I have begun to chronicle our adoption story through my new blog, A Seventh Sister!
I have already blogged about some of the events that have already happened with our adoption (like getting our fingerprints done). I've also set up a "Chip In" thingy there, so if you are so inclined, you can donate directly to our personal paypal account!
I've also created a Facebook Page called "Auction for A Seventh Sister" where we will be doing auctions and other fundraisers! Check it out. I'm doing a few quick auctions that will end this week just to kick things off. We welcome any donations to these auctions - you just put up a photo and a description of the item you are donating, and then ship the item to the winning bidder once I confirm that payment has been made!
Hope you enjoy following our adoption saga!
Showing posts with label Adventures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adventures. Show all posts
Monday, January 28, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
We have a BIG Announcement.....
Are you sitting down?
Take a really good look at that family photo....do you see what I see? Right there, in front of Rebekah and just to the left of Daryl, behind Dayton....do you see it? It's an empty spot. It's a spot we are going to be trying to fill this year....
WE ARE ADOPTING...at least we are stepping forth in faith to attempt to adopt. Whether or not we can pass all the tests we really don't know, but we have been researching for months and have not yet found anything that would disqualify us from adopting. Well, there is the question of both parents being of sound mind, and our adopting when we already have a house full will cause most people to think that we are no longer in our right mind. But let me explain how and why we came to this decision.
If you have been following my blog, you already know that I have a heart for orphans. What you don't know is that I have always had a heart for adoption. When I was in high school, I read the book "The Family Nobody Wanted" that was about a family who adopted lots of kids and I just loved their story. My friends from my youth will remember me telling them that if I have 4 boys, I'd adopt a girl...I've offered to adopt relatives and we've taken in several young ladies through the years to help them through a tough time in their lives. I love to invest in children's lives and I praise God for the opportunities He has given me in the past. Opportunities to be used by Him to make a difference in someone's life. Opportunities to serve God by serving others.
Starting last spring, just after Carese was born, Daryl and I started talking about adoption. Mostly we were talking about the orphans that I was advocating for. But our discussions also included talking about whether or not we could adopt one of these little ones who need so badly to be saved from their awful situations. But each discussion ended with, it just won't work for us, right now.
Until last November. This time, after reading a blog post about adoption and how freeing it was for this family to learn to let go of the desire for "things" and focus their money and time into saving two children from Eastern European orphanages, our discussion ended with "it's time to move forward and see if this is what God wants us to do." We began to seriously look into the possibility of adopting a child with Down Syndrome from Eastern European Countries. These children are in desperate situations, and we fell that God is calling us to use all the knowledge/skills/understanding that we have learned through loving and caring for our precious Esther.
Around that time I really got excited because I got a glimpse into how God has been setting things up for this time. Over the last few months, Daryl has been working overtime, and I've been involved with a gleaners group and the combination has packed our larder. We can live very inexpensively for a long time. On top of that with some hard work, plus our tax return, plus fund raising and grants, but most of all with God pulling a few miracles off for us, we felt that this was indeed something possible for our family.
So we presented this idea to the children. A few of the older children were aware the Daryl and I had been talking about the possibility of adoption and we knew that they were in favor of the idea. But the children's response to our commitment to pursuing adoption was beyond anything I had expected!
All morning long they were brainstorming with me about ways that we could live on less and save the difference. Some of the things that they voted on to agree to do without until the adoption process is finished are Little Caesar's Pizza, cold cereal, no DVD rental. I took a nap that day and when I woke up the kids had decorated a canning jar with fabric, buttons, a bow and the words "Bring Her Home" on it. We scoured our rooms and put all the change we could find into the jar.
At that time we found an adorable little girl that we hoped to adopt. Only we found out after some initial paperwork, and someone actually talking to a judge in a particular Eastern European country, that even though they allow "large families" to adopt, their definition of large families is no more than 7 children. We tried for an exemption since only 7 of our children living at home are dependents, the other 3 are over 18. We were told that the official even said "we have fewer children in some of our orphanages than that family has in their home!" They just don't get it.
We were disappointed and felt like this was a real set back. We decided that since the holidays were approaching rapidly, and since Esther was having surgery soon after that, we would put adoption thoughts on hold until things were settled after her surgery. But we did some leg work. We found another country that was open to families of our size adopting from their country and began some paperwork with an agency, About a Child, that has a great history with adoptions from that country and working with large families. We also looked into home study providers in our area and started paperwork with Bethany Christian Services.
