I love planning parties…I mean seriously, I really love having people in our home, planning our family nights and prepping the environment. The web is just a plethora of ideas and information. I rarely come up with ideas from scratch, I just make other’s great ideas my own! For Emery’s birthday party, she decided on a Baking Party. She loves to cook with me and we had informed our kiddos we were going smaller scale this year, so a house party it was!  Here are some great sites I used for ideas: One Charming Party, TomKat Studio, and Pizzazerie.

This is how we greeted our guests, by inviting them into Emery’s Bake Shoppe…

Jason added the vase with roses from our rose bush…I know..I married a good man. I added white plastic eggs to my farmhouse basket. Don’t notice how faded my cushions are…

Here is the birthday girl with our Custom sign….I painted a canvas and then used  my awesome friend, Kristi’s, Sillouette to cut our the letters. It is kind of hard to see but really, so cute..

I also made these candlestick jars from old glass jars. I spraypainted the glass candlesticks from the Dollar Tree and glued them together. I was able to take advantage of the after Easter clearance sales to get some candy and these cute buckets. I also found some cute half aprons at Michaels. I had inteded to make these bandana aprons, but then found these and changed my mind!

I added some cooking supplies and the berries with chocolate and that was the dining room table!

Our first station was icing/decorating cupcakes. I made these sweet cupcakes and found these cupcake wrappers at Walmart after Easter and added them!

These are my custom cupcake stands that I made from the Dollar Store, as well. I got the glass candlesticks, silver trays and superglue. I spraypainted it all with these fun colors and then glued them together. FYI- the superglue did not hold and I am going to try a sturdier glue.  I found the tutorial here.  I also invested in the supplies for icing cupcakes/cakes. I bought the bags, tips, and couplers. We had 4 different bags of icing and it was perfect for the girls to decorate their cupcakes with. They each did two cupcakes.

Baking Station #2

Our next station was making cookies in a jar. I debated back and forth about what to make, but settled on these. We had an assembly line and off they went.

Here is the recipe I used:

All in all, it was a fun, successful party and our future baker LOVED every minute of it!!

My man surprised me on MD with a new blog look that he and our resident graphic designer, Sully, created for me.

I also wanted to share my new blog name….

Did you see it?

Catchy, huh?

We had a fun day and were able to take in the local Thunderbirds Air Show…pretty impressive. And Loud. I guess when you have 6 fighter jets flying above your head you should expect it to be loud!

Right over our heads….

My sweet kiddos…so thankful to be their Mom.

Our girl is 8.

I am so overwhelmed by this fact.

She is such a joy in a cute dimpled little body. I am so proud of her and how she loves on and serves those around her, especially those younger than her. Emery loves her some babies. She wants to be a teacher one day and a rock star. And strangely, I have no doubt she could be either, neither or both!

In her seventh year, I feel like I have gotten to know her more. I’ve known her since she took her first breath, but this year I feel like I understand her more. I have learned that Emery loves change and needs new adventures. She is our modern girl with her ipod touch, who still loves to play with her dolls.  She loves to laugh, can make friends easily, goes with the flow, but is fierce to get her way at times, she is super smart, COMPETITIVE, outgoing, yet shy, and pretty much cries every Wednesday night…sobs actually, over the most random things. I call it her midweek tired cry.

She is dynamic and I have no doubt that what she puts her mind too, she will accomplish. I not only love this sweet, sassy thing….I like her a lot too!

Emery, you are already a force to be reckoned with and I am so thankful that God ordained you to be ours to love and guide.  I am so proud at how you have taken on new situations this year and EMBRACED them. I love to see your confidence growing in yourself and that you are growing comfortable in who God created you to be. I love that you are tender to others and yet can be so fierce in what you believe in (even when it is flat out wrong!).  I love watching you reading the Word and gaining understanding of who God is and His purpose for you. I have no doubt that He has an amazing journey for you that will not be predictable or ordinary. He created you for more and I have no qualms claiming big things for you for HIS GLORY. I am simply crazy about you my sweet unexpected surprise. Be bold, be reckless in your pursuit of JESUS….I can’t wait to watch you grow…

Naming our fourth child has not been easy.

