Traveling!!

Tomorrow the little girls and I are leaving to visit our big girl and her lovely family - and especially baby evie who arrived in this world just before Thanksgiving. It is probably one of the hard things about having kids whose ages are soooo spread out - the little ones need you at home and sometimes the big ones need you too. It was really hard for me not to go to SC as soon as the baby was born - but at that point we had only been home a month with Becca and it would have been a diaster to leave home for any period of time - routine is soooo important to her. As it is we are only going to be gone for a few days because I don't think it would be good for her to be away from Daddy that long. Now in the morning we will see what she remembers about the trip home from ET - who can guess what she will do when we get on the airplane this time?? Actually I think she will be just fine.

Saturday morning

This is what we woke up to Saturday morning - beautiful.

Becca-isms

maccinni - for mac and cheese

lalauyah - for hallelujah

oh and peckaloo - for peek a boo

could she be any cuter???

Too Funny

So this afternoon for the first time I left Becca in the care of her very experienced teenage brothers for a few hours so I could run some errands with out help. They did a great job - even gave her a bath (her favorite activity). Then they got her dressed - now you need to know that Becca is working on potty training - some days are better than others. Later this evening she is climbing in my lap and I realize that her pants are wet. Did she spill? no. Did her princess pull up leak? welll not really - her big bros. mistakenly put a swim diaper on her and those things don't ho)ld at all!!! LOL at least we know she can keep dry for about 5 hours (and several trips to the potty)

Where are we

So lots of folks have emailed or called to find out where we are in process for the next kiddo - We have chosen a placing agency - this time we are going with Adoption Advocates International - AAI. We loved our last agency, CHSFS, but they really do not handle many adoptions of kiddos over the age of 3 and we know this next kiddo is older than Becca so that means over 3. AAI specializes in placing older kids (they do babies too) but has kids waiting for families that are in the age range we are considering. Once our homestudy is updated - hopefully with in a month, then we will begin reviewing case files on kiddos that AAI has waiting for families. We are waiting for the homestudy to be finished so that when we find the child meant for us we can accept the referral right away. We expect that to happen sometime in the month of April. Then begins the court process and other stuff like that. It is impossible to say how long that is going to take - but we are believing that our new one will be home by Christmas!!

Scotts Birthday

WoooHooo today is my honey's bday! I am so thankful to God for such an amazing man!! We celebrated by having Chinese food tonight - YUM! Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!!

Science Fair

Luke won 2nd place in his schools science fair this year!!! He did his project on how quickly milk sours. He tested milk over the course of a week and measured the ph of it as it soured. This project prompted mom to declare that from here foward there will be no projects that require the spoiling of food - YUCK!

Congrats Luke we are proud of you!!!

Dec 2007/2008 and big news

I will never forget the fall of 2007. All four kids were in school fulltime and I was busy being involved in a teaching and training ministry a friend has - it was an amazing growing time for me as a person, but all fall I felt like there was something more - something more God wanted from me, something more. For sometime Scott and I had both been feeling God's call to the orphan and to Africa and we were looking for someway to take the kids and go help in a orphanage or something for a summer mission project, when all of a sudden God started saying things to us like you will have children from Africa. We went - huh??? are you kidding me. The kids are all in school and we can serve in so many more ways than before and besides we adopted once before - a teenager, don't you remember??? and then the floodgates of heaven opened over us and not a week went by that something didn't scream out at us ADOPT, AFRICA, ETHIOPIA, CARE FOR THE LEAST OF THESE, JAMES 1:27, JER29:11. Then the first Sunday of Advent arrived and our pastor preached on Mary and Joseph and on how God uses regular people who are brave enough to say YES, with out condition - Just YES to change the world. Well that was it for us we sat in a church service of 6000 people (yes it is a very large church) and felt like the whole sermon was being preached just to us. As if God orchastrated everything that morning to convice us that he could use us to do this thing - to change the world. We went home and that week asked 4 of our dearest friends to pray with us and we began our journey into the world of international adoption. At the Christmas eve service I clearly heard God say that by Christmas 2008 we would be home with our daughter - and don't you know what God says he will do he does. The word of the Lord doesnot return void. Fast foward to Dec of 2008 - the first Sunday of December we had Becca dedicated to the Lord that day in the same sanctuary, and God said I am not done with you yet. Which was okay with us because we had caught God's heart for the least of these - because we are the least of these. Each one of us is adopted into the family of God - each one of us is grafted in and we are honored to be able to walk down this road again as God and God alone brings another one home to our house - home to His house. Thank you Jesus - we can hardly wait to see the face of the child you have planned for our family.

the journey

You seriously need to go check out this blog!!! www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com this is a young woman totally sold out for God and the orphan.

Little girls and matching dresses

I love to see the girls in matching dresses - they look sooooo cute. Fortunately they like to wear them - and happily we can find some that match at Gymboree. It won't be too long before Emma is over wanting to match her little sister, but since that hasn't happened just yet we are just enjoying the cuteness!

last weekend

sorry Nana!!! it has taken me forever to get this up!!! Last weekend the 2 middle boys had basketball games (second ones) Adam's team lost by a few points and Luke's team won in overtime (who knew there was overtime in the 10 year old league). They both really enjoy playing and it is great activity for cold winter weeks - although we have been in the upper 60's for more than a week so I really can't complain about that!!!

While the boys had games Emma made a trip to Build a Bear workshop - probably her favorite place in the whole world and made a new puppy. The struggle for me is what to do for Becca when Emma is buying something. If Becca doesn't get something new too there is trouble - mainly she tries to take Emma's. Case in point would be Emma's purchase of a babydoll that gets sick and needs a shot - I refused to buy Becca such an expensive doll - but regret that now as every chance she gets she is trying to make off with that doll. Becca really doesn't even like stuffed animals - unless they are Emma's. This time we settled for a small dog that matched Emma's large one.

Happy Birthday Luke!!!!

Today Luke turns 11 years old - it is sooooo hard to believe that you are so grown up! It seems like yesterday that you were so tiny I could hold you in one hand and now I couldn't pick you up if my life depended on it!! This weekend Luke is having a party at Skate City and tonight he chose crab for his dinner! Wooohooo seafood is a family favorite.

Happy birthday big guy!