Caleb turns 6!!

My Baby Boy turned 6!!

It seems like just yesterday we were meeting him for the first time in Hong Kong. I took time to pull out about 30 of his Baby Pics that Sarah & Rachel had taken of him in HK. His story is so God-Sized! He has TRULY been LOVED so much by SO MANY! I just had to post a few of his baby pics here! The Lord has blessed me, as a mother, beyond all logical reason and explanation! I'm so thankful that the Lord is in the MIRACLE BUSINESS! ... Amazing Grace ...

He's such an amazing fella! I'm so proud of him!!! He is in a class of only 5, and happens to SHARE his Birthday with another boy. They had a fun Double Party at school, and then we took him out for Bowling that night! (his choice!). He also loves for anybody and everybody to join in with him... so we invited the Staff and Staff kids. We had a great night! He actually beat the other Staff kids... who are Teenagers! :) He got a big kick out of that! AND... His FAVORITE present of all.... A Bible! Now that he can read, he wanted a Bible that didn't just have pictures... he wanted a Bible like Dad's! So we got him a small sized Young Readers NIV... no pictures! He's so proud of it!!! No sweeter sound than my precious one asking..."Hey Mom & Dad... can we sit together after dinner and read the Bible?" ... He's a Whiz at memorizing Scripture also! Tonight... he was singing..."Children, obey your parents in the Loorwd, for this is right...." :) We had to joke about recording that and playing it back when he is Sixteen! ...but all joking aside... nothing is sweeter than knowing (at least for now!) your child desires to know more about Jesus! AND... he's even EVANGELIZING! He conducts his OWN "SMASH Meetings" with some of our friend's kids... where he says he "Tells them all about Jesus!" :) We may just have a little evangelist in our hands! God is So Good! He has BIG Plans for this special child! Chris and I are so thankful to have him "on loan" for a few years... please pray for us to continue to mold him in the correct way.

I know that some Adoptive parents remember birthdays as the anniversary of another event: the Amazing, Brave, SELF-LESS courage of a birthmother. The day after his birthday, I took time to explain some of this to him... and had some precious moments. We prayed for her together. And then ... Of course... in true Caleb style...this In depth Mom-driven discussion ended with "So tomorrow, after school, can I ride my bike at the school?" ... classic ...

Please join us in praying for his Amazing Birthmother & Birthfather.

Back in Brasilia!!

We arrived back in Brasilia on July 29th. Ready to start our new year. We spent a few days relaxing and trying to refresh. We were a bit too busy over the summer time to really be able to just Chill. So it was very nice to have several days of Family Time, and getting back to routines. We started inservices on August 4th and they comprised of meetings in the mornings and lots of time to work in our rooms in the afternoon. That was nice.

Every year I teach different subjects. I was excited to find out that 4 of my subjects are ones that I have taught before!! YEAH!! This Fall semester I am teaching: Life Science, Biology, Chemistry, Algebra I, Geometry, Drama, and American Literature. The Literature is a bit of a stretch, but I'm really enjoying it!!

Chris headed straight into all his Finance work... in fact, he never quite STOPPED that during the summer. Every day during the summer, he would log on to the Brasilian bank, pay bills, reconcile accounts... all of that!! So, he didn't really get any kind of break!

Caleb started the FIRST GRADE!!! That's so awesome!! :) He's with the same 3 other boys from last year, just missing his sweet Zambian girl friend! His teacher is amazing, so I'm sure he will have a good year! :)

We lost some really great students last year... and we were really afraid that the lose of those key people would be the focus of the Jr & Sr high. And it was for a few days... BUT... PRAISE THE LORD! We have 5 new students in the Jr & Sr High!! So, our actual student totals are up to 31 for the 7-12th grade! YEAH!! And, we hear that we may have a few more! We are very excited about any new opportunity to share Christ with our international students! They are just so amazing... so many countries, cultures, beliefs and experiences... all centered right here in Brasilia! Amazing!!

Please keep praying for us and all we do here!! I'll be posting some SMASH updates very soon!

Keep on Checking!!

I know some of you have been loggin on and seeing the same post over and over again. BUT, I'm back tracking some posts from the summer. I will try to add more in over the next couple of days, then update you about the new semester! School starts on THURSDAY, August 13th!! It's closing in fast! So... things are a bit psycho now... but all's well! I'm trying to add in posts.

THANKS SO MUCH for checking in!!! :)