Monday, November 19, 2012

Birthday Celebrations

As I mentioned in my previous post November 9th was Eri's birthday. 
We like birthdays around here.

...OK, me more than David. 

Because of some fun things we had going on, Eri's birthday celebration got broken up into a few different days.  
I wanted to share all the fun with you...

Even though her party wasn't for another week, we went ahead and gave her her gifts from Mommy and Daddy.

She was very excited to feed her baby in her new high chair...

and put them to sleep in her new Pac N Play.



Eri is at the stage where she is really starting to love animals, and to recognize different ones.
A few days after her birthday we went to the zoo with some good friends.

(OK, maybe her birthday was an excuse to go see the new baby giraffe...)







Eri loved these giraffes in the gift shop.
Thanks to Greg and Yang Yang she got to bring them home with her!
(She has continued to love them at home!)

Here he is...Baby Kiko.  So cute!







And finally, the Saturday before Thanksgiving we had her party.
Friends and family came, and loved her well!





And this...
was after the party.  

She got her second wind just long enough for me to take some pictures of her birthday outfit. 


(A friend of mine helped me take pictures of the party.  
So, I reserve the right to share more with you later.)

Another birthday celebrated.  
We look forward to what the next year holds for our sweet girl, and our family.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

She's 2?!

This past Friday Eri turned 2.
What in the world?!

I can't believe how fast the past two years have gone.  
I've always heard parents say, "Time passes so quickly. They grow up so fast.  They won't be little long."
I never knew how true that was...
until Eri came to us.

Watching her grow up, into her own person, develop her own personality...
Time as flown by.

It's been so fun, and continues to be.

She's such a fun little person.
We laugh every day.
And everyday at some point we say, "Awww, I just love her."

We haven't had her birthday party yet, 
and I want to take some more "2 Year Old Pictures",
but I took a few Saturday night at a wedding rehearsal.
I wanted to share them...
Enjoy.






I will post pictures soon to show how we celebrated...

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

It Was Never Mine to Hold

There is a musician that my husband and I really like.
He heard her at a conference for work and brought home her CD.
Now...I really like her.
Her name is Audrey Assad.

There are a couple of her songs that I like more than the rest...as is the case with most CDs.
My very favorite is "Everything is Yours".

It is one of the most peacefully freeing, yet convicting songs that I have ever loved.

The song talks about how easy it is to hear the Lord and feel close to him when everything is going right.
At other times however, it is more difficult.

However, He never changes through it all!

It describes the power He has to calm the storms.
Yet He is gentle enough to take care of the delicate roses. 

The chorus is my favorite part.
It simply says,
if everything is Yours, I'm letting it go.
It was never mine to hold.

Throughout our foster parent journey, and at other times in life I have found myself thinking of this song.
I tend to cling so tightly to what I have or what I want.
I forget that it isn't mine.
God has given me things, a husband, a child, dreams...but they are still His.

I say it's freeing because it gives me peace to know He is in control.
I don't have to hold on tight or hold it all together.
It's convicting because I rarely remember this and live this way.
It's also scary because I'm human and sometimes I don't want to give up control.
I think I can handle it all best.
(How silly is that?!)

Today I just wanted to share my heart.
This is definitely not an area of life I have conquered.
Even as I'm typing this I know I will continue to struggle with this.

Even still...God is still God.
He is still the same.
He holds it all.
And He is trustworthy to hold it all!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Little Love Bug

Last night was Halloween.  
It was cold.
We ended up in Bat Cave, NC...where I grew up.

The church I grew up in has a festival every year. 
Somehow, I've never been to it...until this year.

We loaded up the Tahoe with some friends and headed up.
It was a lot of fun!

We got to spend some time with my mom and dad, a.k.a. Grammy and Granddad.
Eri played games.
David entered a cornhole tournament...and came close to winning.
And we got to catch up with many old friends we haven't seen in a while.

I had two costumes to decide between for Eri.  
One was a genie.
It was cute, but not as cute as the other.

The other costume was a ladybug, I thought...
The day before Halloween I actually decided it wasn't a ladybug. 
It's was a love bug.
The hearts gave it away.
She sure was cute.


She loves cornhole. 
She doesn't understand it all obviously but she knows she's supposed to put the bag in the hole.  
How she does that doesn't matter. 

Daddy helped her play the golf game.
(Well...when she would let him help. )




Chief Granddad let Eri get up in his big fire truck.  

And after a big night we stopped by to visit some friends.
This little girl loves her some Boone family!

It ended up being a late night and we were all very tired, 
but we had a great night with our little love bug! 
She's growing up so fast!