Fruits of Our Labor

The garden is in full bloom! Let the eating frenzy begin!!

Back to the Island!

We are not a family that often vacations with our friends, but this year, we headed back up to Kelley's Island with our friends from our small group at church. It was so much fun. There is nothing better for building relationships than to spend large amounts of uninterrupted time together. A and C loved having their friends up there, too. It was a great weekend full of fun activities and real, meaningful conversation. Here are a few shots of the boys and their friends. In typical fashion, I have pictures from the first day and the last day of the trip! for some reason I forgot to take my camera out throughout the middle of the trip. A huge thanks to Gramma the Great for letting us use her cottage for the weekend!

There has been so much going on around here and I haven't had time to sit and blog. But I want to get these memories down before I get too far behind.

A has officially graduated from preschool. His last week was so much fun as they had a play and a picnic. Here he is in his play. 

 This was part of our class gift to A's teachers. The kids used their fingerprints for the faces and then I made them into little people. I think they turned out really cute. And before you start thinking I'm all crafty, I borrowed this idea from my mom's preschool!

A's class at the picnic.

A and C with A's teachers on the last day of school.

The first week of summer, we ventured to the Cincinnati Nature Center with our friends. We had so much fun! We did a nature scavenger hunt through the woods, then we saw tadpoles in the lake and ended up at the Childrens' Playscape where the kids got to dig in the dirt, play in a waterfall and go creeking. What a great place! We'll definitely make our way back there again before the summer is over.

My boys had gotten a set of hockey guys for Christmas, which they have loved playing with ever since.  This summer, I decided to increase the fun by creating our own rink. I put a 9x13 pan in the freezer to make a rink. The kids play hockey on it until the ice has melted too much. Then we refreeze it for later. It has been hours of fun!

Photo shoot update

I have a link to the webpage with more details on the photo shoot, but it is password protected. If you want more info, leave a comment or shoot me an email and I'll get you the details.

Adoption tax credit

Hey faithful few blog readers :)

You all know how deeply I feel about adoption and how passionate I am about helping kids without families find families. There is currently a bill in the House that would establish a permanent tax refund of up to $13,600 for adoption expenses. This wouldn't cover the entire adoption by any means, but it would make adoption an option for many families that could never consider it because of the expense.

Please take a few minutes to visit this website (http://www.house.gov/), find your representative (you can search by zip code if you don't know who it is), and ask them to co-sponsor House Bill HR 4373. It takes only a few minutes, but the passing of this bill would be a monumental step for the orphan crisis.

:) Thanks!

My Cup Overflows!

There are moments in life when God shows up in a totally unexpected way for no other reason than to remind me that I am His PRECIOUS, CHERISHED PRINCESS and that He can and will move mountains to remind me of the DEPTHS of His love. I don't know if you know this or not, but of all of His creations I'm his favorite! (The coolest part is that you are His favorite, too!)

Two years ago, God allowed my path to cross with my sweet friend, H, when we both enrolled our kids in the same preschool. Now two years later, this amazing lady is launching her own photography business. Her pictures are amazing! I have several that she took of my kids in frames around my house, including my all-time favorite picture of my two boys.

So sweet H sent me an email asking if I would be okay with her offering mini-photo shoots to my friends and family where she would donate all of the proceeds to our adoption! Um... YEAH! How could I not be?!

But did you miss all of the coolness in that short email? It wasn't just the email that fills my heart with joy. You see God has placed on my heart this incredible love and desire for my kids that are still halfway around the world. BUT God has ALSO placed these kids on H's heart and mind in such a way that she brainstormed until she could come up with a way to be a part of their story, too. I love the way God meshes all of our paths together. So, even if no one takes her up on her offer for photos, I am blessed with so much joy to the point of overflowing that she would give so willingly to be a part of our story and the story of our children.

Spring is Here!

For awhile there, I thought we were heading straight from winter into summer. 80 degree days in February were a little too much for me, but we have finally hit some beautiful cooler spring weather.

This spring, as with every spring, has been crazy busy. Here are a few highlights:

 A has learned to read. It is crazy. A few days before he turned 5, he picked up a book that he had never read and read it to me. The. whole. book. The teacher in me was really excited. He loves to sit and read to his brother. I find them like this all the time.

 And I find them like this all of the time! They love to dress up. I think this time they were firefighters with gas masks and walkie-talkies. Their choice of outfits always cracks me up. A few weeks ago, we were on our way to the park and ran into a girl I went to high school with. After introducing the kids and heading on our way, I realized that A had on his bike helmet and construction goggles! I can only imagine what she thought!

 We have spent lots of time at the park. Starting in February, I would tell the boys everyday, "We have to play outside. It's not that often that it's 80 degrees in February. We have to take advantage of this weather before it gets cold again." But it never got cold again! 

 St. Patrick's Day Parade downtown. We started out in jackets, and by the end of the parade, we were all sunburned! Who thinks to bring sunscreen to a parade in MARCH!?! 

 This one was just too cute. I love these boys. :)

 This is A's preschool class. We had an Easter party, and the kids went on an Easter egg hunt outside. There were 150 eggs. It took about 2 minutes to find them all! A loves his class, loves his teachers and loves going to school! Next year, he'll be at a new school, which he is equally excited about, but I know he'll miss some of these good friends.

 We went down to the Reds' Opening Day parade. It's a city-wide official holiday now, so I figured we needed to go. The boys love the Reds and can name every player at every position. They love listening to the games on the radio with their daddy. Side note: we almost didn't make it to the beginning of the parade. The boys were petrified that Mr. Redlegs (the mascot) would be there. I promised I would watch for him and when he came, they could hide behind me. Before the parade even started, a golf cart came from the OPPOSITE direction with... you guessed it... Mr. Redlegs. The boys freaked out. As if that were not bad enough, the golf cart stops directly in front of us and Mr. Redlegs gets OFF of the cart and starts walking to all the fans to give high fives! What are the chances?!?! I thought we'd have weeks of nightmares over that one!

 Easter egg hunt #4 for my kids. We spent Easter with my family, and had a great time. The boys love their cousins so much and are such good friends with them. 

 C checking out his loot with his cousin, "I I Don".

 This one was from the Zoo. Each spring, they do Zoo Blooms and plant thousands of tulips. It's beautiful, and we were lucky to catch it just as the flowers were starting to bloom. 

 We went to the Krohn Conservatory with some friends to enjoy the Butterfly Show. 

 My sweet, sweet grandma celebrated her 94th birthday! It was super special as two of her siblings came in town from New York. It has been years since she has seen them, and it was a beautiful reunion. She doesn't always remember who people are, but her face lit up when she saw her brother. I know that it was amazingly special for her, as it was for all of us that could be there!

 Our sweet friends, the Ellises came to play one afternoon. As is ALWAYS the case when we hang out with these boys, we ended up getting extremely muddy, dirty and wet! The boys ended up just running around in the water in their undies, once again solidifying our spots as the crazy neighbors on the block!

 C and A are both playing soccer this spring. Sweet C has been practically counting down the days since last fall since he wasn't old enough then. Oh, his precious smile when he plays! He loves every minute of it. And he holds his own. He's one of the youngest players, but you'd never know from watching. He scored the first goal of the game!

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