Orlando, we are here

We got here on Monday. William has a work conference and it couldnt have fallen at a better time. The down syndrome conference is this weekend here in Orlando as well so we are staying here till Sunday...woo hoo!!! the hotel we are at is the caribe royal and we love it! We have plenty of room, in the suite, and we are overlooking the huge pool from the 10 th floor. William's sister Karen came with us as well I'm sure she is rethinking that....she isn't used to having four little active excited girls running around all day...we stayed in the large kiddie pool all day yesterday and when William got off work we hit the family pool with the large slide. the girls were in high heaven. There has been so many people watching our every move, kids and adults alike, and last night a lady finally got up and come to the edge of the pool and introduced herself to me. She was so amazed with the girls and was shocked that they were so close in age, three having down syndrome and then that they were all adopted... I love sharing our story, brining glory to God each time of his grace and mercy. Tonight a couple also just loved watching us in the pool. She kept saying...y'all look so happy and are having so much fun....well yes we are and yes we are, then the lady who approached us last night, told her twin sister about us and they were in the pool again tonight with their kids. They sat there and watched us and then she finally got up and come over to us...she said again that we look happy and she said that we are such special people...I told her prompty that we arent anything speical, just the average American family doing our calling from God. Why don't people get that?


Well tomorrow we are finally hooking up with some of our online down syndrome friends...we have followed each others blogs and watched kids grow through photos and a lot of us aree finally getting to meet.....I just can't wait! I'm on the iPad so I can't upload photos until we get home, or will had some periodly on my facebook page....


Here is a fun filled nice day signing off...

Happy 4th of July everyone! Im so glad that we have the FREEdom that we do...thanks to the MEN AND WOMEN WHO FIGHT FOR OUR FREEdom and because of that we now have four little girls that are now FREE too! Thank you America! Enjoy your day everyone....its just my little family spending the day together.....

Well today Lily went to CAMP! She is gone until Friday....I just know she is going to love her new independance and I pray she can learn to enjoy her time while at camp. The girls woke up asking where she was....But now, after the other three are home from VBS, my house is so quiet...they are playing so nicely together..and there is no fighting!!!! AWH this will be good!

WE love you Lily...have lots of fun at church camp. This is the first time she has ever been away from us in the three years she has been home!!! Oh boy!!! I hope she does ok.

Hey all...we have had a busy week. The girls loved bible school this week. They went to a morning one and a evening one...They loved it! Then Saturday we had our bowling day again and then headed to Lowes for our building project....I am so glad Lowes does this for the kids....and my girls love it...its free and fun and in the air conditioner!!! Cant beat that for a fun Saturday treat.


I am looking for two more TAG pens made by Leapfrog. Our girls love these and we have two...but with four little girls, well two sometimes just dont cut it! So if anyone reading this has one they are willing to part with for a reasonable price...PLEASE leave me a message! the girls love to read and have stories read to them...these are the perfect educational toy that i have seen in a long time from Leapfrog.

Will post more pics in a bit, its starting to lightning here, gotta shut down for now.

This weekend was so much fun.

Ace Bowling Alley here in Montgomery has partnered with the Miracle League Baseball and started a bowling league just for the children with special needs. All the Miracle league kids are now invited to take place in Ace All Star Bowling. This Saturday was our first of eight weeks to bowl. We will be there every Saturday morning from 9-11 and the girls are so very excited! Thanks Ace for a fun filled time. They provided the players with a bowling shirt and the girls were thrilled to put it on. they so badly wanted to even sleep in it....can you tell they are excited??

After bowling, we come home and enjoyed a lazy rest of the afternoon. The girls played and we just chilled out. To finish the night off I cooked a "breakfast" for dinner. We love pancakes at night with a tall glass of milk. While we were eating Casey showed up to come hang out with us (our babysitter) and then a hour or so later, April and Wade showed up...so we had a fun night at home.

Church this morning was awesome. Mike finished preaching a series on "how to hear from God"...it was so good and has really challenged me in my own prayer time and conversations with my God.

This afternoon after church William had to go help a friend lay tile in his bathroom while the girls and I played in the pool and then we finished our night with four haircuts. They love me to do beauty shop with them and well tonight was the night. We painted fingernails and then I got out the scissors to give our summer haircuts. Gabby would not stop moving so her hair is MUCH shorter than I wanted but hey it will grow back right??? Summer is already so hot here, the humidy it killer!

This week the girls will be going to TWO vacation bible schools. A morning one from 9-12 and then our church at night...6:30-9. They are gonna be so tired each night! Wish us luck.

I hope everyone has a blessed week.

Summertime is here! We bought the girls another pool this year, this time its a 12 ft round by 30 inches deep. They love it...we love it! yesterday I was able to work out in the yard and they played in the pool for THREE hours or more! In this picture Bella isnt there, she got out because she wanted to "go night night". She never fell asleep but instead decided to help Daddy work in the yard. WE put down the red concrete stepping stones to form a small patio off the pool because the dirt was so muddy....we may end up carrying it around the front and other side too...not sure yet. We have already put more money into setting this pool up and stones than we wanted too, because remember the house is up for sale........so if we dont get any offers soon, we may just go ahead and finish it the way we want... Its nothing fancy, but it sure gets the job done when you have little ones who want to play in the water! Best money we spend every year!

I just love CVS. I love following their specials, the extra bucks you get back and the awesome clearance specials. Well if you want to catch up with the "fun" you can go to this site who is a huge help....www.iheartcvs.com and she is awesome about updating every few days on new specials.

