Get on board, little children... Destination Heaven!

Sunday before last we finished up our vacation Bible School! Y'all, I still haven't recovered! (It hasn't helped that we were going strong the week before and life hasn't slowed much since...) Oh, well. Fun summer memories! But I wanted to share a few pictures of our fun VBS!

Our friend (and adopted sister) Lorie headed it up this year. She did an excellent job organizing and decorating! She had lots of help building the sets. (not a whole lot of help from me on that front, but I did wield a mean spray paint can...)

The train turned out super cute! (It was also a prop - the kids got to get their pictures taken with their bandanas and engineer hats.)


When the kids first walked in they had to make sure to get their ticket for the day at the ticket booth.


They never knew throughout the evening when the conductor (our pastor) would show up to punch tickets!

We also had a couple of hobos on our train...
 

They would trade a fun little prize for a memory verse!

Our picnic on Saturday had to be improvised... we had quite the downpour!


But we all had a blast anyway... I don't think the kids even missed the relay race!

After all, what's a relay race when there is a giant puddle to splash in?? :)

We had a wonderful time with some awesome kids, and some GREAT helpers!! (Hi, "J" family!!!!) ;) I'm already getting excited about next year! If you follow me on Pinterest, you probably already have an idea what our "working" theme is! :)

Book Review - Song in My Heart

I recently finished "Song in My Heart" by Kim Vogel Sawyer. In the story, the heroine, Sadie, comes from a very loving family. Her family isn't wealthy and because of an accident making her father unable to work, she answers an advertisement to help in a western mercantile and possibly sing in an opera house. When she arrives, the opera house isn't quite what she expected. Meanwhile, Thad arrives in town to investigate rumors of bootlegging.

I do enjoy historical fiction, and I have been a fan of Kim Vogel Sawyer's books. I believe that I have read everything she has published. This is a fun story, with a little bit of western action. However, in my opinion, it isn't one of her better stories. The story seemed a little far fetched to me. I don't want to give any spoilers, but it just didn't seem like quite a plausible story. But it was a fun clean little romance, and an enjoyable read. I would recommend it to someone looking for a light summer read.

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Thanks to Bethany House for providing this copy for review. My opinions are my own. ;)

A very special update!

This is one of the biggest single steps in our adoption process... and Mark will be delivering it to the agency shortly.

What is it? It is our picture profile! This is the first thing that a birth mother will see when considering us for adoption. The delivery of this (along with a bit of moolah...) means that we are officially WAITING!!!!

Mark and I had a "signing party" the other night and we signed our name to each of the thirty copies that will be distributed around the state of Texas.

I realized when editing these pictures that I am appropriately wearing my "Show Hope" shirt. Not an intentional wardrobe choice, but oh, so right! :) 


So this morning, Mark left the house with this:

and by the time you read this, it will probably be at the agency.

So what does that mean for us? Well, I guess you could really consider us "Paper Pregnant!" We could be parents at any time. (YIPES!! Exciting and starting to sink in... BIG changes ahead!) One couple with our agency was "in the book" two days and they had a baby. Before any of us get too excited... that is not normal... More than likely we will be selected by a birth parent and have a month or two to prepare for the arrival of our little one. But we must be ready for any possibility.

A big thank you to each of you! You all have been so supportive of us during our process! Mark and I are excited to get to share this step with you! And please keep us in your prayers as we patiently wait and prepare for the coming events... whenever they may be!

Finished Object Friday - Photo Collage... sort of.

Yes, today is Finished Object Friday! and No, I didn't give you a heads up... sorry about that.. It has been a very busy past few weeks. It seems like summer should be a slower time of year, but then things start piling up again. This week a friend is visiting from the Dallas area to do some intensive piano lessons with my mom. I've been joining in, but got a little behind so I'm just holding in there and listening, knowing I can catch it again later as well as pester Mom with questions... :) THEN next week is our VBS!! Whew!! and I have a list of things I need to finish up for that... but it doesn't all need to be done this week. I'll have time during the week for that.

But none of those has to do with my biggest Finished Object!!! This:

Yes, this is my "Finished Object" this month and a biggie it is... It was my first project using Photoshop Elements... and What a learning curve!! :) But really, you probably don't care much about how I made it, but WHY and WHAT in the world it is... see my next post for answers to those questions... ;) (Because a special announcement deserves it's own post, don't you think?)

For now, here's where you can link up to share your projects!!

Our 4th in Instagram

I hope that each of you had a happy holiday! I felt that this year I was able to take more time to celebrate, that the celebration had more meaning. Also our family was seeing the celebration through new eyes - our good friend, Andrew, is a newlywed and his new bride is from Belize. She was excited to celebrate the Fourth of July for the first time! (and we were excited to introduce her to American tradition!) ;)

I thought I would do something a little different and share snippets of our holiday from my phone pictures. If you are not familiar with Instagram, it is a popular smartphone picture editing application. Very easy and fun to use!

We started our celebration early by going to a local church on Monday and enjoying their holiday program.

It's always fun to celebrate with my hubby!

Our young friends enjoyed getting in on the celebration as well. (The fireworks show especially was a hit with the littlest one!) :)

We had fun making "pinteresting" things to eat!

I hope you had a safe and enjoyable holiday as well!