Growing Like Weeds!

The kids are growing SOOOO fast!  Here is a picture update on them and what we have been up to lately.

The kids this time last year.

See how much they've grown in a year!

Our family at Easter (Luke was so tired from church)

Luke had his first haircut recently. It was getting a bit long in the back and around his ears.  He sat in the chair all by himself like such a big boy!

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Our friend Terri was so patient with Luke and did such a great job.  I was proud of how well Luke did too!  I never dreamed he would have his first haircut before Abigail ever had hers.  I am trying to talk her into letting Mrs. Terri just even her hair up in the back.  She is not sure about the whole thing just yet.  She LOVES her long hair and is worried it will be too short after cutting it

Look how cute Luke looks with a "Big Boy" haircut! 

 We made our first trip of the season to the pool last week.  The water was pretty cold, but the kids still enjoyed themselves.  We plan to spend a lot of time there this summer to survive the Mississippi summer.

Luke was content to mostly watch everyone else and splash around a bit in the shallow water.

Abigail, on the other hand, wanted to repeatedly jump in the deep end.  I am thinking the pool will be a great way to wear her out this summer. 

 We have been spending a good bit of time outside over the past few weeks.  The weather has been really nice, so we are taking advantage of it.  We spent a fun morning at the zoo recently and have just been enjoying the backyard and neighborhood most afternoons.  Temperatures reached 90 a couple times this week and I started dreading the days coming when it will be a good 10 to 15 degrees warmer than that.

Coming soon - Abigail's first dance recital!  Here is a preview of the pretty girl in her costume.  She is SO excited!  More pictures and details to come after the recital next weekend.

Unbelievable!

I am finally posting about our adoption garage sale fundraiser. It was an AMAZING weekend and God was definitely present. In fact, I think He pretty much showed off as only He can do! Nasty weather was in the forecast for the weekend but it turned out to be incredibly beautiful for the Friday and Saturday of the sale.

I cannot begin to say thank you for all of the help we had in pulling off the sale. More than 40 families/individuals donated items for the garage sale resulting in a garage FULL of things spilling over into almost every room of our house as well. These first pictures are from the day before the sale. We had every inch of the garage packed, clothes racks lined our kitchen and dining room, and three extra couches hung out in our living room until Friday morning.

Coach and Nana were invaluable in their help preparing for and pulling off the weekend. They got up early and stayed late both days serving as our cashier/money keeper/negotiator (Nana) and errand runner/heavy lifter/stager/clean up crew (Coach). We could not have done it without them!

Speaking of invaluable help, we have some AMAZING friends as well who selflessly gave up a large part of their week and/or weekend to help us pull off the garage sale. We had awesome friends donate tables, mow our yard, pick up donated items around town, sort and price items, hang a bazillion articles of clothing, unpack our garage on Friday, set up the "thrift store" that our yard became, assist shoppers throughout the sale, negotiate when necessary, make sure all of the electronics for sale worked, watch our kids throughout the day, load up shopper's vehicles with purchases, clean up Friday night, and do it all again bright and early on Saturday morning (actually I guess it was still dark and early)! Not to mention, the precious ladies Sunday school class from church that provided a huge spread of food and drinks for everyone helping out!

Shoppers showed up early on Friday and came out of the woodworks all day. Saturday was a bit slower, but steady. I'm not sure if these pictures can capture what it was really like. We had a huge clothing department at the back of the driveway, large furniture lined the entire driveway down to the street, twenty tables were set up in our yard covered with items on top of them and under many of them, shelves full of books, an entire section of the yard dedicated to linens/bedding, "crib row" in the grass with seven cribs for sale, and an electronics department under our porch. I could not believe how much stuff we pulled out of that garage!
(Abigail found ways to occupy her time and had a ball with all of the stuff for sale!)






