MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We are traveling for the holidays,

so I wanted to wish y'all (the 2 friends that read my blog) a EARLY....

Christmas card by: Brooke Designs

And pardon the blog construction, a sweet friend is re-doing it for me, go and check her out

Great Grabbie Designs

She is in Hawaii right now, Be jealous!!!

XOXO

Q&A

Wow! Andy and I were beyond overwhelmed by everyone reaching

out to us and helping us get to our goal of

bringing another little baby into our home.

We were truly blessed by all the emails we received.

To answer a few questions that I got:

When is the Garage sale?

We are going to have it in February, toward the end or beginning of March

We are hoping to collect enough items by then and hoping the

weather has warmed up a little by then.

Where is the sale going to be?

A sweet friend in Houston has offered her home or should I say driveway,

so we will be having it there

Will we be in Dallas? Austin? to pick up items?

Yes! Yes! Yes! We will be in Austin on Christmas Eve and Day and would be happy to pick anything up then. And I am 100% we will be in Dallas at some point, we cant stay away from there for that long :)

Do we want items now or later?

We will take them when ever you want to give them, I would love to pick them up and hug your neck to thank you. We are hoping to price items as they are donated so we don't have to do it all the night before the sale.

If we don't have anything to sell can we just donate financially?

Yes, you can...

I put a button on my right side bar and you can

donate through pay pal. It is super simple, click on the donate button.

Again we have been truly blessed by y'all and totally overwhelmed by God's power and grace over our family.

Here are a few pictures of my little stud,

I just cant help but show y'all him in his new winter hat.

XOXO.

I will not leave you as Orphans.

So here goes nothing. I say that because I am really nervous about posting this but at the same time feel a peace because I know that I am suppose to. I know that God is working in my heart and breaking down my walls and allowing me to see that it is ok to ask for help, something that is a constant struggle for me.

As many of you may already know, Andy and I are in the process of adopting. We are also getting licensed to foster, which we are almost done with and are trying to get our home study scheduled before the Christmas holiday.

So this is where my walls come down and I ask you for help. Andy and I will be hosting a garage sale to raise money for the cost of the adoption, if that happens through foster care, it will pay for our home study, lawyers costs, inspections, etc., and if it happens through private adoption it will go to the large amount that they ask you to pay in fees.

Here is how you can help!

ONE. GIVE.

We need the donations of items for our garage sale. Clothes, baby stuff, home stuff, furniture, homemade goods…anything!!!! So as you are cleaning or making room for your Christmas gifts, please don’t throw anything away. Give.it.to.us.to.sell! We have some stuff of our own that will be in the sale but not a ton. If you have anything you no longer need and are willing to give away for a great cause, just email me and I will schedule a time to come and pick it up.

TWO.COME.

Come to the garage Sale and buy your own treasures! (We will let everyone know the dates as soon as we know but it will definitely be after the holidays) Since winter is approaching, I am sure we will serve some warm snuggly drink to try to lure you in. Even if you choose to donate, still come. Somebody’s trash is another’s treasure!

THREE.TALK.

Please spread the word through email, facebook, tweeter, word of mouth and blogs about donating and the sale itself! We can use all the help that we can get.

We are so excited and feel blessed with this journey that God is taking us on and are excited to learn along the way. God is already breaking down my walls and is humbling me, so that is fruit already being bared from this journey and for that I am thankful!

Here is my contact info if you are interested in giving: blackwoodc@sbcglobal.net

Hope everyone has a GREAT week!!!!

Thanksgiving in Pictures

(*all pics from iPhone)

Ten things the Wetherell's have been up to

#1- We celebrated my mother-in-laws 60TH Birthday at our house

with 40 of her friends and family!

#2 We have been doing never ending amounts of adoption paperwork and classes. We have 2 more classes left this month and then we will have

everything done except for our home study, Yahoo!!!

#3 Church this week was really good, the music was phenomenal, Sunday school was refreshing and the message was great.

#4We took family pictures last week and the picture below is from them

I have been thinking alot this week about how my little man looked like this

at this time last year and am just blown away about how much he has grown and changed.

#5- Myself and this little snotty boy spent last week in Jasper, playing outside and hanging out with dad.

(sorry the camera focused on my dress sleeve & not our faces)

#6- I took a 2 hour nap on Sunday and it was bliss.

#7We have been spending alot of time outside with this wonderful

weather before it gets too chilly.

