Visit From Grandpa Michael

Visit from Eric's Dad. He came to visit for a couple of days. We had a great day.

Gifts from Grandma Glenda from Hawaii. Thank you Glenda. We loved them!!!

Gifts!

Grandpa Michael and all the kids.

Grandpa Michael reading to the girls.

Grandpa and Nyah

Watching Cartoons

Grandpa trying to read the Bible to the girls. It was quite humerus. He tried so hard to keep the girls attention. They literally climbed all over him and us. Not quite the Bible time that Michael thought he was getting into. :)

Hold on to your Babies!

Following the funeral of Elizabeth I was in need of my little girls giving me hugs. I want to cherish each moment I have with all my children. God gives us life. There are no guarantees that we will be here long enough to grow up. I am thankful for the opportunity to raise these little girls. I am thankful for every day I get to hold them. Each day is a gift. We are the lucky ones.

Thank you God for all of your gifts. Thank you for my husband and children. Thank you for the gift of adoption. We will do our best to honor you by caring for your little children.

The Loss of Elizabeth

With great sadness I wanted to ask that you pray for the family of one of the children from Emma's adoption group. The little girl in the purple dress was named Elizabeth. This is the email that was given to us, stating Elizabeth's death.

Frank And Heidi are the family on the left of this picture. They have the little boy standing in front of them, with red hair. They have since adopted a little girl from Vietnam.

Frank and Heidi Duffy's little 3 year old, Elizabeth, has gone to be with her Heavenly Father, this past Wednesday morning, April 15. Some of you might remember her as "Whitney" from Small World's Waiting Child list. Formerly, her name was Tong Min Dou, 4/02/2006, Tongu CWI, Jiangxi. She became a part of the Duffy family on July 16, 2007.

Elizabeth underwent what seemed successful heart surgery, a week ago Friday and went home from the hospital Sunday night. Monday night, her lungs quit working and her heart stopped.

This is a song written by Steven Curtis Chapman following the death of his little girl adopted from China.

With Hope (by Steven Curtis Chapman)

"This is not at all how

We thought it was supposed to be

We had so many plans for you

We had so many dreams

And now you've gone away

And left us with the memories of your smile

And nothing we can say

And nothing we can do

Can take away the pain

The pain of losing you, but ...

We can cry with hope

We can say goodbye with hope

'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no

And we can grieve with hope

'Cause we believe with hope

(There's a place by God's grace)

There's a place where we'll see your face again

We'll see your face again

And never have I known

Anything so hard to understand

And never have I questioned more

The wisdom of God's plan

But through the cloud of tears

I see the Father's smile and say well done

And I imagine you

Where you wanted most to be

Seeing all your dreams come true

'Cause now you're home

And now you're free, and ...

We have this hope as an anchor

'Cause we believe that everything

God promised us is true, so ...

So we can cry with hope

And say goodbye with hope

We wait with hope

And we ache with hope

We hold on with hope

We let go with hope"

Lots of Posts

FYI. I never get to put pictures on because I am too busy. When I do, I do a lot! You will have to keep clicking the "Older Posts" button to see all that their is. Enjoy!

Easter Pictures!

Easter Family Photo

Nyah looking sweet. She is saying "CHEESE."

The kids with their baskets.

Brother and sisterly love. Hmmm... Can you tell they are about to punch each other?

Muscle Man. It is a good thing he never looks at the blog. He would kill me for putting this on. I couldn't help it though. That is what all good mom's do. :)

Eric and Nyah

Candy bags from Grandma Glenda.

Easter Dresses. Emma and Nyah

So sweet!

Easter Eggs!

Jeremy, Nyah and Eric coloring eggs.

Jeremy wrapped jordan. Not sure she thought this was such a good plan. My angel son thought it was a great idea. :)

Jordan and Emma

Our four kids. Jeremy, Nyah, Emma and Jordan

Nyah's 1st attempt at coloring eggs

Eric and Emma

Nyah, Jordan, Jeremy and Emma

Emma and Melody

Jeremy and Jordan put all the extra stickers on Nyah. Good thing she is a trooper. Jeremy and Jordan think it is fun to torture the girls with this kind of stuff.

The family!

Jim's Big Mouth Caused Sister Pay Back!

Jim has a tendency to tease his sisters. Because most of us are teachers, he likes to say that teachers this... teachers that... just to tick us off. Usually it works, that is why he keeps doing it. Well this time we had been around our crazy cousin Lindsey. She is the queen of pranksters. She influenced us a bit and we started plotting against him.

Joni and Sophia

We decided to that we were going to break into Jim's office at RLM and toilet paper and saran wrap it.

At first Mom was hesitant as to if she would help us or not. She got into it after we got started.

Nobody got into it as much as Lori, Jim's wife. At first she just stood back and watched. Then she thought we weren't doing it right and took over. :) She said, "If you are going to do it, do it right. Give me some of that."

And here she is.

Mom

Mom was still standing back at this point, but we have the proof!

Joni working with Melissa

Sophia was a trooper. She took group pictures for us.

Melissa

Sophia was so cute. She worked hard wrapping Jim's books individually. When we left she was upset that she did not get to finish wrapping ALL of his books.

We taped this picture on the door. It is a picture of us before we left my house to head to the church. Angela is holding up a sign that says, "We love you." Mom and Lori have bags over their heads to protect their identities, Joni, Melody and Melissa are on the other side. The sign that Melody is holding up says, "Gotch Ya!"

The final shot! HA!!!