This past week I was able to contribute to two other blogs besides this little ole' blog here.  First one was the one that I write on the last week of each month.  Kat was super nice to ask me to update you all on my YEAR OF MOTHERHOOD challenge over at her blog each month.  It's fun to meet new people and get to share on such a great blog that challenges me each time I read it.

Here's the beginning of the post.  You must head on over to her blog to finish!

MAY RECAP – encouraging my kids

My May challenge was to spend time daily encouraging each of my kids.

The definition of encourage is this:  to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence.  To stimulate by assistance, approval, etc.  To promote, advance, or foster.

I sometimes find myself more as an office manager of our company, AKA “team Ivey household”, and not the cheerleader that I ought to be to my kids and even husband sometimes.  I find myself concentrating on making sure this ship sails and doesn’t sink, instead of helping my children learn to sail this ship with me.  Mommy-hood is demanding and often we neglect the little people that we are supposed to be pouring into so much.

The second blog I was able to contribute to this week is called THE ADOPTION MAGAZINE blog and I was honored to share my thoughts on wondering if we did the right thing or not by traveling back and forth to visit our kids so much while they were in Haiti and we were in the adoption process.  This is a question that I'm certain most adoptive parents that are able to visit their kids have wondered, and here are my two cents.

Here's the beginning of the post and you can head on over to the blog to read the rest:

During our adoption of Amos and Story, I made six trips to Haiti and Aaron made just as many.  We tried to be with our kids at least four times a year and sometimes it was more when we took trips individually.  For us it was a no brainer since their travel there was something you could do in one day, relatively cheap, and agencies are welcoming of parents to visit their kids there during the wait.   On my first trip there it was super exciting for me, because I was meeting my kids, but I remember for my kids it was basically just another person there taking care of them.  I’m sure I was different because I brought gifts and practically smothered them daily with love, but in their eyes, I was just another nanny.

That's where I was this week …..