A day of good gardening

The girls and I spent the morning working in the garden and flower beds. Tonight we were able to eat a whole meal of food we grew (corn, tomatoes, beans) or my dad grew (steak). Sorry the last picture is out of order.

The girls enjoying the fruits of their labor

First a quick pose with Caesar, per the girls request.

then on to our first harvest of corn and tomatoes

then we thinned a little corn and pulled our spent bean plants

off to the compost pile

One more July 4th post

Per the Waggoner's request, here is a photo of the shopping cart brigade at the Wilmore July 4th parade. Many of you are familiar with the lawnmower brigade that is the highlight of every July 4th parade in Wilmore, but this year, the mom's of Wilmore countered with their own brigade, complete with choreography.

If any of you have paid the least bit of attention to the World Cup, you will be familiar with the song the girls are dancing to in the below video. (They play it a thousand times during a match.) Matt is really trying to get into soccer and understand the different leagues and teams in preparation for the boys arrival. We've been told that they are big soccer players.

Chloe & Essie Discover Fireworks

As if one pyromaniac (Amy) wasn't enough in this family, last night Chloe and Essie discovered fireworks. Grandpa and Grandma Kinnell came over for a nice cookout, and the girls stayed up WAY past their bedtime to celebrate with fireworks in the driveway. Pictures and video below:

Happy Fourth of July!

July 4th Parade (on July 3rd)

Today was the Wilmore 4th of July Parade. A strange parade - it was interrupted by a train that held up the parade for about five minutes. Then later there was a big gap in the parade again, and everyone got up and left, and then along came the tractors and the horses with nobody on the roadside watching. But it was still fun, and the girls got lots of candy.

Megan and Chloe (picture taken by Essie)

Chloe, James, and Essie

Watching the parade wore Chloe out

Water guns and thoughts about corn

The girls figured out water guns today thanks to the neighbor boys. They came in soaked from head to toe. Sorry you can't see there faces but they were having too much fun shooting mommy.

I realized when I took this picture of them in front of the corn in our garden that not even 2 year ago (Sept. 08) we received our first glimpses of our girls and they just happen to be standing in front of corn or bucalawa as they say in Gumuz.

Essie (above) and Chloe (below)

I cannot believe the difference from then until today!

Lifesong Grant Total

We received word today that our grand total for the Lifesong grant is $5,000 (well, $4,992, but I'm rounding up). $4,000 of that will be matched so we have a grand total of $9,000!!! Praise Jesus!! We cannot thank you all enough. This money will go towards our agency fees. We still owe the agency a few more thousand dollars and then we'll have travel expenses (which we estimate to be $6,000 for Matt & the boys). I can't believe we are so close to paying for it all. When we started this second adoption we had about $2,000 in the bank because we had just finished paying off the loan we had to take to bring the girls home. I told our agency director that we were happy to take the boys but had no idea how we were going to pay all the fees. She said, "Don't worry, we've seen God provide miraculously before." What blessing to have such a great adoption agency (we love CCI!) I'm also in awe as I look over our donor list that many of our friends who are themselves in the midst of an adoption journey, contributed to our adoption. I know that God has something amazing in store for our boys as so many have given sacrificially to bring them home. Thank you again!!!

Remember our next court date is the 14th!