Celebrating Cate turning 19

 Everyone loves Cate....

 Letting Ezra help blow out her candles on her cheesecake bites which are a favorite.

 Always helping wherever needed and without being asked.

 She always has room for a brother or sister or 2.... on her lap.

 She deeply and passionately loves her family...especially her little brother, Andrew. He knows this too and responds the most for her. I have learned alot by watching her.....

 This is our Cate...always willing to be there with me. She is a second momma, she is able to manage the family when I am gone, cooking for the bunch, orgainizing the day or activity like I would :) She is a gift and a pure servant. I am so happy to be celebrating this daughter of mine's 19th b-day. Her mom was only 13 when she had Cate...In our country she may have been aborted by such a yg. mom. She was placed in the orphanage and lived there until we adopted her at the age of 13. She surprises me with little gifts of love - like yesterday am when I came down to the kitchen I had a plate of eggs, tomatoes, cottage cheese, toast and sparkling cider to drink fixed by her. She has a gift of serving and she is a precious daughter and friend to me. Happy Birthday Cate !

Our Annual Christmas Tree Hunt for The Perfect Tree....

 And we were off....

 Even Andrew walked the whole way...

 "Daddy and his girls"

We finally found a tree after we walked and walked...The weather was unseasonably warm so the kids did not even need jackets and the farm we go to is a beautiful peaceful place to walk in. It was a great time. afterwards we landed at Burger King . We used to do this all the time with our original 6 so that is what we did this year. Now how many families can fill the entire playarea seating ? :)

This was my best "Black Friday" find :)

I never go out to shop on Black Friday...I am a huge people watcher and enjoy going out at a more sane time to just meander around a store or two...Just for fun. I found this huge box of chocolates and it was cheap...so I bought it. The best part was seeing the kids eyes get as big as saucers when they first saw it...And it did not take us long to empty it :)

Guess whose coming for dinner times 6 ?

 /

This coming week ends a time for Jenn and Jeremiah of quite a year of changes. Jeremiah has moved on to a new church plant http://www.thecreekchurch.org/ in Cary , NC. If you live in that area go and visit them but make sure you give them a hug from us when you do...since we don't see them as often as we would like to. Eli had his skull surgery, Jenn went thru a difficult pregnancy and then we were blessed in August with their daughter, Zoe. They have bought a home and will be moving next week and that means we get to love on the 3 older "grand" kids again- without the parents and are we looking forward to it...Let the fun begin !

They have a story to tell.....

I am finally beginning to write a book that I have wanted to for a long time. Actually since 1990 when I felt the Lord gave me a call to. Last week for school the kids worked on a writing project and that was all they did for school besides their reading. I never thought it would be as special to them as it turned out to be. They had to write their stories...starting from the beginning of their lives. They looked thru some memory books we had made and some of their court documents. Many had tears and some even shared how they felt the Lord was making it very special...like while they were writing it a song came on the radio that ministered deeply to their hearts...It was called , How Great Is Our God- The World Edition with Chris Tomlin. It was a very positive experience and not one I could have planned for it to be... I plan on posting each story here and then it will be a part of the book I am writing. So stay tuned for some special blessings and to hear how the Lord was a part of each one of their lives.

I am Thankful ....

 Waiting to eat our brunch...Thankful we have food to eat and loved ones around us to enjoy it together.

 Cuddling with Mady...Thankful for the life in our family..."grand" ones and adopted ones and bio. ones and their families.....

The family sitting down after filling their plates...others are still doing that and they are not in the picture. Thankful for such a large family....and the ability to take care of them all...Plenty of love to go around and then some.....

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.....

I am thankful for our home...and for our electricity

 

We have added on 4 additions and we use them . I never thought we would ever have been able to do this but it has been amazing to see our needs met by the Lord. Tonite we hosted some friends of ours who are in the young adult group at church . Funny though about 5 pm just after I got our dinner fixed...we lost our electricity :) . We managed but in 2 hrs we were expecting around 20 some yg adults... Allegany Electric estimated it would be back on in a few hours...We decided to go ahead anyway . We lit lots of candles and our little kids went home with Mary Kate and Keith to watch the movie. We had the group over in the dark- with lots of candles and it was fun. About 3 plus hours it came back on....but only ours did on the whole street...and the funny thing was the group had prayed for it to and just as they did the lights were on :) Our next door neighbor called about 20 minutes later when she noticed ours were on and not hers. I told her I would send the group over to pray :) Actually we enjoyed the time with no electricity - other than I could not bake the snacks until later when it came on.

The bottom pic is Abraham and his girlfriend, Deanna :)

Sadie , Emma and Willie are certainly some of our best therapists.....

Willie- He is the old man now. He turns 11 in January.

Emma ( she was the runt) and she is still the smaller one of the two puppies...

Sadie was the biggest in the litter. We were only going to bring home one puppy for the kids last Christmas but when Emma came running out of the pen and you could see how small she was I knew we would be coming home with 2.

We all love our dogs...and they are such a big part of the family. They help the kids learn so much and give unconditional love....