Jump!

On Friday, Jack's school participated in the Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser. All the kids had been practicing jump-roping in PE all week and were so excited to show off their skills!

The event kicked off with a gym full of pre-K and 6th grade students. The gym teacher played a hip-hop(ish) song called "Dynamite" and the sixth graders just went crazy dancing to the song. They have learned the motions their entire time at Phoenix, and they loved to show the Pre-K kiddos how it's done. Jack (being the typical Iles man that he is), stood very still with one hand on his hip and tapped his foot to the beat. No dancing, no real rhythm, just steady tapping. I saw a group of sixth-grade girls gather around him and try to teach him the moves. He just grinned at the girls and kept on tapping. Love him!!

Funny story: We bought Jack a pair of light-up shoes the weekend before (you would have thought I bought him the moon), but he didn't want to wear them to school this week. He only wanted to wear his old shoes. I prodded him a few times about wearing his new shoes, but he just kept repeating that he loved them, but didn't want to wear them. Thursday morning Clint tried to talk him into wearing the light-up shoes, and finally Jack's eyes welled up with tears and exclaimed, "I just don't want to mess them up!!" The playground has been so muddy lately with all the rain, and poor Jack didn't want his precious new shoes to get dirty. Well, Friday morning we were getting him all pumped up for Jump Rope for Heart and I convinced him that it would be a good idea to wear his light up shoes since he would be jumping so much. He agreed and was SO proud of his shoes at school. Oh, it won't be long until $14.88 light-up shoes will be old hat and he will want iphones and who knows what else!!

Girly Girl

My mom kept telling me to just "hang in there" until Sydney turned two. She always told me that my sister, Jennifer, cried until she was two years old (sorry for the public call-out, Jenn) and that Sydney would grow out of being so clingy.

She was right! (Of course...) Sydney has gone from crying anytime a stranger smiled at her in public to actually waving hi to random people! It's sooo wonderful! At home she is downright silly, goofy, and a show-off!

She found a (fake) pearl necklace in my jewelry drawer and just HAD to have it on. She then walked in the living room and found the camera and insisted that she "cheese." Sydney is at such a fun age and I just want to soak it in!!

Only Jack...

Poptart had a dental appointment one day over the Christmas break. She did a great job and only had one cavity! Jack and Sydney were both so good for the whole wait and appointment, so the dentist gave the kids four tokens to use in the "junk machine." Poptart came out with two rubber bouncy balls. And Jack, oh Jack, came out with a stick-on mustache.

He wore it all the way home, feeling so cool. He would casually make conversation, stare out of the window, and lightly touch the nasty thing in pure joy.

The wonderful world of boys :)


And Sydney has become quite the oatmeal eater. Twice today, in fact! I had the camera out to take pictures of some shirts I made today and she started hollering for me to take her picture. She had just woken up from afternoon nap, looking pretty rough. All she wanted was oatmeal!


The real reason for her giddiness today? The older two are in school today. Mommy all to herself!!

If you're interested...

On Tuesday, January 3rd, the Louisiana Baptist Children's Home will be making a free presentation at Calvary Alexandria about the foster/adoptive process and the church's involvement in orphan care. Childcare will be provided, but you must register online in order to be on the list for the meeting and the childcare. Go to www.calvarynet.net to register!

If you have been keeping up with our family and have even had a twinge of "maybe God's calling us to do that," and you are able to make it to Alexandria, you should come to the meeting!

More Christmas 2011!

Eli showing off his muscles!!


PawPaw with Jack and Syd


PaPaw at Harrisonburg Christmas!



Sweet Sam


Aunt Jenn and Sydney Kaye!



All the LaFitte girls and grandkids!






Uncle Bob and Aunt Laura with our kids.


Sydney loves her GiGi!



Bob and Laura



Mom, Laura, Syd



Jack and Laura

Christmas 2011

Let's just start from the beginning of Christmas!!

First, we shopped for a tree....
(can you tell by Jack's expression that it was COLD that day?? And doesn't my husband look so handsome in this picture?)





