November is National Adoption Month. Gold star on your forehead if you already knew that. :) Adoption has profoundly changed my family forever. When McCarrey and I first started trying to figure out how we were going to build our family. I must admit that it was very overwhelming. Not knowing whether to pursue continued fertility treatments, or give up and turn to adoption. I don't share this often- but I had an amazing experience in the Temple -that made that decision for me, and I have never looked back. We set out on the adoption path, and I will be forever grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who guided and lead us the entire way.

When we first decided that adoption was they way to go, we did a lot of research. There was a huge national study done in 2002. They were studying what decisions unwed expectant mothers made when faced with the decision to be a single parent. The results literally floored me. Over 50% had abortions. The remainder either married the birthfather, or decided to go it alone as a single mother- with less than 1% placing their child for adoption in a family. Over 50%- gone before they even had a chance at life. Also in that same study- they said that in 2002, there were over 1.47 Million abortions performed in the US, and only 127,000 children under the age of 18 adopted into families. That wasn't just infants, that was ANY child under age 18. Only 127,000.

I just want to tell everyone- how much gratitude and respect I have for my children's birthmom's. They chose life for my children. Considering their different circumstances- I don't know how they had the strength to make the choices that they did. They are incredible women- and I hope that I can raise the children that they lovingly carried to be as strong and as honorable as they are.

Adoption is such a blessing- For everyone that it touches. And I know that God has a hand in it. I know that my children were meant to come to my family. I knew that Kennedy was coming before I ever heard her birthmother's name. When we were waiting for Elijah- I heard his birthmom's name- just the first name- and told my husband, family and social worker that her child was supposed to be in my family. God definitely has a plan for all of his children, and I am FULLY enjoying that plan that he made for me.

Halloween 2009

Well- Halloween was great. Full of WAY to much candy and over sugared hyper kids. We went to a Halloween party on Friday night which was great- and even though I only have this one picture of it- you can imagine all the good stuff. It was great to spend the holiday with awesome friends. Then on Saturday- we went trick or treating with some friends- and poor McCarrey got stuck at home passing out gobs of candy to the trick or treaters. I prepared for 500 kids and we just about ran out of candy! AH! It was CRAZY how many trick or treaters we had! I don't know if it is because we live on the corner- or what- because at any given moment you could look out the window and there would be 50 kids sitting on the lawn outside. I guess that their moms would drop them off there and then after making the rounds on the street they would camp out on the grass waiting for their ride to come back around to get them. Crazy. Divalicious was a cowboy. Which was so typical for her. She didn't want to be a princess because she was worried that all the other girls would be princesses. So she wanted to stick out. She is so awesome. She went around all night yelling "Yee Haw! " which just made me crack up. Homeslice was about the sweetest little bear that you ever saw. But sadly the poor kid HATED wearing his costume and cried to take it off. So we really didn't get a lot of pictures of his costume. It made me feel to guilty to make him sit still for it. Oh well.