She's Off to College

Torie with her college roommate...notice the custom window treatments on their dorm window...those are thanks to Torie's roommate's mother who is a gifted seamstress!

It's been almost a week since we dropped Torie off for her 1st year of college. Move-in day was an adventure. Being an avid reader, like her mother, Torie insisted on packing almost her entire personal library. Needless to say not enough bookcase space was available in her dorm room. This issue elicited a mid-week trip, by Phil, to deliver two more bookcases to her dorm. Just another reason we're glad she's only 2 hours and 45 minutes away.

Torie is loving college life, and we're slowly adjusting to having an empty chair at our dining room table in the evening.

Sarah Mei "helped" Torie unpack the boxes in her dorm room.

Michaela and AnnaGrace's favorite part of move-in day was trying out Torie's lofted bed.

Sarah Mei's favorite part of the day was riding on her daddy's shoulders!

8th Birthday Party

It's a tradition in our family that each of our children gets to have a birthday party with friends when they are five years old....at least that was the tradition for the 1st two children. I suddenly realized that AnnaGrace's 5th, 6th & 7th birthday came and went with no "friend" party. So this was the year!!

AnnaGrace invited 4 of her closest friends to her Princess and Pony Party. The girls came dressed in their favorite princess or Sunday dress and were served by our 2 oldest girls, Torie-18 and Michaela-12. I'm not sure who was more excited AnnaGrace and her friends or Torie & Michaela as they dressed up for the party. After refreshments were served and a craft was created, the girls changed into their riding clothes and had pony rides.

Acacia Village Fundraiser

This past Saturday we were blessed to be a part of an informational meeting for the building of Acacia Village. We had over 30 adults and 12 teens in attendance to hear about what God is doing in Ethiopia. I was especially encouraged by the teens enthusiasm in beginning to gather supplies (diapers, formula, toys, etc.) for the children's home in Addis Ababa.

Misrach, an Ethiopian national and case manager for Christian World Adoption, was kind enough to come prepare the authentic Ethiopian food for the evening. She was assisted by Lisa Cernuto, MaryAnn Lipinski and Lori Arntz. They are the most amazing, tireless group of women I have ever seen!! They cooked ALL day Friday. In addition to the Ethiopian food, the ladies made lasagna, biscotti, almond cookies, vegetable trays and the list goes on and on.
Misrach...hard at work but always smiling!

Louis Fawcett, Director of Development for Christian World Foundation (CWF), orchestrated the evening and did a fabulous job of explaining the mission and the needs of Acacia Village. In addition to having all of the architectural renderings complete for the Village, they have also completed gathering soil samples and permits to begin the building of the Village. If all goes as planned, construction on the Children's Home will begin this fall!!



Misrach and her 2 sons stayed with us for the weekend. Sarah Mei followed them around like she was their shadow. The boys (1st and 2nd grade) showed maturity beyond their years as they patiently played with her. Thanks guys!


We're so blessed by all of you who are faithfully giving to our $5 Friday campaign for Acacia Village. We're just short of raising our 1st $5,000!

1st Watermelon from our Garden

When we moved onto our farm, 3 years ago, one of our 1st questions was where to put the garden?? After much thought, Phil came up with a creative location in our backyard. He turned a steep, unusable hill into a terraced area with walls built from the abundant rock on our land. It not only looks great but is a perfect place for a garden.
This is a photo from last year. You can see the terraced wall in the background.


This is a picture of 3 of our girls with our 1st watermelon from this year's garden!!

Just a note...our garden loves the manure rich soil in which it's planted...unfortunately so do the weeds..ugh!