Friday afternoon, Abigail set up her lemonade stand to raise money for Lottie too. She was SO proud of it but seemed to enjoy sipping the lemonade herself more than selling it to others. I never saw her without a cup full of it in her hands the rest of the day! That night as I put her to bed she said, "Mommy, I LOVE pink lemonade!" By the end of the weekend, she completely understood the concept of selling the lemonade and would not even let Chad fill a cup without putting some money in her box. Over the two days, she raised $50 selling her lemonade and was so excited to be helping raise money for Lottie! (The Hello Kitty suitcase was a donated item for the sale that NEVER left her side all weekend! It was hilarious!)
The kiddos also helped out by demonstrating some of the items for sale. Abigail viewed Beauty and the Beast several times throughout the day on one of the TVs,
and Luke tested out one of the cribs to ensure shoppers it was in working condition.
Joshua stopped by on Saturday and happily tested the drum set for interested buyers.
This next picture is just one example of what awesome, hard working friends we have. They are sorting shoes by flashlight in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday helping us set everything back up for day two of the sale.

I mentioned earlier in the post that God really showed off throughout the weekend. We could not have dreamed He would bless us in the way that He did. We were able to raise $5,000 over the two days to put towards our adoption costs!!! We are overcome with gratitude and give ALL GLORY TO GOD for this blessing! Every minute of hard work and every dollar raised is brining us closer and closer to meeting sweet Lottie and bringing her home to a forever family. In addition, God will continue to bless other families through the donations to our yard sale. Gateway Rescue Mission was able to come Saturday afternoon and pick up an ENTIRE TRUCK LOAD of things that did not sell. Gateway runs shelters for homeless men, women and children in the Jackson area, feeds the homeless, operates three thrift stores to help fund the shelters, as well as provides services for those struggling with addiction trying to get back on their feet. They offer life-changing hope to their residents through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sounds to me a lot like our calling to adopt in the first place! Our God is AWESOME!

Thank you for your prayers for this fundraiser. God used it to really encourage us in our journey and prove Himself faithful yet again. We can't say it enough, TO GOD BE THE GLORY, GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE!

Luke is 1!

Luke - 1 Year Old!

March 10th

Woohoo! I am one! My first birthday rolled around a few weeks ago and I finally got to see what all of the birthday hype was about. It was fun being the center of attention for the day (my sister usually claims that spot). Here are some pictures from my big day:

Mom seemed happy to have survived my first year!

I rode the carousel for the first time (not impressed as you can see on my face).

Later in the evening, we had some friends over for pizza and cake. Check out my cool cake!
And my very own smash cake.
Turns out, I didn't care a bit about the smash cake. Everybody was staring at me saying something about "digging in" but I just wasn't feeling it. Mom was recording the whole thing but it is too boring to even show you. I put my finger in the cake one time and was done. Talk about overrated. This next face sums up my feelings on the matter of the smash cake.

I did have fun with the presents though and loved getting some "boy" things to play with around the house.

Hitting the one year mark turned out to be pretty cool and I am enjoying my new found maturity. I weigh 20lbs 12oz and made it a whole year without cutting any teeth (pretty impressive I think). I like to play peek-a-boo, clap my hands, play with balls, chase my sister, and swing outside.
My newest interest almost gave Mom a heart attack the other day. She walked through the playroom and found me like this:
Up on top of the play table eating my Cheerios. I figured out how to climb up the chairs and chill out up there. It must not be that big of a deal because Mom grabbed her camera to snap a picture before she made me get down. It stinks because now she moves the chairs away from the table when I am playing in there.

That concludes my monthly updates! Now that I am one I will probably be too busy to maintain the blog, so I'll be turning it back over to Mom. I'll try to remind her to keep you posted on what's happening with me.
Signing out,

Luke

We should be friends

Chad and I have a running list of famous people that we are convinced we should befriend and hang out with all the time. They are people that just seem so genuine and real and generally point us straight to Christ while acknowledging their own sinful humanity. People that follow Christ so hard that it makes you want to be a better follower as well. Steven Curtis Chapman and his family are right at the top of the list.

