Annette and her friend Sarah again. These two play so nicely! I know I've said it before but I have never seen two kids play so sweetly with eachother. I hope it lasts forever. They are so cute together.

Ivy looking a little green

I have absolutely no idea what she got into. We never found a green marker looking slobbery or a messy carpet or anything. Oh well. Apparently, it was edible!

Well I literally had no summer t-shirts except the ones from our family reunions and the ones I mow the yard in. So I went to Ross, whose slogan is "Dress for less"--my kind of store. I got two shirts for church and one for "play". The casual shirt (pictured) would have looked much better on me about a hundred sugary desserts ago. So I have hung it up in my room on the wall instead of in the closet. I am hoping to wear it to the reunion in July and look good in it. I don't know why but I really like this shirt. I figure it is good incentive. I'll post a picture when I make it!

A spur of the moment camping trip!

Last weekend, when Nathan's family was here, They, Evan and we went camping at Melton Hill Dam. We had a good time and despite this picture of the local wildlife, no one went home itchy!




Aunt Elise is blowing bubbles for all the kiddos.








Ivy built this sand castle. She is very talented. Isn't she, Evan?



Sweet Simon.

Morning in the Great Outdoors

Nathan is working his cullinary magic for our breakfast. Scrambled eggs and pancakes, Mmm!
Evan, my little brother who is not so little anymore, is sampling some of Nathan's campfire eggs. Look at that steam!

Here I am cuddling by the fire in the morning with my honey.

Breaking Camp

Steve is rolling up Annette's purple sleeping bag. I am keeping my distance to see how much he'll get packed up before I wander over there and feel obliged to chip in with the packing up. (Just kidding!)


I thought this picture of Nathan, Elise and little Simon was very sweet. They were all hanging out in their tent after the rain fly was taken off. Their tent was mostly netting without the rain fly and was pretty wide open and sunny.

This picture of Nathan, on the other hand, was not so sweet but still made good use of the netting....

My brother Nathan, his wife Elise and their little boy Simon were in Knoxville this past weekend. Ivy loved playing with Simon who she mostly called "baby." Simon especially enjoyed Grandma's plastic containers and Ivy surely enjoyed keeping him company!

Ivy kindly shared a bit of her "beckiss" (breakfast) with her puppy dog the other day. Actually, that was her second breakfast. She had already finished a bowl of Cheerios. Uncle Daniel will appreciate her expession in the second picture. He has commented in the past on her expressiveness. Remember that, Dan?

A limmerick about Annette

Annette is a girl who loves style,
You can see that she's practiced this smile.
I am sure that this pose,
Also shows that her clothes,
Could only match in the mind of a child!

Annie's top is all swirly and and pink,
The front a bit marked with green ink.
Her blue floral pants,
are stained from the grass,
That I'll have to scrub out in the sink.

But from the bright orange bow in her hair,
to her feet that are filthy and bare,
I love this sweet girl,
In all her pink swirls,
And delight in her stylish flair!

Anemones

Flowers from my garden. They are much more impressive in the photos than they are in the garden surrounded by straggling weeds and rocky soil! These are called Anemones. I have no idea why they have that name. I bought these bulbs last year so the girls, particularly Annette, would have more picking-flowers, for myself and for my neighbor, Myrtle. The girls love to take her thier little boquets. I had to limit their visits to once per day because they were taking her dandilion boquets three or four times a day till I realizied it! Poor Myrtle probably didn't get much of anything done.

Good News on the Adoption Front...

Remember to check our adoption blog often for new updates! We are getting very close to being ready to send in our dossier! Good news this week.

Who Fathers the Dew?

"Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew?"
Job 28: 38

I was looking for a Bible verse this morning about dew to go with this picture. I came across Job 38:28. Wow! What a powerful passage out of the mouth of God. He reminds us of who it was that saw the formation of the earth and who is in control of everything! If anyone had reason to question God it was Job, wasn't it?!! Read the whole chapter for yourself. Allow yourself to be in awe of our Lord God!

Rabbit loaf and Computer technician

Here is what I found in my kitchen today. Ivy Mae loves playing mommy to baby dolls and stuffed animals alike. Today she has found an interesting bunk bed system for her "children"-- my baking-pans cabinet! She has a baby covered with a dishcloth "blanket" in my 11"x 8" pan and a stuffed yellow bunny who is supposed to be praying but convieniently looks like it's sleeping in the loaf pan beside her in the chair. The bottle for both is in a little holder there in the cupboard too. Ivy likes to be organized--A place for everything and everything in its place, as they say.

Now that I think of it, If I were a rabbit in a loaf pan, I'd start praying, too!

Now on a seemingly unrelated note...
I just want you to know that I now consider myself a skilled computer repair-person. Why is that only seemingly unrelated and not completely unrelated? Well, that's because as I was attempting to post this, I got thoroughly fed up with my tempermental computer mouse (Steve had just mentioned that we were going to have to get a new one) that wouldn't seem to go where I wanted it to! I unscrewed the bottom of it and out fell the little rubber ball. Since that was out of the way, I looked inside and drew upon my well-honed vacuuming skills and noticed that there were lint balls wrapped around the little roller-thingies inside it. I deftly wriggled the lint loose, replaced the ball and, Yep!--It's good as new! I wonder how much money I just saved us? I'd better write "fix computer mouse" on my things-to-do-today list so I can cross it off!

Finally! Well, maybe not 'finally'. After all, we didn't have to wait nearly as long as everyone said we would! Maybe a better thing to say would simply be Hooray!

We received the form in the mail today from the U.S. government that gives us permission to adopt from Ukraine.
We have prayed specifically for this form to be processed more quickly than the predicted three to six months. Praise the Lord, it arrived in only three weeks!

Remember to check out our blog about our adoption at lovedalready.com. There are more details there. I update that with more adoption news than I do here although today this is too exciting to limit to one site!

Please pray that God will be preparing the situation in Ukraine so that we will not be delayed. The political situation there is not good right now. Pray that God will use it for good. That's His style, after all!

John 14:18
I will not leave you as orphans, I will come for you.
-Jesus Christ

Easter Sunday Cousins

Well, Simon was hungry and much too busy to sit for pictures and Ivy took this moment to ponder some of the deeper things of life. Annette is watching the babies and so is Isaac, but Ethan and Hannah are posing perfectly. Hannah is just so proud to get to hold little Owen it wasn't hard to get her to smile!

Seven little Grandchildren in a row and aren't they cute!? I just love pictures like these where there is so much personality to the photo!

Kissing Cousins

Ivy is kissing her cousin Alyssa who is about the same age as her but who Ivy calls "baby"!

If she does say her name she calls her "Wissa".

"Wissa" just became a big sister last week!

April Fool's Baby

We had a new little member join us on the Eimers side of the family. Little (and I do mean little!) Brianna was born on April Fool's Day. We got to meet her and her sleepy family last Friday! Ivy loved giving her a bottle!

Hand-Painted Greeting Cards

As most of you know we are well into our process of adopting three children from the country of Ukraine. We are all at the same time so excited and scared and filled with the anticipation of meeting these children that we have never met yet love so deeply!

The adoption process itself is very costly and we have a whole lot of money to raise. One thing we are doing to make a bit on the side is to sell these greeting cards that I have hand-painted.

We are selling them in groups of six (assorted or all one design). If you are interested, please follow this link to our website that we have set up to chronicle our adoption process. The pricing lists are on our fundraising page and you can purchase them right there with a credit card.

The cards are blank inside and I have posted a few more designs on the website there.