Happy 4th!

We had a great time with family and friends today! 14 kiddos and 7 adults and all went smoothly and everyone was fed and happy! I am so thankful to have such special friends and family and people to share our lives with. I cannot wait to expand our family through either fostering or adopting! To make a differance in even one childs life will be worth all of the classes, struggles and years of feeling like our family is incomplete! A very special verse to me is this:
       If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”



1 John 3:17-18

Not that any children will need our pity but they will need our love, understand and comfort in their time of need! So excited to see where God leads us and where this path will take us in the days, weeks, months and years to come!

Our Anthem in our failed adoption that has allowed us to carry on and move forward

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable." ~CS Lewis, The Four Loves

The start of something new!

So I haven't posted again in a while but one again find myself on a new and exciting journey, where it ends is even more exciting! Tomorrow Kevin and I will begin GPS(Group Planning and Selection) Classes to become state certified foster parents and foster to adopt parents we are very excited and cannot wait to add to our family through adopting and fostering!

To catch you up, Hannah has passed 6th grade and is on to 7th in the fall, Taylor passed 1st grade (with a little difficulty) and is on to 2nd. The sad news is that our adoption of Kala failed and I have honestly been depressed and very upset but I also know that God has grand plans for us. On a positive note, we do still get to talk to and follow Kala on Facebook although it isn't the same and knowing she is unhappy in her new placement makes it even tougher.

I hope to post more frequently and to learn a lot in these upcoming classes!

Hester PARTY of 5

I am so excited, ecstatic, blessed to announce that soon we will be Hester Family of 5. I never though I would see this day but soon very soon we will be adding Kala, 14 to our family through adoption. So so happy! Her are a few pics from our first weekend visit.

Kala and Taylor

Kala and Hannah

CHRISTMAS AND CATCH-UP

Life is good around here! We had a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! Time was full of family and friends and lots of travel. We might have met our future daughter ( daughter to adopt) on January 2nd, we are very excited to see where this journey takes us and where God leads us. More to follow.

Life and Time getting away from us!

Tay's 1st dat of 1st Grade. (dont know how to rotate) Hannah's 1st day of 6th grade

Wow, where has time gone! It has been a little over 3 months since I last posted. A lot has happened. Hannah and Taylor got their first report cards, Hannah made A/B Honor Roll, Taylor Had all A's! So proud of those two and their hard work.
We celebrated Taylors 7th Birthday and My 29th.  We are still in paperwork phase of working on fostering, it is a slow process in Alabama but an end is in sight! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Rambling

So after a full week and weekend, the children and I are preparing to start back to school in the morning. Hannah will be in 6th grade and Taylor will be in 1st and I will be starting my 4th semester of college. We really did have a great week, Lunch with a great friend and her children. Met and spent a lot of time with a local family that adopted two children from Ukraine 2 years ago! Meeting them and watching and hearing of their triumphs and struggles just makes me yearn even more to foster/ foster to adopt. I know that God always has a plan when he brings people into our lives and I can already see some purpose in these meetings.

Something I am really pondering at them moment is this: If you forgive someone in your heart and mind but you dont tell that person and you also keep up a wall to that person is it really forgivness? Struggling with what God wants me to do with this situation. Toodles for now and I will post 1st day of school pics tomorrow!