We also looked at children available from that country. Checking new children whose files became available as well. But we just didn't find one that we felt led to adopt.
Until.Last.Week. Esther was recovered from her surgery (at least she was off pain meds and beginning to be very active - i.e. getting into trouble/wanting to go outside and such), so I decided to take a look to see if there were any new children from the country we were looking to adopt from. There were. I forwarded the link to Daryl and the conversation was picked up once again. The next day, Daryl send me an email stating that this was his written approval to begin the process to try to adopt a particular child that we had found. He was so sweet to do this as then I knew that he was 100% ready to go and that he knew that I was ready and doing it for the right reasons (most of our recent discussions were about why we would pursue an adoption).
In the last week and a half, we have submitted the money to begin our home study, filled out more paperwork than it takes to buy a house, handed out referrals and picked up a new/used printer/scanner/copier as we'll need it for this process! I also moved up our tax appointment and will have our tax return submitted by the end of this week! I've made appointments for nearly all our family members to have physicals done (our family physician has generously agreed to do this for us all at once, and at an extremely discounted rate!), and tomorrow the 5 adults are all going in for fingerprinting/FBI background checks!
I can't say more about exactly who we are attempting to adopt until we are legally/officially committed to this child. That means sending in our commitment fee and some initial paperwork that is sent to the country we are adopting from, and they agree that we are good candidates to adopt and they accept our commitment. At that point she is no longer available for international adoption unless we have to quit the adoption process for some reason. There are no guarantees, as an in-country family could still adopt her, or a family member step forward, or the child could become too ill to leave the country (or even die - this has happened).
We've now told most of our close friends and family, and have found more excitement and support than I could have imagined. I hope that you, my readers, will also be excited for us as we begin this life changing adventure!
Please pray with us for favor with the application process, and that the funds will be in place as we need them as we complete our home study and prepare our dossier. Please pray that the little one we are hoping to adopt will continue in good health and that we will find favor with the officials in that country.
Just to give you some idea of the cost of adopting from an Eastern European Country, you can check out these stats:
Home Study - $4 - $5,000
Adoption Agency fees - $3 - $5,000
Program Fees (paid to the orphans country) - $10,000 - $17,000
Finger Printing/Background Check - $200
Plus misc expenses along the way that can reach to $1000 or more.
Traveling Expenses - $2,000 - $8,000 depending on the time of year!
As you can see you'd have to be independently wealthy to accomplish this. Most families who can adopt, can't afford it! You can see why. We are committed to now incurring any debt to adopt this child, and I know that God can do this if it is in His will for our family. Pray that we will follow His lead.
If you are interested in helping us with our early expenses (most grants are not awarded until the home study is completed or once you have been approved to travel to the country the first time), please email me and I'll let you know how you can help. Right now we are looking at around $6,000 that we still need to raise before we can submit our dossier.
Stay tuned for links to fund raising efforts!
Here's a few things that keep running through my thoughts lately"
"God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply." - Hudson Taylor
James 1:27 - "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
Take a really good look at that family photo....do you see what I see? Right there, in front of Rebekah and just to the left of Daryl, behind Dayton....do you see it? It's an empty spot. It's a spot we are going to be trying to fill this year....
WE ARE ADOPTING...at least we are stepping forth in faith to attempt to adopt. Whether or not we can pass all the tests we really don't know, but we have been researching for months and have not yet found anything that would disqualify us from adopting. Well, there is the question of both parents being of sound mind, and our adopting when we already have a house full will cause most people to think that we are no longer in our right mind. But let me explain how and why we came to this decision.
If you have been following my blog, you already know that I have a heart for orphans. What you don't know is that I have always had a heart for adoption. When I was in high school, I read the book "The Family Nobody Wanted" that was about a family who adopted lots of kids and I just loved their story. My friends from my youth will remember me telling them that if I have 4 boys, I'd adopt a girl...I've offered to adopt relatives and we've taken in several young ladies through the years to help them through a tough time in their lives. I love to invest in children's lives and I praise God for the opportunities He has given me in the past. Opportunities to be used by Him to make a difference in someone's life. Opportunities to serve God by serving others.
Starting last spring, just after Carese was born, Daryl and I started talking about adoption. Mostly we were talking about the orphans that I was advocating for. But our discussions also included talking about whether or not we could adopt one of these little ones who need so badly to be saved from their awful situations. But each discussion ended with, it just won't work for us, right now.
