My little man is 6!!!

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, they are a reward from Him." Psalm 127:3

Yesterday we celebrated 6 years with our little man Clay!!! Six years! Wow! I couldn't help but spend some time reflecting on his life... our blessing and reward.

It was April 2004. I finally told Mike that I thought I was pregnant. He reacted just as I had when the thought had first come to me the week before... "whatever, that's not possible!" For reasons I won't explain here, it really should have been impossible... we weren't sure we could have children. "Don't waste the money on a test hun, it's impossible!" Too late! I had already bought a test. When I came out of the bathroom Mike was waiting anxiously on the bed. I don't recall saying anything but my tears were a good indicator of the results. I'd love to say they were tears of joy but those first tears were actually of fear. I was terrified! I had recently struggled through a season of anxiety and wasn't sure I was ready physically to carry a child. Children were not allowed in our studio apartment building (which was hardly big enough for 1 person, let alone three.) Mike was a full time seminary student and I was the breadwinner at the time. What was God thinking????

Praise God!!! Praise God that HE was the one thinking and not me! His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts! (Isaiah 55:8) During that special 7 month season (yes, I was 2 months pregnant when I finally stopped denying it) God took such amazing care of us. He proved Himself faithful to us again and again!!! I am so thankful for those months of being completely desperate for God. The president of the seminary and his wife invited us to live in their basement apartment! Wow! What an amazingly sweet time of fellowship and growth for us as a couple and our walks with the Lord. And it was rent FREE!!! God took care of every little detail - in His time!

Meanwhile, I was falling in love! The little miracle growing inside of me was getting bigger and stronger everyday... and I was smitten. What a sweet season of preparing for him, praying for him, singing to him, and dreaming about him.

Forty weeks came and went. And oh, I was a BIG mama! (This picture was near the end but doesn't adequately show the ole belly!) Finally, contractions became regular on Thanksgiving morning. And then.......... oh, right, and then I was still in labor for 43 hours!!!! I will spare everyone the details of that horrific experience! Good grief! And then, after a really pleasant THREE hour push (note sarcasm), we met our beautiful baby BOY!!! We called on God so many times during the labor, delivery and recovery... and He was always there to meet us faithfully.

The moral of the story?

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, children are a reward from Him." Psalm 127:3

We have been so blessed to know and love and train up our son, Clay! Thank you LORD!

Just a few days old!

"Yet, oh Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hands." Isaiah 64:8

3 months. - mommy's little helper already!

6 months - happy little guy!

9 months - finally chunking up! mmm, the campbell's kid's first pizza!

12 months - our sweet little pumpkin!

15 months... dressed up in daddy's clothes

18 months - what a little ham!

2 years old

2 1/2 years old - about to become a big brother for the 2nd time!

3 years old

3 1/2 years old

4 years old... starting pre-school! Where did the time go?

4 1/2 years

5 yrs.

5 1/2 yrs old... atop Panther Mountain!

Happy 6th Birthday little man!!! You are such a precious gift to us! Mommy and Daddy love you!!!

My baby girl turned 3!

Well, she actually turned three last month. Life has been a little crazy at the Foster house (but for those of you who know us, that is not at all abnormal!) I LOVE celebrating birthdays. So exciting to set aside a day to celebrate and remember God's handiwork!!! And I love birthday parties. Maybe because I didn't really have them as a kid. Or maybe it's just because it gives me lots of special time planning and preparing with my kids. We decided that once our kids were three we would not give them gifts... just a fun time with their friends. I figure that a toy will be broken or forgotten tomorrow but a special day with lots of pictures will be remembered forever! At least, that's the hope :)

At our house, we also LOVE books. I especially love children's books. You might almost call it an addiction for me. Could be a serious problem but I will deny it forever!!! One book very loved by all in our house is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This became the theme for the party. Here's a glimpse at some of what happened during the celebration!

This is the fun invitation that opened up to reveal details...

Decorations that show off my "growing" girl (she doesn't need much help in the "showing off" department though)....

Listening to Daddy read the VHC story...

Pretending to be a "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17) by acting out the story and becoming butterflies.