Here is a special i found the other day and called everyone i know who has a child in diapers. They are changing out their packaging and their diapers were 3.99 for the jumbo 40ct packs....AWESOME! Then a few days later they put there wipes on 75% off....so for 13.98 I got a whole stack! Thats SEVEN of the large packs of 150-216 per pack....woohoo! WE use wipes to clean up the girls after a messy dinner, eating popcicles outside and you know all the school supply lists ask for baby wipes at the beginning of school so stock up now...

I could add tons of pictures here and I will upload more I promise...but wanted to start today out with a few special pictures. Today is a VERY speical day. Today is Gabby's 8th birthday and also Gabby and Lily's FOREVER FAMILY DAY! Today, three years ago, in Bogota Colombia, we were blessed to become the parents of two little girls. They were shy, scared, and not exactly sure what these people were doing there. WE didnt speak any spanish and wanted to love all over them. Lily, once she opened up, she wanted to know where Michael, Giovanna and Bella were. The orphanage had shown her the photo album we had sent and she knew who all the members of our family were...and well she didnt see them all there. Smart little girl she is.

I wont even begin to say it was a bed or roses in the beginning but will say, The LORD brought us through it and we love our girls! We are so blessed to be their parents and call it a honor.

THEN TODAY....is OUR Gabby's birthday. She is still sleeping, but when she wakes up, today is all about her! I want her to feel like she is royality...remember she did have a princess party!

Tonight we will celebrate our Family Day with going out to dinner....and at lunch celebrate birthday...so we have a fun, busy day ahead of us..

Thank you Lord for our blessings!

Today is the last day of school for Giovanna and Gabby! They are both sad. I wasnt gonna send them today, but Giovanna insisted she go. They get out at noon so this is a short day for sure.

William and I started setting up their pool last night, but figured we better spend more time on the new one this year than we did last year. WE really needed to level the ground a bit better. I had to go to the store today to buy 20 bags of top soil to hopefully get it all level this afternoon. They are already driving me nuts to get in. I cant wait for it to be all set up so we can enjoy the family times in it again this year. We bought the 12 ft x 30 in deep pool this year. Last yr we just had the 10 ft round one, so this year we get alittle more room...Yippie!

Here's to great family summer fun!!!

These are just a few pictures I took with my cell phone. April did all the pictures and I am waiting on the CD. The girls had a blast. We had 20 princessess join in on the party and they all had a great time. WE started off with doing a princess craft project and games, the on to the food, dancing, musical chairs and gifts...whew 2 hours flew by. We were suppose to do a fashion show and time just got away and I forgot AFTER we already had several girls leave. WE had 4 teen girls come help us and that was a big help.

Giovanna and Gabby were so excited to see all their friends dressed up and dancing with them. What a sweet time. Its moments like this, I sit back and think....where would they be right now at this moment if GOD hadnt spoke to us to travel around the world to adopt them???? Thank you JESUS for calling us~

Happy birthday to our sweet princesses...Giovanna and Gabby

Today is the big day....I woke up feeling alittle better...so the party must go on...I pray I will be able to get it all together and decorated...The girls are so excited!!!

Woke up this morning with a sore throat but pushed on because there is so much to do to get ready for the princess party on Saturday....well by 12 I had sunk fast. By 1:30 Bella and I were in PriMed for the lovely 3 hours all to be told we both have strep throat and she has upper respiratory infection. I opted for TWO shots and am praying that I feel better in the morning. Feeling better or not I must get up and prepare the "ballroom" for the party....


Why is it that adults go down so quick and yet Bella is acting just fine???? Man, to be young again!

Pictures will be coming Saturday night or Sunday...

Im heading back to bed.

If any of you have been following Chrissie's blog you will all know that yesterday she went to dance with Jesus. She will be missed terribly by so many...many who never even got to meet her in person. She has only been joined with her FOREVER family for 7 months (six of those not in the hospital). She will always know the love a family can give her.....Now she will not have to "try" to breath or "cry" silent tears because she is in pain...she will DANCE and sing and wear all the jewelry she wants... and BE HAPPY!

Giovanna and Gabby are having a princess tea party for their birthday party this Saturday...I searched for a pretty wall mural and couldn't find one, so April agreed to help me out! THanks so much April. This is not the finished product but this is what we got done after SIX hours of painting last night. I think it looks cute so far. I started out doing the castle in all pastel colors but it ended up not looking the way I wanted so i went with a more bold pink color. So far it looks great!!! I will upload the finished product as soon as we get done. I cant wait for the big PRINCESS day!

On Friday Giovanna, Bella and Gabby all had a full day of school. Lily only went for one hour and had her awards ceremony. She received MOST IMPROVED for the first grade. We are so proud of her. Way to go Lily!

After her awards day, we took Bella to school and then had to make a stop at WalMart for cupcakes and juice for Giovanna's class for her birthday. She was so excited to see me walk in the door with them! Her class is so sweet and they just love Giovanna to pieces...this makes me so happy!!!

Lily and I then headed to lunch ourselves and did a little shopping. I am desperatly trying to find things for the Princess Tea birthday party for G & G this Sat. Not much luck, so I must keep looking!!!! I know they will all be happy no matter what it looks like but Ijust want it to be cute and enjoyable for all the little girls... I have ordered crowns, wands and other litle things for all the little princesses....

Well William is trying to get our dishwasher fixed and put back together..I havent had the dishwasher in over a month and i sure do miss it!!! We then finished off the day laying a half pallet of sod and will finish that today after church. The front yard looks so good after the retaining wall and new sod we did a month or so ago...

well that is a quick catch up from the last few days...

have a blessed Sunday!