We got some bad news this morning.

On the way to church we got the news that Ben's Grandfather passed away a few minutes before in his sleep. We will be with family for the next few days so I probably won't be here much. My mother-in-law, Martha, could really use your prayers (as well as her brother and sister). I've never lost a parent but I can imagine this is going to be very hard for her.... Please keep us in your prayers for the next few days. See you soon.

Love,

Samantha

Open Mic - More Summer Fun

I had some extra kids over yesterday and it was so hot outside that they had to come up with an indoor activity....we decided on open mic. They used the hearth as a stage and we put chairs around for the audience. Oh I love Summer games!

They took turns singing, dancing, and acting goofy while I got to sit back and enjoy the show. I think I enjoyed the audience as much as I enjoyed the actors! Do you see Maddie to the right there?? Princess PJ's, sunglasses, a bottle of grape Kool Aid, and a thumb in her mouth. LOL! I should really start a category just for Maddie's fashion sense, it really is the highlight of my day a lot of the time. By the way, she specifically asked that her Kool Aid (which is a special treat around here) be put in a bottle....and when a girl in sunglasses and princess PJ's asks for a bottle with her special grape Kool Aid....you give the kid a bottle....nuff said. LOL! This little guy was one of my favorites! This is Molly's best friend in the world and uncle, Adam. Those two are as thick as thieves let me tell you, inseparable. He was born exactly six months before her. This kid is awesome! He was busting some moves that would blow your mind! LOL!

Molly and Aunt Mary did a sweet little dancing act too. I loved this picture. I can remember like it was yesterday being that way...telling secrets and giggling with my friends. I love these silly kids!

Today we are headed back out to the water park. Have I ever mentioned that I live minutes away from a theme park?? I don't think I have.... well I do. It is in the neighboring city. It has a water park and regular rides and roller coasters. We have season passes so we go at least once a week, it is so much fun! I haven't bought passes in years because it was so much hassle when the kids were smaller. They couldn't ride many things so it just didn't really feel worth the money or frustration then, but now, oh now we could go four days a week and not get tired of it! I guess that is one thing that makes the kids getting older seem fun instead of sad.....getting out isn't near the struggle it was when they were all smaller. When we were there Tuesday we rode the big river raft ride five times in a row! We all got to ride on the raft together (these six kids and me) and we laughed and giggled the entire time. We also kept scaring one of the girls that watches to make sure everything is running smoothly and everyone is behaving nicely, it was soooo funny! She had a little stand near the edge of the water, we would wait until we got right up to where she was and I would count to three and we would all scream! LOL! We got her every time! She would just crack up laughing every time she fell for it. I've told you before that I have the humor of an 8 year old boy. I can't help it.... This Summer is going to be one of my favorites, I can already tell! I hope you all have just as much fun!

Molly's Green Beans

We have just started, in the last two weeks, getting good veggies from the garden. It has mostly been squash and peppers so far but today we got a mess of green beans and cucumbers. We were all pretty excited about our first fresh green beans. A little while later I was yapping on the phone with Dawn and I went downstairs to find Molly sitting in the floor with two pots popping beans and I found sliced cucumbers on the counter. When she finished popping the beans I offered her a bullion cube (that's how we season our beans here) and she filled the pot with water and started cooking. When they were done she ate 3 plates FULL! I thought it was the cutest thing! The girl wanted beans so she cooked some beans! LOL! I went back for seconds too.

I told her now that I know she can cook beans that will be her job from now on. I just need to teach her to get the strings and the end pieces off, but I gotta say, she didn't do bad at all for her first mess of beans! From the seed to our mouths she had a part in all of it, she was one proud little girl. I'm one proud mama too.

Happy Fathers Day!

Ben is at the fire station today, along with a few other daddies, but we still wanted them all to feel special today. Happy Fathers Day guys! We will be there soon to visit!

Here are a few of our favorite Daddy moments. The kids all agree that they have the best Daddy in the world! He's got my vote too! I can't wait to have our other children in these pictures!

Happy Fathers Day to all the daddies out there!!!

Her fairy dress...and a few random bits.

Maddie "needed" a dress made from this fairy fabric last weekend. You know how girls just need things from time to time....ya, that's how she needed this. So I made her this little dress that was inspired by this one from Chasing Fireflies....I just LOVE their stuff, but it's usually a little too fruffy for my girls (and yes, fruffy is a word here and it means frilly or gaudy in case you didn't know. LOL!). It's kinda funny because these fruffy dresses look great on the girls in the catalogue, but on my girls they look way too over-the-top. I really do like how our version came out, it's girly and a little frilly but still has that simplicity that I love. My camera wasn't liking all this hot humid air so it kept fogging up on me....fun.....but when I saw the pictures I thought the fog made it look a little more fairyish (another great word that I may or may not have just made up). Maddie was a little grumpy this morning too, which was just one more thing that made me think this was not going to be a successful photo shoot, but then I thought the grumpy pictures were cute.

