Prayer requested

I ask today that you keep 2 situations in your prayers-

1. I am sure that you have heard about the earthquake in China and the flooding & various other fall-out that has been occurring. Please continue to pray for China as the needs are so great. So many people have lost homes, family and everything they know. Many children have lost their parents and several parents have lost their only child. Please consider a donation to Half the Sky (www.halfthesky.org) as they are doing much work with newly orphaned kids such as providing grief counseling training for staff on the ground in China to meet the needs. Also there are many orphanages that sustained pretty major damage so the children are living in tents HTS provides the basic necessities for many.

2. Christian music artist Steven Curtis Chapman & his wife tragically lost their little 5 year old daughter adopted from China a little over a week ago. Their family has done much for the adoption community through their organization Shaohannah's Hope (http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer) by providing grants for those hoping to adopt. Please pray for them as they go through this sad time.

Memorial Day Weekend

We have been doing some odds & ends around the house and yard this weekend. We visited a nice nursery yesterday that sells perennials that is located in Lino Lakes. It is located in the woods & had trails covered with samples of what they sell to get an idea of what the hostas, lilies, bushes etc. look like in action. Maddy had a lot of fun seeing walking around the trails and looking at the fishes in their pond. She also got to ride on the cart daddy was pulling to collect our purchases.




Our lilacs are in full bloom in the yard this weekend, so I have been in heaven. These are my favorite flowers (I actually has them as my wedding flower). Here is a picture of Maddy & I by the lilacs:



I want to give a couple of birthday shout outs to Auntie Janita & our nephew Isaac (he turns 2 today!).

Please take time this weekend to remember those who have laid their lives to protect the freedoms we enjoy every day.


Maddy looks like she is text messaging (Thanks Uncle Scott & Izzy for the chair!)

Routines

It's amazing how routine our life has gotten with a 15 month old. Bath time at 7:30, play in the tub with all of the tub toys, lotion & jammies and then books & milk. Maddy has her dolly that she loves to snuggle with when it comes to bedtime. Lately as soon as the last book is finished & she's had a bit of milk, she asks for dolly. She says 'da,da' but that really means 'I am ready to lay down with dolly & go night, night.'

With the weather being nicer she is also really digging the whole walk & go to the park routine. She loves to swing & go down the slide. The only bad thing is the mini meltdown that occurs when it's time to leave. It helps on our walk home to go by the lake & see the duckies.

Here is Maddy & Mommy reading a book before bedtime:

Happy Mother's Day!

I just want to say how blessed I am to be celebrating my first Mother's Day as a mom. There have been so many sad days leading up to this day that I can't even begin to tell you the joy I am feeling. For my friends out there still waiting for the dream of motherhood to come true, hang in there! I know what you are feeling and how lonely and left out you can feel on days like this.

To all of my new mom friends, congrats to you on this special day! I made a couple of scrapbook pages as gifts for today. I wanted to share one below, this is Maddy in her new sunglasses hanging out w/daddy:

Scrapbooking Sunday

Today some of the MN Red Thread moms got together to do a little scrapbooking & work on life books. We had about 1/2 paper & 1/2 digital scrappers so it was fun to see the different approaches. We had a lot of fun sharing stories and talking about our travels to China and other places. There were also a few waiting moms there so it was fun to share tips with them & help them pass the time a little bit during their wait. I remember how helpful it was for me when we waited to be around other families and to get advice for those home with baby. It's so nice to be part of such a sharing & caring community!

Here is a picture of the event:


This is a picture of Maddy getting ready for summer trying on one of her hats: