Gotcha!!!

Today, our family celebrated the two year anniversary of Lily being home with us. What a wonderful day of reflecting on the joyous home coming of our daughter. We waited so long to bring her home. During the time of waiting, our faith was tested in more ways than I ever thought possible. I begged the Lord to hear my prayers in a way that I had never done before. I asked questions that I had never asked of the Lord and His plan for our lives. Here is this little girl, without a family, we love her, and will take care of her....what more do you want from us? Bring her home. Yet, it wasn't our timing, it was His. I will forever look back on that time of waiting and know that we were in His grip in a way that we will cherish forever. We had no control over this situation. We waited on Him. We prayed. We waited. We prayed. We waited. The Lord taught us that there is a mountain top experience after you spend time in the valley. God has been so amazing to our family. We are so very thankful to Him.

So, we spent the day talking about "remember two years ago".....remember saying sad goodbyes to Guatemala, remember waiting in the plane on the runway with a hot, tired, scared little girl in my arms (we had only had her with us for 5 days at that point...she was missing her wonderful foster mother and all of the comforts of the only home she had ever known), remember touching down on U.S. soil, being so thankful that my daughter is now an American, remember sitting in the airport in Texas with delay after delay due to engine problems knowing that our kids were waiting for us to arrive in the airport with their sister. Remember the crowd of family and friends waiting for us in the terminal to welcome us home. Remember eating cake at the airport at midnight to celebrate as all of our loved ones got their first glimpse of our new beautiful daughter. Remember the ride home...thinking wow...four kids....can we do this??

I continue to be overtaken by the joy that adoption brings. What a gift we were given, two years ago. What a gift today to be mommy to this beautiful little girl.

I also cannot help but think about families that started this process when we started and still have not brought their children home. My heart aches for these families. I cannot imagine missing out on the past two years of my daughter's life. My thoughts and prayers are with these families tonight as they wait to bring their little ones home.

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We were so thankful to be home.

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Here are our wonderful family and friends waiting to welcome us home!

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Tonight, the four kids together enjoying our "Gotcha day" celebration that included watching a princess movie that we gave to Lily today. Also, rice crispy treats and peanut butter balls were part of the little party!

Splash!!!!

I am very excited to share this video with you all.

Lily has been able to swim pretty well for a few weeks now, but we finally brought our camera to the pool to document this achievement.

Thanks to Max for his Mad Film Making Skills.

Icing on the top

There was a nice coat of Ice on everything this morning.

Christmas Card 2008

We hope that all of our friends in the Blogosphere have a Picture Perfect Christmas!

Let it Snow! Let is Snow! LET IT SNOW!!!!!!

It doesn't show signs of stopping, and I've got some corn for popping......

For those of you that are reading our blog and don't live in West Michigan, we thought you should have a look at the Blizzard conditions that we have been enduring for the last 24 hours. Chad and the kids decided that they would bundle up and brave the wintery conditions this afternoon. At the time that they went out, the temperature was 10 degrees. Gabbie, Max, and Lily returned inside for some hot chocolate after these photos were taken. However, Will stayed out and helped Chad finish the shoveling (the snow blower stopped working on him.....great timing!).

We have spent the day finishing up our Christmas wrapping, baking, and cards. This year, if I'm not ready for Christmas, I have no excuse!!!

Check this out

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A Day at the Park

One of my favorite things about homeschooling my kids is our weekly outings. We call them fieldtrips...some are educational, some are just for fun. We had a beautiful fall day last week, so I decided we would get in one last trip to the skate park before the winter weather sets in. The great thing about homeschooling is that you can go places when everyone else is not there. I don't think we would last two minutes in the skate park when it is full of teenagers. However, we went when everyone was in school and had the park to ourselves. The kids brought a bike, a scooter, rollerblades, and a little ride on toy. What a blast!!

Seven is Enough!!

This weekend we have had the pleasure of adding three children to our family. What a blessing to enjoy some extended time with our friend's kids who also happen to be our kid's friends. The kids have been a joy to have around and have fit in very nicely to our family. We have made some great memories this weekend.

