We Are Working On It

I cannot say that we are in full blown potty training mode, but we are close. John Whitten has LOVED using the potty over these last few weeks and Shaun and I have definitely encouraged it. Over this past week Shaun and I could tell that John Whitten was feeling a little under the whether, so it was no surprise to use when he spiked a fever last night. This morning his fever lingered on and off, so I thought that sense we would obviously be hanging around the house today that I would put John Whitten in undies and see how it went. He did surprisingly well. He stayed dry until about 12:30, going to the bathroom at least three or four times. He would come up to me and say, "potty Mommy, potty Mommy". And I would walk him back to the bathroom and he would go! Of course there was a lot of cheering and "way to go buddy", from me and Lillian. Who knows, maybe we will have this little guy fully potty trained by two!

You will be delivered by returning and resting; your strength will lie in quiet confidence.

Isaiah 30:15

Date Night With Lillian

This past Saturday Lillian and I went on a little Mommy/Daughter date night and we had such a good time together. I loved getting spend time with my sweet girl without any distractions (her wild brother), and it is definitely something that we will start doing once a month. Lillian wanted us to eat dinner at Chick-fi-la (no surprise there), and when she said the blessing she said, "I am so glad my Mommy wanted to spend time with just me. We are having a very good time". Her sweet prayers melt my heart every time. After dinner we had some time to spare before our movie so we went to the dollar store and I let Lillian pick out one special date night present. She picked out a water toy, and then also asked we could get one for her brother. I love it that she is always thinking of him; such a good big sister. We headed over to the movie theater, got our movie snacks and settled in our seats. In true Lillian form she didn't touch her snack until the movie started...not even one bite. I love her little quirks. We had a great time together and when we got home she kept telling me, "I am so glad we had a special date, Mommy". I was glad we got to have our special date too. 

yummy dinner w/my sweet girl

@ the movies

I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden thse things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

Matthew 11:25

Why Ephesians 1:18

On our t-shirts we put the verse, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,". I wanted to do a blog post to explain why it was that Shaun and I chose to use this particular verse on our t-shirts. 


When Shaun and began actively seeking out what God wanted from us...how was it that He desired for us to serve Him, we prayed for God to enlighten our hearts. We literally used the word enlighten in our prayers. And it was after sitting in bed together one night, reading our Bibles that Shaun read this verse out loud to me, "I pray the eye of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,". There is more to this verse but Shaun stopped after he read the first half. Reading it kind of said everything that we were wanting, everything that we where desiring at that time in our spiritual lives. We desperately wanted to know what it was the He had called us to. We wanted to be enlightened to what it was that GOD wanted for our lives and not what our flesh wanted. That verse became our daily prayer. It became our cry to the Lord, and still is. It was that verse that originally lead us down this road. It was that verse that encouraged us to dig deeper into scripture, to dig deeper into our hearts to and to ultimately realize that what God was calling us to was that we were to take care of His children. That we would bring them into our home, into our family, because HE adopted us as sons and daughters the very day that Shaun and I accepted Jesus Christ into our hearts. 


We do not intend for this adoption to be our last. We pray that God leads us to an international adoption at some point down the road, when His timing is perfect. We will definitely be starting the process to become foster parents soon after this adoption is complete, if not during. We desperately want to love on children who need to be loved on. Who need to be raised in a Christian home where God's word and His amazing love is poured over them on a daily basis. We used the Ephesians 1:18 verse on the back of our t-shirts because we want people to read that verse and think to themselves, "What is it that God has called me to do?". We want people to pray for that enlightenment that Shaun and I prayed for. Maybe God is calling you to adoption, maybe to missions, maybe to serving within your church, maybe to a different job where you can better serve Him...I don't know where God might be calling you but do not be mistaken, He is calling. 

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Philippians 1:6

Adoption T-Shirts

We are so exited that our t-shirts are finally in and ready to be purchased!! Shaun and I thought that selling t-shirts would be a great fundraiser to help us raise money for our adoption. A portion of the proceeds will go towards out adoption while another portion of the proceeds will go to Lifeline's Village Maternity Home. You can read more about it by clicking the following link: http://lifelinechild.org/pregnant/lifeline-village-maternity-home/

Shaun and I are getting closer and closer to the end of the home study process and soon our profile will be shown to birth mothers who "match us". Our social worker has a feeling that we might get chosen quickly because we are open to so many different "circumstances"...basically any race, background or disability. When we answered the call to adopt we knew that we could not put boundaries around the kind of child that we would accept. We are standing out on faith and looking forward to seeing what God entrusts us with. 

If you would like to purchase one of the adult or child t-shirts, you can comment on the blog or just email at Hayshousewife@gmail.com. I will ship them to you if needed free of any extra charge. Thank you in advance for all of your amazing support!

*the adult shirts are $17.00 and come in blue and gray sizes s-xl

front of shirt (the triangle and the heart are the international symbol of adoption)

back of shirt

*the kids shirts are $10.00 and come only in white but can be purchased in any size...including onesies. 

the kids shirts

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."

Romans 8:14-16

Our Trip To Huntsville And Nashville

This last week has been a whirlwind. On Tuesday Alli, the kids and I headed to Huntsville to visit with our friend Martina and her two precious kiddos. Lillian and Eli where both excited to play with Colton, and I was so excited that I got to meet sweet Raylen for the first time! She is gorgeous, just like her sweet Mamma! It was just like old times- watching our kids plays together while the babies played on the floor together, and the Mommies chatted. We miss the Penter Family something awful down here in B'ham, so we will have to make our Huntsville trips a regular thing (hopefully I wont get lost the next time we go). 

