December Newsletter

Greetings from the Burnettes,
     These past 3 months have been full of meetings with friends and family.  We are thankful for the break in traveling in order to settle into a routine with our kids.  We are in awe of God's provisions during this time of finding people to partner with us on this journey.  We want to express our gratitude to the churches that have allowed us to visit with them over these past few months: Friendly Hills Church in Jamestown, NC, Christ Church Greensboro in Greensboro, NC, and Grace Presbyterian in Kernersville, NC.  We are looking forward to visiting other churches after the first of the year.  Our end of the year goal is to be 25% financially supported and we are only 4% away from this goal!
     In family news, we celebrated Silas' 2nd birthday at the end of November.  Our little boy loves farms and tractors so we had fun with a little farm party.  On December 9th, we celebrated his "Gotcha Day," the day we brought him home, adopted him, and became his forever family.  We are looking forward to the end of Daryl's job on December 31st.  This is a big step in our process as it will allow us to spend more time completing needed Bible classes, readings, and trainings.  We are thankful for the love and support Daryl's boss and coworkers have demonstrated while we pursue full time missions.  The end of his job also means the end of his salary and our full reliance on God as well as the financial supporters He has brought our way.
     We covet your prayers as the beginning of 2014 promises many changes and adjustments for our family.  We also ask that you praise God with us for His provisions and for bringing you along side us on this journey.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
Daryl, Leah, Eden, Gabriel, and Silas BurnetteDLBurnette@worldventure.net www.worldventure.com/DLBurnette
 

 

 

 

Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for God to send us partners who will join us in the work He has called us to do.
2. Pray for the children and local churches in Mozambique.
3. Pray for us to reach our end of the year goal of 25%


Praises:
1. Daryl's job comes to an end on Decmeber 31st
2. We celebrated Silas' 2nd birthday
3. God has provided 21% of our monthly support!


But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Luke 2:10-12

The Facebook Pregancy Facts Game

I normally don't share things from Facebook on my blog but I had a bigger reaction to this than I thought I would and honestly I'm posting it on my blog so I won't forget about it.  My original post is below:

 

So I "liked" a friends status about her pregnancy and now I'm suppose to write 11 things about my pregnancy . . . this should be interesting.

1. I've never been pregnant.
2. We have fertility issues and a small chance of getting pregnant.
3. We visited a fertility specialist and knew immediately that wasn't God's plan for our lives.
4. I thank God that I never got pregnant and miscarried. I cann...ot fathom going through that.
5. Deciding to adopt wasn't a "fall back plan" it was God's will for our family.
6. The twins were 2 days old when we found out about them and the next day we were chosen by their birthmom to adopt them. They came home 2 weeks later.
7. We knew about Silas almost 4 weeks before he was born and I secretly hoped the birthmom would let me be in the room when she delivered him but I never asked.
8. Foster parents are truly amazing. Silas was with a foster family for a little less than 2 weeks and his foster mom truly loved him.
9. I have absolutely no regrets for how my family was formed nor do I wish I had ever become pregnant.
Some advice:
10. Don't ask young married couples when they are going to have kids, you never know what they are going through.
11. Don't ask adoptive families if they have any "real children." I can assure you that my kids are real, live, human beings.

Lastly, if you "like" or comment on this, I promise I won't make you do one.

 

In hindsight, I wish I had included something about our kids' birth family.  They sacrificed and made some very hard decisions for their children.  We should not judge a birthmother for her actions rather we should pray for her, encourage her, and uplift her for the sacrifice she made to ensure a better life for her child.  We are so grateful for Rachel and we love her so much.

Silas is 2!

