Another Busy Week

We've had another busy week in the Kinnell household. The girls went to VBS at a local church last week so we started out with their closing program on Sunday night.

Can you spot the African children?

I finally conquered cornrows and beads with Essie this week and it stayed really well all week. She loved the beads and did not want me to take them out tonight.

Monday night was our monthly adoption support group meeting. The Waggoners had some sparklers that the kids really enjoyed. The Waggoners got some great news from CIS while were were there and we had 2 new families, both adopting from Ethiopia, join our group. YAH! I cannot stress enough how encouraging our support group is to us. I always tell my clients to find a support group before they bring their children home. No one understands the joys and trials the adoption journey brings unless they have been through it themselves. I am always so encouraged after our Monday night meetings.

Chloe really liked the sparkers-good the July 4th is just around the corner.

Aunt Buffy was in town this week and the girls were SO excited to spend the night with her at Grandma and Grandpa K.'s house. Chloe grabbed her backpack and was out the door before I even said it was time to go.

Tonight I head out to the garden after we got the girls to bed to check on my beans. I was not only surprised to find a lot of beans that needed to be picked, but I also found my first cucumbers. I was so sad the girls were already asleep because they get so excited to find new treasures in the garden. But I had a long day of work and with hair and bath night, I did not get outside until almost 9pm. I didn't even have time to do the girls hair so they are all natural for church tomorrow. We'll see if we have time tomorrow afternoon for some hair.

Blogspot always loads videos at the end of a post so here is a short video from the VBS program. The girls were so cute singing their songs, I just had to share with you all.

Oh, I almost forgot, after having no air conditioning this whole spring, we finally got a new unit on Thursday and our insurance paid for all of it, minus our $500 deductible. Since the heat index was 100 all week, we were all thrilled to finally get AC. I never knew I'd be so thrilled to have workmen show up at my house at 8:30am. Thank you Jesus and thank you KY Farm Bureau Insurance Company!

Lifesong Grant

Just wanted to let everyone know that there is only 2 weeks left to give towards our Lifesong for Orphans grant. We've almost made it to our $4,000 matching goal, and any money we raise over that will go to our additional expenses.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution that will be matched to help us bring our boys home, checks can be made out to Lifesong with "Kinnell - 1264" in the memo. The address is Lifesong for Orphans / P.O. Box 40 / Gridley, IL 61744.

Thank you so much to all of you who have helped us along on this journey. Remember our next court date is June 24th (next Thursday). Please pray that the birth relative can be located in time.

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

The girls blew out the candles before I could even take a breath.

Ababa & the girls got me a Van Gogh skin for my laptop and a new crockpot (I asked for a new one)

This is my old crockpot, which I bought at a yard sale before we were married. The plastic lid was not original and finally cracked a few weeks ago.

My new crockpot, stainless steel and everything~snazzy!

More Gardening Adventures

The girls have really been helping me in the garden. They seem to enjoy it, especially Essie. She really sticks with it and likes to "get those weeds". Chloe announced that we were "good farmer ladies" while we were working last night. I finally got in my 2nd batch of corn, which was my goal for the night.

Essie & Chloe using their tools that Meemaw bought them.

The girls soon decided they wanted to use the "real tools" not their "toy tools"

The girls discovered our first tomatoes and tonight we picked our first beans. Nothing beats the 1st beans of the season!

Not sure what's Chloe's funny face is about

Summer fun

These videos are a few weeks old, but don't have anything else to report so thought you'd enjoy the girls in their pool. I had just filled the pool with water so it was a little cold. The next day it felt like bath water, thanks to the sun. We still don't have AC so thinking about the pool helps us stay cool.

Gardening my frustrations out

I decided to vent my frustration with life right now by working in the garden this morning. Our new court date is June 24th and our AC/Heat unit is completely dead and it will cost over $3,000 to replace it. The girls were "bored"(b/c I wouldn't let them watch TV) so I put them to work weeding, just like my mother used to do with us kids. I had a stroke of genius by having them race down their rows of corn to see who could weed faster. Once the excitement of the race was over, Chloe went to swing. Essie stuck with it though and once water was added into the mix, Chloe was all about helping again.

Essie weeding

Essie watering the plants

Chloe takes a turn watering

Memorial Day Weekend

We celebrated Memorial Day with friends and family and some new hairdos.

Chloe has 4 topknots while Essie has cornrows on top.

Getting better at cornrows.

Chloe took this picture-not bad

Amy's cousin DJ and Aunt Karla (from MD)