i went to court today...

this morning after dropping henry off at school ross and the girls and i headed down to the juvenile court. around 9:30 the state of arizona accepted the petition for the adoption of baby zach. though he has been part of our family since april, it is now official!!

it was such a blessing to be able to support tod and catherine in their adventure of parenting. their adoption of zach stands as an up close and personal example of what, through Christ, God has done for us.

"In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." Ephesians 1:5

during the hearing the representative of the court asked tod and catherine questions regarding the adoption. one of her questions was if they understood that by adopting him he now has all the rights and privileges of a natural born child and if they believed this to be in zach's best interest. this statement included that zach would now have all the rights of inheritance. of course they acknowledged these things and everything was approved and accepted.

i knew all along the spiritual implications of this adoption but today i thank the Lord for what he has done for me. i watched tod and catherine hold their son and with full emotion legally take him as their own. this precious child belongs to tod and catherine now and therefore he is the heir to their promise to love and care for him as their son.

as christians, we have assurance much like what the courts gave zach today. we are heirs, His heirs.

"If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Galatians 3:29

thank you, God for loving us so much that through Jesus you adopted me as your own. thank you for allowing me the privilege of being your heir. thank you for doing what is in my best interest. thank you for zach and for the reminder that he is and what you have done.

thank you, Lord...

tonight i was going through some old pictures, well not that old- they were pics from last year. i came across a file that is full of pictures i need to scrapbook. anna's baby book hasn't even been started yet. i have set a goal to work on her book before i work on any others.

i just love all babies. specifically my babies but still all of them. there is something so magical about that teeny tiny little person. i fell in love with my nephew's feet shortly after he was born and a year ago i fell in love at first sight with anna.

i thought i would share a few pictures from her last year...

the blog police...

tonight i had to do what i have not wanted to do. i had to remove many friends from my blog list.

many of you do not update your blogs in a regular fashion so i had to remove you. if you are terribly offended then please let me know and i will put you back on -but with probationary status.

know that i truly care about your lives and look forward to your updates. i will continue to check on your blogs for myself but for now i can't recommend them.

fyi- ross would totally get booted for not updating his regularly but i'm married to him...he also says he updated his twice this week.

oh and kevin- you got removed because every time i link to your blogs you go and decide to use some other mechanism for communicating via cyber space.

a prayer from st. francis assisi (1181-1226)...

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.

smash cake...

so my girl is 1 and she loves cake!! it was so fun to watch her dig in to her cake. we gave her a cupcake with pink icing on her actual birthday as a trial run. at first we thought she might be rather tame but then it was as if the sugar kicked in and she went full speed ahead with the shovel action.
by saturday at party time anna was raring to go!! ross smoked some briskets and we served a texas style lunch with beans and potato salad. everyone seemed to enjoy themselves even though there must have 80 decibels of sound in our little home. 12 kids ages 5 and under had a good time!

once plates were cleaned it was the big moment! i put the candle in the cake and gathered everyone around the table for some birthday singing! anna knew what that song meant...she was grunting at the cake before it was even sliced. once on her plate...well i will just say that it was hysterical! she shoved, she grunted, she devoured! you only turn 1 once so when she asked for more i gave her a little piece. that seemed to do the trick.


moving on from there it was present time... i learned a long time ago with henry's parties that i should never try to tame the wildness of children who want to help open the gift that they brought. anna had the most fun just eating the tissue paper.










what a great day of celebrating our little girl!

Lord, thank you for a wonderful year of enjoying this precious child you have gifted to us. she has been such a joyful addition to our home. you are so good to us! we praise you for her life and what you will do in her.

happy birthday, anna

today my baby girl anna turned 1. i can't get over how fast this last year has gone by with her. she is so sweet and full of smiles for just about anyone. lately i have referred to her as our little rugby player because she likes to duck her head down and plow into you- all the while giggling. tonight we will celebrate with a little cake that henry and i made today and then tomorrow some friends and family will come over and we will have lots of bbq and some more cake. pictures are sure to follow.

on another note... henry lost his very first tooth. on tuesday evening he showed me a pretty loose tooth and told me it was really cool to have a loose tooth. evidently at school he spent the majority of the time with his finger in his mouth wiggling it. when i picked him up his teacher said we might want to see if it would come out that night. thankfully during dinner he bit into his chicken and got a little nervous because his tooth was hanging on by a thread. ross grabbed hold of it and in seconds his first tooth was packaged and ready for the tooth fairy!

on the daphne front, she had her mascot parade at school yesterday. she was of course the cutest frog of all time. poor thing was exhausted though and so she didn't have much animation...that was probably a good thing that day!! she held ms. laura's hand the whole time but eagerly waved to all the other children. (she's the one in green shorts with a frog on her head.)


that's all for today but rest assured that i will have more pictures from anna's birthday this weekend.