We made it halfway!

We made it to New Orleans!!! We got in last night after an uneventful drive. The kids were soooo good, but didn't really sleep when we wanted them too, instead they fell asleep within 45 minutes of our destination. Oh well, there were very few tears and lots of laughs, and an incident with a black marker that we just won't talk about (but you can guess who was involved). Thanks for your prayers, keep them coming, tomorrow the big drive to Alabama!

And They're Off

Tomorrow I am leaving to drive to Alabama with one of my best girl friends, Amy, her family lives there in the country and we are going for a visit. I am so excited, her son Caleb and Brandon are great friends, and I can only imagine the fun they will have digging in the dirt, fishing, running outside for days in a row. And Ryan and Sarah, well, we just hope they don't kill each other (I swear the two of them will end up married someday). But, it will be an exciting drive, her kids are not accustomed to road trips (unlike our children who get hauled everywhere, whether they like it or not), so please pray for us that all the kids are calm, happy, and peaceful (is all of that too much to ask for 4 children ranging from 6 to 2 years old?). It should be a nice break and we are ending our trip with 4 days at the beach. I am so thankful that she asked us to come, so wish us luck, and think of us tomorrow on the drive.

Papa knows everything

When we were little, my dad convinced us that he knew everything, well, really to us, he did know everything, if he didn't know the answer he would just make it up and we never knew the difference. So now, he has convinced Brandon that he knows everything. They were visiting this weekend and everytime someone asked a question, Brandon would say "Ask Papa, he knows everything." It is so cute, and really funny at the same time. Chris tried to get Brandon to hold up some fingers behind Papa's back and ask him how many he was holding up, Brandon said, "I don't need to do that Dad, Papa will know I am holding up 3 fingers." So much for that idea.

Then while we were eating a snack one night, Brandon and Chris were talking and Chris told Brandon he was really smart. Brandon replied, "I know, I use my brain alot." I love my family!

Sound of Silence

Do you hear that?? No? You don't?? Neither do I!! Our house is soooo quiet. My sister's kids went home last night after rounding out our week at the "jumping place" and then on Friday at the big fun swimming pool. They asked if we could do this again next week and I replied that I would be too tired and broke to enjoy it, but this week was a blast! We had so much fun, the kids all love each other and really miss each other now that we don't all live in the same city. So we will have fun doing this again next year, and maybe we will find some new things to add to the list! Until then, I am going to go enjoy the new peace and quiet of my house, shhhhhh!

DTV for 3 months!

Another month down, no closer that we know of to a referral and 2 1/2 months until September 1st. Things aren't looking good, but we have gotten good at waiting. Oh well, keep praying, and we will keep waiting.

Like a Vacation

So my mom is here for the week with my sister's kids, Seth, Megan, and Sophie, and we have been doing something fun each day that the kids pick out, and let me say, it makes it seem like we are on vacation. I have never kept it a secret that I really dislike the area we live in, not our little part of town, but the larger city we live is just not my favorite place, but I have a whole new appreciation for it after this week. It is amazing when you write a list of things we can do with the kids, let each of them pick an activity for one day, do that for 6 days, and you still have 5 left over things on your list. There is just a lot to do around here.

So yesterday we went berry picking. The kids had so much fun walking up and down the rows, finding fruit. The big kids helping the little kids find berries they could reach and carrying their baskets for them, so sweet! Ryan was convinced that the unripe blackberries were raspberries (and those are his all time favorite food), he picked one every few steps and asked if he could eat it, certain that this time, it would taste like a raspberry, well, guess what, he spit every last one of them out, but would still try again every few feet. He even asked the lady when we got back to the store if they had raspberries (he must have thought we were holding out on him) and only when she confirmed it, did he actually believe there would be no raspberries. After picking about 8 pounds of blackberries, and 4 pounds of blueberries (anyone need any fruit) we were done and headed to lunch.

Today we went to the Aquarium. It is a combo deal where they have an aquarium, a restaurant, rides, and a splash area all together. This was Seth's pick because he heard they have an octopus, well that exhibit was a real let down, the octopus was all curled up in the corner and all you could see was a little bit of his head. Boring. But they also had a white tiger that came right up to the kids at the glass and we got to see them eat, that was very cool. We also rode rides over, and over, and over again. We could have stayed all night, but everyone was hot, tired, and hungry, so we headed home and ate blueberry pancakes for dinner. Breakfast for dinner, yum, yum (not Chris's favorite, but he managed to fill up by eating about 12 pancakes and almost as many pieces of bacon).

