They are precious in his sight

Jesus loves the little children

Jesus loves the little children

All the children of the world; Red and yellow, black and white,

They are precious in his sight;

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Jesus died for all the children,

All the children of the world; Red and yellow, black and white,

They are precious in his sight;

Jesus died the little children of the world.

Jesus rose for all the children,

All the children of the world; Red and yellow, black and white,

They are precious in his sight;

Jesus arose the little children of the world.

Jesus wants the little children,

To be careful what they do;

Honor father, mother dear

Keep their hearts so full of cheer;

Then he'll take them home to glory by and by.

Go to the Laughner's blog to find out more.

(I love my new bag)

Passport

We got Jordan's passport in the mail today. Hooray!!!

I know there has been some confusion about what you need for passport application so here is what we sent out.

- NH adoption decree original with raised seal.

(They sent this one back with a new passport)

- Permanent Resident Card.

(they told us we will not get it back but we did)

- NH Birth Certificate with raised seal

(you do not need to send this but we did just in case)

- We took all the Ethiopian paperwork just to be safe but did not need it.
Here is Jordan's old and new passport.

Now we need to apply for her SSN and the certificate of citizenship (you do not need to get this certificate but we will get it anyway). If you have any paperwork question ask Fil. He is quite the guru when it comes to paperwork. Just ask for Dr. Fil :)

She is crawling!

She is crawling. You have no idea how excited we are. She showed us her new skills tonight at the library of all places. I guess she wanted to checkout some dvd's and got them herself. I am so happy. You have no idea but this makes my life much easier. You go girl.
Here are my two silly girls. Emma just finished some pbj sandwiches if you are wondering about her beautiful face and Jo just finished drinking her water. Yep two busy sisters.
Don't they just look cute?

Memorial Day

You are probably wondering what is going on. Well the Laughner's told us on Saturday that they will be heading to one of the NH beaches on Monday and since we live relatively close we met up with them!!!
The boys had a great time playing together in the sand and to everyone's surprise even in the water. Here are the boys in a bunker Fil dug for them. Fil and his girls getting their toes wet.

Let me tell ya it was cold!

Nate won the award for most sand on his body but then again he wins that every time we go to the beach.
The boys pretended they were in a battle and the flying kites around us were bombers. Emma played that the hole was her castle and she was a princess. Somehow it worked for everybody. I love their imaginations.

The water here in NH is so cold. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw my son in there. Sam and Michael spent some time playing in the waves. Nate joined them for a little bit and even Fil got all wet. Just in case you are wondering I got my toe wet and that was good enough for me.
Our silly girl.

And her new friend Allison.

We are praying that the Laughner's will get their referral soon!

I believe this is our first family picture with everybody.

I feel so blessed!

We had a great time at the beach!

Sunday Reflections

Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have revealed.

Revelation 15:3-4

Guess Who?

We got to meet the Laughner family today. We have been trying to get together with them for some time and it finally happened. We met at the Magic Wings butterflies conservatory in Massachusetts. It is a very nice place and all the kids loved it.
Here I am with Jo.
Emma and a butterfly on her hand.
Butterfly on Nate's finger. Poor guy he waited for a long time to have a butterfly to sit on him.

And a butterfly on Sam's shoe.

(Photo by Sam)
Here are the boys patiently waiting for some butterflies to sit on them.
After we were done with all the butterflies we could handle we headed to the Laughner's home. We had a great time there. The boys played outside the whole time and Sam and Nate already asked when are we going so see the Laughner's again.
Here are the girls. This was the first time when we were invited to someones house since we got Jordan. She wasn't so sure the entire time and she definitely wanted me.
Lori, Jordan, and I. The Laughner's have been waiting for their referral for some time. We love getting to know other families adopting from Ethiopia. Even though we have never meet before today we have this adoption bond between us. We cannot wait to see the Laughner's little cutie. Hopefully soon!!! Thank you so much for amazing Saturday. By the way Lori makes the most amazing candies. We still have few left in our refrigerator.

