Bits and Pieces...

1. Last summer in Gambella, Ethiopia, as I was walking down the street from the hotel to visit prisoners in the local jail, I noticed 2 adorable children standing in front of their home watching us. I snapped their photo as we passed by, and when we got home, I uploaded it and other photos of our trip onto a Gambella Adoptive Family Facebook group that I am a part of. Imagine my surprise this morning when I received a message from a new member of the group....she had been looking through my photos on the website, when she ran across a photo of her children! She received a referral for them in September of last year, so they must have been placed into the orphanage shortly after I snapped their photo at their home in July. She should be traveling to Ethiopia soon to bring them home. I was also able to give her pictures of their house and cows. Who knew that a random photo taken on a muddy street in a remote corner of the world could mean so much to someone? Only God.

2. I have been working on centerpieces for our orphan care benefit dinner in Dayton, Ohio, on April 24th. We would love for you to join us! Please click here for more information or to register/donate.

3. The twins love to draw, and we have been seeing lots of this around our house lately:

4. We finished our basement years ago...all except for our kitchen area. I guess we got tired of working on it, and it has been a messy storage area for the last several years. As of last weekend, however, our basement kitchen is finished! Yay! I'm enjoying the extra cupboard storage, and the counter-top has been a nice work space as I put together the aforementioned centerpieces!

5. Is anyone going to CAFO's 2014 Orphan Summit in Chicago on May 1 & 2? If so, Chris and I will be there working at AGCI's booth...stop by and see us!

6. Spring is here, although the weather isn't cooperating much. Today, it's snowing again like crazy! A couple of weeks ago, it was 65 degrees outside, and a lot of the snow melted away. The next day, however, looked like this out our back door:

And school was cancelled again. The kids have lots of snow days to make up at the end of the year! Although it has been a very hard winter, we have noticed a few signs of spring....big, fat robins in the yard and v's of geese heading north. Hopefully soon, the trees will start budding and flowers will appear! I call this photo, "Waiting for Spring:"

7. Probably due to the fickle weather, Ashton has bronchitis pretty badly. Hope he's feeling better soon!

8. Jalen and Jordan constantly keep us amused. The other morning, Jalen informed me, "Mom, Jordan slaughtered all over the bed!" Oh dear. Thankfully, he meant "slobbered." 

 That's all for today! Thanks for stopping by!