Those Kind Cows

We were out to eat last night for dinner and Nathan was eating a hamburger. Mid way through he asks "where do hamburgers come from?" Daddy tells him that they come from cows and Nathan's response was "That was kind of them, wasn't it." :)

Christmas Greetings

We have many excuses for not sending out Christmas cards this year but I'm not going to share them because I'm sure ever one who reads this can relate to most or all of them. So this year this is our card:) Last night we took our family picture finally and due to not cooperating, Heidi didn't make the cut. It's a good thing Nathan and Lydia were mostly cooperating:)

We do wish everyone a Merry Christmas and even though this is not very personal you are all in our thoughts this merry season. And here are a couple snipits to end this post with:

Thanksgiving Review

Well...Thanksgiving is behind us and here comes Christmas..I feel like it might plow me over:) Thanksgiving seemed to go so fast but we did have a wonderful time in Ohio visiting my family (once again I forgot to take pictures most of the time). It was relaxing...sort-of...I think my parents needed a couple days to recuperate:) and we were all spent the first day back home too, traveling will do that. It was so good to see all my family including my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Don who I hadn't seen in years. Nathan again had such a fun time running around with his cousins but his highlight of the whole weekend was playing with his cousin Nicolas in our time of family worship. He wanted to do everything just like his cousin and once everyone else got past the loud noise coming out of his guitar we enjoyed our worship time too:) Thank you Mom and Dad for a great Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful to our Lord for but we are especially thankful for our two little gifts. Thank you Jesus for Nathan and Lydia!

Nathan singing and playing his heart out with a very talented musician, Nicolas.

And She's Off!

We have a full time walker! We were over at a dear friends house today and they have a precious little girl a couple months older than Lydia who has been walking for a while. I think Lydia wanted to join her because she took off at their house and hasn't stopped walking all night. She is such a cutie and very proud of her accomplishment I might add:) I am proud of her too but I am still a little sad my baby is no longer A baby...but she will always be MY baby:)

Amazing Toy For A Bouncy Boy

The best five dollars I have ever spent in my entire life!!!

I bought this bouncy ball at the Five Below store as a gift for Nathan on Lydia's adoption day. I can not tell you how much it has been used...hours every day. His favorite thing to do with it is hop around the house while Lydia pushes her stroller. Lydia can't do anything else actually if Nathan is hopping on it, he very persistently gets the stroller and places it in Lydia's reach:) I am waiting for it to get worn out on the bottom but you better believe I am going back for more. I am hoping this novelty will not wear off during the winter months:)
It is also used as a nice bouncy chair while listening to music or looking out a window or watching a video:)
And some other things...Nathan has started preschool, I think we are in the third week. He is doing well enjoying the one-on-one time with Mommy and the activities for the most part. He is showing an interest in learning for the majority and we are working on his attention span:) He has learned two bible verses for the letter N and A!
Lydia is enjoying an apple we got at an orchard, she thought that was the best thing~a whole apple:) Just in the last couple days she has been taking one steppers here and there. It wont be long I don't think. Mom and Dad...she could be walking for Thanksgiving...have you child proofed your house yet?:)

Good Bye Summer

There is no denying it...Autumn has arrived. No more warm days in the forecast until next year. I will try to make the best of it...do I sound like Eeyore?:)

I do love so many things about Fall and Winter, I just don't like being inside for most of the day with 2 energetic children and one hyperactive dog:) But we will make the best of it! And I have snow suits ready to go!

Lydia's Dedication

I am way behind with this post but it doesn't make it any less important. With thankful hearts overflowing we dedicated our little Tulip to the Lord on October 3rd. About a year ago we dedicated Nathan to the Lord and Lydia was with us in my arms. We were praying then that someday we would be able to do the same with our precious little girl and here we are:) God is so good to us! We pray everyday for her salvation and that God would give us grace to raise her for Him alone. We were so thankful for our family that came and prayed with us and for all the church family that are walking along side of us on this journey as parents.

There's a land that is fairer than day,

And by faith we can see it afar;

For the Father waits over the way

To prepare us a dwelling place there.

Steve's Grandfather, Nathan and Lydia's Great Grandfather, went to be with his Savior this past Thursday. He was 99 years old and was quite amazing. He was always on the go, catching the bus to take him all around Reading and stopping occasionally to hit some golf balls~one of his favorite past times. He loved to be with his family and loved the children. Just a couple weeks ago he was throwing balls for Nathan to hit. Everyone was amazed at how far Nathan was hitting them, but really the amazing thing was that his 99 year old Great Grandfather could and found so much joy in playing with his 3 year old great grandson! I am told his Bible was His favorite book to read and if you talked to him long the Lord would undoubtedly come up. He was so thankful for every day that God gave him and I think he is so much more thankful now.

