8 years ago today....... (Part 1) EDITED- Added Part 2

At 9:35 pm Joel William Austin Shrum came into the world 5 weeks early weighing 7 lbs. 11 oz. Perfect and healthy!

PLEASE TURN TO THE MUSIC WITH THIS POST!

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY JOEL!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

(Sorry for the picture quality, this was before my digital camera and I had to scan all these photos)





Mommy and Joel's 1st picture!


Josiah was a proud big brother!


2 days later you came home from the hospital.



At 6 days old you came home from the hospital for a second time. You had yellow jaundice and could not stay awake long enough to nurse. You started to dehydrate , so they put you back in the hospital for 3 days on IVs. That is why you have that big band aid on your hand.

1 week old.

1st picture of all of mommy's 3 boys together! 18 days old.


Your first bath.

6 weeks old picture.

Happy Birthday Joel Part 2

Joel was 2 mo. old in this precious picture!

Picture 1.) Joel was 10 weeks old. 2.) Joel's first trip to the beach at 3 months old. 3.) Almost 5 mo. old chilling in the pool. I love me a chubby baby!!!!

The next 4 pictures of Joel are from the age of 5 -8 mo. Photo's not in order.

Joel at 9 mo. old in the next 2 pictures.

Happy 1st Birthday Joel! Apparently he enjoyed his cake!

My little naked Cow boy!

Joel from 15-18 mo. old in these next pictures. They are also out of order.

Happy 2nd (Lover Boy) and 3rd B/D's!

Age 4

Age 5 > Joel starting Kindergarden.

Age 6> Joel lost his first tooth.

Age 7

To now..... Age 8.

Happy 8th Birthday Joel! WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!!!!

We took Joel Birthday Shopping at Toys R Us and Target today to let him spend all of his Birthday money. Then he wanted to eat a Ci Ci's Pizza for dinner. This year he decided he did not want Birthday Cake he wanted a Strawberry Cheese Cake!!! Mmmmmm! A little man after my own heart! I was like that when I was a kid. I wanted pie over cake any day!

Hope you enjoyed watching Joel grow up over the last 8 years!

Getting To Know Me

Do you think you know who I am??.....

1.)Are there any questions you have always wanted to ask me about me, or the Shrum Family? I thought this would be a great way for you all who do not know me/us that well to ask the questions lingering in the back of your head. I will be answering your questions one week from today. This should be plenty of time for you to leave me a comment.

2.)Also, I would love for you to post the things you think you do know about me/us.

Why am I doing this? First of all I thought this would be a great way to get to know each other better.After I post and answer all your questions I will be tagging 7 people to return the favor.
And to get people to start leaving comments again! I just hope I have 7 people to ask me questions!Lol!

Ok.....this should be interesting!! I can't wait to read your comments/questions.......

Sunday's Prayer

St. Patricks Day and Doll Tutu's

Is anyone interested in me making the special little girl in your life a green and white tutu for St. Patty's day? I am now making doll tutu's, and build-a-bear tutu's. Check out my tutu blog on side bar for more info!

FFF

This picture was taken back in Oct.(2), on Josiah's 11th B/D.

Catching Up

Here are a couple of pictures I took of the girls all dolled up in their Valentine outfits. Sara Ava was still under the weather in these pictures, but she is all better now. We are still working hard at potty training with Lilee. We sure have cute down on the pull ups, which saves us money. She still will not tell us when she has to go , so I put her on the potty every 11/2- 2 hours. She is still waking up with a full diaper so she is technically not ready. She has only had a couple of #2 accidents in the last 2 weeks. Yay Lilee! Lilee will be 3 in 2 months , my goal is to have her potty trained by then.


It has been crazy around here these last few weeks. We are wrapping up the Basketball season. All the boys had their last game last night, tonight we start playing the tournaments. I am coaching all by myself tonight because Karlton is out of town working. I can do it! Hopefully we will finally win one tonight! We technically won last night but they took 2 points from us, they should not have. Wish us luck! These poor little ones need(Josiah and Joel) to win one game.... I feel so bad for them. Josiah played like a champ last night, he fell and got hurt but sucked his tears in and continued to play the rest of the game scoring a lot of points! Joel is to funny to watch, he plays his heart out and stills a lot of balls. If we loose tonight our season is over! I Pray we win this one.

