Lifeline Picnic...

I am quickly becoming known for doing five or six different posts at one time! Things sometimes just pile up on you don't they? Anyway, here we go! At the end of June Grace and I, along with Sonya and Katie Lin Hodge, as well as Melissa, Steven, and Thomas Ross attended the Lifeline Picnic. It was sponsored by Lifeline Children's Services, the adoption agency who helped us bring Grace into her forever family. We all piled up in our van and headed to Monte Sano State Park for some hot, summer fun!

Here we are on our way...

Here is Katie Lin with her mom...

Our beloved Karla...

Karla was our social worker when we were working to bring Grace home. She endured many phone calls, crying spells, and yes, even fits from me when I wasn't understanding God's perfect timing! All the time being patient and encouraging me to hang in there. Hopefully, whenever we decide to do this again, Karla will be willing to put up with the same!!! We love you Karla and you will always hold a special place in our hearts!!!

I love this picture of Grace... This is Steven with Grace...He is such a great helper with her and treats her just like his little sister. I keep telling Melissa that he's going to be a great big brother one day. Hint, Hint, Hint...

For some reason, this picture makes me want to call him "Turkey Thomas". Generally, we just call him "T". I can't believe I caught him still long enough to take his picture!

Katie Lin kept wanting to climb this really tall jungle gym and Sonya wouldn't let her!!! Doesn't she look like she wants to climb it really bad?

More posts to come!!!

Father's Day...

My two loves... Brandon and Grace. It has been amazing to watch Brandon grow into the father that he is. Grace wanted nothing to do with him when we first got her and it hurt his heart. After all, we waited so long for her we wanted her to want us too! Boy has she changed! She loves him with all of her heart, and when he's home she's quickly on his heels wanting to do everything he does. We got him a sprayer for the four wheeler, and Grace picked him out a hat for him to wear while he mows our grass. Happy Father's Day to Grace's favorite man (even though it's late!)

Meet Reynolds Warner Ratliff...

This beautiful child was born June 16th, at 9:26 P.M. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 4 oz. and has beautiful hair! Reynolds has been prayed for about two years now. Her mom, Amy, is a good friend of mine and we belong to the same prayer group. Reynolds is a daily reminder, to her parents and anyone else who prayed for her arrival, that we serve an awesome God who always shows up right on time!

By the way, when we left the hospital, Grace looked at me and said, "I want one of those!" Hmmm.....

Know, Speak, Live-God's Unshakable Truth!

This past week was VBS week at our church. The theme this year was, "Outrigger Island". We had an absolute blast! Whitney, our children's minister, did a great job of getting this together. I helped a friend of mine with preschool snacks. I've never actually "constructed" snacks before but I might start now! It was really fun getting to see the kids faces when they showed up at the "snack shack" for their snack for that day! Grace particulary likes the VBS music! It sounds very Hawaiian, and we have been listening to it now for almost two weeks. Lifeway always does a great job putting the music together, but this year they outdid themselves! The verse this year was Psalm 86:11 which says, "Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, that I may honor you."

Here are Whitney, Anna, Briley, and Madison getting ready to lead worship during the worship rally...

Sarah and Abigail helped too...

It looks like Grace is having a blast!

My nephew, Joseph, went with us this year...

One of our "constructed" snacks! We followed this with a fruit kabob that had bananas, grapes, and marshmellows, along with some pretzels. They had lemonade to drink!

Our Beach Pictures of Grace

This year I decided to take some pictures of Grace to hang in our bathroom. They turned out great! I took 309 pictures of her on the beach late yesterday afternoon. They were all good, but these are just a few of my favorites!

This is one of my favorites! She's just standing there checking everything out!

In this picture she was drawing in the sand with her finger.

This one is sweet

There are those sweet, little feet again!!!

This is her true smile! It's sometimes hard to catch on film. I'm glad we got this one!

Random Pics...

Here are just some random pics that I couldn't really fit in anywhere but still wanted to share with you! Enjoy!!!

TA DA! That's what Grace was saying when I snapped this picture! Lately, when I tell her I'm going to take her picture she automatically wants to pose. Some of her poses are absolutely hilarious!

A couple of days ago I opened the door to our room at the condo so the noise would wake up Grace from her nap. About five minutes later we heard Travis talking but we couldn't find him. We found him in our room just as you see him now. He was saying, "Wake up Gracie Bug". It was so cute!

They are awake and ready to go! Travis and Grace have a unique, love/hate relationship. They will be loving on each other one minute like they are in this picture, and then they'll be screaming at each other because they want what the other one has. This has made for an interesting week!

How Many Pictures Do You Have to Take to Get the Perfect One?

With these kids there's no limit. We never did get one of them all smiling and looking at the camera at the same time. Here's a sampling of our shoot...

Actually, now that I'm loading them this one isn't so bad! This was attempt number 1!

Attempt number 2. I don't really know what Grace is looking at.

Now we're just being silly!Travis, Jay, and Grace talking...Our beautiful Grace!!!These are two of my nephews, Travis and Jay. They went with us to the beach this year.

Walking down the beach with Jay