Let's Catch Up... Quickly!

The Traditional Gotcha Day Dinner - 

We have a traditional Gotcha Day Dinner with the Martine family each year to celebrate Libby and Maliah's special day. This year it was fun dressing Gracie in Libby's first anniversary Gotcha day dress for the occasion. This Gotcha Day was Libby's fourth!

 Maliah and Libby

The Martines

                                    

The kids... 2 more will be added by next year's Gotcha day, Lord willing. One in our family (Keemberlie from Haiti) and one in the Martine family (a 3-4 year old boy from Ethiopia)!!!

All with cheesy grins!

A family photo... we gotta do better than this, but this is all we got folks... Billy was aggravated with Libby who had just yanked his goatee and I was bouncing a less than happy Gracie... good times!

Cristie and Me

                                                                              

Sunday's best -

You just gotta love that cute smile!
Dressed girls up in cute Asian attire for church one Sunday morning. Have been visiting Cross Bridge Community church for a while now. Enjoying it much!

 Soccer Season - 

Soccer Season is here! Go Libby!

This year Maliah is on the same team with Libby. It is so fun watching them play together. Will have to get a photo of them playing together soon. There is some serious CHINESE DOMINATION going on! The two of them ROCK!

 The Random - 

lollipops! sisters!

THE grin!

This Fall's Getup -

Libby the Asian Buzzette Lightyear

Gracie the Ethiopian Renaissance Princess with Pacifier

The River -

 

 The Girls - 

this precious face stares back at me each night as I lay her down at 8pm. she plays a few games with me and giggles. i heart gracie.

And this precious girl - the one in sporty attire - is showing signs of embracing her girl-ness. Note the headband and twinkle toe shoes! Of course, the athletic shorts and T remain. 

My Matching Brownies!

 Home School - 
We are currently using both Sonlight and Classical Conversations curriculum. For CC we meet with a group of other CC families each Tuesday morning. Libby has to do a class presentation each week. I'm really not creative, but we all have creative moments... well, this one was mine (probably for the entire year). Our history sentence to memorize for the week included a fact about Rembrandt so I had Libby study three of his self-portraits and then we gathered things from around the house to try and re-create the self-portraits Libby style. Lastly we chose one of the pictures and worked on her own self-portrait that imitated Rembrandt... Here's the finished product:

Rembrandt in Oriental Attire.... Libby in her Chinese outfit doing her best to re-create the image.

Rembrandt in a plumed beret. Libby wearing a similar hat... and mustache.

Rembrandt in wide-brimmed hat sits next to Libby in her black cow-girl hat.

The painting we did together to match her re-creation.

We are really enjoying home school. We'll finish up our first year using Sonlight before Christmas and begin the Kindergarten curriculum in January. We are half way through our first semester of CC. In the last week or so Libby has finally allowed me to hear/see her progress in memory work. She's walking around the house singing her history sentences (long ones!) and her counting by 2's and 3's songs. She's memorized about 50 world history timeline cards from Creation to the Ministry of Jesus and has Ephesians 6: 1-6 under her belt. By the end of the CC school year she'll know the entire 6th chapter of Ephesians. I am so amazed by this curriculum and the ability of young minds to soak it all up.

The Parents - 

Billy loves his girls and they adore him.

Ditto

The Latest - 

Keemberlie lost her two front teeth sometime after Aug. 2 and before Sept. 25. I think it changes the look of her face so much! She is so tiny and it looks like she is growing taller. I was hoping to hear from the Pastor today regarding the last document we need in order for him to deliver our dossier to IBESR (THE adoption office in Haiti), but I did not. We have been delayed by this one document for too long so keep the prayers coming that Keemberlie's biological mother's death certificate would be finished and delivered to Pastor this week! 


Oct. 22-26 Libby will travel with me to visit Keemberlie again. Billy will stay back with Gracie. Prayers over our trip are appreciated!