A Fall Day at Hanging Rock

Today is the first day it's felt like fall. Beautiful Carolina blue skies and 55-60 degrees. We took off to Hanging Rock State Park to hike up to the waterfalls. 

The kids liked collecting leaves and acorns. I ended up with a pocketful of their treasures before we were done. They pretended we were on an adventure and collected/looked for clues all along the way. We ended our day with lunch and a quick walk down to the lake. 

A New Baby Sister

Kelsey Brynne Alexander was born on October 28th in Charlotte.  She is a full sibling to our children and was adopted by Derek and Debbie Alexander who go to our church.  God was completely in control of this situation coordinating the adoption by people we didn't know but who live so close.  We arranged a time to meet Kelsey and the kids were so excited.  

Silas, calls Eden "sissy" so we told him Kelsey is "little sissy."

To our surprise, Gabriel and Silas were more interested in Kelsey than Eden.  However, we took Eden's baby book with us so they could see how much the two girls looked alike so Eden was preoccupied with showing her book to the Alexanders.  

Sweet sisters

 Eden is on the left and Kelsey is on the right.

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.

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!

While we were away, our children played . . .

While we were in Mozambique, Daryl's family took our kids to the beach.  This "little trip" turned out to be a fantastic distraction for our kids and a relief to us knowing that they are having fun and certainly not missing us!

Gabe's "mean guy" face

 

 Nana assured me that Silas wouldn't miss me while I was gone!

 

Silas loved the sand but didn't care much for the ocean.  He didn't even like it when his Nana went into the water. 

 Mimi's girls

 

 To say my kids love their cousins, is an understatement.

 

Eli and Silas

Olivia and Eden.  They had their share of "girl time" and got closer to each other on a whole 'nother level! ;)

 She's sweet on Isaac!