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.