This SCC admiration is not a new thing, as both Chad and I grew up listening to his music. We also know the Chapmans as adoption advocates and founders of Show Hope, an organization that helps Christian families reduce the financial barriers to adoption. They brought three sweet girls from China into their family and have worked tirelessly to promote orphan care. More recently, through the tragic loss of one of their daughters, my admiration of and respect for the Chapman family has grown. I remember the day I heard on the radio of their loss, in the car traveling for work, and have followed their story of grief closely. Mary Beth Chapman published a beautifully written book, Choosing to See, that gives her personal story from childhood all the way through her journey of mourning and grieving for the daughter she lost. She is refreshingly honest and hides no detail of her own struggles through her life. I would highly recommend her book (as long as you have kleenex close by). God most definitely used her book to speak directly to me about His will for our family and adoption.

Chad and I were able to attend SCC's Songs & Stories tour with Andrew Peterson and Josh Wilson here in Jackson a few weeks ago. It was AWESOME! Now, we were positive we would LOVE the concert before we ever went, but it was one of those experiences that you didn't want to end. Not only were the three artists featured incredibly talented, it was so neat to hear the stories behind the songs they had passionately written throughout different times in their lives.

A portion of the concert was devoted to sharing about Show Hope and its mission. SCC shared the song "When Love Takes You In." It is a song he wrote after their first adoption journey during the formative time of establishing Show Hope. While he sang the song, the screens showed clips of families (including his) meeting their adoptive children for the first time and welcoming them into their families. Talk about emotional for the two of us! It was so beautiful and made me even more excited about the time coming when we will hold Lottie in our arms for the first time! Although that exact video is not available for me to share with you, I am including the music video of his song as well as the lyrics so beautifully written.

I know you’ve heard the stories


But they all sound too good to be true


You’ve heard about a place called home


But there doesn’t seem to be one for you


So one more night you cry yourself to sleep


And drift off to a distant dream

Where love takes you in and everything changes


A miracle starts with the beat of a heart


When love takes you home and says you belong here


The loneliness ends and a new life begins


When love takes you in

And somewhere while you’re sleeping


Someone else is dreaming too


Counting down the days until


They hold you close and say I love you


And like the rain that falls into the sea


In a moment what has been is lost in what will be

When love takes you in everything changes

A miracle starts with the beat of a heart

And this love will never let you go


There is nothing that could ever cause this love to lose its hold

When love takes you in everything changes

A miracle starts with the beat of a heart


When love takes you home and says you belong here


The loneliness ends and a new life begins


When love takes you in it takes you in for good


When love takes you in

If I haven't said enough about SCC and his family, check out the comments written by Andrew Peterson who has been on tour with SCC these past few months. He says it much better than I can.

http://www.rabbitroom.com/2012/03/what-i-learned-from-scc/

I am so thankful that God has used, and continues to use, the Chapman family to encourage others like me.

Luke is 11 months old!

Luke - 11 months old

Hello people,

I am finally getting around to my 11 month post. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am actually pretty close to 12 months old now, but please accept this tardy update on my last month or so.

So, I gave Mom fits trying to take my monthly photo for this post. You can see some proof below. I just can't be bothered with stopping to flash my toothless smile (yes, still no teeth) whenever Mom wants me to.

I had a rough start to the month when I came down with a double ear infection topped off by RSV. Mom and Dad put some strange mask on my face every six hours for a week, stuffed me with medicine, and filled my ears with drops and ...

POOF! I felt better and was back to my old shenanigans acting goofy with Dad and Abigail.
Mom and Dad talk a lot about who they think I look like. Our friends all seem to say something different. I am including some pictures of a few of my different faces to get your opinion. Who do you think I favor?







Next time you hear from me, I'll be one! Can you believe it?

See ya,

Luke