Gung Hay Fat Choy

Happy Chinese New Year (Spring Festival)!

More Garrett Michel Photos

I was able to visit with Sue and baby Garrett today. He's such a little peanut! I just love him! Jeff has already decided that his hockey and football numbers will be 21. He was born on 1/21 at 2:21 pm and was 21" long. He does have the longest fingers and feet I've ever seen on a baby. Kierstyn's were pretty long too but I think he beat her out on that.

Garrett is a true blessing to the Villemure family. Both parents anticipated a long journey to parenthood and God surprised them and blessed them before their 1 year anniversary. On top of him being a healthy baby boy, he was born via c-section (non-emergent) and thankfully so. He had the cord wrapped around his neck and they didn't even know that. They only suspected something because his monitoring was off a bit.

I was only able to visit for 1.5 hours because it took a bit longer than I expected to get there due to construction on M-59 and the the girls still needed to get some school in today. I'll take more tomorrow when I have my good camera back. Pete took it today to have for his photography class tonight. Here are my favorite photos:

Auntie Again

Garrett Michel
(look at those hands!)

My sister in law (although she is more like my sister than my Man's - I just love her death!) delivered a healthy baby boy this afternoon via c-section. Garrett is my first nephew on the Pfeiffer side of the family and second on my side. I rarely visit with my first nephew anymore. He lives over an hour away and is 14. His idea of a good time is not exactly hanging out with his little girl cousins and "Auntie". He was the first to call me that and I love that sound! It's the second sweetest sound behind "Mommy". This photo was taken with Jeff's camera phone because I wasn't able to visit him today. I'll wait until tomorrow when I have more time and won't be rushed to meet him and visit with the V side of the family. I'm just thrilled for Sue & Jeff that they have a healthy, heafty baby boy. Now we know at least Kaiden will have one boy in the family to play with.

Homeless Video

A few months ago, a friend of ours, Prem, from Arising Images, emailed Pete and others telling them that he felt that he needed to get involved in bringing awareness to the homeless population in Detroit. One step he took to that end, was to contact his friend, Don Pham, and asked him to do a video while he did some photos. Here is the finished project. Please feel free to share it anywhere and even post it in your own blog to promote awareness and hopefully get more people involved in the City. You can get the embedded tags here.

Homeless By . .
View in HD  Download 1080p Version  Visit . .'s ExposureRoom Videos Page

CVS Trip #2

I only went to CVS again so that I could get the 30 free Soy Joy bars but of course they were all sold out by today. I knew that I should have gone back right away last Sunday but I didn't. I think we are set on medicines for this winter. This is what I was able to snag though instead.

2 Aleve 100 count @ $8 each
1 Children's Motrin @ $5.50
1 Tylenol PM @ $8.50
1 Tylenol Cold @ $6.00

Used:
5 $1.00 coupons
$30 ECB (from previous 30 free soy joy bars)

Spent $0.36 OOP

Earned $15 ECB for next visit
Aleve qualified for $10 rebate by mail

Saved $47.45 this trip

Frugal Friday

One of my goals for 2009 is to take even better control of our grocery/toiletries spending. When I was keeping Frugal in Manhattan up to date, it was easier for me to do that. I had all of you (all 1 of my followers : ) to keep me accountable. Keeping up with this blog and the adoption blog is hard enough, let alone another one. So I have decided that for now, I'll just post once a week on this blog about what I'm doing to keep that in better check.

I've made 2 trips to CVS so far this week. I'm going to try to make a third one tomorrow if I can fit it in with another outing. I didn't think to take a picture of my first trip but I did remember today. I did much better earlier in the week but I still did OK today.

My favorite resource for finding the best weekly deals is Money Saving Mom and Keeping the Kingdom First for her weekly $5 CVS challenge for beginners.

Here is what I bought today:

1 Garnier shampoo $2.99 (FREE after coupons and ECB earned)
2 Tylenol Childrens @ $5.50
2 Tylenol Infants @ $5.50 (spend $20 in select Tylenol products and earn $10 ECB)

Total before coupons and ECB (extra care bucks) $31.46

Used:
2 $2.50/2 Tylenol coupon
1 $1.00 Garnier coupons
$14.77 in ECB

($6.00 coupons used and $14.77 ECB)

Total out of pocket spent $4.83

Earned $12 ECB ($2 Garnier and $10 Tylenol) for next visit

I've budgeted myself $5 per week to use at CVS/Walgreens/Rite Aid

Noteworthy - just this week I earned $60 at Rite Aid and $25 at Walgreens for transferring my prescriptions around. I have many of these pharmacies around my home so switching them was no more work for me to do and earned me a total of $85 in more FREE stuff. This will come quite in handy now that I have to begin buying diapers again!

