Family according to Sari

Sari ( home just a year) has the sweetest spirit.  Several times a week I find notes from her that express the love she has ...the love that is deep and special to her for her family...It just makes me smile inside to hear her laugh, and to know she feels loved. She made this picture and wrote this note...then she taped it to our entrance hall wall for all to see. Just warms my heart.

Briggs family is here. Playing a game outside. They like to have fun together and do many things. They like to play sport and go strawberry, blueberry and cherry picking. They also like to do BIBLE together and family time. They enjoy watching tv and playing electronics. They have fun playing outside with each other and exploring new things. Each of the kids are different, but love spending time with each other and do the best to be a great family.
                                                                       FAMILY

Our Rock Devotions - Encouraging Our Family Towards a Deeper Relationship with Jesus

Sunday nite I gave each child a rock to paint. This rock then lived with them for 24 hrs.. They had to feed it, care for it and nurture it. Each rock had their own name too...Interesting tonite when we gathered for Bible to go over what some of our rocks experienced : Some were lost for some part of the day. Some were dropped by accident many times because they had no pockets or special place to carry their rock, some were hidden in a blanket and the parent of that rock had a hard time finding him. One rock even went thru the washing machine by accident. Someone else took a rock that was not theirs. Someone gave their rock to someone else. Some fell where they should not have been. One rock reminded someone of their past. Some took naps with their parents and some played with others. Some even joked about their rocks...they thought it was funny. All of the rocks taught us some things.....

First we read from the Bible diff. expressions of the Rock in the Bible, like Peter being called the rock and Jesus was referred to as the rock. We also listened to some songs with the reference to a rock...then my reason for this whole exercise was to equate a message about our relationship with Jesus with the way we treated our rocks. When we have a real relationship with Jesus Christ we treat him many diff. ways like we pretended to our rocks....Actually all the kids, even some of my adult ones found it easy to take care of their rocks...It was a novelty and fun to do. I encouraged them to nurture their relationship with Jesus...to carry Him always, to not hide Him under anything so others can see Him, to always place Him in your heart pocket , to share with others your faith and His love, to protect your relationship by walking where you should and not into places of sin, and always take your relationship seriously...It is never a joking matter. Our faith requires us to nurture and to spend time in the Word and with others who encourage us towards Him. It was a fun exercise and we all learned some interesting things about our relationship with Jesus and how we treat that relationship. This devotion was appealing to our wide age span in our family so maybe it would helpful to yours since we have from adults down to 2 yrs old..

Happy 14th- day of your birth- Josiah

Celebrated with steak and chicken on the grill, mac and cheese, salad and watermelon...followed by chocolate cake and ice cream...is what he wanted and what he got.

We were watching MK and Keith's kids Friday nite and Milo who has had some eating struggles finished his dinner in no time and ate a piece of cake and ice cream in 5 minutes....He has never liked sweets. Everyone was so excited for him.

Hanging with Josiah as he open his gifts. Happy Birthday Josiah !

Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere - at least for some

We had a bubble gum blowing contest on Fathers Day...Sari was pretty good at it to.

Mya kept at it as well

Selah had one of the biggest bubbles of the day.

Ava had these little squirts with her tries :) 

Judah ate his and was content to drive his car...

Jesse enjoyed chewing and occasionally blowing the whole gum out of his mouth onto the ground.

Milo enjoyed chewing and chewing....

Mady tried and tried...

Kloe was just mad...because we did not give her a piece but she got over it quickly.

Supermen- Our Men of Steel

Getting gifted on Fathers Day

Abby was sick all day but, I caught Anna reading to her...love these kids and how they love each other.

I am not sure who this gift was for : )

At the end of our day even Andrew wanted to snuggle in Daddy's arm...I love ........

We started our Fathers Day with a camp out last nite....

We gave Daddy his first present last nite- This fire pit. 

This is our bigger fire pit...and what is a "fire camp" without smores. 

Some of our older kids- ahem named Joseph "camped out" on this bed he made on the porch swing. At midnite he was joined by Luke who said, " I just wanted to " . We are all taking a mandatory nap this afternoon but it was a fun time and a great start to our daddy day celebration.

Welcome to my week...It was a great week with lots of positive news but a busy one

I was gone every day of this week- Doctor appts, shopping for Fathers day, hanging out with some special ones and going to Baltimore for something special with all of us over 18. I left this walk way every am and often did not return until the evening...long days but great ones. 

While I was gone my older kids would babysit and they did a terrific job with the little ones.

They even had a scavenger hunt complete with prizes too.

We had some rough weather days...weird weather this spring. Fortunately we did not have the tornadoes some had.

Our baby eggs hatched this week- 4 tiny sparrow babies.

Luke and Anna spent from 8am to 8:30pm with daddy and I at the cleft clinic. We have switched from Johns Hopkins to Childrens - long day with great results though.

Went shopping after orthodonist appts. for Fathers day and got some great deals ....

We got this outdoor fire fountain for 46 dollars on sale. 

This is the group plus me who went to Baltimore today to complete part of our adoption. We had 10 of us 18 and over who needed to get fingerprinted. More adoption news later :)

This is what I came home to ...it is part of our peace garden. Yes, my home brings me peace. I love flowers and plants and the smiles on my kids faces when I return. It was a great week....filled with super wonderful news in  many areas of my life. From Mary Kate's healthy ob check up to the cleft clinic change which we are glad we did, to passing court in Ghana for our 2 new children, to some positive health news for me ( something I have never shared but will sometime), to completing the fingerprinting of the 10 adults here for our adoption...we also went roller skating for free thanks to our orthodontist who holds an end of the school year party for his patients and shopping for our "Supermen" for Fathers Day ( shhh don't tell but we are having a Superman Fathers Day party for daddy and Keith - MK's husband).