A little sick...

Ainsley stayed home from school on Tuesday.

Honestly she could have gone but...

102.5 fever the night before....

...and a 100.5 the morning of school...

So I kept her home...

Based on the self-portraits, she doesn't look too sick to me...

Crazy Hair

These pictures don't do justice to Ellie's hair this morning.

But it's the best I could do...

An E-mail...

I wanted to share an e-mail we recently received from one of the large group teachers involved with our Children's Ministry.

I am sharing it with her permission.

Often I forget to celebrate the amazing things that God has done in the lives of my kids, especially Ellie. She has come so far, but often I forget this and focus on the things she still needs to improve on. Her personality is so extraverted and mine is right in the middle and there are times (many of them to be exact) when I want to try to shush Ellie, calm down her exuberance at life and in general just want her to be more like me. I am ashamed to admit it because God has created each of my kids and their differing personalities. He loves that we are all different yet we make up one body if we trust in Him.

This letter reminded me to take every moment and celebrate what He has done in Ellie's life and to celebrate who He created her to be...

Jeff & Stephanie:

Each month when I’m in CrosswayKids I try to recognize a child who is doing something special or out of the ordinary--showing leadership, or helping others out, being a peacemaker, participating enthusiastically, just something out of the norm that stands out. Then I also email his/her parents to brag on their child.

This month, that child was Ellie. Ellie made my day yesterday!! It was her first time in the elementary large group and I have no doubt that she had a wonderful time.

Since you both work in CrosswayKids I don’t need to tell you how challenging it can often be to get some of the kids to participate in worship. But not Ellie!! Ellie was dancing and singing her little heart out and when worship was over she turned around to me and said “I want to do it again!”

Before the lesson, I had all of the kids introduce themselves since we had new ones in the group... some mumbled their names under their breath, but Ellie introduced herself to the group loudly and clearly.

She paid attention during the lesson and participated very enthusiastically!! When I asked questions she always raised her hand to answer, never just shouting out. As an ice breaker to draw into a bigger point, I asked the kids what their favorite breakfast food was. Apparently the kids loooove breakfast food because everyone wanted to answer. So I was going around the room letting everyone say their breakfast food, Ellie was waving and shaking her little hand in the air, very excited, but she never answered until she was called on. (By the way, her favorite breakfast is toaster strudels!) :-)

Ellie rocks!!!

I am excited that Ellie has moved up to the elementary group, I really look forward to watching her grow and learn in Crosswaykids!!

donna

Thanks Donna!!

First Day of School

Well we have completed our first two days of school and overall I think it went great!

There were of course a few glitches and crazy moments but all in all I think the kids had a fantastic beginning of a new school year!

Ainsley and Ellie seem to love their new teachers and have had a lot of fun already. I knew they would like their teachers because I know both of their teachers. Mackenzie and Ainsley both had Mrs. Baker for kindergarten and she is awesome. Mackenzie had Ms. Quinlan for 1st grade and that is who Ainsley now has for 2nd grade. Looks to be a great school year.

Mackenzie was the wild card, starting a new school with new teachers and all that involves. I honestly was pretty nervous for her, because she was a little nervous on the first day. Beechwood doesn't have a meet the teacher night and there was construction going on in the school so we didn't even get to take a tour of the new school. She did great however and I am so proud of her. When she got into the car after the 1st day, she didn't stop talking the entire 25 minutes it took to get to her sister's school! She seems to love her new teacher and loves all her new classes and the fun stuff they get to do! I am ever so thankful!

I myself and loving my new schedule. I am working Tuesday and Thursdays and then have Mon, Wed and Friday mornings left to do stuff I need to get done and volunteer. Looking forward to a great year of school!

Adopting

Well here's the big news of the last few weeks. We have decided to adopt again! I have been waiting for God to lay it on Jeff's heart to adopt again. I told Jeff on our flight home from adopting Ellie that we would adopt again but it has taken a while to get there for both of us, really.

Parenting kids takes a lot of time and attention! But then you throw in one that has some special needs and time seems to fly right out the window! But I think I have known all along that I wanted to eventually do it again. We haven't made a final decision as to all the specifics though we certainly are leaning towards adopting another girl from China.

We have loads of decisions to make in the coming weeks, but will keep you posted as we go along.

This new journey is especially exciting because we don't have the money saved up! Not sure how God will choose to bring it in but am certain that if He wants us to do this than the money will be there! Can't wait to watch amazing things happen!

How does time...

...fly by so quickly!!

If you can't believe that it is almost time for school to start than please join me in my amazement!

We have had such a fun, busy summer that it seems like it can't possibly be time for school to get underway yet again.

As the week finishes up, I think the sitter will be taking the girls somewhere fun today. I spent yesterday and today at the Willowcreek Leadership Conference via the simulcast. It has been a great learning experience. I always love listening and learning new things from some great and amazing leaders of our time.

On the schedule yesterday was Bill Hybels, Jim Collins ( he was awesome), Christine Cain ( she was AMAZING), an interview with Tony Dungy (pretty good), Adam Hamilton (good and helpful info), Dr. Peter Zhao Xiao and Andy Stanley. Unfortunately I think Peter Zhao Xiao went longer than anticipated and we had to leave before Andy Stanley spoke which was sad! But still some great leaders with some God-given insight!

On tap for today are Jef Manion, an interview with Terri Kelly, Daniel Pink, and interview with Blake Mycoskie (really looking forward to this one...he's the founder and CEO of TOMS shoes, a company that for every pair of shoes a consumer purchases they give a pair away to a needy child), and interview with Jack Welch, TD Jakes and then Hybels with closing remarks.

Looks to be a great challenging day! It is on central time, which means that we don't get to eat lunch till close to 2 and I don't get home to eat dinner till 7. This is very late for me...probably need a power breakfast :)

Weekend activities

Our weekend was pretty low key but we managed to throw in lots of fun too! Friday night we went to the pool and had a really good time. That was our first time at the pool in at least several weeks because of vacation. It was nice to hang out as a family. Jeff was gone this past week on a business trip so the girls we glad to have daddy back too.

Saturday morning we just spent around the house relaxing and doing some yard work. The girls played with a neighborhood friend and then we headed out to do some shopping, eat dinner and go bowling. They were very excited about the bowling as we haven't done that in a long time. However the evening really turned into a comedy of errors on my part! We had some landscape needs to get at home depot, a few P&G coupons to use before the expired, pick out a camera for Ainsley with her birthday money and school supplies for the girls. Then the plan was to go get new running shoes for Jeff and I at the specialty running store in Newport. We got everything we needed to get done and then drove to Newport, which is about a 25min drive. We got there, found parking (which is no easy feat at 5 pm in Newport) and then found out that the store closes at 4:30! Grrrr! Who closes at 4:30 on a Saturday night?? So decided to get dinner since we knew there would be a long wait at the restaurant we wanted to go to.

After a very yummy dinner out Outback (thanks to gift cards), we headed to the bowling alley. We had coupons for bowling and it should have been a very inexpensive outing all things considered. But no...I didn't read the fine print on the coupon (which honestly I should have because it wasn't so fine..)! They can't be used after 6 pm. Of course the bowling alley doesn't open for the public till 5 so that gives you an hour in which to actually use the coupon!! But since the girls were looking forward to it so much, we decided to just spend the money and bowl. We get our shoes and ball and off we go! They put the bumpers up for us since we had the girls and they had a lot of fun. Ellie lost interest about halfway through but I still had her come up and bowl. As a lot of you know, she is pretty weak. She has made lots of progress but still her arm strength is not nearly where it should be. So essentially she placed the ball down, pushed it and 4 min later it arrived at its intended destination! So I was helping the process along, giving it a little push along with her push to cut the time down to 1 min. I missed the extra push on this specific occasion and it started trickling down the alley VERY SLOWLY! I thought for certain I could grab it before it got too far and give it another push. NOT A GOOD IDEA! Not 2 steps in and I was laying on the floor on my back in some pain and very embarrassed. Had we had a video camera there, I am pretty sure I would have been a winner on America's Funniest Home Videos. Needless to say, I am still sore today! I was however the winner at the end of the night so apparently it didn't incapacitate me too much :)

On Sunday we headed to the creek which is one of the girls' favorite destinations. We spent a couple of hours there and found a soft shell turtle which was pretty cool! They had a great time. I didn't bring my camera but once I load Ainsley's pictures onto our computer I will try to post 1 or 2. I think she might have taken 30! Then of course it was off to church. For any of you who don't know, our church meets in the afternoons right now because we are renting space from another church who meets in the morning. Dinner at Chipotle with friends, a friend overnight last night completed the weekend festivities. We will be celebrating Ainsley's birthday Tuesday night by letting her have a fried of two over and then heading to Chuck E. Cheese Wednesday morning. I have a pretty busy but fun week ahead. Today is pool day with lots of cool friends! Tomorrow I work all day and then have a cell group pool party at night. Wednesday is Chuck E. Cheese in the am and then speech in the afternoon for Ellie. Thursday and Friday I am going to the Willowcreek Leadership Conference in Cincinnati via simulcast. It should be a really cool event! I went last year and loved it!