Baby #2

A little announcement for anyone who's interested . . . WE'RE "EXPECTING!"

We have officially begun the adoption process for our second child. In the past several months we have been studying scripture, praying and discussing adoption and we feel that the Lord is leading us to adopt our next child. We have decided on a domestic adoption through an agency in VA. Right now we are halfway through our home study and we have been accepted through the pre-application process at our agency of choice! After our orientation, we should be under consideration by birthmothers toward the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009. Then, we just have to be picked by a birthmother! We are so very excited about this. Please be praying for us as we complete this process and "labor" for baby #2. This "pregnancy" is quite different than the previous one in a lot of ways, but similar in many ways too. Both end in bringing home a newborn baby to raise!

Love you all! We'll keep you updated through the process.

Summer News

Hello all! I didn't realize that it had almost been 2 months since I had posted. Wow. A lot has transpired since then! We are now at camp in Western KY. Everything is going well so far. God enabled us to find a wonderful housesitter for the house in Louisville while we're gone. Here at camp, the staff is amazing and our family's residential quarters totally rock! We are spending the summer in the brand-new welcome center in an apartment on the 1st floor. It is wonderful! Kilee has adjusted well and is enjoying her new surroundings. The theme this year is "Blueprint: A Call to Radical Faith and Obedience" and is based on Matthew 7:24-27.

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

We are super excited about the material and what God is going to do this summer in the hearts of thousands of students. We'll keep you updated on what's happening at camp!

We miss all of our friends at home! We'll see you soon!

Her Mother's Daughter

Scott and I always kid around about how much Kilee looks like me, but how much she acts like him. I was downloading some pictures off of the camera and came across this one. I cannot believe how much it looks like one of my baby pictures. Am I right, Mom and Dad? Scary. :o)

A beautiful weekend

Hello all!

Hope everyone is enjoying the lovely spring weather. We had a great weekend together. Saturday was a beautiful day and we spent some time together around the house. Kilee got sick Friday night with a fever and kept the fever throughout the day Saturday, but when we went to the doctor's office, they said that it was viral and nothing to worry about. Now, she has dropped the fever, but has a head to toe rash! Oh well, it doesn't seem to bother her and the doctor says it's part of the virus running its course.

On Sunday, we had to stay home from church because Kilee was sick and because we had to finish up work on the house before our open house that afternoon. We had a couple of people drop by, and one of the families seemed to be seriously considering the house. Only time will tell! We're just going to trust the Lord with the timing. And if I start to be discouraged and frustrated, remind me of what I just said in the previous sentence! During the open house, the three of us went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant and took a walk in the park. Kilee was definitely feeling better! We headed home after that and played out in the backyard while Scott cleaned out the cars and barbecued. After Kilee was in bed, Scott and I ate supper out on the patio. What a gorgeous day! Here are a few pictures of Kilee and Racer in the backyard.

Big Smiles

Smile big, Kilee!

Bigger!

Whoa!

Shots from the Last 3 weeks

Here are a few random pictures from the past few weeks. The first two are of Kilee hanging out with some of our friends, the Melber kids. Don't be fooled! They actually have 5 kids, but these are of K and Big J playing with Kilee. The last 3 are random shots from Easter weekend when Scott's mom and Eldon came to visit! Thought you might enjoy them.

Little Taryn

About 10 days ago, some friends of ours from Hardin, KY (where we used to live) were in some dire circumstances. Their 17-month-old daughter, Taryn, who is the newest addition to their family through the miracle of adoption, contracted Strep Pneumonia and became acutely ill. So ill, in fact, that she was not expected to live and was transported by helicopter with a team of 6 medical professionals to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville. They desperately tried to save her life there. The prognosis was grim. The first night, her family was told that they needed to decide whether or not to put her on life support. As soon as their church family and friends heard, we all started to pray for little Taryn. The second night, they were told that Taryn had a 50/50 chance of making it. Prayers continued to go up before God. Well, our great, almighty and powerful God was at work in little Taryn's body and now 10 days later, her body is recovering so well that she is no longer on the critical care floor! The doctors are amazed and perplexed. That's just how our God works, isn't it? He's so merciful. Sometimes we don't understand His mercies, or why He chooses to heal some and take some home to Him. We are so incredibly thankful that He healed Taryn!!! She's doing great.

Through the journey that Dave and Traci have been on for the past 10 days, they've been able to share the gospel with other families on the critical care floor at the hospital. They've seen some families lose their little ones, and others have victories like Taryn. I'm sure it's been heartbreaking, but it's so cool that they've been available to share Christ with others during their time of deepest hurt and need.

Please continue to pray for Taryn's family, especially her parents Dave and Traci as they navigate the recovery period with her. Please pray also that Taryn's breathing would be less labored and that her low-grade fever would diminish such that she could be allowed to return home to her brother and sisters.

