Happy 35th Birthday to Me!

Well, the big 35 rolled around for me this year, and we celebrated! My parents took us out for dinner on my birthday, and we headed to the Great Smoky Mountains the next day for a party with the whole family. The mountains are absolutely my favorite place to be, and we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, ate birthday cake, roasted marshmallows and played in the COLD river with Ava. Guess who didn't seem to mind? You can tell by the pictures! I declare that that river is getting colder as I get older! ha! Enjoy the photos. For you locals, we went to Metcalf Bottoms for our mountain party.

We enjoyed a nice dinner at a place we'd never been to before called Lakeside Tavern. Delicious!



Ava's first experience with a coloring placemat and crayon. We wanted to see what she'd do, and well, she started eating the crayon! No surprise there!



Family picture down by the lake.



Look Mom, I'm in the river!



Mimi and Ava in the cold river! Ava had the best time playing and splashing around.



Mommy and Ava in the cold river - did I mention it was cold?



Daddy taking a much-needed nap..



This is my swyngomatic from the 70s! Mom and Dad hauled it to the mountains for Ava to swing in, and it still works!



Too much water safety? Bless her heart. We finally took the lifejacket off.



Notice how deep Ava is in the water. She has NO fear!



She sat down in the river, and we all cracked up. She did say "ooooo" when she sat all of the way down.



Ava playing with the big boys. Cousin Wes is on the left, and his friend, Aaron, is on right.



Ava was exhausted after a big day at the river!



Great Aunt Syd holding Ava.

Technical Blog Glitch

** Update*** The blog should be up and running at our old address by the end of next week if you've bookmarked it.

Hi, everyone,

As of Wednesday night, the server that hosts my blog could not be located when I tried to pull it up, which means that you guys probably couldn't locate it either. Hopefully, when I check back, the problem will have taken care of itself. All of the information is still there. I just can't view the blog. ugh. Technical glitches.

I'll be gone Thursday through Sunday and won't have any access to the blog. I am making a journey to the Billy Graham Cove in NC to spend some alone time with the Lord. This is something I've been wanting to do for awhile, and I thought that now would be a good time. I'll be staying on campus in the Pilgrim's Inn. I'm not sure what to expect other than a date with the Lord! I can't wait to see what He has planned. :) I'm praying for an open heart, no interference and distractions in my mind, and stillness. Hopefully, this blog issue will work itself out while I'm gone, and I'll be back up and posting next week. I'm trying not to worry about it.

Many blessings to you all,

Emily

Special Touches

We added some extra special touches to Ava's nursery this weekend. Thank you, everyone!

Scrapbooks and Projects of Love and Posterity

Yesterday, I worked all day off and on on Maia's and Ava's good wishes scrapbook. As I worked on them and flipped through the pages, I was so grateful for all of the time and effort spent sending warm wishes and prayers on behalf of Ava and Maia. So many have stayed the course with us and anticipated their arrival and waited to catch a glimpse of these baby girls!

Preparations for Maia are well underway and will grow in intensity in the coming months! For Maia's scrapbook, I pasted pictures of quilt squares from various friends and family into her book yesterday for the letters that didn't have fabric to go with them. Also, I still need to add a few more letters or notes to go with a few squares, and then it will be complete! This was a project I started for her in 2006, and I'm excited to complete it! It has taken a lot of time, but it has been such a joy for me to watch it come together for her. If you'd still like to send a note and fabric for the book, I'd be delighted to include it! For those of you that weren't following this journey until recently, the 100 Good Wishes Quilt is based on an ancient Chinese tradition. Their quilts are called Bai Jai Bei Quilts, and family and friends contribute a piece of material for Chinese children to be sewn into a welcome quilt. This tradition has taken off among adoptive parents, and me, being the non-seamtress that I am, decided to make this my goal before Maia arrives! Well, I'm getting there slowly but surely! The quilt now needs a border, and I laid it out yesterday to plan for that. I've bought material to sew a thin red border around it and then chenille around that. I've sewn all of the squares together, but I'll need help for the border! I wish my great grannies would pop in to help me! Cindy, do you think your Mom could help me out?

Here's a picture of the quilt to be and Maia's Good Wishes book before binding.







Next, I've been adding details and pictures to a scrapbook that Ben's Aunt Barb put together for Ava at Thanksgiving last year. The Nibali family created ceramic ornaments with good wishes and prayers to hang on a mobile for her, and Barb took a picture of each ornament and put it in the book. I've been gathering pictures to go with each ornament and finally made time to sit down and complete it! Here's a picture of Miss Ava looking at her new scrapbook. :) Thanks, again, Barb! She'll treasure this. We're preparing to hang the mobile up high in a careful location in the nursery this weekend, and I'll post a picture of it as soon as we do.

Also, Granddad made a special AVA'S ROOM sign to hang on the door, and Ben is going to attach it to the door this weekend! We've had it hanging on the wall in the nursery, but both of us are eager to get it on the door! Pics of that to come soon! Thank you, Grandaddy! We appreciate the time it took for you to make the sign! We're sorry for the delay in getting in on the door! It's so pretty. :)

Comments

Hey, everyone,

If you've left me a comment in the last week, it wasn't showing up when I published it. I've got it fixed now. I just didn't want you to think your comment wasn't published for some reason! Amy and Fletch, I think this applies to you guys.

Going to wake up sleeping beauty now! Be back soon!

