Just thinking...

Bobby has gone fishing with his dad for the weekend (for his birthday), and my mom spent a couple of days here with us and helped to get some things done at home.  Tonight, both girls are sleeping so sweetly, and, when I look at their little faces, I just can't believe how blessed we are.  Blessed to have each other, our families, our children, and our sweet Alyssa on the way!  Only God could have orchestrated this crazy, wonderful, loving group to come together as a family.  Our two boys have grown into wonderful, sweet, God-loving men who still like to spend time with mom and dad - our two girls are totally spoiled by everyone in our family, and they are all looking forward to Alyssa joining us soon.  We have a lovely, sweet daughter-in-law, and are looking forward to having a grand-baby (or 2) in the next few years.  We have great friends, an amazing church family, and an awesome God who brought us together and holds us together, and is working to mold us to be more like Him each day. 

As we proceed with our third adoption, we are amazed at how He has provided this far into the process, and trust fully that He will continue to work through others to help us bring our sweet girl home!  We are working on grant applications, and praying at least one will come through to help us get our sweetheart home this year.  We are still baking, taking donations for our Ridgeway Waterfall Clock giveaway, and, wonderful friends and family have made donations to help through The Shepherd's Crook - a great way to give and can be used as a tax deduction as well.

What better can we do with our time and money than to invest in the life of a child - a child that one day may come to know Jesus as their Savior - maybe to share with others their story, their heart, and the love of our Heavenly Father.  For them to know that not only were they chosen by us as their parents, but also chosen to be adopted by Him, to live an eternal life with God in Heaven, with all their loved ones who will go before and after.  It breaks my heart that so many children will spend their lives in orphanages with no real family to love and love them, no one to share with them God's plan and love.  Although this will (probably) be our last adoption, we hope to help others as we can financially, and in prayer as they go through this amazing process. 

We have made wonderful friends, both on-line and in person through our adoption journies.  God has placed so many on our hearts, and we pray for so many each night.  What a blessing this journey has been, and continues to be - to see so many who have the same heart we have for these precious little ones - only God can do that!  We are blessed indeed, and so very thankful!

Happy Birthday Bobby!!

Today is my sweetheart's birthday!  Happy Birthday honey!  We all love you!!

Third Package to Alyssa

We mailed another package to Alyssa today.  This time, we sent her a little skirt, top, and a pair of sandals for summer.  We also included a set of 5 DVDs to help her to learn English.  The nannies at her orphanage said she would love that, and they would let her use the player at the orphanage on weekends!  We hope for our LID next week, and LOA in the next month!! 

Sunday Smiles

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DTC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you not in the adoption world, this means our paperwork has been mailed from our agency - YESTERDAY!!! and, today, we received the tracking number so we can see when it arrives!!  Next step,

We hope to receive our log in date quickly, because that's when the real count-down begins!!!

Happy Gotcha Day, Allie!!

Today, we celebrate our second "Gotcha Day" with our sweet Allie Faith YiNong.  She has been a blessing to our family, and we love that girl!!  She is happy, funny, loves to play rowdy, laughs a lot, loves her family, and is learning about Jesus!!  She has had 2 surgeries since coming home, and has been a trooper - she finished pre-school, and I can't believe it, but she starts Kindergarten in just a few weeks!!  Here are a couple of pictures from the day she joined our family, and a few from today in the same outfit...

Dossier is on it's way to Madison!!!

Our Dossier is on it's way to our wonderful agency, and, we got another picture of Alyssa last night!!  We are really praying she will be home before Christmas!!

Sunday Smiles

Our Annual White Dress Pictures at the Beach

We always do a picture in a white dress our last night at the beach with the girls - here's this years...

Fourth of July at the Beach

Our family always spends the 4th at the beach - my mom, & my grandma always go too, so it's a fun family week.  The girls had a great time!!  We swam, played in the sand, ate too much, & just had a wonderful time!  We are blessed that MaMa has her place at Ocean Lakes, so all our vacation costs is gas to get there !  Here are some pics from our trip...

New Alyssa Pictures!!

These were taken May 31!!