Ai-Lin's Finalization Day

Outside the Beautiful Courthouse

Waiting for Our Moment

Agreeing to the Adoption Before the Judge

A Father Again

Ai-Lin Wanting to Give Mama Some Help

Proud Moment

Sisters Forever

Oh, Happy Day!

I Blinked!

I just read an article about successful blogging. Apparently, it helps to blog often. I never regret taking the time to blog. I love looking back over the year and reminiscing down memory lane. Nonetheless finding the time, or making the time, has been harder than ever.

Friday "Week 8" of the school year will be completed. Wow! In so many ways I feel like we've only just begun. In another very real way, I am counting down the weeks until Christmas Vacation. But I must practice what I preach. I don't want to accidentally wish away today while I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I want to savor the moments in the midst of what sometimes we lovingly refer to as the controlled chaos.

A couple of weeks ago Elijah had a little dental surgery at Children's Hospital. He is my "baby." We awoke at the crack of dawn. Wearing his adorable flannel jammies I carried him into the waiting room. Little Man didn't want to sit on my lap for long. He was off and running...as he usually is. I brought a good book to read, but was distracted by all the activity in the waiting room. There was a sweet mama nursing. Another baby hollered and screamed because he couldn't eat and didn't know why. A precious baby slumbered all sprawled out on her daddy's chest. Strollers blocked the walkways. With more observation, I noticed my "baby" isn't really a baby any more. He has lost his baby chub, goes in the big boy potty, and is talking up a storm for goodness sake! Oops, I blinked:)

Amazing Amanda!

We came home to a total mess! Before we left we had a water leak. Hectic. Crazy. Stressful. That pretty much sums up the past three and a half weeks as we have tried to recover from our vacation without drowning in all the chaos of our house. I wish I had the foresight to pack up our downstairs and rent a storage unit. Next time we have major work to do to the house we will. We are almost done. The end is in sight. The good news is that our house is looking rather lovely. New drywall, new paint, new carpet, new tile, and all new furniture for our home school room tallied up to a colossal amount of work. By Thursday night my body was all done with the painting and Amanda stepped in to save the day. She painted nonstop for three days! And did a FANTASTIC job! I can be a bit detail oriented and turning the painting over entirely to someone else scared me a bit to be honest. However, Amanda's painting abilities now far exceed mine. I am amazed at her sticktuitiveness and her attention to detail. Yep, my buttons are bursting. She has turned out to be quite the amazing young adult.

Next time, I would like to redo the house on my own accord without being forced into doing it. But the silver lining is that my home school room is ALL I ever wanted it to be and I am ready for the 2010/2011 school year. Well, at least I will be by Monday:)

On the Road Home!

We finally pulled in Saturday afternoon after a great vacation and 60 hours of family time in the van. An amazing trip! La Ventura of a life time. I am so thankful to the Lord for giving us this opportunity! A dream realized and memories made.

Needless to say we were a bit tired of fast food. Upon our arrival home, my friend Meredith brought us a DELICIOUS home cooked meal. Yummy, yummy, yummy! We are so truly blessed:) Now, back to real life!

Petroglyphs in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Willie took the kids to see the local petroglyphs while Amanda and I stayed back at the hotel to register her online for her college courses. The conveniences of the modern age amaze me sometimes. Back in my day I had to register in person. Getting the classes that Amanda wanted to take proved to be a tad more difficult than we had anticipated. However, at the end of the day she got a schedule that works for our crazy family. Yay, God! He surely answered prayer. Meanwhile, the other kids were treated to yet another field trip.

Georgetown Loop Railroad

Elijah LOVES trains! While crossing through Colorado, we stopped in Georgetown for a train ride.

One of our train stops was at a silver mine. We learned lots during the tour. The lives of miners were so difficult and often short-lived. More knowledge gained teaching us to count our many blessings.

Our little miner - Levi

The gang