SUMMER CAMP

Summer camp was this past week. What a great time. We really have some great kids. I have been reading this book on gratitude by Nancy Lee DeMoss. So I thought I would make of list of things I was thankful for at camp this week. So in no particular order here we go:

1. Air conditioner and big fans
2. Shower shoes
3. Sunny days
4. Messy games
5. My backpack
6. 2 salvations
7. Several other life decisions
8. Bug spray
9. Reliant K and extremely loud teenagers to keep me awake while driving home!!!
10.Zyrtec and Benedryl!
11.Fun camp staffers who interact with the kids
12.Batteries
11.A Breeze
13.Tennis shoes
14.Bottled water and gaterade
15.Not having to cook any meals

So that's the list so far. I'm sure I left off a few things. Brent, Bubba, and Melissa did a great job. The camp had all kinds of things to experience. Climbing wall, high ropes course, canoeing, dock jumping, pool, paintball, and tubing. The staffers were great. They taught the kids fun camp songs before each meal and even did entertainment during the meal. They were good at helping the kids with activities.

I realized again what a great leader Brent is. I can see God growing him. Bubba is a great planner and speaker as well. Melissa is too! She is so much fun!

Maybe we will go to this camp again next year. Enjoy these few pictures.

Bye Bye Bye

Our dear friends are moving to South Carolina in about a week and a half.
So to celebrate, we went to PF Changs! We had a great time and the food was nice and we had free lettuce wraps! You can't beat that!

Michael has accepted a children's minister position at a wonderful church. It's such a great opportunity for them! We are really excited for them, but of course we will miss them and their kids like crazy. (They have the coolest kids ever!!!)


Sad, no more fun days in the office!

Lettuce wraps! You know you can taste it! Go get one!
What a dessert!


Brent is such a goofball!

Dream a little dream......

"Dream a little dream, dream a little while, dream with me of how you think it might be....." (words from a song by Avalon)

Sometimes I like to think about what might be going on in Peru.
Because somewhere, a million miles away, there is a little boy or girl who will be coming to be apart of our family in a few months! I get excited when I think about it. There are a million possibilities of what that child could be doing. Running around and chasing another child, eating with the hopes of being done before the food is taken away, maybe they have been stapped in a chair or left in their crib for hours and hours, maybe someone is holding them and singing to them or perhaps they are laughing at toy. Maybe there will be two! Who knows!?! God does! He's getting everyone ready for transition time! Even it takes months and months.

Keep praying everyone!

It takes a villiage to adopt a child. Thanks for being apart of it!

P.S.

Oh, I forgot to mention. We thought that the lady who conducted our psychological evaluation may have been Buddist. We cannot be for sure. Maybe she just collected little Budda statues and put them in her office. But it was really interesting to watch her as we shared stories about what our God had done and is doing. We even got to share with her a little bit about God sending Christ to come adopt us by His death on the cross. Had she been a Christian, we think that her responses to some answers we gave would have been different, even if she did need to word our respondes in a certain way for the auhorties in Peru. The only way to explain our whole adoption experience is God.

Today in Sunday School our teacher asked if God ever asked us to do something "big" for Him. Big is relative term depending on you. It could be cooking supper every night for you family, resigning your church and not know where God is taking you such as Francis Chan and his family did, to anything in between.

Sometimes I think I know what type of life God might have for me and Brent. It comes in fleeting thoughts. I'm pretty sure I would like it. I know I am not ready for it.
Maybe this is preparation stage. I don't know if I am preparing well.

Okay, church is out....going to lunch.

Switching Cabinets!

Well. We switched cabinets! We are now in the dossier cabinet at our agency!
Pretty soon we will switch cabinets again.

The psych test went very well. I am pretty sure we are not crazy! Hooray! We had an hour interview and then 2 one page tests about depression and our marriage. Then a personality test that was 567 questions. These tests took about an hour and half to complete. The personality tests was really interesting. And it was all true or false! I kept second guessing myself. I thought well if I put true here does that mean you think I also think that way, so should I put false, but in the end you just have to be honest. I think I should have been a psychology major. I find all this stuff interesting. They never should have let me pick a major at the age of 20! And I thought I was all grown up then! HAHA!! Well hindsight is 20/20 or 20/15!

The fingerprints were well fingerprints. Nothing new to report there.

We have almost completed all paperwork for the dossier. We have some to notarize, our phsycials to take, our approval from USCIS to arrive, our agency will have them legalized. Send a letter to the consulate in GA for legalization, then it goes to PERU! Hopefully all of this will be complete by the end of July!

In order to help raise a few more dollars, esp. for travel, Brent and I decided that I could sell Premier Designs jewelry. I know there is at least on of you with her jaw on the floor or perhaps laughing. I did the same thing myself. Who would have thought!! I know I can't believe it myself sometimes. :) Tomorrow is my second show. I hope it goes well. Someday I might post some pictures. Maybe I will get some this week.

P.S. if you want to host a show....post a comment! :)

Dossier Prep

So next week 2 big items happen for us in our dossier prep.

1. We have a psychological exam! AHH! I'm actually not looking forward to this.
But at least we will know which of is us is the crazy one! haha! 4 hours of tests.
I am not kidding.

2. We head out to get our biometrics completed!
Or as Fancy Nancy would say, "that's just a fancy word for fingerprints!"
I love the Fancy Nancy books and if our child is a girl, she will have them.

What is interesting about these two items is that they are one day apart. This is very excellent considering that all our documents are time-sensitive! Note: we did not plan the biometrics date, just the psych exam.

I talked with a friend the other night and we were talking about God's timing. I know that our adoption is in His timing. I love it. So far. I told her to ask me again in about 2 months! But His ways are perfect and higher than we could ever imagine. He always has the bigger picture in mind that is perfect with every little detail.

Gray turns 6

LIFE

I came across this video on a friend's blog:

Check List

Home study arrived at USCIS? CHECK!
*Hooray! We are awaiting instructions for our biometrics.

Psych tests set for June 23? CHECK!
*Who is the crazy one? That is the question!

Paper work being gathered? CHECK!
*again!

Receive first "big" bill from agency? CHECK!

All funds in place to pay bill? CHECK! CHECK! CHECK!

Praising the Lord? DOUBLE CHECK! DOUBLE CHECK! TRIPLE CHECK!


I love that we are adopting from Peru. It's just right!
God has really just made all of this happen.

Nephews

Grayson plays t-ball. Ryder is such a love!