Until last November. This time, after reading a blog post about adoption and how freeing it was for this family to learn to let go of the desire for "things" and focus their money and time into saving two children from Eastern European orphanages, our discussion ended with "it's time to move forward and see if this is what God wants us to do." We began to seriously look into the possibility of adopting a child with Down Syndrome from Eastern European Countries. These children are in desperate situations, and we fell that God is calling us to use all the knowledge/skills/understanding that we have learned through loving and caring for our precious Esther.
Around that time I really got excited because I got a glimpse into how God has been setting things up for this time. Over the last few months, Daryl has been working overtime, and I've been involved with a gleaners group and the combination has packed our larder. We can live very inexpensively for a long time. On top of that with some hard work, plus our tax return, plus fund raising and grants, but most of all with God pulling a few miracles off for us, we felt that this was indeed something possible for our family.
So we presented this idea to the children. A few of the older children were aware the Daryl and I had been talking about the possibility of adoption and we knew that they were in favor of the idea. But the children's response to our commitment to pursuing adoption was beyond anything I had expected!
All morning long they were brainstorming with me about ways that we could live on less and save the difference. Some of the things that they voted on to agree to do without until the adoption process is finished are Little Caesar's Pizza, cold cereal, no DVD rental. I took a nap that day and when I woke up the kids had decorated a canning jar with fabric, buttons, a bow and the words "Bring Her Home" on it. We scoured our rooms and put all the change we could find into the jar.
At that time we found an adorable little girl that we hoped to adopt. Only we found out after some initial paperwork, and someone actually talking to a judge in a particular Eastern European country, that even though they allow "large families" to adopt, their definition of large families is no more than 7 children. We tried for an exemption since only 7 of our children living at home are dependents, the other 3 are over 18. We were told that the official even said "we have fewer children in some of our orphanages than that family has in their home!" They just don't get it.
We were disappointed and felt like this was a real set back. We decided that since the holidays were approaching rapidly, and since Esther was having surgery soon after that, we would put adoption thoughts on hold until things were settled after her surgery. But we did some leg work. We found another country that was open to families of our size adopting from their country and began some paperwork with an agency, About a Child, that has a great history with adoptions from that country and working with large families. We also looked into home study providers in our area and started paperwork with Bethany Christian Services.
We also looked at children available from that country. Checking new children whose files became available as well. But we just didn't find one that we felt led to adopt.
Until.Last.Week. Esther was recovered from her surgery (at least she was off pain meds and beginning to be very active - i.e. getting into trouble/wanting to go outside and such), so I decided to take a look to see if there were any new children from the country we were looking to adopt from. There were. I forwarded the link to Daryl and the conversation was picked up once again. The next day, Daryl send me an email stating that this was his written approval to begin the process to try to adopt a particular child that we had found. He was so sweet to do this as then I knew that he was 100% ready to go and that he knew that I was ready and doing it for the right reasons (most of our recent discussions were about why we would pursue an adoption).
In the last week and a half, we have submitted the money to begin our home study, filled out more paperwork than it takes to buy a house, handed out referrals and picked up a new/used printer/scanner/copier as we'll need it for this process! I also moved up our tax appointment and will have our tax return submitted by the end of this week! I've made appointments for nearly all our family members to have physicals done (our family physician has generously agreed to do this for us all at once, and at an extremely discounted rate!), and tomorrow the 5 adults are all going in for fingerprinting/FBI background checks!
I can't say more about exactly who we are attempting to adopt until we are legally/officially committed to this child. That means sending in our commitment fee and some initial paperwork that is sent to the country we are adopting from, and they agree that we are good candidates to adopt and they accept our commitment. At that point she is no longer available for international adoption unless we have to quit the adoption process for some reason. There are no guarantees, as an in-country family could still adopt her, or a family member step forward, or the child could become too ill to leave the country (or even die - this has happened).
We've now told most of our close friends and family, and have found more excitement and support than I could have imagined. I hope that you, my readers, will also be excited for us as we begin this life changing adventure!
Please pray with us for favor with the application process, and that the funds will be in place as we need them as we complete our home study and prepare our dossier. Please pray that the little one we are hoping to adopt will continue in good health and that we will find favor with the officials in that country.
Just to give you some idea of the cost of adopting from an Eastern European Country, you can check out these stats:
Home Study - $4 - $5,000
Adoption Agency fees - $3 - $5,000
Program Fees (paid to the orphans country) - $10,000 - $17,000
Finger Printing/Background Check - $200
Plus misc expenses along the way that can reach to $1000 or more.
