6 months...

and counting. Aug 12th marked 6 months of having our two foster daughters with us. When I look back it seems not that long ago we received the call to pick up G from another foster home and her brand new baby sister C from the hospital.

It has certainly been quite a journey...here's a very brief {or not so brief} recap.

Two babies with no manuals. So we had a three week crasher course with our previous foster daughters, two toddlers. But we truly didn't expect that just four days later we'd have a 17 month old and a brand new baby. Most people get 9 months to prepare for one and we had 24 hours to prepare for two!

What an amazing group of friends and family we have. People blessed us with so many of our immediate needs from clothes, to cribs, to meals provided for two full weeks!!! Oh, how I understand the need for meals now - thank you Long Beach Grace Brethren, John and Alicia for facilitating that for us. We don't attend that church, we just have some wonderful friends that attend there and yet perfect strangers put out all that time and effort to bless us with meals.

Soon after the arrival of our bundles of joy, we started in on what my sister started coining "the plagues". It seemed that one thing after the next kept occurring. Mind you I was still working full time, traveling for Mrs. Int'l and trying to be a domestic goddess {note the word trying}. Praise God for Greg's flexible job and for the fact I have the most wonderful hubby in the world. Without going into too much detail he became mister mom for the first three months and had to go to battle with much of the following that occurred.

Overcoming Lice. Yep that's right folks. Not only did we become parents overnight but we also were immediately introduced to what I believe is one of the nastiest little {no pun intended} childhood bug. Little did we know the oldest was a card carrying member until two weeks after we had her and noticed the proverbial "itch". Praise God for NIX and RID and all the other products out there to defeat the little buggers. And now we know what the term "nit picking" is all about ;-)

Scabies. Oh yes, you've read correctly. Just as the Lice retreated the scabies crept in...we noticed these fabulous little buggies when putting on her shoes. Since I was already a freak about every thing being sanitized after the Lice incident we fortunately didn't have to worry about the spread of scabies and were able to treat that overnight.

Bronchitis, Upper Respiratory tract infections,RSV, Asthma & ear infections. Talk about just getting every childhood disease out of the way. At this point Greg and I felt we'd experienced more stuff than our counter parts with grown children. G got Bronchitis and an Upper Respiratory tract infection which of course spread it's way to every member of our family including the baby...which hers led to a case of RSV. Just when we were pulling a solid six hours of sleep a night with her we had to start waking her up for two different inhalers every four hours.

But even with all these unpleasantness's, I can honestly say, we have enjoyed every moment {ok maybe not when we found out about the lice} with these two precious ones. From G learing so many new words and pulling her hysterical facial expressions when she's excited about things to little C's every first. First smile, first coo, first time rolling over, first time sitting up, first solid food feeding, first haircut.

How humbling to think God gave us the responsibility to take care of his two little daughters even if it might only be for a short while...and to see all the things I've been able to experience with them that their family has missed out on sharing.

Which leads me to the end of reminiscing on our journey and looking forward to the future. I don't know what the future holds in regards to these two babies. I sometimes wish I could just get a glimpse from God to know if they'll be mine forever or if someday in the near future I'll be handing them back to their bio mom. I'm forever asked "won't that be tough?, how are you going to do that?" and I guess my only answer is "Yeah it will break my heart and I don't know how I'll do it". But that's just it...I won't be able to do it on my own but I do know that God is going to help us through whatever ends up playing out. I've entrusted my heart to him and I have to believe he loves me enough to protect my heart no matter what the outcome.

This Oct. will be a court preceding determining the next step in the future of our girls. Please be keeping our family in your prayers. How to pray? That God purely would protect them, no matter where they end up for life. Would we want them to be ours - yes. Do we want their family to get better and be whole again? - yes. I have to trust that God's will and his eternal perspective on things will be better than any will I could try and force on the issue... so for now {and hopefully always, although it's daily practice for me} I'm trusting Him!

Feliz Cumpleanos Senor 33.....

So, I'm a bit late on this post but he deserves a shout out for his birthday and that's my main man, Greg. Aug 9th he turned thirty three and I always let him know the instant he rolls over to wake up on his birth-day that, yes, we are the same age...even if it is only for a mere two months.

Hosting at the Kodak Theater

Sunday, Aug 10th I hosted the "Best New Talent" awards show at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. Originally, I was scheduled to emcee the California Int'l pageants but when Eddie (director of Ca pageants) found out that I had been asked to emcee this show on the same day as his pageants, he graciously found another emcee, Tanya Hutchinson (who just won "She's got the look") and former Mrs. Ca.

I co-hosted the show with Steven Hill, from Real World Las Vegas & host of "Say what Karoke". We had a lot of fun improving our way through a very tough show. Needless to say when you are dealing with a live awards show where there isn't a way to rehearse you can expect a fair share of improv.

