Precious Memories by Amanda Fund Raiser for our Boys

Caroline, before and after

Caroline is my fearless child. C1 was and is always pretty conservative and cautious when it comes to things of the unknown.











Not my Caroline, my sweet Caroline. New Year's Eve she found a new hobby. The fearless face plant on the bed.











Which by the way is soft...super soft compared to.....












The hardwood floors from the 2nd from the bottom stairs. Thomas said that by the time he had turned around, she was face first on the floors and blood was already spouting from her lip. So off to the dentist we go in the morning, cause I don't already have enough to do tomorrow.

I wanted to share with all of you the wonderful birthday present my mom gave to me this year. The necklace was made for me and is the shape of Africa with a heart cut out. also it has Samuel and Noah's names on it. This is one of my most precious material gifts that I own right now. Every time I feel it or see it I am reminded again of how blessed I am to be given to baby boys.

Thomas and the girls gave me this shirt for Christmas. He actually designed the whole thing and had it printed. Our adoption agency's logo is on the back and it looks wonderful. I love wearing it and pray to have them both home soon.

New Pictureof Samuel

I was thrilled to get to see new pictures of our babies right before Christmas. The girls and I had bought some clothes and toys to send to them with our Director. The 18month outfit we bought Samuel is huge on him. He seems to be so small. Also, Thomas and the girls gave me a wonderful gift for my birthday...they sent money so that the boys could have a crib in Liberia. HollyAnn was kind enough to snap a few shots of Noah in his crib. Now my baby has a safe place to lay his little sweet head at night. So here are some of the pictures of them.

When the girls pray at night and before their naps, they NEVER fail to pray for Samuel and Noah. It used to be that they would say the pray that is our standard for our family..."dear Jesus, thank you for today, thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Campbell and Caroline...thank you for your Son that you sent to save us from our sins" then they are able to pray to Jesus how they want and would usually pray that He would keep SAmuel and Noah safe and healthy. Now they pray as normal, but after "Mommy, Daddy, Campbell, Caroline..they add Samuel and Noah and thank you for your Son that You sent" It is almost like they finally realize that they are really truly going to be part of our family forever and it is so precious.

Thank my sweet Saviour for my family and for my soon to be larger family. Thank you for giving us sons. I started thinking about how God must have felt when He sent His only begotten Son to us and was apart from Him for 33 years. I ache inside for my boys that I have never even met and it has only been almost 2 months. For God to have sent Him to bear the weight of our sin on His shoulders...He truly is most gracious Father to us all.

Christmas Early

Can you tell I am trying to catch up on posts that I have not had time to update? We went to Mimi and Poppy's Sat morning and had Christmas a tad bit early. The girls absolutely loved their gifts. Caroline got the cutest peppermint dress and striped tights and had to put it on immediately and refused to take it off till she had to change clothes for bed some 13 hrs later. Campbell got a ballerina out fit which she put on and commenced to show us her ballet techniques. It was really sweet. They loved that Mimi had all kinds of goodies out on her fine china with punch in her glass tea cups and real linen Christmas napkins. Mommy on the other hand had small strokes every time that they attempted to eat. The picture in my mind's eye was of the glass shattering everywhere, shards sticking in the carpet and the girls getting cut, bleeding all over the white carpet, us getting kicked out because we broke something, you get the picture. So to my relief, nothing was broken, everything was cleaned and placed where it belonged before we left and cookies were even sent home with us....all in all a great start to the Christmas holiday.
We were able to spend a few hours with my grandarents and as I know only too well, how blessed I am to still be
able to do this. I miss my other grandparents so badly as well as Thomas' grandparents. I would love to show them the girls for only a moment so that they could see how much they have grown or to see which ones look like them or act like them.

Merry Christmas!!!

So Thomas had surgery a week ago Friday and was in great spirits right before the proceedure (without any meds, mind you).

Trying to be funny!

So this is just after surgery and the fun has worn off a little, even with the pain meds.

Not so joyful, huh?

Gingerbread anyone?

The girls decided that we needed to build a gingerbread house. I looked everywhere for one, online that is, and finally had to ask a friend where to get one in town that didn't cost $200. Since I try not to frequent Wal-Mart if at all possible guess where these came from...WAL_MART. But, I didn't have to go...hehehe. Called Nana and she left work to go to her Wal-mart in Alex City and then sent them to me. Now that is what a mother's love (well, grandmother's love) is all about. So we decided this morning was when we were going to decorate our house.

Caroline really is a funny little ham!!