In Our Hands

Our updated home study is in our hands! It's been signed by the agency and notarized. We are ready to go to the Embassy to give our updated information to the USCIS office! Hooray! We've been waiting for this day for over a month. Praise the Lord it's finally here! We'll make an appointment for next week to go to the Embassy. We are getting closer!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Treats

He shaves his mustache just for me. I just can't stand getting a smooch from my man with a hairy upper lip!

My amazing Hubby went to our home study providers office this morning and took care of making sure our home study is ready to pick up this afternoon! I can't tell you how much this means to me. I'm so fed up of dealing with them. He's knows right when to step in and take charge! Thanks, Honey!

He did an awesome job of handling the situation after we had the accident on Sunday. The guys in the other car were pretty overwhelming. Nathan did a great job keeping his cool and patiently waiting for the insurance guys and police to arrive!

I love you, Nathan!!

Love This

Mommy: "Night, night, Ruth."
Ruth: "Night, night, Mommy."
Mommy: "Sleep good, Ruth."
Ruth: "Seep good, Mommy."
Mommy: "I love you, Ruth."
Ruth: "Ruh-roh, Mommy."

"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

~Ephesians 5:1-2

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

Please pray for us as we try to sort through some issues with our home study provider. We've just been told we're going to be charged for the changes that have been made to our home study. Some of the problems were mistakes of the one writing the document, and we had no control over it. Please pray for our sanity in dealing with the agency. Nathan is meeting with them Tuesday morning 8am our time.

Please continue to pray for John and Ruth's colds and coughs to clear. We're almost there but not quite.

Auntie Beth and Uncle Todd's wedding is this Saturday. Please pray for a good internet connection as they are going to try to stream it live through skype.

Praises~

We are grateful for safety in many ways. One of them being the Lord's protection of us last night when we were in an accident. We were headed out to dinner and had an accident with another car. We praise the Lord no one was hurt! We were pretty close to hitting a man walking on the side of the road.

A few weeks ago I requested prayer for my parents. The Lord answered our prayers concerning their situation even if it was the answer we were really hoping for. I'm so proud of the way they were open and willing to seek the Lord for His answers and His timing. Praise the Lord because He answers prayer!

We had a great day with Ruth as she turned 2!

The Party

For birthdays this year we decided to make it more of a family day and not have a big party. For Ruth's birthday, we did the Safari Walk in the morning and then had Kurt, Angie, and Micah over for pizza, cake, and ice cream. Of course there were cards and presents, too. We've really enjoyed these days as a family with a few friends. And think it might just be a tradition we hold on to. So, here are the pictures from her birthday evening.

The birthday cake. A pink monkey was requested and the Birthday Girl thought it looked like a monkey! That's all that matters! ;)

      

Checking out that monkey! 

      

What a sweet girl! 

       

She got one out! 

      

And two out! She actually blew them out about 4 times. Gotta make it worth while, right?

Aren't we cute? :)

        

She touched the ice cream and realized it was cold. 

Good idea to us the spoon to dig in. I think that's her favorite part! Notice the blue on her plate...she wanted an eye of the monkey. 

      

She must have been enjoying it. 

     

I always forget to get a picture of us eating dinner. Oh, well. Dessert is the best part, right? 

Now it's time for birthday cards and presents!

A cool coloring card with a ballon and stickers from Mimi and Papa.

She loves ballons! 

A neat card and book of African animals from Nana and Poppy.

Daddy and Miss Angie being silly. ;)

Oh boy, presents! She knew who they were for!

A cute little purse with hair clips in it. 

Minnie Pearl with her new sunglasses. She finally has a pair of her own for when her eyes are hot. 

John was so into opening helping her open her presents.

Notice she knows where the glasses go when she's not wearing them.

An awesome new cell phone that needed batteries for the annoying cool music it plays.

An Amani apron! 

Reaching for the last present...an Amani doll.

Everybody watching the fun.

I wondered when the stickers were going to have to go on the shirt. :) Every.single.one. of them on the shirt.

Looking at the electronic cards.

She was dancing at one point. Too bad you can't see it in the pictures!

What a great 2nd birthday our little Ruth had! We love you so very much, Little One!

The Nairobi Safari Walk

For Ruth's birthday, we decided to head over to the Nairobi National Park's Nairobi Safari Walk. The kids and I had been there about a year ago and it was pretty fun. They love seeing animals so we figured they'd enjoy it. We got to the gate to pay and realized we had to have our Kenyan ID or our passport to get the resident rate. Nathan tried to talk our way in, but the guy wouldn't budge. We walked away with an upset Daddy and upset kiddos. We tried to think of something else to do but couldn't. So...we drove home, got our passports, and went back. The guys was like, "You're serious." Nathan told him he ruined his day. :) Eventually we got to walk through and see the animals.

Daddy and the Birthday Girl.

Looking at the pygmy hippos. They were funny looking little guys with sharp teeth.

She loves her Daddy. 

Dinah was having a tummy ache so she rode in the stroller for a lot of time with John pushing her.

Two Nile crocodiles. They just laid there. The one in the front opened his mouth and showed us his teeth.

Looking at the crocodiles.

He was looking over the fence, but didn't see any animals. The animals were kind of sparse.

Looking at a dirty river.

Looking at that same dirty river. Although we spotted a lizard on a rock.

Do you see what I see?

Mommy and the Birthday Girl.

There were a bunch of baboons and monkeys playing. They were all over this one tree.

Spot anything in the top of the tree. This was about as exciting as it got.

A humongous sleeping rhino.

Take two.

Looking at that big rhino. You can't see it, but there's a big ditch in between the rhino and that little fence. Hopefully he wouldn't be able to make it over the ditch if he decided he wanted to get out.

Africa has some of the most unique flowers and trees. Nathan found these while Dinah and I were in the bathroom. 

All in all, it was a fun trip. We had a great time as a family even though we didn't see a lot of animals. 

Happy Birthday, Ruth!