Our 3rd Gotcha Day!

Three years ago you were adopted.

You were placed in our lives

and born into our hearts 

in a very special way.

We prayed for you,

we dreamed of you,

we prepared for you,

we waited for you.

And when we finally held you

for the very first time

it felt like you'd

belonged to us

forever.

poem by Kimberly Rinehart

Happy 3rd Gotcha Day!!

1 year home:

2 years home:

3 years home:

Gabe is TWELVE!!

It is so hard to believe that it has already been 12 years since this bright eyed boy with a big smile entered the world. 

He is smart and big hearted. 

He loves to read fiction and loves to tinker with computers and electronics. He has even taken apart my old broken laptop and put it back together again. 

He still loves music, too. This year he joined the youth praise band at church where he plays the piano. It is so exciting to see him use his talents for the Lord. 

He is always thinking and often has big ideas. 

His most endearing quality is his big heart. He loves God and he loves people. 

We are proud to call him son! 

Happy 12th birthday, Gabe!! 

Celebrating Rachel

My sister, Rachel, had a birthday at the beginning of the month and she and her family came up here to celebrate!

I planned a Murder Mystery Party for her using printables from The Dating Divas. If you haven't checked out their site - stop everything and check them out now. They have so many cute ideas!

For our first round, the adults plus Gabe and Selah were the suspects and the rest of the kids were the detectives. 

Here is Byron getting into character:

Rachel was the cook:

Selah was the maid:

It was basically a life sized Clue game. SO FUN!

For the second round, all of the kids were suspects and the grown ups were detectives. 

We sang happy birthday and Rachel blew out the candles.

It was great to celebrate my sister!! 

Faith is 6!

How can it be that this little beauty is already six?!?

She is spunky and so smart! She has a big smile and a sweet giggle. 

She is full of determination and no one knows how far she will go in life! I was so excited that she chose a Moana birthday and had this picture in mind for her photo shoot this year.

 She is SO FULL of joy. Everywhere we go people tell us that they feel joyful when she is around. 

She has brought so many things to our family since joining us 3 years ago. It is hard now to imagine life before she was a part of our family and we definitely can't imagine life without her. We are so blessed that we were given the privileged of calling her ours.  

Happy Birthday, sweet Faith! We love you!!!

The Baptisms of Selah and Mig

Yesterday was such a special day in our family!! Both Selah and Mig were baptized! 

The Denton Bible Church Chapel was packed as 25 people came forward to participate in the baptism ceremony. Each one gave a short testimony before they were baptized stating how they came to be a believer. Selah and Mig were the first up. 

You could just barely see Selah's ponytail over the podium - but her voice was big and strong.

Mig had a little help seeing over the podium from daddy. 

The audience chuckled as Mig told the exact time that he prayed to ask Jesus to be his Lord and Savior. (8:44pm on Easter Sunday). 

Our church allows believing and  baptized fathers to baptize their children. Byron baptized Gabriel 5 years ago and now had the honor of baptizing Selah and Mig. So special!!

Gabriel video recorded both Selah and Mig's testimonies and baptism. The whole video is about 5 minutes long - so be sure to watch!! 

And wouldn't you know it...when we sat down in the pew, a ladybug was crawling on the pew in front of us. We find these little guys in the most precious places - from the top of Pike's Peak, to the chapel pew before our children are baptized. Each time feels like a little wink from God. 

Halloween 2017

Our Halloween Day was SO BUSY this year! We had a homeschool Reformation Celebration party in the morning. Right after that, we had 2 orthodontic appointments. Then we raced home to eat dinner. Our original Halloween plans for a neighborhood hayride were cancelled because of wet, cold weather, so last minute we invited a bunch of families over for a Halloween Candy Hunt!

Here are my hunters: A pretty peacock, a stealthy ninja, a mad scientist and Moana!

All of the kids went upstairs and watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown while the parents hid bags and bags of candy downstairs.

When the movie was over, the kids were let down one at a time from youngest to oldest to search for candy. 

Everyone got plenty of candy to eat! Many kids said they liked this more than trick-or-treating! 

It was quite the crowd of cute kiddos!

All of the families posed for a Halloween picture.

And then I told an interactive, not so spooky story about a witch who built a little orange house.

The story leads the kids in cutting openings for the witch, her cat and a friendly little ghost to get into the  house. When the story is over, they open the paper and find that they have actually made a jack o' lantern! 

It was so fun to spend Halloween with so many friends!!!