A Fun Visit and Great Weather!!

Nikole and Barbara came to visit for a belated Christmas get together. We got to spend some time outdoors with the weather so mild. The boys were riding down the hill of the driveway in their normal daredevil style. Stephen was having a blast cruising down the driveway and crashing into anything that would stop him. Silas starts Upward Basketball at our church this Saturday, so I asked Nikole to give him some pointers on dribbling. We'll see how he does---

T-ball was a disaster when we tried when he was 4!

Christmas 2008

Bennett Family Christmas

A Great Book!!

My Adopted Child, There's No One Like You by Dr. Kevin Leman

I found this book today at the Christian book store. It is so awesome! It's the story of Panda who has to do a family tree assignment for school. He's not too excited about it because he knows his family was formed differently than everyone's at school. MOM to the rescue! She tells him all about how their family was formed through adoption. I sat in the bookstore and cried as I read it! I highly recommend it to every adoptive families' library. VERY sweet!

Adoption--it's such a God thing...

I should know, our family is proof. I've been pondering it a lot lately because our friends Brenda and Chris are in the "waiting" part right now in their journey to adoption. We are praying with them that they will receive a "match" soon, that a soon-to-be mom chooses them in making an adoption plan for her child. In a politically correct world, I always try to use the most appropriate adoption language, like "made a plan" not "gave up for" adoption; birth mom vs. first mom vs. life mom. I've read it all. No matter how you say it, you can't gloss over the grief and overwhelming joy that surrounds it. It's so contradicting. It's so amazing. It's so indescribable. It's so....MANY things. To think that someone would hand you their precious little newborn baby to love and cherish forever...it's so hard to fathom, yet I've experienced it TWICE?? How can that be? I'm so blessed and amazed by it. Some people look at adoption as "settling" because you can't have your own biological children. I know many people who have bio children and adopt. It's a God thing!! I always say that giving birth is ordinary, but adoption is extraordinary! I guess I'm biased! Some people seem to feel sorry for those of us that have never been pregnant. I do want those people to know that it is not necessary to feel that way. I accepted God's call on my life to be a mommy by adoption and I've never looked back. There's NO way I could love my boys more than if I had carried them for 9 months. What blessings they are to us. I can't imagine my life without them.

Thank you Lord for the blessing of adoption. Please be with all those moms out there who are considering adoption, that you would send just the right families to them in their time of need. For Brenda and Chris, make it soon Lord...I'm living vicariously through them to experience the miracle again (our house is full)!! Amen.

I dedicate this post to the two moms who made me mom...Bekah and Nikole! I pray for you both and could never know the extent of your grief, but know that you have given me the ultimate role of simply being "mom". I hope that having the gift of open adoption has helped you as well, that seeing our boys grow up strong, healthy, and handsome :o) fills you with much pride and contentment. I love you both!

Photo Session Fun!

Sneak peak...I won't share all of them, but these are some of the results of our

Christmas Photo session. I took the boys by myself (last time that happens), but the

pics did turn out great! As you might can guess, these are two of the unplanned poses!

Gotta love my Portrait Innovations people!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a very relaxing day and GREAT food with Mamaw & Papaw!! We're doing Thanksgiving on Saturday with the Dobbins clan (can't wait Grandma!). I tried to get our annual Christmas card photo, but I'm not sure I'm satisfied (neither of these are finalists-but they ARE cute). It was a great day and we have SO much to be thankful for. We have our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the rest is just the icing on the cake!

Christian Adoption Services Fall Festival, Denton NC

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!! Our Stephen is growing up!

Our boy turned 2 today! Where does the time go! He is such a wonderful little guy, funny and very entertaining! WE LOVE YOU Stephen!!

We had his birthday on Sunday and he had a blast! The pictures at the top were taken Saturday at our adoption agency event in Denton NC at Camp Walter Johnson. That slideshow is in process and I hope to post it soon!

Our "Terrific Kid"

Silas was honored at school today for being "Terrific Kid of the Month", named so by his teachers Mrs. Redden and Mrs. Link. Here's what they had to say about our boy: "Silas comes to school each morning eager to learn and do his best. He is so precious to his teachers and friends. Silas has a very kind heart and will do anything to help out his classmates. We think Silas is a Terrific First Grader for the month of November!"

Of course we think he's terrific every day of the year!!!!

A Fun Fall afternoon at the Lazy 5!

Two Great Videos...Watch them please!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMA4zgWbRyE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVcoQcdjrsA

Yes, it was a cute thing when he was 4, but he still calls it "scarfing" a pumpkin, not carving! Although we have corrected him, he still says it, so that's what it is! Stephen had a blast since he got to participate this year. It actually went pretty well. As Christians, we try not to glorify Halloween, but Silas totally LOVES the pumpkin part, so I'm guessing this will be a yearly tradition. I want to enjoy it while it lasts. Before you know it, it won't even be cool to hang out with us, much less engage in family activites! So for now, we will "scarf" a pumpkin to our hearts delight!

Pumpkin Scarfing!!

Love Play Therapy! Mom does NOT let me do this!

Mountains and Apples, oh MY!