Here is Jack and Sydney in front of the Christmas tree on December 4th. Jack is sporting his new belt from Kaye and Dean!


We also had the second annual Christmas cookie decorating party at the fabulous Melissa Walsh's house. There were about 30 people there. So much fun!!


Sydney just ate M&Ms the whole time. Don't judge. I was trying to control three kids....and all three are quite a handful when it comes to anything with icing :)




Poptart's magnificent cookie :)


On the 23rd we had the Curt Iles family Christmas. We spent the whole day just playing, eating, cooking, herding kids, and taking time to worship and reflect on what God has done in our families in 2011.


Sweet Luke.


Jack got a "shiner" on the fourwheeler and was not a happy camper during suppertime.


The cousin table...the only picture I can post of lots of kids because in the rest of the pictures, you can see Poptart's whole face.



Gingerbread house making!

It looked pretty good for about 5 minutes. Then it ended up in a messy pile!

On Christmas Eve we went to the service at Calvary Alexandria. I thought the service started at 4:30, so we got there at 4:05 to take pictures. The service actually started at 4:00, so we had to go to the overflow room because the sanctuary was packed. Ended up being a good thing because we were the second family to light the candle tree (tradition at our church)!


On Christmas Day, we got up, opened presents, and headed to church. We didn't last very long!! There was no childcare provided, and Sydney was getting LOUD....then Poptart had to go to the bathroom, so before we knew it all five of us were in the lobby. So we just went on home. HA!

My family came to our house for lunch. I hadn't seen Sam since he was born, and Clint hadn't seen him at all! It was so fun to snuggle a new baby!





More pictures in another post...Blogger won't let me upload anymore :(

A Well-Watered Garden

On Tuesday we had Poptart's Family Team Conference (FTC). The FTC is a meeting every six months in which everyone involved in the case comes together to chart progress, make changes, and formulate requirements for the birth parents, foster parents, and case workers. It can be a tense and awkward meeting, as you can imagine.

Clint and I, Poptart, and her family all had to wait together in a tiny waiting room while the case workers and attorneys arrived. I had this overwhelming sense of....

I don't want to be here.

These people are so different from me. They look different, talk differently, are educated differently. I wanted to go to my home, embrace my precious children, deadbolt my door, and leave it all. I wanted to return to my life of normalcy, and return my family to its original state.
For goodness sake, I wanted to build a picked fence, plant some tulips, and put the blinders back on my eyes.

In an effort to be real, I'll just say it: I didn't want to be associated with those people.

How's that for transparency?

But on my way home, in the blinding rain, God convicted me of my awful pride and reminded me:

Amanda, you are those people.

Jesus is God, perfect in every way. And yet he "humbled himself as a man." He became one of us. He didn't just associate with us....he BECAME one of us. And He saved us. He saved us from our filth, from our brokenness. He "lifted us out of the mud and the mire and gave us a firm place to stand."

When Jesus was walking on Earth, he broke bread with the lowest of people. He didn't care about social status, education, or cleanliness. He loved. He died. He redeemed.

When I found out I was pregnant with Jack (we had decided that week we would wait one more year to start a family....oops), I clung to Isaiah 58:11-12: "The Lord will guide you always, he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." And the Lord did provide for us through after-school tutoring, frying catfish, and an extra graduate stipend for Clint. I will never forget how clearly God spoke to me that night when I was scared, pregnant, and broke.

A couple of years ago, God redirected me to Isaiah 58. The WHOLE chapter. Directly before those precious verses of 11-12, vs. 9b-10 says "If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, THEN shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday [emphasis mine]."

Friends, as much as I DON'T want to have the child begging for food at a Christmas party, hate changing her sheets every other night, and cringe every time we have to teach hygiene, I DO want my light to shine like the noonday.

I want to be a well-watered garden.

This week we have been reciting John 3:16 in preparation for our family Christmas gathering. Poptart is in charge of the first phrase, and Jack in in charge of the second phrase. As we were practicing the other night, Poptart had her own little twist on her part. She squeezed her little eyes shut and said...

"Por God so wubbed da wold dat he gabe his speshul Son."

His Special Son.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Poptart.