#8 spending time with family

#9 practicing words with Whitt, as his vocabulary is growing and growing. His word lately is "Tuck"- Truck.

#10- I got bored so I decided to paint this design in Whittaker's/guest bathroom. I still need to paint a second coat on the White but have yet to do it.

(idea compliments of jonesdesigncompany.com)

The End.

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER

All it takes is one. All it took was one strand of E.coli to be processed into one hamburger patty, to make it to one burger king, to one mom, whose one son, took one bite and the one life he had would then be over. All it took was a series of one events to lead to one of the biggest recalls on beef. Because of one situation America has never been the same.

In 2001, one man, Vernon burger, who had, one passion, that being Jesus, took one trip, to Southern Sudan and connected with one bishop, who was trying to love and spread the gospel to many who were orphaned by the civil war. Since that one trip in 2001, HIS VOICE GLOBAL has been in an ongoing relationship with the EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church), 10 years and three orphanages later they seek to continue the movement to open a fourth.

You might ask the question what makes this place so special? Sudan was in war for over 20 years before signing a peace agreement in 2006. Until the peace agreement this was the longest civil war to date in human history, leaving over 2 million dead and many children without parents. So what makes this place unique!?!? Many things but one is there are many who have teamed up, like HIS VOICE GLOBAL and The Village Church, to be a gospel centered presence through proclamation and practice. While The Village Church has sent many teams to train pastors, equip leaders and love the children in these orphanages in Yei, HIS VOICE GLOBAL was the door that God used to bring a gospel centered presence from the west into this area of the world. Now there is an opportunity for you to be a part of this continued movement of Christ in this region for as little as a dollar.

This past September a group of 13 from all walks of life from Reach Records, The village Church, Red Revolution, Collision Records and HIS VOICE GLOBAL partnered under The Village banner to go and minister to those in Southern Sudan. They ministered through teaching, medical, music, and loving children who were victims of the Civil War that now live in one of the three Orphanages sponsored by HIS VOICE GLOBAL. Moved by the fruit there and continued need, Tedashii, Lecrae (Reach Records artist), Swoope (Collision Records artist) and Jai teamed up to do a single to raise awareness and funds for a fourth orphanage in Southern Sudan. The single, which is slated to be released November 16th under new label Collision Records is called Actions Speak Louder. This single and symbol seen above calls believers to move beyond awareness and put their prayers in motion, to quote the song. The symbol inspired by the scriptures that say a strand of three cords are not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12), the exclamation points showing the immediate nature of the call to apply the gospel (Luke 4:18-19), the highlight of one exclamation point showing the power of one to change and lead others and the patch like design showing the reality that there is strength in numbers, calling believers to action, an action beyond themselves.

The average number of songs downloaded per day are close to 10,000,000 yes that is correct 10 million. Come November 16th HIS VOICE GLOBAL only needs over 250,000 one’s to download this amazing song (which is not even 10% of the daily average) to complete and have a fourth self sustaining orphanage. We are not asking you to change your lifestyle just point your efforts toward something that will last. The amazing thing about this whole campaign is that 100 percent of the profits from the song will go toward this fourth orphanage. All it takes is one!!!

Go to Itunes.com (or click on the top picture) and purchase this song so you can help AMAZING children like the one below, seriously how could you turn from this precious little face.

(PICTURE TAKEN ON OUR TRIP TO SUDAN IN 2008)

Swoope "Actions Speak Louder" ft. Lecrae, Tedashii, Jai by Rapzilla

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER

MONDAY.

I have a few post's coming up... but until then I will leave you with this cute little face.

I wore White to the FALL festival

Yes. I wore White to the fall festival. yes. the fall-fest is after labor day and I wore White. It was one of those mornings where not one item in the closet liked me and I despise each item back. All except for the White pants, so I wore them, I wore the White pants after labor day to the fall festival. But that is o.k because the festival was not for me it was for this little man.

Which hadn't taken a nap all day because bless his little heart his dad had men cutting down trees right by his bed room window and his mom set off the smoke alarm cooking stew for the day. He and his nap did not mesh. But me and my White pants did. Maybe the fact that I wore White pants distracted people for seeing my eye brows which i hadn't plucked in over a week. I noticed them in the car on the way there, there was no turning back. I

had to embrace the fact that they looked like a forest.

