Catch Up and Oh So Special Day!

Well it has been a while since I posted and life of course has been busy. Grab a cup of coffee and catch up with me Guy has celebrated a birthday. Guy and I actually enjoyed a nice date night. Jonathon finished up first semester of his sophomore year in high school and both he and Christian finished exams. So it has been busy with homework and studying around here. We have started a new Saturday night service at church and we are loving that. The service is wonderful and it allows us to do what we all love sleep in and move slow in the morning! Logan is still in the midst of basketball season and Grace loves to go cheer him on. She is the resident team cheerleader for cheer and yells "LoLo" from the bleachers as he runs the court. On top of basketball season; baseball practices have begun as well for both Christian and Logan so yes we are rockin and rollin around here. Grace is also still really enjoying gymnastics and just re-enrolled for another semester of Kindermusik. Jonathon had his 16 year old physical and well yes he is now officially taller and weighs more than his mom. Something crazy about it when your kids outgrow you even though you know it is gonna happen. Grace and I have had a lot of lunch dates with friends who still love seeing her - she brings so much joy! I also started teaching a Bible study called "Search for Significance" for a group of 15 teenage girls. OMG has God been moving there and I stand back in awe of how he uses a broken but willing vessel every time we meet. Nothing special about me, just love the Lord and want to be obedient to the call. It is really about him using that and me staying out of his way so he can embrace these girls that he adores! I am so blessed to be a small part of that. Work is busy. So I told you we were busy! But yeah wouldn't have it any other way!

Of course the highlight was reflecting on a very special day, February 3 - this was the day we got a very special call a year ago from Pam at CCAI and said to me "Dawn I have a file of an adorable little girl that I would like you to look at to see if you would like to be her mommy". Well of course the tears came, nothing could prepare you for that day no matter how long you wait. Our lives today have forever been changed! I am overwhelmed with the amount of love in my heart for our beautiful daughter and shed many a tear this day as I looked at her and watched her and was humbled God chose us. This day is also special because we were matched on my Dad's 62 birthday! And this year it also fell on Chinese New Year so we celebrated doing crafts together and then with Chinese take-out for dinner...sesame chicken, chicken and mixed vegetables, fried rice, lo mein, fried dumplings spring rolls and Chinese donuts. Yummy! And of course she got her red envelope with money!

Enjoy these three photos of our daughter - two at time of match and then now....oh how much she has changed.