Feliz Cumpleanos Papi

Daddy, You love mommy all the days and Mommy likes you and Jameson. You are my favorite Daddy and I like to go on a date with you. I like to sit on your lap and read books. Love, Jo Jo


Daddy, I love the eggs that you make. I love how you act silly and I love when you play tackle time with us. I love you. - Love, Jacklyn


Dad, You make me feel special when you spend time with me, play card games, play sports outside and when you tell me I have sparkly blue eyes. I am so glad I have you for a Dad. Thank you. Love, Julia


Dear Dad, Thank you for teaching me sports and coaching my baseball team last year. I like it when you play tackle time with us and take me to your softball games. You are the greatest home run hitter. You are really funny and always make me laugh. I like our special discipleship time at night when we read together. Thank you for letting us have Checkers. You are really cool and I really look forward to going to the Dominican Republic with you. I hope to be like you when I grow up. Love, Jordan


Happy Birthday Dad! Thank you for bringing me to take your daughter to work day and on dates like Garcias and to the horse auction. You almost always have time for us and my favorite things are tackle time and playing sports outside. Love, Janae


Happy 34th B-day - you look better than ever! I am so proud that finally after 8 kids you have worked hard and lost your "baby weight" and learned to shave ;). You always make me feel beautiful no matter if I am + or - 25 lbs, pregnant and swollen or normal with a face full of pimples. I know I am blessed to have you. Te amo mucho.

20 lbs of Trouble

This is what I found upon returning from changing Jameson's diaper
So into the high chair Jeremiah goes. How many times must I tell him to sit on his bottom? Yes I know what he needs - a little training :)

HMMMM- Josiah come quick - mom is distracted feeding Jameson. Let's raid the pantry!
Let's play pick up sticks with the spaghetti - NAAA lets just dump themCome on Pudge - hurry we better sweep this into the vacuum vent before mom sees the mess!
Not working - get something bigger - quick the broom. Ok - Pudge you turn on the vent.
Shucks - mom caught me before I got a chance to "reorganize" the cups.
How about this mom - just loving on my dog -see I'm harmless - why does everyone call me "TROUBLE"?
Giddee up - HMMMM this dog just won't move. Let's try the baby.

So sweet. Mom, who are you looking at? Don't you trust me to be gentle?

Josiah, you are going to squish him. Let me check something. Yep. He has all his parts. We'll let him join our club.

If mom won't let me dump anything else in her kitchen, maybe I can find something here. . .

AHHHH - and this was just the first couple of hours of my day on Tuesday, while all of the big kids were at VBS and I had no help. I have a new appreciation for the helpfulness of my big kids!

All week my 4 big kids have been going to Blast Extreme - like vacation Bible School on steroids. They love it! Joanna and the littles have to stay behind, so my mom has been helping by taking and picking up the kids from church and we take turns splitting up the littles - only 2 days this week I have had all 3 babies by myself. Tuesday was one of those days and I thought I was going to go crazy. Bath time was good - then all of the above happened- well lets just say, I put the boys to nap at 8:45 am instead of 9:45.

Blessed is the man whose quiver is FULL

"Only one life 'twill soon be past, only what's done for Christ will last!"
Notice Jameson's shirt says "Daddy's little sidekick" - yeah - both this shirt and his Mother's Day shirt were garage sale finds - $.50 and $.25 - love garage sales! Also - notice all of my kids have clothes on - this is rare if you look at my blog much - LOL

I think of the quote above when I think of Javi. Not only does he love God and is always evangelizing, but he also serves Christ in our home - raising up His children to know and love the Lord. You can just see how much the kids adore their daddy! He is one hard working daddy. Not only does he put in plenty of hours at work, but you just can't imagine how much work he puts in at home with the kids and projects. Sitting down to watch a football or baseball game at our house is pretty much a distant memory or really just sitting at all. He is so proud of his kids and I love that. There is not a day that goes by that his daughters don't hear how beautiful he thinks they are or a day that goes by that every child is not kissed. He has really stepped up his relationship with Jordan in the last several months, encouraging him and mentoring him in all areas, including spiritual things. We love you Daddy!

PS- You can see he got a big kick out of picking up the big kids like they were babies

- they were like, "Dad!!! please!!!"

Do we really need H2O?

Looks like Jeremiah gives it a thumbs up :)

pool construction

This is mostly for my dad who likes to watch the construction process. Last week we got the plumbing, electrical and steel done. This week they got the permit, shotcrete and the bolders come tomorrow. Tomorrow will mark 2 weeks and look how much they have gotten done!

