1000 Gifts List

Every other Friday I go to a women's group at my church called, "Encouragement Fridays". It's a great time to fellowship with other mothers, eat yummy food, and hear a relevant, practical message from some of the most amazing women. I have been abundantly blessed from the wisdom, knowledge and the authenticity that these women bring to our group. They have openly shared with us about their lives, their marriage, their families and their relationship with the Lord.

During our last meeting, one mom talked about a blog she follows and how she has been blessed by reading the writings by a Canadian mother of six. She has started what she is calling her One Thousand Gifts list. The speaker at our group challenged us to keep a list of gifts that God has given to us. Not gifts we want, but to list the gifts we all ready have. God gives to us daily, and many times we miss those gifts within the craziness of our daily lives. I know I do.

So today, I have decided to start my own 1000 Gifts List, that God has generously h given and continues to give to me on a daily basis. Some I will share on my blog, others I will write down in my journal.

Here is the link to the blog in mention and I hope by reading this blog it will inspire you to start your own 1000 Gifts List. LINK

In His Grip,

Nancy

CHRISTMAS IN KAUAI!

Our time in Hawaii was the most memorable Christmas ever! We had a blast and enjoyed all that the island had to offer. We swam, snorkeled, hiked, sunbathed, went sightseeing, ate and ate some more!

We highly recommend going to Hawaii during the Holiday season. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold. The humidity was at a minimum for the region and there is a lot less bugs during the winter season as well. We hope to return to the islands every 3-4 years to vacation during the Christmas Season.

Here are a some pics of our time spent in Kauai! We took over 500 pictures and I narrowed it down to a few less for you to view.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!

FINALIZATION DAY!!!!

We finalized Amanda's adoption yesterday! She is now forever a part of our family, and one of the newest and cutest United States Citizen.

Amanda has been sick the past couple of days, and we were going to reschedule the hearing, but we went ahead and kept the original court date. We did not want to wait one more day to finalize, and sense she did not have a temperature yesterday we figured she would do OK. She ended up sleeping through the entire proceeding, and woke up at the end when cheers roared throughout the court house. There were several other families in the court room waiting to finalize their adoptions as well. It was nice to have other families there to share in our joy! After the proceedings they had a small reception with punch and cookies for the families.

Thank you all for the prayers, support and the encouragement you have so graciously given to our family while we were on our journey to Amanda. There were many bumps in the road, but God was faithful to bring us through those tough times. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever imagine that Amanda would be as amazing as she is. She is such a blessing in our lives and we now feel that our family is complete.

Again, thank you all from the bottom of our hearts!!!

Here are some pictures from the proceeding. We did get her to smile a bit as we were waiting for our adoption decree after the formal ceremony. She's still so darn cute even with a snotty nose!

Micah's Narration

This past weekend was Micah's Christmas Choral concert at church. Micah was granted a narration part in this year's concert. I took this video with my digital camera, and like always I filmed it vertically so the video appears sideways. Sorry. I have no clue on how to rotate the video, or if that's even possible to do. Sigh....

At first you will be hearing a girl delivering her narration, and then Micah will do his. Doesn't he look so handsome?!?!

Christmas Card Pictures

Needless to say, trying to get a 13 month old and a 9 year old to smile at the camera for that 'perfect' picture is a difficult task. Soowan and I resulted into making funny, silly faces, jumping around and singing silly songs to grasp Amanda's attention. Micah's job was to sit still, look at the camera and smile. As you can see in some of these pictures, Micah was losing interest real quick. We did get some great shots, and some silly ones too. Here are some of our favorites.

TURNING ONE IS SO MUCH FUN!!!!

This Saturday Amanda turned ONE!!! It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day for the month of November. Perfect for an outdoor birthday party, some BBQ, a pinata and even a little swimming for the bigger kids. We kept the party small so the focus could remain on the birthday girl. Amanda was surrounded with love and tons of attention!!! She plowed through her cake like a champ, but only taking a few bites. It was more entertaining for her to play with, then to eat. Here is some pictures and a video from her BIG DAY!!!

LOOK AT HER GO!

Amanda is now officially walking! She's been taking a few steps here and there recently, but last night she really took off. This morning I shot this video of her walking.

For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes,And I have walked in Your truth.
~Psalm 26:3 NKJV

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

It's been a while since I've written anything on here. With much persuasion from my sister, here's an update with some pictures as always!!!

The month of October has been rather busy. With Micah's soccer, choir, birthday parties, etc., his social life keeps us all busy. Soccer season is just about coming to an end, and then winter basketball starts up. Why? Oh, why I continue to sign him up for activities back to back... I have no idea? Micah is such a natural athlete, I guess that's why we have a hard time saying "No!".

Amanda is AMAZING! That's the only way to describe her. She has started to walk a bit in the last week or so. She can get in about 4-5 steps at each attempt. Amanda has cut two new molars this week, bringing her teeth count to 14! We lovingly call her JAWS, because she is always chomping down on something. It's so cute because she crawls around looking like a little puppy dog with a chew toy in her mouth. TOO CUTE!! Amanda has been home now for over six months and we had our last post adoption visit with our social worker on the 20th of this month. Currently we are getting everything together to finalize the adoption! We hope to do so before the end of the year.

Amanda's 1st birthday is around the corner. We were going to do a BIG BASH, but then we decided we would keep it small and do something BIG for our finalization day. I did a poll the last time and the winning outfit for her party is....



We are looking forward to November, not just because it's Micah's and Amanda's birthday month, but because Bob and Darline are going to be coming out to spend Thanksgiving with us! This year we decided to do something different and go to a 'Dude Ranch' the week of Thanksgiving. We booked our plans last year, and I am so excited for this time away with family and friends!!! Bob and Darline have not seen Amanda, since she arrived home in April at LAX. We will arrive to the ranch on Micah's birthday. A 5 hour car ride is not the most exciting thing to do on your 9th birthday, but we'll make it up to him while we are there.

Here are some pictures we took while at the Texas State Fair, and of the kids in their Halloween costumes. Why Micah decided to dress up in a scary costume this year is beyond me. Thankfully Amanda is not frightened by it, plus we've allowed her to get used to it for the past month or so.