400th Post!!!

My last entry for my photography class, just love her profile! These are from last year, I can't wait to get some of him in his official high school uniform!

We are so proud of our nephew Taylor, he is in the final 8 for high school basketball, we are going to watch him again this week! He just signed to play football and baseball at Wheaton University. Here we are posing with him after a super exciting game!

Oh my goodness! I cannot believe that it is my 400th post! If you add that with the 2 years that I wrote on Baby Jelly Beans (before this blog), I have basically written a book! I have been blogging now for almost 5 years ! When I first started no one really knew what a blog was, now they are everywhere! I had never heard of a blog either until I started the adoption process, it was a great way for families, while in China, to share pictures and stories with their loved ones back home. I still have friends and family telling me how they looked forward to checking their computers to see if we had posted anything new. Believe me it was great for us too, we loved getting comments and well wishes from our friends and family, it was very encouraging and helped get us through those long 2 weeks in a foreign country with a new baby!

My blog has become a part of me, like my journal that I kept in high school. I have gone through and re-read many posts and am amazed at how both of the kids are changing, this blog has been such a blessing to our family. Thanks so much for still caring about our day to day lives and for your words of encouragament and friendship.

Ok, now that I got that out of the way, we have been celebrating all weekend, Dayton has been practicing and training for months, and I do mean months for a chance to be on the high school baseball team. Well, after a very long week full of tryouts we were thrilled to find out Friday night that he made the JV team! We are so proud of him, there were so many good boys and some really good boys (sophomores) got cut so we feel very blessed that Dayton was chosen. This is something that he has wanted since he was a little boy, to be on the high school team, so we are very happy that he has worked hard and made his dream a reality. They even had him practicing with the Varsity players, that kind of scared me! The only bad thing was that we were going to leave for spring break the morning of the 31st, well, wouldn't you know that he has his first game that night, a double header no less! So we are probably going to have to drive all night to reach our destination on time, life is always interesting that way isn't it?!

Congrats Dayton, we are so proud of you!!! He is sure growing up, yesterday he stood on his tip toes and was eye to eye with Mark, so strange to see your baby getting so big!

And then little Myah signs up for kindergarten this week, I just cannot believe that either! I had her conference with her teacher the other day and she said that Myah is more than ready for kindergarten, I am so proud of her too! Her teacher told me Myah likes to "share" alot as in tell stories about our life, which I find so funny. She told her teacher the other day that "my daddy dropped me off because my mommy's hair wasn't done this morning", well..it was sort of true but I am not that vain! Myah is also very excited to be signed up for t-ball this spring. I see lots of laughs in our future! She is such a character, she spotted some little pink batting gloves in Dick's the other day and there was no way she was going to leave without them, she wears them everywhere! She is loving the warmer temperatures and has found some new friends in the neighborhood to play with...boys! I am so behind in posting pictures on here, I will have to do that later, little miss social life has had two birthday parties this weekend, and we need to get going!

Hope you are enjoying the warmer temperatures and thawing out after this long winter!

Please Pray for these Families

I know that the bloggy community is full of praying people so I am asking you to take a moment to say a prayer for two families this week. The first family is a friend of mine through our adoptions. Diana and her family are currently in China adopting their second daughter, Sienna, she is 4 1/2 years old. After receiving vaccinations in China the other day Sienna has spiked very high fevers and has been ill. They have only had her for a week, I cannot imagine what this little girl is going through. Long story short, they have received an expedited Visa so that they may fly home to the US today, a week earlier than planned.That was an answer to prayers in itself. Please pray for Sienna's health and strength to take the 15 hour flight home and pray for Diana, Jeff and big sister Ainsley as they travel with her.

Secondly, my heart goes out to the family of James B. Many of you know that I am married to a police Lt., my second family is the police community, they are a brotherhood like nothing I have seen before. I have been in this family for 20 years now and nothing is worse than being notified that another officer has died in the line of duty. Yesterday James was shot and killed in a nearby community, he was just 26 years old. We do not personally know James but he grew up in the community where my husband is a Lt. Mark was informed yesterday that he will share in the distinct honor of planning James' funeral. This is a huge undertaking, we know this because one of our friends and co-workers was killed in the line of duty 6 years ago and Mark was in charge of planning his arrangements as well. These funerals are huge, thousands of police officers come from all over to show their respect to the officer and their brother in blue. Please join us in praying for this family as they lay their son to rest and deal with this senseless tragedy.
This hits so close to home, my Mark was involved in a fatal shooting 5 years ago this past month. I will never forget the confusion of that day, the unknowns, the sadness, the fears and frustrations. Friends, family and clergy visited our home that day, it was such a blur. Watching the television and seeing the story plastered all over was difficult, but I was so thankful at the end of the day for the outcome. I almost lost Mark that day, believe me, I never take for granted that he is here with me. As difficult as it has been and always will be for Mark and I to live with the fact that he took another man's life, we know that the Lord was watching over him that day, he gave Mark the strength and confidence to do what he has trained to do and not become the victim himself. I know that James will always be a hero, his life was taken for a reason that we do not understand, but that is not for us to try to figure out, he is in God's hands. I ask that you pray for his family and for his co workers, it is going to be a very difficult time for them. Thank you !!!!

Dayton's an Official Driver Now!!!

This was taken a few weeks ago when he got his pink slip! Today we went to Sec. of State and go the real learner permit allowing him to drive with us until he turns 16! He is doing pretty good, just stay out of our way if you see us coming!!! Ha ha!!! Oh, unless he is parallel parking, apparently he is great at doing that! We survived our first trip on the expressway with him tonight during rush hour, lets just say I need to make another appt. to get my hair colored... very soon! Awww, just kidding! Congrats Dayton!!!