Treasures for Tampa October collection

Every month Junior League hosts a collection drive for a different organization in Tampa. This month they're collecting gently used infant and maternity clothing, baby gear, and cribs. These items will be used for the 'mommy and me' event this fall, where they will be offered as care packages to young women ages 18 to 25 who have aged out of the foster care system.

They will be collecting these items at the Junior League headquarters in Davis Island until Friday, October 8th. If you are interested in donating anything let me know as I'll be dropping items off Tuesday, Oct 6th.

I hope you won't feel 'guilted' into donating something to this collection. I know most of Jack's stuff I'm planning on keeping for Lord willing any future children. But I wanted to share this opportunity in case you are looking to donate some things or know of someone who'd be interested :)

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at carolbriggs@tampabay.rr.com.

A Clarks Thanksgiving!

We are so excited our friends the Clarks will be coming down from South Carolina to spend thanksgiving with us this year. I can't wait!! It'll be so fun to give thanks with our best friends and enjoy watching our little ones play together.

Steve and I made this video for them a couple of weeks ago listing 'all the reasons why they should come down to FL'. They had already decided to come down, but we had came up with such silly things we decided to make the video anyway.

I must warn you about my bad acting- clearly acting is not a gift the Lord blessed me with! I was trying to sound like a ritzy snooty english lady, and instead I sounded like... well I'm not sure :) I love how Jack keeps looking at the camera trying to figure out what's going on and he ends up joining in.

My favorite part is the little ones speaking at the beginning- they are so stinking cute!!

Thought I would share this because it always gives me such a good laugh. hope you enjoy it!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pictures at the park

I've been meaning to post these for quite some time, but truly I haven't had time to! Last week I was home with Jack Thursday-Sunday and whenever I'm home with him I NEVER get behind a computer. When he is up we are up doing something, and when he naps I'll try to have a quiet time, or cook, or clean... and my little one only naps about 1.5 hours a day! Seriously?

You've probably already seen these on facebook but I wanted to post my favorite ones by category. We met Amber at the ballast point park and had a blast! I was in a really silly mood that day and just laughed so much at times my belly hurt.

These are my mom/son favorites

I wore my new favorite Jack and Andrew necklace. It has a picture of each of my kiddos in each side :)

These are my dad/son favorites

Steve wanted to keep on his 'Andrew' red bracelet he always wears- he never takes it off.

And here are my family favorites...

I only wish Steve was smiling in this last one! I love Jack's smile on this one

When Steve and I first got married I badly wanted to go to Ballast point park for a walk... but thought it'd be stupid without having a little one for the playground. So I always told myself I'd wait until I had children.

After we lost Andrew I remember driving by Ballast point and feeling so sad I didn't have a little one to bring. But for some reason I pushed myself to go to the park and walk around. I went back a couple of times and had some very difficult quiet times there.

So it was such a turning point to have our pictures taken there with Jack and Andrew in spirit. And I'm happy to report Steve and I usually go there a couple of times a week! Jack loves the wind on his face and just smiles and makes his happy babbling noise... its pretty fun to watch.

I have tons of different things I'd like to share so hopefully I'll get to them this week. I'll at least have the winners of the giveaway on Friday Oct 1st!

How to Pray Cards Giveaway!

Earlier this year I shared on this post about these cute prayer cards I found on etsy.com. The lucky winner of this giveaway will get one free set of prayer cards, including personalization and free shipping (a $23 value).

I purchased the ‘How to pray for your husband’ and ‘How to pray for your Children’ set of cards at the beginning of this year- and they have been wonderful! There was a season when Jack was first born I had a difficult time praying for him after having lost Andrew. These cards helped me get through that bump and I’m glad to say we still use them pretty regularly.

I love these cards because they are

Compact- easy to carry (great for vacations)
Laminated- they don’t get ruined when your little one tries to eat it
Cute- They have lots of cute colors and backgrounds to choose from
Creative- they have lots of prayer ideas I wouldn’t have thought of myself

Great presents- make great baby shower gifts for new moms.

Just in case you’re wondering- I’m not getting paid nor have I received any type of discount on these cards. I just really like them and wanted to share them with everyone! I contacted the seller on etsy about a giveaway and she was glad to do so.

And when I was emailing back and forth with Molly, she really liked the concept of a ‘Prayer journal’ I wrote about here. She is now working on having these made so she can sell them online! So be on the lookout for another giveaway around November if she ends up making these.

There are two ways to enter the giveaway…

1. Post a comment with the type of card (How to pray for husband, children, grandchildren, etc) and the color you'd like to have. You can see the full selection in the ‘How to Pray Cards Website’.

