It was a beautiful day here in VA!  We are really enjoying this weather.  I could stand it to be a little colder, but it is definitely cool and comfortable around here so I should be thankful!  The girls needed a good long frolick outdoors so they spent much of it playing on Granddad and Grandmom's fluffy grass!  The girls beg me constantly to go barefoot.  They love the feel of the cool grass on their feet, but I am afraid they will step on a bee.  Granddad and Grandmom love flowers and many wild grasses and flowers grow as well in their yard, so there are quite a few bees buzzing around!  As a matter of fact Hannah woke up one morning at 6:30AM with a fresh sting.  Alpheus found the yellow jacket bee on the floor of the room while I was comforting a scared Hannah.  She has had some serious reactions to bee stings of late so we are careful to watch out for them.

Here are some pics of the girls.  The first one is Sarah practicing her basket ball skills.

In the background you can see Mary and Lydia doing her favorite thing: Lydia loves to ride in the wagon and Mary loves to pull her.

Mary and Lydia also love to stash things in the wagon such as balls, rocks, tools and whatever else is handy for the trip!  Here is Mary stopping for a moment so Mommy can take a picture.

You can see Granddad's garden in the back.  He has had some wonderful tomatoes this year.  They are much better than any I have had the last 7 years in Florida.  I sure wish our canned tomato sauce was from his tomatoes.  Lydia and Mary love tomatoes and we have had more than we can all eat!  What a blessing.  I hope we get enough land where ever we move to enjoy such tomatoes and other veggies.

Hannah and Ariana (my niece) enjoyed a game of paddle ball.  This was Hannah's purchase from the $ store when her grandparents gave her a dollar.

Here are all the big girls.

(The house in the background is the neighbors.)

Here is another view of the large yard the girls have to play in.  Actually this only one portion near the part where we were playing.  I asked Sarah to run out and stand in the field to show you how large the area was by comparison.

The willow tree in the far background is on the other neighbors line of property.  Alpheus and I both love the weeping willow.  We were granted a palm tree by God when we bought a home in Florida.  We hope to have a willow whever we go in VA.  We'll see.  Granddad is going to help the girls and me collect leaves from the various trees in his yard.  We will get green ones now and then a colored one when fall begins. The pear tree near the house has nearly lost all of leaves already!  The girls are really excited about fall and winter arriving!  We have also enjoyed the various birds visiting on their way south.

Here is the house my parents own.  My dad is sitting with my brother, Monte, on the front patio.  (My wonderful dh built the porch in May and we all enjoy the cool shade it provides.  My brother Monte was the original renter and then purchaser of this home.  In the many years it has been passed between different members of our family.  My parents live in the bottom floor which is actually the finished basement.  We live on the first floor (but what appears as the second) except that we shower and cook downstairs because there is no upstairs kitchen or bathroom.  I am thankful that we have a washer and dryer up on our floor so I don't have to carry our laundry down!

After a fun time outdoors Uncle Monte and Aunt Sharon invited us to Burger King.  I had to twist the girls' arms  but they finally agreed to go.  I gave Hannah the camera and asked her to take a few pictures.  Here are Mary and Sarah. 

Oh the age of being carefree about your hair and clothes.  Sarah's small flowered bonnet, pink striped shirt and large flowered pants made her happy and she never even realized how "uncool" it looked!

Here are all the girls, my neice, and Uncle Monte and Aunt Sharon.  BTW, they are not the parents of my niece.   We appreciated their treat and enjoyed spending time with them today!  (This was actually the best of the three pictures I attempted!)

That is all for now!  Have a blessed Lord's Day tomorrow!

In Him,

Hi Carlie,

Thanks for caring about us!  We love you, Carl and Mom!

Yes, we went to the game and had a great time!  Lydia made friends with everyone sitting around us!  The Cougars won (40-14) so I was happy.  We left at the beginning of the 4th quarter so Alpheus was happy!   Sarah said that the football was boring but the band was great!  Hannah liked it all and made a bigger spectacle of herself than me!  Mary just happily ate her treat bag I had fixed them  until she had to go to the bathroom at the end of the third quarter  (another good reason to leave early)!  Alas no pictures, because though I dressed 5 people, fixed 6 treat bags, and took all necessary drinks and diapers, I forgot the camera!  Alpheus has volunteered to become keeper (and bringer) of the camera.   He is a wonderful hubby who let his daughters play musical chairs taking turns on his lap through the game, keeping Hannah fairly calm, reminding them that they had to wait until the end of half time for a drink, getting me a hotdog when requested, and holding on to Lydia's stroller every time I had to stand up and cheer on a touchdown run! What a wonderful man!