If you're interested on how to pray specifically each day, visit www.henrysky.blogspot.com for details on Taryn's recovery and specific needs and prayer requests.

Easter Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Easter weekend. We had a great Resurrection Sunday! Scott and I played in the church praise band, which was really fun for us. Scott's mom (Kilee's mamaw) and Eldon came to visit and we all had a great time!

Our Girly Day

Last Sunday, Scott had a meeting after church, so Kilee and I went home and played. She looked so cute in her little pink dress that I thought I'd start taking some pictures of her. Well, then she started to do the girliest things! She picked up my purse and carried it around, pushed the stroller with the baby in it, rocked and kissed the baby doll and made some of the cutest girly faces! Here are some pictures from our day together.

Using a fork!

Ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure, Kilee has mastered the FORK!

Thinking about it . . .

The Bite . . .

The chew . . .

Yea, Kilee!

Runnin' Free!

Ah, the total freedom of being a baby!

The BIG Snow

We have been blessed this weekend with an enormous snow! We've got about 10-12 inches on the ground and Kilee doesn't know quite what to think about it. I have had a fairly leisurely day as Scott has watched Kilee for a good part of it. They played in the living room, threw birdseed out to the birds, played with the dog and took a nap in the recliner. I was able to take a nice long shower and a big nap! So nice. I made a trip out to the grocery last night and made it home just in time! By the time I was heading home, the interstates looked like our front yard -- covered in snow.
We are doing well and have had a healthy month so far. Kilee is talking all the time. Most of it is unrecognizable babble, but she does have some new words under her belt! "Here you go," "Thank you," "This," "Whatisit?" and "Mum-Mum" for (yum-yum) are some of the newest ones.

Here are some pictures of Kilee out in the snow. We had such a great time!

Craftiness

Kilee is getting to the age where she can enjoy doing small, easy crafts with me. Here are a couple that we've tried.

Since she just recently passed the 1 year milestone, I really wanted to do her handprint in plaster. She did such a great job holding her hand still!

Here lately, we've been talking about how "God is Good" and "God made Everything". We decided to try to do a lesson craft with some foam stickers. Kilee really enjoys sticking them onto the paper, but she originally thought they were cookies and tried to eat them. I hope I found all the ones we dropped!

Uh-Oh . . .Cheerios!

Okay, so I tried to do a clever spin-off of the early 90s campaign "Uh-Oh Spaghetti-O's", but it may not have been as funny as I originally thought. Anyhow, we were coming in from the grocery the other day and I laid the diaper bag by the door as I was taking the groceries to the kitchen. Not long after I started unloading groceries, I realized that Kilee was being "a little too quiet" if you know what I mean. I turned the corner from the kitchen to see my daughter had opened the diaper bag, cleverly pried the top off of the Cheerios causing a Cheerio explosion, and was eating them off the floor. I just laughed because she was too cute to punish sitting there stuffing her face. Here's what I saw . . .

It's been a long time!

Hello everybody!

We hope you and your families are doing well! Sorry it's been so long since we've been on here. it's been a long and incredibly busy January/February! We've spent the last few weeks fixing up the house in order to put it on the market. We recently decided that we could be better stewards of our money if we were to sell this house and buy an older, less expensive house where we could build some equity. So, everything is completely fixed-up and ready to go! Now I just have to keep it spic and span at all times with a one-year old in the house! Ha.

We're gearing up for camp. I can't believe that camp 2008 will be in full swing in a little over 3 months! AHH! Oh well, it's a good thing we love it! It'll be awesome.

Kilee Anne continues to grow by leaps and bounds. She is saying many words now (mama being one of them -- YES!) and constantly makes us smile and laugh. She's even saying little phrases like, "here you go" and "thank you". She absolutely LOVES dogs in any shape or form and cannot eat enough bananas. It's so much fun to stay at home with her! I am blown away by the great responsibility and privilege of being a mother daily. It's definitely the hardest job in the world, but so wonderful.

Let me brag on Scott for a minute. He is such a wonderful husband and daddy. I am so blessed to be his wife! We had a great Valentine's Day date. Our friends Clint and Ashley kept Kilee with their little girl Ellie while we went out to Ruby Tuesday. It was so nice to get some time to ourselves! Scott is really really busy at work, but he likes it that way. Things are going well at work and the ministry is constantly growing! We are both working with the youth at church, which has been a blast so far! We are small group leaders for Wednesday night iGroups with the 6th graders. They are so much fun.

Well, I am going to wrap this up. I am currently quite ill! My allergies combined with staying up all hours of the night working on the house has totally destroyed my immune system. I have a horrible cold/ear infection/sinus infection/sore throat. It's awesome. But before I head to bed, here are some pictures that you might enjoy!

Wearing the Bibs like a champ

Go Cats!

Mommy the hunter and Kilee the giraffe for the 6th grade girls' costume party.

Helping Daddy Cook