My Little Pumpkin Head

And the cow jumped over the moon...

Halloween in elementary school reminds me of my good old sorority theme parties - SO FUN! For our school's annual StoryBook Parade, the kindergarten teachers dressed up as the characters from Hey Diddle Diddle. Check out my homemade moon costume!

Here's my gaggle of storybook characters:

And the rest of my nursery rhyme!

Happy Family Birthday!

Today my heart is singing because of God's goodness to me! It's October 20th and today is our first family birthday. Last year on this day, Cooper was officially adopted from foster care and our family began. We have so many reasons to celebrate and praise God for his faithfulness and mercy in our lives!

When I think of the journey that The Lord has placed me on as a mother to Cooper, I am overwhelmed by His blessing! I don't know who I would be without Cooper in my life. I'd for sure be wealthier (as a teacher - ha!) but I doubt I would have the patience and dependence that God is teaching me through motherhood. I so believe that it is God's greatest earthly gift to me! When I first layed eyes on Cooper as a baby, I could have never dreamed that we would someday celebrate FOREVER as a family. Forever! I'm crying just thinking of how wonderful it is to know that he will always be mine...

Cooper is a special gift - he is affectionate and determined and bold. There is no one else quite like him and I love that his red hair is just the first of special things about him! Everywhere we go and nearly every day, someone comments on my beautiful boy (and especially that fiery hair!) In grocery store lines, at airports, and at the playground, I am able to tell the story of his adoption. I tell about Royal Family Kids' Camp and foster care and being a single mom. I tell about my mountain-moving savior that provides for and protects our family. I pray that as he gets older, we will tell it together and share God's goodness with strangers who are just curious about why such a little mom is carrying around such a big baby!

Today and on every Family Birthday, I will rejoice by telling our story as often as I can. I will tell the story behind the details - the story of my BIG God, who has plans for me beyond my wildest dreams and who provides for me in ways I sometimes can't understand. Cooper and I pray diligently that God would use our family's story to prompt the hearts of other believers to soften to adoption. We pray daily for the children who do not have families and are waiting for a forever family. We pray for godly families to adopt them and take them home. Will you pray with us, too?

It's solely God's GOODNESS that created Cooper and I to be a family. After all, I was just a single girl who wanted to help some foster kids for a few months... and I got this one FOREVER!

Time For Pumpkins!

This is Cooper being a "big, strong man" and carrying his pumpkin inside.

I can't believe that it's time for pumpkins already! Yay for Fall!

Nurse Bates Visits Kindergarten

I love my job as a kindergarten teacher. Especially when we get to teach about fun things like community helpers! The kids are always eager to talk about what they know about doctors, mail carriers, and fire fighters. Each has a story about when the saw a police officer at the mall or a dentist at the gas station - if you want 20 of thse kinds of stories, my classroom is the place to be! : )

All of the kindergarteners at our school were surprised with a visit from a real, live community helper - my mom, Nurse Bates! (First of all, I must say that the kids were MOST impressed that she and I had the same last name - Miss Bates and Mrs. Bates. I really think it blew their little minds! They also struggled to comprehend how I (a fully grown teacher) could have a mom...)

My mom did a GREAT job teaching the kids about her job and how she helps people in the community. She let a few kids listen to her heartbeat and she showed them all of her cool tools. She did a fantastic job at fielding questions (more like loooong comments) from 150 little ones.

Funny story from our "community helpers" discussion - Before my mom arrived, my class was brainstorming ideas of jobs that help people in the community. We came up with some really, really good ones - cupcake makers, dirt bike fixers, and checkout people at Target - but one of my little boys' idea just took the cake. He raised his hand and said, "I already know that I want to be a community helper when I grow up. I want to be a potion maker that heals the world." I paused before saying, "Tell me more about this job! Where do world-healing potion makers work?" My little friend said, "You know - at Walgreens or CVS - with all of the potions...". Aha - a lightbulb went off in my head! "Of course," I said, "You want to be a pharmacist!" : )

There are some days that I just really love my job!

Umbrella!

Cooper's new favorite "toy" is our big umbrella. He's been playing with it for days in the garage, just hoping that one of these days it would rain... today was his lucky day! : ) In fact, it rained nearly all day yesterday, which caused great celebration in our household - a great reason to use the umbrella!

He literally walked in circles for an hour on our deck under that umbrella. I watched him glance up at the sky every once and awhile and say, "Still raining... still need my um-wella."
*Sorry for the poor photos... my "fancy" camera took a spill and is in the process of being repaired. It's been the longest "3-8 weeks" ever! I'm using my mom's camera in the mean time, which is wonderful, but doesn't understand how quickly kids move!