Merry Christmas!

It has been so fun watching all of our children enjoy Christmas. The joy on their faces is priceless!!

The kids are loving all their new presents!!


Watching Durant enjoy his first Christmas has been so much fun! He loves opening new presents!

Ana likes opening presents and she thinks the moment the present is opened it should be taken out of the box!! She had no problem helping Carter and Durant open their presents if they were taking too long!

2 years home!

Two years ago today Matt and I brought Ana home! One of my most favorite memories from that time was seeing Carter's face the first time he saw his little sister. He's face just lit up and he was so excited!!
Adopting Ana has been an unpredictable journey that has taught our family a lot about life. We have learned that life is short and should be lived in the moment. Ana has brought us so much joy. She is so sweet, adorable, funny, and the best snuggler around.

Thanks Ana for a great two years!! We love you so much!!!

If I were a gift,

I know I've said it before, but I have to say it again. I just love Carter's heart. I have to share what he brought home from school the other day. It started out "If I were a gift," and the students were to fill it in as they wished. This is what Carter wrote:

If I were a gift, I would be a soccer ball and be given to the people of Africa because they like soccer. I'm going to Ethiopia to see the orphanage.

Just for fun!

I didn't think I had all three pictures online, but I did!! So, I thought it would be fun to post our last three years of our "picking out the Christmas tree pictures" Look how our family has changed.....

2005

2006

2007

It's time to share our secret....

Okay, it is time to share the project Matt and I have been working on for the last several weeks. We are starting an orphanage!!! It's true. This has been a dream of ours to do someday in the future. Like maybe when the kids were all in school and I had more free time!!! Well God took that idea and just kinda smiled as He said, the time is now!!! So we are in the process of starting up an orphanage in Nazareth, Ethiopia. It is called Kingdom Vision International. We are partnering up with a friend of mine from Ethiopia. He is helping us with all the in country details and he will also be running the orphanage.
Since this will be such a huge part of our lives, I have made a new blog just for the orphanage. We'd love to have you follow along with us as we travel down this new road God has called us to travel!!!!

http://kingdomvisioninternational.blogspot.com

We also have a website: http://kingdomvisioninternational.org

All I want for Christmas is......

My two front teeth!!

On Friday Carter lost his second front tooth. The first thing he did when he lost it was started singing that song!!! He was excited!!!

6 months home!

Wow, hard to believe that six months have passed since Durant and I landed in the United States for the first time. I'll always remember the moment our family of five came together for the first time. It was an awesome feeling, like feeling whole!
Durant has come a long ways from the scared, fearful, and uncertain little boy we first fell in love with. He is now a brave (almost too much), confident, loving little boy who fills our home with laughter, love, and adventure every day!
It has been a joy having Durant join our family! We love him so much!
I'm often asked if we will have more kids of "our own" someday..... well you can't get more "our own" than the three awesome children God has blessed us with!! Matt and I love that each of our children bring their own unique story to our family. That is what makes each of them so special. We wouldn't have our family brought together any other way!

We love you so much Durant! We are so glad you are home!!

Getting the Christmas Tree!

We went to our usually spot and picked out our Christmas tree Monday. Even though it was pretty cold, we still had a lot of fun doing it. Carter is great at finding the good trees, although the ones he usually wants are about 10 feet tall!! Durant couldn't stop walking around and around in the snow. Ana was happy to be held by Dad!
We had our annual picture taken by the tree guy. On the way home Matt and I were talking about how crazy it was that in 2005 there was just the three of us, 2006 there was the 4 of us, and now in 2007 there was 5 of us!! I wonder what the tree guy must be thinking!!! Will he be disappointed next year when we come back with only 5 of us? :)

First Snow!

We had our first real snow on December 1st. It was the first time Durant has ever seen snow falling that actually stayed on the ground. He was pretty excited about it, but insisted that it was rain. I kept telling him snow, but he kept saying rain. I did finally get him to call it white rain. It was really cute. We opened the door to look and feel the snow. He was so excited, but when Carter went to touch the snow Durant yelled, "No!"
Too cute! Ever time Carter went to touch the snow or to show Durant the snow he had in his hands, Durant would say, "No!" but at the same time he didn't want me to shut the door. He wanted to just stand there looking at it.
It's so fun to experience life through his eyes!!

Girls Night Out!

This is a little late getting posted, but a few weeks ago I got to ride in a limo for the first time ever!! My friend invited a bunch of us to help her celebrate her 40th birthday!! We had a lot of fun riding around Water Street and yelling out the window!! Eating supper, laughing, singing, and just being silly!

Thanks Paula for treating us to something so special on your birthday!!!