Family Fun Night

How do you spend your Friday nights?

Here is a sneak peak at what goes on at the Growing Garcia's....


Super Soaker Alert

Super Saoker Aim

Super Soaker Fire

Next Victom

Hmmm...Who's next?

Friend or Foe?

Ethan's BFF Sal - Noodle Man

Brian has had TOO much influence on this young
man :-)

Kelli - This girl can really hold her own with all these boys!

Nick - sweet - incognito - Nick!

You might have noticed that 4 of the great kids freatured are not actually "Growing up Garcia" but we sure LOVE them like Garcia's!! We enjoy many family fun nights with them and their parents.

More Favorite Pics

Here are some more of my all time favorite pics/memories....

A boy and his momma! This pic was taken on a summer vacation in Daytona Beach. Some dear friends of ours have a condo there and they aloud our family a little get away.

My boys.

Remember "Hollywood" - This girl and her shades :-)

Sadie pulled out her 1st tooth (after her parents tried and were unsuccessful)

Sisters

I love being a soccer mom!

Lots of Pictures

It's been a quiet week here at the Growing Garcia's...So I decided to bomard you all with some of my most favorite pictures/memories over the years. Enjoy :-)


Our newest favoite memory - our Eastern Carribean Cruise

Madison's is a self professed Pepe's Girl. We spent a weekend at River Ranch with my parents and some friends.

Madison on her 5th birthday. It was fit for a princess.

Sadie with Pop Pop - Good Times spent in a beautiful cabin with both sets of grandparents!!

Daddy's are SO much fun!!

Sadie with HER Nana :-) Out to breakfast

Sadie ate this WHOLE ice cream and then drank a milk shake!!!

Look out world - Madison means business

Pop Pop is still a kid a heart!

Cute!

Cuter!!

Did I mention - Daddy's are SO much - mommy would NEVER do this!!!

Ethan wants a brother so bad - he'll dig himself to China if he has to :-)

Let me out!!!!

Captain Ethan

Really Daddy - I'm sorry!

Clothe His Children

Nicole and I are at it again! Clothing the children of the Treasure Coast, that is!

As you know our friend Jill from Boomerang Consignment http://boomerangconsignments.blogspot.com/ blesses the Treasure Coast with all of the stores unsold items.

So Nicole and I began a ministry called Clothe His Children.This ministry has taken off and MANY adoptive, foster and bio families have been blessed by Jill's generosity and our vision.

As a result we are looking to expand this ministry to others in our community and we need your help!With the inspiration from Tammy of Jacksonville http://www.fostercloset.com/ we created http://www.clothehischildren.org/. It's a blog that looks like a website!

Every Monday we will update this site with a list of available clothes, toys and other misc items. Be sure to check it regularly!

Please let us know if you or anyone you know would like be a part of Clothe His Children Ministry either as a donor or as a beneficiary.Also please consider clicking on and joining the Clothe His Children Yahoo Group found in the margin of our blogs. This group was created to minister to and bless local families who are in the process of adopting and/or fostering or for moms who just need an outlet and support.

I look forward to sharing your parenting journey with you

No School Again today

In fact, rumor has it school is cancelled for the rest of the week!

Yesterday after I got "the call" from the school I proceeded to tell the kids the "good" news. Well Sadie starts jumping up and down saying "yeah, we are homeschooled this week".

Then she goes on to say she LOVES being homeschooled because she can wear her "natural" clothes.

Below is a pic of Sadie & Madison in their "natural" clothes. :-)

Madison - 2 year Gotcha

2 years ago today we became the PROUD parents of this beautiful little girl!! This picture was taken just hours after she became ours.

Here is just a part of our baby girls "story"....

Madison was born to an 18 year old girl on May 31, 2003. At the tender age of 20 Madison ’s birth mom realized she was unable to care for Madison the way a mom cares for her child. She made a brave and difficult decision to give Madison up for adoption.

Madison was then adopted by a Florida family in mid 2005. She lived with this family for almost a year when the family realized they were not to be Madison ’s “forever” family but rather a bridge to unite Madison with her God ordained family.

That would be us! We learned about Madison and her situation on Wednesday August 16, 2006. Until this day Brian and I “thought” our family was complete. However, once we heard about Madison we knew INSTANTLY we were to move forward in faith.

We made contact with Madison ’s adoptive family on Saturday August 19, 2006 and were granted permission to meet Madison on Sunday August 20th.

Our meeting was blessing filled. I was able to feed Madi her breakfast and part way through she reached her arms out for a hug and puckered her lips for a kiss. She asked Brian to color with her and when asked by her previous family if she would like to spend a couple of days with us she nodded her head yes!

We took custody of Madison on Sunday August 20, 2006 and our life has been richly blessed as a result.

Today Madison is a bright, happy and dramatic little girl. She loves to dance and sing and be the center of attention. She loves deeply and has a sweet tender spirit.

We could not imagine life without her or any of our children!

We are SO thankful and humbled that the Lord saw fit for us to be the parents to these 3 amazing children. THANK YOU JESUS!!!

Happy Gotcha Day Madison! We love you!

Tropical Storm Fay - Departure

Well Fay has come and gone and she was sure to leave her mark.



Our her way out last night she tried to take with her 2 of our Oak tress...



She also tried to take my Gardenia tree with her! This is my favorite tree in the yard and I am SO thankful she did not claim here!!



Our pool is literally level with the deck. Which means we received about 8 to 10 inches of rain yesterday.

School has been cancelled again today due to the flooded streets. But expects to resume again tomorrow. I'm thankful for the extra time with the kids. We're going to bake some cup cakes today. YUMMY!

And maybe if the sun comes out we'll splash around in the pool to get some of that excess water out...

Tropical Storm Fay - UPDATE

You can probably tell from these pics we had some fierce wind and LOTS of rain - no thunder or lightening though (my favorite!). It is a good storm and I'm happy to report the kids and I are doing very well even though the love of my life is away on business.


He did leave me in good hands though - Mike & Gene are here and they have been a HUGE blessing tying down trees, clearing the pool patio and protecting the orchids in the green house. All the stuff I am clueless about. In addition to that they have been the sole source of entertainment for my youngins'. The kids LOVE that the "boys" are home from work and they have been wrestling, tackling and tickling all morning. :-)

Which left me free to clean and organize 3 closets and the girls dresser!! I get this sick sense of accomplishment when the drawers and closets are neat an orderly. So right now I am on a huge high and can't wait to tackle the rest of the closets and dressers :-).

1st Day Of School

Today was the 1st day of school for Sadie, Ethan & Madison. Sadie entered 1st grade and Ethan & Madison started Kindergarten.

The day was bitter/sweet for sure! I love to see them learn and do new things but boy is it hard to watch your babies grow up into little people. It's the most unfair part of parenting! I wish they could just stay small forever - yet I love the people they are becoming and I am really excited to watch them blossom this year!

Here's a pic of my Growing Garcia's on their 1st day of school. :-)



And here is a list of our 1st day of school bloopers...

1. We woke up late (6:30am instead of 6am) - Turned out ok. Still made it to school on time. :-)
2. BUT I forgot their lunch and snack in the refrigerator - thankfully I brought my checkbook so all of the kids bought snack/lunch today.
3. I promised the kids I would be the 1st car in the parent pick up line (my kids LOVE when I do that). But instead of being 1st I was DEAD LAST! They forgave me :-)
4. 1st day down - 2nd day called off due to Hurricane Fay. Bright Side: We can sleep in tomorrow :-)