New Website

I just wanted to post a link to our new family website.

"More Love To Give" - Bollinger Adoption Journey

An Amazing Anniversary!

Today was the 4th Anniversary of River Stone Community Church. We celebrated with a Picnic and Baptism at the River. It was amazing day!! 9 people in all were baptized. In 2004, River Stone started out with about 30 or so people and today there were about 230. God is amazing and is doing great things here in San Marcos!!

God, we give you all the praise and all the glory. We pray you continue to bless River Stone and grant us favor. May you keep us continually devoted to you. Help us to walk humbly, upright and blameless. Thank you for giving us 4 incredible years and we ask that this church would outlive us and be around to teach future generations about YOU!! Thank you Jesus for this precious day :)

"Greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city!" ~ Bluetree

Auntie Holly

This past week Jason and I were blessed with our 1st niece. Our siblings have been aunts/uncles for 6 years now...not fair...but we are finally Aunt Holly & Uncle Jason.

Anabella Marie Smith was born Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 7:14 p.m. She weighed 5 lbs and 11 oz. and was 20 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful!!! Bethany was amazing. She was in labor on and off for about 36 hours.

We can't wait to spoil our little Bella Boo (that's what I call her)!!

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Jacob's first day of Kindergarten. So surreal. I knew this day would eventually come but now that it's here, it's very strange. We woke Jake up about 7. He asked for pancakes in the shape of a chihuahua named Squeaky for his 1st Day of School Breakfast. I delivered what I thought looked like it but Jake said it looked more like a bird, but he was still happy to eat it. I made him a mickey mouse pancake that made up for the mishap though. :) He ate his pancakes, put on his new clothes and new shoes, brushed his hair and his teeth, got his backpack on and was ready for school. I think the best part of the day came next for me. We always pray with him before school (well, we did before preschool), and he prayed first. He said a sweet prayer thanking God for the beautiful day and to not go to the principal and to be good, but the best part is when he said, "And I pray for Ms. Pascoe." It was so sweet. I never expected him to pray for that. I really almost started the water works right then, but it was very sweet and very special and quite grown up!

Jason and I then drove him to the school, walked him to his class, helped him put his stuff away and where it goes, took a picture and said our goodbyes. It was a quick goodbye. He was definitely ready for school since we held him back a year. I'm so glad we did though!

After we dropped him off and the two of us drove home and I walked in, that's when I teared up. I'm so used to him being here with me most if not all of the time, and now someone else gets to be with him and play with him and teach him all day. Jason mentioned that it was strange that we weren't the main influences in his life anymore. Strange, but good. We are looking forward to this year and what God has for Jacob.

I'm very proud of my little Kindergartner. He has grown up so much and so fast, but I'm so proud of the boy he is becoming....the boy who prays for his teacher!!!

Jake, I pray you have a great first day, that you learn a lot, have tons of fun, and have a great first year of school!! I love you. Mommy :)

RIVER STONE CHAMPS!!

I know I haven't blogged in a while (summers are crazy), but this one will make up for it!! So the question is now...What was I doing all summer? Here it is....

Last night our 3 year old River Stone softball team won it's first Championship!! We were so proud. The final score was 24-8. We were victorious. The first half of the season we didn't win any games, and then we came back to win the championship. Victory is sweet! Last night after we played the best game ever, won the championship, and took some celebratory team pictures, a man came walking toward us with t-shirts and a HUGE TROPHY!! We didn't even know they gave out trophies. The sheer thought of winning was good enough but a t-shirt and a trophy put us over the top. So here it is....the Championship Trophy!!! GO RIVER STONE!!!!

This Mother's Day...

I'll never forget this Mother's Day....