At all.

I love my other kiddos names.  I want to love his name as well.

Here is a little peek into how we named our other kiddos.

Parker Caroline- Loved the name Parker for a girl. We really like strong names for girls that were not on the list of the Top 100 names.

Emery Kate- We grew up off of Emory Rd in Knoxville. After we knew we were having a girl, Jason had a mommy bracelet made for me and he finalized her name.

Bradley Andrew- obviously, Bradley is my maiden name. Andrew is Jason’s middle name. No brainer.

We knew we would keep his Ethiopian name as his middle name. So, we wanted to wait to see what it was before we named him. He has had many nicknames the past few months.  Shaq Bieber (thanks Marty!), JJ, our little African, and the list goes on….Jason is really big on nicknames and being able to shorten their names. We have PC, Em and Bman, so we have to be able to have a good nickname!

We have finally settled on what we will call this little guy…

Judson “O” Stewart

It seems to fit. It isn’t too preppy, but it still flows with our family. We pray that he will be a man of faith and boldness like Adoniram Judson….the first Protestant missionary to Burma. We are so excited to see how God uses him to make His name famous!

We are excited to have a name and to begin establishing him in our minds and hearts as a Stewart….so please pray for our little man Judson by name.

So now that you have seen the adorable backside of our son, I thought I would share the specifics to his story. We received our referral while we were in Chattanooga on Spring Break…or at least we received pictures of ‘O’ but were waiting on his medical. The director of our agency had been in Africa for several weeks and was in their orphanage that is located 14 hours south of Addis. It was there that O had been brought by his mother. We have a good amount of history on him and will be getting more, but have decided to keep it private. It is our son’s story, not ours to tell, yet. They were able to get all of his paperwork together except for his medical, so he was brought to Addis to have his examination and to live at the Transition Home until we can get him.

Here is what we know for sure:

1. He is between 18 months and 2 years. When you live in remote Africa, a calendar is not exactly right around the corner and much is determined by phases of the moon. Because of that, we do not know the exact date of his birth.

2. We will be submitted to court on Monday, April 11. We will find out in about a month when our court date is and this will be when we travel. We think it will be late June or July. Current court dates are for the end of May for those who were submitted to court in early March.

3. We have a decent picture of his medical condition. He was anemic so they have put him on Iron supplements. He is 3% in weight and 25-50% in height.

We had a sweet time telling our children about their brother. They have been so anxious to see his face.  We had finally seen his medicals and were ready to move forward. We were ready to celebrate this amazing part of our journey. Jason and I had guarded our hearts and were just plain old excited to share his face and to begin falling in love with this sweet guy. We had some pictures printed of ‘O’ and put them in these cute little bags.

We had each child open it up, but not say anything…but I think their faces tell the story…

JOY

OVERFLOWING JOY

OVERWHELMED…

But, able to rejoice knowing that we now have a face in our minds and a name to utter in our prayers. As I have been processing what it means to welcome this little guy into our lives, I continue to cycle back to his precious mother. While I don’t know all of her reasons for choosing to place her son for adoption, I know this….she is forever apart of our journey and his. For whatever reason, she is choosing to trust that this incredibly hard decision is one that will give her a chance….and her son a chance. I also think about our son, whom I don’t know yet, but what I do know is that in these days, he is experiencing fear, confusion, anxiety and not understanding why….in a nutshell, my son is walking through a trauma.  And it is hard to think about, but that is his reality, and that of MILLIONS of other children.  Right now, I am choosing to love this little picture of a boy, in anticipation of loving him for all of his days.