How is she so cute even when she is being so grumpy?? She's not grumpy very often...I think that's why it looks so cute to me. I bet it wouldn't be so cute if she was grumpy a lot. Things like that do tend to loose their cuteness when you get too much of it.

Look at her hiding her face! That cute little brat, I could just smother her with kisses! Do you see her little pouty lips and the way she is cutting her eyes? She was upset that the sun was in her eyes. There she is, my grumpy little fairy.

On another note, we got another adoption agency packet yesterday! It's just ridiculous how excited I get every time one of these shows up in the mailbox! We have quite a collection of them now but we still haven't decided on an agency yet. We hope to be decided in the next couple of weeks so that we can get the ball rolling. Yay!

Oh, and here is a close-up of that fabric in case you wanted to see. My mom bought this fairy fabric for us last Summer at an heirloom shop. It doesn't have a name on the selvage, sorry, I tried to find it on the internet too but had no luck. If anyone knows anything about it could you leave a comment? Thanks.

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Did you see that Dawn opened up her shop this week? She has the sweetest little skirt pattern hot off the press and ready for purchase and instant download. If you haven't seen it go look! It's so cute!

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And just to add another bit of randomness to this post....Abe is doing great. He is already a nursing pro and the kids all love him to pieces. Rae jokingly said last night that the girls "love him to death" LOL! You know those little two year old hands can be kind of rough when you are as little as Abe. Poor little guy, he has no idea what he has been born into does he? This is a rough family, there are always at least five children fighting for a turn to squeeze him, but he will make it...the rest of them turned out fine. I meant to get some better pictures of him last night when I went to visit but that would have meant putting him down to take them....so I guess you know what happened. I just sat there and sniffed and kissed him until the nurses told me I had to go home. It was heavenly. HE was heavenly.

My new nephew Abraham is here!

He finally came last night, and he is just beautiful! Mama and baby are happy and healthy. He weighed 8lbs and 5 oz and was 20 1/2" long. It always amazes me how you can love someone instantly! Little Abe had me at the first glance! I can't wait to take him on adventures and tell him stories! I love being an aunt!

I think Lily and Iris are in love too. They were just saying "ooooooooooohhhh baaaaaaby" over and over when they saw him, it was so sweet. They even cried when we had to step out of the room.

I just had to add this picture of Abe's head FULL of hair. See how they had to part it! It reminds me of Timothy! The nurses got such a kick out of fixing Tim's hair in the NICU because they said they never got babies with hair. I hope to get some better pictures today when I visit. Last night it was just too crazy for picture taking.

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I also wanted to thank you all so much for your kind and encouraging words about our decision to adopt! We are just so happy! We did get some good information from the last post that we will be researching in the next few days, if anyone has any helpful suggestions please comment or shoot us an email!

My heart is about to explode!

I can't hold it in any longer! I haven't been able to write in weeks because my heart has been preoccupied with something that I couldn't talk about yet, but now I can!!!! God has opened our hearts to ADOPTION!!!!! YES!! Ben and I are going to adopt!!! I am crying just typing this! We are so beyond excited about this decision! God has opened and closed every door in His perfect time and now we are ready to start the long hard process of bringing other children into our home to love and cherish for FOREVER! I feel like my heart has grown two sizes in the last months as we have researched and prayed about adopting. God has replaced that hopeless feeling that was beginning to drag Ben and I down with an overwhelming sense of hope and love! It's almost unbelievable at times because of the changes that have been made in our hearts.

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I could sit here an gush all day about how excited we are (really I could!) but I'm sure you want to know some of the details we have worked out, soooo.... right now we are looking at two countries outside of Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova. We have several very good friends who are from Romania and one of them just happens to be our sister in law (Ben's brother's wife, Christina) who is expecting their first baby in a few months. We are still looking for a good agency who has a good reputation dealing with either of these countries and are a little overwhelmed. Picking an agency is one of the most important decisions and it is really confusing, but we know God will somehow put us where we need to be. We have decided to ask for a boy as you usually are asked to choose which you prefer, but to tell you the truth we really are hoping and praying for a sibling group. We have heard and read that sibling groups must be adopted out together therefore a lot of the time they are left there because most couples are only prepared for one child. Ben and the children and I would LOVE to come home with two or even three children!

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Our lives will be changing drastically in the coming months, we will be making big decisions and having to raise lots of money to bring our child or children home...Please pray for us! If we need anything at this moment it is lots of prayers! As you know there are good adoption stories and there are horror stories, we want ours to be WONDERFUL! Of course we know there will be bumps in the road, those are to be expected, but we are praying for God to guide our steps!