Josiah shot many foul shots last night.

This one was good!

Joel with the ball.

Joel laying on the ball so no one would still it!

Joel hustling to get the ball.

Jordan on the other has only lost 2 games all year and their team is #1. His tournament game starts Thursday. He also was playing tennis the last 2 weeks, but was cut on Thursday. He was soooo into it too! Poor guy! (they had to cut a couple of people because they had to many on the team).

Jordan shooting.

Picking Jordan up from tennis practice.

Sunday's Prayer

Our Valentines

Karlton and I got to enjoy a nice quite dinner alone at one of our favorite restaurant's tonight. We slipped into our reserved booth ... had she crab soup, salad, and shrimp and grits! Mmmm! It doesn't get much better then that for us!!! I was surprised with roses,chocolates, and a singing card. Valentines Day 2009 has been pretty wonderful!!!

Love Is......

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perserves. Love never fails.

Drum Roll Please................

"OK guys are you ready for our wonderful news?"

We are jumping for joy at the Shrum house and praising the Lord!!!! Can you hear us?

"We took a leap of faith" to adopt our 2 Guatemalan Princessa's and had a lot of left over debt.

I am happy to share our news with you all that we received a wonderful tax check back today enough to finish paying off our adoption credit card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After many months of trying
to do everything possible to raise money to pay off this credit card we are ecstatic to get rid of this debt and it feels wonderful!!! But that is not all.... We have enough to pay another credit card off and catch up on all bills too. Thank You Jesus!!!

I hope this was not a let down to those of you who thought we were adopting again! I finally feel free from this burden that was weighing down on our shoulders! The Lord said he would provide and that he would take care of us and HE did! It may have not be our timing or when we thought it to be but it was in His!!!

As for adoption the Lord called me and Karlton to adopt and if it is in his will for us to adopt again one day our hearts are open! I don't think that door will ever close........

Thank You all for your love, prayers, and support with helping us pay off our adoption credit card!!! We could have never done it with out everyone's help!!!!! Now, I can take off our fundraising thermometer!

Romans 8:28 " And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

FFF

Coming Soon..... Some Exciting News!

I have some very exciting news to share with you all! I want to tell you now, but do not want to count my chickens before the hatch! Do I have your attention!!! Wanna guess what it is????Huh??? You know you do!!! Come on , take a guess!

(mom, you know so don't give it away please!)

I hope to give you the Good news by the end of this week or next.

And... "No, I am NOT pregnant!"

I can't wait to read your replies. I will give you a warm, hot, or cold response though!

Sunday's Prayer

My Music Is Back!

I had music on my blog for a long time until I read a survey that most people do not like to hear music on blogs so I took it off. I really missed my music!! So I figure it is my blog and if I like it then that is all that matters. If you are not a music person just turn off the sound when you look at my blog. Hope I don't run anyone off by putting it back on my blog.

If you do enjoy music, esp. Contemporary Christian , then you will want to listen to the new song I just put on here. " Give Me Your Eyes "by Brandon Heath. I just bought this CD today.Listen to the words .....they give me goose bumps! The more I listen to it the more I love it! The songs I have on my play list are songs that I love or Like MY FAVORITE!!! Toby Mac's , "Made To Love" helped me to get through the girls adoptions!

FFF

Dreaming of warm weather, short sleeves, spring, flowers, green grass, summer, vacation, Charleston, and white sandy beaches........................ What are you dreaming of?

Sale & Ready To Ship

I have 1 Valentine Tutu w/ Bow set left in a size 21 inch waist ,and ready to ship. It can still reach you by Valentines. Hurry don't wait!!! It won't last long. If you are interested you can email me at karlton5@juno.com Sale !! was $27 + $5 s&h . NOW $30 w/ s&h.