Getting ready for kindergarten

I am getting Brett ready for kindergarten. I can't believe that he will start school on Wednesday. I brought him a couple of books to read to him in the next couple of days. I will read "The Night Before Kindergarten" on Tuesday night. I wrote an inscription on the inside cover. This is what it says:

August 24, 2008
Dear Brett,
As I was preparing your bookbag for school today,
I thought of a few words I wanted to say.

I remember the day you were born so tiny and fragile,
Now here stands a boy so growny, quick and agile.

First steps to first words to first stay of school
Slowly but surely you have learned to be a boy that is cool.

As I walk with you down the kindergarten hall,
I will not recognize the baby on the living room wall.

You've gone from falling asleep twirling my hair,
To walking away without a care.

The tears that I cry are happy tears
For I want to relief all your fears.

You may think - Mom is so sad, maybe I should be afraid,
Don't worry! You will come home telling of the games you played.

With all the new things-friends, stories, lessons and riding the bus,
You will come home wondering why there was a fuss.

As I leave you at school, my brave little boy,
My heart is overwhelmed with love and joy.

I just wonder, where did my baby boy go?
I really want to know.

Written with love,
Mommy

I have never written a poem before but this poured from my heart. I cried as I typed and cried some more. I hope he remembers it forever and always. I will post pictures of his first day of school. Pray for me Wednesday as I take him to school. I do not understand why I am so emotional, he has been going to daycare since he was 3 months old! It is just such a big step.

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Youth Camping Trip to Camp Kerr Lake

We spent last weekend August 15th-17th @ Camp Kerr Lake with the youth 5-7th grades. Nine boys including Brett and 5 Girls. We had a GREAT time. We left Goldsboro @ around 6:00 pm and arrived to Kerr Lake @ 8pm. Everyone unloaded and everyone wanted to swim even though it was almost dark and we thought it was cold. But you know kids they had a blast. The boys all stayed in the cabins. The girls stayed with the Suttons in their camper:) Meagan and Jenna were 2 of the 5 girls so thats how we were able to stay with them. The 1st night we went over the rules and Mike gave clues to the Amazing Race game during the rules speech, but the kids were unaware that they needed to pay close attention to Mike. Mike had a devotion and we made smores. We went to sleep. Saturday morning Alan and I cooked pancakes and we prepared for the parents to arrive for the Amazing Race. Once everyone was there we split into teams The GIRLS, BOYS & PARENTS.The Girls won the Bible Trivia which gave them a 2 minute head start. The Clue envelopes contained Legos and clues to the next location. The last envelope contained the directions for the cars each team would build. I think everyone loved the game. The parents won!!! They had and unfair advantage two members of the team are marathon runners! After the Race we had free time everyone swam or fished. I enjoyed talking with the other parents as we watch the kids swimming. I was proud of the kids for including Brett in the activities since they were all older than him. The Camp had box hockey and tether ball which kept everyone occupied also. In the afternoon we had a watermelon eating contest. The pictures say it all. It was GREAT! The evening we made Hobo Stew. That was very good. After dinner we had devotion and played charades even the parents joined in. The parents left and Mike told ghost stories by the camp fire. Everyone got showers and got ready for bed. Sunday morning we had pancakes for breakfast and packed up. The worship service was perfect for the kids. There were only 3 other people from the camp that attended the service which was disappointing, but the kids all partcipated in the service which was amazing and I think the pastor was surprized by the groups partcipation. It was an amazing weekend.

Brett singing in church

We are so proud of Brett. He is so brave to stand in front of the church all by himself and sing for everyone. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as we did. God does love the little children and we hope and pray that this will lead to more great things to come from Brett and his willingness to speak of God's Word.