Traveling Expenses - $2,000 - $8,000 depending on the time of year!
As you can see you'd have to be independently wealthy to accomplish this. Most families who can adopt, can't afford it! You can see why. We are committed to now incurring any debt to adopt this child, and I know that God can do this if it is in His will for our family. Pray that we will follow His lead.
If you are interested in helping us with our early expenses (most grants are not awarded until the home study is completed or once you have been approved to travel to the country the first time), please email me and I'll let you know how you can help. Right now we are looking at around $6,000 that we still need to raise before we can submit our dossier.
Stay tuned for links to fund raising efforts!
Here's a few things that keep running through my thoughts lately"
"God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply." - Hudson Taylor
James 1:27 - "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
Thursday, January 3, 2013
A New Year is Upon Us!
OK, so I've been busy...for some strange reason.
December was a busy month, but my biggest reason for not blogging was that I was lacking energy and motivation. I just didn't want to spend the time to blog as I was having trouble finding the time to do more important things like plan for Christmas, do Christmas activities and such. I was struggling with some physical challenges, most of which I have overcome now.
I've also been thinking about blogging and wondering if it is really worth the time. Does it really matter to anyone if I blog about our life - I don't think we're all that interesting, really! I haven't had a comment on my blog here in months. I might just lay off doing this. If you like reading my blog, please leave a comment to encourage me to continue. I do enjoy blogging, but I don't want to do it just to toot my own horn, so to speak. I need to know if you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it!
Speaking of writing - I'm writing a chapter for a book about women's fertility in the 40s! I get to write about all my childbearing experiences and then answer questions that were submitted by prospective readers! I'm not sure what the book's title will be, but it will be published electronically. It will be published in June - let me know if you are interested in knowing how to get the book!
So here are some high lights of the last month:
Wow - This photo was amazing, but scary at the same time, know what I mean?
Elizabeth and I had a very special birthday - 12-12-12! We had a lot of friends over and had a 12 themed party - dozens of sandwhiches and cookies, and we sang The Twelve Days of Christmas at 12:12:12!
This year I directed the church choir for the fall and Christmas seasons, and I so enjoyed it. Jessica did a special braid for the day that the choir sang for the service! She's getting amazing at doing great braids!
Hope you enjoyed the update! Please keep Esther in your prayers as she is having her tonsils and adenoids removed on Monday - she'll be down at Children's in Seattle for at least one night.
December was a busy month, but my biggest reason for not blogging was that I was lacking energy and motivation. I just didn't want to spend the time to blog as I was having trouble finding the time to do more important things like plan for Christmas, do Christmas activities and such. I was struggling with some physical challenges, most of which I have overcome now.
I've also been thinking about blogging and wondering if it is really worth the time. Does it really matter to anyone if I blog about our life - I don't think we're all that interesting, really! I haven't had a comment on my blog here in months. I might just lay off doing this. If you like reading my blog, please leave a comment to encourage me to continue. I do enjoy blogging, but I don't want to do it just to toot my own horn, so to speak. I need to know if you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it!
Speaking of writing - I'm writing a chapter for a book about women's fertility in the 40s! I get to write about all my childbearing experiences and then answer questions that were submitted by prospective readers! I'm not sure what the book's title will be, but it will be published electronically. It will be published in June - let me know if you are interested in knowing how to get the book!So here are some high lights of the last month:
First off, here's what happens when the kids steal my camera - I get great photos that I wouldn't have otherwise, but I have to dig through hundreds of goofy/unusable photos to fine the gems!
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| Carese has been crawling for about two months now |
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| Esther loves to help me fill my daily vitamin organizer - this time Elizabeth was helping her too! |
Elizabeth and I had a very special birthday - 12-12-12! We had a lot of friends over and had a 12 themed party - dozens of sandwhiches and cookies, and we sang The Twelve Days of Christmas at 12:12:12!  |
| We even found matching skirts for her and her best friend to wear! |
This year I directed the church choir for the fall and Christmas seasons, and I so enjoyed it. Jessica did a special braid for the day that the choir sang for the service! She's getting amazing at doing great braids!