Rock N' Race

Yesterday we all went to our state capitol Concord to watch Fil run in the 5K Rock N' Race. It was a cloudy evening and we even got few drops of rain at the start which I think the runners enjoyed. I am not so sure about those walkers.

Here you can see the start line. There were a total of 1887 runners and walkers all together.

The run started at 6:12 pm. If you are wondering why in the world it would start at such an odd time it was because of live start coverage on our local WMUR television station.

And here is the "Go daddy GO" team.
And the race is on.
This is the official winner of the run.
But our winner is our daddy. Fil is wearing a shirt from his Turkey trot run back in November. It is always fun to watch Fil run. He has done a great job by the way. He ran this run 3 years ago and he was better by 8 minutes this time and he is not hurting like he was few years back.
I couldn't resists to add this picture. We see this car in our small town all the time. I cannot believe somebody would put this huge moose on his car and drive with it.

Pray for the Chapman Family!!!

Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday evening after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name.

Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth have long been supporters of international adoption, having brought three girls from China into their family. Maria was the youngest.The couple is so active in the cause that they formed an organization, Shaohannah’s Hope, to aid families wanting to adopt.

You can read rest of the article here.

Pray for the Chapman family in this difficult time.

Maria is at her "grand ball" with the bridegroom!

We will never be the same

If you would like to see this video in a higher quality click on video twice. It will take you directly to You Tube. Below the video is a link to view in high quality. If you click on this link the video will be much clearer.

Schools Out

As of today our school is finished. That is right we are done for this school year. A full 36 weeks of school. Well we did double up maybe two weeks but other than that 5 days a week for 36weeks. Just in case you are wondering we started early in August and went through all the way until Christmas when we took 2 weeks off and then we went all the way until Fil and I went to Ethiopia and we took total 3 weeks off then. I wasn't sure with the adoption how it would all work out so I wanted to be ahead just in case. I am glad I did so we can now enjoy the nice weather outside. I never thought I would be homeschooling our kids. We are taking one year at a time and I can tell you that I already have stuff ready for next year. It is still in boxes but I wanted a summer vacation as well so I already got everything so I would not have to think about it for awhile. We all learned so much this year and I have to admit that I am already looking forward to next year. I asked the boys to show me which was their favorite book this year. Here is Sam with Time Traveler just in case you did not know he loves history.
Nate loves Detectives in Togas.
And Emma picked the Beginners Bible.
Here is Sam with his pile of book he read this year. He is doing excellent job reading and I just found out few days ago that Nate is reading as well. You go boys. Good job.

Sam counted that he read 28 books total I read 35 books to them at least. That is 63 total.
I am so ready for summer break.

Of To Work We Go

My two little boys left this morning for work. Fil's company had a bring your kids to work day so they left early with him this morning. They had all sorts of activities planned for them. When I picked them up this afternoon they had their hands full of stuff they got including their own work badges. Even though they don't open doors it doesn't matter to them. They are so proud of them anyway. They had a great time even though they did not make any money they wanted to go back to work.
Here is Fil with his girls and the boys.
The girls and I spent the morning shopping. We had a great time as well.

Best Friends

Everytime I looked at my boys I see two best friends. They love each other very much. They are only 13 months apart in age but most people think they are twins. They've done everything together since Nate was born and they are not tired of each other yet (ok they do have their moments once in a while). They are together all the time. They learn from each other during school and afterwards they always come up with stuff to do.
They live in their own world most of the time. I love their imagination. Sometimes I stop whatever I am doing and try to listen to what they are up to. It amazes me the imagination they have.
They remind me of Fil and his brother. It is sometimes scary to listen to them and I can hear Fil talking to Vit in them. I hope ( and pray) everyday that their close relationship will last forever.

By the way they do include Emma in their world.

I love my boys very much.