Sprinkler Park Fun

One of the mother's of Ella's friends from her preschool class this past year decided to plan playdates for the class throughout the summer so our children could still see each other. I thought that was brilliant because there a couple of fellow students that Ella loved and had mentioned several times how much she was going to miss them when school was out.

So our first playdate was at this awesome sprinkler park close by that is brand new.






This is Bradford, Ella's very best friend from her class.


Ella is so relational already at this young of an age. She LOVES her friends so much and thinks about them a lot. I am very thankful that we get to see some of her favorite friends this summer. And I'm hoping her and Bradford are in the same class next year.

Infertility: Part 4 | God's Hand

I can not believe that it has been 2 months since I have continued writing about our journey with secondary infertility! Time goes by so quickly. There is so much to catch up on, so I hope that I can be diligent in not letting 2 months go by again.

For a refresher on where we have been thus far you can go here, here and here or click on the links on the sidebar to your right. It has been so long since I’ve updated that I even had to look back to see where I left off.

That last thing I talked about was how I got the amazing opportunity to meet with our pastor’s wife’s sister who has been doing foster to adopt for years.
One thing she stressed that she feels is very important in fostering is to find a Christian foster agency in the area. She loves her Christian organization in Houston that they work with, but I wouldn’t be able to use them. She said just to google “Christian foster agencies in DFW”.

A couple of days later as I sat at my office desk at work, still feeling very overwhelmed by my conversation with Brandy, I pulled up google on my computer and typed in “Christian foster agencies in DFW”. To my surprise, a very long list pulled up. I didn’t realize there were so many. I thought and maybe said out loud to myself, “How in the world am I supposed to pick one?”

As I scanned the list, one in particular really stood out to me and I wasn’t sure why at the moment. The name I saw is Covenant Kids. So I clicked on it. As soon as I did, the director’s name popped up and I remembered instantly why this one sounded familiar. The director’s name is Travis Jones. Heath and I went to college with him at Dallas Baptist University. I graduated the same year as he did. I remembered at that moment that I had heard through the grapevine, AKA Facebook, that he was working for a foster agency. But when I had heard that a couple of years ago we were not any way thinking that this would be anything that we ever be interested in doing. So that news pretty much when in one ear and out the other.

So of course I immediately emailed him with goosebumps all up and down my arms, telling him what had been going on with us and where we were in our feelings of possibly moving this direction.

Within 5 minutes I got a response from Travis! And I read the greatest thing…
He told me he was very excited for us. And then he said, “If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to pass your case along to a lady that works in the office here. But I want to make sure you are okay with that because you KNOW her.” Then he told me her name, which is Kallie, who was one of my college suitemates and still is one of my close friends. He had JUST hired her as a case worker!

I nearly FELL out of my chair. I started shaking with joy of how it seemed another door was FLINGING wide open for us to go in this direction!

I proceeded to email him back immediately telling him ABSOLUTELY YES and within 5 more minutes I got a very excited email from Kallie!

One of the blessings of getting to work at my church is that I get to work with some of my best friends. So I jumped up from my desk and ran to their offices to tell them this incredible news! I was and am still in such awe of how it seems the Lord is so clearly lighting this pathway for us.

Kallie proceeded to email me the application along with lots of other information. And I immediately made my little Covenant Kids binder with sheet protectors and labels! I like to nerd things up whenever possible.

Jump To present day:
Even though we are VERY excited, we are still very much in a place of waiting. Shortly after all of this took place back in March, Heath and I found a new home. We had been in the process of looking for a few months and then the most perfect house popped up and we moved on it very quickly.

So we have been in a holding pattern. A lot of changes were and are happening in our life with moving and trying to get settled in. Along with my husband getting a new job as a manager at a local steak restaurant! *Answer to prayer!* Along with not being 100% sure of God’s will for our lives in this area. Just waiting to see what the next step is, and if it is doing foster care through Covenant Kids, then when do we take the next step.

So that is where we are. And as life starts to get a little more settled I am feeling a stirring in my spirit that maybe this is the right time to move forward.

This journey is certainly exciting and we haven’t even really begun!
Thank you for your continued prayers and walking it with me.

A Visit From One of Our Favorite Families

We had a wonderful, surprise visit from the Jones family over Memorial weekend! Unfortunately, Curtis' grandmother passed away suddenly from a stroke so Amanda, Curtis, Jackson & Annabeth were in Missouri all week to be with family.

On their way home, we spontaneously decided it would be really fun and great if they stayed with us Sunday night to break up their trip. I'm so glad it worked out because we had blast.





Heath had dinner ready for them when they arrived. We had Heath's amazing mexican brisket tacos! Yum. It is maybe my favorite thing Heath makes.


Ella and Jackson always have a great time. Thankfully it had only been a couple of months between visits this time. We had just spent a week with them at camp in March.






Ella and Jackson would take turns playing the piano. One would play while the other danced.


Heath, Ella, Jackson, Curtis


We were comparing the size of Ella's feet compared to Jackson's.


Watching a movie before bedtime.


After we put the kids to bed, we dug out a game from the 60's called Probe. Has anyone ever played this? Anyway, we played one round (which I won!) and then moved on to Phase 10. It was a very competitive game. It was pretty much neck and neck and then Amanda and Heath left Curtis and I in the dust. Heath ended up being victorious about 1:00 a.m. So pretty much the Hartsfields dominated the Jones in game night. We'll take you on in a rematch if you dare. :-)

Good morning fruit loops.




A new band!




We made a stop at Meme's Cafe for breakfast before they headed out of town. I couldn't believe the Jones family had never been there when they lived up here. We are big fans of Meme's. There is one right across the street from Baylor Grapevine where I had Ella. Heath and I would often head over to Meme's for their french toast breakfast after my doctors' appts while I was pregnant. That maybe contributed to my 45lb weight gain!






Thank you guys so much for making our otherwise nothing planned for Memorial weekend fun and stopping in for a break from the road. We had a blast and can't wait for our next family weekend!

College Roommates - Good Times

My last semester in college, 4 of us did a little college roommate shuffle. My roommates I had for 3 years all graduated and I had one semester to go. It just so happened that 3 of my best friends from college were also needing to do a little shuffling around and it worked out divinely that we were all able to room together that final semester!

Melissa Murrell moved in with me and Kristin Lewis & Michelle Sanders moved into our suite with a bathroom in between our rooms. (Wow, I'm realizing as I put in these links in that need to do some serious updating on my links to the right. Anyway...) It was the perfect situation and we had a blast! Some VERY funny memories!! I love my life right now, however, sometimes I wish I could snap my fingers and retreat back to that semester, just every once in a while. Just for a little break and some none stop laughing!

This past Friday, we had an ultimate reunion/playdate. Michelle was in town from Houston and it worked out for us to ALL get together. It was so nice to be together the 4 of us again, even though things were a little crazy with our 8 kids running around. I never could have imagined back in that Fall 2000 semester this life we all lead now with our children. It's awesome.

Here's the 4 of us. We were joking about how we have many similar pictures of us over the past decade in this exact order and honestly, we haven't changed that much.



We had our playdate at Kristin's house. And she borrowed this fabulously fun water slide from her sister. It is just too hot already to have a playdate outside without water being involved.




Ella loved it.






Ella & Laney always so sweet. They were the only girls in this bunch of kids.


Ella's action shot.


We're grilling...by ourselves...with no boys! We are women, hear us roar. Sorry, that's really cheesy.


The kids ready to eat.




Popsicle time.




They thought this was a really fun game. One would get in the swing and another would spray them with the water hose as they swung.


It was a great day. Looking forward to our next reunion!! I love y'all very much!