adult night out

jeff, kelly, kent & i went out to woodfire grill (highly recommend) to those of you who live in atlanta area) the dinner was fabulous...it's nice to get cleaned up and spend some quality time with family...boys will be boys check out the Peace sign behind kelly & my head?

the girls

kent and his younger brother jeff with all the girls! jeff has 3 BEAUTIFUL daughters shelby, amber & carly...the sisler men LOVE there girls! these girls are very lucky to have daddies who ADORE them.

pizza anyone?

the girls made homemade pizza YUMMY

summer fun

pool...hot....water....girls....family....love

atlanta aquarium

family fun at the aquarium....kent's brother jeff and his family came down for the weekend from KY...first time for the KY sisler's to visit aquarium.

Pay it Forward

kent & i wanted to Pay it Forward and help raise money for the kids at New Day who are waiting for surgery....all you have to do is TELL EVERYONE you know to come to our blog and click on the "chip in" button to donate....this is a great cause...as most of you know emma lael had two open heart surgeries both funded by people just like you and i...without these donations she would never of made it...Kent & i have started the donation with $1,000.00 let's see how much we can raise before august 26...which is natalie's 16th birthday.

moses is growing

the shirt says it all

pool fun

amy and i invited two of our families over today to my house to swim...they are both in the process of adopting from china...both families have boys...the little girls that God places in these homes will be very lucky little girls.
emma lael had fun with the group of boys...jilly, lynsey and natalie were big helps with all the kids in the pool.

fyi: the picture of emma lael standing next to ethan he will be 2 in october and he is taller than emma lael not by much but he is...i told y'all she's tiny.

our 2 other girls

evie and ella we began to sponsor several months ago...we met evie when we were at new day adopting emma lael...her nanny was sitting on the floor next to her crib watching every breath she'd take...she was cyanotic (blue) and very tiny...fragile and very sick....she was born wiht 5 heart defects...ellie, the nurse at new day who loved emma lael so much told us between her tears that God brought evie to new day to help her heart heal because she was going to miss emma lael so much...she said evie reminds her so much of emma lael when she first came to new day.

ella arrived at new day march of 2011...when kent & i decided to sponsor 2 children from new day i knew evie would be one but we didn't know who our second sponsor would be...kent's mom name is ella so it was easy when we saw sweet ella's face that she would be our 2nd child to sponsor...we have there pictures on our frig and emma lael will tell you "dis are babies from china" in her cute chinglish which now has a southern accent.

God bless these two sweet girls....we look forward to watching them grown at new day until God finds there forever families.

i was walking this morning after reading the book (becoming more than a good bible study girl by: lysa terkeurst) that goes along with my bible study...she was talking about david and how when he was anointed with oil to become the king he was sent back in the fields to tend to his sheep...okay, if i was just told i was going to be a queen i'd expect to leave the fields and begin "living the life of a queen" God taught me that he uses our everyday lives like running errands to glorify His great plan in our lives...God will use our mundane daily lives to prepare us for something even bigger then we could ever image...after thinking about that my brain raced to yet another thought what was i doing on july 5, 2007 (the day emma lael was born) i journal so i came back from my walk and looked through my journal books to read what i wrote on that day...for some reason i couldn't find the 2007 journal book UGH...i do remember something very BIG happened on that day...our son, garrett was accepted to boarding school it was a day of celebration...i clearly remember even though i can't find my exact words from my journal book i felt PEACE on july 5, 2007...strange but on that very same day my little emma lael was born in inner mongolia china...then my thoughts began to think what if??? we had started our adoption process earlier or later...i'd have to say that if we'd not started our adoption journey in october 2010 we'd not of been matched with emma lael...just one more blessing to be thankful for...it is really cool when we start to look at God for the blessings in our lives and not give ourselves the praise for them.

the goggles are a bit big but don't let that fool you emma lael tried her hardest to figure out how to use them correctly...she is a very smart little girl and she'll study something for an extended period of time...her patience for a 4 year old still amaze me...she can sit forever it seems trying to figure out how something works.

our little peanut is growing

when we adopted emma lael in september 2010 she was 32" tall and weighed 18 lbs. NOW she is 35.5" tall and weighs 24#

i will say "emma lael you are growing like a weed" her reply is the same every time "what you say mama? i not a weed" ;0)

Friends

emma lael's friend taianna...they swim together everyday...taianna lives next door... they are 3 weeks apart in age and they have the best time together.

our little ANGEL fish

our little angel fish ;) this is for you Ganlu ;0)

emma lael is a natural in the water...after 4 days of private lessons in our pool she's a little guppy...amazing how well she can swim with not ever being in a pool before.

Birthday Girl

to celebrate emma lael's 4th birthday we took her to see Cars 2....this was her very first time at a movie theater...when she woke up from her nap today she said "mama my belly hungry" she didn't want her favorite snack so i knew she wasn't hungry....then she said "mama my belly hurt" 20 minutes into the movie she got sick in the popcorn bucket (it was empty) then she felt fine....she watched the movie laughed and talked like emma lael does ;) we came home had dinner and she opened her presents we sang happy birthday she had the BIGGEST smile you've ever seen....she knew this was her special day....she blew out the birthday candles and she ate a tiny bit of her birthday cake....thank you to all of you who called to wish her happy birthday....still hard for me to believe that she is our daughter....yes, i still pinch myself every so often to make sure i'm not in a dream

Happy 4th of July

great day with friends! went to the peachtree city 4th parade....peachtree city is in the running for the most patriotic community in the country Whoo Hoo! came home and swam for awhile because it is HoT and hUmId image that in july in GA.