So I ask you to pray for him these specific things:

• Attentive and caring nannies- I pray his cries are heard, answered and he is given as much love and attention that he needs.
• Peace- In the midst of his fear and confusion, pray that he feels the peace, security and love that can come only from God. I can’t give those things to him right now, but I serve an amazing God who will and does.
• Attachment- Even though he is young, attachment is a process. Pray that he will quickly bond to Jason and I when we see him and KNOW that he is loved, he is safe and he is home.
• A quick court date- Pray that favor is found in our case. Pray we get a quick court date and pass court THE FIRST TIME. Pray specifically that our letter from MOWA is written and all of our documentation is in order.
• His birthmother- Pray for her heart and mind during these days.

With that I leave you a glimpse of our little man (we can’t post his picture, yet)(and that is a scrape on his sweet little chin)

We have seen his face…..

And we know his Ethiopian name…..

And we are filled with joy!

For Bradley’s birthday party, we had a Hot Wheels party. He really just wanted to spend time playing Wii with his “frans.” We had gone bowling as a family, out to eat on his actual Birthday, had cupcakes for his class…it was really a little ridiculous. But, you only turn 5 once and so I am okay with it!  My wonderful friend, Kristy, designed some water bottle wrappers and Cupcake toppers to go with our Hot Wheel theme. We played Wii,  had some crafts for the girls and played cars…very simple and low key.

Our lonely bowling alley/hallway/coat closet/racetrack

Our water bottle labels…we are still drinking out of them!

I just bought plain cupcakes and then added the toppers.

I had easy sweets for the party. I made some chocolate and sprinkle covered pretzel sticks, oreos (wheels), the surprising hit of Pixie sticks and

Starburst jellybeans…who doesn’t love a s Starburst jellybean?

I decorated with glass filled hot wheels and hot wheel tracks!!

Girly car shaped melt a beads and car shaped DIY gummies…

My boy is in heaven right now!!

Playing Konnect…so fun.

Time to eat..

Again…the Pixie sticks were the big hit…

We had a fun afternoon and hopefully made a few memories for our boy!

I can barely contain myself over the fact that Bradley is five years old. He seriously looked bigger to me today.We have had one fun day celebrating with Ice Cream Cupcakes, going to eat at Five Guys and Sweet CeCe’s and spending time playing outside and with your new toys!

I am so over the top in love with that kid….he is just pure joy to me.

Don’t get me wrong, he is active and we have our share of “moments” but….he is my boy.

Yesterday, in honor of his last day to be four, I let him choose four things he wanted to do. He chose the following things:

1. Eat cake for breakfast. I love birthday cake, so I get it…and I let him devour it. We had left over cake from his Family Bowling Birthday party….our extended family went bowling and it was sooo much fun.

2. Play Wii- he could play Super Hero Squad for HOURS if we let him…he asks for it first thing in the morning and then every 30 seconds until I cave in at 6:58 am. No surprise he wanted to play.

3. Open his new Lacrosse set. We are all so ready to play outside….it has been a long, cold winter. He and Parker ended up playing it in the hallway/bowling alley and I was reminded that our huge wasted space, is in fact, a blessing in disguise.

4. “Be wif you, Mommy.” Again, I point to the fact that I am head over heels for this boy…all of my children, in fact. But, those sweet little mispronounced words remind me that I am so very blessed to call him my boy.

Bradley, my prayer for you will always be that you chase HARD after the God of the universe. I pray that you seek HIS face FIRST and that NOTHING will sway you from your passionate, devotion to HIM. I pray that your GOD given charm and energy will be used to draw those who are far from HIS saving grace to an abundant life in CHRIST. I pray you LEAD when no one else is willing, when it is DIFFICULT and with the heart of GOD. You have a purpose and that is to bring GLORY and HONOR to the Name of CHRIST and I pray that we will are faithful to point you to that purpose by example, by leading you and teaching you what it means to be a MAN after GOD’s heart. I can’t wait to see your journey….I LOVE YOU PLUS ONE, Bradley.

