Called to Love 2017

This past weekend I had the huge privilege to go away for the weekend with my MIL to the Called to Love Retreat! It is a retreat we look forward to every year to get away and glean some wisdom, spend time with common minded adoptive mothers and enjoy meals we don't have to cook!

 

They spoil us well with gift bags and yummy snacks!

The retreat is at the gorgeous Oregon Gardens, so we are also able to go out and explore the gardens in all their beauty. Do you see it?

More than anything the retreat is a time to be encouraged on our journeys and get a few new tools to helps us navigate the road as adoptive moms.  It is a time of great refreshment for me (even though I miss my husband and kids like crazy) and really just encouraging to continue on trying to do my best.  

There really aren't many better places to be in this world, than in a group full of adoptive mother's. We share a common bond, choosing a complicated journey as parents. We love fiercely, our hearts break for children who need parents and birth mothers who sacrifice so greatly.  I didn't know the journey my life would take when I chose to step in as an adoptive mom but I am so grateful for resources and camaraderie along the way!  It really did re-energize and renew me as I carry on trying to be the best mom I can be!

Halloween 2017

Well Halloween feels like an eternity ago, but I am just getting to sharing it. Better late than never I guess! 

We had a fun family get together to carve pumpkins this year! After some convincing, most of the kids enjoyed taking out the pumpkin guts! 

Daddy did another great job with the power tools and gave the kids the pumpkins they wanted!

All the finished products! 

And our kiddo's

For Halloween itself, Malachi made a yummy dinner of homemade raviolis!

And then it was costumes and time to hit the streets for some candy!

I really did a horrible job of photography taking this year but something about the chaos of crowded areas and 4 excited kids getting candy made it a bit difficult!  But it was a fun evening nonetheless! I can't even believe the start of the holiday season is upon us! 

Foster Pups #48 and #49

This past week we had some sweet babies to snuggle.  Notice how I said babies and not tiny! These were some big boys for their age (we are guessing around 6 weeks when we got them) and they just continued to grow bigger by the day. We aren't sure what they are but we think some sort of a large collie mix. So also very high energy. Unfortunately they had some sort of a tummy bug all week which made things more difficult but they were pretty darn adorable and snuggly regardless!

Nothing better than a lap full of snuggly pups at the end of the day! There was some fierce competition for these guys and apparently some anger and outrage at the rescue we work with as far more people wanted puppies than they had available.  The rescue also broke records this weekend with amount of adoptions, breaking over 1,000 for the year already which is awesome! We love this organization and the work they are doing to save dogs and puppies on the euthanasia lists from California.  I am very curious who our lucky #50 puppy will be, but we will have to wait and see for a couple more weeks as we are taking a short little break from fostering to dog watch.

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

I cannot believe how fast fall has arrived, but I guess that is to be expected with how fast the clock keeps turning. We are trying to gulp up as much of the season as we can, including a day at the pumpkin patch. The weather, especially on the weekends has continued to be pretty mild which has been awesome and given us lots of chances to enjoy our time together as a family! 

This was the first time we've visited this local pumpkin patch and the kids had a great time with the slides, pumpkin chunkin, animals, maze, hay ride, train, and food!

Foster Pups #46 and #47 Lilo and Stitch (turned Caesar)!

I knew we were in trouble when I got an email asking if it was okay to switch our terrier mix fosters to poodle fosters. You see, we have a little girl who really loves poodles! 

It wasn't long before we really knew we were in trouble as the whole family was falling in love!

We also had his adorable brother who was as equally sweet!

Our girl was smitten! 

And our not so fond of dogs child even loved him!

As the week wore on, our girl was getting sadder and sadder as we prepared her that it was almost time for him to leave.

Fortunately Grandpa and Grandma saved the day and decided to keep him! Bonus, we get to babysit the sweet little guy! Welcome Caesar to the family! He is the sweetest little pup with the best temperament as the pictures below show! We are thrilled that he gets to stick around and of course his brother being as adorable and well mannered as he is too was quickly scooped up! Everyone wins!