Kman Scores!!!

A highlight of our summer has been attending DBacks games. The kids often get free tickets from the various summer programs or we get cheap packages. We have gone to so many games, we pretty much have found the best bargains to make it an economical and fun experience.
Kman has been really into getting autographs and has had some good fortune lately by getting some incredibly awesome ones! The last two games, I have had him ask to get a picture with the player if it worked out and I could get a good shot. These are his pics from the games he went to in the last two weeks... Tomorrow and Sunday are the last two home games of the season and it looks like he will be at both of them. What can I say, we LOVE baseball!

Stephen Drew

Trent Oeltjen

Miguel Montero

Baxter

Brandon Allen

Parkoir: the creative path to adoption...

I saw this on another blog tonight and I had to laugh. It made me think about our adoption and our path from Point A to Point B and with all the creative ideas that were instituted just for us or the extra things asked of us...



Maybe I am in an odd mood or I just tried to see a little humor in our situation for a moment. I just saw a huge parallel between this video and our adoption tonight (no, I have not had a margarita)! Somedays, I feel like I have jumped off a big vehicle and fallen into an empty refrigerator box. I needed this today and loved it!! Either way, I don't watch The Office but I think maybe I need to...

First Day of School...

This is seriously the only picture I took on the first day of school. Now I can pretend we started school a week or two ago like some of my friends in other states but we started in early August so I have kept you from enjoying this photo obviously taken by a skilled photographer for over a month now!

So I am trying to remember that morning but I think I have blocked it out! I am sure we were running late (Selina probably decided she had to go potty on our way out the door). Or maybe I was trying to get Cater to wear her tennis shoes to school but she wanted to wear her $1 Old Navy flip flops. That can take up to five minutes to get settled depending on the day. Well by looking at the picture I can tell if that was the case, I lost or partially lost as she is wearing sandals- not the flip flops though!

I did have enough time to get out of the car and walk the kids up so I could get this fabulous picture. I even remembered to bring Kwame along- see, Selina is holding him! I obviously put my kids directly in the sun so that their eyes were either closed or they were squinting and positioned them so that the shadow of the fence surrounding the school interfered with the picture. I am sure I was exclaiming "Look at me!" and "Smile!" while they tried their best- bless them!

Ha, I decided that when Kwame comes home, we are redoing the picture and that will be our first day- TAKE 2!!

I just had to laugh when I downloaded this batch of pictures and saw that one and tried to remember what happened that day.

PS: Next year, I am going to KJag's house for her first day of school party. It is the most fabulous party idea I have ever heard of and would make the first day of school awesome for kids and moms. Basically she has the mom's back to her house for breakfast. I can't remember if there are mimosa's too at her party but they how fun would that be?! So click on her page and check out how happy and beautifully photographed her children are.. I think it is because she is about to have a par-tah!!LOL

The glow of my burning hut...

I am sorry, I have been so bad about blogging lately. I guess that while life goes on, there is a big piece of me with our son in Ghana right now. While we are plugging along and doing all the things we do, I really feel the void and haven't felt like reporting on all the things that we are doing that I was so hoping we would be doing with Kwame home.

There was some adoption drama late last week. A meeting was supposed to happen on Friday and knowing how that went would have helped us to know whether we are looking at days or a few more months before our son comes home.

Unfortunately we did not get news about if that meeting happened and if so, how it went. So our weekend felt especially long. In the adoption world, sometimes you don't enjoy the weekends as much because nothing happens with your adoption on those days. It will be nice when Kwame is home as the weekend will once again be what it used to be! (I think I can hear a lot of my adoptive friends saying "Amen" to that!)

My good friend Mary sent me this today and it really fit how I was feeling this weekend so I thought I would share. I know I am not alone and right now I have several friends and other families going through some difficult times for various reasons. If that is you... then this is for you too!

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, 'God! How could you do this to me?'

Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! 'How did you know I was here?' asked the weary man of his rescuers. 'We saw your smoke signal,' they replied.


The Moral of This Story:
It's easy to get discouraged when things are going badly, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering. Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the Grace of God.

"If you can't be grateful for what God has given you, look around you and be grateful for what He's protected you from."

So while I have been a little discouraged lately and feeling as if my hut were burning, I have vowed to get past this and to do my best to look at things in a new light... the light from the glow of my burning hut!LOL

So in my next few posts, look for some updates on my everyday life!