This picture was taken at Lydia's adoption..he was the first one there waiting for us to arrive. I'm so glad the Lord allowed him to be there. We love you Great Grandpa and are thankful for leading your family in the Lord!

Messy, Messy, Messy

Why does this pretty girl with so much hair enjoy wiping her messy hands all over her face and hair at every meal?! I think I might have to buy her one of those plastic shower caps my Gramma uses:)

Who is this little boy?

God is at work in this little boy's heart, there is no other explanation. For the past week I have looked at my son in amazement over and over and have been thanking Jesus. We have been going through many, many difficult months with Nathan and it has been discouraging, very trying and very difficult to see fruit in his life. This week has been much different and I am overwhelmed with thankfulness to the Lord for doing work and for giving us glimpses of what He's doing! Some evidences of His grace in Nathan's life: Usually when we asked Nathan to do anything the response was "NO!" and a tantrum or complaining, now at least 40 % of the time or more I hear out of his mouth "oh O.K." and he obeys! Wow! And interactions with Lydia have been so much more loving and caring. Now he still does take most of her toys away...but he is also giving her things and wanting to help her and show compassion on her when she is crying. He hasn't knocked her over once this week, (well maybe a couple times but he was sitting behind her and catching her:) His heart is much softer and I praise the Lord over and over again.

Thank you all, family and friends for your prayers and please don't stop:) And I pray that I will have faith in God's continuing work in my children even in long trying times of no fruit ahead. He alone can change the hearts of men.

First Birthday Party

We celebrated Lydia's birthday yesterday which was also the one year anniversary of us picking our little tulip up from the hospital. We had a good time with family celebrating and thanking the Lord for this precious life. One of her cousins asked me why I always curl her hair:) I had to share these cake pictures because she is just too cute. She didn't have a chance to blow out her own candle even if she knew how...Nathan was only trying to keep her from getting burned, right?:)

The touch. The taste. The face

The wipe....The smile:)

What a cutie pie!

Our Birthday Girl

It was Lydia's birthday yesterday, it's hard to believe she is already one. She is such a joy to us all, her smile light's up the room and Mama and Dada's hearts. She has blossomed so much in the past couple months, loves to be active and loves to dance to music. She has a great sense of humor and enjoys being silly with her brother. She has about 10-15 words now she can say. She loves outside but doesn't want to use her walker, she wants to crawl so she can explore everything (and stick everything in her mouth). She loves being read to, any jewelry, and shoes.

One year ago today we found out about our little Tulip and we were off to Walmart to buy a LOT of baby items as we anxiously awaited meeting this little girl God had for us. Oh how we love her and are so thankful that she is our daughter...Happy Birthday Lydia!

God Hears

Another beautiful day we had yesterday, September 1st, adopting our precious daughter Lydia Mae. Words can not express how thankful we are to our Lord for giving her to us to love and care for and to train her up in the Lord, and oh how we love this little bundle of joy:) We have been amazed how God has worked through this process teaching us to pray and have faith that He would answer us in the best way. We prayed for her salvation and also that she would be able to stay with us. One prayer has been answered and we hope in the Lord to answer the other. We feel so blessed that we have had her since she was 2 days old but still there is something of relief and certainty to have a judge pronounce it's final and announce her new name. We had a great time with family as we celebrated God's amazing goodness to us.

My Mother made her beautiful dress.

Do I look happy?:)

We decided a while ago to honor her biological Mom's request to get her ears pierced but we had to wait until she was ours, so...last night we took her to the mall and Daddy bought her some pink pearls. She cried a little but stopped when I gave her some food. She's such a cutie. They will always remind us of this beautiful day and her biological Mom.

Friends

This past weekend we had a couple opportunities to spend time with some friends of ours and captured some cute pictures to share. Nathan loves when we have company:) We enjoyed having three boys from a dear family at our church for a day, all three are so good with Nathan and Lydia taking time to interact and play with them both.

And we got to spend some time of fellowship and dinner with some other dear friends. It was great fun minus the swing incident:) This picture is pre-swing incident.

