We took a road trip North last weekend. Friday night we stayed in Rockwall, TX. Saturday morning we attended and spoke at an America World Adoption Seminar. (They are the agency we used) We have been considering doing volunteer work for our agency and we went to see how the seminars are done. It was an neat experience. We were one of 4 families there that got to speak to prospective adoptive parents. Of the 4 familes that spoke all but one of them had 4 children. It was fun to share stories and compare experiences with them. The seminar was held at Lake Pointe church. Lake Pointe is an awesome church. The kids especially love it because there was an indoor playground similar to the one at the mall. There was also a tunnel room like at McDonald's and in between the escalators in the main building there is a huge slide. So the parents can ride down the escalators and the kids get to slide down. I can see me standing there on Sunday mornings having to let everyone go down 4 - 5 times.
After the seminar we drove to our Friends Rachel and David Rose's house to spend the night. Rachel and I grew up in church together and graduated together. Her husband David has just accepted his first Senior Pastor position in Winnsboro, TX. We had never heard him preach so we got to attend church with them Sunday morning. We knew the weekend was God-ordained because David preached on family. That we as Christians must raise godly children and be fruitful and multiply. If that means bearing children or ADOPTING. Before the sermon he even sang the song by Steven Curtis Chapman, "When Love takes you in" We didn't know David could sing.... Apparently he is a man of many talents. I even saw him sweeping after lunch.....I'm not sure which impressed me more the sweeping or the singing.....We had a great weekend and the kids played really well together. Kaylee and their daughter Hallie who are both six were inseprable.
Zane, Kaylee and David ran in our local Bridgefest. It's a 5K(that's 3 miles) race that started a few years back when a new bridge was made that connected our city to the adjoining city. It is sponsored by our YMCA and they use the event to raise money to give free memberships to underprivlidged families. The race takes place across the bridge and back. I'm so proud of all of them, they not only finished; they ran in 30 degree weather. 
Mrs. Hardey goes to visit our Granny a few times a month. She helped us crochet a lot of baby hats to send to the feed the children project. Then the other day she and I were talking on the phone and she told me about her knitting machine. How cool a machine that does a lot of the work for you. Then a few weeks later she surprised all the kids with new winter caps. Hopefully we will get some more cold weather to wear them.
I got to visit with my friend Jessica and her beautiful new BABIES!!!! What a blessing she and her husband Frank have received. In her right arm is Matthew and in her left arm is Jordyn and Nathan. 2 boys and one girl....She made it all the way to 36 weeks. The boys were 5 lbs and the girl was a little over 4lbs. And I thought Zane was big at 10lbs.
Pictures from our family photo shoot before Christmas. The prints weren't back in time for the Christmas card but I thought they came out nicely so I will share them here.
We couldn't let Elmo come to town without trying to get a glimpse of the lovable red monster. The kids have been excited for weeks about "seeing Elmo on the stage." However, as we were going down the list of all the characters that would also be on the stage Mia froze up at the thought of Cookie Monster. For some reason she thinks Monsters are bad? Hmmm? We did our best to explain that he only eats cookies. You could see a look of relief on her face when she saw him on the stage only concerned with his cookies. 
"La la la la la, sing, sing a song, Sing it loud, the whole day long....." apparently Mia wasn't the only one singing and enjoying herself.
