Let's give blogging a shot....

Well, here goes to my first blog ever.  I have been wanting to do this forever but for one reason or another I just never found the time. As I embrace yet another season in life I finally have a little extra time to give this blogging thing I shot.  I am so intrigued by the women in my life that have blogs and how their posts have been uplifting, encouraging, funny and very meaningful to me at different times.  
Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with lots of friends that I have lost contact with over the years.  They see my posts and I see theirs but not many of them know "my story" and they often ask so I will try to cover it briefly here.  

Payton and I have been married for 17 years now.  We had three biological children of our own, Jonathan, Blake and Baleigh.  In 2007 (9 years after Baleigh was born) we decided we wanted more children.  God blessed us with the finances to fly to Florida for Payton to have surgery so that we could try to have another child.  After a year of trying to get pregnant and no success we decided that we would open our home to foster kids in the Knoxville area and just take it that maybe God had different plans for us.  On December 3rd 2008 we got our 2nd call from DCS in which we took a 4 day old baby boy named Bryce.  The very next month we were shocked to learn that we were in fact pregnant!  That pregnancy ended in a devasting miscarriage when I was about 15 weeks along.  It was a very hard time in my life and Paytons but we learned so much and we grew in our relationship together and most of all in our relationship with God!  In October of 2009 we met a precious girl named Cyndi who we learned was available for adoption.  She was 16 years old and she ended up coming to live with us and we adopted her in July 2010.  Bryce also became available for adoption and we adopted him in 2011.  I hope you see know where I am going with this and the name of my blog "How Life has Changed"! We never dreamed we would be handpicked by God to be the parents of two more children through adoption.  

My family is my life.  I am a stay at home mom.  Cyndi is now 18 and has moved into her own apartment and is expecting her first child in February.  I homeschool Jonthan 17, Blake 15 and Baleigh 13.  Bryce is now almost 3 and is in preschool at a local church.  I am truly blessed to have a an awesome husband who stands beside me  in everything I do.  He believes in me and loves me for who I am.  We have had our ups and downs as every marriage does but I can thankfully say that we have an amazing marriage now I am thankful for everyday that I get to spend with him.  he is truly my best friend.  Well, I guess that is enough for now.  I am sure there will be many more posts and lots of time for me to talk about my awesome family and such.  Blessings till next time......