One thing that Chad and I have learned this weekend, though, is that seven kids are a lot of kids. That translates into a lot of dishes to wash, a lot of voices to quiet, and a lot of shoes to keep track of. Of course, it also means a lot of giggles, a lot of interesting conversations, and a lot of fun!

We will cherish these memories for years to come!

Thanks, Troy and Lisa for sharing your kids with us.

This was what happened at bedtime the first night.....oh my, it may be a long night!!!

On Saturday, we decided that some good physical activity would be fun for everyone, and just might wear everyone out a bit, so we spent the day at the gym for some rock climbing and swimming. That is one full hot tub!

Sophie shows off her underwater tricks!!

Josh and Will enjoy the ride down from their difficult climb!

A big smile from Sophie after she made it to the top of the rock wall!

ALL THE MAVERICKS IN THE HOUSE, PUT YOUR HANDS UP!!! The kids had a great time watching some polital reruns of SNL online today and enjoyed rapping and dancing to them. I just had to snap a pic of this...they were having such a great time. With that being said.....if I hear this line one more time this weekend....I may just loose it. (I cannot believe what my two year old has to put up with.....shouldn't she be watching Barney or something?)

I'm not trying to make a political statment here, just having a little fun after this election week. I'm so glad the election is over...really, SNL was fun, but all of the ads, I could do without!!

Last Days of Summer

I cannot believe how quickly summer went by. It is so hard to say good-bye to the carefree days of summer. We had such a great summer! Our best memories are of the surf and sand at Lake Michigan. We are so blessed to live so close to the beautiful sandy shore. It is amazing how sand and water can provide hours of entertainment for all ages.

Here we are with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and my niece and nephew. We just finished a great hike through the woods to the Lake.

What a great picture of my parents. They are celebrating their 40th anniversary this month!!

Lily enjoys our "backyard carnival". We have a small collection of large inflatables that the kids enjoy all summer long. Thanks largely to Chad who so graciously drains them, fills them, and moves them around the yard so the grass doesn't die underneath!!

Gabbie and Tessa show off their cakes after our first cake decorating class! Great work, girls!

Summer wouldn't be complete without a Trolley ride in Grand Haven. Will is enjoying the view from the back of the Trolley.

Gabbie hangs out at the back of the Trolley to take in the summer sites in Grand Haven.

Blueberry picking, yum!!!

There is a great story that goes along with this family photo. Our adoption agency asked us for a family photo for the magazine that they publish. We thought this would be an easy thing to do, and it may be fun to see if we end up in the magazine. So, we tried to clean everyone up a bit (that's not all too common in the summer), and put on some clothes that may look okay together. Chad set up the tri-pod, we gathered the kids on the front porch and told everyone to smile. It was all down hill from there!! Let's just say that getting a 5 year old to look at the camera, a 2 year old to smile, and two older kids to keep "decent looks on their faces", is so much easier said than done. So, about 45 minutes and a whole bunch of tears later, here is the result. Is it a good picture? Yeah, I think so. Was it worth it? It depends on how many years our kids will spend in counseling dealing with the scars!!

Here, Max and I wait it out while Chad heads inside to try to convince Will to come back out and give it another try.

Lily helped to wash (and eat) all of the blueberries.

Gabbie and Will head up front with Josh and Sara at Unity (Christian music concert) to hear Third day. I must be getting old, because it sure was LOUD!!!

Gabbie and Erin take time from enjoying the music to smile for a picture.

Gabbie and Lily dance the night away at the concert.

I included this picture not only because it is a great shot of me with my two darling girls, but because I think it is such a beautiful picture of the water, sand, and dunes. If you are friends that don't live in Michigan, you should come and see us in the summer and enjoy the beach with it. It just doesn't get any better than this!

Beach Bums!!!

Our kids and some friends are getting ready to tube down a little stream that leads into Lake Michigan. What a perfect lazy summer day!!

I know the marshmellow is toasted to perfection, but more importantly, look at that sky and waves. It is so hard to say good-bye to summer.

It was also hard to say good-bye to this wonderful vacation. We stayed at a cottage on Lake Michigan two other families. It was an amazing week of water, waves, sand, and great memories! We feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends.

Will and I enjoyed this great sunset after we all took a late night dip in the water.