My Plan For Our Lives...

I am going to jump back two years in our lives. I had everything planned out for how our family would look and how our lives would play out. We were going to adopt a young (4-8 years old) sibling group of boys from the foster care system who were a racial minority because these children were the hardest to get placed in an adoptive family. We didn’t even want to adopt an infant. We did our training and waited. I bought books about raising sons, Bibles for little boys, and a few other things that were specifically for having boys. Was my “plan” selfish? No. Wasn’t it our desire to make a small difference in the problem of so many children without families to love them? Yes. So why wouldn’t God honor this request and bless us with the family that we desired? It was because HIS PLAN was so much better.

In January, 5 months after we began our wait for a family, we were told about Project Cuddle. The stories they shared of baby abandonment were devastating. It was very emotional (and still is) to think of a child suffocating in a garbage bag. We decided that we would sign up to be a “rescue family” and I noted (according to my plan) that we would be willing to rescue a boy of a racial minority. A couple weeks passed and I felt like God said “How could you limit the type of child you could save and the type of child you could love?” The fact was that I couldn’t…. I re-sent in our information and noted that we would be willing to rescue a child of any race, any gender, and any unknowns that they may have. A month later they contacted us with a child (not in my plans) – we said yes and she has radically changed our lives.

I look at my daughter… I hear her laugh, I feel her hugs, see that gorgeous smile and think of what I would have missed out on had I stuck to what I thought was right for us. It breaks me emotionally that I almost missed out on her life and the joy she brings. She has my heart – she is soooo incredible.

Another “plan” of mine was to not have a child biologically for a few years and until we had adopted a few more children. God had a better plan and here I am entering my 30th week of pregnancy expecting a baby ! She will be perfect – the perfect piece to this perfect family designed and put together by God.

It’s funny how I thought that I knew what our perfect family would look like. I am sure God smiles, knowing how his perfect plan is so much better for our lives. Who knows, we may end up with 4 s – I don’t know how I could ever have had a preference before now. How could I tell a woman that I would love her baby any less because it was one gender or the other? Maybe there won’t be any more children and His plan for our lives only includes these two princesses.

I am glad that I have a Father who knows us better than we know ourselves. I am glad that I have a Father who has a perfect plan for my life. I am glad that my plans don’t work out and that He has had every detail in place since before I was born. I am glad my Father knows what is best and amazes me with his blessings.

I, of course, still have plans – we want to adopt a couple more kids through Project Cuddle. I have no idea if my plans line up with his for our future – but I’ll take His plans over mine.

I don’t know what His plans hold – but I know he has them for our family.

I couldn’t be more thankful for my husband and two daughters – and I wouldn’t trade them for anything or anyone.




Isn't her smile amazing? And I get to be her mommy ;-)

Vacation :-)

Well we are coming to an end of our two week vacation.
It was such a nice time to spend with family and get in some activities here and there.Part 1: We started out by taking a 5 day trip to visit Kyle's sister and her family out in Oklahoma. Talk about some hot weather :-) It was nice to see them and catch up a bit .
They are loads of fun with lots of things to do and stay busy with :-)
Kinsey just loved playing with the girls and swimming while we were there.

Part 2: On the way back from Oklahoma we decided to make some stops and see some things that we had yet to experience. It was so nice being able to stop every couple of hours, get out of the car and spend some time at each stop. The first day out we stopped and went through the Fantastic Caverns and then spent the night near Saint Louis. The next morning we ventured to see BIG FOOT - the monster truck :-) It was HUGE - Kinsey looked soooo small compared to it. It was neat to see and get pictures of :-)

------------------------------------------------------------------Part 3: After arriving back in Indiana we spent a few days with my side of the family doing different activities for our vacation. Each summer my family drives out to California but this summer due to how expensive everything (mainly gas) is getting they decided to just have our little vacation close to home. We kept busy with fun things like the zoo, swimming at the reservoir, picnics, wiffle ball, and ending each night with a couple hours playing the game MAFIA. All eight of us kids were there and it was just a good family time.


(Kyle and Kinsey before lunch)

(They were walking thru the rainforest exibit and I thought they looked adorable-

Looks like love to me :-)

Part 4: After the mini vacation with my siblings and parents we invited the four youngest of my siblings to come up and spend the night and so the next four days consisted of time with just them going miniature golfing, testing out the driving range, a steam engine show and four wheeler rides.We finished the vacation off today with a picnic on the lake with Kyle's mom,
grandpa, sister, her two kids and his aunt and uncle. Never a dull moment when these kiddos get together :-) They just love each other and have such a fun time playing together.