One story I failed to mention about our vacations. Brett and I were walking to the camp office to rent a paddle boat. Brett was barefoot and the road was rocky. I noticed his was whispering and he was squinting. I asked him what he was doing. He responded. I am asking God to help me, so my feet don't hurt. Because God helps us. My heart was over joyed with how his mind works. Because he understands and I believe that even at his age he KNOWS God and has a relationship with him.
Gods love continues to amaze me,
Wendy

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Camping trip-Shiloh Family Ministries-Camp Kerr Lake

It a taken me forever to post about our camping trip. To give everyone the background of the camping trip that we learned during that week. Several family from our church including the Sutton, Daniels and Stroud families began camping 42 years ago at this camp ground. They camped at another campground only one year because this one was closed. Luckily someone reopened it. Of the 27 campsites they said 22 were with our group. Dannie and Todd Williams were our neighbors. Alan was in his usual location across the campground. Paige, John Daniels (Caroline and Dawson) were beside Dannie and Todd. We had such a nice time. It was a great trip. We arrived at Kerr Lake at about 4 pm we were set up by 6. The first day it rained off and on most of the day but it was still a nice day. We rode on Todd and Dannie's boat. We played card games and just relaxed. We also fished some that day we all enjoyed fishing. We actually started out with one pole and ended up buying 3 more. Everyone you fished caught some. But Taylor caught the biggest. I have hopefully added pictures to the blog. Dannie and Todd have a little girl named Lexi she is 20 months old, and is very cute and we enjoyed having her around. Brett and Lexi really had fun riding the Gator around (we started not to bring the Gator since it was so big but it was a GREAT idea) Dannie even got her video camera out and recorded Lexi's 1st "date" She said "Lexi's 1st date Summer 2008 with Brett Forbis". Kelli was not able to stay for the whole week because she had clinical for the CNA program. But she had fun while she was here. Taylor had a great time too! Alan rode us on his boat and let us ride the tube. Taylor and I rode it together I had so much fun watching her act so scare when we tipped the tube. She did not want to fall off but eventually we did. Kelli and I had a fall off the tube, we hit the water HARD. But even that was FUN. Kelli spent a lot of time with Caroline. Caroline is just a sweet girl. It is so awesome to hear the news that chem is not needed. God answers prayers what an awesome God we have. We had some great meals while we were camping. The menu Grilled chicken with cheesy mash potatoes, Pork chops and green beans, Steak and Cheesy potatoes, Sausage dogs with mac and cheese, Hot dogs and baked beans, pancakes, eggs and bacon. If nothing else we ate good. Brett finally got the nerve to jump in the water and get his head wet. At some point during the week I was stung by a yellow jacket on the top of my foot it started inching and breaking out immediately after so I popped some benadryl (my foot and leg was swollen to my knee) I couldn't wear my shoes Thank God we were camping and I could go barefoot most of the time. When we were fishing at night I got into some other kind of bugs and had 20 or so bites. I also got into fire ants. Then I hit my toes on a rock under the water and it turned purple. even with all that I still had a great time. On Monday night Mike, Brett and I went to the All star game in Zebulon. They had a Miracle League All star game before the Southern League game started that was just awesome. Most of the kids were either in wheelchairs of used walkers. It was so amazing to see how much they loved to play the game. The last batter of the game used a walker to round the bases until he rounded 3rd then he threw the walker and crawled home. I can't imagine the was a dry eye in the house. Brett actually told me "You better stop crying because if Daddy see you crying he won't let you come back to any more games" I guess he has heard that a time or two. Sunday morning we started packing at 7 am and we were finished and showered for worship service by 9:45. The service was very nice Denny and Meagan sang. God really blessed us with an amazing week. We really had a great time and Thank God for the fellowship that we had while camping.