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If you have ANY advice PLEASE let us know! We are still new at this and we are looking for people who have been through this before to help us make the right choices. Any advice or words of wisdom, or even just a pat on the back, would be great.

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So I guess you know what I will be yapping about from now on! I am so happy! Oh my sweet friends! Thank you for being here.....You have been a constant encouragement to me over the last two years, I know it wasn't always a happy or fun place to be, but you were all here and supportive even when it was hard to read. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! As I sit here tonight typing, my cup truly runneth over!

First day back in the loft.

It has been well over a week since I have been in my loft and I have really missed it! Of course things are a little behind, there are lots of emails to answer and work that needs to be done (ahem...Miss Iris!) but it feels good to be working at it again, and in a clean house to boot! Ben and I started cleaning on Sunday night and I finally finished up last night. Clean houses make me happy. Our Spring cleaning was a little late this year, but at least it finally happened! We threw away/ gave away so much junk! It is amazing how much "stuff" you accumulate in just one year. Where does it come from?

Anyhow, back to the loft. I am looking forward to a full day of work so I started it out right with a cup of my favorite flavored coffee, and a sweet little girl to keep me company.

I did have to bribe her to stay with me though. What? Did you think I was above bribing my children to stay with me instead of going outside to play? Well I'm not, I assure you! The big kids went out to play and I persuaded Maddie to stay in by getting out a little ceramic bunny tea set that I keep put up for special tea parties. She took the bait! Does it get any better than this? A clean house, a cup of coffee, and a little girl at my feet having a tea party with her dolls and her special tea set. Life is good.

Where have I been???

Hello friends! There are so many things going on here at the moment, which is why I haven't been here much for the last week or so...

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My baby sister, Rae, is due any day now (she was 4 cm dilated on Wednesday when at the doctor!), and we have been in a mad rush to get her settled into her new house. I was at her house until 1 AM Saturday morning doing the last of the cleaning and unpacking. Poor baby! Her little feet were so swollen they looked like puffy marshmallows. In fact, I kept telling her when she would try to get up to work "Sit down marshmallow feet!" and "Get out of here and go put your fat feet up!" LOL! She would just giggle at me and head back to her spot on the couch. We really have had a good time all working together the last few days, that usually happens when we are all deliriously tired and sore. We just get ridiculously silly after about 8 hours of work. You know how that goes.

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Besides all that.... Ben and I have been occupied with something else for the last month or so too. We are making some major life changing decisions in the next couple of weeks and we are really needing God's guidance. Soon we will be able to share more about these big changes...but for now, would you pray for us? God is moving our family in a new direction - and as you know that can be exciting, scary, and overwhelming all at the same time. It would mean so much to me during this time to know I have people from all over praying for my family! Thank you!

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I will be back soon! Hopefully with baby pictures!

Summer Adventures

We had such a busy week from Thursday to Sunday. WOW. Thursday and Friday I was cooking and cleaning for my sister Rae's baby shower on Saturday. We had the baby shower at 10am and when it was over Ben and I headed to a wedding two hours away and we didn't get home until after 2am. Sunday was the usual, teaching my boy's Sunday school class (seriously, those are the coolest little guys on the planet), church, eat, and spend the day with the in-laws.

After such a busy week it was time for some playing! So Sunday I borrowed a couple of extra kids from my mother-in-law (this time it was the two younger girls) and yesterday we got up, packed a bag with food and water, and went on an adventure in the forest!

We were a group of doctors and nurses hiking through an African jungle trying to find an ancient tribe that no white man had ever seen before. We were sent to help with a terrible plague that had come through killing many people in the tribe. Along the way we collected many healing herbs and were followed by lions. Once we even heard a herd of elephants close by. Several times the lions almost caught up with us, but we were able to out smart them. Before I knew it we had been playing for hours! Isn't it strange how time flies when you are surrounded by trees, creeks, and trails?

We have had so much rain lately that we had lots of beautiful mushrooms to study too. The children are just so amazed by these things! They are all so different and intriguing.

We normally don't have enough rain to make many mushrooms so this was a rare treat for us. I looked and looked to try and find the names for these interesting mushrooms online but I couldn't identify even one.

If anyone reading has a clue please drop us a line! The children and I would certainly appreciate it, we would love to learn more about them. They are just so beautiful!

The children are already working on the next adventure story, I never know where we may end up! I heard Molly say something about a buried treasure and a map...we may be treasure hunters next time! Well whatever we end up being I'm sure I will love it, and I'm sure it won't last quite long enough...Happy Summer friends!