2018 in Review

I've discovered I'm awful at bloggin regularly in the year but really enjoy doing this yearly review of our lives.  So today is the first day of 2019 and we had a beautiful "sleep-in" morning and I'm enjoying coffee while the older kids play "Avocado" card game with daddy. So here are the highlights of our 2018:

January -

We entered the new year with adding ourselves to the Open Bed list of fostering (We got our license in October 2017 and had a placement for 1 month so decided to wait to go back on the list to take another placement until the holidays and our trip to Maryland were over.).  After 7 1/2 years of changing diapers, we finally got August out of diapers but knew full well that window would be closing soon if we took on a 0-2 placement for a foster child. We continued therapy for Maddy but applied for TEFRA (medicaid based on need rather than finances) and began the long 6+ month process of applying.) We had a visit from my brother and his wife (Bruce and Danielle) and their son. 

We celebrated 1 year seizure free for Maddy with some snow and along with that came the flu bug and after 1 1/2 months without a foster placement, we got a new placement, a little 18 month old girl.

February - I have little pictures for this month probably because it was full of transitions as we went from a family of 5 to a family of 6 and began the unknowns of where this little girls' journey would take us. 

March - With a desire for extra help with two kids at home and a need for some exercise other than at home - cause our little one wasn't a fan of letting me do that :-P - we joined the YMCA. It's been a great source of community for us and a well needed respite for me! I was able to go on a field trip with Maddy's class to the local children's museum as well.

April - We kicked off April with Spring Break and I was able to head up to Asheville for the day to hang out with my old college friend and her boys. The kids enjoyed meeting her kids and August was grateful for some boys to hang out with. Nathan also began the transition from the Simpsonville/Mauldin campus pastor (now that we had two Campus Pastors with the merge) and began a new role as Family Discipleship Pastor. He is now working with Children's Ministry, Youth and Adult Bible Studies to bridge the gap in all three areas with curriculum and communication - something he's great at! Emma lost her first tooth and we got to end the month going to Carolina Beach for a quick weekend to celebrate Nathan's cousin, Bonnie's, wedding. It was gorgeous and so was she! 

May - Last month Emma expressed a desire to become a Christian so she was baptized at our big Celebration Sunday where all 5 of our campuses gather together in downtown Greenville to worship together. We were so excited that both sets of grandparents were able to come and celebrate that day with us as well. We also enjoyed a morning of hiking to celebrate 500 days seizure free!

June - School finished up for the kids and Emma "graduated" from K5 and Maddy from 1st again. The year proved to see great progress in Maddy after 1 year post surgery. I was very proud, as a music teacher, that Emma received a music award from school. We ended that week with some birthday celebrations for me, a Murder Mystery Dessert evening with some great friends. The kids and I then loaded up to go to my parents for the weekend before we headed out for the beach trip with the Forrest/Hagerman clan at the Outer Banks. While at my parents' home, we got to meet the newest nephew. He's such a doll! 

We then headed to Maddy's favorite place in the world, the beach, and enjoyed a week with family and also playing with Daddy's new jeep he got so that we could get to our house on the beach.

July - Our little foster daughter turned 2 so we had a small birthday party with some moms from church at our pool. My business continued to do well so I offered some sewing classes in the community which were super fun. The kids got some new hair cuts and dos, our foster daughter got braces for her feet to help her with some walking and balance issues and the kids started some summer camps: Maddy, soccer and August and Emma doing some theater classes. We ended the month with a short early anniversary trip (12 years) and had a hearing for our foster daughter where the court ruled to pursue reunification with her family while also pursing terminating her parents' rights. We had very little information prior to this so this change of status was a little surprising to us but we got a new caseworker and communication began to be much better and we gained much more information. We knew that adoption wasn't what we were called to do so we began the process of waiting for an adoption worker and the hopes and prayers for a forever family for our little girl. 

August - We got a short and sweet visit from my brother and his wife, Bruce and Danielle, and their two kiddos. We got to celebrate the engagement of a sweet couple that were previous students and the kids all started school. This year August started a full day K4 program, Emma was in 1st and Maddy began 2nd grade. We had to stop Maddy's therapy this month because we had exhausted all insurance resources available and were still waiting on her TEFRA approval. Nathan has really gotten into backpacking and hiking so he took Maddy for a camping trip where they slept in ENOs and explored the wilderness for a bit. She loved it!

September - Nathan hiked a part of the AT with his childhood friend, John, and got this beautiful pictures: 

October - After Maddy's soccer camp over the summer she was interested in signing up for a sport so we signed her up at the Y and she had a great season. She learned a few things and really enjoyed the social aspect of meeting new friends. The girls and coaches were SO kind! Having a child that has "special needs" but doesn't look like it out the outside is sometimes challenging. People don't understand why she doesn't socialize like "normal" kids. I have to say that watching her tyr to do cartwheels on the sidelines when she wasn't playing made my heart so happy. Doing those "normal" little girl things reminds me that she is on a journey and the Lord is faithfully growing her! We ended October with our yearly tradition of trick-or-treating with our friends the Bacaros and this year we had 4 adults and 8 kids :-P We like to keep it interesting! Ha! 

 November - We had awards day at school and Emma won "Terrific Kid" and "Perfect Attendance" we also celebrated Maddy afterwards and she made the "A/B honor roll". I was one proud momma!  Nathan headed to Maryland to visit with his grandparents and since we had 4 little ones we thought it better to divide and conquer rather than bringing all that chaos to one place so Nate took August and the girls stayed with me. We had a fondue and movie night! We did get to celebrate Thanksgiving with our extended Forrest family, which is always a treat for me! At the beginning of the year we decided IF my crafting business could bring in enough funds on its own, we'd try and go to Disney. We began planning and the Lord provided the funds so we surprised the kids with a week long trip to Disney. We all had a blast! We took TONS of pictures! It was a great way to celebrate coming up on 2 years seizure free!

December - We returned from Disney on December 1st and I had to jump into finishing all my Christmas orders. The kids headed back to school for a few weeks and we finally got Christmas stuff up and moving. We got a tree and set up our lego train that Nathan bought me last year and began a tradition of letting the kids help us assemble a new part of our one day booming lego Christmas village. Our fostering organization had a skating morning so we also enjoyed skating on a Saturday morning - it was August's first time. We didn't have those nice walker things so unfortunately there were a lot of falls but pizza made everything better and they kept at it. The kids got out of school on Friday and we headed to my parents' house to celebrate my mom's birthday and Christmas. As typical excitement though we ended up at the ER with our foster daughter needing dermabond for her forehead and then I sprained a ligament in my foot. Not a fun way to celebrate Christmas but grateful Nathan was home so I could have some help. We also found out a family is interested in fostering our little girl to adopt so she will be transitioning at the beginning of 2019 and we will take a break for a bit as Maddy and Nathan head up to Cleveland for a two year follow-up to see IF we can come off seizure medicine. We'd love your prayers as we embark on that! It's been a full year with many ups and downs but God's faithfulness continues to outshine it all. Excited to see what 2019 holds! Many blessings to you and your family. Happy New Year!