Moving Day

We are packing up and moving day is set for this Saturday. That takes awhile when you have lived in a home for over 10 years. It all happened kind of quickly and unplanned (like most of the rest of my life). God has worked out every detail and we are selling our home to a beautiful family from our church. They have 4 kids and need the room. We have 4 kids (at home) and need a different layout for our girls. So they are buying our house and we will be renting a house and hoping to build in the next year or so. We are moving to the country--well to me that means no cable or high speed internet, and 2.5 acres. The house is actually closer to Springfield by 4 miles. I think we will be happy here for as long as we need to live in thise house. It is all on one level and has open living, dining and kitchen areas which will make it easier for the girls to move around.

Of course the hardest part for me is the "no high speed internet". I think I will go into withdrawal or be spending lots of time at McD's and other places with free Wi-Fi--oh yeah, McAlister's has that ! : )

Here's a look at our new home. It is an older home that has been redone completely, added onto and right across the road from Garrett's theatre teacher. We are also close to several families from church.

Back in the saddle & another teenager

Gavin's Cake (made by me) remember last year's cake?

Me and the Birthday Boy (yes, he is giving me rabbit ears--little ones)

He had a hard time with all those candles

Kevin back on the job

I will probably be posting mostly to this blog now that we are home from China, just posting updates and thoughts about RunYi on The Little Girl In Pink blog. While RunYi is a huge part of our lives, we do still have 4 other kids, and she is now part of our Holle Days home.

3 More Sleeps

Until we leave for China! Follow our journey on:

The Little Girl In Pink

(Click on above link to go to the blog)

Another driver in our house

How did this?

Turn into this?

Happy 16th Birthday Gar Bear!
You even passed your driving test on the first try!
We are so proud of you, and love you very much!
You are my sweet little red haired boy (who happens to need a haircut ;))

Today was a great day, we also received our travel approval to go to China to bring home our little girl in pink. We hope to be in China April 8-22.

Great girls, Great shirts!

Check out this great new company, owned by adoptive moms! I looove these shirts! I restrained myself and only ordered one--my fav is "consider it joy". These verses, James 1:2-3 have been very important to me over the last 8 or so years. I also love the rest of this chapter. When I went to junior high church camp with Grant (he's now 20, so that has been awhile ago) the book of James was the focus of camp that year. I learned so much being a family "mom" and co-leading our family group with our then youth pastor (now senior pastor). Go check them out and spread God's Word!

S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g B-e-e

Gavin won the spelling bee at his school! He is in 7th grade, and he won for the whole middle school, which is 7th & 8th grade. Now he moves on to the next level, which if he wins, would give him a trip to the national spelling bee in Washington DC! Way to go Gavin!!

Garrett's First SLT musical

Garrett auditioned for Mulan Jr. at Springfield Little Theatre, and was given the part of Chi Fu, the emperor's assistant. Way to go Garrett! This was his first time to audition at SLT, so we were very proud. Opening night is April 2, so there will be lots of practices between now and then.

Garrett will also be turning 16 next Thursday. We were worried that we might miss his birthday by being in China. Guess that should not have been a concern.

Now we wonder if we will miss his debut at SLT, but that probably won't need to be a concern either. Still waiting on our final travel approval, then our travel arrangements can be made.