What am I doing here?

Well how do I begin, I guess telling you a little about me would help make my blogs title make a little sense. I am a wife, chauffeur, cook, cleaning lady, babysitter, but my main title that most of these fall under is Mom. I have 8 wonderfully, complex and sometimes challenging children ranging in ages 26 to 11. They are my planets that orbit around my universe. The three oldest of my children Meghan, Kaleigh and Jesse are born of Andrew and my genes and a living testament of the love we share together. My other children are born of our hearts. We did not give birth to them, we didn't have the joy of watching them go from infant to smiling toddler, and some we were not there when they went off for their first day of kindergarten or move into Middle school. They came to our home broken fragments from families that could or would not care for them. That in their own choices choose to put themselves above the needs of their children and sadly allow sometimes unspeakable things to happen to them some even before they were born. We did (still do, although we are a full home and have no room for others right now.) foster care and can honestly say that although we were fully informed of what we were about to experience, really had no idea what we were getting into.
It has been an amazing ride, one that we still are on and although there are lots of ups and downs and sometimes we feel like we are free falling from the top, we wouldn't change anything for the world. Some of our beautiful babies, who would shoot me for calling me that since they are 16, 16, 14, 13 and 11, have issues ranging from FASD to Bi-polar, Oppositional disorder to eating disorders. But these things although, debilitating, do not define them. They struggle every day to overcome things that the rest of us take for granted but they do it with strength and the desire to overcome. We knew what we were taking on, but oh my goodness I fell in love with them the moment I saw their faces and when we were asked if we would be willing to adopt them as the opportunity would arise, there was no doubt in our hearts that they were the missing pieces to our beautiful piece of art we call our family.
I have kind of lost count of the children that have passed through our home but their faces and their stories have burnt a picture forever in my heart and mind. They may have only been here a week or 2 years but they are all my children and will have a place in our hearts. With joy we have seen families put back together and even still the kids run up and hug us and call us mama Shelly and dado (Andrew's name when one of our kids couldn't say his name). With sadness and some frustration we have also sat in court watching families fall apart and children shell shocked because they are the walking wounded now without a home or identity. If I could I think I would take them all in but God has given us what we can handle for this moment and who knows what the future will bring.
I would love to say everyday is wonderful and fulfilling but in reality it is sometimes a struggle to make it through the day with our sense of humor in tact as well as much of our sanity. So this is where this blog is coming in to play. It will be a place to share some of the struggles and share in the joys. I am homeschooling our children as well as taking care of my niece, nephew and four month old granddaughter. We have special classes, speech, therapy, snowboarding, guitar and many other things that makes me more of a road warrior some days than a home body. I am blessed to be a part of a small but growing church where I am active with the youth group as well as other duties. Life seems to be in fast forward, and doesn't seem to allow for much time for conversation or friendships, this is my chance to share my heart, and life and maybe on some off chance touch a life than great! I love my life, I love my children, and hope that you enjoy what you read. For my family that reads this hope you don't mind me sharing you!
So welcome to our mosaic, enjoy the colors of the pieces and lets make beautiful art!