Melis, the stylist for Cat Deeley, let me borrow a beautiful cobalt blue Grecian gown and my dear friend Crystal stayed with me backstage helping with makeup and hair.

I had never been in the Kodak theater before...I'd only seen it on American Idol so it was a great experience to be the Host on that stage and in such a beautiful theater. I'm waiting to get some pics from the show and will hopefully be able to post them in the next few days.

After the show I was approached by a company to do an infomercial in the next few weeks so stay tuned to see how that all goes!!

This is a picture from a previous year I hosted the show with "Soul Train" host,Dorian Gregory at the Century Plaza.

Good times, good friends

It's not often Greg and I get the whole day to play but this past week we had just that. My parents offered to watch the girls and Greg and I headed down to San Diego to hang out with my dear friend Judy and her husband Terry. I met Judy at Mrs. Int'l the year I competed, she was Mrs. Nevada, and long story short, she's a friend for life. She was a constant support throughout my year, sending me the cutest notes and goodies as well as a listening ear to hear about what's happening with our family through the foster care process.

So Judy and her husband had a wonderful opportunity to take a little vacay of their own in S.D. and there was no way I was going to miss an opportunity to see my friend live and in person.

We had a fabulous day doing nothing but relaxing on the deck of their condo over looking the ocean, walking the pier, watching the sea lions, and enjoying a yummy dinner at the Cheesecake factory.

I wish I could designate everyday to be a "friend" day and just have the opportunity to soak up each one of my friends. I realized how busy I tend to make myself and how important it is to slow down and enjoy those around you.

A Reason to Celebrate

Our friends Andy & Sandra celebrated their 10th year anniversary with friends and family this past weekend. The celebration began with their baptism in the freezing cold Pacific (ok maybe not freezing but definitely cold!) Then the party gathered at Deb & Larry's home (our pastor's right across from the beach) for the renewal of their vows. Sandra looked absolutely gorgeous (you wouldn't have known she was previously dunked in the ocean) and the vows were so sweet...who knew Andy was such a romantic ;-) The night was capped off with a variety of delectable sweets and fellowship. Congratulations to being a wonderful example of what marriage should be!! Here's to 10 x 10 more years!

About that Bear...

So for those of you who somewhat follow my blog you might have remembered a post from our Yellowstone trip about Greg desiring desperately to see a bear, (ok i wanted to as well). Five days into our trip, no bear and then came the 6th day and with it a whole bunch o' bear. Come to think of it we saw all kinds of animals that day, moose, coyotes, wolves, rams, mountain goats, but the best were the bears. Eight to be exact. We literally saw just about every type you could which is truly unusual. Our first spotting was a black bear which literally looked like a spot it was so far away. The second however was the closest I have ever come, with exception of our fabulous San Diego zoo. The third and fourth were two brown bears right off the side of the road. The sixth and seventh were a mama bear and cub up the hill off to the side of the road...and the eighth was a grizzly running across an open field. It was so amazing to see these bears and with each sighting Greg and I dashed from the car to get our fill of pics and videos. Greg was a very happy boy needless to say. I guess all that praying for bears didn't go unheard.

Program Book Cover

The long awaited pictures I took back last Sept are finally a reality. The cover shot was kept a secret until pageant week...so here it is folks...thank you Clay Spann for making me look like a cover girl...and speaking of covers, Mary Richardson also put this cover shot on the second page of Supermodels Magazine. Fun stuff!!

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Laine Berry the new Mrs. International. She will champion Go Red for Women as her platform for the year. It has truly been a wonderful journey to hold the title of Mrs. International for the year but it was nice to relinquish it to a woman that I know will promote her platform passionately and use this year to make a difference. I know that might sound trite to those of you not familiar with pageants but I have to say that pageants have truly given me a voice piece to promote causes dear to my heart. I know that more awareness has been brought to Heart Gallery because of the opportunities I had as Mrs. International. So that all pressing question that I keep getting from people - are you going to do another one?? Let's just say my newest title that will be occupying me for hopefully the next 18 years is "Mommy" ;-)
Pictures: These are all the formers with the newly crowned Mrs. Int'l -Laine

Prelim night at Mrs. Intl

I have a few other posts I want to add about my week at Mrs. Intl, however, I'm waiting for pics to be emailed to me. At some events it was nearly impossible for me to take pics so I'm relying on those who did to send them to me. So at some point they will be added. Fri night was Prelims where the ladies all compete on stage in fitness & evening gown. I made two debuts on stage, first to give a short recap of my year and finally to present the photogenic award. I've never been able to feel so relaxed at a pageant - normally I'm either performing or competing ;-) Greg and I had a private box to watch the show and I have to admit I was very glad to be on that side of the stage. Congratulations to Laine Berry, photogenic award winner.