Preschool Graduation

Brody had another great year at preschool! Its hard to believe our oldest is entering Kindergarten! Here are a few pictures from his graduation this year. And let it be said, that this was the night PopPop officially won Aven over:) All it took was a little bit of punch!

Mother's Day and Family update

Last year THIS is where my heart was on Mother's Day. My heart was aching for my daughter. My heart was longing for my family to all be in one place. But this year, I am so thankful for my THREE kids that are ALL under one roof and celebrating being a mommy to all of them. I am still in awe almost daily that the Lord has blessed me with these 3. They are my heart and my joy! 

Aven has been home 5 months (tomorrow). She has changed so much even in the past few weeks. Her first tooth finally popped through a couple of weeks ago (at 16 months old) and her second was close behind. She is walking everywhere now and choosing to walk instead of crawl. She took her first steps around 14 months, but has still chosen to crawl everywhere she needs to go. A couple of weeks ago she decided that walking was her chosen form of transportation:) And she is finally really bonding with her daddy! She has done great with him since we brought her home in December....as long as I am nowhere near them. She would pitch a complete fit if he was the one holding her and I was anywhere nearby. That has changed in the past few weeks. She is completely content in his arms even if I am in the same room. She tries to get his attention and begs for him to make her giggle. She wants his affection now and is so excited when he walks in the door each day. It's been amazing to watch her transformation over the past few weeks! 

I remember watching the boys play in the yard last summer, and on many occasions thinking "next summer their little sister will be running around here with them!" It's so amazing to see them running around our farm together....just like I imagined.

Lennon Reese McKoy is here!!

We finally got to go see our newest little niece! She was born on March 10th and due to the crazy amount of sickness my kids have had going on, we have not been able to make it up to see her. The boys and I loved every minute of snuggling her!

  

He is Risen!

And so it begins....

We are officially entering the world of sports! Brody started T-ball this season and is LOVING it! We are having a hard time explaining to Levi why he cant be out there with his brother, but he is doing a great job cheering on his brother from the sidelines!

Toddling

Aven is finally walking! She took her first steps a few weeks ago (right at 14 months old)

and is starting to walk around quite a bit. She is SO proud of herself! She loves the fact that we (especially her brothers) clap and cheer for her! I keep thinking about how grateful I am that we get to cheer her on in these milestones. All kids deserve to have a family that gets excited when they do new things….alot of children will never have that chance.

Created For Care

I had the privilege of attending the Created for Care retreat at Lake Lanier, Georgia this year with my sweet friend Keri. Our husbands met each other in college and Keri and her husband adopted from Ethiopia 2 years ago. Our girls lived in the same Care Center and had the same sweet nanny. They were such a blessing to us while we went through our adoption process.  We decided back in the fall to attend this adoption retreat together. I am so thankful to our amazing husbands who let us have a weekend away. It was a refreshing and exhausting weekend. It was centered around adoption, but a lot of the weekend was just refreshment for mommies. But the messages were HEAVY.  Adoption is beauty and brokenness all rolled into one. Just because Aven was adopted at a young age and will never remember what she came from, does not mean we will never face tough issues. It will be hard. But she is our daughter and we will be here to walk with her through it. I am looking forward to many more years of going to C4C. I am sure it will be a vital tool in helping us as we parent Aven.