Happy 3rd Birthday Gavin! It is so hard for us to believe that our baby boy is already turning 3! WOW this is going way too fast. He is such a joy, he is impresses us each day. We celebrated last weekend in Toledo with the entire family it was really great. Even Mike's sister Susanne and Uncle Kristian were there from England. They actually were in town celebrating their baby shower. Pics to follow..they are having a boy yeah for Gavin a boy cousin. Some sweet things he is saying right now that we love are: "Chey Chey" - Leche, Milk
"Fanditch" - Sandwich a "Daddy Fanditch"-means wrestling with Daddy
"Cabuzz" - Because
"Belly Jeans"- Jelly Beans
"Muffin pancakes"- Cup Cakes (we think the cup throws him off)

It was really special to have my Grandpa Miller come to Gavin's party too. Sadly he is now on Oxygen for the rest of his life and is unable to have a much needed heart surgery. Please keep him in your prayers. He was so excited to give Gavin a truck and helicopter.

I recieved a wonderful Birthday present today. My Grandma Ruth has broken her back in two places. She had back surgery and has been in and out of the hospital for the past two weeks. Until today I did not know that I would have the chance to speak with her again ever. She has never missed calling me on any of my birthdays. I was actually feeling quite down about it last night. I even said to Mike, "I won't get a birthday call from my Grandmother." Our God works miracles. She has been incoherent and has barley known her name for the past 10 days. Finally we have answers about what has been happening to her; she has had bleeding on her brain and the bleeding has gone all the way down her spine. When she called me today I was so overwhelmed and amazed at how big our God is! She is still in incredible pain from the bleeding. The Neurosurgeon has not ever seen a case this bad, he plans to write an article about her case. Please continue keeping her in your prayers. She is 79 and is in Dallas, TX with my grandfather and two aunts.

It is so wonderful to have my babies back we are not doing so well in our New Year's Resolution but we will keep trying our best to stay healthy! This is so precious of Gavin and Nadia playing together, a rare but an increasing activity.

The reality of the situation...so this is what my NEW YEAR has been filled with. Literally. I cannot believe Mike took this picture of me but sometimes being a mom is not always glamorous. We started this year with Jan 2 the illnesses began. We had our lifegroup over for a New Year's Eve party and many of the kids shared in this fun sickness, which included: Vomiting, the runniest nose EVER, coughing, fevers and ear infections. Wow what fun! The kids are on the mend and we are so thankful that we did not contract this virus. Mike chipped his tooth this week and now has to have a crown while Nadia is bringing in tooth #7! It is humbling to me every time they are sick how much they need and depend on us for everything. It is also difficult at times to believe that we are responsible for so much as parents. Not only providing their physical needs but so much of their emotional, social, and most importantly spiritual needs. I am keenly aware of these when they are vunerable or in pain and I want so badly to help them. It is easy to imagine now that I am a parent how our heavenly father feels at times looking down on us when we are struggling or in pain. I'm sure He is trying to guide us and provide us with every tool He can to help us through our pain. I pray that this year I will be able to provide these delicate and every changing needs for them. But that I will find joy in doing so..even when it is difficult. I want to resolve to find the positive and give them all that I can to help them to become the people God intends them to be. 2008 here we come!

Mike is trying extra hard to get his Christmas present to work! Who knows if it will work or not! Gavin loves the new red "COPTER!"

Look out Mickey!

Christmas morning with two sweet babies. Nadia got a baby doll from santa she squealed as soon as she saw it! Gavin could not stop jumping for his train set. Trains are his favorite thing in the world.

Libby is my brother's doggie she is super small!

Ice sledding is great fun for Gavin and maybe even more fun for my dad.

Making Christmas cookies with Ethan and Ella was great!

Some funny Christmas memories Mike and Michelle are hilarious wearing Gavin's Lightening McQueen hat.

Gavin really enjoyed the Indiana State Museum and riding the train with his DADDY!

Visiting my Great Aunt Mildred, my grandfathers aunt who is now 100 years old was really quite amazing. She had many questions for me regarding Nadia's adoption process and was very interested in what it was like in Guatemala. We stopped in for a quick one night trip in Toledo.

Fun was had by all at her party and she had a great time with her cake too!

It is amazing and some moments a bit difficult for me to believe how quickly her first birthday arrived. The day was wonderful and to be together as a family back home in Indiana is a blessing I am thankful for each day. Watching her change and learn new things is wonderful and her own little personality is starting to shine through. She is determined and usually easily contented...especially if her busy brother is not bopping her on the head!

Grandparents LOVE! Wow, it is amazing to have such loving and supportive grandparents in our kids lives. The weekend was full of celebrating when we had Mike's parents, my parents and my grandma mae love on the kids. The ice storm allowed them to stay an extra day. I'm not sure who was more excited about the storm the kid's or the grandparents.

