Merry Christmas 2010

This is about the best family photo we can get....seriously.....
Ree Ree 5 years 4 months
Biggie 8 years 4 months
Jee 2 years 8 months
All my boys




Ree making cookies for Santa...
that happen to her favorite kind :) How could she resist?
Letters to "Santa"
One of Jee's favorite surprise Christmas gifts. Our little friend and babysitter, Kristen made these for them....she rocks.
We put Jee to bed early on Christmas night and Ree had her first Lord's Supper. It was so amazing. God has really touched her heart this year. I want to share the whole story some time but she has strongly felt God speaking to her. It really is an amazing example of the verse "let the little children come", she has pure, unabashed and very innocent faith. Praise be to the Lord for calling Him unto Himself. God is good. All the time.
Two of the biggest three prayers of my life answered already. I love you, Lord.

Memory Lane....

I was looking through old photos and found a few I wanted to share.....

The eldest's first football game...It rained the whole time and he hated the noise.
Ree's first room. It was so cute and girly.
Our Application Part 1 for Jee's adoption. Look how young these two look!! This was July 2007, shortly before Jee's birthmother became pregnant. We love him long before he was born.
I remember times like this so well....look at that hair!!!
VBS.
Ree's two year old pictures. Love her.
Yumm Oh.
CK's first day of school. Oh my gosh, I remember this so vividly because it was the first real time that we realized how sensitive she was. She is still like this today. As we were leaving the school, she starting balling and saying "I want my bubby." Yea, we were meant to homeschool :)
Us painting MJ's office, this is right when we moved. I had forgotten how little they were when we moved!
CK's Christmas program in Pre K.
My other lil' chicken....remember, Jee dressed up like this this year.
And a cute little butterfly. Ree's first Halloween.
Awww...this one made me want to cry. The BIGZAH BOY, Kramer. Sweet boy, we miss him. Geesh, this is awful. This is why it has taken us so long to get another dog. His death about did me in. I said I would never get a dog ever again.
I love CK's smile in this pic.

A Brother's Love (Adoption)

We have some marvelous friends who are fantastic people that have started an international adoption grant fund. These folks are the real deal. Joy and Joe Pierce have started this organization called "A Brother's Love" and it is named after they have felt the calling (and acted on it) to adopt their little girl after their son started talking about adoption. It is called "A Brother's Love" based on their sons longing for a baby sister and their call to adopt.

If you are a Christian, you are called to care for the fatherless. It is a scriptural mandate. For me, it may look very different than it looks for you (ie: you may never actually adopt a child and I may never be able to fund someone else's adoption, etc.) but the calling is the same. We are called to care for the orphan in some manner. For some, it may mean prayer, for others it may mean funds, and for many it will mean to adopt. I am so thankful for my friends Joe and Joy and the blessing they are to so many people.

Joy is a friend who showed up on my door step as a stranger several years ago. She attended our church and knew we were in the process of adopting. I didn't recognize her face when she knocked on my door that day but she had a bag full of coins. She said she and her family had been saving their coins for our adoption....uh.....WOW!!!!!! We've been friends ever since.

Please visit their website here at A Brothers Love.

Daddy and Ree prayer walking at the event.
Jee reading about the worldwide orphan crisis.



Our friends who are presently in China adopting their fourth child (second through adoption). Their new little one, Lauren, is four years old and we cannot wait to welcome her home!!!!

I am thankful for the culture of adoption in our lives and in our church. I am thankful for the immense blessing adoption has put in our lives forever. God is good.

Final Camping Post

Arrived at the Caverns!!

There was an elevator for those who would like to just ride down instead of trekin' down the over mile hike but did we do the elevator???!!! NO WAY dude! We wanted to experience the whole thing and I am so glad we did!!
My lil' explorer...
Beautiful.
We also went and saw the bats fly out of the caverns at night. Woosh. That was impressive. You can't take pics of the bats but here is Ree Ree and I shortly before the bats made their exit.
And, the kiddos found a tiny baby bunny and with daddy's help they caught it.

Unexpected Waterfall

While on our camping trip, we took a day trip to this park. We knew they had a waterfall but weren't expecting such an amazingly breathtakingly beautiful waterfall in the middle of the dessert. It was so awesome. The waterfall led to this natural pool of spring water that was about a cool 54 degrees.


So, I was looking at how beautiful it was. We were out there in the middle of nowhere and literally had the waterfall all to ourselves. It made us all praise God for His marvelous creation. I have never seen a waterfall so beautiful, it was very similar to waterfalls we saw in Hawaii years ago. But, what made this so wonderful was it was in the middle of the dessert so it was so unexpected. As I was looking, I thought to myself that my kids literally may never see a waterfall like this again and I wanted them to experience it in the fullest. It was chilly outside and the water was VERY CHILLY but it was just calling my name. I did something totally out of character and with no swimsuit I just did it! I took the plunge, fully dressed :)
As you can see (above), I was very proud of myself! Since I was the first, the hubs had to follow (of course) and then (of course) came biggie and the itty black haired boy....and, believe it or not, we even got Reesey to follow!!


You can see the waterfall behind the kids here too.


I love my family! :)