The Hungry Caterpillar feast... complete with everything he eats in the book! Apples, pears, plums, oranges, strawberries, pickles, salami, swiss cheese, watermelon, sausages, cupcakes, cherry pie, lollipops, ice cream cones and chocolate cake! Whew! We substituted cheese muffins for cupcakes and added Pepperidge farm butterfly crackers to the salami and cheese to make lunch a bit more rounded :)





The kiddos enjoying their feast! My girls painted the decorations in the background - Eric Carle style! They are super cute... not sure what to do with them now though :(





The birthday girl having a great time!!!






The VHC enjoying his "one slice of chocolate cake!" Each child got one of these caterpillars and had to hunt on the 2nd floor for the 15 foods that caterpillar ate in the book. Hilarious to watch. They also threw VHC bean bags into a laundry basket "cocoon" and made sweet coffee filter butterfly magnets to take home.








Most of the crew... they were getting tired by picture time. But hey, 5 three year olds looking at a camera is pretty good, right?




Even the big kids were a little worn out by the end of the morning! :)



Overall, it was a really fun morning and a great celebration of life!!! Happy Birthday Sweet Mikaela!

Counting down...

On April 9th we began the long wait for our baby boy from Ethiopia. At that time we were #32 (actually not too bad considering that families are now starting the wait for boys in the 60s!)

At the beginning of October we were #11 and then, after a huge surge in referrals, we finished the month at #2! Woohoo! Today is November 22nd. We have been waiting at #1 for 11 days now.

Thought I should post this now... before we are forever mommy and daddy to an amazing little Ethiopian boy!!!! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Ladies and gentlemen! God still performs miracles!

How do I know this you may ask? Because the Foster

Family blog has consecutive entries!!!

Actually, the miracle is that He allowed and empowered

us to complete our Christmas Album project!!!

Boy Named David (our "band") has been so blessed to work

in an amazing studio, with an amazing engineer over the

past couple of weeks! We are excited to have

With The Dawn available for friends and family to give

this Christmas season!


With The Dawn is composed of 7 original songs. Six songs

are for Christmas (with lots of traditional undertones) and

one is for our son and all the orphans of the world. It also

describes the experience of all who trust in Jesus (after all,

we were all spiritual orphans before receiving His

redeeming grace - John 14:18.)

The profits from this CD will help our family raise

the final money needed to bring our little boy home

from Ethiopia (early 2011)!!!! When making your

Christmas list this year, why not consider this gift

with an extra purpose? :)

***Coming soon... audio samples and a link to purchase.***

Or let us know you are interested, send us your email

and we will put you on the mailing list!

Boy Named David

Mike and Meg Foster and Adam and Christa Stein

We praise God for blessing us with Adam and Christa!!!

They are tremendous friends and partners in the work of

Christ! Without them, this project (and all others like it)

would be impossible! We are also so blessed by others

who trust the Lord enough and love us enough to jump

on projects like this!

With The Dawn also features:

Rachael Engert (vocals)

Nick Wright (lead guitar)

Josh Myers (percussions)

Chris Eakes (vocals, harmonica)

John Benson (bass)

Charis Foster (vocals)

Some studio pics ...

The studio was AMAZING... pictures do no justice!

This is Adam tracking on guitar while Josh works

his magic!

Mike and Adam. The Lord has brought these two friends

from high school to Himself and back together to serve Him!

Meg and our efforts to make it feel like Christmas in October...

what's funny is that we don't even do the Santa thing! Ha!

Beautiful Christa on the piano!

Sweet Charis singing God's promise to/for the orphan...

He'll life us up, He'll bring us through

Blessed are we when we trust in you

Day and night you are the same

When all our help is gone you will remain.

Glory be to God on High!!!!!!

Hilarious...

So, it's been a very long time since the first (and only time) I blogged! Soooooo long in fact, that I didn't even remember what the blog was called or how to find it!!! Took me over 10 minutes just to find myself! Now if that doesn't give you an indication of what my life is like, nothing will!
When we began this blog we were waiting at #32. It is exciting to write that we are now waiting at #2!!!!!!! Time flies when you skip six months, huh? I assure you, the time didn't really fly. Waiting is hard! And yet we know that the Lord's timing is perfect!!!
Ok, more tomorrow... if I can remember where to find myself :)