I AM SO READY TO START MY GARDEN. I THINK THIS WEEKEND I AM GOING TO START BUILDING IT AND THEN I CAN START FILLING IT ALL IN.....It sure is going to take some time and money to fill it all in with soil and compost but I cant wait. I love planting bell pepper, banana pepper, tomatoes, strawberries, and this year Im gonna try cantaloupe, sunflowers and some herbs. I cant wait. Any tips out there, please do share. I have always had a SMALL spot off my back deck and did tomatoes in containers, but this year Im going somewhat bigger....William doesnt want me too, he thinks I should just buy it at the store and not worry with it...but I enjoy it!

Bella-Gabby-Lily and Giovanna on Valentine's day. They come home from school and all their "prizes" were waiting on them...can you tell their excitement?
William and I took all five girls to the mall last Saturday for a fun day out of the house. Here we are riding the carousal horse.
Lyndsey sent me these yummy cake balls on a stick. They are so yummy!
Gabby made this for my Valentines day gift at school...Mom's Memos!
Bella showing me her "groovy girl horse"....they so love their groovy girls!

things have been going well. The girls are really enjoying school and Gee is doing well too. Life is good. WE are still "slowly" unpacking boxes and finally hanging pictures on the walls. It has just taken a while to get to that point...still a work in process.

WE are trying to find a contractor to build us a shed, that has been a process for sure! It has to be on a concrete slab and has to be approved by the homeowner association...so we are still working on it. WE originally thought we wanted a larger size but yikes $8-9K is not what I want to spend...I could use that to adopt again!!!

The weather has been wonderful here in AL lately...I can just feel spring..however I think it will get cold again before we are into spring....I have got to start the building process of my garden. I am going to raise it about 8-10 inches above the ground and pray that it all works out. I am getting excited to start my inside seeds and watch them grow. We are going to try this year to do everything from seeds. I have always planted from small plants purchased in a six pack and this year I am going to try and do it all myself. This should be fun!!! I cant wait!

If any of you have hints of doing a small garden please fill me in.

Have a blessed day

Happy Valentine's Day

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day! I have been blessed with the best Valentine ever and after 24 years, still going strong. Happy Valentine's Day Willaim!!!! WE have been blessed with SIX awesome kids and life couldnt be happier.

I am home from PA. It was so nice to see cousin's I havent seen in 15 years but sad under the conditions. I enjoyed my time there but was happy to get home to my real life and kids.

The girls all have parties today so i will be running around trying to make them. Sadly I cant make all of them due to time restraints.

Michael is home for a few days this week. Lyndsey hopefully will be coming home in April for a week.

Im sorry i am such a poor blogger and writer...this really is to help help memories straight and to briefly inform family and friends of our everyday happenings.

Today is a sad day for us, happy for her....my Grandmom went to heaven today. On Wednesday they found her unconscious and barely breathing. Apparently she had a massive stroke and collapsed in the living room floor where she layed for about 12 hours (midnight till noon) before they found her. She lives alone and my Aunts were calling her to make sure she hadn't lost power during the bad snow storm. When they couldn't get her after several tries the went to the house. House completed locked up and she didn't come to the door. They busted in the back door and found her. They called my mom and Dad and they packed and started the long 18 hour drive. They arrived in PA late last night and went to the hospital right away. My Dad talked to the Dr's and they said there was nothing else left they could do. Her body was shutting down, she wasnt breathing on her own at all, was paralyzed on her left side and more than likely would not come out of it. All children talked and knew this is NOT what Grandmom would have wanted. She was very independent.

So at this time we are all sad that she left this world, but know she is in a better place. We love you Grandmom!!!!

This was my last surviving Grandparent....so only parents are left now....I pray its MANY years before we face this again!

Attached is a pic of Grandmom with the girls almost a year ago...this was the last time we all saw her.

I know its been a long time....

I have been so very busy for the last several months.

Back in October I started having alot of pain in my stomach....after several trips to the Urgent care and medicines...I finally asked them to run tests to see if it could possibly be my gall bladder...Well WAA LAA! It was. The Dr. at the base said she didnt see any gall stones but wanted to me to go right then over to the surgeon's office so he could take a look. My mom was here, so off she and I went to the surgeon's office to take a look at my ultrasound. He right away said I had a few hundred "tiny stones" and possibly a few larger ones. I told him that we were moving and I needed him to do it right away or give me medicine to help with the pain and I could do it over Christmas break. He told me he had a appointment open the next day.....now how's that for service???

I took it! So on Dec. 1, I had my gall bladder taken out. I was so sore, but recovered nicely! I was ever so happy to eat SALSA again! LOL.