The Purple Fuzzy Blanket and Peacock Story

Ava absolutely loves her purple fuzzy blanket that Ben's Aunt Diane and Uncle Bob sent to us when she was first born. It's the perfect size for her to grab and snuggle with, and if it's anywhere around, we can find her curled up with it or sucking her thumb and holding it. We found her in the kitchen this week having some special purple blankie time.





Also, Ava is now officially a "peacock" in the nursery wing at church. She started out as a turtle and has moved to the peacock room (sniff sniff) where's there's lots more to do! She loves her little friends in there, and we took the camera to church last Sunday to capture a peacock picture. After the service, this is where we found her when we walked in! This table cracks me up. Ava looked so cute sitting there eating her snack.

Freedom and Fun Times!

Hey, everyone!

I'm sorry that I've been absent from the blog this week as life has been very busy, and I've been trying to catch up on some around the house projects. If I'm not careful, I can spend too much time on the computer and not enough time on tougher projects like picture albums! That would be one of my goals this week - to sort and finalize pictures for another year's album! I won't tell you that I'm on 2004. ugh. I'm determined to catch up. I'm constantly trying to balance picture albums and lifebooks. I've been playing with lots of different ideas of how to tell Ava and Maia their special adoption stories, and then there's Maia's 100 Good Wishes book that is finished but not bound. I don't want any of these to become a "have to" and a burden, so I'm trying to tackle each one and not try to make them perfect! I want to enjoy doing them, and I've realized that I have to set aside time to focus on one or the other. Easier said than done! After seeing this picture, you'll understand why I'm behind this week! Uh, oh. I didn't latch the gate all the way! She was being SO quiet. I knew something was up!



Fourth of July morning, Ben and I spent some quiet time outside with Ava enjoying our freedom and really being grateful for it. Watching the documentary, Inside North Korea, recently heightened our appreciation of freedom so much more this year. Also, knowing that we have countless men and women, armed forces and missionaries, in places all around the world fighting for democracy, human rights, social justice and religious freedom made us even more grateful this year. Maybe, it's that Ben and I are thinking about world politics and freedoms more than we ever have. I dont' know. We both said that the Fourth of July felt different this year, that we didn't want to just eat and watch fireworks, that we truly wanted to think about and be grateful for our freedoms. It was a beautiful morning.

Daddy and Miss Ava



Mommy and Ava smiling in the flowers. As you can see, growing cheerful flowers is a hobby of mine! I grew a lot of these during some really difficult years of waiting and suffering. Now, I like to go out and sit among them and look at them and think about how a suffering season can produce beauty. I found great healing in gardening during those years and still do.



Ava is now crawling over, around and through things, and as you can see, she sometimes bumps her noggin! A not so happy moment....



Fourth of July kisses from Daddy




We celebrated the 4th of July this year by having our supper club friends and their kids over for a cookout and swim party (baby pool swim party that is!) We had a grand time celebrating together, and everyone was busy in the kitchen or grill area preparing and cooking their own special meal. We teamed up on sides, and each family brought their own meat. You name it - I think we had it! While it was complete chaos, we discovered that it doubled the fun! Kids with wet swimsuits and grass-covered feet mingled with peeling shrimp and frying green tomatoes etc. We really did have a ball, and the kiddos had a lot of fun all being together for the first time. Miss Ava was wide-eyed at all the excitement and joined in on the action in her baby pool! Our county normally hosts a big fireworks display at the Alcoa duck pond, but it was cancelled this year due to budget cuts. I understand that a lot of cities had to cancel their fireworks displays this year. We hope to take Ava when she's a bit older. We did go outside and watch our neighbors backyard displays! The kids loved it - fireflies and fireworks make for great entertainment! Here's a few pictures from our evening together.

Notice Ava in her own little pool. Bless her heart. :)





These are our dear friends eating and celebrating together! I'm bummed that this picture turned out fuzzy. We wanted to get a group shot, but with the craziness, we just never got around to it! Next time!

Summertime Fun!

We bought a kiddie pool to take to the beach with us this year, and one afternoon, I set it up in the side yard, and Ava played in it for 2 hours! She loves the water and had so much fun splashing around with her toys. Suprisingly, she kept her sunglasses on for half an hour! She's not too crazy about hats or sunglasses or bows for that matter!



I came across a cute ladybug sprinkler at Hastings one day that looked like fun, and Ava has had a great time playing in the spouts of water.



Ava's buddies, Sam and Sera, came over to play one day, and Ava and Sera enjoyed playing in the pool together.



A few minutes later, I turned around and found all three of them in this tiny pool! Let's just say they were very cozy! Ava loves other "little people," and we get together whenever we can. :)



It wouldn't be summer without watermelon! We cut our first one open yesterday and gave Ava a big wedge. She liked it!



I'm still going through 4th of July pictures and will post those soon!

Summer Fun!

Hey, everyone! I'll be back later today to post some fun summer pics of Ava. We had a great 4th of July and are getting back into the routine of our week. Ava's getting ready for a nap, so maybe I can post during that time. Be back soon!

Oh, if you watched the McRae's family video, the doctors on Saturday were able to remove 50% of Kate's tumor, and they are waiting on pathology reports to figure out the next step. To follow updates, you can go to the caring bridge website address listed at the end of the video.

Pray for Kate

I woke up to celebrate the 4th with Ava this morning and checked by blog for updates on the blogs I follow. I found this on Bring the Rain's site. This little girl lives in Pheonix, and while I don't know their family personally, I do know that they need our prayers. Please pray for Kate McRae and ask the Lord for a miracle. He is the Great Physician and is so aware of the battle they're facing. Don't forget to pause the playlist music on the right side of the blog.

Blessings to everyone on this day that we celebrate freedom.