A Message from the Heart

I'm writing from the heart today so I hope I make sense. I've had some experiences in the last few weeks that have made me look at my children with gratitude. Watching the heartache of people who want children and can't have any has touched my heart. Most people out here who read this know I got pregnant in high school and placed a child for adoption. If you didn't know, well I'm sure your surprised! This is not normally not something I would put out there on the world wide web, but, as time goes by I realize this is part of ME- it makes me who I am, My point in sharing this information, is that I feel I have a unique perspective on the topic of adoption. My heart has been broken, reformed, and healed. Part of the healing comes from watching couples who sit and wait for children and it makes what I went through worth it. Because I know my sweet first baby went to the right place at the right time to a family that had been waiting for years... to add to their family. Then me, a confused 18 year old, got a chance to start over in life, gain a new relationship with God, and improve myself and I ended up with This:
Who could ask for more? Hug your babies tonight and pray for those families and girls who find themselves in situations they never imagined.

Slideshow for Opa and Jed ... I figured out how to upload it!!

Don't forget to turn off the player at the bottom!!

I Love you Jed!! Even if your 30!!

For the actual real day of Jed's birthday, we didn't do much except have our photos taken by the amazing Linda Prows. But little did Jed know that his mom, sister, and I had been planning a surprise party for the 27th of March. It was pulled off to perfection! His dad turned 60 on March 17th so the party was in honor of both wonderful men! He was totally surprised and didn't suspect anything till we got to the parking lot at which point he just said How did you pull this off? I'm very very sneaky! I'm hoping to share the slideshow I prepared for them if I can figure out how to share it on the internet!

Food

I confess I started watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Much like the small town Jamie steps in to help, I was skeptical about what he would do. For those of you not watching, basically, Jamie goes into a small town in VA and works in a local school to improve and educate both the quality and types of foods that they are eating. At first, it seems like he's really saying that these people are ignorant or something, and yes, of course they show him going into a class of Kindergarten kids and some of the kids thinking tomatoes are potatoes. I highly doubt every kid in that class actually thought that but it makes good t.v. to show the kids who really were clueless as to what the vegetables were.

Anyways, I fee like I am rambling here... My point is this..... I love Food. I've found that the older I'm getting the more interested I am becoming on improving my skills as a cook. I could watch Food Network all day and love it. I am beginning to really enjoy cooking and find it good therapy for my soul. So, as I have begun watching this show, it has made me think about what I feed my family. How much processed foods do we eat in a week? in a day? and I think we should all start becoming more aware of what we are doing to ourselves and our families. Now, I am not suggesting that I will start shopping at whole foods every week or that I am banning chicken nuggets ( although seriously people at least I hope your buying the kind that is made out of real chicken breasts not rib meat!!) but what I am suggesting is that you start becoming aware of what you are eating and feeding your children. In the show, the school system was feeding kids pizza for breakfast and only had flavored milks! I mean seriously, We can do better than that for our kids and we should be. So, all this being said, watch this show.... it comes on ABC on Fridays or you can watch it online and start thinking about how you can educate your own family about good eating habits! and then if your children are in school, find out what kinds of food they are serving at lunch and take action if there needs to be changes made.

My new goal is that our family will be eating at least one meal a day that involves real cooking not reheating something that was processed or already cooked and frozen or packaged (like chicken nuggets, frozen pizza, etc...) and I think you should take that challenge too! I plan to buy Jamie Oliver's new book and hopefully I'll be able to share what I'm learning with you! The end and good luck. Another great post about this show can be found on Rachel's cooking blog on my side bar. :)