Summer Here & Gone

SORRY FOR THE MESS, I'M LEARNING :(

I love summer, at least I did until I moved to Louisiana. I quickly realized that the heat and humidity was too much for embracing the outdoors this time of year. I soon reasoned that summers down here were like winters up north. You just stay inside most of the time. The spring and fall are long here and the winter is mild and we do enjoy this time of year. This is when we encourage grandpa's and grandma's to visit!

One of the things I like most about summer is fresh veggies from the garden. I am lamenting that I don't have my own, but a kind friend shared from her garden. I thought they made a pretty picture in my kitchen!!


In the spring we started a very exciting venture. After much prayer and many years of patience, we took a step of faith and started an adoption process for a toddler/baby boy from Ethiopia, Africa. Above is a picture of the beginning paperwork. Adoption pregnancy can be compared to biological pregnancy is this way. As you get further along in your pregnancy you gain weight, and as we progress in our adoption "pregnancy" we gain weight in paperwork!! I wish I had weighed it and kept a tally. Our dossier packet was just sent over this week and we are officially on a waiting list of 6-9 months. Another family whose packet went over with ours already got matched this week. Yikes, this is where I started to panic. We just sent out our grant and loan application as well and I am hoping we find out quickly if we qualify or not. I think we will be matched sooner than the 6-9 months range. We are sharing this so you can pray for us in this venture. Pray for God's wisdom and provision. It will change our family, but we are so excited. The girls talk about it all the time!! We will keep you posted on any new happenings in this area.




Over the summer the girls took swimming lessons, which they loved.









Early summer we added a new addition, Riki Tiki(Gracie named him). We found him starving and was only going to keep him for a few days and find him a new home. Well, the girls fell in love with him and he got along with our other cat. He is quite the entertainment for the girls and our other cat, Whitefield






















In Sept. the girls and I drove to Oklahoma to be with my sisters for a quick reunion. We had a blast and they surprised me for my birthday and took me for my first pedicure! As you can see, we had a blast and the time went too quickly. It's amazing how our extended family dynamic has changed in a year. Never a dull moment when all the cousins are together. We were rather tired by the end of each day!!
















Above are my sisters Tiffany(holding Sadie, Danae's daughter) and on my right(in pix) is Danae and on my left is Aubrey, who has a little guy Hudson. I know my sisters will not care for this picture, but it shows a little of our goofy side, which I love about our times together.

This past month I had the opportunity to attend the first True Women's Conference in Chicago earlier this month. It was organized by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and featured speakers such as John Piper, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Mary Kassian, Janet Parshall, Joni Erikison Tada, Susan Hunt, Carolyn McCulley etc... It was hands down the best conference I had been too. Not only encouraging, but the speakers offered the "meat" of God's word and spoke from from their hearts about tough issues in light of what God's Word had to say about it. Not only did I come away admonished and encouraged, but hopefully a changed person. I also had the privilege of meeting up with my good friend Tiffany(in picture-miss you girl!) and Stacy Reaoch. Someone asked us if Tiff and I were sisters. Now that I look at the picture, our glasses look alike and our smiles!!

Sorry this was a legnthy post, but I wanted to catch y'all up a little bit. Look forward to keeping in better touch with everyone!!