Referralversary!

One year ago on April 20, 2009, we laid eyes on this beautiful baby boy for the first time! It was an amazing day that we will never forget! Our caseworker from AGCI surprised us with a call that came sooner that we expected! We were beyond thrilled and immediately in love! That love has just continued to grow and we feel so honored that God placed this precious child in our family! We love you Will! Happy Referralversary! (if that is even a word!) We were fortunate to receive many pictures that day, so I won't make you look at ALL of them (although I did....over and over!) but here is one of our favorites.....

To read a bit more about that day, click here to link back to April 20, 2009! We have been blessed indeed!

Oh What a Night!

On Thursday night, I had the great pleasure of dressing up a bit, and heading out for a date with this handsome young man.

We went to the University of Tennesse campus and made our way to Thompson Boling Arena which is where the UT men and women play basketball. However, it didn't look at all like a basketball court; it looked like this:
We were there for this event:

And it was a wonderful night! Mike and Beth Hamilton sponsored the event to "get the word out" about the orphan/HIV-AIDS/clean water crisises in Africa. 750 people gathered and enjoyed a yummy dinner and exceptional entertainment all to benefit Africa. God was glorified as the Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda sang His praises. They were such a blessing to us and we purchased their CD and have about worn it out already! Beckett and I enjoyed listening to them sing and watching them dance! We also got to enjoy our second chance to hear Steven Curtis Chapman perform. Beckett and I attended his concert in Myrtle Beach, SC about a year and a half ago. SCC is not only an amazing singer and songwriter, but he is an inspiring speaker as he is able to share his experience regarding the blessing of adoption, as well as his family's experience of walking through the valley of the shadow of death after the tragic death of his youngest adopted daughter. The hope that he has in God and is still able to sing and proclaim after such a tragedy is incredible!

We heard about the amazing work that Blood:Water Mission is doing in Marsabit, Kenya and in many places throughout Africa. If you have a minute, watch the video clip on that link to find out about their work. We also heard about Show Hope which is the foundation that Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, began in order to help with scholarship funds for families who want to adopt and need some financial assistance. They awarded an un-suspecting family with their $5,000 scholarship for their adoption from Ethiopia. If that wasn't cool enough, Mike announced at the end of the evening that an anonymous donor had offered to pay the remaining $10,000 for that couple to bring their child home from ET! Wow! Obviously, this was a fundraiser for these two programs, and well over $100,000 was raised for each organization that night! God really blessed the efforts of everyone involved and it was a huge blessing to be able to be a part of such a special evening. And it helped, too, that I was with one of my favorite guys! :)

Baseball Season Has Begun!

We are spending lots of time at the ball park these days! Season #4 of baseball has begun! So far, Sean has coached Beckett's team every year. The Marlins are off to a slow start with a record of 0 wins and 3 losses.....but I feel a win coming very soon! They are a great team, just haven't gotten it all together yet! Beckett is playing well and hitting the ball hard. It has been fun already to watch this team improve and play better each game! So, here is the yearly father/son picture!

Last Spring they were the "Riverdogs"!
The Spring of '08, they were the Rockies.

And finally, Beckett's first year of baseball.....the Astros!

This one just hurts me......they were so little! Look at that little Astros cheerleader! Precious!

Oh well, just a quick trip back down memory lane!

Hope in the Dark

Hope in the Dark is an event for orphans & Africa. Working together to bring awareness and funding to the orphan crisis. Joining forces to begin to care for the millions of children without a parent...without a home...without HOPE. How can we make a difference? One child at a time.

If you are interested in attending, check out the Hope in the Dark website!

I'm so excited that Sean and I are getting to go to this event! Yes, it will be awesome to see and hear Steven Curtis Chapman! And yes, I am fired up to hear the Watoto Children's Choir made up of orphans from Uganda! But I think most of all, I'm excited to spend the evening with others who have felt the call to care for the orphans of Africa through adoption and to help with the HIV/AIDS and water crises. I know it is going to be an amazing night!

Here is a link to a great article about the Hamilton family. They traveled about one month after we did last summer to meet their three new children. I just love the story about their daughter's name and the significance about "getting the word out"!

Happy Easter!

I hope that you all had wonderful Easter celebrations with your family and friends! We had a wonderful weekend. It was busy and full, but fun! My only regret is that we didn't have an opportunity to take a few more family pictures on Easter Sunday. Our family went to church yesterday "in shifts" because Sean was serving in Children's ministry, so he and Beckett went to church before the rest of us. After church, we were in a rush to get to Nana and Papa's house because everyone was waiting on us to eat! Will fell asleep on the way there, and as soon as we arrived, Beckett was begging to change into his play clothes......so, just to appease me, they all posed for this ONE picture. Will had just woken up and everyone else was ready to change and eat, so this will have to do for Easter 2010! Will's first Easter with us, and this is the only picture I have of him all dressed up!

After lunch, the cousins (minus Ty and Marley) headed outside to hunt for eggs. Nana and Papa had hidden LOTS of eggs for their grandkids to find and they were ready to go!

Connor helped Will look for eggs!
Nana and Will looking for eggs in Papa's grapevines!

Loved this pic of Will on the swing after the egg hunt! He just looks so big!

We dyed Easter eggs on Saturday evening......

and Will thought it looked very fun! He didn't stay up at the table for long or we would have had a permanently rainbow stained kitchen table! He was really wanting to get into those glasses of colored water!

We tried a new activity this Easter eve. I found the recipe for these Easter cookies through a link that another Ethiopian adoptive family blogging friend posted. I was so excited to find this recipe, as I had been looking for one for a while! The recipe for the cookies completely explain the events up to Jesus' crucifixion through His resurrection. Each step of the recipe includes the scripture reference to read. It was a great family activity and the kids were excited to find that the cookies were hollow inside when we took them out of the oven on Sunday morning! So cool!

Grankaki and Granbob had a dinner party to attend in Knoxville on Friday night, so they came to stay with us and play with the kids. On Friday afternoon, it was warm enough to put on swim suits and play in the water. Grankaki sprayed them with the water hose and they had a great time!

Just catching up on all of our recent activites.....so rewind to LAST weekend when we got together with several of our friends and had a cook-out/egg hunt! Here is a pic of all of the kids with their baskets of eggs. So much fun! Justin is so good with all of the young kids! He should be.....he has 5 younger siblings! I loved walking up and finding him sitting at this little picnic table with Helen and some buddies!

I guess this event was technically Will's first egg hunt, so here he is showing me what he found!

And last, I just had to share this sweet picture! We love Will's "springy" curls. They are seriously little coils of curls that just spring up and down! You would never believe how long they are, until you pull one up, or you get his hair wet! This particular evening, we really soaked his hair during his bath time and just loved his new look with bangs!

So, I think I've gotten caught up with an overview of the last few weeks! Blessings to you all this Spring season. May we each live every day with the understanding of what Christ did for us and and in the comfort that we have hope for a wonderful future because of His amazing love!

How Deep The Father's Love For Us!