 We are hoping to repeat the experience the next time Memaw Rose can come up. 

(How about the weekend of October 10th? )

 So Carlie, here are a couple of pictures I haven't posted before.  (I hope the parents don't mind.)  These are two of my girls' best friends!  This was a couple of years ago at a birthday party for Hannah Lynn (left) and Carlie (right) who share a birthday one year apart!

Here is a more recent photo of these friends hovering around Memaw and Lydia!  Hannah Lynn is nearly cut off on the left (sorry!) and Carlie is on the other side of my Hannah.

This was Sonrise Service this past year and I forgot the girls coats (hard to believe, huh?) but I had brought them blankets in the church van!  Hannah's is hers from when she was a baby.  Needless to say it looks quite strange in this picture!  I don't remember exactly what Hannah had done to get her black eye, either.  I will add it later when she reminds me!  All four of our girls are in the picture.  Can you find the fourth girl? ? ?

Well I had better go to bed now!  Have a blessed Lord's Day! 

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry I have been so long in writing.  Life has been very undetermined and inconclusive lately.  That has dampened my desire to write much here.   Also we were without internet for a couple of weeks.

So here I am to update things for anyone who may still come to read!

The adoption is still in holding.  We will hopefully have the petition to adopt signed late next week and then we will be waiting on that elusive court date!  In the meantime, we have just been growing closer as a family through all our changes.  Lydia is trying to say so much more now.  She still relies on signs for many things, but she initiates the conversation more frequently.  She is getting so big so fast.  She wants to do everything that her bigger sisters do.  This is good at times and frustrating for her most of the time!

The big girls are in week 6 of school.  They are doing very well.  I am so thankful that I get to teach/learn with them!  The are really enjoying the stories of the English monarchy that we are reading.  I love to hear "Lets read or listen to the next chapter Mom!"  My dh bought me an ipod for my birthday this year.  I got it a little early so that it would help on the drive up to VA.  It is wonderful to download our stories and historical selections and listen as we drive! 

We are staying in the upstairs portion of my parents' home.  It has been such a blessing!  We have to go down stairs for the bathroom and kitchen but we have two bedrooms and a living room/school room on our floor.

My wonderful dh has been working hard carpentering to pay the bills for us.  He is also praying for God to lead him to the next place of service.  He is being considered for the pastorate from a church in Blacksburg.  There is another canadidate for the position so we are trusting God to lead the people to choose the one God desires.   We would appreciate your prayers for this.

Well, I am tired so  I will close for now.  God Bless!  Eva

The girls and Mamaw (mostly Mamaw) worked on planting some flowers around the borders of our house.  I conveniently miss the messy work by being the photographer. This is what we had by April 14.

 We waited rather impatiently for our flowers to grow and by the time June arrived we didn't hold out much hope for the dried up, drought-stricken ground.  Then we had to leave and go to VA for a month.  While we were away the Lord graciously revived many of our plants.  When we arrived home yesterday we were greeted with some pretty flowers and butterflies also enjoying the flowers! :) Here is Hannah with the flowers she planted.

As you can see a couple of the flowers are as tall as her!  She was very thrilled to see them.  Sarah's favorite was the yellow flower! 

Mary picked the orange flower for her favorite! 

Lydia also enjoyed the flowers.  Here she is trying to look up at some of the blooms!

So she decides that she will pull this one down where she can see it

 - or was she trying to eat it or smell it?? Who knows the mind of a 16 month old!  Probably all three options were in her plan! 

Well, I may not have a green thumb, but I am thankful for the growing children God gave to my care!  Thank you everyone who has been praying for us.  We have our final home visit with our adoption homestudy representative on Friday.  After she turns in the last evaluation and recommendation papers then we will be waiting for a court date.  We will be in the judges chambers for about 10 minutes to finalize the adoption.  We are so excited about that!

