Shipshewana Indiana

My dear Mother and I went on a little overnight trip to Shipshewana Indiana. We had so much fun talking, shopping, laughing and relaxing. My Mother-n-Law kept my boys all day on Friday and then Britton kept them on Saturday. I felt so privileged to get away!
After arriving around noon on Friday we went and got fitted for Sunday caps. Then after shopping until 5:30 or so we went to a Amish restaurant (I forget the name). We had in mind all day that we wanted to eat at a buffet and when we arrived at the restaurant there was no buffet. SO we both ordered the sample platter which had the following: shredded ham, shredded beef, fried chicken, salad, bread, green beans, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. !!!!!!!!!! . We have never laughed so hard AND dont worry all I ate was a little meat and mashed potatoes and the green beans and brought the rest home for our supper Sat. night.
Then to top it off we ordered dessert. Mom got apple dumplings and I got this MAMMOTH piece of chocolate cake. We were laughing so hard tears were running down my face and the people around us were laughing. I brought this home for our dessert on Sat. Our meal cost $20 a piece and we decided it was for our Mothers Day gift to each other. It was a wonderful meal! And it was fun to splurge.
This is where we stayed. Very nice place. I still like the Farmstead Inn better but they had no room.
Always fun to see all the horse and buggies.
There was a horse auction so Amish from Pennsylvania were there.
We ate at the "Bread Box" for lunch on Sat.
My Mother dear.
My yummy lunch. I enjoyed every bite eating slowly since I had no one else to feed.
Back home! I bought Carter this stamp set. He LOVES it! Sad to say the shirt he has on got ruined and I just threw it away :( Mommy fault. Now he takes his shirt off :)
We had such a special time. Hopefully making it a yearly outing. I came home refreshed.

Thinking about my Jesus this week. Without His death and resurrection there would be no Hope. Thank you Jesus for dying for me.

THANK YOU!! and a adoption update

THANK YOU!! To all the dear people who gave donations for us to take with us when we go to Ethiopia! Thank you to Jenni for taking the time and effort to make this happen. It meant the world to Britton and I!
I think I counted 37 bottles! People keep asking how they can help and what they can give. I would say if you wanted to give, money would help us to get this all over there. We will take it with us but we haft to pay for the containers to get on the airplane. God has always provided through this process and I know He will help us get it all there. So thank you for all your donations! I know it will go to good use!

Gracie Update:

We got a email on Friday saying that all our paperwork has arrived in Addis from Soddo! YAY! Finally!!!!! So now CWA staff is checking all the papers to make sure we have everything and then the next email should be that our papers were submitted to court! Hopefully on Wednesday we will get that update and then we will be waiting to hear our court date! And then it will be getting tickets to go meet our third child! :)

This adoption journey has taught me so much! For the last several months I have been worrying in my head about where the 10 thousand dollars to travel is going to come from. And just like every other time in this process before we needed it God has given us the amount. AMAZING! Literal miracles. God is so good and we thank Him for supplying our every need.

Four BOYS!!!!!!! :)

Brysen looks thrilled with his lunch!! hehe Yesterday I had the privilege of keeping Bevs boys. My boys were so excited to have friends over and I got a little taste of what it would be like to have four boys! They did so good! I took them to storyhour and then my mom came for a couple hours to help just for fun :)
Lunch time!

So cute.....he ate Two hot dogs! :)
Then we went outside to play for a hour or so. It was a beautiful day!
WEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Finally the leaves are coming back! I love spring!

So cute.....I wouldn't mind having all boys :)
Story time with Grandma Karen

They were all so tired and went down for naps right away! I was a fun day! Carter's already asking when they can come back :)

Well I should first say I have so many things to blog about that I had to write a list so I don't forget :) Since I am doing this as a scrapbook I don't want to forget all the little things we do! And while I'm typing I am texting my dear brother who I miss so much...he's studying and I'm blogging and he thinks I am SO dumb to be a blogger :)
Well last Sunday we went to Yellow springs for a bike ride with Brittons parents. It was a beautiful day! We had so much fun and one of the great things about spending a day with parents is...they buy everything! So a fun free day for us :)