2. For an additional entry- blog about this giveaway and leave a second comment letting me know you’ve done so.

The deadline to enter is Thursday September 30th, and I'lll announce the winner on Friday October 1st.

Best of luck!!  Right now I'm wishing I could win my own giveaway- ha ha :)

Update

Wow it's been a long weekend!! We had Jack's party on Saturday and it was such a fun and blessed time with family. I was not stressed out as I thought I would be- and was actually able to eat a meal, have conversations with friends, and play with Jack and Steve.

My sister in law Jessie took most of the pictures on Saturday and unfortunately I probably won't get those until later on this week. But here are some pictures my friend Amber took as a sneak peek

Amber also kindly took family pictures of us at a local park earlier last week. I think these turned out SO cute and I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures- thank you Amber!!  I'll post my favorite ones later on this week/next week



And last but not least- this week I'll be doing a giveaway on a set of 'how to pray cards'. These cards are adorable and so helpful in praying! The winner will get to choose any set, any color, and can personalize it as well.



Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Wanted to share this verse I read before Jack's party... praise be to God for all His good works!

"And God who is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work" 2 Cor 9:5

Journey of Faith Friday: Verse

This week my sweet my friend Amber has asked readers to share about a time when a verse God used a bible verse to speak to our hearts.

Steve and I took our first trip to Europe in September 2008 (Coincidentally enough it was exactly two years ago to the week!). This was a life long dream of mine and we wanted time for ourselves after losing Andrew two months earlier.

We were in the midst of our grief and deeply missing Andrew. While the trip was very unbelievably beautiful, I cried every day we were there.

I don't think many people knew I was struggling with fear along with sadness. At the time we didn't know for sure what had caused Andrew to get sick or why he passed away. If I ever became pregnant again I wondered if the same thing would happen and we'd lose another child. Our future seemed really dark to me and I wondered 'what if' we're sad for the rest of our lives.

I carried my pink and brown bible everywhere during that trip. One day while we were visiting the southern part of Rome, the bible chapter Isaiah 44 spoke loudly to me- and it brought so much hope! The Lord reminded me that He was in control, no matter what happened to Andrew He formed him, that I should not be afraid of the future, and that He would help us get through this.

I clung on to this verse and prayed it many times. I didn't take it as a guarantee that everything would be fine from then on, but it reminded me my future and my children's future was in the Lord's will.

For a little while in the mountains of Rome I felt like I was able to take a gasp of fresh air from being overwhelmed by sorrow. I added some pictures below from that trip.

Isaiah 44
But now listen, O Jacob, my servant
Israel, whom I have chosen

This is what the Lord says

he who made you, who formed you in the womb

and who will help you

Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant
Jeshurun, whom I have chosen

For I will pour out water on the thirsty land

I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring

and my blessings on your descendants

They will spring up like grass in a meadow

like poplar trees by flowing streams

One will say 'I belong to the Lord'

another will call himself by the name of Jacob

stilll another will write on his hand 'The Lord's'

and will take the name Israel

Happy 1st Birthday Jack!

I know every parent says this but time has truly flown by this past year... Just yesterday I was holding you in my arms while you slept and now you are an active little boy climbing onto everything you can find :)

Not a day goes by that I don't want to be home playing with you. I don't want you to get older and at the same time I cannot wait to watch you grow up. You bring such joy and laughter to us and everyone around you!

I thank God every day for choosing us to be your mom and dad.

Happy birthday my little buddy!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Fall Friday

Last Friday was a beautiful and fun fall day. It started off bad when my car didn't work and our plans to visit our friends in Orlando were postponed, but the rest of the day made up for a bad start.

My boss kindly surprised me with Starbucks latte that morning which was the turning point of my day! Her act of kindness really cheered me up after a really bad morning.

After work Jack and I headed to the Berean school to meet my friend Christy and her daughter Kylie. Her school was having a 'Popsicles in the park' event that afternoon. It was wondeful to see Christy and Michelle with their little ones. I had a great time under the tree shades, a cool breeze (although I was still hot), and Jack entertained by all the little ones.

I LOVED seeing all the kids in their school uniforms- they looked so adorable! And the games that they played cracked me up like 'house' and 'mommy and kids'... such a fun and innocent age.

There were a lot of moms there and I was asked a couple of times 'how many children do you have?' This is a hard question to answer because I usually get such sad looks, and I open myself up completely to a stranger I just met. But we have been blessed with  two babies and so I always answer with 'Two boys' Jack is 12 months, and a short sentence on what happened to Andrew. Sigh.

