I love Jesus.
I admire my husband.
I cherish my boys.
I have a strong affinity for coffee.
I am fond of iced tea.
I adore dogs, especially beagles.
I have an abundance of state pride,
hence the name TexasTanya.
I share my story, primarily through the lenses of cooking, homeschooling, photography, foster care and adoption.
Family:
Hubby and I have been married for 18 years.
Forever Children: Woody (19) and Tigger (17) placed in March 2005, adopted September 2006. To read our adoption story, click here.
Foster Children: 17 boys and girls who we were blessed to care for during their stay ranging from 2 days to 9 months.
Homeschooling:
I can hardly believe it as I type it, but this is my last year! After 15 years, I get to “retire”! I’ve truly LOVED this job.
Faith:
I am saved by the grace of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
Home:
Just south of Dallas/Fort Worth.
Pets:
Mo (10) aka. Mo Diddley (Beagle/Bloodhound mix)
Moose (6) aka. Moosey Boy (Basset Hound/Labrador mix)
I hope you enjoy reading, and whenever the mood strikes you, I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks Tanya. I enjoyed your post. I commented here b/c you closed comments on the other post. 🙂 Love that shark photo. Makes me smile every time.
I’m so glad you left a comment on my Foster News post. It’s comforting to be in contact with another adoptive and foster mom. I’m almost afraid to ask, but what was the outcome with the situation of your first two foster boys?
Thank you for your prayers for our situation. I appreciate it more than you will know!
I am writing to ask for your permission to include your posts on
AdoptionExperiences.com and include a link to your blog in our
directory. We would
include a link back to your blog fully crediting you for your work
along with a profile about you listed on AdoptionExperiences.com .
Please let us
know as soon as possible.
[email protected]
Mike Thomas
Editor-in-Chief
AdoptionExperiences.com
Tanya ~ Incredible! Your photos are amazing – not to mention your whole blog. Just awesome! I clicked to see your Bethlehem Revisited pictures and I got lost reading and looking at your beautiful work. I love how you document your day-to-day life with pictures and captions. I am inspired to do this too, but how do you start something like this? What an awesome way to look back and see all of the accomplishments you have made each day, week, month, and year. Smiles!
Denise,
Thank you so much for your kind words.
I started my 365 project because, well, for several reasons.
1) I’d seen other people do them and I thought they were totally cool. I really wanted to do one of my own.
2) I noticed I was taking pictures nearly every day anyway.
3) I’d read and heard from photog friends that a 365 project can do a lot to help your photography skills. Something I really wanted!
Doing the project has forced me to hold my camera every single day. Some days I think the pictures are awful, but it’s what I’ve got so I post it anyway. Some days, I’m stunned that I caught just the right moment.
I post the pictures here on my blog, on flickr, and on a cool site I recently learned about called shuttercal.com. Shuttercal puts the pictures into a calendar format. It’s free and I am totally addicted.
The best thing about the project is that I have something to post for every day (even if I batch post several days at one time.) The worst thing about it is that I’ve let the pictures take over for my writing. When I went back today and read some of the things I wrote a couple of years ago, I realized that I’ve really let my writing go by the way-side. THAT is something I absolutely need to work on.
As for how to start your own? I picked a date and said that it would be my start date. I picked July 10th. No rhyme or reason, it just seemed like a good time to start. With Christmas coming up, I know you’ll have lots of opportunities to snap pictures of your kids with holiday crafts or activities. Can I suggest a December 1st start date for you? 🙂
Thanks again for your thoughtful response. I feel so loved. 🙂
love you
We’d love to have you join our new Christian Mommy Blogger group for DFW! email us at [email protected] for more info!
Good Morning Tanya,
I stumbled on your blog and just wanted to say how blessed I was by it. I also wanted to invite you to an awesome group I am on. It is for parents that homeschool and have adopted. The people on the group have a wealth of resources and it never hurts to have some prayer warriors on your side.
If you would like to join us: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fortheloveofmykids/
We would love to include you.
Hi! Wow, just read through the blog, very quickly I’ll admit, but enough that I kept saying – “gee, I like this girl!” – I’m not a homeschooler, but admire those who are and have looked into it a time or two. I found you how? Because I would love to have that shelf and if I get this dresser sold, I’m gonna buy it if you still have it! I wish I could say I was born and raised in the great state of Texas but I can’t – I can say though that I know God brought me here just as fast as He could and it’s been home for the last 30 years (wow! had to count those on my fingers! Yikes!!) – even tho 9 of those have out of the state. So…anyway, I’ll be back but right now, I need to get that dresser posted!! ; )
Tanya,
I just sent a message to your facebook page but I wanted to notify you here as well. The message is in regards to one of your photos… I’ll let you take a look at the rest of that message on Facebook. But I did see that you spent some time in the Seattle Area. I am from Tacoma. Where and when were you in this neck of the woods.
Many Blessings,
Josh
Hi Tanya, I’ve really enjoyed wandering through your blog and particularly liked your post about the cost of character … beautifully written so much so I could feel your righteous indignation! LOL
Thank you, PJ. That was a really hard moment for me.
I’m going through a season now where I’m trying to teach my kids that they can’t cheat their way ahead. They only lose character when they disobey or do something they know is wrong.