FAITH and CHUCK E CHEESE

Isn't it so cool when God does something in your personal life and you know He's just looking down winkin' at ya?! Well, that happened to me tonight at Chuck E Cheese. We were there for this sweet girl's birthday.

























and after being there for about an hour, I see a familiar face. (PAUSE)

(REWIND) Saturday night... I was at Wal-Mart... ALONE (which is very rare). I did my little bit of shopping and was waiting in line to check out. In front of me was this precious lady and her two blond hair, blue eyed girls. We smiled at each other .. she mentioned that her girls were tired and it was time for bed (it was after 8pm) and when the check out lady was done ringing up her groceries... this lady realized she didn't have her wallet. She had left it at Sams in the cart... in the parking lot. She asked the lady to hold her groceries and she'd be back. So here she goes with her two little girls (not sure how old they are but my guess is 2 maybe 3 and 4 maybe 5)to go and LOOK for her wallet. I checked out and left Wal-mart. I decided to go and see if I saw her in the Sams parking lot. I just whispered up a prayer... Lord, if you want me to help this lady... please let me see her. I turned a corner and there she was. So I rolled down my window and said "Did you find your wallet?" She said "yes!". I could tell she was a little weary but still had a precious smile on her face. I said "Hey... I know you don't know me but can I help you? What if I follow you back to Wal-Mart and watch your girls while you run in and get your groceries? She said "Yes, that would be great". When we got to Wal-Mart... her girls were a little freaked out by me watching them so she said "thanks anyway"... I said... "I wish I could go in and get the groceries for you." She said "Let's Try". So she gave me her credit card AND license and in I went. I must admit the woman at the register's face was quite confused. She said "Wait... you didn't know her did you?" I said "No, I just followed her" - WHICH SOUNDS EVEN CRAZIER...

Well, she let me buy her groceries with her credit card. SO I signed her name... haha. Then left with her groceries. I wheeled them out and we said goodbye. I got in the car and thought "Why didn't I get her information". I knew her first name... I couldn't remember her last name... and that was it.

I again just whispered up a little prayer... Lord, if you want us to be friends, I know I will see her again.



That was Saturday... today is Monday. We are at Chuck E Cheese... which we go to ONE IN A BLUE MOON. I look up and THERE SHE IS. I was so excited. It was her FIRST TIME to ever go to Chuck E Cheese. I ran up to her and said "Hey... I am the girl from Wal-Mart". We both were giddy excited and talked about how we both thought "Why didn't I get her information".

I asked her how long she had lived here and what her husband did. HE IS A PASTOR OF A CHURCH PLANT (haha... small world... that's what my husband does too). She lives down town. I live about 20 minutes west of where she lives.
We exchanged information and I just kept saying... This is SO AMAZING!

Isn't that a fun story?

She is learning to swim!

I got to really work with my girl ... teaching her how to swim. We are just in the beginning stages but I am so proud of her!

Good Times!

What a gift these families have been. We moved here 5 years ago with these two families to be a part of a church plant. Tonight we got together to swim and eat dinner and celebrate two birthdays. Our times ALL together are rare but always sweet!

Here are our 14 kids all together :-)

I put a few other pictures on my PHOTO BLOG... check 'em out :-)

Cooped Up

My sweet boy, A2 has been sick. High fevers... which means.... we have all been inside for a few days. The highlight of our day is .... when the mail comes.

Some read the mail...

Some eat the mail...

Here's my sick little power ranger. It's longer than a 24 hour bug. Not sure what it is though... Love that tough face.

This one just told me she was struggling with not being mean. She just was sent to her room.... and I told her when she got it together she could come out. So she came out and said "I don't think I can not be mean"... At least she is honest!!! She snapped out of it :-) Woke up on the wrong side of her nap!

Fun Weekend!

Last night I went to dinner to celebrate my friend, Emile's 30th birthday. Ted wondered where I was because I was gone for 4 1/2 hours. He said "I thought you guys were only going to dinner." I said "That is all we did". We sat in that restaurant for THAT LONG! I needed a girl's night out. I REALLY enjoyed it and I love meeting new people.. she had a few friends there that I didn't know. It was LOADS of fun! I laughed a lot! Happy 30th Emile.







Today we went to a birthday party for this precious boy!




Grant turned 5 and we celebrated at the park for his birthday. It was a fun party!









There was face painting... always a crowd favorite!





Here are my precious friends, Jocelyn and Becky.




When we got home from the park, the kids played in the sprinkler. I got a kick out of these pictures...



























After Baby A's nap, we headed to the pool. Going to the pool has been the highlight of our summer for sure!








My and My Girl! (one of them :-)


ONE YEAR AGO today is when we went to the Hernandez house to learn about their adoption. We met JOSH AND JULIE that night at dinner. We knew when we left there that we would apply to AGCI and start our adoption. Tomorrow marks the one year mark of us applying to AGCI.

Everyone Loves An Ethiopian Boy!

I love this kid!

He is peeking into a basket. I love it! He is SO CURIOUS!

He's in the middle of saying something!

Waving! FOR THE FIRST TIME AND I GOT A PICTURE OF IT!

My future's so bright... I gotta wear shades!

ANOTHER BLOG ADDRESS

Hey friends... I started a blog to chronicle my photography skills as I am taking my frist class this summer at UT ... Just wanted to share with my blog friends...

www.favoritepictureoftheday.blogspot.com

Had to share...

Just a few pictures of Baby A. He is crawling all over the place. In this picture, he has some food on his face! He loves meal times!