After the park, Jack and I headed to the consignment baby store 'Once upon a time' off Kennedy. This was my first time there and I absolutely loved it- they had a reallly good selection there. Jack also had a blast and enjoyed crawling away from me whenever he had a chance. He loves to play peek a boo!!

We must've been there at least an hour just looking through all the stuff. Finally we left with these two cute finds:

Jack's first interactive book, and a cute little fall outfit!! The outfit still had its original tags and had never been worn

We headed home and waited for daddy to get back from work. What a nice afternoon with my little boy! Afterwards we went to Publix to pick up dinner. After Jack went down for the night, Steve and I rented a movie and went to bed early. It was a blessed Friday :)

Embellishments

My friend Rachel printed Jack's birthday invitations and I just wanted to share about what an incredibly gifted person she is!! Really if you look up the word 'Crafty' in the dictionary her picture is probably right there :) Here is a picture from earlier this summer. Rachel is in the middle with her daughter Olive and our sweet friend Kristen is on the right.

She started her own company Embellishments over a year ago and you can also check out her facebook website here. She does all sorts of paper customized invitations, banners, centerpieces, birth announcements, etc. What a great blessing that she is able to do something she enjoys so much and stay home with Olive and her second little one on the way.

Here are pictures of some of her work...

 how cute are the palm trees?

wish I could put together something like this

When Jack was born Rachel brought us dinner and made a cute banner with his name that matched the colors of his nursery. I remember Jack loved to look at it every night as he was falling asleep.

About a month ago Rachel surprised me and made this really cute banner for Jack's birthday! I really don't know when she finds the time do all of this- this probably would've taken me a few weeks to do after much frustration :)

Since I don't have the gift of being crafty I am thankful to at least have friends who are. Thank you Rachel for always being so kind!!

On another note my friend Amber blogged about a really cute boutique her high school friend started called The Butterfly Bowtique. She does all sorts of monogrammed items on textiles (burpcloths, diaper bags, hairbows, dresses, etc). All of her stuff is really cute and makes me wish I had a little girl to dress up- ha! You should go check it out if you are wanting any personalized things.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Love Bundles

As some of you know I am part of the Junior League of Tampa. It is a wonderful organization made up of women only who work on various projects that impact our community.

This year I'm part of the 'Love Bundles' committee. We get to put together backpacks for children who are removed from their homes and placed on foster care. The backpacks contain age appropiate items, and for the most part are made up of toiletries, pajamas, an outfit, and a toy/stuffed animal. This is meant to give the child some sense of security during a time when they are stripped away from their home and leave empty handed.

Our committee works directly with the Hillsborough Sheriff's Department Child Protection Investigation Division (CPI). Last week we had our first kick off meeting of the year and we had the privilege to have it at the Sheriff's office. We got to meet the manager of this program Heather Grates, who gave us a great overview of how the department works. I'll do my best here to share what I learned from notes I scrambled that night.

The Sheriff's department has been under contract by the CPI to carry out the task of assessing and removing children from unsafe environments since July 2006. Not all Sheriff's department in the country have this responsibility under them. Since they took over the number of children removed from their homes had been decreasing every year until 2009...

Number of Children removed from their home
2006- 1,775 children
2007- 996 children
2008- 878 children
2009- 1,161 kids

Then number jumped up again in 2009 due to the economy and unemployment!! I knew there was a correlation between unemployment and drug abuse, addictions, etc. But it was eye opening for me to see it in a tangible number how it's affecting children.

How sad that Hillsborough county is the # 1 county in the state of Florida for Domestic Violence.

Heather mentioned the goal is to 'preserve families together'. For example if a child is in danger because the parents don't have money to pay for electricity (but the child is very loved) instead of removing the child from the home, they will move the entire family to a safe place together. And they will connect the parents to organizations who can help them get a job, assistance, etc.

If a child can't stay with their primary caretaker (ie. mom is on drugs), the department will then..

1. look for an ex-spouse and assess if they can care for the child
2. If this doesn't work, they will look at any family member
3. If this doesn't work, they will look at any friends/neighbors that can assume responsibility.

This means if a child is placed on foster care, there was truly no one they knew that could care for them :(

2009 Statistics of reasons for removing a child from home:

Drug use- 40% (Prescription drugs on the rise)
Inadequate housing- 13%
Physical abuse- 17%
Abandonment- 8%
Neglect 22%

Process of investigating an allegation of an unsafe child...

