Happy Father's Day!

This post is dedicated to my husband Matt. We celebrate today a long awaited day, his first Father's Day as a daddy. I am so pleased to have shared this long journey with him & can't imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else. He is such a wonderful father to Maddy and has so much love for her. Happy Father's Day Matt! I love you!

I also want to give a shout out to the others we know celebrating their 1st Father's Day and to the waiting fathers. Hope you have a special day!

Teddy

Maddy's new favorite toy is her 'Teddy.' He has to go everywhere with her. Yesterday she insisted on having him at breakfast so Daddy out a bib on him & put a banana under his arm in a chair at the table. She thought that was pretty funny & said 'silly' to Daddy.

They also went out for a bike ride & she insisted that he ride along with her in the trailer. Unfortunately, we don't have a bike helmet that will fit him so rides at his own risk : )

Here is a page I made dedicated to Teddy:

Happy Birthday Patra, party pictures

One of Maddy's travel group sisters had her 2nd birthday party yesterday. 4 of the 5 the girls were at the party so it was fun to see how big everyone is getting. Below are a few pictures from the party. We tried to re-create the 'Red Couch' photo but it was a miserable failure!

Brianna & Maddy

Patra & Maddy

Couch picture take 1

Couch picture take 2

Couch picture take 3

Playing at the Lake Calhoun Tot Lot before the party

Patra's bubble machine

Ava & Maddy

Dawn, Maddy & Ava checking out the pictures

Fun Summer Days

Today we had a couple of our Godsons over & our newest Goddaughter that is 11 months old. Matt entertained the boys while Maddy & I took Aarilyn & her mom to the park. Maddy & I also got a little early morning garage sale cruising in and scored a few good deals. I went in search of a little push car/bike and walked away victorious with a little car for $3! Tomorrow one of Maddy's travel group sister's is having her 2nd birthday party so we are really looking forward to seeing our travel group again as it's been 6 months since all of the girls were together.

Here are a few photos from today:

Maddy & Aarilyn on the slide

Jamel, George & Maddy hanging out

Check out my new ride!

Slide Show from the weekend

Weekend fun & another round of tag

Ruby, Maddy & Libby
Maddy with the tiger

We had fun this weekend, going to Como Zoo. We were supposed to be meeting up with our Red Thread friends but were running a little late so we missed the group. We ran into another late comer (Diana, Ainsley & Ruby- thanks for the picture!) and got to meet a couple of new families so that was fun and it turned out to be a nice day. Above are a couple of photos.

On Saturday we also went to a surprise party for Matt's cousin Anne (who turned 30). Maddy got to play with several of her cousins. I think the sweetest moment of the day was when her 2 year old cousin Isaac found her sippie cup on the ground and brought it over to her. What a true gentleman! (I'll do another post with a slide show from this)

Lastly, Maddy got to meet her great Grandma Vi for the first time. That was very special. I am having a hard time adding more pics so that will get added to the slide show.


Also, Tracy from A Red Thread to China tagged me so here goes-

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?
10 years ago I was still working for the same company, living in a different house & getting ready to go on a mission trip to the Fiji Islands.

2) What are five things on my to-do list today (not in any particular order)? Maddy's down for the night so anything goes. Pretty much sleep, sleep, & more sleep.

3) What snacks do I enjoy? Dark chocolate, chips with guac, skim lattes & an occasional bag of Carmel corn from a popcorn stand in the skyway downtown Minneapolis.

4) What are some places I've lived? Amery, WI; Syracuse, NY; Madras, India, Montpellier, France; Minneapolis, Brooklyn Park, & Robbinsdale, MN

5) What things would I do if I were a billionaire? Give bunches to Half the Sky, Sharing & Caring Hands, World Vision, etc. Buy a farm/ranch somewhere in MN or WI with a lot of acreage so I could open a retreat center, buy a house on the ocean somewhere and invest the rest so I could do random acts of kindness often. I've also always dreamed of opening a tea house or a coffee shop so maybe do something like that too.

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.