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| Posing for Tony at her Fall Festival Party! |
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| Pure Joy! |
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| Ole blue eyes! |
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| Preston, Parker and Grant |
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| Wow! Have we come a long way! Sleeping on Granny Champions front porch! |
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| Mom and Dad took a much needed Cruise to celebrate our 15 years of marriage! |
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| Parker teaching his cousin Kathleen how to drive the truck! |
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| This is what a little Pre Op medicine will do to you! She is a little loopy! |
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| Homemade gingerbread houses with our friend Rachael |
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| Maw Maw and her baby girl! |
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| Maw Maw and her big baby girl! |
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| MOON/BEAR! (crazy boys, you have to see Bedtime Stories to get it :-) |
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| Our first trip to Montgomery's Capitol at Christmas! |
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| I Love this man! |
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| Maggie Mae and her "piwow pet" |
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| Tony's 9 point, WOOHOO! |
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| Cousins! |
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| All the guys ready for paint ball! |
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| Parker has the honor of laying a wreath at the Vietnam Memorial in DC |
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| Sweet Girls! |
We can't believe it has been a year since we arrived home with Maggie Mae. So many wonderful memories this first year! We want to recapture the year first by looking at how much her vocabulary has progressed. We started out with parrot talk. She repeated everything! In China it was " Happya", "bye bye" and this awful sound "hiyah" for most everything. Then, when we got home, she began repeating just about everything we said. She gave everyone a new name, Parker is BoBo, Camden is CoCo, Sarah-Gracen is Stister, and Tony was Taco at first but now she calls him Tony. After about 4 months home, she was not only saying words, but she was applying them correctly. Right now as I'm typing this she is telling BoBo "pwease stop, you need to change yur additude" :) Some other favorites of ours are "I need som mo food pwease", "Pwease a plain bagel wit cream cheese", "I love you so much", and one of the funniest is when she told her daddy "I can't hold you all day daddy"! She will also tell you to "back off" compliments of the Hufham boys :-) Speaking of the Hufhams, Maggie Mae has a special bond with Jake, who absolutely loves her. It is so sweet. Thank you Jake for an incredibly loving heart. Anyway, I could spend all night writing down phrases. She basically can carry on a full conversation with you as an adult would:-) Hopefully, my friend Courtney Bass will help me upload a video so you can hear her for yourself.
Well enough about her verbal skills. Many of you have asked about her eyes. One year ago, we were told she was blind, could not see much of anything, and there was no cure. Well, our God has done exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask. He is healing her eyesight and she is seeing things that the medical world says she should not be seeing. We hope to bring her back to Birmingham in March to have her visual acuity test done. For those of you who don't believe in miracles, we would love to introduce you to Maggie Mae! God has been so faithful to us this past year. Our family has grown closer together than ever. Even though we have been extremely busy, we have spent more time together playing games, eating meals, having family devotions, and just enjoying every moment we have with each other. As our family grows, we are learning ways to serve one another. The boys are learning the ways of Chivalry from Dad. Sarah-Gracen and I are having to learn to wait for them to open doors and pull out chairs. This has been fun but hard because we are so accustomed to just get the door ourselves and get out of the car quick. In addition to chivalry, the guys are loving hunting. In addition to the traditional deer hunting (Tony got a nice 9 point), they are trying to make black birds extinct :-) The girls are learning how to do laundry and cook, and the guys are enjoying Sarah-Gracen's love for baking :-) There is something so sweet about the fragrance of home. We are blessed to have the life we have.
As we kick off this new year, we are seeking God on many things. As we make our needs known to the Father, He is teaching us to thank Him for what He will do even when we have no idea what that will be. TRUST, TRUST, TRUST, TRUST.... That word is around every corner. Dexter and I are getting our GPS certification for Fostering/Adopting in Montgomery. We have completed 3 of the 10 classes. God is revealing the many needs right here in our own community. We will be completing that course in March, followed by another home study, then we wait to see who the Lord wants to place in our home. One thing a dear friend shared with me that I will never forget is this. We, Christians, will form a line and hold hands to show our support for Pro Life. Yet, when these girls choose life/adoption, not many people are lining up to help take care of them. We have an incredible opportunity in fostering to minister God's unconditional, unfailing, healing love to kids and their families. So here we go!
There are so many people who have played a huge role in ministering to our family this year. So many I wouldn't dare try to name you all. If you have had anything to do with Maggie Mae this year, thank you! We have praised Him for you and your prayers and support. We started this out 2 years ago with the theme Community, and the Lord continues to illuminate his love and desire for his children to live in community with one another. Be encouraged as you walk out His plan for you and your family. He is faithful and will complete the good work He began in you.