There is a hotline to call any suspicion of a child who might be neglected --> Call is then routed to Tallahassee who speaks with the person and writes down about a paragraph of information on the situation -> Then the info is sent back to the Sheriff's dept -> They contact a 'Child Protective Investigator' who is in charge of investigating the claim. This person is required to visit the child's home within 24 hours at the most, and if there is indication of inmediate danger within 2 hours  -> They will then go out to the home and talk to the family/caretakers of the child and assess if its safe-> They will then support or refute the allegation.

Out of 14,000 allegations a year, only about 1,200 children are actually removed from their homes.

There are 100 paid CPI (Child Protective Investigators) positions in Hillsborough county. I imagine it'd be a difficult job since you are on call 24 hours a day, are going to potentially dangerous homes (drug use, etc), and it'd be difficult to watch little ones being neglected/hurt.

Once the child is removed from their home, they are at the Sheriff's office for a maximum of 4 hours before placed in foster care. Here is a picture of the Sheriff's facility which now has very child-friendly areas.

 When a child is place in foster Care, the Sheriff's dept has a contract with  'Hillsborough Kids Inc' to turn over the children. Hillsborough kids inc. then uses other wonderful public and private organizations such as 'The Children's Home,  The Heart Gallery, 4 kids of Tampa, Everyday Blessings, to provide a safe home/environment for them.

I never really understood how the foster care system worked until tonight. I had bits and pieces, but it was so good to hear this and put it all together.

The staff at the Sheriff's office was very friendly and the director of the program was truly amazing! I think I had this wrong perception of the police department being uncaring towards children removed from their homes, mostly because my only image of them is from TV shows. It could not have been any more opposite from what I expected- they took their job very seriously.

The mayor stayed past his regular 'work shift' which normally ends at 5pm to talk to us at 8pm. Here is a picture of him with our committe leader Jenny. She has worked hard all summer with the CPI department and getting our committee ready for the year. She is truly doing a great job!!

  

He gave us a special 'coin' to thank us for working on the backpacks this year (now if it could only get me out of a ticket one day! :)

We'll be meeting once a month from Sept- June 2011 to put together these backpacks for the following month (stocking up the closet below). I'm looking forward to having appetizers and a glass of wine with these 22 women as we work together on the backpacks! We alternate on hosting the night, since we wouldn't dream of using any of the money towards the backpacks for anything else than for the children.

We're also responsible for buying the materials for the backpacks (formula, clothes, etc). If you have any suggestions on where to find really cheap formula, baby items, pajamas, clothes, etc. Please let me know! We have a set budget to purchase all this stuff, but the cheaper we can find the items for, the better. I'm responsible for buying baby clothes ages 0-18 months before the 21st of the month, and the best place I can think of is Walmart. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

In November our committee will be doing a drive to collect 'coats' to include in the backpack for these kids. So if you have any gently used coats/sweaters or would like to donate some in Nov it'd be greatly appreciated as well!

Here are some pictures from the child area at the Sheriff's office. The lady in the black in the second picturewas the Heather Grates who gave us all this info and tour that night. She did a great job in presenting all this info to us and giving a tour of the facility.

 There have been many times when I have really not wanted to go to Junior League so I can spend more time with Steve and Jack. I don't get to put down my baby to sleep those nights or play with him very much since I usually work during the day. Its hard for me on those days, but Steve has always encouraged me to continue going. And this night I was really thankful I didn't quit because I got to see firsthand the direct impact that Junior League and Love Bundles has on our community. 

Halloween Costume

We had a very fun and relaxing labor day weekend. We had no big plans so I finally got to catch up on all my cleaning which was way overdue. Now the house is clean, laundry is done, and lunches are packed for tomorrow- ah it feels good! We spent most of the weekend with family, had dinner and breakfast with some dear friends the Cullum and McCall family. I am starting to love uneventful, relaxed weekends more and more with a little one to care for nowadays.

We went shopping for a halloween costume this weekend since we had the time. Here were our top three choices, all gave me a really good belly laugh

#1: A lion for halloween

#2: Tigger

#3: A puppy

We decided on the puppy costume as you can probably tell. Here is a picture of Jack with his cousin Ethan (he was the ringbearer at our wedding who at the time wanted to marry me- ha!). Jack looks pretty miserable on this picture and he probably was as he hates all costumes and stuff that goes around his face.

I hope it'll be somewhat cool around halloween so he can wear the costume. Here is a picture of him from last halloween- he was a cute little Jack'O'Lantern at only 6 weeks old.

Hope everyone had a good labor day weekend! I am so glad fall is here with its pumpkin spiced lattes :)