BIG ADOPTION FUNDRAISER GARAGE SALE THIS WEEKEND!!!

Hi everyone!! I just wanted to post on here about our garage sale this weekend! Come on by and do some shopping and spread the word and bring some friends! :) Yes I know most of you who read this are out of town, but we would ask that you would pray for a good turn out and sunshine!! (or at least no rain! :) Our church, friends and family have donated lots of stuff for us to sell! It should be great! Especially if you like to decorate or need any household items!

Here are the details:

BIG ADOPTION FUNDRAISER GARAGE SALE

August 28 and 29th Friday and Saturday 9-4pm

Email or call for address or check Craigslist Friday morning!

Also, if you have any junk (aka someone's treasures) laying around that you would like to donate for us to sell, we would appreciate that too! Just let us know and we can try to arrange to pick it up! Thanks Everyone!!

And our family continues to grow...

We are starting our next international adoption...

from Ethiopia!

We feel like God is not done blessing our family with precious children! And after praying about a few country choices for international adoption, we feel Ethiopia put on our hearts! God already knows who our little one will be. :) I am sure you will have lots of questions for us and there will be lots of answers to come. But right now we will leave it as simple as this: We are excited to see God's plan for our family and how He is going to grow our family. And we are excited to become forever tied to this beautiful country, these beautiful people, and to see who our precious one will be! (though Maria is just a little apprehensive about the 30+ hours it will take to get there- she likes traveling to new places, but not the "traveling" that it takes to get there. aka flying) We also would like you to know that your prayers, encouragement, and support with our last two adoptions were a priceless blessing to us, and we would absolutely love to know that you will continue to pray for and encourage us as we are walking out in faith to bring home our next little one!

Back Log #7: Summer Fun

These first pictures are from a camping trip we made to Sterling 4th of July weekend. We camped about 30 min. down the road my Grandparents live down and they were generous enough to go down and park their motor home in a spot so we would have a spot on the lake and also stay in their motor home for a couple of nights. My Uncle Rich also helped by sharing his screened in tent so the boys could play in there without being eaten alive by the mosquitoes. He also shared his canoe with us, and then on the last day brought his river boat and gave us all a ride around the lake. It was a great time and we were blessed with wonderful company and weather!

Mateo's first experience with fresh cherries! He loved them and he did a great job eating around the "seed".

The beautiful loons...it is so fun to listen to them on the lake.

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa with the boys! Our boys adore them! What precious times we are blessed with them!

Our picnic at Cooper's Landing on the drive back home! It is so fun to take your time traveling back and stopping at places you don't always take the time to do. This is one of the most gorgeous places in Alaska (my opinion...not that you can tell from the pictures.)

All summer, 2 times a week I have 5 boys at my house. Most the time it has been great! And a lot easier than I expected...as long as I stayed organized in my head (two babies close to the same age). This picture cracks me up...we don't watch t.v. very often (don't have tv just computer)...but I popped in a 20 min. BOZ video while I made everyone lunch...this was their reaction the whole time.

Snuggles with my big boy after a bath! I love that fresh smell and soft young skin!

Produce from our small expiremental garden...it has been so fun and we are learning a lot! (mostly what to do better and expect next time)

Aunt Missy and Uncle John came up for a visit and their birthday gift for Mateo was a year unlimited pass to Alaska Animal Conservation Center...or something like that...but it is a lot of fun and so cool to be so close to big wild animals. Noah loves to drive by the way!! ( don't worry folks 5 miles an hour tops...and we were in and out all the time- it was raining)

We had an accident in the restroom and had not brought any extra pants, so we did what we could figure out with a hooded sweatshirt...all we were missing from this truly Alaskan expirence was some duct tape!

Aunt Mindy reading to Mateo.

My pretty Mom (aka Granny)

Papaw came to visit and we went down to the creek to try some fishing, ran into and got to watch a big bull moose 20-30 feet away, and then came back home to do some reading.

And just to brag in astonishment about how smart one of my little guy is here is a picture of what Mateo showed me he did. (In less than the minute I left him to go find something inside, he had threaded/stuck his "wheat grass" all the way down the dandy lion tube. He amazes us in how many little details he notices and is intrigued by! He could be an engineer!

Back Log #6: Noah @ 11 months

Our precious boy is now very active and on the go...his slimming up and I miss all the sweet baby rolls and squishyness! (maybe not a word in your world but definitely is in mine). It is so fun to watch him try new things and he is very brave, and definitely has a hard head (with no tears) to prove it. He has also been popping out new teeth left and right! Poor child (poor Mommy) :) You can see his new pearly whites toward the bottom of this post. He is so fun and it has been a true joy to see how well he and Mateo get along and enjoy each other!

His pouty face or like my Grandma used to say (and now us) his Poochy lip!