Accidents happen.

This one "happened" by Tekia.

Taylor's big day!

Tomorrow is Taylor's big surgery. Her last one was to remove the cancer on her lung and biopsy the tumor on her kidney. They made three small incisions and she only stayed in the hospital for about 2 days. With this surgery, they'll be removing the tumor and the diseased kidney. The surgery will take around 4 hours and she'll have an incision all the way across her tummy. She'll be in the hopsital for at least a week. Please pray that everything goes smoothly! For the latest updates, check the link on the right side of this page.

Here's a picture of Taylor and her wonderful social worker, Claire, playing at HeartLight last weekend.

HeartLight Gone Country

I'm finally getting around to a HeartLight 2006 post. It was a long but fun day; we never ran out of things to do. There was constant food, music, and activities for the kids. And Avery's pink cowboy boots were a huge hit! A few strangers stopped us so they could take her picture. The day ended with the Agape Kids singing and they did a great job, as usual. Here are some pics...click on any of the pictures to view them bigger. I have about zero pictures of Jamal because he was off doing his own thing (mainly fishing) most of the day. The old Western-looking pictures below are supposed to be from HeartLight, but Mom was in charge of those pics, and we were all so busy that we never had one taken! Fortunately Mom and Patty had all the costumes, so we just did our own pictures the next day.

more Kayla pics

Apparently blogger has decided to allow me to post pictures again...so here are some more of little Kayla.

My "Almost-Niece"

It's Tuesday and I'm just now getting a chance to even start posting about our busy weekend! My weekend started off with 2 1/2-week-old baby Kayla, whom I like to call my almost-niece. Let me explain...Kayla is the daughter of Shelley, who is the sister of Jamier, who is the brother of Jamal, who is obviously the brother of me. That's my run-of-the-mill family for ya. Jamier is finally a real uncle and he couldn't be happier! And Jamal thinks Kayla is his niece, too; so I figure I have a right to claim her. And anyone who knows me knows that I can't be involved with a baby and not take pictures of her! Thus Kayla had her first photoshoot last Friday. I was a little nervous because I'm certainly no professional, and Kevin and Shelley were trusting me to take these priceless photographs of their precious baby girl! But the pics turned out pretty good! Kayla did really well until she realized we were cutting into her lunch hour! Here are some of my favorites...

I wanted to post several more pics but blogger's going crazy right now. So I'll be back with the rest later. ;-)

Busy weekend!

It has been a crazy weekend at our house...HeartLight 2006 ("gone country") was yesterday! I've got a test to study for so I can't post much now, but here's a little preview of what's to come. (that's MeMom, Dad's mom, in there with us) Ciao!

Things cuter than this just don't happen.

Hunter's 1st soccer game

Tuesday night was Hunter's first soccer game ever! As you might expect, it was pretty much hilarious. If he hadn't been wearing a uniform and there hadn't been two goals on the field, you probably couldn't have guessed that he might have been participating in a soccer game. At one point, he was on the opposite end of the field from the rest of the players (and the ball), running around in big circles with his eyes closed and his nose stuck up in the air. Priceless. Another time we caught him trying to climb up the side of the goal. It was a pretty extraordinary event. Hunter is such a funny kid, and I think he had fun doing whatever it was he was doing. One thing's for sure - he loves his cleats. He told me he "stole 'em from Walmart" and the police just let him go! I don't even know...

Avery continues to be the sweetest and most talkative 20-month-old around. That child talks nonstop! She was in heaven at the soccer game because there were two puppies, and she loves puppies. "It's a puppy"..."It's Sophie" (dog's name)...over and over. And then she'd remember that I was there and throw in "It's Aunt Callie" or "Hi Aunt Callie." On the way out of the field, a black man and his little boy were walking near us, and Ave pointed at the little boy and said, "It's Kia! It's Kia!" Later, at the house (I stayed til the kids went to bed), she brought me the Little Rascals dvd case, again saying "It's Kia, it's Kia", this time pointing to Buckwheat. Oh well, at least he has braids!

some pictures from the night...

"an airplane!"

For some reason, blogger's going crazy and won't let me add any more pics. :-(

Jordan or Suri?

I'll admit that I, along with the rest of the country, was pretty eager to see the first pictures of the infamous Suri Cruise, daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. She's gorgeous, which is no surprise. But I was a little freaked out by her striking resemblance to our precious little Jordan (aka Ivie, our last baby)! Check it out. Jordan was just about 4 weeks old in these pictures. She looks even more like Suri now. Pretty crazy, huh?

Soccer season!

It's soccer time again (and starting to feel like soccer weather - thank goodness!). I was able to go to one of Jamal's games when I was home a couple weeks ago. He's pretty much great at any sport he plays. After just one practice with his new team (we signed up late), he jumped right in and scored 3 (or maybe 4?) goals!




And this is Tekia's first year playing! She loves it so far. I haven't been able to make it to one of her games, but I did go to a practice this week. She didn't have to wear her uniform but she wanted to in case they had a scrimage with another team (or as she says, a "scramble").

Next week I'll have some pictures of Hunter's first game...should be exciting!

Hunter sings

One day during Camp Granna, we were listening to K-Love in the car, and Hunter was wearing headphones because that's the cool way to listen to music. He started singing "You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman, and I caught some of it on video. I propped the camera up on the back of my seat, and he never had a clue he was being filmed. There's kind of a big gap in the middle where he doesn't know the words, but, don't worry, it picks up again at the end.



Here are the song lyrics:
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Chorus:
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth

Chorus:

Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You

Chorus: (2x’s)