Kutztown Fair

We were able to go to the Kutztown Fair with Poppy and Grammy this past Friday. We all had so much fun! It was great to hang out with them and have fun with our children. Nathan enjoyed the food, rides, animals and the circus show complete with a motorcycle act. And our little Lydia went on her first carnival ride with Grammy~the carousel and she loved every minute of it:)

OBX 2010

We were very blessed to go on another family vacation with Steve's parents at the Outer Banks. We almost didn't make it though...our car broke down on the way down in Virginia with 5 more hours to go. We were trying to decide what to do. All the rent-a-car places were closed so we were thinking about staying at a hotel for a couple days, getting the car fixed and heading home. But Steve's Dad (Poppy) had other plans. When he heard that we were stranded he immediately got up, grabbed his keys and headed out the door to rescue us...We will never forget his love for us in doing this. He drove 5 hours while we hung out at a McDonald's. I think we are all tired of McDonald's but very thankful they had a play land. He came and picked us up and drove us back down to the Outer Banks. God really went ahead of us and we ran into the friendliest people and felt His care all night.
Besides being very tired that first day, we all had a grand time. Nathan especially had so much fun. He loved the ocean from the first moment he laid eyes on it. The words out of his mouth when he climbed up the stairs and looked down at the big expanse were "Thank you Jesus!" Here's a picture of him ready to charge with his shovel. He loved jumping the waves and digging in the sand and trying to figure out how to ride a surf board. Lydia on the other hand was not to sure about it..she was pretty afraid of the waves the first day but warmed up to the sand and water by the final day.
It was quite a bit different going to the beach with two kids who need constant attention, but thankfully we had many hands to help. I loved watching Nathan enjoy his extended family, both Nathan and Lydia fell in love with their cousin Sammy. It was also different having a little one who still needs two naps a day, I was thankful there was a pool at the house:) Some other highlights of our vacation: Watching Steve relax and enjoy flying his kites, ghost crabbing, thunderstorms, Nathan go-carting with Daddy, Nathan sharing snacks with Aunt Amy, bike rides, feeding turtles, coffee date with my Honey and of course Grammy's peaches and Poppy's waffles. Thank you Poppy and Grammy for such a wonderful time and the many precious memories we are taking with us. We all love you both dearly!

Our two cutie pies

Hip Hip Hooray

Can you hear us cheering!! It seems like we have been waiting forever to know when we will be able to adopt our little Tulip and finally we know:) I was shamefully a little upset we have to wait another 5 weeks but reminded again from sisters and friends that this is the Lord's perfect timing. His perfect sovereignly ordained adoption day for our Lydia will be September 1st! Oh how excited we are that this little girl that the Lord gave us, whom we love so very very much, will soon be ours.

Moving Forward

Lydia is now sporting a walker:) She loves this new way to get around and I think she is very anxious to walk and run like her big brother. She absolutely loves to watch Nathan run (and so do I unless he is running away from me when I am calling). As I have said before, it seems like she's changing everyday. She now has 5 teeth and she is also calling me Ma-Ma which melts my heart every time I hear it:)

She looks like such a big girl here

We had been at a stand still waiting for Lydia's birth certificate to come, over 4 weeks which usually takes maybe two. I was really struggling with anxiety and a little anger over the wait and was voicing my frustrations in care group last Sunday. Right after I shared Lydia awoke. I went to rock her to sleep and my dear friend had this scripture hanging in her room:

Habakkuk 2:3b

"If it seems slow, wait for it;

it will surely come; it will not delay."

God was so, so kind to me, calming my fears even in my sin, my lack of trust, bringing me back to His sovereignty. He has ordained when this adoption will take place and it will not be a day late. I am so thankful that the Lord gave me this verse!

And God also has a sense of humor:), the next day CYS received her birth certificate, last Monday. So we got our paper work from the lawyer, notarized and back to the Lawyer yesterday so now I am very happily waiting to hear when our court date will be trusting the Lord and His perfect timing.

VBS

This past week Nathan went to Vacation Bible School at the church Steve's family attends, Grace Bible Fellowship. They did such a great job with the program, what a ministry it was to all the 130 children that came. Nathan had a great time throughout the week and was excited to go every night. He felt like such a big boy that he was going to bible "school" and I was a little sad that he was old enough to go also:) On Friday they had a closing ceremony which was also very well done with a skit and a slide show and each class got up and sang a song. Steve and I were a little worried about this...At first he scanned for us and saw me in the crowd and yelled out "Hi Mommy!" Then he scanned to see if he could jump down but thankfully did not. Next he decided to give his neighbors a little shove (something we have been trying to work with him but obviously not enough), and thankfully he stopped that after a couple times and then decided to jump up and down throughout the other half of the song without stop. Oh BOY!!

Random

A New Hat

It's a punching balloon and Nathan decided to wear it:)

A New Kind of Hug

Since Lydia's been mobile she is much more curious about this furry friend:)

A Water Break

and nothing more