CAMPING TRIP

I thought the whole idea of camping was to make things simple. We have so much STUFF. I pray we will have a great time, the packing is the worst part. Thank God Kelli is away at college because everything is stacked in her room. How did we do it last year? Thinking back to last year, I am thankful that we will be staying at the same place for the whole week. Last year we started the week at Yogi in the Smokies, which is in Cherokee. We loved it. We had a campsite on the "river" which was not the Neuse River but it was quite beautiful. Image a rock line slow moving river with water shallow enough you could walk nearly to the center in knee deep water, but be careful the rocks are slippery. We would walk to the entrance of the camp ground and walk down into the river to float on rafts to our site, the water was nice and cool some said cold but I perfer to say cool. The weather in the moutains was great 70-80 during the day bearly hot enough to sweat. Much cooler at night we needed blankets and long pants, but perfect for campfires we roasted marshmellows and had hot cocoa. I can't wait to go back next year. The end of the week we met some families from our church at a camp group on Kerr Lake, Shiloh Family Ministries. We left Cherokee and the 70 degree temps to arrive at Kerr Lake to 90+ degrees. WOW! that was a change. We were soaked in sweat by time we had the tents set back up. The campground was entirely reserved by our group. Several families have boats and jet ski a water trampoline it was also really nice in a different way than Cherokee. We got to fellowship with other families, one night The Royal Descendants sang(Denny Sutton's family was one of the families that started the tradition of camping at the lake) We also had Sunday worship service. Last year we camped right beside our youth director Kristal Easom and Saturday night around the camp fire, we (Kristal Mike and I) decided that since there were so many kids we would have a junior worship service. It was very spur of the moment and exciting. I don't remember the parables that we reacted but I remember Mike started out in a distance and walked towards us through the edge of the water. The kids were all excited and captivated by the stories. It was part natural hike part Bible lesson it was wonderful. Well pray we have a safe trip. I am finished rambling for NOW.

Introduction to Family

Brett Michael was born May 20, 2003. He was named after George Brett (Mike's favorite baseball player) and after Mike. Is is now 5 years old and is such a joy. He will start kindergarden in August. I hope he is in Mrs. Massey's class since Kelli and Taylor both had her. But it really doesn't matter because all the teachers at Northeast are great. He LOVES baseball, playing watch it everything about it. He and Mike go to lots af baseball games, especially the Carolina Mudcats he knows players by name and they know him. That is amazing to think that pro baseball players knows a 5 years old. He will sometimes bring them peaches and plums from ours trees. I think the players enjoy that. He is such a loving boy. We have a special thing we do. If I say "I love you" he says "I love you more" then I say "not possible I love you the most" So one day I was in this book store and I found a really good book for us. It is "I Love You More". It is a flip book meaning you start from one side and the story ends in the center of the book then you flip the book and start from the other end it ends on the same page from the other end. It is our special book.

Taylor Brooke was born June 21,1991. Taylor runs Cross Country and plays Basketball. Taylor started running Cross Country to stay in shape for basketball. She is very good at basketball but is never really giving a chance since she is short which is unfair. Taylor has naturally curly hair that she has been straightening lately which I am sure is a lot of work but I personally like it better curly. She will be a senior when school starts back. I do not know what Taylor wants to do after graduation. But some career paths I see for her are journalism, photography something creative. I hope she schedules her senior portraits soon.

Kelli Marie was born January 25,1989. Kelli will be going to Pitt Community in the fall. She was at ECU last year. I think she has a good head on her shoulders because she decided that she would go to Pitt to save tuition. She wants to become a nurse and this summer she has been taking a CNA class at Pitt. Through High school she played golf and was very good. She won regional her senior year and went to states all four years of high school.

