2 Year Anniversary of Meeting Jocelyn

Two years ago today we got to meet Jocelyn for the first time. We got a call from The Adoption Center on a Thursday, asking us if we would be interested in adopting a six month old baby girl. After calling Clay at the hospital, we decided to submit our information to the family. We prayed a lot that evening. Friday morning, The Adoption Center called and said that the birth family would like to meet us on Sunday. We went to church on Sunday and then headed anxiously to The Adoption Center to meet Jocelyn and her birth family for the first time.

Jocelyn's birthmother (Keisha), half sister (Brittani Ann) and her grandmother (Cathy) met with us.

She was a little bit in shock.

The girls were so cute playing together while we talked.

Daddy and his new little girl.

It was amazing how much they looked alike.

They decided to sign the papers right then to relinquish their parental rights. The hardest part was waiting the 72 hour waiting period before we got to take her home.

Make-up 101

Madison decided she needed some make-up today before she went to Speech Therapy, so she went into my bathroom and applied some powder, blush and put on some lipstick. She has watched me do it, but I was very impressed that she was able to do such a good job without being able to see herself in the mirror.

Madison has learned that less is more when it comes to applying your make-up.

Jocelyn on the other hand prefers the "clown" look!

We will have to work on her technique.

Tuesday Gang

Taylor and Jude came over this morning for our Tuesday morning play date.

Today was Taylor's first time riding the little pony. Maybe next week we will try to ride Butterscotch.

Bowling

Clay and Madison had the holiday off, so we decided to have a Family Fun Day and go bowling.

Madison was very excited to go bowling!

Look at her cute shoes.

Daddy taught them how to bowl.

Madison enjoyed sliding around on the slick floor when it wasn't her turn.

She is a very intense bowler.

She would get down and watch her ball SLOWLY roll down the lane. She would talk to it and tell it to hit the pins. She would sing "they all fall down."

Oh no, her ball got stuck halfway down the lane.

Jocelyn gave up on bowling during the 3rd frame and decided to keep score. Daddy was the big winner and surprised us all with 9 strikes.

Bowling is tough work.

Jacob Gets Married

This week's Children's Ministry lesson was on Jacob's marriage to Leah and Rachel. After acting out the bible story, we celebrated the marriages by eating...

Wedding CAKE!

It can't get much better than cake for a snack!

We then made our own instruments to celebrate. First, we decorated the bottom of two paper plates with stickers.

Then we filled the plates with a handful of dried beans, stapled the plates together and colored them.

Time to make a joyful noise with our instruments.

Sick and Sorrowful

Jocelyn has been sick ALL week, so we have been stuck inside. Needless to say we are going a little stir crazy. While I was downstairs with Madison making breakfast this morning, Jocelyn snuck into my bathroom and got into the make-up.

Jocelyn decided to put on some lipstick. She knew that she was in trouble, so she came downstairs crying and covering her face in shame.

Jacob's Ladder

Today we got to teach the Children's Ministry class about Jacob's Dream. After we read the story out of the Bible, I gave them all their own ladder that listed all of God's Promises on it.

Then they got to make their own ladder using popsicle sticks and toothpicks.

We then talked about the vow that Jacob made to God to give back one tenth of everything that God gave him. We gave each of the kids a bag of pennies and they had to count them and tell us how many they would give back to God.

We then ate our Jacob's Ladder Snack. We made ladders out of pretzels and marshmallows. The best part was eating them. YUMMY!