Beautiful baby boy, you will always be that to me

Seven years ago I never would have guessed that I could feel the way I do about this little person.

I never would have thought a 5 lb 11 oz little bundle of promise would change every bit of who I was or who I would become. 
I had no idea what to expect, that love that would swell so deep in my heart that it would literally feel like it was about to burst some days.
I never expected that love to be able to fill my heart so completely that it would spill over into the rest of my life in such monumental ways that I would feel like the only way I could live with all that love pouring out of me was to decide to love someone else's child as much as I love you.

Mark Kobe Wentzel, you have changed you Mommy into someone I know that I never could have been with out YOU.  Every good thing I have to offer, every bit of love I have to give was placed in me by God when HE gave you to me.    
Happy Birthday my boy, you have changed the world already, for so many of us.

Last Day of 1st Grade

Today was Kobe's last day of 1st grade.  I can't believe it.  But, I will save my whiny, "I can't believe he is this old" post of another day (maybe on his birthday lol).

Anyway, Kobe missed field day because of his strep throat and today was the day that they handed out awards for field day.  His teacher made an announcement that the class had decided to make a special award for Kobe because he was unable to be there on field day.  They gave him the "Best Friend" award, because, in the words of his teacher, "Everyone of the students love him and they light up as soon as he walks in the classroom".  I told you I love his teacher, but that was just too sweet :)  I will miss her so much next year, but the 2nd grade teacher looks like a nice lady too.

Kobe finished up his 1st grade year very nicely.  His grades are where they need to be/where we want them and he has learned so much!  He also has made so many friends that hopefully will be coming back next year.

I am so proud of this boy!

Pictures Mark took at Kobe's b-day party

Mark took lots of great pictures at the party, here are just a few:

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A-Amazing Mommy!

L-Loving Friend!

Y-Youthful Exuberance!

S-Silly Play Pal for the kids!

S-(wonderful) Sister!

A-Adored Wife

...and so many other things :)  We love you Alyssa!!!

M-is for Matthew, who is a loving husband, wonderful daddy and BIG dreamer (in a very good way)

L-is for Lindsay, who loves her hubby, cherishes her daughter and supports her hubby's big dreams :)

E-is for Elle, who has made both of her parents better people (as all of our children do for us)

W-is for Wentzel, because it is your last name :)

L-is for Leah, who is weird and not so good at rhyming, but LOVES ALL OF YOU A WHOLE BUNCH!!!

Best wishes to all of you today!

Love,

Ben, Leah & Kobe  :)

Kobe's b-day party Part 2

Ok, I'm a little more awake now - water slide pictures!!!

I love all the faces the kids made as they went down the slide!  Poor sick Uncle Ben got down on the ground and shot these pictures and I LOVE them!  Thank you Ben!!!



















Mark took a ton of great pictures too I will post tomorrow or later this week!  Thank you Mark!!  With Ben being sick our "capture the moments" guy was a little out of it.  I literally walked in the house and grabbed the digital camera and video camera 1/2 way thru the party and handed him the camera and said "take pictures"  while I videotaped.  Can you tell he was out of it?  very not ben!!!


More to come tomorrow-stay tuned :)

KOBE'S 7th birthday party Part one

I am so tired.  As you will see from the fact that I am only posting a few pictures today and won't have too much to say.  Having Ben so sick and not sleeping for 3 days has made it a little difficult to get any rest around here.  Planning/executing a party was a little difficult and the morning of the party having everything go a little haywire on us just was the icing on the cake :)

Kobe's party turned out awesome though, the food turned out great (if I do say so myself :) ) -  the weather was great - the guests were great - it was a really nice time :)

Later I will post WAY more pictures...in the mean time...

a call. not THE call. A call.

So, today I got a call from the lady who did our home study.  She asked me if we would be willing to take a 9 DAY OLD baby.  She said that the parents had already had their parental rights terminated in the case of 2 other children so she didn't know if there would be any parental visits to deal with or not.

Of course I was surprised/excited about this and told her yes, we would take him/her (I forgot to ask which :) ).  I asked if she needed me to come pick them up and she said she didn't know if they were going to place "him" today or wait until after the weekend so she would call and then call me back.  

I was at Mark & Cindy's house so they along with Shelly were all there for this call.  It was so exciting!  My heart leapt into my throat...and then Shannon called back and told  me that the baby had already been placed by another agency.  My heart then felt like it plunged from my throat to my shoes.  It is amazing how one minute you can be SO excited and then you are some how supposed to go back to feeling as if nothing just happened.

I am still excited though.  I am excited we got A CALL!  I am excited our name is obviously on a list!  I am excited that "God works all things together for good to those that LOVE him, for those that are CALLED according to HIS PURPOSE!"  That verse echoed in my head as I drove home thinking about how we "just missed it".  We didn't just miss anything, it is good that "he" was placed with someone else.  It was according to God's purpose.  And that feels really good.  Maybe not in my flesh, but in my spirit it is amazing :)

Why not miss 3 of the 7 last days of school?

Kobers has strep.  We caught it very early and he is on antibiotics now.  When I went to the doc he said both his own kids had it and by 9:45 am that morning he had already tested 3 other kids positive for it as well.  Sounds like it is going around.  I suspected that was what he had because he threw up for no reason.  It has taken 7 years, but I am finally figuring out when he needs to go to the doc and when it is something the doc will say "you just have to wait it out".

He will be officially non-contagious in a hour, by Monday he will be over it I am sure.  Party's still on :)

May is National Foster Care Month

I guess May was a good time to be officially "opened" considering it is National Foster Care Month.

We are so excited to get our first placements but at the same time I am really
soaking up the "easy" life with having only one child to care for.

I know part of me is hoping God's plan is to bring "Buddy" into our home and
that is why we haven't gotten any calls yet but the likelihood of that doesn't
sound to realistic to me. I just keep praying God takes care of him unlike
what any of us could do for him.

Pictures Ben took on Sunday

I love the knee high dandelions in the yard and the tipped over chair.  We're very classy around here :)