Where we left off...

When we left off, we were headed to Binghamton University for the NYS Odyssey of the Mind competition. Treyton and his fellow team mates did a fabulous job and placed 4th. It didn't qualify them for the World's competition in Michigan but I am VERY proud of them.

As you recall we had 2 birthdays squished into the hectic OM weekend too! :) Austin 13 and Cooper is 9. Time has certainly flown by. Especially since coming home with Pala. We ended the trip with an afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese. Shad's brother Shane and his crew joined us along with our good friends, the Moreland's.

Pala's Christening ceremony was beautiful. She screamed almost the whole time! :)
It was held March 21st. Exactly 4 months from the day we met her at ISRC. I even wore the same tunic that I wore back on November 21 to pick her up. Amongst other things, I am putting together a slide show of all of her Christening pictures. No promises of when that will be done though. :)

Pala enjoyed her first trip to Uncle John's farm where she got to see the goats, cows and donkeys.

Kylie and Austin decided to go for a ride! No worries there... they are cousins!

Easter morning came before we knew it! It was a whirlwind of commotion!! Easter is our day to host our family gathering and some how we manage to keep it all together. It turned out to be a beautiful day and a wonderful gathering. When it was all said and done, we had about 25 people squeezed into our tiny little house celebrating Jesus! We normally don't have that many but as we got talking to some of our other family members and they mentioned just going home after church service we insisted that they come over. Not to mention we are walking distance from the church. How could they say no?! HA! There will be no excuses next year... unless we aren't here... :)

The boys got right up Easter morning and showed Pala her Easter basket. Normally there is a rule that they have to wait for Shad and I before getting into them so we have the camera ready, ect but this year they were excited for Pala so it was a free for all! :)
and... as you can see Miss PEA already had her jammies stripped off by the time she came downstairs.

Blowing kisses outside of church before the egg hunt.

Cooper and my niece Alana with their egg filled baskets. There were over 1000 eggs for the hunt!
Right after Easter Pala had about a 2 week bout with pneumonia. She is now back to her normal self and is cutting her final 2 teeth... eye teeth! Fun wow! :)

Pala's first ice cream cone! :)
She wore just as much as she ate! I wish I had video taped it! Next time! Baseball has begun so there will be lots of hot dog and ice cream cone eating!

"ANGEL" Update

Angel celebrated her 10th birthday yesterday! We had cake and "opened" this little outfit and movie for her. We will be popping it in the mail to her this week. The cake had her name on it and I didn't take the time to photoshop it out of the pic so I can't post it. :( Sorry about that!

Before when I told you all about her, we thought she was 8. Paperwork has arrived at the adoption agency and she is 10. Didn't mean to mislead anyone if you may have been helping to find a home for her. I honestly did not know. It was just my guess. The case worker at the adoption agency contacted us about 2 weeks ago and has discussed Angel's case with us at great length and...

Drum roll please....

We have decided to take a HUGE leap of faith and pursue her adoption! There is a lot of red tape to go through and it could also fall through but we believe strongly that this is the direction we are meant to go. It will be an emotional journey for our family and we would really appreciate your prayers. We have no idea how the finances will fall into place but we are trusting in the Lord that if this is His will then He will provide for us. Right now the committee on older child adoption at the agency is reviewing our current homestudy to see if indeed we are a good fit for Angel. Then they will contact the orphanage and the director will talk to her about our family structure. She knows Shad and I and that we were in India to bring Pala home but I'm not sure if she is fully aware that we have 3 boys also. If she wants to join our family then we will move forward. It's important to us for her to be part of the decisions right now. She has to want this too. So, now, we just sit back and wait.... this is really hard for me! No matter what she decides we will still remain in contact with her. God didn't place her in our hearts for nothing! :)

I am also planning a Dillon International Family Weekend in Binghamton NY the 3rd weekend in August. As things progress I will post more. :) Let me know if you may be interested in coming.