My proud little chef! Gavin is so great at cooking and enthusiastically asks about every 2 minutes.."I try it?" He is a sweet little helper.

So, I'm a little behind on bloggin! What exactly am I not behind on...let's see not much. It was great fun having our cousin Jacob and Aunt Deb drop by on their way through town. Nadia loved being held by him. He was stationed in Japan for the last few years but is now going to get to be stateside in WVa. He is so looking foward to bringing his soon to be new family to the US he is engaged and PROUD of it!

Having Aunt Chelle and Gamma in Indy was wonderful they helped so much with Nadia's room. She now has a whympsical tree, a canopy, a newly slip covered chair and a her sweet self making her room extremely beautiful. The most beautiful room in the house.

Halloween was a scream from a Lion, a Sweet Pea and a Baby bee my niece Sam!

Babies in a basket..it is great to have my sweeties together. Each day is a new adventure with two they are such happy and sweet children and they are keeping us on our toes.

It was also wonderful to get back to Indiana and spend time with our "Life Group" our small group from our church.

Kid's hanging out together...It was so nice to have Nadia and Samantha my 8 month old niece together to play FINALLY!

Being away from Gavin for 6 weeks was so incredibly painful. We skyped (webcammed) about 3 times per day. My mom, Mike's mom, and my sister all have webcams. The first couple of weeks Gavin did not want to cam but after that he adjusted and really enjoyed our chats. We even played together for about 1 hour on the webcam. Anyway, when Gavin woke up on the Saturday morning we arrived in Toledo. Mike and I came around the corner in the kitchen of my mom's house. He screamed and began shaking and crying for joy...he gave me one of the best hugs of my life and could not stop screaming, "I found Mommy and Gamma's house!"

Aunt Michelle and Uncle Matt were so happy and relieved to hold her for the first time! Nadia is just a bit sleepy..in these shots.

This was one happy moment! Landing on US soil with our baby was one of the greatest feelings ever. God answers prayers! It was unbelievable to us how God continued to protect and guide our steps through the last moments of this incredible odyssey to Nadia. So the last post (sorry for the blog silence our hard drive fried on our computer! not surprising eh? with all that happened) the last post explained that we were getting our visa the next day. Well that was not exactly what happened. Our visa was not ready on Thursday this brought another set of anxiety filled decisions for us to make again! Thank goodness Mike and I were together. We both felt like we were close to our breaking point but prayed and tried to ask our agency for advice. (which was once again a mistake) We find this information out on Thursday at 4:30 PM and the US Embassy is already closed. Basically, our Friday went like this: Our wonderful driver picked us up in Antigua at 5:00 A.M. we prayed this prayer together.."God we need two miracles one from the American Embassy and one from American Airlines." We knew that God would procide this for us because he has provided so much for us all through this "roller coaster." Mike dropped Nadia and I off with our 400 bags at the airport at 6:00 AM he then went immediately to the US Embassy to be the first in line. The day before...which was when we expected to receive Nadia's Visa we were informed that her Visa would be ready Friday at 7:30 AM. Well, cutting this close was the understatement our flight left Guate City at 8:30 AM for an Int'l flight you must check in 1 hour before or they give your seat away basically there was no possible way for them to check us in because we did not have the Visa. My role while Mike waited for the Embassy to open was to BEG and PLEAD with American Airlines to put us on the next available flight out of the city. As I arrived at the ticket in tears already and looking RATHER exhausted from my whopping 4 hours of sleep. The kind lady at the counter interrupted me to inform me that our flight was ALREADY delayed for 1:30! So perfect to think that God already knew this was what we needed was amazing to us. The night before there was a storm which caused the flight to be rerouted to El Salvador which meant the crew had to rest for an extra amount of time the next morning. I immediately called our driver who ran to Mike with his cell phone, the relief in Mike's voice was the such a blessing! He now could have waited for 3 our 4 hours for the Visa. Luckily kind individuals NOT from our agency just kind Guatemalan's helped Mike get the Visa right away. As we checked in at the ticket counter with Nadia's 10 minute old Visa we could not help but smile and smile! God has blessed us with 2 miracles in one morning. We even took our driver out to Pollo Campero Mike's favorite place for breakfast in Guate.


Boarding that plane in Guatemala on Friday put us home in Detroit at 12:40 which was too late for a huge welcoming party and too late for our sweet 2 and half year old but nothing has felt better to me than the good old USA! One of the things people like to ask me now is does it feel to finally be home? My favorite and truthful answer is amazing to be a family and the US just smells good to me..hee hee. Guatemala smelled stinky to me most of the time. Closing this chapter in our lives was not only one of the most rewarding experience but it was an experience that grew our faith, our families faith, and even the faith our friends that prayed relentlessly for us. We continue to be amazed by how many people this journey touched and how many people blanketed us in their daily prayers. God bless each of you. We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.