Josiah's skin

Wow - another clear provision from the Lord. I posted Josiah's problem on our AZ Ethiopian adoption yahoo group and someone recommended a dermatologist at Phx Children's Hospital who is Ethiopian/American! Oh! and do you know what?! This doctor said his family is from Gondar - the same city where Josiah was found - so neat!

He was wonderful and diagnosed him with 4 or 5 different things and sent in swabbed samples from the sores on his bottom. He prescribed me 5 ointments and 1 over the counter cream I need to buy. He has eczema, impetigo, something I can't remember on his bum and scabies or acropustulis (sp?) on his extremities oh and moloscum (they don't treat that). All of this flared up since Sunday (except for the sores on his bum have been there longer) and his hands/legs/feet looked terrible this morning, almost as bad as when we brought him home from the orphanage. I need to cover him head to toe with the different ointments. I wish I would have known about this doc when the boys came home. It makes me sick to think of all the itching and pain that especially Jeremiah went through with their skin problems and our doctor just kept saying that it should heal with good nutrition (and it did for the most part - but took months). On a side note, Josiah came home wearing 6-9 month clothes and 6 months later he now wheres 18 month - 2T clothes - so he is growing all of a sudden. Poor Jeremiah is still pretty little, but he seems to be losing his bloated belly - yay!

Next on the list - start stool samples all over again - woo hoo.

talking and splashing - 4 months

G. G. I posted these especially for you to see your newest little great grandson, Jameson.

Finally! (turn up the sound)

My Josiah (2 yrs old) has never babbled. He just grunts, signs, giggles and cries. Early on he did say something that sounded like hot (HA) when food was hot, but I don't want to count that as his first word. You see, the reason why is because a few weeks ago he finally said his first word, "Mama". I was overjoyed - not only did he finally say a word, but he is the first baby to say mama before saying dada :). The truth is I bribed him with a chocolate chip and still do, but hey it works! Here is proof. (I think he thinks that mama and chocolate are 1 in the same - but no harm in that since we basically are 1 in the same).
On a sad note, I don't think the giardia is gone on either of the boys. Josiah now has about 6 open bleeding sores on his bum and more on his private parts - he is just raw and nothing helps and he screams (even when urinating) and I literally have to hold him down to change him. He has scabies looking sores all over also - but there is a possibility that it is a skin condition that mimics scabies that just needs a steroid cream. He has a pediatric endocrinologist specialist appointment this week, a developmental/speech plan meeting and I need to get him in to a pediatric dermatologist as well as redo all of the stool samples again to see if the giardia is gone yet and then see the GI specialist again. I share this info because I know some of you will commit to praying for God to heal his little body and also because I know there are people reading this blog who are adopting and will be dealing with these same issues, so maybe you will be a little more prepared.

adoption friends, tractor & cute baby - oh my!

Leah and I both adopted Ethiopian babies through the same agency and live in the Phoenix area and met in person a few weeks ago at my house. Last night we went to her 30th b-day bash about 1 1/2 hours away. We had a fun time at her dad's house with a comedic murder mystery dinner. You can see below that there were some actors that barged through their door and started the night out. Javier was taken by surprise when the nerdy guy was at the door going crazy hugging people like he was at his class reunion- and Javier was thinking, "Who is that goof?" Then they passed out roles and hats to different people to get the guests involved in the action. We laughed a lot and the food was great too. Javier and I enjoyed dressing up and having a date night out too. Happy soon to be b-day Leah!

All of our kids together (Jeremiah was sleeping) a few weeks ago at our house.

Leah and me - I am exactly 3 years older - we share the same b-day My hunky husband has lost more than 15 pounds doing the biggest loser competition at work!The nerd that startled Javier :)This is what we woke up to this morning after a late night out. The kids ran out and sat there like statues for a couple of hours watching the action.You can see the kids - remember it was about 6:30 am and so that is why Jo Jo still has her morning afro:).We feel blessed because we got a great tax refund (thanks to all our kids/adoption), a gift from my grandmother who passed away in December and a bonus from Javi's work. We had a set budget and nothing was working out in our budget so we almost gave up. Then some friends recommended a company that actually many people from our church have used. The owner is a Christian man w/ 7 kids and homeschools, so we hit it off with a lot in common and his bid was within our budget. The pool should take about 5 weeks to build. Here is the big hole.

Here is my chub-a-bub - cute little thing. 4 months old and he is THE BEST BABY and seriously has never had a crying fit - ever. Yes he cries (rarely), but it is more like a whimper or complaint - never screaming crying. He flashed me the peace sign the other day - it was too funny. Oh and he got his 2 bottom teeth already!