Party With A Purpose

Our party for Anika is next Wednesday, June 1st.  I am so excited that her family has found her and we feel so blessed in being able to play a small part in helping them bring her home.  You can meet them here.

We have decided to have a pool party and barbecue and are asking each family to donate a minimum of $10.00 towards Anika's adoption costs.  I can't believe how wonderful our friends have been.  Many have called saying they can't come but want to donate.  I shouldn't be surprised, we truly have the best friends in the world.

So, the kids and I are busy planning the fun, as well as trying to get the backyard back into shape from winter.  They are so excited to host the first swim party of the summer season.  Levi keeps asking me about the little girl.  Why doesn't she have a family? We have had lots of good mother/son talks about this lately.  I am so glad that this party is giving us that opportunity.  I tell Levi all the time that I have NO DOUBTS that God picked him and Amelia just for our family, just as, when your read their story, you will see how Anika's family has been guided by our fabulous Savior to their new daughter.  What an amazing story they have.

If you live near us feel free to come join in on the fun.  I have a feeling you really won't want to miss it:)
Pictures to follow..............

The Next Generation of Ball Players Is Ready

Amelia has taken to carrying around a ball and asking to hit.  Here I thought I might finally have a girl who wanted to dance or do gymnastics.  I could leave the dirty ball fields behind and embrace the sound of Mozart.

She found Paige's batting helmet in the garage and loves to wear it.

Apparently playing baseball in just your pull up is perfectly acceptable when you are two years old.

Levi was laying on the ground pitching to her here.  She also likes to put the ball on the batting tee and hit it into the net like the big boys.

On the bright side I hear that there are lots of college scholarship opportunities for girls who play softball.

Maybe she'll decide she likes both dance and baseball:) Wouldn't that be nice!

We're Having A Party!

My friend Erica posted about this blog and the wonderful way they were going to raise funds for the adoption of a beautiful little girl who is waiting for her forever family.

Isn't she beautiful?

Her name is Anika.  Sadly, many people won't consider adopting her because she is HIV positive.  The stigma is still so great in our country.  Click here if you have questions about HIV adoption.  The basic facts are that it is safe.  You cannot contract HIV by kissing, drinking out of each others glasses, or from a toilet seat.  There has never been a case of transmission from family member to family member. Period.

 The other barrier is money.  Always money.  It will cost $33,000 for her family to bring her home.

Many of us who have adopted older children have a heart for waiting children.  We know that our kids may still be waiting if we hadn't said yes to God and His will for our lives.  I look at the waiting children's lists all the time and wish I could help them all.  Sadly, I can't. 

But we can all be a part of something great!


An awesome fundraiser! Then when Anika's family is found they won't have to worry about the stress (let's just be honest here, no matter how much we trust God we are human, it is stressful) of bringing their daughter home.  I am so excited to be a part of this.
 
I'm thinking we will host a pool party for our school group and ask each family to donate towards her adoption.  Love's idea is great.  Click on the link to find out more or to get information about hosting your own party.
 
By working together we can change the course of this little girls life.  What an honor to be a part of something so beautiful:)

Hunting For Eggs

Well, this post is a little late but I wanted to share our pictures from Easter Sunday.  Our kids know that Easter is about Jesus and there is no Easter bunny, but it's still fun to pretend and have fun finding eggs:)

We went to the mountains and hunted egg's in the forest at my sister's house.  The big kids had a great time hiding the eggs.

Waiting for the sign they could go hunt!

Now where can those eggs be?

still on the hunt.........

Daddy helping Amelia

Tyler was a great sport and hid the egg's several times for the kids to find.

where or where could they be? 

My two goofy boys.  When will I learn not to ask them to pose for a picture?

After the hunt some of the guys played horeshoes.  It was a really cold day for California, in the 40's in the mountains, so some of us didn't last to long outside.

The big kids had fun playing hide n seek.  There are a lot of big rocks and tree's to hide behind there.  Here's Samantha trying to hide from Garrett.

They had a lot of fun and it kept them warm.  I realized later I didn't have any pictures of our oldest, Zach.  He hates the cold and stayed in the house.  Hope he never has to work in an eastern state, he just might die:)

After all the fun we had some birthday celebrating to do as Samantha turned 15 a few days before.  I can't believe she is 15....sigh, where does the time go?

Here's a bad picture of her blowing out her candles...she will love this one:)

Ahh, that's better.  Happy Birthday Samantha, we love you!

After birthday cake we played pinochle.  Grandma and Grandpa were there as well as Uncle Barry's mom so we had some great games.  Samantha and Garrett are really turning into great players.

Overall a wonderful day spent with family celebrating the gift of Jesus.  Doesn't get any better than that!