Taylor

Taylor is 17 years old now. It is hard to believe that she is so grown up. I wish she saw in herself what I see her. She is such a beautiful girl. I pray that one day hopefully sooner than later she realizes that we love her and she will let us back in to her life. We have struggled with her for so many years. It is hard to remember having her with us on a daily basis. I miss the way our family used to be. I know that growing up with divorced parents having two homes and 4 parents must have been tough. I just want her home again. I hate to see her so unhappy. Maybe one day she will reflect on her life and realize that she had a pretty good one and will let go of the hatred she has for Mike, Kelli and I. I do not know why but for a long time she has thought that we treat Kelli better than we treat her. I think a lot of that comes from the amount of time we spent with Kelli on or around the golf course. Kelli always wanted us there she would call to say when and where everything was taking place. We would try to find out when Taylors games were and where but Taylor would not let us know until the day of, sometimes minutes before something was starting. How are we suppose to get there in minutes if we are working especially since it was sometimes out of town. Besides the fact that she did not want us there to begin with. I will never forget the Cross Country match that Mike and I went to that she ran right past us after the race was over and never spoke to us, never acknowledged we were there. That was very painful I was hurting and Mike was hurting. I remember many details of her childhood, helping her to read, teaching her to tie her shoes, teaching her to ride a bike, baking cupcakes for her class and she did not call me on Mothers Day or on my birthday this year. Do you know how much that hurts. To pour your heart and soul into helping raise a child that you know has a good heart but that does things like that to hurt your feelings. My heart is breaking and I pray everyday the one day she will love me again. But past the hurting I still only want what is best for her. I try to get close when she is home but we never know when that will be some weeks she comes 2-3 days then we may go 2 weeks without seeing her at all. She has such potential to do great things she is smart and beautiful and could do anything. I pray that she sees that in herself and never losses sight of her family and how much we love her.

Our Love Story

Mike and I started a tradition of celebrating our anniversary. Our 1st he planned, we went to Raleigh to Red Lobster and to a movie. Our 2nd I planned, we stayed at a B & B in Kenansville and had dinner at the Country Squire. The 3rd he planned, we went to Carolina Beach, we went on a Midnight cruise on the sound it was beautiful. Now you are getting the idea, the tradition was that we alternated from year to year who planned to celebration. The 4th I planned a trip to Ocean Isle Beach, it was a golfing vacation we played several rounds of golf at Myrtle Beach courses. Our 5th which was by far my favorte and the most romantic. Mike planned a trip to Annapolis. We stayed at a Boat and Breakfast. It was like a Bed and Breakfast accept we spent the night on a sailboat in the Cheasapeak Bay . We sailed at sunset with other passenagers then after returning to the dock everyone else left and we got to stay and sleep on the boat and wake up to a traditional sailor breakfast. (Which was not that appealing to us. Salmon, granola, yogurt and fresh fruit) Then we stopped for a few years because Brett was born a few months before our 6th. For our 9th we went on a cruise with the family. All five of us went but the Kelli and Taylor watched Brett for us while we had dinner and walked on deck. Writing this now, looking back a lot of Mike plans have been on the water. (Midnight cruise, sailing, cruise). So the 10th was mine to plan how could I top our 5th. Well, I had originally planned to go to the Outer Banks to a place where our room overlooked to ocean and we would have an in--room couples massage, chocolate covered strawberries and a hot tub. But some friends told us about Las Vegas and how much fun they had there. So, I changed our plans. Which I do not regret but Vegas was not the place for us. The best part of the trip was the helicopter trip the the Grand Canyon. It was BREATHTAKING.