I love this look on his face :-)





Ave made this after VBS today. That is our house... Mr and Mrs T, A2,3 &4. TOO SWEET! She spelled "thankful" wrong... but that's ok. They told her to come home and draw a picture and put it on the fridge. The girl follows directions... she is so the first born! She whipped it out ... not wasting anytime since they said "go home and draw a picture". She didn't spend much time on it but she followed directions.







Just thought this was cute... Baby A fell asleep while sitting and then just laid his head in his own lap. OH HOW FLEXIBLE THEY ARE AS BABES!






This is Maggie and Baby A. TOO CUTE! I love the way they are looking at each other.

I Made A Vow

On Thursday night, I raised my right hand and made a VOW (which I take seriously) to not use the green box setting on my camera. I was in my photography class when I made this vow. Easier said than done... BUT I have stuck with it. I know, it's only Friday and it was just over 24 hours ago that I made that vow. But see I have taken over 300 pictures today. Most of which I deleted. Almost all of which I deleted. (I have lots to learn!)


I am reading a book that Ted got me about my camera and will be practicing a TON because on Wednesday, I will be taking some fun engagement pictures of Kristin and Justin (precious friends of ours that just got engaged). They know I am not a pro and we are just doing it for fun... if we get some good pics, that is just a bonus.



So what does it mean to take it off the green box? The green box is the automatic setting on my camera. I now have switched it to M. That means that I am manually setting my camera (shutter speed, the ISO and the Aperture). I still don't know exactly what all those things mean but I am learning.



My photography teacher gave a great word picture that keeps me off that green box and the gist of that story is ... you learn by doing. So I am doing A LOT of picture taking. My poor kids.



Tonight, Mr. T and I went on a date. SO FUN. Afterwards, I wanted to go take pictures of flowers or something (give my kids a break). We didn't have time before we had to pick up our kids at VBS so we got in the parking lot of the church that was hosting this VBS and I took pictures of the lady's baby who had just pulled up next to us in the parking lot (I know this lady so it wasn't as weird as you are thinking).



Here are my FIRST DAY ON MANUAL pictures!



This little guy is the youngest of 7 kids. He is a doll! This precious family have adopted 5 kids (4 brown , 1 white) and they have 2 biological kids. They amaze me!




He looks just like a cabbage patch :-) SO CUTE!





THOSE EYES!



And this is my favorite picture of the day... not because of what it is of, but because of the look.







Thanks for letting me share. I'm gonna go put myself to sleep by reading this photography book - ha! :-)

7 MONTHS OLD - TIME FLIES!

Here is my boy when we got his referral



He was only 3 or 4 weeks old in this picture.






And here he is at 2 months old... someone sent me this picture who traveled before we did.







Here he is when we picked him up in Ethiopia.. He was 3 1/2 months old.



AND NOW....



Here he is at 7 months old! He is a CHUNK!







At 7 months old ... Baby A4 is:

1. crawling! Can you believe it? He took his first few crawls just yesterday

2. loving bath time... and now, he even loves pool time! He loves to splash the water around him.

3. loving being outside. He could sit on a blanket in the shade and feel the summer weather for hours... which is good because we spend most of our time at the pool these days. He spends most of his time on a blanket in the grass under an umbrella.

4. loving to EAT! Seriously, this kid can put back some formula, baby food, crackers... whatever we will give him.

5. struggling with his naps. I am not sure if it is because we are always on the go this summer or if it is because he is starting to crawl and wants to check EVERYTHING out.

6. still so interested in Baby Einsteins. It's his favorite show and he watches it every morning.

7. a SCREAMER! Our favorite game to play with him is after he does a little scream, we scream back... then he screams louder... it goes until it's too much to take! It is precious! (sometimes a little too loud... but still precious!)

8. into everything! If he can reach it, he pulls it down or dumps it out or just wants to taste it. It is time to do the MAJOR baby proofing.

9. loving to swing. Someone gave us a swing for outside and we put it up. He could sit in it AS LONG as we would let him and swing. Sometimes, the kids play in the back yard and he watches them from his swing. They go by and give him a push and I cook dinner :-)

10. always ready for a good startle. He loves you to scare him. He gets such a kick out of it.



WE ARE SO THANKFUL FOR THE PAST 3 1/2 MONTHS THAT WE'VE HAD HIM HOME! He is a delightful baby. We are enjoying every moment with him!

Look WHO came to town and Look WHO IS back in town

CAME TO TOWN

My precious friend, Deanna came for a visit

BACK IN TOWN

And Aunt Charli is HOME :-) She was away at camp for 10 days.

Deanna and I got to spend LOTS of time catching up. That's what I call chicken soup for the soul. We also had fun swimming and we both are crazy with the camera so we took TONS of pictures while she was here. Our favorite though was getting Mr T (my husband) out to the park to take pictures of us. We were driving him crazy... it was so fun!

Deanna took some fun pictures of us too.

Just a few more fun pictures to share!

Critter and Charli

My Boys!

NEW BLOG!

Fresh Start with a NEW BLOG.

Pictures are always fun... so here are some pictures for you to look at :-)

A2 - This kid rocks on his scooter!

My dear friend, Deanna, is in town and she wanted to try out the new camera. Theo was out with the older kids and so Deanna and I took lots of pictures with A4 :-)

Ave loves being at the pool... WE ALL DO. This is her with a few friends spinning on a float.

A4 - He loves the POOL ... now... he wasn't crazy about it a week ago. It finally hit the 90's here so the water is PERFECT!

We tried out the swim team for a week. WE LOVED IT! The only problems is that it isn't good for the WHOLE A-Team... so we are going to wait. Ave is totally fine with this decision. She agreed that she'd like to hang out in her PJs a little longer in the morning. So... we will be at the pool a lot this summer but it won't be for practice. I have loved getting to know the moms and being there each day! FUN TIMES :-)