We have no definite news on our next place of service but we are thankful that God has many children and we know He has work for us.  We are praying to stay in His will as we prepare to move in the coming months.  We will have our final church service with our Joppa family and it will be very hard to officially say goodbye.  I am tearing up now because I know what it will be like. 

Yet, I am looking forward to whatever God has for us next.  Coming to Joppa and learning and growing was such a wonderful time in our lives and we are so thankful for it.  We want to please God and look forward to learning more as we move on through this life He has called us to live.

My mom is doing very well considering.  She is gaining more strength each day.  She will have a 6 to 12 month recovery so it won't happen over night but she is so thankful to feel much better and wants to glorify God in all that happened.  She is working very hard to do all that she needs to do - eating right and resting as much as possible.  My dad has been wonderful too.  I am so thankful for their example of marital love, loyalty and sacrifice to each other!

Well, here is one last picture.  These were the tallest flowers we found when we arrived home.  Needless to say they were in Mamaw's (champion gardener) yard!

By the way, I know I should know the names of the flowers we planted but I can't remember.  They were complimentary gifts in some valentines and I forgot the names.  We also planted marigolds, which I wanted because I hear they deter bees and mosquitos, but they didn't do very well! So if you know the flower names feel free to tell me!

Blessings,

Mary was working on a math problem.  It said, "The children in Room 4 had five frogs.  They gave one frog to the children in Room 3.  Draw a picture and a number sentence to show what happened.

Mary has been doing these types of problems for a year so I read the problem to her and then told her to complete it and if she had any questions she could ask.

After thinking for a minute she asked, "Were they in a motel?"  LOL She figured they most be in a motel to have numbered rooms!   I explained that they were in a school with different rooms for the classes. 

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One reason she might have been thinking motel is that last week we took the girls with us to the Ligonier Conference in Orlando, FL.  It was wonderful and they behaved very well.  I told the girls that many people would be watching them and that they could honor God and Jesus by showing due respect and reverence during services.  Many people paid them compliments so the girls saw that Mommy was right that others were watching!  They were not perfect, but I was very thankful that we were not a distraction as far as I know.  Sitting for two hours in a row,  three separate services per day, was no easy task and I gladly rubbed backs, necks, legs, whatever so that they could remain quiet.  I brought about 7 Bible activity books and plenty of plain paper for drawing.  They normally aren't allowed to have this during a service (just their Bibles and a page for notes or writings about God) but due to the long sessions we were lenient in this manner.  By the last day on Saturday, they just wanted to sit and listen/sleep/ daydream.  It is funny though because occasionally the speaker would say something they recognized and they would look at me and grin or ask a question.

They really enjoyed hearing Joni Eareckson Tada in her two sessions.  I wish we would have had time to meet her with them, but maybe another time when they are older and can stand in line! ;) This was the first year Joni spoke since I have been attending for the last four years.  I am so thankful that she was able to make the conference!

Here are a few pictures of us at the conference. Alyssa please don't hate me for my bad photography!

Here is the church where the conference is held.  This was between sessions when most people were at the bookstore, bathroom, roaming around, etc.

The girls were excited to be up in the balcony.  Our late arrival to this session due to not enough time to eat dinner resulted in a steep climb up all those stairs to sit here! 

Here I am with Mary and Sarah in an earlier session closer to the front on the main floor!

Here is Daddy with Sarah.  This was back up in the balcony area.  See how tall the pews were! I could rest my head.  That is not a good thing  when you are tired and have sleeping children around you and you feel miles away from the speaker.  I am glad to say that I didn't actually even close my eyes and I only had to pinch myself twice.   Seriously John MacArthur was speaking and it was very good!

Poor Hannah was only in one picture, and I didn't do a very good job of getting her in it!  I was trying to get some other church members in the shot too!  Well, here is proof that we did take her too!

Mrs. Amy and Mr. Shawn who also attended are at the end of the pew.  By the end of the weekend the girls had claimed rights on Mrs. Amy's sweater and lap!  Mrs. Amy has three kids of her own and she runs a preschool so she is used to clinging children!  She even roomed with the girls and I so Dh and Mr. Shawn could room together and save on cost.  The girls had a ball playing on Friday night in the motel room.  We had watched a few cooking shows before bed and the girls were using the ice bucket and tray, soaps, coffee basket, etc. to cook for us! 

Mrs. Amy was a very good sport!

We are all looking forward to next year already!