Hope, Love, and Grace!

March 4th, 2017

John had the honor of taking all 3 girls to the Gladney Daddy Daughter Dance!  Gladney is an adoption agency and they host a daddy daughter dance for their big fundraiser!  They all had a great time!!  Grace was the youngest adopted daughter there and got a special stuffed animal!!

March, 2017
This is a picture of Grace and her friend Meghan.  Meghan was also adopted from China in the summer of 2015!  Her mom has been a HUGE blessing and support during the process!  We know one day they are going to be great friends!!

March 17th, 2017

Happy St. Patty's Day!  We had a fabulous day celebrating with a family lunch!!  We feel very lucky to have Grace with us to celebrate this year!!

March 24th, 2017

God knew what he was doing when he placed Grace in our family!  She is such a girly girl and loves getting dressed in the morning, fixing her hair, and wearing jewelry!!  From the 2nd day we had her in China she would wear a bow and look in the mirror and smile at herself!!  She still loves getting dressed and ready to go!!

April 2nd, 2017

We had the honor of celebrating Brakston's 1st birthday!  These 3 are special friends because they are all in forever families secondary to adoption.  I know their families would agree with us that adoption rocks!!  We love you Sarah and Branson!!

April, 2017

Grace has loved chick-fil-a from the 1st moment she tasted it!!  She still loves to eat there and now loves to play in the play area!  She even figured out how to climb up and slide all by herself!!

April 13th, 2017
We had dance pictures today for Sydney and Claire.  I look at this picture and want to cry.  How have my babies gotten so big!!

April 14th, 2017
We had our 1st family night out at the lake!!  It was so nice to get out and have dinner!  These nights have been very minimal the past 2 years!  We finally feel like we are getting into our new normal and can actually plan a fun night out as a family!!  Praising God for how far we have come!!

April 15th, 2017
Grace had her 1st Easter Egg Hunt today!  At first she did not know what to do, but once Sydney showed her to put them in her basket and that there was candy inside she went crazy grabbing eggs.  Although she was not sure about the Easter bunny she loved hunting eggs!!

April 16th, 2017
He is Risen!!  Grace celebrated her 1st Easter!!  Praising God she is home this year to celebrate!!

We had a fabulous day celebrating with the Wall family and Wilson family!!  Thank you for loving on us today!!

April 28th, 2017

We had a wonderful family night at the Arts Festival!  We had a great time eating and walking around.  Grace had fun running everywhere and looking at all of the great booths!!  Thankful we are able to get out and do family things again!!  

  

To step toward your destiny you may have to step away from security.  Craig Groeschel

When we started this process we did not know how we would do it.  We had no idea how we could financially afford it or have the time to complete all of the paperwork.  At the time we also had no idea how it would wreck us emotionally.  It crossed my mind how my family was in such a good place.  The girls were in school, doing great, and our life was exactly what we thougtht we wanted it to be, but we knew we had to say yes and move forward at a quick pace.  I will admit that many times during the process we did not handle everything well, but God always had us.  I know we were  beautifully in over our heads and that God was the only way we survived.  I love this statement by Francis Chan:  "I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.   I want people to look at my life and know that I could not be doing this by my own power.  I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through.  That if He does not come through, I am screwed."  I pray everyday that I never forget this time.  There were days that my faith was thin and days when we were on top of the world, but that is just parenting.  I have learned that it is just more when parenting a child with special needs.  Thank you Jesus for this beautiful child you have given us.  Thank you for choosing us and believing with you by our side that we could handle all of the ups and downs over the past 2 years!!  I am going to end on a lighter note with a funny quote that has given me some good laughs on tough days!!

They say that God only gives us what we can handle.  Apparently God thinks I'm a bad ass.