I had figured that sense we where already in Huntsville and sense Shaun would be working late most of the week, that the kids and I would just drive on up to Nashville to visit Johnny, Emily and Graham! I cannot believe that sweet Ellie will be here in just six short weeks...or less! Emily looked beautiful, as always, and Lillian loved getting to play and spend time with her cousin "baby Graham". It was a short visit, but it was so nice to be able to hang out with Johnny and Emily and swim with the kids at the pool. I was so sad when we left, but excited too because I know the next time we head up there it will be because Elli is being born. I cannot wait to see your sweet face!! 

Lillian, Eli and Officer Colton

digging a hole to "throw us in"!

Johnny and Graham

 Always throwing something...

so proud to be this sweet boys Aunt!

poor Graham gets so sleepy in the water...he is actually asleep under Lillian's shades : )

Lillian is always "reading" to John Whitten. She knows how much this boy loves to be read to!

 had to throw this picture in b/c John Whitten is sleeping in his big boy bed!

Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord.

Acts 3:19

Someone Is Becoming Daddy's Boy

Shaun is so proud of his little guy, and John Whitten is pretty head over heels in love with his Daddy. Shaun loves to tell me, "I just cannot believe how much I love having a son". He loves having tea parties and coloring with his little girl and then turning around and rough housing with John Whitten. And believe me they rough house...John Whitten wants nothing more than to spend all day being thrown across the room or slammed onto our bed. He is ALL boy and we love it. He defiantly fits in well with his cousins, Eli and Shepard. However, when his crazy, wild days are over this little boy loves to snuggle up with his Daddy and read A MILLION books together before bed. The other night Shaun couldn't help but to day dream about "what if" the child we adopt is a boy. "How much fun would he an John Whitten have together?", is what Shaun kept saying. In Shaun's perfect world the child we adopt would be the same age as John Whitten and be a boy. In Lillian's perfect world it would be a baby sister. Good thing we have a gracious God and that we are apart of His perfect plan! I am fairly certain that He will give us exactly what is best for everyone.

snuggling w/ his Daddy

Let all who love Your saving way say over and over, "God is mighty!"

Psalm 70:4

Scripture For John Whitten

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.Whatever he does prospers. 

Psalms 1:3 

A BIG Boy Bed For Our BIG Boy

This past weekend we came across a deal on a bedroom set that we just could not pass up...so we didn't! Even though we are not ready to put John Whitten in a bed just yet, we went ahead and bought him his BIG boy bed, a night stand and a new dresser. We got it all set up this evening and John Whitten (and Lillian) was so excited. He mainly just wanted to jump all over it at first, but then he started to lay down on the pillows and ask for "ooks" (books). Lillian, John Whitten and I cuddled in his new bed and red books before bed and it was so sweet to love on both my babies in my baby's new bed. John Whitten was not very happy when I put him in his crib tonight to sleep, but he is not quite ready for the bed yet. That will be another post for another day in the next couple months. 

yes that is a paci that he is holding. Since I weaned him he is hysterical when he wakes up in the mornings and after his naps (because he wants to nurse) , so I thought distracting him with a paci was a good alternative. Don't judge.

If you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.

Proverbs 3:24

A Surprise For Shaun

Shaun is such a hard working man, and I am so proud of all of his many accomplishments. Shaun never wants to spend money on himself...I mean never. His parents had his undergraduate degree framed for him one Christmas and when he got his Masters degree I wanted to frame it too, but he said "No, its fine". And sense then his Masters degree has been living in our basement; still in the packaging it came in. So when Shaun passed his CPA I knew that was one thing I was going to insist on framing so he could put it up at work. When it  came in the mail I hid it from him and took it to have it matted and framed. He was so excited when we gave it to him tonight and I think it turned out great! 

We are so proud of you, Shaun!

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Isaiah 64:8

The Ups And Downs Of Weaning

Last week I decided that I needed to wean John Whitten. It seriously broke my heart, but I knew that the only way we would be able to get him to eat food more consistently would be to wean him completely. I had tried to hold on to nursing him in the mornings and at night, but he literally wouldn't eat as long as he knew he would get to nurse eventually. Our pediatrician suggested that because of how old John Whitten was, and because of how attached he was to the relationship, that I should just wean him cold turkey. Great idea for John Whitten...horrible idea for Mommy.

As horrible as it is to admit this, I was nursing John Whitten easily 14 times a day and usually a couple times during the night. So you can imagine the kind of supply that I had going on. I did not think too much about that little detail when I decided to go with the whole cold turkey thing. Three days into it I was sick as a dog crying for Shaun to come home from work so I could go to the doctor. After seeing my regular ob/gyn, my ob/gyn's college, a lactation consultant, a breast surgeon and having an ultrasound it was determined that all of my milk ducts on one side were completely clogged with the begins of an abscess in one of them. I seriously cannot even begin to tell you the amount of pain I was in. I could not even pump any milk out because everything was clogged up. Horrible pain, horribly sick is all I can say about last week/weekend. 

The doctor ended up sending me home with four prescriptions -antibiotics, WONDERFUL pain medicine and a pill that would basically dry me up. Five days later I am finally somewhat comfortable and I don't feel like I have the flu anymore. The whole thing was emotional and I am so sad that I am not nursing John Whitten anymore, but after three days of eating NOTHING he actually has started to eat a little bit. We had to stave him out basically, but he is eating. 

I know that weaning John Whitten was really what was best for him, but it really does break this Mommy's heart to close the door on that part of our relationship. I cherished those late night feedings when the house was quite and it was just he and I sitting in the darkness of his room. I loved the closeness of breastfeeding...I loved every moment of it (most of the time). I 

will always treasure these last 22 months with my sweet boy, and I am so grateful that I was able to have that special relationship with him. 

You have captured my heart with one glance of your eyes.

Song of Solomon 4:9