Meet the Shaneyfelts

Archives for 2025

World Adoption Day

Happy Monday! Yesterday was World Adoption Day, and while it’s not a day that some even know exist, it’s a day that means a whole lot to me.

Last night Dustin and I (but really Dustin 🙂 ) spoke at church alongside two other adoptive families sharing our heart for adoption.

I would’t be a mom if it weren’t for the selfless love of another woman who gave me the gift of hearing “Momma” for the very first time. The selfless love of another woman fulfilled my dream of being a mom to more than one baby, and she gave Harrison a little brother.

I was listening to a podcast last night on the sovereignty of God in the midst of suffering. It made me think about something Dustin mentioned last night when he was talking to our church–because of God’s sovereignty over all, He knew from the very beginning that the boys would be part of our family. He also knew that Merritt would be a major surprise to our family ha! I look at my children and I see a picture of what Heaven will look like one day–believers of all colors as one family.

I look at my boys and think a lot about their births and how they joined our family. Both boys were adopted in Texas through the same agency, but both experiences were totally different. I’m grateful to their birth moms for choosing life and for choosing Dustin and I to be their parents. Those ladies changed my life for the better.

If you’re new, then you can search adoption on my blog and you can go back and read my old posts about our adoption journey! If you or anyone you know are interested in pursuing adoption, I’d love to share my story (not my boys’) and hopefully encourage someone to adopt!

Friday Favorites–Birthday Edition!!!

Happy Happy Friday, y’all!! I’m super excited today because not only is it Friday, BUT tomorrow is my birthday and I LOVE my birthdays!!!

Instead of my usual Friday Favorites post, I am going to do a 10 Things About Me post! If you’re a long time reader, you may know these or you may not 🙂

  1. I am very particular about my sleep at night. My bedding has to be lined up and even, and my pillow has to be perfectly cradled around my head, and I have a weighted eye mask I sleep with that I have to have!
  2. Backing in my car into a parking space makes mer nervous, so I haven’t even attempted to back in my new car yet–aka my car that I’ve had since mid-May LOL
  3. I have always loved reading. My mom taught me to read at age 3 using Hooked On Phonics and I’ve been a reader ever since!
  4. I have zero talents except that I can write really fast (and it’s still neat). My students are always amazed when I write on the board, but it’s my only flex haha
  5. I became a Christian at the age of 13 when my life really chaotic and hard. I am so grateful for God’s sovereignty because I did not grow up with Christian parents, so it’s only by the grace of God that I became a Believer. (My mom became a Christian much later, and that’s her story to tell 🙂 )
  6. I sometimes like to think about what kind of job I could do if I weren’t a teacher. I think I’d love to do something either with hair or as an esthetician doing facials because I think that is such a fascinating and fun job.
  7. I love going to bed early. I’ve always been like that. I lived with my best friend in college and it’d get to 11pm and I’d be going to bed and she’d be up until 2 or 3 am haha
  8. Dustin says I have champagne taste on a beer budget. ( My Gran also used to tell me that ha). I just like nice things and I can’t help it.
  9. I’ve been blogging since a few months after we got married, and we’ve been married for 11 years! I also had a blog back in college for maybe a year or two
  10. I’m currently watching The Kardashians while I type this and I’ve been watching them since season 1 when they lived in a “small” one story home all together. I could probably tell you every single thing about them–I have a wide variety of things I like–from The Kardashians to Hemingway to the British Royal Family 🙂

Friday Favorites!

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Y’all, it’s been a great week! We had fall break Monday and Tuesday, so we’ve only had a 3 day school week–and I could definitely get used to that!

As always, today I’m sharing a few FAVORITES with. y’all!

one

I blogged about our Disney trip on Monday and Tuesday. You can read about our travel day, the first day of Magic Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom here. And you can read about our rest day, our second Magic Kingdom day, and our Hollywood Studios day here! It was the best trip!

two and three

This one has two favorites–first, we took the kids on a train ride to the pumpkin patch on Saturday morning and we had lots of fun! The boys are obsessed with trains so we surprised them with this and it was fun! Full disclosure though, Banks had gotten up super early that morning so he was over it by the time we rode the train back to the station…you can imagine how enjoyable that was 🙂

My second favorite is that I colored my hair!!! I went back to my natural hair color and I LOVE IT!! I was ready for a change and have wanted it brown for a couple of months, so I did it! My hair dresser did the best job giving me what I wanted. Dustin has only known me as blonde, so you can imagine his shock when I came home after I didn’t tell him what I was doing to my hair ha 🙂

four

I read Last Night Was Fun over the weekend and LOVED it! It’s so cute! The main character, Emmy, gets a text message from a random number and she starts texting with the stranger. They end up meeting and you’ll have to read it to find out what happens :). It reminded me of Lynn Painter’s book Mr. Wrong Number (which I also really, really loved), so apparently I love the wrong number trope.

That’s it for the week! I hope y’all have a great weekend! Alabama plays Tennessee and I can’t wait to go watch this game. Dustin has been to all home games this season, Harrison has been to most, and this will be my first game of the season–let’s hope it’s not too hot and that we win! Roll Tide!