Today...

Today marks my 8th year being married to the love of my life... yes, 8 years ago today when we were 21 years old, Allen and I got married! A LOT has happened in 8 years... we finished college, got our first teaching jobs, bought our first car together, bought our first home, adopted our first child from Korea, and are currently waiting for our second child to come home from Korea... and many more things happened in between! Allen and I were just talking yesterday about how good and blessed our life is- how could we be any more blessed by our King of Kings? I honestly don't know and I am so glad that I married this amazing man of God. Right now as I am typing this, I am listening to Allen praying with Calen about having God keep KatieJoy safe in Korea and to be preparing her heart for us- it makes me tear up every time I get to witness this amazing man teaching our son how to talk to Christ... and I thank God for him every day! I have the most amazing husband who is absolutely my very best friend in the whole wide world!!! Thank you God for guiding our marriage and blessing us every day!

The two of us at a good friends wedding last november... sorry no access to our wedding photos at the moment! ;-)

Today also marks a year since Calen was finalized and was officially recognized as LEGALLY ours in the court system... I can't believe that was a year ago! Where did the time go? Calen has grown up so much in the past year! He talks SO much- really he is NON stop talking. He is constantly amazing us with his memory and how much he really processes- seriously things that one would never think a child could remember at 2 years old, HE DOES!!! Calen is an awesome son who keeps us on our toes all the time and I praise the Lord every day for bringing him into our lives. How lucky we are!

Taken yesterday after our train ride

Taken today- ready for a very cold swim!

And last but not least, 5 months ago today we first heard about KatieJoy (or Yeon-ji as she is currently called in Korea). It was a day that I was certainly not prepared for as we had only put our application in for baby #2 six months before that. Reading through our sweet girls paperwork was scary 5 months ago, but as we prayed about it over that very long 2 day weekend, I somehow knew that Christ had her planned just for our family! In 5 months most of KatieJoy's "scary" findings have worked themselves out just like our International Adoption Pediatrician predicted- thank you Lord for leading us to using this IAP- she really helped to help us accept our sweet girl's file and proceed with adopting her. Yesterday, KatieJoy turned 11 months old... we are praying super hard that she will be home in a few weeks so that she will be with us for her 1st birthday on May 5 (& so that I can stop going looney with the wait)... it looks like it just might happen and we know that anything is possible in Christ!

First glimpse of our girl in Nov. '09

10 months old- taken only a few weeks ago! Oh how she's changed!

So... today, April 6, 2010, is a special day for our little family. We are celebrating it at one of our timeshare resorts in the California mountains- we're enjoying the cold rain, clouds with intermittent sun and a very cold pool and very HOT spa. On our way up yesterday we took our first train ride in Jamestown, Ca and had a blast! We think this very well could be our last vacation as a family of 3 and we are SO excited about that! :) I hope to be posting some more exciting news about our journey to KatieJoy soon... please keep praying for us!

Yesterday on the train ride in a first class car made in 1910!

We love you all,
~mandy~