My Heart

My heart is so full. This morning Kyle and I went back to church to finish sorting and stuffing boxes for the food distribution at church. About an hour before it started, folks started coming and lining up to get the food. At first my heart was broken-I admit that I fought back tears as I saw families I knew that had shown up for the food. But then I saw my big nine year old with his sweet friend Grace, helping some of the families carry their goods to the cars and stuff food in the boxes. It was very very emotional for me to be a part of that ministry at church today.

I would ask each family that I was helping how many lived in their homes. If it was a large number I would add several additional items to their pile and it was mind-blowing how thankful folks were for a second loaf of bread or rolls.

Then Kyle and I left church and went to the Down Syndrome karaoke party! It was so much fun and once again I fought back tears of joy as we were surrounded by some of our favorite people on Earth! We had two new families join us today and that is always very special to welcome new folks into the club.
First song of the day was Big Green Tractor with Ashley and David!!!

Here is one of our youngest angels-Miss Emily with icing all over her swet face!

David worked that microphone-perhaps he has watched one too many Youtube videos!

A group sing with our special friend, Ben!! We were so excited that he and his momma were able to join us for a bit today. We love them.

Seth Kilby and Miss Marley! Marley is so precious and she is in Prek this year.

The whole gang singing Santa Claus is coming to town! Susan and Seth helped out as well as Heather Stamper. It is actually pretty hard to keep up with the words on the screen!

David is high on drama!

Mike and Kyle helping out singing Black Eyed Peas:) Caroline rocked that microphone today! She knew the words to almost every song.

The party wore Miss Emily out.

David was so busy singing that he did not want to eat until the very end when the ladies were cleaning up. I am not sure how many cupcakes he ate before I clued in:)

After we left the christmas party we stopped by a birthday party for our friend, sweet Reid at the skating rink.

It has been a full day, but days like today are such a reminder to me that life is truly not about things and stuff, but about people and love. I am so thankful for our Down Syndrome group and I am so thankful for the love that is showered upon my child and his friends. This momma has a very full heart tonight:)

Happenings

This time of year our days are full-so full that this year we actually had to carve out special time to eat dinner as a family on Kyle's actual birthday yesterday. He chose the Dip Dog stand for his birthday meal and Mike brought home lots of dip dogs (similar to corn dogs), onion rings, and fries for us all to share.

We finished off all of that grease with this cookie cake! Yummy:)

Here are my three babes enjoying the gourmet meal that Kyle chose! I love that anytime Hope sees a camera she breaks out into her "cheeeese!"

After we sang to Kyle and let him open his gifts, Ashley and I took David and Hope to our Music Together class and Candy Cane Lane at school while the big boys headed to a local basketball game. That is how we roll in this family-we divide and conquer!

Me and Hope are playing a toe tapping game as we sing one of the songs. We love our music class and we adore Mrs. Rae Ann our teacher. We have one more class before Christmas and then we will start another class in January. Love it. I wore a long skirt to class last night and I will never do that again!

Dave and Hope playing with the scarfs!

Hope could seriously play peek-a-boo underneath these things forever!

At Candy Cane Lane at David's school lo and behold Santa was there visiting! They got their picture made with dear old St. Nick and Hope did not scream as loudly this time!! HA!

This morning after I dropped the boys off at school Hope and I headed to church to wait for this big truck to show up!

It was loaded down with tons and tons of food that we helped sort and pack in boxes for the food bank tomorrow. I was so excited to see this happening at church and I jumped in to help. Hope went with me and the girl had a ball sorting and carrying around food.

Here is the bread Mom-where do I put it? I could not believe how much food was on that truck! We sorted it all out and then repacked boxes for families that will show up tomorrow to pick it up. I was honored to participate in such a vital ministry at church. It breaks my heart, but the truth is that there are lots of hungry people in our own neighborhoods that need this food. Some are desperate for food as they use their very limited resources to maybe heat their homes with nothing left over for food.

Here is just one of many palettes that came off of the truck.

Hope sorting out some soup.

If you told her what it was she could sort some of the brighter colored packages-she was so cute and helpful! I was worried that we would be more in the way than an asset to the team, but she did great and we stayed over three hours.

But after a lunch of pizza, she fell sound asleep in the car on the way home:) I love mission work and I especially love local missions. One of these days I want to go on a mission trip far away but I know that local missions such as this are vital in this down economy. I have neighbors in my sweet town that are desperate for the food we unloaded today and I pray that when they receive that box of food tomorrow that they will know that it came from the One that will always satisfy our hunger and thirst.

Kyle Bradley

Nine years ago today I was blessed to become a Mommy! Kyle Bradley Robinson was born at 9:20 in the morning at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville.

He was 8 pounds, one ounce and was my biggest baby! I will never forget how excited Mike and I were the morning he was born. My parents and brother got to the hospital about two hours before he arrived and my Mom was in the room with us when he was born. I remember crying big crocodile overs when they placed him in my arms for the first time. There is just nothing like that moment.

Here is sweet Kyle at 12 months old getting his first big boy haircut. This picture takes my breath away because I see little Hope in his face.

This picture is out of order, but here is his preschool picture when he was five. (I scanned these older pictures and I am not sure why the quality is not good, but oh well. I have had a blast digging through these photo albums today).

I had to do a double take to see if this was Kyle or Hope, but this is Kyle on his first Halloween:)

Here he is at 18 months old!

Two years old at our old farmhouse in Orange County. I was pregnant with David at this time.

6th birthday:)

This past summer at an All Star tournament.

This past fall with Hope.

My most recent picture of Kyle. Kyle, we love you so much and we are so proud of you. We hope you have a happy birthday! We are so proud of how loving you are to your siblings, how hard you work in school, and your sweet heart. Remember to always do the right thing and stay close to Jesus.

I cannot believe in terms of your adulthood we are at the halfway mark. How fast these last nine years have gone will make me appreciate the next nine! There are days that I want to scream for you to "slow down" with all this growing and maturing because I want to savor every moment. Then on the other hand, I know God has big plans for you and I cannot wait to see what He has in store for you. Stay on the right path sweet boy and there is but sunny skies ahead. We love you son.