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| Great long, fingerless glove for the big girls from their grandparents! |
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| The boys got cool black ties from the grandparents! |
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| Carese's unique balancing act! |
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| She was so ready to walk! |
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| Esther decorated one cookie and then went to eating the chocolate chips! |
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| Christmas Eve Caos! |
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| Little girls and dolls at Christmas, they just go together! |
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| Our New Christmas tradition - Shooting Practice. Daryl is our gun safety guy, he's always close by to make sure we are all being as safe as possible! |
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| Post Christmas Breakfast - notice that Carese is fast asleep! I think Esther had too much to eat! LOL! |
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| Esther got lots of help unwrapping! |
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| Esther LOVED the nerf gun - only problem was she kept shooting her daddy! |
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| So sweet! |
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| Pure awesomeness!!! |
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| Our favorite family pasttime - a game of Nerts! |
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| My artsy girl getting a very unique gift - gummy snake, chocolate covered insects and a sucker with a scorpian in it! She took it well! She also got a very nice gift too (I've forgotten what it was though) |
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| This gift was a big hit with everyone! |
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| Daryl teaching the girls how to aim and how to be safe! |
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| Goody Bags on Christmas Morning! |
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| We even got a White Christmas! |
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| I even got to do some target practice! |
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| More snow after Christmas and that's Esther out running around! |
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| Did I mention that Esther liked the snow? |
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| And the yummiest Christmas Tradition - Nanaimo Bars! |
Friday, November 9, 2012
Fall Recovery
First, I have great news! Alexandra has been moved to the MFFM list - MFFM stands for My Family Found Me! And not only that, but her grant is now at over $18,000! I have contacted via email her family, but I can't share any details yet, but once they are available I'll let you know all about it!
Gemma's family is working hard to get her home! They've raised over $700 towards her adoption, and they've completed their home study and submitted their dossier to Gemma's country! You can follow their adoption journey through their blog Carry Your Light!
Secondly, Kimberley was placed on the Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree Project and has already received $39 through that program! Please consider donated towards Kimberley's adoption fund through this fun Christmas project! And can you please share her page with your friends and family and ask them to share too so her forever family can find her and bring her home!
I know, I know...I fell off the blogging bandwagon. But it's actually good news! I was spending lots of time on the computer while I was recovering from my knee injury. But once I was able to be up and about my computer time became very limited. So here's HUGE update of some of the things happening around here!
Jonathan moved up to a big bike this fall - pretty radical for us, but he loves it. I told him that motorcycles run in my family!The third week of August I started doing a DVD workout called T-Tapp. I discovered this through Charlotte Siems Blog - I figured if another mom of 12 can lose all her excess weight and regain her health, then I could too! So I saved up my money and ordered the MORE Workout DVD. On that DVD Teresa Tapp shares how to walk and do stairs to minimize strain on the knees and within 2 weeks I was able tobwalk and go up and down stairs without pain in my knee! This gave me a new lease on life!
By the beginning of September we were in the thick of canning and learning to care for chickens gain, plus taking on many projects around the house to reclaim areas that had gone a little wild during my year of little to no housework limitations. We decided to delay the start of school until we were mostly done canning and we had worked out new chores and finished most of the bigger projects, one of which was getting all the computers networked. This, however, proved to be impossible for some unknown reason. But one day while talking with Daryl over the phone about this problem, the kids took a vote and determined that everyone would prefer doing their schoolwork in books rather than on computers, so we went with that. I headed up to the attic to see what was usable from previous years/students, and brought down what I found. I then made a list of what subjects for each student that we did not have material for and made an appointment with my friend, Cheryl, who owns Homeschool recyclers in Lynden! I was able to find everything I needed to fill out each child's curriculum in math, language, history/geography, Bible and science! Most of the materials are Alpha/Omega Lifepacs, but there's also some Abeka and Bob Jones for the high school history. I was able to fill our all our curriculum for less than it costs for purchase new curriculum for one student!
I even got to play a little volleyball when we met another volleyball
crazy family for a day of volleyball - met them halfway in Mt Lake
Terrace! 
Late in September we had a spontaneous picnic in the park! The younger children got to play on the playground for hours while the older kids and adults played lots of disc golf and I even got to play a full roung of disc golf and I also got to play a little tennis! I am so thankful that I am regaining my health and that I can be active again! It's so easy to take your health for granted until you no longer have it!
