Sharing the Blended Family with Another Family Member!

I have been posting pictures of my family on Facebook for a couple of years, and my sister-in-law, Judy, who lives in San Diego, has enjoyed watching from afar, but last month, she wrote to me and said she wanted to come down to Texas to meet the new family members because she has enjoyed watching their fun times, and now wants to be a part of them.  She was able to meet the two husbands of my daughters, and several of their new children.  I felt so happy and proud of how the family has worked to love and stay close to each other. 

 The youngest family member, Derrick, shows off his puzzle talent!

 Gabi checks her Facebook.

Blake and Kyle play a game together!

Here I am with daughters, Katie and Liz, with grandkids, Gabi and Derrick, as we meet Aunt Judy (center) from California.

Hubby, Pawpaw poses with son-in-law, Timm, and little Derrick.

Here is my adopted daughter, Katie, and her hubby, Aaron.

We have really been enjoying getting to know Aunt Judy, and sharing our blended family happiness with her.  Do you have any happy blended family story to share with me?

Another Joyful Winter Day, with a Sad Ending!

As most people know, Texas has huge weather changes, and sure enough it went from 75 degrees last weekend to 20 degrees three days later.  We were blanketed by snow and ice last week.  I have just become a CNNiReporter, and one of their assignments was to send them pictures of our winter weather.  So I went out last Friday to take pictures of the beautiful snow to send to them.  

 

As you can see, I had a nice photo morning until.......

I set up my tripod in the snow, and it began to fall...  I lunged for it, and my boot stayed put, but I went forward, so I sprained my knee and foot, and fell to the ground, camera in the snow, as was I.  

Now I am in bed, foot up on pillows, unable to walk for awhile it seems.  Yes, that was a sad ending to my photo shoot, but I know God has a plan for my life, and I am looking to Him, to see what I might learn about being more like Him, loving more like Him and to praising Him in all things!  

I hope some people reading this will have some comments about how you trusted and praised God through your "sad" times, too.

My Joyful Texas Winter Day

Today Texas had 75 degree weather, and everyone who could, went out to enjoy it.  I went fishing with my hubby at one lake, then met my step-daughter and her family for another fishing outing at our local pond.  I put the photos on my youtube account.  If you want to watch the day, click here.  I just wanted to share the joy of the blended family, and the wonderful winter day I got to enjoy today!  Hope you enjoy it also.

A Unique Kind of Blend - Open Adoption!

Another wonderful part of my life is that of an Open Adoption in our family.  One of my daughters gave a child up for adoption at birth.  She interviewed families and wanted to find a family who shared her desire to have an open adoption,.  She felt that it would be better for her daughter if she never had to wonder where she came from, and had open access to her birth family.   My daughter decided she would only have contact with the child if it came from the adoptive family, as she was totally aware that the adoptive family is the child's "real" family.  


Her desire for an open adoption came true and we have had a great experience with the adoptive family.  The adoptive family contacts her once or twice a year - usually on the child's birthday, and maybe in summer.  Yesterday we celebrated the daughter's 12th birthday together at a dinner party.  The birth mom was there with a son (by the same Father the adoptive daughter is from), the birth mom's husband, both birth grandparents, and of course her adoptive mom, dad, brother and sister.  


I never considered this as a blended family until today.  I was thinking more about all the step-children and grandchildren in my life, but you know, an open adoption blends yet another two families.  It has been a huge blessing. And I am so thankful to be a part of yet another blended family situation.


Does anyone out there want to comment about their open adoption??

Simplify - Trying it out!

My ONE WORD for this year is SIMPLIFY, so I decided to take some action on it yesterday!  I decided to quit playing Farmville on Facebook!  I know that may not sound like much to many of you who have never gotten addicted to a game online, but I have to say I was addicted to playing that game.  I would come in and go straight to the computer to see if my crops were ready, or if I had any nice gifts to use on the farm.  It was CRAZY!!  I couldn't seem to stop, and I would spend hours on it.  I realized it was just cutting into good quality "real" time activities, so I deleted the game from my Facebook.  


I am looking forward to seeing what creative and purposeful activities I can do with that time!!


Has anyone else had this problem of playing a game waaaaya too much???  

Joyful "blended family" phone call

Since I named this blog, "Happy Blended Family" I feel I should tell as much as I can about how my blended family is working these days.  One thing that has been making me so happy the last couple of weeks, is that my two oldest grandsons have been wanting to go to church with me.  This is a "new" thing, and an answer to many years of prayer.  I just wanted to write this to encourage any of you out there who feeling like your step-kids don't really want to go to church with you.  Keep praying.  God is so faithful, and will answer your prayers for your blended family.  I Corinthians 1:9 "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."  Believe.  Hope.  Trust.

Friday Afternoon Fellowship

I just want to thank the Lord for my friend, Sandra.  Sandra and I used to work together, and she is the person who introduced me to blogs, and CNNi Reporting.  Today is our second time to meet at an internet cafe, and share what we have done and learned this week.  We are here laughing, snacking, smiling and unwinding from our week.  We both have the Lord Jesus in common, we both love teaching children to read, we love photography, we love to learn things on the internet, from Youtube, to facebook, blogs, to CNNiReports.  We want to be an encouragement to each other, and to you, our readers.  Just wanted to say, hi, and hope you are having a great day, and have a great weekend!