July - Present & Happy Birthday Maiah

Well, it has been a while since our last post but all is well. We have been very busy, busy, busy!!! We are in the midst of doing Maiah's post placement visits and new home study visits as we are on the adoption train again. We believe God has another child for us in Mongolia. Derek is in the midst of transferring to his new duty station as well as taking a class and I am home schooling Nathan, Kaytlin and Maiah..........thank you for the grace!

We have had a busy summer.......started with a huge 4th of July celebration/pool party. We celebrated Maiah being a US citizen. She wore red, white and blue and a smile all day.......she was the star of the day. Check out the photos, so cute if I don't say so myself:) (We posted 2 new albums from the summer and birthday).

We visited Massachusetts in August, spent much of the week visiting with my friend Amy and her family. Maiah just loved playing with the girls all week. We also enjoyed Memere Mads beach house. We played in the sand and flew kites.....Nate, Kaytlin and Maiah all love the beach. Our little Mongolian princess just loves anything to do with water. You would not know that she spent the first 3 years of her life land locked in Mongolia.

On August 8th, Derek and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary with much to be thankful for. We have an amazing son who is 13 and still likes us so we are doing something right. Then we have our 2 beautiful princesses. We are beyond blessed.

Well, September brought preschool for Maiah. She has missed having all her little friends to play with so we decided to let her play 2 days a week and she just loves it. We knew she would as she loves attending her little class on Sunday mornings as well. She never wants to leave. Maiah received her first progress report for preschool and the overall theme was how well rounded she is and that you would never know she has only been here for 9 months........God is good:) This month we also had the countdown to Maiahs 4th birthday. I think she thought it was never coming.........everyday she would wake up and say "Is today Maiah's birthday?" Well, it finally came and we had a big bash......really for us it was her first birthday:)

Maiahs birthday party was quite the event. She woke up with a smile on her face that lasted the whole day, right down to tucking her in that night. She was thrilled to have it be her day, finally. She had 20 some of her little friends and families here to celebrate with her. Kaytlin and her friends did face painting for Maiah and her friends and then we some dear friends from church come as clowns to make animal balloons for all the kids. We could not have asked for better weather, it was beautiful and so was her little smile. We hope you enjoy the photos.

As for our family as a whole........we all have found our place in Maiahs heart and world. It is as though she has always been here with us. We can't imagine life without her. We look back to the start of our journey to Maiah and it is so amazing how God planned it all out......and now we have this little precious treasure that keeps growing and shining and amazing all who meet her.

All of us are excited about adding to our family, especially Maiah. She says she wants to go with Mommy on the big plane to Mongolia so we can get a brother or sister........she is still asking for a particular little boy but now with things moving again in Mongolia, we are praying that he would be adopted quickly. Even though our paperwork is almost ready to go, we still have a long wait ahead of us. Please continue to pray for us and for the finances for this next adoption........ we know that Gods provision is awesome but we also know how powerful prayer is. God Bless all who read this............ and may your heart be touched and your life be changed. You too can make a difference in the life of a child, just start by praying for them.