Have you ever thought about sponsoring a child?

When we were in Ethiopia last summer we met the man who handles the orphan sponsorship program for our agency. Just last week we finally looked through the profiles of children, as a family, and chose a 9 year old Ethiopian girl who touched our hearts. She is currently living with her mom, 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Her dad died a while back and her mom has no income. She is selling everything they have to provide food for her children. They are in very desperate times. We all fell in love with this little girl and knew that we would be able to help her and her family. For $32 a month we are able to completely change her life. Her needs will be met, she will be able to go to school and enjoy things that children should get to enjoy. We wrote her a letter and sent her a picture of our family. We can't wait to hear back from her. The kids wanted to sponsor more than one and at one point while we were reading the profiles, Hunter teared up and said, "I really think we need to adopt again". Of course the tears then came for me and I understood his sensitive heart. There are so many children who have absolutely nothing, not one toy to play with, little food to eat and nowhere soft to sleep. This hit home for our kids. We are so blessed and I'm glad that we are able to help this precious girl on the other side of the world. If sponsoring a child is something you are interested in I posted a link on my sidebar.

Happy Birthday Brylie!

Today my little girl turns 6! She is the sweetest girl with such a compassionate heart and always a willingness to help. Brylie is the best big sister ever! She plays ball with Gage and babies with Ruby and never complains when I ask her to help with the little ones. She is my shopping buddy and always has fashion advice for me. :) Our family is so blessed to have her in our lives. She was supposed to have her 3 best friends over today for a sleepover but because of the snowy weather we are getting we had to postpone it. We plan on having a fun day at home celebrating with her!

Daddy/Daughter Dinner

A few weeks ago our church hosted a Daddy/Daughter Dinner. Brylie was so excited about spending this special time with her dad. She got a new dress and told me exactly how she wanted her hair fixed. :) The event had a 50's diner theme with the servers wearing poodle skirts and white button up shirts with rolled up jeans. They enjoyed burgers and ice cream and some really fun games. Robb and Brylie competed in a hoola hoop contest (which Brylie said daddy didn't do so well in) and a contest to see which daddy could paint their daughter's fingernails and put in a pony tail the fastest. Robb did very well in that competition but his friend Brian Prouty ended up winning the game. :) It was a super fun night for both Robb and Brylie.

First Grade Basketball

The first graders had a fun basketball game a couple weeks ago. Hunter's uncle Wesley was one of the coaches who had worked with these kids a few Saturdays teaching basic ball handling skills. The game was so fun to watch and the kids had a blast playing against their classmates. I love that Wesley has a heart for these kids and sees the benefits of starting them young. Hunter and his 2 cousins, Booker and Nash, had a super fun time and it was a glimpse into the future seeing them play ball together. Go young Chargers!

Happy Birthday Ruby Katheryn Sifan!

Happy 1st Birthday my sweet Ruby. Although I was not there on the day that you were born and I don't know all of the circumstances of the first few months of your life, I do know that you were in my heart a year ago today. Your daddy and I were praying for you long before you were born. Today I think about your birth mom and pray for peace in her heart. I know the decision she had to make must have been the most difficult thing she has ever had to do and I know that she named you Sifan (meaning 'for your sake') so you would always know how much she loved you and why she had to give you up. You are a perfect fit in our family and I thank God for bringing us together. You are a true blessing and I love you so very much!

Why adopt?

And why from Ethiopia? Many people have asked us these questions. It's simple:

-One in ten children die before their first birthday -One in six children die before their fifth birthday -44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old -Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. -88% will never attend secondary school. -Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000. -Ethiopia has approx. 4.3 million orphans and the country is twice the size of Texas. -Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa

A fun weekend at our state capitol

Ruby and Destiny had fun hanging out at the hotel.

All of the kids heading up the big stairs during the tour of the capitol.

Brylie and her buddy Dannika.

Ruby just rode in the stroller with a smile on her face.

My sister-in-law, Kristi is the assistant majority leader in the House. Kristi took time out to get a picture with all of the kids.

Of course we had to get a silly one! :)

Jodi and I found the nice lady in the Sec. of States office that helped us with our adoption paper work. We only knew her by a kind voice over the phone...it was great to see her in person and show her the girls.

The Secretary of State hooked the boys up with these nifty state seals.

Governor Rounds was kind enough to let us get our picture with him.

We had 4 families in our group, 8 adults and 15 children. The tour guide didn't seem very excited to see so many children but we were so proud of how well behaved they were. They even sat through a Legislative session. Great job kids! Thank you so much Kristi for setting up the tour and pictures. We had a wonderful time and learned so much. Hunter is telling everyone about how he got to sit in the big chair by the Speaker of the House during the Legislative session. Great memories!

My little snow bunny

Today was beautiful so I took Ruby outside to experience the snow. She loved sitting in the snow and watching the other kids run around. I just stood back and took a lot of pictures! :)

All I want for Christmas.....

VICTORY!!

