Friday Letters

Dear Children, this week has flown by. There have been a lot of kids in and out of this house this week. That's a good thing. You also gave me some extra love because I cleaned your room for you. Ha you will never know what I threw away!! It's a win win this way:) Dear Hailey, for YW exellence you sang with your friend. It was so pretty, sounded so good! We don't hear you sing like that at home. I'm grateful you have leaders who can teach you all the stuff I don't know how to do. Dear Liam, you are turning 9. You are almost as tall as Kade at 11. You gave Kade the brother he has always wanted. You're my bonus boy, Happy Birthday! Dear Monsoon Season, everyone's saying how fall has arrived. I walk outside and I'm thinking, what are they talking about? It's hot and humid, it's monsoon season, not fall. Nice to get a huge down pour with thunder and all and have the power go out during church. Ever nicer it quite raining when we had to walk to the car. Dear Dr., thanks for shooting me up with cortisone! Cause I have an old lady body. Too bad there is a two shots per day limit, I need it in like five places. I went for the left knee and right wrist. If you suffer from carpal tunnel it does wonders! I'm looking forward to being able to sleep at night. I hear the shot to the wrist is the worst, but I've had it twice and it's not that bad to me. I have way worse pain on a regular basis so it is very worth it. Dear Awkward, when your husband says he knows a short cut out of the court house basement, so you follow him. Instead we end up locked in the outside basement...and I still follow you. Dear Will, I love that you get up and help get the kids off to school every day when you could just sleep instead. And that you let me sleep when I had a huge headache all night and did it all yourself. And that you helped Kade figure out his math for an hour. You let the kids do extra things that I would probably just say no to cause I don't feel like it, like play on the computer and take them to the store to get things like glitter hairspray and Pokemon card binders. But you still make them help you pull weeds and mow the lawn. You take the time to sit next to Hailey and listen about her day and watch a show with her, that you have no desire to watch, just because she asked you to. And then you say things like, if I watch the voice without you that is considered cheating in our marriage, and make me laugh. Just so you know, I notice all of the little things you do and I love you for it.Dear Self, I am looking forward to regaining strength again. Cause I NEED it. I could use my memory back too. I'm trying to be satisfied with one step at a time, but I would like to skip a few. I swear I will decorate for Halloween this year, which means it should be done now. I WILL be more festive than last year! I also found that it is easier to just throw things away that it is trying to find a place to put them in our little house. But we could use a bigger garbage can. And I will live through the next five birthdays we have with in these next two months. And I will be grateful for every single day, there is always something to be grateful for. If you can find one thing, there are always ten more that you didn't quite see before.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, I think you have had one of the most memorable days of your life this week. It is good. You belong, you are wanted, you are loved. Dear Sick, starting my week by spending two days stuck in bed sick. I hate being stuck in bed when you can't sleep or read or do anything but feel miserable. Dear Sleep, too many days not being able to sleep. Too Many! Days of torture I tell ya! Dear Rain, why is it that it rains the hardest when I have to go outside? The rain is good cause my house hasn't flooded. Dear Awesome, sending all of my kids to school on bikes when it ended up pouring rain all day. Dear Avary + Hazel, you two have been so happy together lately. I love hearing you play and sing and dance together. And I love that you want to match all the time. It makes me happy. Dear Marilyn, I am so grateful for you. You give me so much hope and confidence. Thank You is an understatement. Dear Adoption Day, a happy, special day. Everywhere we went I watched how you told everyone you knew that you had just been adopted, with a huge smile on your faces. Every single one of you. It brought tears to my eyes and made my heart so happy to see how much it means to you to have Will legally be your father and carry his name. A day to never forget. Dear Will, how can a mother ever adequately express what is in my heart towards you when I see that a part of my children's heart has been healed because of a selfless act from you. I will spend the rest of my life trying to show you. I Love You. A lot:) Dear Self, I could never have foreseen how blessed I would be. I can never describe how grateful I am to my Father in Heaven, because I know all comes from him. What if I had let my fear win over two years ago instead of trusting the Lord and moving so blindly into my shack. How different life would be. How glad I am that I had the strength to do hard things, to trust the Lord. My greatest desire is to devote my family and home to the Lord for all that he has given me. And to remember that on the really hard days. My heart is so thankful.

Adoption Day!!

The "New - est - ish" 

Members of the Clark Family!

The kids were brimming with excitement from the moment they woke up this morning.

You can see it in their eyes.

 Waiting to go into the court room.

The little girls are in awe of "the gavel"

Avary got to pound the gavel and said "Order in the Court!" Later she said "I should have said Off with your head!" Ha

They thought the Judge was going to wear a white wig and pound them on the forehead with his gavel and say "You are now Adopted"

They were surprised that is not how it goes haha.

Hailey and Kade couldn't wait for the gavel action and then when the Judge said they could all come up and have a try, these two got super shy. They are regretting it now.

Outside the court house.

Will's Dad and Wife Vicky attended also. I really appreciated that.

We missed Will's kids. They were not able to miss school. We will go back for some pictures.

I learned the court house is 98 years old.

It could use new flooring....

Right here is my whole life.

The New - est - ish Clark children!

