They may fight like cats and dogs by day...

But at the end of the day...

They really love each other!

Two little ones need families!

These two little girls are looking for their families. Could it be you or someone you know?  They are on our agency's list and they have asked us to help get the word out that these precious little ones are waiting.

Sarah

Sarah was born in January of 2010 and has Down Syndrome. She likes to play outside and her favorite thing to play on is the slide. When indoors she loves dancing to music and looking at picture books.

Amber

Amber was also born in 2010 and diagnosed with Down Syndrome. She is very active and loves crawling and walking to find new toys to play with. She is is quite outgoing and loves to cuddle!

Both of these cuties are in China. Our agency, A Helping Hand, has their files and would love to talk to anyone who might be interested in giving either of these two a family. You can contact Hannah at
hannah@ahelpinghandadoption.org or call her at (859)263-9964.

The adoption of Abbey and Elijah has been a wonderful thing for our family. Our adoption journey has been an amazing time of growth, of seeing God work and beginning to  understand a little bit more of His heart.  I'd be more than happy to talk to anyone and answer any questions you might have about adding to your family through adoption. You can leave me a comment with your e mail address. 

I know that God desires for these children to have families. The adoption process starts with God's quiet voice speaking to your heart. Are you listening???

Meet visitors

When Evie Claire got word that her Mimi and Papa were going to be in Maryland, she decided that she just had to go! Since she can't quite drive yet, she had to bring her parents. Of course, I was ecstatic to see all three of them!

She's grown so much and is ever so much more social. I had a wonderful time "chatting" with her!

and so did Papa

Aunt Abbey was a little bit excited to hold Miss EC

While at the meet, she fell asleep in my arms and took a little nap. One of life's best feelings…a sleeping baby to cuddle with!

I'm so glad that Evie's parents made the trip from New York to Maryland so that we could see all three of them for a little while!

Lucky Thirteen

Well, it wasn't so much luck, but a lot of hard work that brought Daniel and the rest of UNCW's men's swimming and diving team their 13 straight conference championship!

The meet was held in the aquatic center at College Park, MD.  John, the kids and I made the long drive toward the north, in order to cheer our favorite breaststroker on!

They are old hats at the "W"…

The hotel had an indoor pool, which helped pass the time between sessions. It was so cold that the heated pool created quite a fog. They didn't mind at all.

Daniel contributed to the win with both of his breaststroke events, but he had to fight back to do so. With his first event, 200 IM, he didn't perform very well, and wasn't happy with the time or place. At first he was a little distraught, but he buckled down and had a really good 100 breastroke swim.

It was so cool to get to see him parade in,

And pictured on the big screen as he was introduced,

Getting ready

Taking his mark,

and he's off!

The four day meet came down to the very last relay. The Seahawks won the relay with a new record, and along with that, they won the meet. This win was extremely sweet! Last summer, the administration publicized plans to cut the program. There was a huge outcry and they rescinded their plan. Several of the best swimmers left during the uncertain time to swim at other schools. So, they were low on there scoring swimmers. But, with a lot of tenacity and hard work, the remaining faithful did it!!

There was lots of celebrating afterwards.

The coach, (in the Hawaiian shirt), even got in the middle of it.

I noticed Daniel, after the celebration, going over and shaking the coach's hand. Later, I asked him what he said, and he said he just thanked Coach Allen for all he had done.

We waited around until they came out from the locker room to congratulate the champions.

Someone wasn't so keen about waiting around. They were upset to be getting back to the hotel after the pool had closed. They found a spot to sit and Abbey worked on getting out her loose tooth, while Elijah fought sleep.

Finally our champion appeared!

With the other sophomore swimmers

With his girlfriend, Cat, who is also a swimmer. The girl's team placed 4th.

Well done and well deserved!

I'm so thankful that we got to be there to see this win!

Next: We had special visitors at the meet.…

It's a beautiful day!

This week has been the pits! John has been gone to Las Vegas for business all week. That means I've been on call 24/7 with the kids.  I've had a horrible cold that would not go away, and the weather has been atrocious!! We've had rain and the temperature hovered in low 40's upper 30's. Raw, dark and just plain old yucky! The kids have been crawling up the walls from being cooped up inside for so long.

But…today… today is a wonderful day!

John is flying back this afternoon, I slept without the aid of a decongestant, both of my kids can get outside and play and best of all… the weather… well, the weather is the kind  that gives me a spring in my step,  just makes me feel like stretching out my arms and soaking up the warm, gorgeous sun!

My favorite Beatle's song expresses my feelings today:

I know I need to enjoy today, because, "In North Carolina, if you don't like the weather today, just wait until tomorrow." So, I'm going to love the weather while I can!!

Our little man turns 6!

My youngest baby turned 6 on the 22nd of February. We have decided to have a party in March when the weather is nicer and we can go to a park to play with some of his friends.

As we had scheduled a work weekend at the beach house, we spent Elijah's birthday at the beach. That was just fine with him, because it meant both of  his big brothers would be able to be there.

Having breakfast in bed.

Creatively, Elijah requested Oreo Poptart with whip cream as his birthday breakfast…easy enough!

 For his birthday meal, at first he chose the old standby, "Old MacDonalds". With a bit of coercion from us, and the lure of macaroni and cheese, he chose Chili's.  When we sat down, the table behind us had someone celebrating a birthday. Elijah said, "Someone else has a birthday on February 22?" We spoke to our waitress and they came out singing to Elijah.

At first, he was quite flabbergasted and didn't know how to react.

When he realized it meant a special treat, he was fine and dandy!

Never one to go with the tried and true, for his family birthday cake, he chose brownies. Once we got home we had another round of  "Happy Birthday", followed by presents.

Elijah marches to the tune of his own drummer a lot of the time. He is still a car nut! He loves, loves, loves cars. He has about a zillion to play with, but whenever we are looking for a toy for him, he invariably wants a car. He can point out makes and models of many cars. He will walk by a parked car and many times he will stop, stoop over and look to see if any part of the car's undercarriage touches the curb or parking stop.

He loves his stuffed animals. They all have names and personalities. This is "Oinky"

Elijah is a tried and true baby whisperer. He loves babies and will stop and talk with any he sees. Both of his nieces love him and will flash an ear to ear grin faster for him than just about anyone.

Elijah is slowly coming to terms with his beginnings. He loves to hear the story about when we knew he was our son.  He realizes that he is adopted and from time to time bursts out with questions which give a glimpse to his inner thoughts and processing. Because of his sisters becoming mothers, he phrases birth as, "pushing out".  The other day he asked me, "Do I look like the lady that pushed me out?" To which I replied, "You might, I don't know what she looked like." He then said, "She looked like me, that's what she looked like!"

Elijah is still on the very small size. He just outgrew size 3t and some 4t pants. He eats very slowly and compounds that with talking instead of eating. We have to routinely tell him to eat and take a break from talking.

We didn't start kindergarten this year in order to give him an extra year to develop. He knows all of the letters and can sound out quite a few. He can write his name and do some simple addition. Sometimes he wants to do "school" while Abbey does her work. He picks up a lot just by being in the same room. The other day, after hearing about the continents, he showed he had been passively listening. I was listing the 7 continents. I got 6 and was trying to recall which I had missed. Out of the blue, Elijah says the one I had left out, "Africa".

One of Mr E's favorite things to do is to ride his bike. He asks to ride at least once every day.  It doesn't matter if he is joined by Abbey or not, he just loves to ride!

He enjoys roughhousing with his Daddy.

I'm so thankful that the Lord brought Elijah into our lives. He enriches it daily. We love him more than he will ever know!!

Happy birthday, Elijah, my buddy!