The above picture is very typical. He always falls asleep 5 min before we arrive at our destination!
All loaded up. Don't you love our very old fashioned cart? We found it for 10 dollars at a garage sale and it does have a top but its easier to have it off. We love it even though it looks funny. We road 8 miles btw
Me and my children....of course missing one :( .....so weird that I'm gonna be a mama of three soon! Didn't I just get out of YF's?
Brysen LOVES to drink! He drank this whole water bottle.
My boys love Grandma Jane! I think there going to check out the waterfall down the way....
Then it was time for ice cream and rides! We rode in this little train thingy! I could barely get my legs in but you had to ride with your child. And it was kinda fun. The boys LOVED it!
Carter chose to ride in the "caboose". My MIL and I were glad we wore leggings for our bike ride. They came in handy on this ride :)
Such a neat idea for children!
Here we go!
Weeeeeeeeee! All done

Then it was time to see all the goats. They were so friendly and we spent and hour at least just feeding and petting them.



I love this picture. He was saying, "hi goat!"
Little baby goats were so cute! If only they stayed that little!
Brysen loved to feed this Mama goat. Her tongue would come out when she got the hay and Brysen would squeal and say, "ewwww!"
Then they sat on the tractors. Very typical smile from my boys nowadays. We haft to act very dramatic to get them to smile.

Who knew my husband was a cheerleader? LOL I don't think he knew what it was until we were looking at the pictures.
As I am typing, Brysen aka Dennis Pooter is peeking his head around the corner at me. He's supposed to be in bed asleep a long time ago BUT this is our second night without the paci and it is killing me! I can not stand taking it away! He is so sad about it :( Last night I rocked him to sleep and he started sucking on his fingers. It will be nice to be all done with it though.

Well goodnight Y'all! Tomorrow I'm keeping Bev's boys for the day so hopefully I can get some fun pictures of our adventures! Carter is so excited to spend the day with them! Love to you all

Spring

I AM READY FOR SPRING.......ARE YOU???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???

Ten things I LOVE about Spring :)

1) Well of course, the warm weather!

2) I love opening my windows after a long winter and letting all the fresh air blow into my stale house

3) Barefoot!! I LOVE to go barefoot! Or at least wear sandals

4) Sun tea...we all love us some sun tea around here! I don't make tea in the winter (except hot tea ) because we just love sun tea better!

5) Gardening! I love planning out our garden and getting our seeds ready. This year I am looking forward to having some helpers :)

6) Annual mulch and plant flower day (at our house). I look so forward to this day! My mom keeps the boys and Britton and I head to Andy's Garden and get 3 flats of petunias to plant around our house. It takes us all day to rake and mulch the flowerbeds and plant the flowers. The afterwards is AMaazing!

7) I LOVE finally to roll down my windows and crank up that music!! ....finally!

8) I love the artwork of my Creator. Its beautiful. The green grass, blue sky, pink flowers, fat robins, warm sun, soft wind, baby animals....everything is new again and it's just beautiful.

9) I love the thunderstorms! (just not to many of them)

10) I love Easter and the meaning behind it. I do not at all let my children participate in anything that has to do with the Easter bunny. I am totally against it even if they say its just for fun.

HALLELUJAH!!! CHRIST AROSE!!!!! Happy Spring Y'all :)

(the picture is the California Coast)

Prayer for a friend

Lord, I lift my *brother up to You, I've done all that I know to do
I lift my *brother up to you
Complicated circumstance has clouded his view
Lord, I lift my *brother up to You

I fear I wont have the words that he needs to hear
I pray for Your wisdom, oh God, a heart that's sincere
Lord, I lift my *brother up to You.

Lord, I lift my *brother up to You
My best friend in the world, I know he means much more to You
I want so much to help him, but this is something he has to do
And Lord, I lift my friend up to You.

Cause there's a way that seems so right to him
But You know where that leads
He's becoming a puppet of the world, to blind to see the strings
Lord I lift my *brother to You
{{My *brother to You}}
Lord, I lift my *brother to You....I've done all I know to do....I lift my *brother to You.
>>Prayer for a friend by Casting Crowns



UPDATE ON BRENT :)
I am so proud of what he has accomplished! I talked to him tonight and he said because he did good he got a promotion! YAY more money :) I think thats what he was most excited about! His home base is going to be Camp Legeune North Carolina. Eleven hours away! Not to bad! He will be a military police officer on base until he leaves for Afghanistan in January 2012. HE IS COMING HOME THE END OF MAY!!! Lord willing for 96 hour leave. He hasn't got his ticket yet so that could still change. He will graduate this Friday from Infantry training at Camp Geiger. I miss him so much! He is almost always on my mind. I love you Brent and I am always praying for you.