inspiration

there are a lot of things that inspire me. children, first and foremost, inspire me to do better in life. for them. i am blessed to have many children IN my life. with three of my own, 11 NOT of my own (but of my own!), and one on the way, i have a lot working to inspire me. everyday. every. single. day. can you believe how lucky we are to have such purity in our lives? almost as pure as puppies. sidenote: puppy breath is great, isn't it?

ethan paul. first lost tooth. definitely no puppy breath here.

i am a mother first in life. (motherly instincts are wonderous things, don't you think?) i really am blessed to be given these three awesome little peanuts to raise into awesome big peanuts. and i am just as blessed to be an auntie to 11 other peanuts i love wholeheartedly. TJ, Tyler, Mia, Teagan, Nick, Miya, Jack, Aidan, Kaia-boo, Gaby, and Addison. i can't wait for little Sammy-G to get here soon. i love these kids so much because i want to do better by them, for them, and because of them. isn't it amazing how they will be running the world some day? that our world depends on us, but also how we RAISE all these millions of peanuts? *whew* peanut raising is serious business.

emma. sophie. aidan {trouble in river city}

ethan. emma. kaia. {someone turned 1 that day!}

i always knew i wanted to have kids. it was all i knew and was sure i wanted for my future. everything else was 'extra.' i got lucky. really lucky. really REALLY lucky. it happened before we planned, but you know what? it was the right plan we never planned on. and having our first pea kicked off our plan to have more peas. because, don't you know, you always have to plan on how far a part to space your peas? *OYE* if we only knew! it really would've been ok to take our time. sure, chris is much older than i am, but certainly that was a lame excuse to pump out kids in a rapid fire type fashion (3 of them in 4 years). but i suppose i could've been like my crazy sister who pumped 3 kids out in 28 months. but that's good crazy. ;) but i thank God everyday for them. all of them. all the ones that are mine and the others that are "mine" -- because *shhhhh* they are still mine. :)

emma. sophie. me.

we all have rights in this country. and with rights come responsibility. i had a right to have children and so... i had them. because of my rights, i also have a responsibility to do right by them and provide my children with the best of what i can possibly provide for them because they are my number one priority in life. the law doesn't tell me that. my motherly instincts tell me that.

as much as being a mother is a right, it is also a privilege. i know that's nothing new to people. not a foreign concept. a TOTAL cliche. i know. but MAN! what an honor. wow. i am blessed. these kids were chosen FOR me. i was chosen FOR them. how neat is that?

Just call me queen pea.