So, I highly recommend everyone take a mini vacation in the town you live in. You may just realize a new found appreciation for your city too!

Brandon is 5!!

Happy Birthday Brandon!! I can't believe he is getting so big, where has the time gone?? We had his party yesterday, and let me just say you have not really lived until you have taken 9 children bowling (with 5 of them being under the age of 4). He also had really yummy Power Ranger cake. It was really fun, and he got some really great gifts. Thanks everybody!! The big hit was that he got a Wii for his birthday from Kelly and Mike (it really is for the whole family, but his birthday was a good excuse to give it to us). Even Ryan likes to play it, again, you haven't really lived until you have seen a 3 year old boxing on the Wii.

We spent today at a little indoor play area here in town, and tonight, Brandon's choice is "the soup store" for dinner. We told him he could pick anywhere, and that is what he picked. I am glad he didn't pick BeniHana, I don't know how we would have taken 5 kids there and not have been kicked out before they had a chance to cook our dinner for us. His cousins are in town for the week, so we have acquired a few more children. So, Happy Birthday Sweet Boy, we love you!!

The Beach

So we went to the beach this weekend with all my family. Kelly and Mike and their kids and my mom and dad all came to enjoy the fun that is Galveston. It is so trashy and dirty, and I love it. The kids could play there for days and never get bored. We got an early start and made it to the beach just in time to be almost blown away by the gentle sea breezes, well more like 30 mile and hour winds the whole time we were there. But the benefit of the wind was the huge waves it created. The older kids were in the water boogie boarding almost the whole day. Chris got to fly his kite, something he loves to do, but there never seems to be enough wind around here. The little kids played in the sand and "surfed" in the little waves. And Ryan, well, he just did his own thing that mainly involved nothing about the beach. I think the wind overwhelmed him and he just finally went to sleep, probably hoping that when he woke up he would be back at his house where he wasn't about to be blown over at any moment. It really was a great day, but we had a few sun casulaties, Kelly got very sunburned, and Brandon ended up with some kind of strange blister on the side of his nose, I guess where the sunscreen got wiped off, I feel so bad, but it will go away eventually. I hope we go back to the beach soon, we will do better with the sunscreen next time.

Super Ryan

Today we went swimming with our friends Amy, Caleb and Sarah. Until today, Ryan has been very content to sit on the side of the pool, covered in an assortment of flotation devices and just watch what was going on. Well, today, I think he accidentally stepped off the stairs and found that with said flotation devices, he wouldn't sink. Well, my goodness, it made the pool a whole new experience for him. He was everywhere in the pool, still mildly timid, but swimming none the less. The funniest thing was when he would push off the steps, saying "To the rescue, my Super Ryan!" (he uses "my" for "I") We had such a great day!

Funny Things

First off, thanks so much to those of you who called your congresspeople in support of Vietnam adoptions!! I will let you know if I hear anything about what effect it had. So, everyone knows that little kids just say and do funny things, but Brandon and Ryan have had me cracking up the last couple of days. Yesterday as we were getting ready to pray before dinner, Ryan took a chip clip and put it on his nose and said, "we need to say our bwessings," but with a chip clip on his nose, it came out sounding like a nasally chipmunk asking to pray, I couldn't help myself and busted out laughing, which never helps the situation, but it was so funny without him even trying to be funny.

Then today, while Ryan was napping, Brandon wanted to make an artichoke for us to share (add that to the weird stuff my kids eat) and I told him the artichoke was huge, so it would take a long time to cook. He said let me see it, and then said, "Mommy, my artichoke is bigole!" (as in big ole artichoke, big ole house, big ole bag of chips, whatever) Anyway, I must say things are "big ole" things alot because he picked it up, but didn't use it in quite the right way. I started laughing the minute he said it, yes, Brandon, your artichoke is bigole! I just love them!

Adoption Side Effects

I am not a political activist, not at all, but I called all my senators and my state representative today. Why you may ask, well, it was to ask them to support the continuation of adoptions from Vietnam. Under normal circumstances, I would never contact them, why should I, but this is so important to us and to our family, I sucked it up and called. See what this adoption is doing to me, it is making me do things I never would have done in the past, and it is a good thing. I want to see something come of this, I really hope it does! So if you want to do something you have never done before and contact your government officials, let me know, I will give you directions how to proceed, I suppose it is really the least we can all do.

Some of you have been asking if our family has heard anything about the adoption, and no, we are still patiently waiting for our miracle, no news yet, keep praying!!