the shermans 5

Saturday, January 29, 2011

33

happy 33rd birthday to .....

an amazingly wonderful daddy,

my hot hubby ( heehee ) ;),

one of the boys,

julie's prince charming,

my love, my soul mate & best friend!!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

BFF(s)

life has a way of putting special people in our lives at the most unexpected times. special people we grow to love and couldn't imagine our lives without. they are our BFFs.

the carlson's are hands down the greatest friends in the world! our families have grown together. all of our kids are the same ages (2, 4 & 6)! my boys have the same exact birthdays and her girls have the same exact birthdays ... how funny is that?!?!? our middle children are both free spirit, crazy kids! we joke ( well, actually we are serious) that they are all going to marry each other! lol

our sherman/carlson group went from each of us only having one child .... party of 6 for dinner, an easy flight to mexico for vacation .... to each of us having three children ... party of 10 please and bring on the crayons, crackers and children's menu's, trip to disney but yikes that's a lot of airline tickets we better drive! LOL ;) and we LOVE every single minute of it! so many fun memories have been made and it just keeps getting better!

kelly ... thank you for being the greatest friend in the world! what in the hell would we do without each other?!?! heehee! our morning chats are like a cup of coffee to start my day! our family wouldn't be complete without the "carlson's" in it! :) we luv you!

wordless wednesday

don't forget to SMILE :)

Monday, January 24, 2011

our story

as you may or may not know, our family of 5 was created through the blessing of adoption! i really couldn't imagine my life any other way either. ;) most mommy's have an amazing birth story to tell and while mine may not be a birth story it still is a pretty amazing one to me! brian & i tried for a few yrs. to conceive and were unsuccessful even with the help of A LOT of drugs and procedures ... UGH ... not fun! medically nothing is "wrong" with either one of us but looking back now we know we were unable to conceive because GOD had other plans .... three little miracles needed us as much as we needed them! through many prayers we felt very good about our decision to STOP infertility treatments and to proceed with adoption!!!! it was the best decision we had ever made.

our choice was an international adoption and we chose guatemala!!! with the help of catholic charities and an AMAZING international agency in eight short months we flew to guatemala, city to pick up our tiny four month old baby boy, noah! life could not have been better!!!! it was my 24th birthday and i became a MOMMY!!!!!!

as a couple of yrs. passed we definitely knew that we wanted noah to have a sibling(s) but guatemala had closed it's program! a domestic adoption had been in the back of our minds but we were still unsure. in the mean time we decided to start foster parenting babies, at first not thinking about adoption but just the pure idea of giving these little ones a safe and loving home. well, i got the call very early one morning for an eight month old girl who was having medical issues that were not being taken care of along with other issues! i COULD NOT SAY NO. a few hours later the case worker brought this little itty bitty thing to my house in an infant carrier and i fell in love. to make a looooooong looooong story short we fought like HELL for that little girl and there were many ups and downs. i have never in my life fought and prayed so hard for something i felt so strongly about. we were not giving up on her, we were her voice!!!! in the mean time the "birth mom" was pregnant again and along came our jonah ( we named him that once we got him ). he was also placed with us. on june 29th 2010 our adoption of julie and jonah was official and our family of 5 was COMPLETE!!!!! i know children in foster care need so much love and support but foster care was honestly the hardest thing we have ever done and i don't know if i could ever do it again. it is so hard to not get attached and let them go especially when we didn't agree with most situations.

many people ask me if they are my real kids ..... the love i have for them couldn't be any more real!!! they are my heart and soul. many people also say "now that you have adopted you will get pregnant with your own children" .... not that i wouldn't be overjoyed to give birth to a child but my three adopted children are my own!!! some people just feel the need to have the same blood, well i am here to tell you that it is LOVE that matters. :) i feel so complete and i am one lucky mommy!!!! :)

"not flesh of my flesh nor bone of my bone but still miraculously my own. never forget for a single second you didn't grow under my heart but in it! "