Care for Orphans

Steven Curtis Chapman will be on Larry King Live tonight, 9pm ET, discussing his experience with orphans and adoption. Check out his contributed article at CNN.com. I'm not familiar with his music, other than I know he is a Christian artist, but I am familiar with his adoption charity, Shaohannah's Hope.

I realize adoption is not for every person. But I think every person can do something to care for orphans - be it sponsoring a child, donating to an orphan fund, fostering, mentoring, visiting orphans, etc. To whom much is given, much is expected.

In Chapman's article, he says, "If only 7 percent of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in distress, there would effectively be no more orphans. If everybody would be willing to simply do something to care for one of these precious treasures, I think we would be amazed by just how much we could change the world."

Ethiopia Gathering

We had 50+ people over Saturday evening for a cookout with the Austin Ethiopia Adoption group. It's such an encouragement to us as we see this group rapidly grow, knowing these families will be a wonderful support for us in raising our children.

It's not only a group Chris and I will benefit from as we raise Zane but also I think about the friends Zane will make through this group, friends who share a birthstory and heritage from Ethiopia, being adopted by U.S. families, and for the most part being raised by caucasian parents. It will be important for him to be around others with similar backgrounds and skin color. Lily and Claire - what a blessed experience for them as well to grow up having friends with a variety of backgrounds and skin colors.

It was a beautiful sight to see all these sweet children playing together.

Benetton

It's a United Colors of Benetton advertisement:

Or rather it's a photo from last week's beach trip.

July 4th

July 4th festivities included our neighborhood parade. Very cute to see all these kiddos deck out their bikes. I thought we did an ok job decorating our kids up but we were so put to shame by our friends, the Aitala's pictured below...




We topped off our evening in the tradition of fireworks.

A Month in Photos

Yep, we are still here. Since Mother's day, we went to California to visit family and celebrate my sister-in-law's graduation from law school, watched the girls' end-of-session gymnastics "show," celebrated Lily's 4th birthday, cheered Chris at his latest triathlon, remembered Mike (Chris' dad) on the anniversary of his passing, celebrated my birthday, attended Claire's ballet/tap recital and now we are days away from Lily's ballet/tap recital and Father's day this weekend. Aside from that, we have been swimming most every day. OH and did I mention Zane started walking in California?!!

Fun photos to catch you up...

California swim with Uncle Paul; Zane's first ocean dip

Little gymnasts (quite the posers, aren't they?)

Zane practicing his serious, disapproving face

Lily's 4th birthday was a "Messy Paint Party" which turned into sprinkler fun amid the insane humidity and heat. It was a Mess Fest - paint, sweat, watermelon, pizza, sprinklers, drippy ice cream cones, etc. I'm sure the parents appreciated the dirty drive home. Hey - at least the kids were worn out and ready for naptime!


Is our little man gorgeous, or what?!!! Still quite the charmer. My brother-in-law, Scott, met us to watch the triathlon. He was a massive help corralling my kids.

Go, big daddy! (blue shirt, Chris). Muggy and hot temps = snow cones.


Claire danced to "Where Has My Doggy Gone?"

Happy Mom's Day

Today was a great mother's day. 1) I didn't have to change any of Zane's diapers. and 2) I actually now have a photo of me and my children. Since Zane's homecoming we have yet to capture a pic of me and my trio mostly because I'm usually the one taking the pictures and also it's a monumental challenge to get the three of them sitting still at the same time. On top of that, we even snapped one with my mom.

In all seriousness, today was one of those heart swelling days of great joy and gratefulness that I get to be mom to Lily, Claire and Zane. It is my joy.

Catching Up

A week or so in photos:

Our neighborhood group of pals met up at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last week, two days after my wedding anniversary. Sweet timing as this is where Chris and I were hitched. I don't think I had been back there since the first year we were married. It was special to show my kids around this lovely place and share with them about our big day. Plus we saw a snake!

After the girls' ballet/tap class this week, a bunch of us grabbed lunch and went to a nearby park to enjoy this gorgeous weather before the Texas heat takes over. I love watching these girls play together. Many of them also live in our neighborhood. These kids are blessed with sweet moms that I have so enjoyed getting to know and call friends. It's encouraging to see friendships developing among our children as well.

This particular park has some of the best playscapes in town. However our little girls were more interested in searching for bugs and climbing trees.

Yesterday Chris skipped work and we went to SeaWorld. It is one of my favorite outings with our children. They are too dazzled for fussing and have these big goofy grins plastered on their faces all day.

Lily and Claire are adrenaline junkies. We have a hard time pulling them off this roller coaster. I think they road it 6 times yesterday. They waited very patiently in line so they could ride in the front!

Lily is a "no hands" coaster rider while Claire opts for eyes closed. Last time we took Zane to the Shamu show he cried. I think the volume freaked him out. This time he was all smiles.

I love this photo. I was glad to catch this sweet moment of Claire loving on Zane, without them noticing the camera.

Back home but too wired for sleep!