Kindergarten Christmas!

I absolutely love the kids' kindergarten teacher Mrs. P.  She is just wonderful.  On Friday, I attended the Kindergarten Christmas party and the main event was making gingerbread houses.  Eli and Sophia did a wonderful job with their creations.  Daddy even made a surprise appearance!

Daddy Daughter Masquerade Ball

For Gail...Red Mary Janes

This morning I was helping Sophia get dressed for church.  She decided to wear a gray and red plaid dress and I was looking through her closet for matching shoes.  My eyes caught a pair that had been in Sophia's closet for years.  Before I even had a glimpse of who she would be, these shoes came to me.

I took them downstairs and as I slipped them onto her feet, the tears just started to well up in my eyes.  There was no holding them back.  Sophia asked me why I was crying.  I told her that a long time ago when I was waiting for her and trying to find her, my dear friend Gail sent these shoes to me.  I told her that they belonged to her special girl Grace and that they were sent to help Momma smile on days when she was missing Sophia.

Well, Sophia started to cry too.  Then Eli came up and asked why we were crying and I said..."shoes".  He raised his voice and said, "Good Grief!  Mom and Sophia are crying about shoes!"

Small Town Parade

Our small town has a parade every year to kick off the fair and the 4th of July.  Both Eli and Sophia were in the parade.  Sophia walked with the children from her dance school.  She was allowed to wear any costume that she wanted...you can see that she is a "zebra fairy".  Eli walked with his karate school.  He just loves karate class.  They even stopped and did some of their karate moves for the crowd.

Giveaway!!! Sophia Jane Boutique

Please check out the AWESOME giveaway from the Sophia Jane Boutique.

If you go over to the Chasing Dreams Photography blog, Colleen explains all the specifics on how to enter. The lucky winner will win a pettiskirt, a crocheted Kufi cap and a flower(all items must be in stock). Good luck!

Beautiful Sophia wearing her pink and white petti.

Adorable miss Addison modeling her purple petti, brown and pink petti and her orange Kufi cap with a flower.

And Grace in her black and pink petti, pink cap and pink zebra flower.

Daddy's Latest Pictures

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Happy Mother's Day Everyone

Thank you Lord for blessing me with my beautiful children.

Happy Mother's Day to all of my dear friends.

PRAYER WARRIORS...You are needed today!

PLEASE PRAY FOR MY FRIEND. Today my friend
Steffie and her husband are in a hospital with their son Andrew. Andrew
will be having open heart surgery to repair a hole in his heart.
Andrew is from the same orphanage as Sophia and has the same condition
she did. My friend waited 3 years to bring this little miracle boy
home. Today she is on her knees before God praying for his life and
future. Please pray for this little boy and his family.

I was Hungry Momma...

It has been almost a year now since Sophia came home.  A beautiful wonderful life changing year for all of us. When I see my children together, their bond is so strong that it is hard to believe that there ever was a time when they were apart.  I don't like to think about that time.  The time when my daughter was in orphanage.  I don't like to think that I was not there for her for the first 3.5 years of her life.  It tears my heart out to think of all that she endured.  Some of the pains are written in scars on her tiny body that I pretend not to see, that I pretend do hot hurt me.  We live our lives for the present and the future.  

But every once in a while she and I talk about China.  And yesterday she told me that she was hungry when she lived in China.  And it pained me so much to hear it.  I knew it.  I had always known.  When she came home her hair was like straw and she was so small.  There were no full cheeks and huge dimples like there are today.  It hurt me so much to know that my baby had gone without the necessity of food. 

Now that she is home and happy and playing dress up, it is easy sometimes to forget where she came from.  But it is so important that I do not.  That I do not forget where I have been and what I have seen.  It is so important for me not to get too comfortable in this house and life with my completed family.  I need to keep working for the orphans just as I did before Sophia came home.

So today, I dressed the twins in their 147 million orphans matching shirts to remind me and those around me of the children who need help every day.  There are children who we can reach and impact as individuals by working with real people who we know and trust.  147 million orphans was started by a very good friend of mine who changed my life by her love and faith.  If you have gotten too comfortable and need to remember what you have seen and where you have been...go to 147millionorphans.com  Buy a shirt and feed a child dinner.  It's that simple, you buy a shirt, you feed a child in Africa dinner.  It is a direct one to one correlation.  

147millionorphans.com

Fun at the Hardware Store.

One of our new favorite things to do on a Saturday is to go to Lo*we's for the children's pojects.  Last Saturday Eli and Sophia made a wooden baseball game.  They each have their own aprons and receive a patch for every project they complete.  So far they have three patches.  Next week they are making a planter for the garden!

Easter Day Photos...Which one do you like best?

These are our Easter photos of the children.  I tell you, we took a ton of them and these are the best that we have.  It is so hard to get 4 kids to all smile together. I'm going to have Tim lighten up the one of Eli and Sophia.  I think that one will be cute in their room.

I wanted a gorgeous lake photo, but it was so windy yesterday that Sophia's eyes are closed in all of them and everyone looks like they were freezing (they were).

So, which one do you like best?

He Is Risen.

Happy Easter!

Warm Enough for A Day At The Park!

Woo Hoo!  It was beautiful yesterday.  Very warm and sunny.  I packed up the twins and we headed to a playground at a nearby school.  They ran and played for two hours.  I was amazed at the difference between Sophia on the playground now and when she first came home.  She is so much more agile now and moves much faster.  She is brave and willing to try to go down the high slide even though she is afraid. 
Eli is still much more aggressive and moves much more quickly, but I think a lot of that is the fact that he's a boy.
They are wonderful playmates and siblings.  They do have their spats, but for the most part, they take care of each other.
I love the last photo of Eli. That is his "Cool Guy" look.  

Visiting the Butterflies

We live near a wonderful botanical garden and each year they bring in a large number of butterflies and raise them until they hatch and then release them into a beautiful terrarium.  When you go to visit, you walk into a room filled with butterflies flying free all around you.  Eli and Sophia were completely enchanted. 

We had so much fun watching them fly and hoping they would land on us. There is also a wonderful children's garden area outside and we walked in the sunshine while the children ran and played.