Saturday evening, we were walking out the door to go eat dinner and I couldn't find Jacob in the house. I walked outside and heard a child screaming. I thought it was just the neighbor kids playing basketball or something. I look over and Jacob is sitting on a utility box in between our house and the house next door screaming in pain. I stood there in shock and Jason ran to him. After a minute I went over and Jacob had taken about an inch chunk out of the inside of his left knee. I don't mean to be so gruesome, but we could see his fatty tissue hanging out. (I'll spare you that picture) The cut was about an inch wide and an inch deep. Immediately we jumped in the car and went to the ER. We weren't sure what to expect since it was our first ER trip with our son. We called a friend of ours who is an ER doctor there but he was not on call, but he said he would call ahead to his friend who was on call and let him know we were coming. Thankfully, his huge wound wasn't bleeding very much. I'm not sure why it wasn't, except that God was taking care of him. He wasn't in a lot of pain either. Again, God! When we got there, he was a little scared but did great! They took his blood pressure, temperature, and all of that. We got him registered and maybe had to wait about 2 minutes. They took him back to his room. I was still registering, but when I walked into his room, he was laying on the bed watching the Disney channel. He thought that was pretty cool.

A few minutes later some nurses and EMT's came in to set everything up for the doctor to come in and suture. The doctor was very nice. He told Jacob that he "looked cold". So, we wrapped him up in a sheet that held his arms down. Then they deadened the wound by injecting 5 needles into it. Jacob was screaming, crying and asking "When is it going to be over?" It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, but I didn't want to cry in front of him. He was hurting and scared, and so was I. It's so hard to watch your child in any kind of pain, let alone, major pain. Jason was hovering over him so he couldn't move or see and I was just reassuring him that it would be over with soon and then he wouldn't hurt anymore. It about killed me though. After that, they began stitching him up. I believe he had to have about 10-12 stitches. It was pretty bad. He started feeling the pressure of the doctor pulling as he stitched and he thought it was pain so he was crying during that as well. For being 5, and never going to a hospital or anywhere but his yearly check-ups, he did absolutely amazing. I don't think I would have held it together as much as he did. His 10-12 stitches looked like a smiley face or a "J" on his knee. All in all, the process took about 2 hours and then we were home.

So my Mother's Day this year didn't start out so happy. It was hard to watch my son go through that, but I could rest in knowing that God was protecting him. That's why we pray protection over him every day. It could have been much worse, but God spared him and us from going through that. I spent Mother's Day at home watching out for Jacob's leg, but there's no where else I would have rather been.

Thank you Jesus for this tough, beautiful kid that made me a Mommy. Thank you for protecting him. Continue to watch over him daily. He's still yours Lord, but thank you for entrusting him to us for just a little while. He is our blessing from You.

Piano, Spanish & Grasshoppers...Oh my!

I know I haven't blogged in a while. It's been a weird time in the Bollinger household, but things are getting more normal, and a little easier. Thanks to everyone for all your prayers and support.

In the past few weeks Jacob has started taking piano lessons and Spanish lessons. He also has just signed up for T-ball. He is doing quite well at piano and can already play Mary Had a Little Lamb. He's enjoying doing something on his own without Mommy & Daddy. He is loving school and we are all ready for a break next week. Today, he went to his piano/Spanish lesson and he was wearing a red hoodie. His teacher told him that red was her favorite color and he looked up at her and said, "rojo", so as you can see, Spanish is coming along great as well. He loves taking lessons and he loves his teacher. We all do!!

T-ball starts next week. Last night was our first ever T-ball team meeting. I can't believe I'm about to enter the world of Little League. Jacob is officially a Grasshopper. This is his first year to play outdoor t-ball. We found out last night at the Parent meeting that he will be having practices on Tuesday and Thursday nights as well as games on Saturday. I never wanted sports or any extracurricular activity to rule our family schedule, but I am very excited about the opportunity to meet new people, and to participate within the community. I think Jacob is going to have a lot of fun, and he already has 2 friends from his preschool class on his team which is really good.

So it begins! First up piano, Spanish, and grasshoppers, next stop....turning 6 and starting Kindergarten. It's hard to believe it's almost here, but that will have to be a whole other blog.