The Lake

Daddy and Kaylee are looking at the ducks. It was her first time seeing a family of ducks swimming in real life :)  She yelled "Duhh!!! Duhh!!!" when she saw them :)

Watching them swim around the boat

Kaylee can only tube in the 5 mile per hour zone ~
we can't get her ears in the dirty lake water so we have to be careful.
She enjoys getting to ride around on the lake :)

Daddy and the big kids jumping into the lake to cool off

HUGE answer to prayer: Miss Kaylee has such a hard time with medicine (and we have to give it to her every night!)  Brodie has become our bedtime medicine distributor because it takes him holding her ~ she fights that hard! Well, out of no where in the middle of screaming and kicking last night, Kaylee started sucking on her medicine! Tonight we waited to see if she'd do it again and she did!!! What a blessing to give medicine where we don't feel like we are torturing her!!!

She had a looooong day today...out on the lake all day, no nap...
she was ready for bed and this is how we figured that out ;)

Swimming!!!

Kaylee Grace FINALLY got to go in the pool!!! She has had to wait for so long...first because of the casts, then the ear tubes, then the eyes...but today it has been 1 month since she had her eye surgery which meant she could get in the POOL!!! Sissy was more than happy to be the one to take her in :)

Sis is trying to teach her how to kick

Now we're getting some kicks!!!

Venturing into the deep end

Drying off :)

Thankful for Adoption

I'm reminded on a daily basis of how thankful I am that Jesus leads us by HIS Ways...and I truly am thankful that His Ways are not our ways. I've mentioned it before, but left to our own we would have never even considered adoption...not until the Lord moved so clearly on our hearts. 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways

 and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55 8-9

And what a JOY it has been to follow Him and be blessed by our sweet daughter! 

Our eyes have been opened and our hearts have been broken as we have journeyed into this world of adoption...I continually have a picture in my mind of Kaylee's crib room and the many sweet ones just sitting in there day after day. And to think that our Kaylee Grace was sitting in that lifeless room just 3 1/2 months ago...and to see her now ~ 

all the LIFE, all the GIGGLES, all the JOY!

We have many friends who are in the process of adoption right now or just about to start...it is an honor to pray for them as they journey through this beautiful work. 

We pray as a family for the MILLIONS of orphans who sit in orphanages/foster homes all around the world who desperately need a forever family. We also pray for the many AWESOME organizations who are bringing Christ to these children all around the world. Our friend, Belay, from His Little Feet reminded us that the most important work is that these organizations reach the fatherless with the TRUTH of the GOSPEL (Jesus made a way for ALL of us to be ADOPTED as God's children and spend eternity with Him!!!). As Belay says...if they have Jesus, they will always have hope...whether they get a family or not, they will have all they need. Of course the BEST option for these precious children would be to get adopted into a loving, Christ-centered home where they can be loved on with Jesus' love...so they can SEE and FEEL Christ's love every day!

As a family, we know that our work with orphans is not done just because we adopted one...we are called to take care of them and reach them with Christ's love so that their lives can be changed for all eternity. We are always praying about what that looks like and what Jesus wants us to do to be His hands and feet. 

In a few months, Brodie and Kennady will be heading to Haiti to LOVE ON some sweet children who have not been adopted yet.

And in the mean time, Miss Kaylee is advocating with her cute shirt that Auntie Julie got for her...

Wearing her 147 Million Orphans shirt 

There are SO many ways to support/care for/love on orphans!

I don't know the exact number of orphans worldwide... I've heard different statistics - 

147 million, 163 million... either way, it's WAY too many. 

"Sometimes I would like to ask God why he allows 

poverty, famine and injustice in the world, when He 

could do something about it...but I'm afraid He may 

ask me the same question." Anonymous.

We are all called to do SOMETHING... I heard another statistic one time...that if all the evangelical Christian's in the world decided to adopt, there would be 147 million families waiting to adopt rather than 147 million orphans waiting. We can't ever underestimate the power of working together and each of us doing our part! With God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!! 

Here are just a few ways that we can all make a difference!

Support/Feed ~ Sponsor a child who is an orphan

Give towards another family's adoption ~ Some may not be called to adopt but rather to help others to be able to adopt!

Raise awareness ~ Have an Orphan Choir come to your church!

So thankful that it is HIM who works in us to do His good work!!! (Philippians 2:13) All we have to do is follow :)

Practicing Our "Cheeeese"

We've been working on getting Kaylee saying "cheeeeese" for the camera so that we can have some family pictures taken soon ;)  Here she is practicing:

We had Kolson go first and demonstrate...

Kolson's always good for a handsome smile ;)

She stood where we wanted her too and started trying out her smile...

The more we said, "cheeeese", the sillier her smile got!

Kaylee Grace, you make us laugh all day long!!!

Our Weekend Flew By!

We had the Welcome Party where the Jr High team welcomes the 6th graders into Jr High ministry...

Kaylee's friend Alli came by....Kaylee's first name that she said is Alli...she LOVES Alli and gets so excited to see her! Alli is such a sport to let Kaylee to push her around in her chair and even let Kaylee sit in her lap for rides ;)

The kids taught Kaylee how to play T-Ball

Great hit Kaylee Grace!!!

Enjoying some nice cold water after their big practice ;)  (Kaylee keeps the top on her water when she drinks and just pretends to be drinking)

We enjoyed some of the peaches right off our tree in our backyard....some of the best we've ever had!!!

We're looking forward to enjoying the Lord's day tomorrow...a day of resting and worshiping Him as a family :)

Our Little Shopper

Brodie has been spending a little extra time with Kaylee each day having one-on-one time in order to really help with bonding. It has made a HUGE difference and she is having a blast with him. She loves to go places with him and the last couple of days he has run to the store with her for last minute dinner items and he let her push her own cart since they only needed an item or two :)
She thinks it's the BEST to push her own cart!!!

Proud Shopper!

Applesauce to "swipe" Kaylee with (we're working hard on introducing different tastes and textures!) and parmesan cheese for our pasta ;)

Taking groceries to the car

First week of Summer!

Our first week of Summer already flew by!

Keeg got a bow with a target for his Bday...had fun using it at the cabin :)

Sis tried it out too!

Getting ready for the lake :)

A day with cousins!

Loving her car!

We have had a lot of fun already...and we have also worked hard! We are keeping to somewhat of a schedule since we all seem to do better that way (especially little Miss Kaylee)...we have our morning routine, Bible time, chores and we are working hard on Bible Memory this summer! We are also doing a Summer Reading program ~ Christian Heros of the Faith! Kennady has read about Lottie Moon, Keeg is reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Kols is reading Hudson Taylor...all awesome stories!!! We learn so much from those who followed Jesus so well before us!

Happy Father's Day!!!

We are thankful for the BEST Dad/Husband ever!!!

We spent Father's Day weekend at the lake :)

Kaylee is quickly learning that she has the best daddy ever!

She just got these glasses as a gift...she kept them on all day! Now if we could only get her to do that with her seeing glasses ;)

Kolson lost a tooth while tubing....it got bumped and came out moments later while on the boat!

Happy Father's Day, Babe!!! We love you and are SO thankful God gave you to us ;)