handsful

Payton watching his little brother try to swipe candy out of that red bag ;)

We received a SWEET surprise in our mailbox a week or so ago…another adoptive mom, Denise, made a copy of their orphanage visit video that they took on their adoption trip in July. They got TONS of footage of Dylan! Seeing him on video was a true gift. We could guess about his personality by the photos we’ve received, but our impressions were pretty much confirmed with the video. He’s a ham, loved on by everyone, and has the sweetest little smile.

You can hear Denise telling them that his mama and baba are coming soon, and that his name will be Dylan. Just to know that he’s potentially being prepared for us to come is priceless. Adopting an older child is different than with a baby, and we’ve prayed that he’s being told about us, that he’s seeing our pictures (we’ve sent 3 sets!), and that he “gets it”.

We’ve watched with him, as a lot of his friends have been adopted in these last months. Little by little, it seems his friends are leaving. Denise told us that, when they walked into the orphanage room with Seth, Dylan was so excited and showed that he understood that the man with him was his daddy. I think he gets it.

We’re still looking at November travel, we think. Could be mid-November. Could stretch out to early December. Hope to hear about our next hurdle next week :)

Like the title? I spent seconds coming up with it.

So, our kids are really enjoying our new church. The mid-week youth program is called NextGen – next generation. It involves a time of awesome praise music with a jr/sr high band – then some group time with one of the pastors – and, then they usually split up into same gender/grade groups for some group time with a leader.

Another facet of the youth program is called Go M.A.D. Stands for Go Make A Difference, and it consists of ministry teams like photography, worship, art, etc. These teams work together to serve the church and/or the community, using their God-given talents and gifts.

Payton is on the art ministry team. Their leader gives them a theme each week, and they draw something to fit that theme…the pictures are displayed during NextGen on Wednesday nights.

Abbey took this picture of him presenting his drawing to the team (she’s on the photography team, and part of her responsbility is to document the other team’s activities with pictures).

Ethan is on the worship team, and will be paired with a more seasoned guitar player until the time comes when he can join in. He can’t wait.

The theme this week was “everlasting worship” – meaning we can worship God in everything we do. Payton came up with this…

He’s the player helping his opponent up…having a good attitude in sports is a hard thing to do, but when you do, God wins. I loved it, and was very proud of his creation.

One activity that Ethan and Marley have really gotten into since we moved onto the lake is fishing – they love it. Marley was very happy that she caught this big catfish this week! The catfish was less than thrilled…but, he got to re-join his catfish friends soon after this shot was taken.

Now, the cookies…Payton promised Lainey that they could make something the other day and thankfully I had an easy cookie mix in the pantry. With only a little help from me in the stirring department, they did it all themselves.

Lainey, learning the ever-crucial part of making peanut butter cookies. The criss-cross. Check out that technique!

The first bite – success! And, since Marley won’t go near a peanut butter cookie (can you imagine NOT liking peanut butter?!?), we had lots to go around. In fact, I think there are still a few in the kitchen.

Time to wrap this post up, mama needs a cookie.