About my Family

Thanks to my friend Shannon I am starting a blog. I am not sure how or what to do so here goes. This is the beginning to the story of our family.
Mike and I began dating in January of 1995. He is 10 years older than I am and had been married before, he also had two daughters from that marriage. Kelli was 5 and Taylor was 3. Mike and I quickly became close and a I fell in love with him and his daughters. We joined New Hope Friends in 1996. We were married on August 17, 1997 at New Hope Friends. A year after we were married we wanted to have an addition to the family. That sounds easy enough right, well after a while of trying on our own we needed help. We started going to a fertility clinic at UNC Chapel Hill Womens' Hospital. We tried treatments for a few months but then I decided I was happy with the family we had so we stopped the treatments. My decision was also because there was a lot happening and it was too much to handle. My Grandpa was sick, he had cancer. We lost our home in the flood that came after Floyd, which was both a disaster and a blessing. We were blessed to have Friends Disaster Relief help build our house. And our Church family helped us so much. So for a while I had convinced myself that I was content with raising our girls. Because that is how I think of Kelli and Taylor and I dare anyone to try to say they are not my daughters. They just have a 2 moms. Well, in 2001 I realized that I wanted to have a baby, I could not fight that feeling any longer. We prayed and started that on a long journey to have a baby again. Some of you may not understand what I mean by that, but hopefully I we be able to explain it to you so you can grasp how difficult the journey was. I began taking the fertility medicines again. We should have owned stock in the pregnancy test and ovulation test strip company because was used lots of each. It has been several year so the details are not clear but this is how a typical cycle would go. I would start one medicine and 8-10 days later I would test daily to see if I was ovulating if it was positive I would go the next day to UNC I would have an ultrasound to verify I was ovulating and then I would start the second medicine to help the implantation process. I would have myself excited each month thinking that I felt pregnant this time so I would start 9-10 days after ovulating taking pregnancy test until I would start my period. I would be cry and cry until I could not cry anymore. Then I would start the 1st medicine again and that would continue for months. So the emotional roller coaster was horrible not to mention the hormones that I was putting into my body just added to the emotional nightmare. Then on April 17, 2002 I had a positive pregnancy test. We were so excited. That night I told everyone in our Sunday School class (the girls used to get together to play cards once a month). I had started a journal for the baby,(that I just knew was a girl) telling her how much we had waited for her. I remember that I went to The Christian Soldier and picked out a pink journal with the words "This is the day God has made let's be glad and rejoice in it" on the cover. I saved all five pregnancy test that I had taken. I wrote to "her" everyday. I went to the doctor and everything was great until May 3, 2002 when I got the call that may test results were in and I was having a miscarriage. I remember going to my knees and crying. It was the worst call I had ever gotten. I was so upset. That weekend our youth group at church was going to Camp Don Lee for a retreat. We still went but I was not really there. I just remember crying all day everyday of the trip. When we got home I went to doctors appointment and was scheduled for a hysterscope for May 30, 2002. During the surgery they removed two containers of polyps from my uterine wall which the doctors said was causing the embryo not to implant. The following week we were on a family vacation. Mike's entire family was there, Milba and her family had one half of the duplex and we had the other there were nearly 30 people. It was a very nice vacation. Michelle Mike's sister came to me some time that summer and let me know that they were planning to have another child. I think is was very sweet of her to be so concerned about my feelings since she didn't have to let me know anything. But of course her plan worked perfectly. She planned to stop taking the pill and be pregnant by August/September so the baby would be born in May so she and Cierra (her daughter) would both be out for the summer. In August we were at Ham's for Brian's (Mike's brother Jerry's son) birthday when Cierra came running in making the announcement that they were having a baby. I am not proud of my reaction. I went to the bathroom and cried uncontrollably. It was not because I was not happy for them because I was it was just that we were having such a hard time. I decided that after the current cycle we would have to take a break I just could not handle to emotional strain. Mike's grandmother Goldie was sick, well she was dying. Betty flew out to spend time with her and during that time she told Betty that she had a vision of her holding 2 baby boys. So everyone was talking about Michelle having twins since she just found out she was pregnant. Well on September 7,(Betty's birthday) 2002 Goldie passed away. How terrible for you to lose her mother on her birthday. Mike flew out to be with his mom for the funeral. While he was gone I had a dream that I was pregnant, so the morning September 13, 2002 I took a test and you guessed it, it was positive. I called Michelle because she worked at our doctor's office. I went in to have the test confirmed and yes, I was pregnant. It was the best news ever. I called Mike we were both so happy. I told my Mom and sisters our whole family. We were scared to tell everyone because of the miscarriage. I remember going for my 7 week ultrasound and leaving to go home and Dr. Rothling called me, his voice is so calm I just knew he was calling to give me some bad news but he was calling to say that everything looked fine that the embryo was implanted and that it looked healthy. Brett Michael Forbis was born May 20, 2003 at 2:43am.

Well, I pretty much a rambled on there, but it was my 1st post so not to bad.