The love of our families :-)

(Kyle, Crystal & Kinsey in our front yard)

We are very blessed to have both of our families fairly close to where we live. This is perfect for us since there is no one we would rather spend our time with than our families. They are a great support to us and have such a great love for us and Kinsey. Kinsey is constantly being showered with love and affection from her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.Here is Kinsey and two of her cousins being read a book by their great-grandpa :-)
(great-grandpa on Kyle's side)

Here Will (the only male cousin) is showing off his tough muscles

as he pulls his sister and three cousins in the wagon :-)

Here is Kinsey with grandma and grandpa (Kyle's parents)
checking out the new pig!

Kinsey likes to help grandpa out around the farm. Here they are fixing the pig-pen :-)

Kinsey loves her walks with Grandma around the farm to see the buffalo!This is Kinsey with cousin Kate (they are 2 months apart) :-)
This picture cracks me up - they are buddies :-)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------On my side of the family I am the only one with children, but my siblings are 23 years old all the way down to 6 years old! They love having the responsibility of being aunts and uncles to Kinsey.

Here are me, Kyle and Kinsey around Christmas with the 5 youngest of us 8 kids - we all got BEARS & COLTS jerseys from my parents.
Kinsey and my littlest sister Shauna got Colts cheer outfits :-)
This is Kinsey with Uncle Jacob, he loves to dote on Kinsey :-)Jacob just went to camp and came back telling us how he kept bragging about Kinsey
the entire week to all of his friends.When we visit with my siblings, I don't exist.... she loves to be played with and cared for by all the aunts and uncles. Here she is being held by aunt Sierra along with aunt Shauna.
We spent the weekend at the ball diamonds.Here is uncle Justin showing Kinsey his catch at the recent fishing/bbq.
Both Justin and Shauna took pictures of Kinsey to school for their "show and tell" -
they were so proud to say they had a niece :-)

Here are Me, Kyle, Kinsey with uncle Jacob & aunt Sierra

Kinsey's great grandparents (on my side) came up to our house to visit !
Here they are in our front yard :-)

Here is grandma and grandpa (my parents) giving love to Kinsey as we get ready
to head back home after a long day at the ball diamond!

Summer Fun

Things are going great with our family! Trying to stay cool in this crazy heat! I am feeling great...except for some back pain...but thats not too bad. I am getting more and more anxious with each passing day! I can't wait for the labor, delivery and then holding my beautiful baby :-)

I babysit some and Kinsey is excellent with the baby :-) She will make a GREAT big sister! She is growing so fast, I can't believe how small she used to be. I try to cherish every second of every day because time is going by so fast! Also, I am trying to stay on top of the scrapbook for her and thats coming along slowly :-) She LOVES to swim in her pool so we spend alot of time out there. She is such a great little girl. If all my children are as easy as her we could end up with 10. She makes us smile so much - she just oozes joy :-) You can't help but smile when looking at her. She is our pride and joy. . . God truly blessed us by entrusting us to parent her :-)

She looks GOOD in daddy's shades :-)


She is 100% a Daddy's Girl! He is her hero! :-)

Kyle turned the big 24 at the end of June!!! :-) He had two parties, one with my family and one with his :-)
We went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse for Kyle's 24th birthday! Here you can see my little baby bump!
Kinsey wanted to take a break from the pool and sit in the chair next to mommy :-) Lucky her, she doesn't even have to try to get that gorgeous tan.

June 29, 2008

Things are going wonderful with our family. Kinsey is just growing and growing and learning more everyday. She absolutely *loves* to read and look at books. She loves animals - it doesn't matter what animal it is :-) She also love to laugh, her laugh is contagious :-)Kyle is staying busy with work and being a wonderful dad! He is looking forward to the tractor pulls this summer and our trip to Oklahoma. He made the comment last night "I love being a dad" - and it shows. Kinsey is his princess - 100% a daddy's girl. They have a special bond and its really a joy to watch :-)I am staying busy finishing up my last summer glass at Grace, which means that this fall I have my FINAL CLASS (Addictions Counseling) before I graduate! Baby is due at the end of October which means I will have 6 weeks left of class after baby arrives. Thankfully, my class is one night a week so Kyle will have his special time with his two girls :-)I haven't been sick in three weeks which I am VERY excited about :-) I am 23 weeks along :-) Its nice to finally feel like I have some energy :-) Baby has been kicking like crazy - so thats really neat. It is really special for Kyle to be able to feel (and even sometimes see) the baby kick. Everything is going really well and we are hoping for a healthy baby :-)
For those of you that don't know - they think our baby number two is a little girl! They said they can't be completely sure, but thats what it looks like! We are so excited!! We will have our two little princesses :-) We have all our baby girl stuff from Kinsey which makes it nice :-) The only bad thing is our lack of names!! We have her middle name but no first name.... it may come down to a decision at the hospital like we did for Kinsey :-)