Mountains and Apples, oh My!

We had a GREAT time in the mountains this past weekend! We got up there on Saturday afternoon and went swimming in the hotel pool first thing. It was like bathwater! Then we went out to supper then rode up to Chimney Rock. When we came back, we stopped at Walmart to get milk for the next morning and came out to a dead battery. Some young guys in a "monster trcuk" (Silas' description!) jumped us off and we made it back to the hotel. God is good, the car started the next morning and we went to Walmart and got a new battery. Then on to the Apple Orchard! We all loved the corn maze, but Stephen did especially! We all sampled the many delicious varieties and settled on Fuji, Blushing Gold, and Winesap (I think there were 26 kinds there!!). It was a great weekend of making memories (supported by pictures of course) for the Dobbins family!

Stephen's Speech

Stephen has had an occupational/rehabilitative therapist come every Wednesday for 5 weeks now. She says she has seen some improvement , but not as fast as she would like. She recommends that we continue with her (she's free through the county program) but to add a speech therapist as well. We really don't want him to be behind, but how can there be a cookie cutter pattern for what all kids should be doing or saying at a certain age? He will not be 2 until Nov 19, so we are hesitant to hit him full force with two therapies a week (not to mention fitting that in to an already hectic schedule we live!). Anyway, we are satisfied that he is VERY smart, in fact just short of genius :0). He fell in love with Dora the Explorer this week??? No clue why, but when you ask him what he wants to watch on TV he says "DORA!"(and he can say "backpack"). He understands everything we say, follows directions when he wants to, and is saying more words each week. He even does the sign for "more". So pray for us to have discernment about his needs and for us to let him grow and learn and not be overloaded with expectations that the world has for what is "acceptable". He is SO sweet and we are very blessed to be his parents!

They could ride all day...

There's no place they would rather be than outside, together, and on the Gator!! Stephen waves goodbye to us and hangs on for dear life!

Further Examples of the Water Obsession...

This is where I caught him this afternoon!!

Isn't is great to have help with the laundry??!!

Notice the shirt: Daddy's Big Helper (will work for cookies!)

Well today he was Momma's big helper, or so HE thought! Gotta love it!

Summer is slipping away...

Silas invented this fun slide at Aunt Glenda's house Labor Day weekend. I was born on her 30th birthday, so we celebrated our milestones together.

We've had a great summer, lots of trials and tribulations (minor in the Great Scheme of the Universe) but trying times to say the least. It's been a time of milestones too. I turned 40 on Sept 3, and Scott and I celebrated our 20th Anniversary on Sept 17. Thanks Beth , Erick and Carter for babysitting our boys so we could have a night out! We enjoyed a relaxed dinner at Outback and a movie afterwards. Silas is settling into First Grade and seems to be liking it! Stephen is climbing more than ever and we are finding it increasingly difficult to keep him out of the bathroom sink, the kitchen sink, the sink at church, any water fountain that exists--do you see a pattern? The boys likes water! Anyway, we hope that our computer woes are over, so pray that nothing else at our house breaks for a while....at least until we pay off the repair bills we've gotten thus far...

I'm back...almost!!

Well, I know those few of you who check on the boys are wondering where I've been. I learned 3 weeks ago of the existence of 3 new things: Adware, Spyware, and Malware. Then, I learned that they were not friends with my computer!! So, after 3 weeks, I may be back in the game! We'll see....I hope to add some new pictures soon. Right now, I'm trying to find e-mail addresses because we lost most all of them....

Off to First Grade!!

Today was the first day of school! I prayed for Silas to get Christian teachers and he did! Both the lead teacher and the assistant go to the same church. Silas says he had a great day! It was his first time ever riding the bus--I took him this morning and walked him in. We decided last week that Scott will take him in the mornings on his way to school and that he will ride the bus home in the afternoons and get off at MawMaws house. I'll meet him there on my days off. We'll see how that works out!

Riverbanks Zoo, Columbia SC

Our Mechanic/Scientist/Entrepreneur???

This is what happens when Silas is left on his own while I mow grass. Scott, unsuspecting, in the house with little brother, didn't know that Silas had removed the jack from my car and proceeded to work on his Gator!! Our Silas DOES have a VERY vivid imagination and often pretends the day away, but usually uses substitute things for the real thing...NOT this time!

When I finished mowing, he said my lawn mower needed work because it was making a funny sound too...

We love you Puddin' Cakes!!

Very suspicious of the camera coming out...
Letting momma feed (especially since we just cleaned the carpet yesterday)
A Satisfied Customer

We are in the countdown to Dad going back to school....18 days and dwindling. He may be looking forward to it after a summer in the house with 2 VERY active boys, but Mommy will miss the freedom of getting only herself dressed and a straight 6 mile drive to work, with no drop offs in between. Even though Stephen is still not talking much, he has NO trouble conveying what he wants. He goes to the pantry and forages around until he finds what he wants. His current favorite is Chocolate pudding--he even brings a spoon to us so we can feed him immediately! Here's his latest pudding consumption...
He also said "Cheese" when we got out the camera...shocking to hear a word pop out like that!!

Carowinds Slideshow