Friday, August 31, 2007

Check This Out!

Our friends, the Brockelmans, who traveled with us to China, did a TV interview for their local news station, all about their adoption. If you copy and paste the link below into your web browser and then scroll to the bottom where it says "Not Nine Months, Two Years For Baby", you can view the interview. There is footage from the trip,including our Gotcha' Day. It gave me chills and made me bawl, just remembering the whole thing!! Check it out!!

http://www.WBIR.com

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Woo-eee Look at Me!

Emma has learned how to stand up without holding onto something. She's starting to take 3-5 steps walking by herself between Steve and I. It's funny, though, she will walk from Steve to me, but when I turn her around to walk from me to Steve, she just growls, sits down and crawls to him!!

Tonight I had a two hour meeting at church for Awana leaders. The boys and Emma had to go in the childcare because Steve's out of town. The childcare workers said Emma wouldn't let anyone near her. As soon as someone came towards her she would crawl over to one of her big brothers. She has definatly attached to them.

Tomorrow is Emma's first day at the Brenda's house (our babysitter). Since Steve is out of town and the boys first day of school isn't until next week, I have to get all three ready, plus myself, and be out the door by 7:00, in hopes of being to work by 7:30. We'll see how that goes!!

I am really anxious to start back to work. I need to get out a bit. I am not used to being home 24-7. I love my job and have the luxury of being home every afternoon with Emma. It will be good for us all to get back into a routine and the full days of school for Caleb will be great. He needs constant action....and frankly, I can't provide it. He wears me out!! He'll love the "go, go, go" of being at school all day...and maybe (I am praying) he will be worn out when he gets home...ha!!

My birthday was on Monday...I can't believe I am 37. I really don't feel that old. I hope I am not too old for this little one year old of mine. Guess it's too late, now. If nothing else, she will keep me young!! The scary thing is that I would really like to go back and adopt another baby from China and at the slow pace the China adoption program is at, I could be well into my 40's by the time we'd get another child. So, my plan is to pray and pray about it and know that God will give me clear answers of His plan for our family....or clear plans for Steve...I told him it's his decision wether or not we go back.

Hope everyone is enjoying the last weeks of summer!!

"What blueberry pancakes?? I didn't eat them."

"Hello?" (Anything can be a phone!)

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Feeding Ellie Dog

Emma has decided that her job is to check Ellie's water...to be sure it is at the right temperature...and to hand feed Ellie her dog food.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Imagine What God Will Do...

I had to pass on this link to our church website so that you could see the commercial our kids were in. Be sure to watch all the way to the end after all of the text. Caleb is pretty cute at the end...it makes up for all of the trouble he causes us! As my friend, Lynn always says, "There's a reason why God made them so cute"!

http://www.discoveryland.org/

Please send me a comment if you are reading our blog. I like to know if my time is being spent wisely. If people are really enjoying it, I will keep posting regualarly. To post a comment, just click on the word "comment" below any of my posts and it will take you to a screen with a text box for you to comment in.

Thanks!

Gina

Friday, August 17, 2007

Blowing Baked Bean Kisses...

Happy 7th Birthday, Caleb!



Alex, Abraham, Isaac, Caleb, Steven, Seth, Michael & Ryan (L-R)

Caleb's birthday was on August 11th, but yesterday was his party with his buddies. When I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday he said "I think I should ask Ryan and Seth to go to the races with me, "because they really like cars". It amazes me how God has softened Caleb's heart and molded him into such a caring and accepting little boy. Ryan and Seth are both boys with special needs. Ryan was in his kindergarten class and Seth is our babysitter's son. So, we took his idea, and added a few more boys...5 to be exact (Michael, Abraham, Steven, Alex and Isaac) and had a race car party. The boys met at our house for pizza and cake before we headed off to Wisconsin International Raceway to see the races. They had a blast....true "boy fun"!

Two cakes...one with egg and one without, so Seth could have cake, too! (I'm getting a little better at my cakes Diane...ha-ha!)

Starting last year, we decided that the boys should pick a charity of some sort to have their friends donate to, instead of bringing presents. Last year their friends brought books to donate to their new school library. This year, Caleb wanted to donate to The Humane Society. He had so much fun opening all of the "animal gifts". We delivered them to the Humane Society this afternoon. Then we got to spend some time checking out all of the animals!

How God Speaks.

It amazes me how God speaks. My good friend, Lynn and I were discussing last week how easy it is to get off task when it comes to reading the Bible. I was telling her how I have a stack of professional books, novels and my Bible sitting on my coffee table and so often I look at the Bible, then look at my other books and end up choosing the latter. I can even justify it with myself...."Well, Karen Kingsbury is a Christian novelist...and...there are many references to scritpure in it....so....I still am getting the Word when I chose her book instead of the Bible. I guess I need to pray and ask God to give me a stronger heart for His Word...but I also know that He meets me right where I am, so I have to give myself a little break!

Anyway, this discussion led to a discussion about our faith...and it's growth. I was telling my friend, Lynn, that I really feel I have grown a ton in the last 5-7 years in my faith walk. In fact, I remember about 5 years ago when Steve and I would have long discussions about Noah's Ark....and how could that really have happened.....every animal on the earth???? Well, I have now come to the point where I don't have to know the hows and why sof God....I just know that He is who He is and I believe His Word is true.

Well, the next day, I was reading some of the blogs of our China travelmates...when I stumbled upon a link for a website called Answers in Genesis. (Thanks, Suzanne!) I clicked on it and up came a large picture of Noah's Ark with the words "Noah's Ark...Fact or Myth??" The whole website is about Genesis and gives scientific proof for the things many of us have questioned at one point or another.

Was that God speaking to me or what?? Like my friend, Linda, said...."Isn't it amazing how just by having faith (believing without seeing) God will reveal more of Himself to you."

Amen, sister!!

Here is the link to the Answers in Genesis website: http://www.answersingenesis.org/

Re-adoption Day

On Monday, we had Emma's re-adoption. Not all states require parents of internationally adopted children to re-adopt in the states, but aparantly WI is one of the toughest states for adoption. They require the most as far as paper and legal work. The nice thing is that it is very inexpensive. We spent $40 total and that will give us 6 certified Birth Certificates for Emma. This will make applying for jobs, college, etc...much easier for her. It's nice to have everything done, now. The only hoops we have to jump yet are our post-placement visits....which are no big deal at all.


Re-adoption Day!
Judge Poppy and our family.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Spicy Nacho Girl

Emma is definately a "spicy girl" in more ways than one! Check out the nacho eating Emma Bug!!

Hmmm...

Mmmm....

Yummy!


Using my sign language to say "more".

"Please!"

Night-Night, Emma Bean!

Thought you'd get a kick out of this mini-movie. Emma now knows how to say "night-night". She can also blow kisses, but I wasn't able to capture that on the camera tonight. We'll try another night.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Welcome to Our New Blog!

Well, after a couple of late nights, e-mailing my friend, Amy, and kicking and screaming a bit, I finally figured out how to post a slide show on our new blog. So, the first slide show is a few of the photos that were taken for Discovery Land at our church. Because we were willing to let our kids be photographed and on huge posters all over our church, they let us have the whole CD of photos for free!! Nice little perk, eh?? Especially after I spent a boat load of money on Emma's first baby pictures! Now I don't have to take the boys in for their photo session!