pray by exposing the kids to my advocacy work that they too will become advocates themselves for adoption one day & learn the importance of speaking up for things they are passionate about. We left right after the lunch-Tori got a special belated birthday gift from Cristi-THANKS CRISTI! Luckily we are learning how to write thank you notes in home school this week so that will come in handy!

Our next stop was at THE GAP to see my cousin Sarah! Tori was the flower girl at Sarah and Trenton's wedding this year and I know Tori will always think Sarah is "extra special" for that! Sarah helped us pick out some new duds for Tori and she also gave her a belated birthday gift! We loved seeing you Sarah, even if it was too short a visit!

Next stop to see some very special people in our lives.....Brendan, Tori and Wyatt's birth mom Abby and baby sister Arien.

We had a great visit with them and went to Abby's favorite hamburger joint. Tori had ice cream and french fries for dinner and we even tried FRIED OREOS for the first time YUM YUM!

It was so nice to see them and know that they are a part of our " BIG HAPPY FAMILY."

Look at that picture, these faces say it all-Here we ALL are, 2 moms with our girls, bonded 4 life by God's Grace. I am so thankful for her and I know she is also thankful for me. Words can't even describe what we have with one another. AMAZING!

Nick will be home today and will be off for several weeks on vacation-I AM SO GLAD!!!

5 comments:

Amie said...

That is one crazy busy and blessed day!!!! cute cute post!!

btw..ding dong.. You need to leave your e-mail so that I can send you an invite to the blog.lol

:)
Amie

p.s. I hope noone really thinks I think you are a ding dong.. inside joke peeps!

A said...

Tori is a beauty :) What a fun day! Can you share some more about what types of things you do to advocate for your kids? I would LOVE to advocate more, but I really just have no clue where to start. I'm better behind a computer screen or a camera than I am speaking in person or in front of large groups.

RaizenBoyz said...

I love your story! We have been struggling with the decision of taking drug exposed babies once we are foster licensed. I think you have helped us make our decision!!! Thank you and God Bless!

Shawnee said...

That is a busy but blessed day. I miss Wichita. Congratulations on your award! You are an amazing mom!

Mei Mei s and Mayhem said...

What a wonderful family you have! My parents were foster parents for over 20 years. Sometimes I was 1 of 13 kids, 2 bio brothers and the rest foster brothers. I love reading blogs like yours!