Trick or treat

The kids had a great day with a party during the day and Trick or treating tonight. We ate chili at gma bopies and then treked over to Neb. to visit great gma and gpa. They were wiped and fell asleep on the way home.
They are sleeping now and looking forward to a fun weekend.

John Piper's Heart in this election

Vote for Kaylee!

To the left is the Jersey that Kaylee designed for the "Reading is Cool Program" and the Sioux City Musketeers Hockey team contest.
She is a top ten finalist!!!
If her jersey gets the most votes, they will produce it for the team to wear and then auction them off after the game.
Click Here to vote for Kaylee's Design:
http://siouxcityjournal.com/scmjerseydesign/vote.php?jerseyid=9
All the proceeds go to support literacy education.
She was SOOOO excited to be chosen as a finalist! Thanks for your support!!!
Voting is only open until SUNDAY, Oct 19th.
VOTE NOW!!!!
Tell all your friends!

do you want some ham with those green eggs?

About a year ago...

This is from a picnic at Stone Park about a year ago.


This is from Today during my lunch hour.

Praying for Ethiopia

Below is a link to images that were taken in July, 2008
Many of the images are very difficult to see. They especially hit us hard because they were taken in the region of Mudulla, Ethiopia. This is the exact southern region where Levi and Jesse were born.
Please pray for the people in this area.
http://www.noorimages.com/index.php?id=2544
Layne

My Brother, My Guest?!

I had a very interesting conversation with our four year old daughter the other day. Just a little background info..........E is our daughter by birth and L is our son that we adopted from Ethiopia. E is 4 and L is 5. They are VERY close. E has been L's language tutor and best friend since the very beginning of our family uniting. It has been beautiful to watch their relationship grow.

Anyway, E says," Mom, Levi is my guest brother." I ask her what she means. She explains that he is her guest brother because we got him from Ethiopia. I cringe a little at her word usage here. I went on to explain that we wouldn' t call him our guest because guests just stay a little while and then go away. I said "Honey, L is not going anywhere he will be in our family forever just like you. We met you for the first time in a hospital and met L for the first time in Ethiopia. God has planned you and L to be in our family forever!" She seemed somewhat comforted by these words and was soon skipping of to play with L in their pretend play world.

I was left reflecting on this conversation. We continue to deal with many questions from all the kids regarding adoption. Lately, K,I, and E want to know more about L and J's life in Ethiopia. The other day out of the blue while I was hard boiling eggs, L had a very far off look in his eye and expressed that he remember his mom in Ethiopia making those. It took my breath away to be reminded of how often he thinks of her. I thanked God that he shared this detail with me. He is doing more of this since we started taking him to counseling. When he opens up it gives Layne and I more opportunities to show him our love and comfort.

Finally blogging again

-----------------------------------It's been almost a month since posting, we really need to do better writing updates. Tanya and I are going to both write something tonite.
Our life just seems sometimes to be one big blur! Everything goes by so fast.
It's really hard to know where to start. Here's a little taste of what makes things so busy. Of course, my job and the demands of being gone 8 hours of 5 days a week. Most dad's have to deal with that. One of the perks I have is being able to come home almost everyday for lunch and I can leave and take the kids to school most days. Homeschooling AND public schooling. Kaylee and Isaac go 2 full days a week for music, pe and art. Preschool, Levi goes to Promiseland Preschool 3 different days for 2 hours at a time. Isaac is playing football on Sat. mornings. Kaylee is now in a youth symphony, Kaylee and Isaac are both taking piano lessons. Awana on Wednesday nights, clean the church on Thursday nights. Making sure we try to get one-on-one time with each kid -THAT IS DIFFICULT. Bedtime is kinda my thing, but I really need to be using that time better with scripture lessons and bible stories with the kids. I usually pray with each one when they are in their beds, but it is so easy to rush through it. Because my time is sooo limited with the kids, I really need to make the most of the moments I get.
Pictures above are from August trip to Adam's Nature Center and Marcus Fair and last weeks trip to meet cousins.