Gentle Kisses

ALL MARCH PICS
ALL APRIL PICS
(I am a wee bit behind, hopefully May-July will be coming soon!)

Several things broke around our house (remote, printer, weed-eater, my van's engine vacuum, phone- so many things... weird!) BUT it did not get us down because this was a super wonderful week!
We started off by enjoying some time with the Butter's family. Everything is better with butter, right?! She is expecting her fifth and us, our third, so this pic will have 8 kids very soon!
We had some serious fun flying. Everybody at our house takes a turn, as Miss Beautiful found out. Even at 12 and as big as me, I flew that girl all over our living room. I flew Adam, Adam flew all the kids. Big fun around our house. I am working on applying this flying fun to real flying. I have to pray a.lot. to fly.
Look no further gals. This hot look is straight off the Middle Eastern Runway.
Beautiful's house shoes. You can see a glimpse of her behind him. I even asked if I could post some pics privately on FB or somewhere of her Beautiful face, but no... catch me in person and I will proudly show you pics of her. : )
Beautiful took several pictures of the butterflies in our garden. Symbolic, don't you think?
Ummm. You would think this kid has sisters or something.
Then we headed over to my girlfriends house for the 4th. We hung out last year and it was just the best. Shooting fireworks, feeding the horses, letting the kids play- oh my heart loves her and her family so much! Here is her little Zo.
Another little peanut there, Jonathan.
My friend bought a water slide for the kids. A great investment, I'd say. They LOVED it! Delaney (Korea) played so well with Avi Joy, I was thankful for her befriending my daughter.
Bethany helped Nehemiah slide down. The big kids were such a big help with my little ones.
A very cool and touching tattoo. American flag heart in the middle for her and her hubby, and both the Ukrainian and Korean flags for their kiddos.
Great pic of Steve and his youngest of 4. We so enjoyed getting to catch up with this family. We met in college in 1997 and have remained friends. Steve took care of my hubby while he went on a ride along with him last night from 10pm-4am. It took me a long time to be brave enough to let my man go play COPS, but he enjoys every minute each time he rides along, so how could I say no?!
Watching fireworks. Note that we tried the new mosquito fans. They did not get any bites, so I am assuming they worked. We were up for trying anything, so we would not have to go through this again....
Being beat up by a team of Olympic Mosquito Champs. These 4 face bites swelled up SO bad they sent her to the doctor for a round of steroids and medicine cream. Sad, isn't it, just sad.
I booked a mini-art camp this summer. I am teaching 7 kids (ages 8-13) three times in July. A total of about 6 hours of art. They will complete many projects including making clay cupcakes, cave art and shown below, a study of Starry Night. They did awesome!
It rained several times this week. Oh, how I love rain. We put the kids in their swimming suits and headed outside to play in the rain. I tell you what, this boy is oober handsome.
He adds so much to this house: joy, noise, laughter, discipline, just all boy. O- and yeah, he doesn't want to grow up. Which is good because a counselor told me that when adopting an older child, it is good to let your youngest child stay the baby for as long as possible. This will not be a problem in any way, shape or form. He has reverted back to asking me to rock him and scratch his back every night. I do it and it is filled with lots of kisses, songs and rocking- if I slow the rocking part for even a minute, he Yells, "ROCK, mama" quickly followed by him lifting his shirt and saying, "and scratch." Oh this kid.
Playing in the rain.
So many gifts in life. Her curls are one of those sweet gifts.
Then we headed off to to teach (and Avi Joy attended) China camp. We had eight (or so, as they came and went) 2 year olds in my class. There was much playing, singing, reading, wiping, cleaning, bubble blowing and more. Here the class is playing dress-up. I love how the siblings of the Chinese kids are thrown into the mix. In order: China, Bio, VN, China, China and Ethiopia.
Lots of giggles from my girl before and after camp. But during the day 9:30-3:30 she attended as a camper. She learned her Chinese numbers and two weeks ago learned that Indian Tigers were in danger at India Camp.
As if you didn't already know about how much I love these heritage camps... Dillon highlighted our family as ROCKSTARS this month! (Article on the right.)
The best three bro/sis helpers in the WORLD. I know you all will read this and I have to say, you are simply amazing. And I will NOT say "Just kidding." So helpful- serving, cleaning and obeying The Boss, i.e. me : ). See you in two weeks.
And now for my favorite thing that happened at China camp. This is melt your heart good... One little gal in our class had a little hand. Nehemiah seemed fascinated by her and kinda sought her out to play. He kept looking at her hand and I showed him that she had baby fingers and to be gentle with her and love on her. Each day, he held her hand and they got along beautifully.
And many times I would look over and he was kissing her hand. Each day, many many kisses. This was the last day as we were leaving. This was not staged people, he was giving kisses to her baby fingers. The amazing thing to me was that it did not bother her. I really felt in my heart that he loved her just the way she was and that she enjoyed being loved just the way she was. These two were a perfect match at camp.
"Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ." 1 Peter 5:14

The Perryman's