Mr. and Mrs. McGuire!

One of my best friends got married last weekend here in Atlanta. Miss Andrea Boynton became Mrs. Andrea McGuire and we are all so excited! We went to Charleston for her bachelorette weekend and had a great time at the beach. Here are some pictures from Charleston, the rehearsal dinner and the wedding.











Roommates in 2003...


Roommates (still) 2010




Our good friend from college, Courtney (Stewart) Dox doing her thing.... so proud of her! She is such an amazing photographer. You can see more about her at courtneydoxphotography.com.


Roommates!


This was not a very serious group...

Bippity Boppity Boo!

Weekly Bingo, cartoon characters and Fairy Godmothers are all part of my weekly routine, but I forget that when I'm talking to other people. When I tell people that I can't do something on Thursday evenings until 7:30 "because of bingo" or that I am exhausted from spending all day with Curious George or Dora the Explorer, I get some strange looks. Lately, we also seem to have quite the assortment of fairy godmothers. At Children's we have always had a relationship with a local radio station, Q100. Bert's Big Adventure provides a cool way for our kids and families to experience Disney World every year. Bert and his team are starting a program where their volunteers will visit BBA kids when they are in-patient called "Fairy Godmothers/Godfathers". Here is picture from the kickoff event with Bert and his wife Stacey:



We also have THE "Fairy Godmother" who is the real deal. We just celebrated her 89th birthday here. She's here every Tuesday and our kids have come to expect her visit. She makes rounds during the day and visits kids before surgery. She also leads Storytime with our Family Library in the afternoon. Miss Jackie recently won an 11Alive Community Service Award and we were all able to celebrate with her at the awards banquet.

Of course, they filmed her at the hospital and put together a very nice video about her. I know you all will enjoy it!

Hey, June... when did you get here?

So that is exactly how we both feel right now...

Time has completely flown by and it's time for some updates. First of all...drum roll please... we have moved into our first house in the Vinings area of Atlanta,GA! After a bit of work on the kitchen and dining room, we have made it our own and are so excited! Here are a few pictures and there will definitely be more to come!



Here is the kitchen before






Ta Da!


Dining room before


Dining room after!


One week after we moved in, we left for a week-long trip to Destin with with the Opreas, Holmans, Bursons and Carsons. It was a fun week filled with food, games, season finales on TV and chasing after 6 kids under the age of 5! It was loud, busy, relaxing and memorable all at the same time. We can't wait until the next one in 2012! Here are some highlights from the trip.









Oprea kids plus spouses




This picture is priceless...

Do you have your receipt?

Ok so we've all heard this at one point or another while trying to return something... clothes that don't fit, electronics that don't work, decorations that don't look quite right... the list goes on and on. When we purchase something and change our minds, we have the freedom to return it, right? What about a child? I was more than shocked when I heard about the following story:

"Russian Adoption Case Proves Not Everyone Deserves to Have Children"

She was "returning him" because of his developmental difficulties- most of which he probably has from living in a Russian orphanage for 7 years where he grew up thinking that he wasn't wanted. She claimed that she was not informed of his "issues" when she agreed to parent him. If you choose to be a parent- whether biologically or by adoption, you are making that choice not only for yourself but for that child. For her to send him back with basically a post-it note saying that she no longer wanted him is the most selfish thing in the world. I am around parents everyday who would not "choose" for their child to have cancer or cystic fibrosis or autism or have to be on dialysis 4 hrs a day/ 3x a week... but they "choose" to love their child through it and to get them the help they need. I am sure that not a day goes by when they are sitting in the hospital and they don't think "this is not what I signed up for"- but they signed up to be a parent and this was the hand they were dealt. This woman was not acting out of fear, but selfishness. Instead of helping him, her poor decision making is now going to further contribute to this boy's developmental difficulties. He is basically hearing "I don't want you" again. This case is very near and dear to my heart because we do get some children at the hospital whose parents are not willing or able to care for their medical needs... so they leave them with us and never come back and they ultimately get put into the custody of DFCS.

A blog that I follow called Fly Through Our Window featured a video of a local ministry in Alabama called the Big House Foundation that supports foster children. It is submitted as part of the Pepsi Refresh Project. You can vote for it through April 30th and I would definitely encourage you to do so. The project with the most votes gets a grant to support it's mission. Here is the video:

Spring has sprung.. every last yellow bit

Spring is now in full force... and I love it! The weather is warm, it's Master's week, the flowers are blooming... but I can't stand to be outside. Not only does my car have a quarter inch dusting of yellow pollen, but I can't go outside without tasting it on my mouth or feeling it on my skin. I guess I can't complain too much... at least it's not cold anymore. I realize that I haven't posted in a while, and we have some very exciting news. On April 30, Dustin and I will be homeowners! Everything has gone so smoothly, we can only credit it to God. I have been researching houses online for quite a while, but when we drove by to look at them... we feared for our lives. Literally... Atlanta can go from very nice to very sketchy very fast! Needless to say, we never took the next step to pursue anything... until about 4 weeks ago. I found this house online and drove by it on my own and to my surprise... it was in a nice area AND in our price range. I took Dustin by and he agreed with me. We contacted some friends (who happen to both be realtors and in our small group) and they were able to show us the house. After some negotiating, a thorough inspection and a signed contract we close on April 30! Here is one picture and there will be many more to come!



On another note, I was able to be a part of a really sweet story at work yesterday. It was featured on our news last night and I thought you all might enjoy it, so here I wanted to share it.

You're out of bread and milk?... Seriously?

So if school gets cancelled if there's the threat of snow, what happens when we get 4 inches? Oh yeah... we have a "code white" at the hospital, publix runs out of bread and milk and traffic goes from awful to horrific. All in all, it was pretty and it actually made the opening ceremony of the winter olympics seem good. Here are some pictures to prove it...

That's all part of the experience, honey...

So apparently I am only updating this whenever we have major Holidays -- Halloween, Christmas, Groundhog Day, Boxing Day... not really, but I know it seems like it now. Bear with me, and I hope I can keep this current. Here is a little glimpse into what we've been been up to recently:

We had "rojo-ho" klife


Since moving to Atlanta, I knew it was only a matter of time before I got "in" with the rappers. Nelly came for a visit.


We bought a little tree...


The Rockettes came to recruit us. Not really... but they did come visit our kids.


We went to a Christmas wedding in Aiken.


Dustin's thrilled about the new snuggie.


A fun, old-fashioned family Christmas in Texas...




The kids needed to expend some energy.





New Years in Chattanooga with friends



That about sums about the past month of our lives. Stay tuned to see what adventures 2010 brings!