What Love can do

Dear Will,

Today we went to stand before a judge

You swore to be, give and accept a very long list of responsibilities

For not just your three, but four more children

My children

Instead of being, acting and carrying the responsibilities as a Father figure

You agreed to

Be Their Father Forever

Today you legally adopted my children to be your own

One of the many reasons I love you is because

Other than them carrying your name

Not one thing in our daily life will change

You have already filled the role of a Father

You have sacrificed for them

You teach, listen, hug, comfort, console, spend time, money, work, provide

Attend, help, love, read and tuck them into bed at night, hold them when they cry

Also give tolerance, patience, forgiveness, and understanding for the burdens they carry

And go without all the things you could just give to yourself

All the things a Father does

You were already doing

And they love you 

As you gave them a special gift

That you picked out for each one of them

You told them you were blessed to get to be their Father

And reminded them that what makes you family

Is Loving each other

I Love You

For all that you give

I Love You for Loving Them

When they have absolutely nothing to offer you in return

But Love

An endless amount of Love

Friday Letters

Dear Children, still loving school. Still messy and never want to clean. One of these needs to change. Dear Week, how do you fly by, yet the day drags? It's already Friday? Dear Rain, we got some, but not like Mesa area. I love having some good overcast rainy days. Dear M, it was so good to see you and talk with you. I got to feel like myself again for a little bit. Dear Briana, still missing you. I'm sure you could feel how loved you are. Happy Birthday. Dear 9/11, it's weird sometimes that the only one of my kids that were alive was Hailey. I was glad that every single one learned about it in school. I was thinking of not just the ones that were lost, but the ones who lost loved ones and the ones who survived. Glad my brother was one of the ones that survived. Dear Hailey Lou, you have been wanting to go by your middle name for some time now. Louetta. My grandmas name. What's wrong with Hailey Lou, LouLou, Lou, Louie all the names I already call you? Dear Will, it seems like I haven't seen much of you this week. Dear Self, I'm trying hard to feel like myself again. It's not so easy. Having a day of feeling like myself makes me really miss it. The struggles of life.

Friday Letters

Dear Children, loving school and still going strong. You even get all your homework done. I think it's going to be a good year. Dear Awkward, while sitting next to Hazel's bed singing her a song a huge spider comes out of nowhere, hits me in the chest and runs down my shirt. I handled this extremely well given the circumstances. What would you do? The logical thing to do in my mind? The clothes come off...run to my room while losing the clothes. It's the only way to be sure. Naturally. Little miss muffet... Dear Awesome, coming home after a couple of days away and having all the kids rush Will and attack him with hugs and squeezes and smiles. And me? I had to wait hours for my turn because he was buried in children who love him so dearly. The awesome part is just how dang lucky we are. Dear Liquid Gold, oh man, Kayloni's salted caramel sauce is to die for. I can eat it by the spoon full. If you like caramel, believe me, you want a jar of this.  Dear Bad Luck, driving down the freeway minding my own business and a rock flips up and hits my windshield. A nice big crack right across my line of vision. Who's got time for that! Not to mention I don't have money for that! It was a perfectly good windshield! Dear Hazel, I met with your teacher this week. They all love you so much and just kept saying how much you have improved, how smart you are and how sweet you are to help the other kids. I am so dang proud of you and all of your hard work. My sweet little Hazelnut. You're toothless grin just kills me every time. Dear Kade, When I met with all of your teachers I didn't know what to expect. You are one lucky boy because every single one of your teachers seem so kind and genuinely want to do what ever they can to help you succeed. And your homeroom teacher just happens to be our landlord, which is pretty awesome cause you already really liked the guy. This is such a huge burden off my shoulders to have others help me. Dear Avary, your love of gymnastics may have just doubled after watching the Gabby Douglas story, I can't even count how many times. We have had some injuries, you know the normal getting kicked in the face and knocking things over from your flips. I do love to see you be so passionate about something. I believe you will excel. Dear Hailey, you got up early and made everyone fresh crapes with strawberry sauce and whipped cream. It was pretty yummy. If you can leave the work space clean as if it never happened then I will gladly teach you many things in the kitchen. Dear B, you are in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you know that you are not alone. Dear Sis, sometimes you just need each other. I am glad to have my sisters. Dear News, we have some pretty BIG and pretty exciting news! But you will have to wait two more weeks to find out what it is. Dear Will, I have really loved our time together this week. You worked so hard and are so worn out, but you still took the time to drive me to Gilbert for my Dr. appointment. I cherish the time that we got to spend talking in the car the entire way there and back. How you always turn the radio off so we can talk. And how sweetly you are caring for me as I am not feeling well. And on top of that you are taking care of our seven children and the hundreds of duties that accompany our awesome family. I know it can be so stressful at times trying to divide yourself 8 different ways and still be kind. You have done a great job at that this week. Dear Self, I'm not feeling good. I'm feeling so bad. Lack of sleep, and too much pain. But I have found many things to be grateful for this week. Especially the fact that when my children are faced with such difficult trials in life, yet I have this peace because I know I have the truths necessary for them to succeed in this life even though it is hard. God loves us. He gave us the way to overcome and directions to find our way home to him. Without it...it would all eat me alive.