College World Series Champions!

GO BULLDOGS!!! Fresno State WINS College World Series!

Lowest ranking team in ANY sport to win a championship!

The valley is so proud of the team and their hard work to make it this far!

Thankful Thursday

This Thankful Thursday I am so thankful for Kennedi's school in China, California Sunshine School, and for the nice ladies that opened their home to Kennedi and her friend Gigi (now Carrie). This week I was fortunate enough to receive an email (passed along from Carrie's parents who are still in China adopting her) from their foster parents and teachers at the school. This is a exerpt from the email:

Kennedi came to us at the beginning of the school year 2007. Bao An (the center where they were living) let them live with us while they were going to school. We didn't know how long they would stay with us, years or months, we didn't know. But we wanted to help some little people. We had volunteered at these centers for over a year and saw so many unloved children and the affects on their little minds and bodies that we felt compelled to try to do more. I and my two teammates, Shannon, and Samantha (also teachers) brought the girls into our home so they could know a little bit of joy in their hard lives.

When Kennedi first came to our home and school she was 4-5 years old, but her developmental level was that of a 2 year old. Mr. Tom, their teacher, made this observation, "It was amazing to see her come into her own. When she first came to us she couldn't think. By the time she left us she was a little lady with her own opinions." I really agree with him. When she first came into our home she didn't know how to play by herself or with other children. She couldn't color, write, cut, or any other fine motor activities. She couldn't run and jump like other children either.


It was so great to read some of Kennedi's life in China from the ladies who took care of her! What a blessing they were to Kennedi (and Carrie). If it wasn't for them, Kennedi wouldn't be where she is today and her transition into our family would have been much harder. I will always cherish this email and will save it for Kennedi when she is older. Right now she doesn't want much to do with that part of her life and will not talk much about what she did, how she lived, etc. In her own time......
The pictures above are some I found on the internet last night! Thank God for internet! I did a search for Kennedi's school and found a website. It was all in Chinese but I just started clicking everything I could. I'm glad I did because I found these pictures! I tried to ask Kennedi who the other children and the ladies are but she wouldn't say (Kennedi's in the pig-tails!). In her own time......

There are so many things to be thankful for that it would take, God knows how long, to type them all: thankful I have a job, thankful with all these California fires my house is not one being evacuated, thankful for my children, thankful for my family, thankful for my husband, thankful that Jesus died for us, thankful for all my church family, thankful for my friends, and on and on.......
Hoping you all take a minute to be "thankful" and that you have a wonderful weekend!

**Blessings**

Northpointe Vacation Bible School-Mission 6:12

This past week was Extreme Days at our chruch and this year's theme was 1Timothy 6:12: Fight the good fight of faith grabbing hold of the life that continues forever. The kids attended God's Boot Camp each night from 6-9 pm and learned about Team Work, Courage, Obedience, and Love. They decorated the church grounds with military things and the kids and leaders wore camouflage and dog tags. They learned songs and played games. Kennedi was in Company K and Bradley was in Company 34, Katelyn helped with Company K. They all had a great time, like they do every year, and raised over $4500 for Hadassah's Hope to help orphans! Last night was the final night celebration and the pictures above are from that. The top two pictures are of inside the church, the third picture is of Bradley and his Company saying their "chant" for the parents, and the last three are of the kids on the bounce house waterslides and rope climb. What a blessing it is to have a church like we do filled with volunteers to put this week on where are kids can go and learn and celebrate God. Especially for Kennedi, who knows nothing about God or Jesus, to see her sing and dance to the songs (although she probably doesn't quite understand what she's singing about yet) is a gift from God. Thursday night driving home she said "mom, are you going to sleep in your bed?" I said "yes, Kennedi". She said "why?" like she does with everything! Of course I said "because it's my bed" and she said "no, it's God's bed!" :) So, she's getting the hang of it all! Have a blessed weekend praising God for all He has given you!

