The Street Family

Walking in to the home of Brian and Rebecca Street, there is love in the air. It is almost palpable how much love is in the home.

The Streets love God, love each other, and love their children.

Because love is the common thread in their lives, Brian and Rebecca are eager to share their story.

Through their church and opening their home to a teenager, God worked in the hearts of Brian and Rebecca. This was a difficult thing to do for the couple, but through the process God opened their eyes to fostering children.

In very little time, the Streets had gotten all the licenses they needed and were hoping to foster a little girl. They came shy of licensing to be considered for this little girl’s placement.

They were very discouraged and thought that God had called them to open their home to this little girl. All the steps that they needed to go through were done in a very short time, yet they weren’t able to be a part of this little girl’s life.

Little did they know that they were in for a huge change in their lives.

Brian and Rebecca received a profile for three brothers. They were thrilled at this and thought this was it. They went to a group interview then interviewed individually. They were very encouraged and waited in anticipation to get the call that they could pick up the boys.

When the Streets didn’t hear from DCS after a week, they called and asked what was up. They found out that another family was chosen.

They were heartbroken.

Then, God moved in amazing ways.

The family that was chosen had been with the boys for a weekend then said that they needed time to think about bringing the boys into their home. Brian and Rebecca were then contacted to foster the boys in the meantime. 

Once the boys were in their home, Brian and Rebecca knew that they were never leaving.  After six months of fostering the boys, Brian and Rebecca were able to adopt them and the three brothers became their beloved sons.

In addition to having their sons, the Streets are continuing to foster other children. They love it! They know that no matter how long or short a child is in their home, God will use the experience in amazing ways for that child.

The Streets have become advocates for fostering. This is their calling and they are obeying God’s call in their life.

“There is a huge need in the U.S. for the children in the foster system,” says Rebecca. “It is a calling and if people hear the call to become foster parents then they need to listen and act.”

Adopting through the fostering is very inexpensive and helps the need that is here in United States.

Rebecca remembers that she was scared to foster because of how daunting it is and was afraid of the issues that the children might have coming from such horrific backgrounds, but God takes care of it and is always on her side.

The Streets are very passionate about fostering and want to encourage others to consider fostering because there is such a need for loving families to be advocates for the children in the foster system.

“I can’t imagine not fostering for the rest of our lives,” comments Rebecca with a smile on her face.

Brian, then, says, “It is the most rewarding, challenging, frustrating...awesome experience.”

wedding pics...part 2.

As promised, I am back with more pics. I may not have captions for all of them because I am a little bit tired.

Most of them are my favorite ceremony pics...with the exception of this first one.

I admit that this picture makes me cry. I love my Daddy so much!

This is one of my favorite pictures.

We had our parents and grandparents come up on stage and pray over us during the ceremony.

This might legitimately be favorite picture.

Hope you enjoyed the pics.

Have a restful Sunday!

wedding pics....part 1.

This is my entire family, grandparents, in-laws, sisters, parents, brother....they are pretty much the best.

So, in case you couldn't tell, I got married this past June. 

Annnnnddddd, the wedding pics are in. There are so many that I like that I am doing this in 2 parts.

Today's are the getting ready pics, wedding party pics, and family pics....with commentary...duh!

This is a picture of my beautiful mother helping me into my wedding dress. This is my favorite picture of her. Isn't she a babe?

This is me getting my dress buttoned up. In case you were wondering there were LOTS of buttons, but I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED my dress.

This is girls getting ready...


















....and this is the boys getting ready.

These four beauties stood up with me on the most important day of my life. My two maids of honor...the two closest to me are my older sister, and younger sister. The two beside them (the brunettes) are my bestest friends from college.

These are the guys. There's a lot of them, but three of them are our ushers. So here it goes, The super handsome guy in front with the black tie is my hubby. LOVE HIM!! The one next to him is his best friend from college and roommate all 4 years. The next two are friends and housemates from college. The fifth guy, is my older brother. The next three are the ushers...two of which are his cousins and one is mine.

These are my siblings. I love them! We are a super close family so naturally they are my best friends. Also, this pic rocks! I'm just saying...we are looking good. The pic below is my hubs and his dad and grandpa. They're super classy.

memories. family. shop?

Hello, friends.

This weekend has been a bundle of emotions for me.

Why? You ask.

Because this weekend is move-in weekend for my alma mater. I miss not being on campus and seeing all my friends this weekend. My best friends from college did not move back to school and we cannot hang out all weekend long to catch up. Instead, they are at their home and I am at my home and we have to plan weeks in advance when we can get together.

So while that is bitter, there is some sweetness to this weekend. I have gotten to spend tons of time with my family. I LOVE IT!! I got to go to my first high school football game in three years. That, my friends, is way too long. I vow to never go three years without seeing a high school football game ever again. I had a blast cheering my high school team on Friday. Unfortunately, they lost. But, there's always next week!

So, I got to see my family on Friday because of the football game. Then, Saturday, I helped my parents move some of their belongings to the new house. So we had more family time on Saturday. Woot woot!

And, today, I am going to see the family for my mom's birthday party. I feel so incredibly blessed to live so close to family. I love that they are close enough for me to see them any time I want to see them.