Disc golf is a sport that my older boys found, and now Daryl does a few rounds at least a couple of times a week with Jeremy and Jason and sometimes with Jonathan! Daryl has taken me twice as part of our date nights and I really enjoy it too. On several Sundays after church Daryl has taken some of the kids too. The great thing is it'a free to play, you just have to have the discs!Jason is the best player in our family, with Daryl and Jeremy vying for second. I'm not sure where Jonathan is in the mix, but I know the rest of us can not compete with the 4 men in our family! They even got to participate in a tournament recently and Jason won some kind of award, I believe it was for second place!
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We started school the first week of October with 2 in high school, 1 in middle school, and 3 in elementary and Esther is doing some therapy/preschool work. This year is the first year in a long time that I am not teaching anyone to read, but I am working with Elizabeth and Dayton to improve their reading abilities.
We are pretty relaxed about school time. The children can do their school work from anywhere in the house, as long as they can focus on their work and they can get to me easily if they have questions. Our usual school time finds me in the living room with a few of the younger children very close to me and the other kids on the couches or in the dining room or play room. 
Last year we discovered that Rachel needed reading glasses, and that has really helped her with her reading! This year Rebekah, Rachel, Reuben and Daniel are all Bible Quizzing as well, and I'm coaching their team! They did excellent at the first match in October - Reuben even quizzed out with a bonus! That means that he answered 5 questions correctly with no errors in one match!
Esther loves to do school work - we look at books together and work on her vocabulary, as well as purposeful toys such as shape matching and stringing beads. Carese also likes to hang out with the kids as they work on their school work too!I do not hold to strict grades, but try to select materials that will challenge each child where they are at, and also selecting the secondary subjects according to their likes/what I want them to learn (for example, I might choose a lower or higher grade level in Bible because I want them to learn church history verses old testament studies). So far the kids are all pleased with their subjects and doing well.
Another recent development in my efforts to be frugal was putting clothes lines up in the garage. This could save us quite a bit of money over the next year as propane has gotten so expensive. We have really cut down on our usage of propane, and due to that our propane bill has not gone up even once since we moved into our new house, while the cost of propane has nearly doubled. But I really want to see that bill go down, and the dryers are probably one of the biggest consumers of the propane. I won't hang towels, but I'm hanging the younger children's laundry out there!
We received the shipment of our meat birds in late September, and they lived in our garage for 4 weeks. Daryl built an ingenious mobile chicken coop (known as a chicken tractor) and since then they have been out in our yard, moving every few days.
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| We recently found a stash of eggs that the Americana's were laying in the tall grass! |
So right now we have 19 full grown layers, 4 teenage layers and 23 meat birds. The meat birds will be butchered just after Thanksgiving.
One major thing that has slowed me down since I last blogged is that Esther got really sick. She developed croup, an ear infection and tonsillitis. It was so bad that one night she could hardly breath, I even videotaped her breathing to show to the doctor, and that proved very valuable as it proved that she has sleep apnea (which I have been suspecting for about 6 months now), and we could skip doing a sleep study and go right to seeing an ENT. I took her in and the medications they put her on really helped, but we had some long nights. We ended up having her on a monitor to make sure she was getting enough oxygen while sleeping and she was doing fine in that regard, but we found her heart rate was very erratic and extremely slow for a couple of nights.  |
| Esther turned 4 years old in September! |
Carese is doing great - she weighs over 15 pounds now and is wearing 3 - 6 months clothes. She is now 7 1/2 months, sits all by herself, and will spin when on her tummy. She also rolls from tummy to back, and has been seen up on the hands a knees a few times. I am not in a hurry to see her crawl or walk, so I'm just fine with her progress! She continues to be the most adorable baby ever - I call her "eye candy"! She is starting to participate in conversations with us - we coo, she coos...and she tried to imitate our sounds too! Just today she is graduating to her big crib, as she was peaking at me over the top of her bassinet this morning! 
Last Sunday we were all invited to lunch after church...this doesn't happen very often you know, as many people are intimidated at inviting such a large family over for a meal. But this was extra special as our host was Jeremy! He has purchase a home on nearly 3 acres and he invited us all over to show us his new place! We enjoyed pizza, bread sticks and pop, plus Jason provided pumpkin pie and whipped cream! We were so pleased to see what Jeremy had purchased, and he was so blessed by all the wonderful things that the older couple who had owned the home before had left behind...everything from games and hangers to a tractor and a full woodworking shop...he had no idea about any of that until after he took possession! Amazing!I hope you are enjoying a wonderful fall and looking forward to the holiday season like we are! Here's a few more photos of my kids being kids:
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