**ALL OUR LOVE**

13 Years, 2 Years, and 3 Months! **UPDATED**

Three Months Ago

And TODAY!

Well, yesterday was a wonderful day of anniversaries for us and I didn't get time to post about it. Yesterday marked 13 years Mark and I have been married! WOW! Time flies! Also it marked 2 years to the day that I was at a Women of Faith Conference and God told me His plans for us to adopt a child. Look how far we have come in just 2 short years! Yesterday also marked 3 months that Kennedi has been with us! Cannot believe it has already been 3 months! In some ways it feels like just yesterday we got a crying little girl with big tears but on the other hand it seems like she has always been with us. So last night we dropped the kids off at Vacation Bible School and headed out for some Japanese food! YUM!!

Much Needed Update

Man, I have gotten really terrible at keeping up my blog! With going back to work and all the other things we have seemed to have going on, I am having a hard time finding time to post! I guess that's a good thing because for awhile there I was SOOOOOO addicted! Anyway, the pictures are from last weekend. Bradley had his last baseball game of the year. They hit off a pitching machine and his dad convinced him that every time I was at a game I was bad luck and Bradley couldn't hit off the machine. So last weekend he was so excited that his bad streak was over and I was no longer "bad luck" when he hit off the pitching machine! Thanks Mark for labeling me "bad luck"! :) Later on that same day, Katelyn and Bradley got all dressed up for their dance recital. This is Katelyn's 9th year dancing for this dance studio and Bradley's 2nd. Katelyn this year did ballet (the first picture) and tap (the second picture) and Bradley did tap as well. He just LOVES it and boy does the crowd love it too! He's the only boy and this year he got to slide on his knees and do air guitar and the crowd went wild! He loves the attention! The other ones are of course of Kennedi. She still continues to do so very well and is more and more comfortable with everything every day. Her favorite things are roller skating (have to say her most favorite), riding her bike, watching Dora and Diego (and speaks Spanish right along with them!), fruit (any type), saying "what are you doing", "why", "no thank-you please", and "that's cool". She constantly makes us laugh and is a ball of energy! Yesterday Gigi's parents left for China to bring Gigi to Idaho and Kennedi cannot wait to be able to see Gigi again one day soon. What a blessing that was to find her new parents! This coming week will be Kennedi's first time at Vacation Bible School! Northpointe does a wonderful job and puts on a huge production. It's every evening from 6-9pm and this year Katelyn is too old to go (waaaaahhhh) but is excited because she gets to help out! So needless to say we'll be busy all week with that. Other than that, we're just trying to stay cool. It has quickly become summer around here (102 yesterday and today and tomorrow) so we will stay inside where there's air conditioning! :) Take care and hope you have a blessed weekend!
**HUGS**

Gigi's Adoptive Parents Found!

Well hello out there! It's been awhile since I have posted, been a busy week. I have some great news that is worthy of taking a few minutes to sit down and post! You may remember that we learned when we were in China that Kennedi was leaving behind her best friend that lived with her with her foster family, named Gigi. Friday I posted on our orphanage chat group again looking for Gigi's adoptive parents (we knew she was being adopted by a family in the States but that's all we knew). Someone saw my post and emailed me saying she knows someone adopting a 5 1/2 year old from the same orphanage and she gave me their email address. Of course I got right on emailing them and they sent a picture to me of a little girl and their daughter and asked if the girl was Kennedi. IT WAS!! They are adopting Gigi! They live in Idaho so not too terribly far from California! I showed Kennedi the picture of her and Gigi and she was so excited! Then we got on the computer and I showed her where Idaho was and that Gigi is going to live there and one day we can visit her! Gigi's parents have a 2 1/2 year old little girl from China they adopted 2 years ago and they leave this Friday to China to bring home Gigi! How great is OUR GOD?!!! Unfortunately they do not have a blog for me to follow them to China and back but we are going to stay in touch definately and I will keep you all posted!
Tomorrow I will post some pictures of the weekend........... :)