This weekend has been a great weekend, for sure.

                          -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, this weekend, my husband, cousin, and I have been working on getting our Etsy shop up online. It finally happened. If you want to get to our shop, then click on the shop page under the banner. More items are planning on being added, shortly.

This is just one of the items that we are selling in our shop. Check out the "Shop" page to see more!

Have a great Labor day!

where did august go?

Friends, my august has been ca-RAY-zy!

Who knew.

So let's see, what has been up in my life?

Both my parents and parents-in-law are moving. So I've been helping them clean and pack and move.

My husband's company took us on a weekend vacation this past weekend to Syracuse, Indiana. Loved it! It was fun to meet the peeps he works with and just have a good time.

Thirdly, I HAVE A JOB!

This has been the most time consuming in the month of August, but I love it! I am a nanny for 3 kids. They're great. I love hanging out with them. Such a great job. I'm super excited for the future with these 3 chitlins.

Sorry for the short post, but I'm exhausted. Have a great night ya'll!

Technically this pic was taken in July, but It was so close to August that I put it in. My husband, sisters and I (plus my sister's boyfriend) went to the Michigan Dunes. It wasn't the best day, but we had fun

the happs in my life.

Well, I am still looking for job. I have faith that God will provide.

Meanwhile, I have had lots of time to do some baking. I am finding that it helps me to relieve some stress and keep me distracted.

I am going to have two recipes that I have baked recently, and a little too often (unfortunately. this means that I have had to add some extra running to keep up with the baking.)

One recipe is for chocolate chip cookies and the other is for Red Velvet cupcakes.

Now, I do not claim to be fabulous baker, but I believe that I can hold my own. And I don't like when people put up pictures of food then don't put up the recipes. So I'll put up the recipe. If you do not like my additions, then you do not have to use them. I will add notes/disclaimers to each step as to what I found to work for my preference for cookies or through some experimentation.

Chocolate Chip Cookies are my fave comfort food. My recipe is literally the one found on the back of the chocolate chip package, but with a little twist.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

3/4 sugar

3/4 packed brown sugar

2 sticks butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond flavor (this is my addition)

1/2 tsp butter flavor (my addition)

1 package chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees 

       Note: My oven is a gas oven, so it burns a little hotter. I prefer my cookies to be gooey, so I preheat my oven to 350. Do what you would prefer.

2. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda together in a separate bowl. 

        Note: for the the longest time I would skip this step because I was being lazy. However, since I have done this I can tell a different consistency in my baked cookies. They are smoother and bake nicely.

3. Mix together butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, almond flavor, and butter flavor until creamy.

          Note: I always forget to take the butter out early so that it is at room temperature. I always melt my butter. Now I have done some experimenting and reading up on some foodie blogs and know that room temperature butter will produce better baked cookies, while melted butter will make the cookies very gooey and little doughy. I happen to prefer my cookies like this so I am ok with melting my butter. If you like crisper cookies be sure to have room temperature butter.

          Note: Most recipes only call for vanilla, however, I love the flavor of almond and butter. I think it gives the cookies a little something extra when baked. If you would prefer to just use the vanilla then I understand.

4. Add eggs (one at a time).

          Note: I don't really have anything to say here.

5. Add in flour mixture a little at a time.

          Note: Over mixing at this step will make the cookies have a fluffy texture, this, too, will make the cookies bake up crisper.

6. Mix in the chocolate chips.

          Note: I love chocolate, thus naturally i will want to add the entire bag. If you do not like that much chocolate in your cookies then add the amount that you would prefer.

7. Scoop cookies onto the cookie sheet with a regular spoon. 

         Note: If you have a cookie scoop you can use that, I don't have one of those so I just use a spoon. It does the trick.

8. Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes

         Note: As I have mentioned many times before, I like my cookies gooey. So I only bake the cookies for 9ish minutes, sometimes a little less. Basically, I just keep an eye on the cookies until I see what I like.

9. Enjoy your efforts :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 package Red Velvet cake mix

Buttermilk (instead of water)

Eggs

Butter (instead of vegetable oil)

Instructions

Follow the instructions on the back of the box, except instead of using water, use buttermilk and instead of vegetable oil use butter. Sorry I don't have the exact amounts needed of each because I don't have a cake mix box in the house at the moment.

      Note: If you over mix the ingredients the texture of the batter will become too airy, thus when the cupcakes are baked they will be too fluffy and crumble to the touch. I unfortunately have experienced this

      Note: Just substituting buttermilk and butter will make the cupcakes taste more like a homemade cake instead of a box cake. However, nothing beats a homemade cake.

I iced these cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting that I found in a cookbook somewhere. I don't have it on hand, but if you google Cream Cheese frosting, you'll find one instantly. Just so you know making your own frosting is super easy. 

If you have any questions just email me or get a hold of me. 

Have a great day!!

weekend fun.

Hello friends!

This weekend, my sister and I took three of our younger cousins to Conner Prairie. We had so much fun!

Instead of telling you what we did, I decided to just show you.

Enjoy.

                 

I'm loving this summer!