We did FINALLY SELL OUR HOME on Daffodil Ct! It was totally a GOD THING! We were going to take it off the market so we didn't have to deal with it over the holidays and plus I had been so sick and a realtor kept calling.....she said these folks totally wanted to see the house...we agreed and the next day we had a offer...just 500.00 shy of asking price. Can't say that the closing went smoothly, because it was changed THREE times but the end result was all the same...we closed. Two days before Christmas we slept in our new Dream home! We were so HAPPY!

Our new house is exactly what we had wanted!!! Its in the neighborhood that we wanted, it is only 5 yrs old, one owner and 3100sq ft. I will upload pics soon. IF your on my FB, you can see one on there.

Just five days after moving into the new house, we got another surprise....A EXCHANGE STUDENT FROM SOUTH KOREA. This was not something we had really ever explored, but it too was a GOD THING! Her name is Gee Eun, she is 15 yrs old and fits totally into our family. We are all going to be sad when school is out at the end of May, because in June she will be leaving. I know her time with us, has not only changed her, but our family as well. God really does work in awesome ways.

Lyndsey is still in Iraq. For those of you who didnt know she started her ONE YEAR deployment to Iraq in October. She is staying busy with a large client load, college, and friends. She is getting homesick and ready for her R & R in sometime in March or April. We all cant wait for her to come home. It really hit home this week, when a fellow friend, 22 yr old young man from Millbrook, was put to rest. He too joined the Army and was serving in Afghanistan when his unit was attacked. He was killed Jan 18. What a sad day. I so pray we never get that knock at the door, that phone call,have to make those arrangements....PLEASE stand with us in prayer that ALL the soldiers come home to their families!!!! Pray our Lyndsey is safe, she feels Jesus surrounding her and she can be home safe on American soil QUICKLY!

ALl the girls are doing great! They love school, so far this month we have been able to dodge the stomach bug and the flu. December, Giovanna has strep and the flu, so they treated all the girls with Tamiflu.....so far January and February has been good. I pray it stays that way.

In January, Isabella got glasses. She now is wearing them, AND KEEPING them on. She looks adorable in them.

I am so sorry for taking so long to update my blog. Will for sure try to get better

Want to change the life of a little child??? What better way than to visit Reece's Rainbow and look at the 2010 Angel Tree....I will post more on this later.

Enjoy all the beautiful faces!

I know I haven't posted in a long time.....excuses.....excuses! Facebook makes it so easy to do updates and upload pictures that I just forget to come and do it here....I am once again so sorry!

I would love to draw your attention to this little family in Romania. Please read this and see what you can do. Go through your childs toys, visit the dollar tree, send a few bucks, whatever you can do but most importantly PRAY for them! Pray that they are able to continue this HARD fight in a country where there is no acceptance for thier sweet little man.

I have a PLEA!!!The other night I got a phone call from a military friend stationed in Romania. His daughter's teacher has a 5yr old son with Down Syndrome. The medical staff, therapist, schools all are rejecting giving him any service! This just BREAKS my heart! They are UNABLE to get any therapy type toys, items etc..

• • My friend is coming to the states in a week and can take back anything we can give her! If you are willing to help either with mailing me used or new items, or donate money for me to pick things up here...please contact me! I am just heartbroken that a child with Down syndrome is shunned by society....but thats our mission at Reece's Rainbow...to help raise awareness and encourage families to keep their children and then to help provide any "learning-therapy" item we can....its not that the parents dont "want" their child...its that society will not accept them...wont you "PLEASE" help me, help this family!!!!

IF any of you can help with anything that would be wonderful! I was in contact with the Mom today and she told me they are able to "BRIBE" the Dr's into seeing her son...but money is tight! PLEASE lift this family and many others like them up in prayer. This is one family we are able to help, if we all come together we can show them that we CARE! He is a fun loving little almost 5yr old who just wants what everyone else wants.......ACCEPTANCE!

If you want to mail anything such as NEW OR USED puzzles, therapy items, money, etc please contact me asap AT RLBA272@HOTMAIL.COM . I have alittle over one week to get this Box together for thme! His name is Andrei and he will be turning 5 soon.

Thanks so much for reading this and for those of you who are willing to stand with me and show them we do care I appreciate it more than you know....and I know this family will be forever grateful! We can just run to the dollar tree and pick things up here....the convience of helping our kids learn, well in other countries they just cant do that!

