Seth turns 2

So this post is actually recent (sort of ).  My handsome nephew Seth turned 2 back in February and we had a birthday party for him at Grandma Smith's house.  Happy birthday sweet Sethers!  He is so much more interested in his gift than the camera, LOL.  I have several more pics of the party, but my computer is being slow right now and not really uploading pics, so for now this will have to suffice.

On Motherhood

So I know I am not a mother, yet, but this subject has been on my mind for quite a while.  I often struggle with this subject.  In my chosen profession, I read horrendous reports every day of mothers (AND fathers) who mistreat their children in awful ways.  A few I have had to hold back tears.  I had the amazing opportunity to do my last internship at a shelter before I graduated.  As part of my learning experience, I was given the chance to set in trauma focused therapy sessions with teenagers who were in what we call "out of home placement" and had experienced trauma.  Several of these teenagers were not very excited to come to "group" therapy.  However, most were cooperative when we got started.  In one of our sessions some of the kids began talking about their mothers, and one young man cut in and basically said that he knows we as therapists and workers are only trying to help him, but that the ONLY person who could truly help him was his own mother.  He continued on and told us that essentially mothers were what got them into this situation, and they were the only ones who could decide to clean their lives up and get their children out of their current situation.  I was sort of lost for words.  Mothers have the biggest impact on our lives whether we realize it or not.  I took an inventory of my own life and realized that my mother has had a huge impact on my life.  I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for a mother who took care of me and loved me enough to teach me right from wrong and protected me.  I also realized that even though I am not a mother myself, I have an impact on those children in my life. I am very blessed to have six fun loving, cute, and energetic nephews and two beautiful nieces that truly bring me such happiness.   So mothers, love your children, appreciate them and never take them for granted!

Graduation

So after three years of weekends, nights, early mornings, lunch breaks, etc. doing homework, studying, researching, and basically all that fun stuff that comes with graduate school, I FINALLY graduated with my Masters in Social Work from the University of Oklahoma. Since it was in the midst of us moving and packing to come to Woodward, I didn't have a party, but my family came and spend the weekend. The night before we hung out at the house and rode the 4 wheeler, and ate dinner. Saturday was spent running around OKC then to Norman for graduation. This isn't the best pic of my hubby and me, BUT we were in a hurry after the ceremony. I have to say that this man was one of my biggest supporters during the whole graduate school process. There were many nights were I'd ask myself and him if all this work was truly worth it. But he wouldn't let me quit. My family was also a huge support, I love them all! Congrats MSW class of 2011! Boomer Sooner! (just fyi, I am also a Cowboy fan, so for all my cowboy family and friends, Go pokes!)

Hello

I think I'm like the worst blogger of all time. Yup. A few weeks back I began thinking about blogging again and why I began this blog in the first place. My main reason for starting it was so that potential birth parents (or whoever really) could catch a glimpse into our life and also to give those family members and friends who don't live near us something to read to see what we are up to. so I'm gonna try to put together a few posts of the highlights of the last year. Some might be old, but better late than never right?