Senior Prom!

Tori's prom was last night. She had it all... the beautiful dress (thanks Uncle Bob and Aunt Angie for helping her buy her dream dress!), the fancy nails, the dramatic Sephora make-up, the incredible 'up-do'... she looked gorgeous! She went solo, along with her future Georgia Tech roommate and their group of friends. Not that a few boys didn't ask her, she just wanted to go without the hassle of a date ;) She had an awesome time, it is amazing to see how much she has flourished in this last year since she has come to a school where she has finally found a group of friends that she can really relate to. And thank goodness it's a group of down-to-earth AP students who really DON'T drink or do drugs and actually WANT to go to college to pursue their dreams!! Thank You Lord for giving my girl the kind of senior year every girl dreams of :)

The fruits of our labor!

I received word from LWB that the A/C units have been delivered to Gutian! The coordinator also told me how excited the director and caregivers were to be receiving the units they had requested, especially since hot weather is definitely on the way! She sent me some pictures of the units after they had been delivered to the orphanage. Again, to all who contributed in a big or small way, THANK YOU!!!

The park

Asher has baseball practice two days a week. For an hour and a half. Yikes. The good news is that there is a park right next to his practice field. The kids love to play there while Asher practices. The other day I took the camera and got some great pics of the girls. The first picture of Sophie is one of my very favorites, she has such a beautiful smile. Isabelle is a bit tougher to get a smile out of. Of course, the best smiles were forthcoming while they were on the swings, Belle's favorite :)

Lots of thinking going on

Isabelle has just been making progress by leaps and bounds lately. I don't know the cause for this sudden burst in language and play, and I am completely in awe and amazement at her. No, she isn't ready to take her SATs yet, but she is definitely closing the gap on where she is and where she needs to be in regards to speech. In the last few days she has begun to say a few 3 word sentences! She has and continues to do a lot of babbling that for the longest time made no sense to me. In the last month she has started to babble in a sentence like structure with an occasional distinguishable word thrown in. Her speech therapist was convinced that eventually more and more of her words would become recognizable and she would then be speaking in full sentences! Well, she was right because yesterday she said to Asher (when he asked if she wanted to jump on the trampoline) "No want jump!" Asher and I both looked at each other wide-eyed and I am sure we surprised Isabelle with all our commotion over three little words :) Then today she was crying in the other room and she started running for me and I for her and she said, holding out her index finger, "I got boo boo!" You can bet I made one huge deal over that wonderful boo boo ;) She still has areas that she needs to work on, but it is so awesome to see her taking such huge strides in such a short time. Chris, who has been away for 2 1/2 months, comes home tomorrow (YEAHHHH!!) and I am sure he is going to be shocked at all the changes in his baby girl!

Princesses Gone Wild

The girls pulled out their princess dress up trunk the other day. Sophie decided to be Belle and Isabelle was Cinderella. For some reason I think their outfits were chosen based on color and not the princess they represented since neither of my girls are interested in princess movies quite yet ;)

Well, it was about the time I grabbed my camera that the girls had started jumping on the bed, giggling with delight. Soon Isabelle's tube top started to come down and Sophie's skirt was pulled off with all the activity.




Well, it was about the time I grabbed my camera that the girls had started jumping on the bed, giggling with delight. Soon Isabelle's tube top started to come down and Sophie's skirt was pulled off with all the activity. Neither of them seemed to notice, if anything it encouraged more jumping and giggling.



In their immodesty, they were definitely making their respective princesses look a little less... ahem... dignified. Thank goodness neither of my girls care ;)

The dogwood

Growing up in Atlanta, spring always brought with it an amazing and plentiful display of flowers and greenery. I have many memories of time spent outside, simply admiring the seemingly endless variety of flowers the newly warm weather would bring. My very favorite flowering tree has always been the dogwood. It's flowers always held a special meaning for me, based upon this story. I don't remember actually hearing the story told, I just remember knowing it. If you haven't heard it yet, Easter is the perfect time. What a perfect reminder of God's indescribable gift :)


The Story Of The Dogwood Tree

As a child I heard this tale,
Long ago during the days that Jesus
was here on earth in the form of man
there were many dogwood tree's.
The dogwood was comparable in
size to the oak tree and other
monarchs of the forest. Because of it's
firmness and strength it was
selected as the timber for the cross,
but to be put to such a cruel use
greatly distressed the tree.

Sensing this, the crucified Jesus in his gentle
pity for the sorrow and suffering of
all said to it: "Because of your
sorrow and pity for My sufferings,
never again will the dogwood tree
grow large enough to be used as a cross.
Henceforth it will be slender, bent and twisted
and it's blossoms will be in the form of a cross
two long and two short petals.

In the center of the outer edge of
each petal there will be nail prints
brown with rust and stained with red
and in the center of the flower
will be a crown of thorns, and all who see
this will remember."

~ Author Unknown

The cutest thing

Isabelle had her first hippo-therapy appointment last week. On Tuesday we spent some time visiting with the horses, feeding carrots and petting manes. Isabelle was interested, loved feeding them, but was a little anxious when we got up close. On Wednesday we brought carrots again and Isabelle seemed much more comfortable, but I was fairly certain we would end up with Isabelle clinging to me and not much time spent actually ON the horse. We met Isabelle's mount for the day, Sandy, who, when I inquired about her age was told "older than dirt." Yeah, she looked it. Absolutely perfect for my 2 year old. Nice and easy, old girl :) We picked out a helmet that I feared would bother Isabelle since it had to be strapped on, but instead she seemed thrilled to be wearing it. Then the therapist took Belle by the hand and lead her over to the mounting platform. Isabelle stood there, giving no indication of how she might react to what was happening. Sandy was quietly lead in between the platforms and Isabelle's teacher placed her gently on Sandy's back. Instead of a saddle they had a pad and a strap that went around the mare's belly that had two large handles by her withers. Isabelle immediately grabbed onto the handles and a tiny smile started to pass over her face. She LOVED it. We were halfway down the long side of the arena and Isabelle started to point and jabber. She was looking around and 'talking', even letting go of one of the handles every now and then which spoke volumes of how comfortable she was. The therapist would stop the horse, having Isabelle say "whoa" (which after a while, Isabelle didn't want to say because she didn't want to stop!~) and then she would wait for Isabelle to spontaneously say "GO!". This went on for several laps around the arena, all the while Belle was looking and pointing and occasionally bursting out into a sweet smile. After we finished, Isabelle's therapist (who has been working with kids for 26 years) said, "I do believe that was the cutest thing I have ever seen." And I have to agree :)