Today is Lyndsey and Michaels 21 birthday! wow time flies. I remember the week building up to their birth...wow what a week! I was so eager to finally meet these little babies who had made my little body GROW way more than I ever thought it could.....

they were the most precious gift that the Lord gave me.....well besides my loving husband (up to that point).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYNDSEY AND MICHAEL. WE hate that we cant all be together today but know each of you have had a good day. I pray that the Lord will continue to put good, loving, christian people in your path. I pray that you both will continue to fall on your knees in front of Him seeking guidance and direction. I love you to the moon and back! Your birth changed my life forever and I am so happy that you were born! I love you so much! I am so proud of the young man and woman you both have become!

Good Morning all...I so have totally stunk at my blog for the last several months and Im sorry! IT is so easy to update photos to Facebook from my iphone and well thats what Ive been doing. If you are on fb please look me up " Rita Bowden Andrew" and you can see all the pics there....

I once again am on the way out the door, but wanted to send out a huge HELLO to you all and let you know I have not forgotten about you.

Here are a few pictures of Lyndsey when she was home last week. The owl picture is a owl that keeps showing up at our house. He flew down to the ground right behind William as he was watering the grass one night. When the owl flew back up to the roof we took the picture. It was almost 9pm and look at the window in the picture...who do you see? She was suppose to be asleep as she went to bed at 7pm!

This morning before 6:30 I had: 4 kids up and dressed, 4 girlies fed, 4 lunches made, 4 backpacks ready,4 mouths brushed, 4 faces washed, 8 shoes on, 4 heads brushed and one tired momma. Bring it on MONDAY! Thank you Jesus for the ability to do for my family!

Hey
sorry I havent posted in over a month! Life has just been crazy. The girls strted back to school and love it. We have had William's sister here with us for a few months now and its been nice seeing her again. She is currently back in FL visiting her family....we hope she will return soon.

Lyndsey will be home Sept 4th for a about a week and then will go to FL. She will be deploying to Aphganistan in OCT so please keep her and our family in your prayers...This Momma is sick at the thought!

I have been having some pain in in my head and neck and have had tests run, blood, CT scan and xrays....so far nothing, but they are insisting I do a CT with contrast to do further in depth. Today I have woke up with some pretty nasty pain....so I think Im gonna go for it....Ive put it off a week, hoping that it would get better...but no such luck so far.

Lily is so excited for her birthday...Sept 9 she will turn 7 and she is THRILLED...and then on Sept 29 the twins will be TWENTY ONE 21....i cant believe it!!!

Gotta run, but I promise to upload some pics soon...

Orlando, we are here

We got here on Monday. William has a work conference and it couldnt have fallen at a better time. The down syndrome conference is this weekend here in Orlando as well so we are staying here till Sunday...woo hoo!!! the hotel we are at is the caribe royal and we love it! We have plenty of room, in the suite, and we are overlooking the huge pool from the 10 th floor. William's sister Karen came with us as well I'm sure she is rethinking that....she isn't used to having four little active excited girls running around all day...we stayed in the large kiddie pool all day yesterday and when William got off work we hit the family pool with the large slide. the girls were in high heaven. There has been so many people watching our every move, kids and adults alike, and last night a lady finally got up and come to the edge of the pool and introduced herself to me. She was so amazed with the girls and was shocked that they were so close in age, three having down syndrome and then that they were all adopted... I love sharing our story, brining glory to God each time of his grace and mercy. Tonight a couple also just loved watching us in the pool. She kept saying...y'all look so happy and are having so much fun....well yes we are and yes we are, then the lady who approached us last night, told her twin sister about us and they were in the pool again tonight with their kids. They sat there and watched us and then she finally got up and come over to us...she said again that we look happy and she said that we are such special people...I told her prompty that we arent anything speical, just the average American family doing our calling from God. Why don't people get that?


Well tomorrow we are finally hooking up with some of our online down syndrome friends...we have followed each others blogs and watched kids grow through photos and a lot of us aree finally getting to meet.....I just can't wait! I'm on the iPad so I can't upload photos until we get home, or will had some periodly on my facebook page....


Here is a fun filled nice day signing off...

Happy 4th of July everyone! Im so glad that we have the FREEdom that we do...thanks to the MEN AND WOMEN WHO FIGHT FOR OUR FREEdom and because of that we now have four little girls that are now FREE too! Thank you America! Enjoy your day everyone....its just my little family spending the day together.....

Well today Lily went to CAMP! She is gone until Friday....I just know she is going to love her new independance and I pray she can learn to enjoy her time while at camp. The girls woke up asking where she was....But now, after the other three are home from VBS, my house is so quiet...they are playing so nicely together..and there is no fighting!!!! AWH this will be good!

WE love you Lily...have lots of fun at church camp. This is the first time she has ever been away from us in the three years she has been home!!! Oh boy!!! I hope she does ok.