LOOK WHO'S 4 TODAY!!

it's hard to believe our baby is 4 today!!

these shots were taken back last Fall at a local portrait studio -Elizabeth was a natural in front of the camera...it was actually a bit scary to watch. :)

she is a delightful little girl.
her giggle is absolutely infectious.
her smile lights up a room.
she is tender hearted and (usually) quite unselfish.
she is ridiculously petite!! ~no hips/no buns/no tummy!
she is incredibly athletic.

she has blossomed in the last 27 months of being home. ~considering what we think her life was like those first 21mo she has come SO FAR. We still have issues that pop up and that we're working on....but all things considered, she has made amazing strides...because she is an amazing girl.

As I sat down to do this post I was reminded that somewhere, on the other side of the world, there is a mother whose arms are empty. In just a few minutes our little girl will wake up and sleepily walk to me, rubbing her eyes, and climb up into my lap for snuggles.

My arms will be full....holding our little girl.

I will get to hear her giggles today.
I will get to see her sweet smile.

I wish there was some way to thank Elizabeth's birth mother for giving her life AND for loving her enough to give her up so we could have the joy of raising her.

Ellie-bellie-

you are such a joyful addition to our family.

since you've arrived there are lots more laughs and giggles around here. :)

you have come so far sweet pea...learning to love and be loved...learning to trust and let us take care of you....learning what it means to be a part of a family.

I know you still have times when you're insecure. I wish I could make everything better with just a hug and a kiss...but I can't.
Only God can do that.
We pray one day your heart is fully healed.....but until that day we will do everything we can to help you feel loved and secure.

We love you so much Ellie-bellie....so much.

love -mommy

AND WE'RE OFF.....

for a family vacation to California!!

much of John's family lives in the LA area and my extended family lives in San Diego...so it's a perfect way to get-away AND see family!

we're going to D-land Thursday. :)
the pics above are from our visit exactly 2 years ago -just 4 mo. after bringing Elizabeth home.
look how young the kids look back then!

the kids are really excited for this trip -it's been awhile since we've been out to CA and they're anxious to see everyone. In case their aunties read this, Andrew and Becca told me yesterday that~Auntie P and Auntie T, they're especially excited to see you guys....the reasoning is "because they're so silly!". :)

check back next week as I'm sure I'll have some great pics to post of our time with family.

LOOK WHO'S GRADUATED!

yesterday Andrew finished his Kindergarten Math book and today he started 1st grade Math. :)

We are using Math*U*See and it has been awesome for him.

About 2 weeks ago I told him he was almost done with K math and he was so excited he did extra pages each day so he could finish quicker. :) He finished a week before I thought he would!! We're SOOO proud of him!

We started his math this time last year so it did take him a full year to complete the book and it feels a bit "odd" to have him start another grade in the middle of the school year....but he was ready to start math when he did and he really enjoys it (and he's really good at it) so I'll just deal with feeling odd. :)

DANCE CLASS

the girls are taking a "D*sn*ey Princess" dance class through our local city program.

The teacher allows the girls to wear comfy clothes, leotards, princess dresses...whatever they want.

Today the girls wanted to dress up. :)

aren't they so cute?!

I must brag on my 2 girls...they were the best behaved in the class. They weren't the best dancers :) but they listened to the teacher, they obeyed, they were polite...I just couldn't have been more proud of them.

and I know I'm sappy...but at one point I looked up and saw Elizabeth dancing with the BIGGEST smile on her face...and I had to hold back tears ~thinking had we not stepped out in faith 4 years ago to answer God's call to start the adoption process, not only would Elizabeth have missed out on this -but I would have missed out on this.

FUN TIMES CLEARING THE TREE

today the weather finally stayed clear enough for John and my dad to clear away the fallen tree in our front yard.

To say Andrew had a BLAST "helping" is an understatement. The girls thought it was pretty fun too -but this was the best fun Andrew had had in a long time! :)

climbing the tree and playing in all the branches before the cutting began

you may have noticed Rebecca absent from the above pics. That's cuz minutes after Grandpa arrived, our dog Lucy accidentally knocked Becca down on the driveway (Lucy was SO excited to see Grandpa AND to be out front). Becca apparently hit her head pretty hard on the cement.

we iced her sweet head and I gave her some ty*len*l and just sat by her for nearly an hour.
I looked up "head injuries" and "concussion" on the internet of course to make sure I knew what to look for in case we needed to run her to the ER.

She had a pretty bad headache from what I could gather and I eventually found her curled up on our front couch -she was trying to watch everyone outside but ended up falling asleep (don't worry...the internet said she could sleep as long as I kept an eye on her and she showed no other "bad" signs of a concussion!).

She woke after about 45 minutes and felt much better the rest of the day -PRAISE GOD!

Andrew helping to lope off some branches

Elizabeth supervising!

She eventually got a smaller pair of clippers and was "helping" too. :)

tree is almost cleared and it became a "bouncing log". :)

see these? these are some of the huge roots my dad and John had to dig up.
I kept John's legs in the pic so you could see how big those dumb roots were!! some were nearly as big as the trunk!

I'm sure my dad and John will be quite sore tomorrow from working for nearly 8 hours clearing the tree....but it had to be done.

Thank you dad for all of your help!

Now we get to figure out what to plant in the bare spot in our yard!! Our HOA is VERY particular so it's not like we have alot of choices...but it'll still be fun to pick out a tree we want. :)

CLOSE CALL

I was on the phone yesterday afternoon and walked into our front room to realize ~I couldn't see out the front window.

Just about 2hours earlier I had emailed a friend and mentioned, 1/2 joking, that we were due to get "hurricane force" winds along with this huge rain storm we were enduring.

Well, the winds had to have been pretty high to have pulled this mature tree up from the roots.

It fell at the perfect angle...just barely missing our house and actually diagonally crossing our front patio.

You cannot get to our front door. :) unless you want to try to crawl thru a mess of tree limbs!

John has hated this tree and is NOT sad to see it uprooted! Now he can plant a tree he likes. :)

AND...my dad is a wood worker so he and John are gonna slice it up this afternoon and tomorrow -hopefully saving some pieces for dad to make some nice bowls or something.

GETTING READY & GOOD NEWS!

the "kids' room" closet -now with Large and X-Large clothing.

a bit surreal to see "E's" things hanging and on the shelf.

Didn't think we'd be seeing that size clothing in our house for another 3-5 years! :)

**don't worry -the closet hasn't been completely cleaned out. The craft boxes above, the pack-n-play, and the girls' Easter dresses will be moved out before the boys come home!**

over the Christmas break we started re-arranging the office/spare bedroom and the "school room". We still have some re-arranging to do but the school room is now the "kids room" -it will hold the kids' toys and all of their books along with "E's" clothes so that he can have privacy to change. We also moved the spare bed in here for now so that when "E" comes home he can sleep in here if he wants to get away from his 2 6yr old brothers. :)

**in case I didn't mention it, all 3 boys will share the same room for the first 6-12 months to help the boys adjust ..then if "E" wants his own room we'll move things around again**



now-for our good news.

the boys know about us!

last night we received updated pictures of them ~receiving our care packages!!

It's surreal to think they are looking at pictures of us -just like we're looking at pictures of them!

Please keep them in your prayers... they have some VERY big adjustments coming in the next weeks and months.

**for the record..this is our 3rd set of pics of the boys already! I cannot emphasize enough how absolutely WONDERFUL working with YWAM's Adoption Ministry has been. If you are AT ALL contemplating adopting from Ethiopia, PLEASE consider using them**