Perspective

Nothing like having lunch. With a good friend. Who is having a really hard time right now. Who's life is 100 times harder than mine right now. To put my life into perspective. I have a God that forgives me when I least deserve it. I have my health. I have a wonderful husband who adores me, believes in me and supports me (even when it doesn't feel like it : ). I have 3 beautiful, healthy daughters that love and challenge me. I have a handsome son waiting for me in China. I also have generally healthy Parents and In-laws who love me and my family. Additionally, I have all the food and clothing that I want, more than I need most days, and a toasty warm home to live in. Lastly, I have friends that are there for me in my crappiest moments. And I'm complaining. Really? Things could be a lot worse. A lot worse.

New Day

So today is a new day.

It's going to be better than yesterday.

Got a few 'hate' emails. Got a few 'support' emails. But now it's over. I won't spend anymore time on this. I won't let this event cloud all of the good works that the Lord has done in our lives over the past 18 months.

I'm putting my laptops away after this post and not bringing them back out until tomorrow.

I've blocked a few people from sending me emails and 'unfriended' a few people on Facebook.

It's going to be a good day.

Off to have lunch with a good friend.

Really?

Really? Is this how it is supposed to end? None of what happened today was a surprise to God. He knew how things were going to play out. I'm having a hard time believing though that this was His plan. I know after coming home from a SUPER New Community service that I should expect something. Maybe it was Satan attacking. Or maybe it was just humans being who we are. Sinners. Jerks. Meanies.

I was talking with C a few weeks ago about relationships. That is what is supposed to be most important to us all. Relationships. He asked probing questions about why I don't have many deep friendships. Why do I have so many acquaintances but very few best friends. Why do I keep a double thick brick wall up. Why do I always there for others but don't count on anyone to be there for me. This is why. People suck. You get hurt. I've had enough hurt in my life so far to last me an entire lifetime. Just when you trust someone and start to let them in, they disappoint. I'm sure I do the same thing. I'm not claiming to be perfect. I just don't see the point in putting yourself in that position.

I just had a nice, long phone conversation with Beaner. She's going through it too but taking it all alot better than I am. I am grateful to have her in my life right now. I never would have guessed that I'd be leaning on her a year ago. But God did. She's taking it better because she has lowered her expectations. I know I should too. I think I have lowered them. But just how low do you go?

I fully expected Mother Superiors response. But I wasn't expecting the response I got from a few others.

But really? I thought I was out of high school. Yes I did play my part in it. In my defense, I was caught off guard and hurt deeply. But still, I could have just let it all go. But I couldn't help myself.

Michelle says that icky things happen in 3s. I hope not. I know that deaths seem to happen in 3s. But I can't take anymore of yesterday again. At least not this week.

Please Lord, put a shed of protection around us and keep Satan at bay so that we can all continue to do your work.

This too shall pass.
Tomorrow is a new day.

NYC Move Update

After a lot of prayer and discussion, we have decided that we're not going to continue to pursue moving to NYC. Many different things have happened over the past few months that are leading us to be connected in Detroit. We just found out Friday that our application has officially been accepted by China, and we'll be traveling to China to bring our son home at the beginning of March (as long as we get travel approval before they close for Chinese New Year in 2 weeks). The impact of that alone to our family is going to be significant. We're feeling like we need to settle things down and give the kids (and us) some stability for a while - something we haven't had for quite some time now. This, along with some of the people that have come into our lives recently, and the peace we have with this decision are leading us to believe this is the right thing for us to do.

We are going to stay living with my in-laws until they return from Florida at the beginning of April which should co-incide with when we return from China.

It has truly been a pleasure and an honor being a part of Communitas and to be part of the incredible things that God is doing. There is no doubt that we had to be a part of Communitas, even if we never made it to NYC. My mantra over the past few months has been, "it's all about the process and not the end destination". We couldn't continue to live our old lives anymore and Communitas was a huge catalyst that sped the transformation in our lives.

Now we look forward to our next great adventure!

He's Ours

To see a picture of our new son, head over to my adoption blog:

God's Plan - Our Journey to China

(and yes, I know, it can't be 4kpgirls anymore : )

Scripture Memorization

I have never been good at memorization of much of anything. I can read things and learn to understand them and then explain them in my own terms but rarely recite something back word for word. As part of the girls' school curriculum they are memorizing all sorts of different scriptures. They already have memorized more than I know.

On the LPM blog, they are going to work at memorizing 24 scriptures together this year. (1 every 2 weeks - to memorize or at least mediate on) I have been feeling like I this is something that I need to do since August but haven't done it. Now that I have others to be accountable to, I'm going to make it a goal of mine for this year.

Here is this weeks' verse:

Isaiah 33:6 (New International Version)

6 He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.