"You can do a funny face pic if I can get a good smile pic"

We spent a week and a half in Louisville, KY while Daniel took a class toward his Doctorate of Ministry degree. It was nice and warm, and fairly stress-free. The campus is beautiful and has a great southern-style porch with big ol' rocking chairs.

"Committed"

PS Sorry the image is so fuzzy. :)
PSS "Committed" as in the way I felt when she made the cut over the rubber band, no way to go but short!

Sprucing up the bathroom

In our 1/2 bath, I like to put up a few seasonal decorations and take pictures of the kids that coordinate. Here' s what I got out of our "photo shoot" yesterday for a patriotic theme:

Bittersweet

This is what I found about 9:30pm last Wednesday after a crazy day of working the garage sale:

The crib is on its 7th child. :) I think it can be repaired, but I was too tired, and this is where Ellie ended up for the next few nights:

Our big girl! Becoming less and less of a baby. I was a little awed and saddened over watching her eat a Popsicle the other night...just amazing to see her growing and learning how to do new things.

I took down the crib tonight and returned it to the basement. We had planned on keeping her in it for several more months, but we are enjoying getting to snuggle her and kiss her after she falls asleep too much to put her back in the crib. Its 9:45pm and I am still on guard duty upstairs to keep Ellie in bed...we'll let you know how it continues.

Dedication Day

Catching up a little...

We dedicated Ellie to the Lord on Mother's Day 5/11/08. It was a little disappointing not to have been able to schedule this when we had family in town, but being on Mother's Day made it pretty special anyway. We had to hurry up, or Daniel would have to ask himself to be committed to following after the Lord personally, in our marriage, and in our parenting. :)

A Day Late...but not a blessing short

A year ago yesterday, we saw this picture for the first time and met our daughter! Praise the Lord for all that He has brought us through and how He has grown our family, in numbers and in faith! Read (or re-read) about that day here.

Where I took the call
Seeing the first photos

PS Garage Sale totals after a day and a half: $460! God is faithful!

Update: After the third and final day: over $500!! Enough for two months of support for a child! Praising Him!

So much for getting a summer "break"! :)

UPDATE: Evening #1 of the sale: over $250($246.45 + what the kids made selling brownies and soda, but they took that $$ to music camp b/c who knows why + what Austin owes for the toys he bought...I did keep pulling things out of the house they had dragged in...hehehe)!!! Enough to provide care for one kiddo for an ENTIRE month, all in three short hours!! And two more days to go and lots more junk to sell! I noted that our place would be a garage sale location when we were looking at buying it, and I was right. Every car that entered the two large subdivisions having sales has to drive right by our house. Praise the Lord for all that HE provides!!!

The big kids started swim team today, they have music camp every night this week, and I thought I could fit in a garage sale in between all of that!

Austin working with the kick boards

Hannah taking a break after a lap...they only swam 50 or more of them!

This was the garage a few days ago...I have done some more organizing, had more people come by with stuff, made the brownies for the kids to sell, and we are ready to go this afternoon! Pray that we will be able to send a good amount to Eagle's Nest to care for the kids caught between the "systems"...and that I can get rid of all of this stuff!

Hannah and Ellie from Sunday