Whitt dressed up as an elephant for the festival

(costume was removed shortly after picture)

I know I am bias but he was the cutest elephant there. Or should I say he was the cutest little elephant body there, he refused to keep on the head which was o.k with me because he would have most likely had a heat stroke, it was a beautiful day but those

little costumes are like a little heat factory within themselves.

See that cute little elephant above, that was the only picture we got with his head on and it was on my husband's blackberry camera (same with the one above it). Not only did I wear white but I was that mom that left the camera battery plugged into the wall and didn't notice until she went to take her first picture and it wouldn't turn on. Dern. So now we have blurry cell phone pictures that I will embrace!

On the actual day of Halloween, we hung out with friends, ate dinner, went to a parade (actually we were the parade, the kids walk the parade in there costumes) and did a little trick or treating. Whitt wore his regular clothes, no elephant this time-just wasn't worth his comfort or that whole heat stroke thing. Over all we had a great weekend of two much candy, Whitt eating his first starburst, wrapper and everything, seeing friends and their cute kids, having a quick visit from my sister on Sunday morning and seeing cute little ones come to our door for candy and "lighting the night"!

On a little different note here are few of things going on with the Wetherells:

-Andy and I are almost done with our fostering stuff so we can be put on the home study list, we are super excited for our classes and paper work to be all finished! We have 2 more classes in which one of them is this Thursday. wahoo!!!

- My littlest sister Taylor got engaged last week and we are all super excited for them.

(Pictures to come later)

-Andy is moving to a new house in Jasper this week, he is doing it alone while Whitt and I are here, so lift him up, he has a full week of work and moving!!!

- Whitt is saying more and more and communicating so much better

- We are gathering things around the house for a garage sale we are going to have soon (details to come) but oh it feels oh so good to clean out the un-needed goods.

Well I think that's all for now, HAPPY MONDAY!

Motherhood

Please head to my friend

Amanda's blog

and read her post on

Motherhood

and

being blessed by kids.

It couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

Pumpkin head

Can you believe that this cute little pumpkin

discovered

he could

take off his diaper and play with his poop all over the wall during nap time? I would of never guessed but oh yes, it happened. And he has WHITE walls... oh the horror. It was a disaster but It will be something I will remember forever. My little baby is officially becoming a little boy and a wild one at that.

He is all BOY!

He

is a

absolute

Dream.

16 months.

Oh.my.word.

I cant believe that whittaker

is 16 months old,

oh how time flies.

Whitt- you my child are a light. You keep me on my toes all day long. You might look like me but sweet son you have energy like your dad. It is never ending. You constantly want to be outside running around or pretending you are big enough to ride your tricycle (even though it is really me pushing you... I will still let you think you are doing all the work). You are talking non-stop and are very independent. Son, you have become sweeter and sweeter- you will now just walk up to me and want to cuddle or plant a big kiss on my cheek- it melts my heart every time and I dread the day you stop. You have also developed a little but of a temper, you would never know it with how sweet you can be but little man when you are mad you let everyone know about it. I will just call you strong willed for now. Son, thank you for keeping me on my toes. I look forward to everyday I get to chase you around!

Things I dont want to forget:

*You "breaking" into the laundry room everyday, multiple times,

to get a coke even though you know you cant have it.

*You now only take one 3 hour nap a day

*You climb in and out of the bathtub even

though it does not have water in it.

*You love shoes

*You are still sleeping 12 hours a night

*Your favorite foods are grapes, beans, rice, strawberries, hot sauce and veggie nuggets

*You can say mommy, dada,thank you, moo, duck, NieNie

(what you call your Aunt Whitney), shoes, dog, deer

*How you break down the baby gate to play chase

*You hate having your diaper changed

*You love to play in your crib

*You love for me to read to you

*you start to shimmy or clapping after doing something wrong in hopes that I will think that you are too cute for consequences.

*You push your trucks around and say, "vroom"

Happy 16 months Mr. Whittaker Overstreet,

your mom and Dad

love you to the moon!

Parks and Parties.

Yes. I have been in a blog drought and to be honest I still am but I wanted to put a few pictures of of the little bit for our families.We have been crazy busy but He is just as cute as ever and we are loving this cool weather and

spending a lot of it outdoors... His favorite place to be.

So here are a few pictures of our latest adventures...

Parks!

Parties!

Happy Birthday on Thursday to the

great-est little Hallie I know.

Your pumpkin dress-up party was out of this world!