Update!

I haven't been on this blog for a while now and I just saw that I had 20 comments waiting to be read. I don't know why they were not sent to my email to let me know people have commented. When I didn't get any after I last posted, I thought no one really reads this anymore, but I was wrong! Thank you guys for commenting and for keeping up with us! It was such a blessing to read everyones comments, Thanks!
Ok, so things have been going pretty good. We had our 3rd post adoption meeting last month, so one more to go next February and we will be done!
Jim has been busy for the big holiday, so the kids and I went up to Canada for a couple weeks. We got all 13 grandkids together for the first time and it was so much fun. We also went to this place called African Lion Safarri, where you drive your own vehicle through the saffari and all of our favorites was when the monkey jumped on our car and started eating the antena! It was great! We are back now and I am working on school things with the kids when they aren't swimming in the pool :). We are going to visit my family in Florida in 2 weeks and we are very excited. We will probably go to Disney which Juliana has been begging for, for awhile now! Here are some pics from Guatemala and with the family. Thanks again for all your encouaragment!



Our Awesome Team!


Our 2 Munchkins :)

Our Beautiful Kiddos!




Our New Friend!





Happy B-day Canada!


Jaysa and Nelena taking our order at the kids musuem


Jaysa learning to eat with Chop sticks


Crazy Kids!


All 13 of them!


The Garden of Eden at the Creation Museum

Gottcha Day!

Wow! It has been a year today since we got the kids. What a wonderful journey this has been. The kids are doing so much better then we ever expected and we have been so blessed. Juliana and Jim and I just got back yesterday from a mission trip to Guatemala. We had an amazing time working at an orphanage of about 400 kids. One of the days we went out to a village where 12 people prayed to accept Jesus as their Savior. There were 19 of us and there was not a dry eye as we left to come home. God is doing an amazing work in all our lives. John and Jaysa stayed back with my parents and they had a great time. I am sorry I don't have any pics to share at this moment if there is even anyone out there that still looks at this blog. :)
We were going to do something fun today to celebrate, but I am sick, Juliana had to stay home due to having pink eye and Jim came home early as he is sick too. So hopefully this weekend we will all be feeling better so we can have some fun to celebrate this incredible day!!!

Happy New Year!

And I guess Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas too! These last few months have gone by so fast. I keep thinking we forgot to celebrate Christmas even though I know we did. So, we went to Florida and had Thanksgiving with my(Jaime)family. It is a lot of fun celebrating the holidays with kids. The kids got to experience the Beach for the first time and loved it! Juliana turned 9 on the 11th of November and I can't believe it. She seems like she has grown up so much in the 8months we have had them. She is coming along well with her English and as her New Years resolution she said she wanted to learn Spanish! We are sad that she has lost so much of her Spanish, but we were told they would, so we practice what we can.

The month of December was a lot of fun teaching the kids Christmas songs and reading the story of Jesus Birth over and over. The day before Christmas I was going over the gifts for the kids and I saw the gift my mother in law had bought the kids about "What does God want for Christmas?" And I thought wouldn't it be neat to leave it under the tree and say it was a gift from Jesus. So everyone got in the car for Christmas eve service and I quickly laid it there on my way out. When we got back the kids noticed it and they were so surprised that Jesus would give them something. They opened it up and there was a story and 7 little boxes and each had a character of the manger scene, except for the last one. It was getting to the point about What God wanted for Christmas and when they opened the last box it was a mirror. God wanted them for Christmas! They were so excited and continued to talk about and tell everyone that Jesus gave them a gift and that what he wanted for Christmas was them. That had to be the highlight for Jim and I!
My parents came up after Christmas and stayed for the week and had a great time spoiling the kids. Between them, Santa, In-laws and other family the kids got a trampoline, train set, baby dolls, clothes and many other things. They had a great time celebrating their "first Christmas with their family."
We rang in the New Year with Fireworks of course, even though we didn't make it all the way to midnight. We are excited to see the new things that God is going to do with us this year. We are taking a group from our church down to Guatemala in April to work in an orphanage of about 400 kids for the week and are very excited. Juliana is looking forward to helping the kids and to learn Spanish again :) John is such a happy kid and so sweet. He is speaking English very well and continues to amaze us. Jaysa is still in the terrific twos and I am really struggling with the potty training thing. I didn't realize how difficult it can be. One week she does great then the next she refuses it. So I am starting something different that will hopefully help. She is growing up fast and through her sometimes gibberish she is speaking a lot now. One of the best days I have had with the kids so far was the day that it snowed and school was cancelled. There wasn't a lot of snow where we were but 10 minutes in town there was a lot. So I got the kids ready and we went to the park and played in the snow for about 2 hours. Juliana said "you must be the only cool mom around here" because there was nobody else out there having fun. I was so surprised there wasn't anybody else out, but after a couple hours of fun we went back home, cleaned up a bit, had lunch then snuggled on the couch with hot chocolate and watched a movie. It was the perfect day! No fighting or disobeying, just pure fun!!
We are continually challenged yet incredibly blessed raising our kids. We are just amazed looking back at how far they have come. Thank you all for your love and support!

Happy B-day Juliana!

John loved the Giant sandbox :)


My Perfect Day!





Merry Christmas!