I love blogging, don’t get me wrong, but it has not been a priority lately….so I am bullet pointing what has happened in our lives lately…

• Adoption….should be within weeks of a referral….I mean it this time!
• Jason….busy at work, playing in an over 30 church basketball league (I could make so many jokes at this point), lost a total of 45 pounds, people think he is sick at this point…but he’s not, just HEALTHY!!
• Parker…really enjoyed basketball (post to come), received her first “will you go out with me? note, check yes or no (Still trying to decide if I should blog about it to protect her sweet innocence because it was really one of the best parenting moments I have had EVER), about to start soccer and golf.
• Emery…auditioned for a part in a musical and didn’t get it..learning/growth for her…doing well at school…was a complete JOY to watch on the basketball court, could really do without playing soccer, but we already paid for her to play…. planning out a semi redo for her room…..about to start golf as well.
• Bradley…about to turn 5…i have no words….loves Super Hero Squad on the Wii….is probably addicted to it…because he does all their moves from the game when he is not playing it….so no, he isn’t dancing or hopping randomly…he IS Wolverine or the Incredible “Hawk” (Hulk)….
• Me…trying to find the motivation to train for the Country Music Marathon….working on adoption homestudies more than ever….in the phase of God’s narrowing…you know the time where He narrows your path, your time, your interests…trying to come up with creative family nights and not doing a great job at it…trying to plan our summer…and figuring out Bradley and our African’s room.

I know…riveting…

What a wild few weeks we have had in the Stew House. Between sickness and lots of activity, I have not even remotely thought about blogging!

Things are moving very slowly on the adoption front. The only reason I can say as to why is that our son is not ready for us YET. We have had the opportunity to accept referrals for infants three times now and have passed on these precious infants three times. While some may think that is foolish and not understand why, I would put forth that Jason and I have a heart for a child that is a little older.  Our agency director said to me this week, affirming our decision to be patient, that it is easy to find families who are willing to adopt infants…it is a little harder to find families willing to adopt toddler boys. So if our waiting now means that a little 2 or 3 year old does not have to wait any longer than necessary later, then that it what we are prepared to do….WAIT.

Waiting is never fun. We quickly can become frustrated or abandon what we are waiting for and pursue that which is convenient.  In adoption, waiting is part of the journey. There is no way around it. We want to get to the end of the journey and the prize that is there….our children home.  Yet, I fully believe and trust that in the waiting is when we have a choice to make. Do we wait with anticipation, hope and patience, or do we wait with emotion, fear and anxiety?  Do we choose to rejoice in the now of our life or think that by laboring over our wait, we somehow make it go any faster?

It comes down to TRUST.

Am I trusting God’s sovreign plan for my family? Or, am I putting trust in my own efforts?

I know that maturity and character are revealed in struggle and in difficult times. I have shown myself to be one big ol baby in times past.

But, not this time.

I am choosing to find the joy in the wait, anticipation for our son and seek daily to honor Jesus.  By spending time focusing on Christ, my sweet family of five, and preparing our hearts and our home for our boy….I am hoping I am faithful to Jesus in the wait.

I pray constantly for our boy. Is he safe? Is he hungry? Is he loved? I have moments of tears thinking about him….

But, I know that when I see my boy’s face, hear his NAME and hold him…..the waiting seems but a moment and I will realize THIS  PRECIOUS ONE was worth it and he is ours.  I remember that feeling when we had Parker after trying for so long to have a child, for our unexpected, but always planned, Emery and for Bradley….our boy.

I can’t DO anything about those things except TRUST in my FATHER to be his FATHER, and claim the promise that HE will be with our son, because in this season of waiting…..I can’t. The arms of Christ stretch so much farther than mine and I am so thankful that I serve a Savior who will be comfort and love to our boy. What joy I have in knowing that and the comfort it brings my soul.

Here are some verses I am learning while I wait….

• Romans 8:25 ESV
  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

• Psalm 31:24 ESV
  Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!

• Psalm 130:5 ESV
  I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;

• Proverbs 13:19 ESV

  A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul

How are you marking your time in a season of waiting?