HAPPY MOMMY'S DAY!!!

This was one of the best Mommy's Day I have ever had!! I was awaken by a sweet little face that was excited to give me gifts that she had kept well hidden in her room for several days! Mark and the kids got me a necklace!!! It is beautiful as you can see! I also included a picture of some of the other special gifts that I received this past week, the best are the handmade ones if you ask me!!!! We went to church as we normally do and then took my mom and Mark's mom out to Chili's for lunch! It was very nice! I got to see my big brother that I hadn't seen in a while too! After enjoying a nice lunch, we came home and did NOTHING! That was the best gift of all!
I AM BLESSED!

CONGRATS TAYLOR!!

Taylor entered a Design-An-Ad competition along with 4,000 other students from Brevard and Indian River Counties for the statewide newspaper, "Florida Today". There were a total of 48 schools represented and 140 teachers involved. 46 local businesses submitted their criteria to the schools so that students could design ads for the companies to chose from. Taylor's ad was picked! Out of 4,000 applicants, only 46 were chosen! We celebrated with her at the Florida Today compound! The company that she designed for was Marine Max and a representative from the company came to see her get her award! It was a great night and we are so proud of her! I have included some pictures of her with her Art teacher, Mrs. Weatherington, the Marine Max rep "John" and the Florida Today rep.
Enjoy!

Sophi's Room!

For those of you whom I promised a peek into Sophi's room.....
It still is not complete but here is the room so far..........

Our family

Our Journey to Blake and Sophi!

EASTER 2007

Taylor's Birthday Bash!

Well, Taylor turned 11 this year!! I can't believe how time flies!
We had a great time! Taylor invited 6 girls for a sleepover. We started out at her favorite Chinese Restaraunt where they filled up on the best Chicken Fried Rice and Bourbon Chicken ever! We then went to ROSS where the girls filled a cart full of Junior Misses size dresses and proceeded to put on a FULL FASHION SHOW in the dressing rooms! We were in the dressing rooms for an hour while they modeled their beutiful dresses! From there we went to Payless Shoes where I endured yet another FASHION SHOW of SHOES and they all walked the wooden middle isle "Runway" sporting the highest heels they could find in the store! The girls ended the night with a "Midnight Swim"! It was great! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR!!!

FUNNY SOPHI

Sophi's Favorite thing to say now.... While sitting at the computer..."Daddy, How do you spell "dot com"??? Too funny!! She always keeps us laughing!

HIS Truth Is Marching On!

"Where you live should not decide whether you live or you die!"
"Love thy neighbor is not a piece of advice, IT IS A COMMAND"

We're Growing Again!

Most of you already know but just in case you missed the news.......Our family is growing again!!! We are adopting a little girl from Ethiopia!!! Everyone is so excited and we cannot wait to see what child God has in store for our family!
Just a little background on how this all came to be.....
July 2006 - Began to pray!
August 2006 - Started researching countries and agencies
September 2006 - Prayed some more
October 2006 - Felt God leading us to Africa
November 2006 - We decided for sure on Ethiopia and found a great agency
December 2006 - Applied to agency
January 2007 - We were accepted
February 2007 - Started gathering paperwork for our homestudy and dossier.

The way things are looking, it will be about this time next year when our new daughter joins her Forever Family!

We are starting a new blog to keep as a journal of our journey to AFRICA!!! I will share that when we get it all set up!

Chuck E Cheese

We tried to go to Disney World but they were closed due to being at capacity so we took a trip to CEC instead!

Christmas 2006

Christmas 2006 (pg#2)

Decorating the tree!

Some New Pics

Fall Fest at our church, Sophi's Thanksgiving Day Program, Just havin' fun!

IT'S All OFFICIAL!

We had Blake and Sophi's Re-Adoption Day on October 5th and celebrated with Chinese food with the Farley's.
Leyla's last adoption hearing was on October 31st!

Sophi's 4th B-Day

Christmas Song

Sophi's 1st Day of School

With Tinkerbell (her fav) backpack and snack box in tow, Sophi started pre-school!

First Family Vacation - Disney World 2006

As you can tell from the pics below, we had a great time at Disney World this summer! ALL 7 OF US!!! There were very few complaints although it felt like it was 100+ degrees! We stayed at the New Orleans Riverside Disney Resort and that was wonderful too! They had several pools and lots of great things to do including boatrides and great restaraunts!
Our family is truly blessed!

Disney World - 2006