Height: 3 feet 86th %tile

Height Predicted by Doctor: 6 feet

Weight: 31 pounds 88th %tile

Favorite Food: Oranges and "num nums"

Favorite Book: "Pete the Cat"

Favorite Toy: Tractors of all kinds and his "cut cut corn" aka combine

Favorite Song: "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

Favorite Cartoon: "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and "Despicable Me"

About Silas:

Silas is really smart and he picks up on things very quickly.  It's very easy to forget that he's not a baby but a toddler.  He watches his siblings closely and copies what they do.  He has accomplished a lot with speech services and currently does not need speech therapy but he still makes some funny noises or words for some things.  Like the way he says Despicable Me, shoes, fish, pirates, "Nana" he changed to "Nanny", and "up" was "up-a" which morphed into "up high" when he wants to be picked up.  I love his imagination and the way he turns anything into a gun or "BB Gun."  He loves his Superman pjs because they have a cape; he runs around the house with his arms behind him making whooshing noises and saying "Nu, Nu Batman."  He has picked up on potty training very quickly and willingly goes potty in exchange for a "num num."  The day Silas turned 2 he declared "I big" and refused to sit in his highchair to eat or wear a bib.  We are so thankful for Silas and we continue to thank God for putting him in our lives.

 

 The day he declared "I big" and refused to sit in his highchair.

 

Potty training in style.

Oink, Moo, Cock-A-Doodle-Doo, Our Boy is Turning Two!

Choosing a theme for Silas' 2nd birthday party was really easy.  He loves anything farm and tractor related.  So Pinterest helped me figure out how to throw a cute little party.  We are very fortunate to have access to a lot of toys at our church; I think the parachute and scooters were a big hit.

 Silas kept blowing out his candle before we were done singing "Happy Birthday."

 





 

 

 

 A true gentleman, letting the lady go first.



 Silas had a great time at his party.  I am impressed at how much he shared his tractors with his friends.

 

Fun Times this Fall

We had so many fun things to do this fall.  It started with a trip to the Sciquarium with Meme, Abram, and Lila Ruth.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day.  All 5 kids were engaged as the divers cleaned and talked about the animals in the aquarium.

 



 

 

Playing in the leaves has brought many hours of entertainment.

 I know other parts of the world get snow in the fall but it is very rare that we see it in November.  The kids had fun trying to catch flakes in their mouths.  Silas doesn't quite understand that he needs to tilt his head back.

 

 Nana wanted to paint the kids' faces one night so I stayed by to snap pictures.  She probably won't like the one I posted of her and Silas but she makes that face often so I had to include it.

 

Happy Birthday, Meme!



Halloween

Halloween 2013 kicked off with pumpkin carving.  This is the first year we used the paper templates for our pumpkins and it was hard but the kids liked the end result!

 We let the kids pick out their costumes this year.  Normally, I would try to coordinate them into a theme but inevitably that would mean more work for me trying to find or make costumes so we kept it simple and let them pick.  We're surprised by Silas' choice to be a ninja and the only logical reasoning behind his choice is that Gabe has had his costume for a few weeks and has worn it a lot since he got it so Silas wanted to be a ninja like Gabe.

 We enjoyed two trunk or treats this year.  The first was at New Friendship Baptist where they had fun on the hayride with Kenan and Ashlynn.  The second one was at our church, Triad Baptist, where Daryl and I dressed up with our friends, Devin and Stacy, to imitate the Beverly Hillbillies. 

Jethro and Ellie Mae

 

On Halloween night, we went over to Ben and Erin's house for dinner.  Erin and I made a festive dinner of mummy dogs, "pumpkin" oranges, and spider cookies.  Afterwards, we walked around their neighborhood.  Kenan, Gabe, and Eden didn't understand that it's rude to ring a doorbell multiple times until someone answers.  They also ran past buckets of candy on the front porch to ring the bell.  We had a blast with our friends and family this year.

The Dixie Classic Fair

If you read my post from last year then you already know that I love the fair.  This fair is defiantly one of the things I will miss about living in Mozambique.  The food, sights, sounds, and smells are intoxicating and they've always been part of my life.  Since our kids are getting older, they are able to participate more and more in the fair each year.  One thing we didn't expect is that Silas is about 3 inches too short for most of the rides.  He's not afraid to ride the rides so he had a hard time sitting on the sidelines watching Gabe and Eden on the roller-coaster and swings.

 A true dad of twins.

 

 

Face Painting! 

Farris Wheel!