Elsy is walking

This is the best picture I could get of Elsy walking, she is pretty fast. I have enjoyed watching her walk around and keeping herself entertained. I love being an aunt, wish they all lived in the same town.

Adoption Thoughts

 I came across this article (http://empoweredtoconnect.org/healing-the-wounds-of-relational-trauma/) regarding adoption a while ago and shared it with my family, but I want more people to read it to be informed. I think the guy has a real point, though I hate admitting it. His point is that adoption doesn't happen without major loss and trauma to the child...even as a baby. I related to the author when he said that although he's heard this to be true, he wanted his family to be the exception. Me too! 

I have already started praying that God would use Cole's adoption and the pain he'll potentially feel to draw Cole closer to himself into a deeper relationship with him as Cole looks to God to fill the emptiness he feels from being severed from his birth mom. 

Recently God have me a life verse for Cole, Romans 15:13 "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, may you overflow with hope by the power of he Holy Spirit."

Will you join me in praying for Cole?

Thanks, Aunt Norma, for the suction toy!

Didn't want you to miss this!

From Georgann:  A photo of Dave was on the JCCC website this last week . . .  and I didn't want you to miss it.  Second semester classes started on Monday, 1/13.  JCCC has people stationed in high traffic areas where students enter main buildings from the parking lots.  This year Dave volunteered to work in the Carlsen Center.  That's where this picture was taken a couple years ago capturing Dave doing his "thang"!  

As I looked more closely at the page, I noticed a couple "very Dave" things.  What do you think caught my attention in this photo?

Future BBQ-er

The other day, Marc was grilling steaks for his mom's birthday dinner at our house. He said, "Bundle Cole up so I can take him out with me to check the steaks." And this was the result. Pretty cute! Cole's daddy is pretty proud of him!

Cole is 8 months!

I can hardly believe Cole is 8 months old! He loves to sit on your lap and turn the pages of a book and crawl all over on his knees and elbows. He's full of smiles and is starting to notice when mom or dad leaves. He feels safe and protected in his daddy's arms and reaches for him as soon as he enters the room. He's mastering the art of eating chunkier food but hasn't had any meat yet. He can sit really steady but has yet to be able to push himself up into a seated position. He pulls up on things to his knees. We have started training him with a few things, like not touching General's water and food dish, touching cords, etc. Sometimes I wonder if it's futile but then I see progress. He is easy to get to laugh which makes my heart soar! Sometimes we'll just look at each other and crack up! What a joy!

BEEEF Bake-Off

From Georgann:  Diane and Doug Elder hosted our BEEEF group for dinner last night. Diane made it so much fun. First of all, here's a little background. Diane's mom is an award-winning county and state fair participant.  She also enter, and won, many, many bake-off contests. Her most "famous" contest was in the Spam contest .  She created a recipe using spam and won the top prize for it!!  

Her mother was cleaning out her basement and had over 50 (fifty!) aprons from these contests. She gave ALL family members multiple aprons. Diane came home with 14. When wondering what to do with all of them, she came up with a BEEEF Bake-Off dinner idea.

When we first got there, we drew slips of paper that said which apron we got. (Janet got a Spam apron!)  Diane told us we could not take off the aprons all evening and had to wear them OUT the door. Which apron we donned told us which team we were on.  One team made the bread for the evening and the other team, which Dave and I were on, got to bake a carrot cake.  We had to ice the cake before it was totally cooled, but oh, the cream cheese frosting was fabulous!  You'll see from the pictures below that we were all bake-off award winners!  

While the bread and cake baked, everyone was eager to hear all about the wedding. We even went on Facebook to see pictures.  It was fun retelling stories about our weekend. It made us feel good that they wanted to hear ALL about it!

Besides the bread and cake, we enjoyed Diane's delicious homemade stew and relishes for dinner. What a creative way to host a dinner - and get rid of a surplus of aprons. It was a great hands-on night with some great friends..

Wedding Fuzzy Tacos

From Georgie:  On Thursday night before the wedding, a bunch of Voths and a couple Ellises went to the Fuzzy Taco Shop in Sherman, TX.  It was a recommendation from Kathryn in a letter she included in a Welcome bag at the hotel.  It had great tacos!  Besides the people I was with, the most fun thing was thinking that Kathryn had been there over the years.  I enjoyed being in Sherman, seeing where Kathryn grew up, shopped, did theatre, went to church, and ate tacos!