Bent Low...Amazing

If you aren't already familiar with Kisses from Katie you are in for a humbling, sweet, and inspiring treat.  You need to read this young lady's story...how she, a twenty something year old single young woman has adopted several children in Uganda and lives there with them (it's much easier to adopt if you stay there in their own country).  Her life is a beautiful example of "real life"... just look at the picture at the top of her blog and you'll see it in her face...light and life.  I want to encourage you to read her post from June 3, 2011.  It begins with, "Around here, we live bent low."  Beautiful and real.  I hope you'll take a few minutes to visit her blog and read this post.  The life that is truly life being lived out.

http://www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

(photo by Tina Weir from kissesfrom katie blog)

Catching Up

Well, life is busy at the Dallas house, but I'm quite sure there will be a day that I miss all the hustle and bustle of  this season of life.  As I write this there are nerf gun bullets flying over my head as my 4 oldest boys and 4 of their boy cousins are in the middle of a very serious Nerf gun war!  It's that time of year again...Cousin Camp.  I'm truthfully not sure exactly how many years we've done this, but it's either the past 6 or 7 years.  Always a super fun time for the kids to get together...  Pictures to come, I'm sure!

A couple of weeks ago we got to go to Tennessee to visit friends and family, which was a great time, then we returned and a few days later Kenny, Jake, and Caleb left for their mission trip with Dogwood to Guyana.  It was Jake and Caleb's first mission trip out of the country, and I'm so glad they got to have that special experience with their daddy.  They got back Saturday night and the cousins came yesterday, so I thought I'd post this little family update, since I'm playing catch up a little bit!  I'm in the process of getting pictures from the Guyana trip from some others who went (since my hubby isn't the photographer of the family!), but I look forward to posting some of those and sharing some of their stories, too. 

Life is sweet...God is good.  More to come!

Lake Martin Vacation

Summer has been great so far...busy, yes, but great! (which is why I'm a bit behind posting vacation pics!)Some sweet friends allowed us to use their beautiful home on Lake Martin in Alabama to stay for the week for vacation this year!  What a blessing!  We had such a fun, relaxing time just getting away all together. Here are some of our most fun moments from the week!

**(Click on the collages to enlarge them)

Here are some fun moments from our week.  The boys were able to make bamboo fishing poles from the bamboo growing near the house, which was a first for them, but Elly and Zech were more entertained playing with the poor worms than fishing the first day!  Early the next morning was some good fish catching, but, unfortunately, I didn't have the camera out there then! Zech was a crazy man jumping in non-stop from the dock...little fearless!  Elly, a little less bold than little Z, had fun jumping in, swimming, and riding in the canoe going on "adventures"  with the family. The big boys loved kayaking, canoeing to the island, and swimming for hours. 

Here you see Joshua and David posing with their bamboo before making the poles, and the little ones enjoying some painting indoors.  One of my favorites is of Z painting at the easel...his apron goes past his toes!  Looks like a little Thomas Kinkade, don't you think?!

Here are a few closeups of each of our little crew from the week.  Makes me smile just looking at them!