After months of working with the school, trying to convince them that a school nurse was needed for our growing student body, I am SO happy that the new school nurse starts today! She will be working 4 hours a day and helping Hunter with all of his diabetes needs while at school. We first approached the Superintendent in September expressing our concerns with the quality of care given to Hunter at school. Since he began school 2 years ago I have been going in every day to count his carbohydrates at lunch time and help him with his insulin pump. I also spend a lot of time on the phone with his classroom teacher talking her through low blood sugars and other issues that arise. Hunter's classroom teacher is wonderful and takes such good care of him, which has been such a blessing. Caring for low blood sugars and such often takes her away from the other students though. Although I love seeing Hunter midday, it was difficult getting out of the house with 2 little ones at 11:00 every day. We live 10 miles from the school and I also take the kids to school and pick them up...making 3 trips a day. After many visits with the superintendent, calls to school board members, gathering opinions from community members, talking with legislatures, doctors and lawyers we are thrilled that this victory has finally come. I have cried many tears, looked seriously into homeschooling and lost a lot of sleep. This is the first day that I have ever sent Hunter to school without having to worry. The nurse is a wonderful lady from the community who will be such an amazing asset to the school system. Not just for Hunter but for EVERY student! Of course we are hoping that this position will slowly grow into full time but for now we are just so happy that the majority of the day is taken care of.

It's that time again!

This weekend we are having our annual fundraiser rummage/bake sale to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Our family takes part in the Walk to Cure Diabetes, which will be held at the end of this month. Last year our team raised $5000 and this year we hope to up that. We have piles of donated items for the sale and I'm still cleaning out closets and going through drawers. Our rummage sale brought in $650 last year! It is a great fundraiser and something the whole family enjoys helping with. I am super excited the forecast says 25 degrees for Saturday. That sounds heavenly compared to today's -25 degrees! If you live in this area and would like to come to the sale drop me an email and I will give you all the details. :)

This picture brought a smile to my face today!

Church Christmas program

I'm still here!

I know that I have been terrible about posting this last month. We are really struggling with the harvest this year. We still have 1 field of corn to combine and it is raining right now. I can't even tell you how frustrated we all are. We are usually done with harvest by the 10th of November. So, I'm still cooking meals for the guys and running for parts when needed and offering as much support as possible to my exhausted husband. For one week they ran the combines at night when it was colder and the ground was harder. The kids and I haven't seen much of Robb. Luckily they never work on Sundays so we savor every minute of that day with him. It is time to wrap this up and look forward to Christmas. And speaking of Christmas, I haven't even started my shopping yet....everything gets put on hold until harvest is done. Say a prayer today for all of the farmers still struggling to get their crops out of the fields in this terrible weather.

So much to be thankful for.....

What a blessed year we have had!

It's hunting season!

Robb got this 4x4 on Sunday with his rifle. The whole family was with him which made it even more exciting. Robb wasn't sure if he wanted to shoot it because it wasn't quite as big as he had hoped, but the kids were yelling from the back seat, "Shoot it dad PLEASE"! So he gave in and shot it. :) It is a very nice deer and the kids haven't stopped talking about the great hunt! On Monday while combining Robb spotted this 6x5 buck. He shut the combine down to hunt it down. He was pretty proud of his 58 yard shot with his bow. Ruby looks thrilled about it too. :) So it looks like we will be eating some venison this winter and hanging more dead animals on our wall. Yippee.

Too cute!!

Ruby smiles instantly when the camera comes out. I think we have a little star on our hands!!

Ruby

Ruby is now 8 months old and such joy! She says mama, dada and baba. (no idea what the baba means) She is thinking about crawling and just started some finger foods. She is just starting to wear 12 month clothes and loves her snuggle time with mommy. Ruby thinks daddy is a hoot and is always laughing at him. Hunter, Brylie and Gage know just what to do to get a belly laugh out of her. She will sit on the floor for the longest time just watching them entertain her. She would love to pop some teeth through but no success yet. Sleeping has never been an issue for her, she loves her nap and wakes up once during the night. (I think it's mainly just for more snuggle time with mommy) :)

Ruby Katheryn Sifan is a ray of sunshine and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

Little Miss Snowflake

On Saturday night Brylie participated in the Little Miss Snowflake contest in the local Snow Queen pageant. She was so excited about the pageant and talked about it everyday. There were7 little Kindergarten and 1st grade girls that participated in the Little Miss Snowflake contest. Miss SD (the emcee of the night) called the girls up one by one and introduced them. Last years queens then drew a name out and low and behold it was our sweet Brylie! They placed a crown on her head and she spent the rest of the evening on stage with the other queens. She was in all her glory...it was totally her cup of tea! All of the cute little girls that participated.

Brylie was the first one called up on stage. Miss SD was so nice and Brylie thought she was just beautiful!

The stars of the evening.

Grandma Corinne came to cheer her on.

Hunter was so proud of his sister!

Brylie's cousin Kassidy was in the Jr. Snow Queen contest. She looked stunning and did a great job!

Thank you Jodi for snapping some wonderful pictures for us. You're the best!!