Such a Fun Week and Weekend

This was a fun week and weekend for our whole family. This was VBS week which is always highly anticipated by the kiddos and myself. They attend VBS at Robert Road Baptist church which is not our home church but has one of the best (we think THE best) VBS in our area. The woman that runs it is amazing and she spends literally the whole year preparing for this special week. The staff is also a mixture of young and old congregation members and they are such faithful servants of the Lord it is so amazing to watch all of it unfold. It is also a special week for me since it is my one week a year that all the children are gone from me for three and a half hours each day!! Being a homeschool mom I'm passionate about spending time and energy with and on my children but for this short week I get a much needed break and a small recharge. I was able to shop a little on my own and watch a movie I'd been trying to watch as well as talking to my sweet friend who is in Virginia for the next six months. It was a blessing for all of us. The best part of the week though was Friday night when the children perform a musical of all the songs that they had learned all week. This always brings tears to my eyes to see how much they have learned and grown from one year to the next. Robert and I were especially blessed to see Miss Ana and Mr Daniel perform this year. Two years ago when they attended their first VBS it was a rough week. We had behavior issues galore and barely made it through the week. This year nothing could have been further from the truth. They were in the Kindergarten class and had an absolute blast and never once had any behavior problems. Then at the musical they were the most fun to watch, singing at the top of their lungs and worshipping the Lord with all their little hearts, hand motions included!! What a blessing to our hearts to see what the Lord has done in our family in the last two years. It is so wonderful when the Lord gives you those glimpses every once in a while when you need some perspective.

They yesterday we headed to Phoenix to celebrate James' 12th birthday. We had gotten Diamondback tickets a few weeks ago and surprised him with this trip for his birthday. With five I get a little weary of parties so we try to mix things up and do some trips for birthdays when we can. We started the day by having lunch with Granny and Brad at a fun mexican restaurant and then headed to the hotel to check in before going to the game. The hotel has a wonderful pool with a lazy river that you can tube around and just relax as well as a water slide and another pool with a waterfall. The Diamondbacks didn't have their best showing so we came back and swam instead. Which was a perfect time to do so without the 110 degree temps. We swam again this morning after breakfast and then had a fun lunch at the Cheesecake Factory for Father's Day before heading back up the hill. It was a fun trip for all of us and James I think has felt sufficiently celebrated!!

Fun family fellowship is sure a wonderful way to spend our summer days. Thank you Jesus for knitting us together.

So How Does a Month Pass Sooooo Quickly???

Here I was trying to make my posts around every week and here we are at the beginning of another month!! What a busy month it has been. Early in the month the kids had their first two choir performances. The first one was at the mall and the second one at Embry Riddle which was a true recital. Peter, Emma, Daniel and Ana are participating in choir and are loving every minute of it. Daniel particularly is doing a fabulous job and it is so awesome to see him doing something that he truly enjoys and that he is good at. They sang three of their songs at the mall performance and then at the recital they did five different numbers. It was so much fun to watch them all.

James and Peter have also started an art class through the same academy and are loving that as well. They both have an amazing gift in the area of art, and I have no skill whatsoever in this area so it is a tremendous blessing that this program exists. They have only been to one session but they are so excited and the program will go throughout the summer so that will be wonderful as well.

We had our first travel adventure two weeks ago. Robert was working down in Phoenix for the week on a project that he has been working on for a while that needed some more of his attention. So the kids and I tagged along and went down to stay at the hotel with him and do some swimming while he worked. They enjoyed it more than words can describe and I was able to still hang out with my honey a bit. We also got the chance to meet another adoptive family while we were down there. They just recently adopted two children from Russia and live over where we were staying so we were able to have dinner with them and share some of our experiences and give them some insight about our experiences. What a blessing that was, sweet fellowship that will hopefully grow from here. Our children played so well together and ours enjoyed meeting more children from Russia. Their children are a delight and we look forward to seeing them again.

We thought we would be getting back in the routine the last week of the month but last Sunday night we received a call from Robert's mom saying that his dad had fallen off a ladder while building his garage and broken both of his arms. He was okay but going to have to have surgery up in Colorado the next day. So we packed our bags and headed for Colorado! I was pretty impressed with my ability to get seven of us packed and ready in about three hours but I guess you can do most anything with the Lord's help. He was truly in the whole experience. Robert's dad could have been much worse off but he had the surgery and was out of the hospital in around 48 hours. He will be laid up for a long time but the Lord saved him from much more serious injury and his bones all went back into place when the doctor went in to do the surgery and he didn't even have to put in any pins on the inside or plates of any kind and the arm was broken in 15 pieces. We serve a mighty God. We helped to get things squared away up at their place and they will be coming back to Arizona for his recovery. Robert did a ton of work on the garage and finished up the second floor and arranged for roofers to come and do the roof in the next couple of days. We cut down trees and did a lot of clean up on the property and it should be all set for them to come home mid week. The kiddos had a blast playing around on the property and they did an awesome job helping out and staying out of trouble. They were even very good in the van on the drive and didn't complain at all. I was extremely proud of them!!

We got back today and aside from having about sixteen loads of laundry to do I think all is well. We will hopefully get back into the routine tomorrow. We have a bit of school to finish. Daniel and Ana will continue through the summer but the others will be pretty much done after this week. Which I might add they are very happy about. So here we are starting another month and I'll try once again to post more often. But you never know...time does fly by.