Mothers Day ... Remember and Reflecting

My mother passed away suddenly on August 25, 2003, just 27 short days after our oldest child was born 11 1/2 weeks early at 2lbs 6oz. We were very blessed that my mother got to see her grandson, but my heart breaks that she never got to hold him. I hate that she never got to meet Lane and Jayla, as I know she would have loved them dearly. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about my Mom.

I came across the following poem and it seemed to resonate with me.

Your Mother Is Always With You...
Your mother is always with you...
She's the whisper of the leaves
as you walk down the street.
She's the smell of bleach
in your freshly laundered socks.
She's the cool hand on your brow
when you're not well.
Your mother lives inside your laughter.
She's crystallized in every tear drop.
She's the place you came from,
your first home...
She's the map you follow
with every step that you take.
She's your first love
and your first heart break...
and nothing on earth can separate you.
Not time, Not space...
Not even death...
will ever separate you
from your mother...
You carry her inside of you...
Author Unknown

Strawberries or Raspberries?

Strawberries or Raspberries? No not the fruit, but the scars that one gets when they fall off their bike, crash on their Razor scooter when riding in the rain, carpet burns from trying to "sled" down the stairs, trying to do a back flip when jumping form the swing and the list goes on. Oh, and all of these things happened in the last 5 days! Can you tell we have an active bunch of kiddos!

Our 4 year old, Lane, is our most active and accident prone. He has no fear. Three months ago he taught himself how to ride a bike without training wheels, he has the 2 wheel Razor scooter just like his older brother and his ability to climb, hang and jump is amazing.

This past weekend, Lane had cuts and scratches from head to toe! So many, that we ran out of band aids. As we were tending to his battle wounds, I asked him to count his Raspberries. I think we counted 9. The next day at preschool, his teacher apparently asked him how he got all his "Strawberries" to which Lane just explained to her his many crash and burn episodes.

Later that night at the dinner table, we were having mixed fruit with dinner and it included raspberries and strawberries. Lane looked up and said "Hey, there are raspberries and strawberries on my plate, just like on my head!". I looked at him and told him I only saw raspberries on his head. He then proceeded to tell me his teacher called them strawberries. After he told us what his teacher had said, he then exclaimed, "I don't care what you and Ms Hart call them, but I don't want any more fruit on my body, I just want it in my mouth and in my tummy!"

Until next time....

Me...Writing a Blog? I still can't believe it!

Wow, it's been a busy day. Started at 6am by hitting the garage sales (scored a new bike for my middle kid!), played outside, took oldest son to Half Price Books to purchase Kingdom Keepers (can't wait to read this series with him!) and then stopped at World Market to look at some chairs and jackpot, they were having a wine tasting! Good Times!

How rude, let me introduce myself. My name is Scott and well, this is my very first blog. Please accept my apologies if it starts off a little messy.

My family and I reside in North Texas, but I'm a North Carolinian at heart. I grew up in Eastern NC and graduated from East Carolina University. After college I accepted a job with a major airline and moved to the Dallas/Ft Worth area in 1991 for a "temporary assignment". I never dreamed that God's plan was for me to marry a Texan. No regrets though, Kristi and I have been married almost 15 years.

We have a full house here with 3 kiddos, ages, 6, 4 and 2, however having kids was not quite so easy for my wife and I. After years of unsuccessful attempts at getting pregnant, my wife and I decided to go the IVF route. We were very lucky in that our oldest was conceived on the first try. We weren't so lucky in that my wife developed preeclampsia and Benjamin was born 11 1/2 weeks early at 2lbs 6oz. Today, he is the 2nd tallest in his class and short of a light chest tube scar, there's no signs that he was a preemie! After much prayer and consideration, Kristi and I knew that we did not want Benjamin to be an only child, but we also knew that pregnancy was not an option for us. We found a great faith based adoption agency, Covenant Kids, in Arlington, TX. They work directly with Child Protective Services for Fostering and Foster to Adopt children. Lane and Jayla have been with us now over 1 year and there adoption was finalized a little more than 6 months ago. Our family is complete, we are The Parker's Party of 5!

In the coming days and months, I plan on sharing with you stories from our families past, present and future! I can't promise that every post will be grammatically correct or that every word will be spelled correctly, but I can promise you that all things I share on here will come from my heart.

Well, I had more to share on this first blog but Jayla has just advised met that she wants to watch Mickey Mouse on YouTube.

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Scott