Consider Adoption Video

I. Love. This.

Sam's Self Portraits

Thanksgiving in Pictures

Feast

 

Allie and I were invited to join Ben's class for a Thanksgiving Day feast!  I don't know who was more excited...

Boys

 

Three peas in a pod.

Happy Birthday Izzy!

Our sweet niece Izzy just celebrated her FIFTH birthday!  Izzy we love you so much, what a bright light you are in our family.  We love that you and Sam are the best of friends.  He can't wait to "catch" you when he turns 5 in a few months!  Hard to believe you two used to be the babies....

Foster Kid Donations!

 

Thank you, thank you to our family and friends who joined in our collection of items for Hamilton County foster kiddos.  These kids often come into care without basic items such as pjs, sippy cups, underwear and toothbrushes.  Every little bit helps!

Operation Christmas Child

 

Annual tradition:  Filling shoeboxes for underprivledged kids for Chrismas.  They'll get shipped all over the world!!

Foster Kids Collection

We're collecting items to be donated to Children's Services. They are in need of new items for kiddos coming into foster care, who often don't have much, if anything, of their own.  Some ideas of things they need are undies, toothbrushes/toothpaste, crayons/coloring books, sippy cups, PJs, and blankets.  If you're interested in helping out, let me know!

Cutie Christopher

We just found out we get to sponsor this adorable little guy named Christopher for Christmas!  He's new to the New Day Foster Home in China.  This place takes care of quite a few special needs little ones while they wait for their forever families.  They have a fantastic blog and great opportunties to sponsor babies, nannies and staff.  I totally fell in love with his little face.  Sam thinks we should bring him home. :)

http://newdayfosterhome.blogspot.com/

Allie Starts Preschool

 

Allie has literally been begging (and often crying) to go to school just like her brothers.  I think she would seriously hop on the bus with Ben if I told her she could.  She finally got to start preschool today.  She's not quite 2 and a half, but girlfriend was so ready.  She did great and was so proud of herself.  And Sam and I had the morning to ourselves-what a treat!

Halloween in Style

 

Whew, we made it through Halloween yet again.  Seems like there was such excitement and build-up this year!  I got to celebrate with Sam and cousin Izzy at their preschool fall party.  Grandma Toodie came for the afternoon to see the kids get dressed up.  Despite lots of ideas, the boys decided to wear their old favorites.  Ben was Buzz for the THIRD year in a row...the costume is way too short and embarrassingly filthy.  He wore it several times this year, including all day at school before trick-or-treating.  I feel the need to tell his teacher that he insisted on wearing that old ratty thing!  Sam was Spiderman for the second time, and Allie was a butterfly with a tutu.  We just used what we had.  She totally figured out the idea of trick-or-treating and wouldn't let go of her bucket of candy for anything!

Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday!  Across the world, churches and individuals are spreading the word about orphans.  There are an estimated 147 million orphans in the world today.  Orphan Sunday is one way to spread awareness and inspire others to be willing to step up and help make a change for these kids.  Here's the link for Orphan Sunday, there are lots of great ideas there!

http://orphansunday.org/


I following quite a few blogs written by adoptive mommies (and daddies!), which I love.  I was very moved by the Oct 26th post on this blog, check it out.  I love her reminder that while it's so easy to forget how much orphans are suffering every day, we need to be reminded daily that this life is not about ME.

http://anythingbutlokey.com/

Adoption Awareness Month!

November is Adoption Awareness Month!  We kicked off the month by revisiting Allie's Homecoming Video.  It'll never get old.  So hard to believe she has been home 17 months!  She loves watching it with us now and has lots of questions about "Key-ah" (Korea)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Q-M3L6zeE&feature=plcp