Last Friday we were able to go and participate in Sophie’s last ballet class for the summer. It was a lot of fun. As a special bonus I got to see my dear brother, Jeremiah, who took off the morning to see his little ballerina! It is always such a joy and treat to see everyone! There aren’t many pictures of Molly and me, but we all know how that goes :) – oh, and thanks Jer for taking the photos!

Warning: Some moms might be completely grossed out by the way I let my children eat…It obviously is in need of improvement, however, not a battle I’m taking up at the moment – hehe :) if you are one of these moms…sorry, shame on me :)

It should also be noted that I had to hide the camera, that’s why the angle is weird. My kids don’t perform for the camera, I have to trick ‘em.

A year ago today (August 28th) was one of the most amazing days of my life. It was the day that Evelyn was declared legally our “natural” daughter. A day of completion. After much heart ache, many tears, much prayer, a drawing nearer to God than we could never have understood otherwise and the incredible and unnatural joy we felt throughout the entire process…Evelyn became ours! To those who have never adopted it may be hard to comprehend just how special this day is. The only real comparison I can come up with (and I’m pretty sure it’s biblical) is that of the day a sinner comes to repentance before the merciful and Almighty God. The day a sinner is drafted into the family of God. The joy and the rejoicing that takes place in heaven on the day any lost sheep is found and brought home is most certainly the same joy and rejoicing that takes place when a family on earth adopts a child.

I felt the same joy I felt when I became a believer. The same joy you feel when you hear someone else has become a believer. There is an understanding and a bond in Christ. The same goes for adoption. We felt an incredible bond with those present at the adoption hearing, and feel this same bond when we hear of others adopting. It’s so very similar to when, as a believer, you hear someone is interested in becoming a Christian or has, it’s incredible! In some way this day is more special than her birthday, it’s a reminder for me of a new birth in Christ’s family. A reminder of the day I became a member of His family. It’s something you never forget. It’s so intricately connected to my understanding of Christ and His care for His children. I really hope I can write about this more at a later date. For now, here’s to a wonderful day of recollecting on God’s blessings to us.

Evelyn Kate – we love you!

How we celebrated this year – Daddy made a special breakfast! We had gluten free German babies! We then had some special family time with just the 3 of us while Elijah took his first nap. We read some stories about adoption and told Evelyn how special she was. Then we went to the mall to play (cuz it was kinda cold). Evelyn and Elijah enjoyed playing and then Evelyn enjoyed playing on the carousel. We also let her pick out a $1 toy at Target. All day we kept saying, “special”. Today is special! And it was. After nap we played in the yard and had special smoothies. We also had a family picnic on the ground and watched a movie. It was simple but so special!

Here are the final 6 photos for Evelyn’s 2 year photo shoot. There are others that we love, and maybe you do too. If there’s is another you like more let us know and we’ll send it to you :-)

It’s been a busy summer of fun and lovin’. We so enjoy being a family in our new home. We’ve also been able to spend time with people we love.

These first two videos are just a sneak peak into our day here at the Larsen estate.

The two below are part of our lesson on the fruits of the spirit. This was Joy week! Evelyn “got” some of it. More than I expected so I’ll say it was a success. If nothing else it was a great topic of discussion for all of us that week.

We’ve been trying to capture Evelyn singing “her” hymn (click her if you need to be reminded what “her” hymn means) for about a month now. We finally got it! Not perfectly, but we were stoked to capture it on “film”. It makes my heart so warm to hear her sing this beautiful hymn.

This was our family night before our long trek to Northern CA for our beautiful niece, Juliett’s birthday!

As you can see, Elijah has taken an interest in the guitar.

You know, I think we could start a family band!

I came into the room to find Evelyn thought Elijah needed his hat. It was adorable, she put it on him herself.

Our trip for Juliett’s birthday was short but worth it…more about that in the next post dedicated to the birthday girl!

We’ve been busy having fun and growing here! I don’t think I’ll ever get over how fast kids grow. We’re soaking it in and enjoying all the moments as they come! Wish you could be here with us!

 

 

 

 

 

I’m so blessed to be Evelyn’s daddy.

That’s right – our boy is now SIX weeks old. In fact, he’s nearly SEVEN weeks old! This coming Monday February 8th will mark 7 weeks! I can’t believe it. It seems like I’m just getting a handle on having two. I don’t remember time going by this quickly when Evelyn was born.

As you can imagine we’ve been pretty busy! This poor child is only going to have about half the videos taken, pictures taken and blogs posted about him as Evelyn did! That’s just how it goes…everyone knows that’s what happens…but it still makes me sad.

Anyhow, as usual – not much time. Hopefully these videos capture some of the joy that has been brought to our home. I know it doesn’t capture it all because frankly…we’ve missed out on recording so many wonderful moments. Thankfully, there are sweet memories locked away in our family’s memories. AND hopefully I will make the time to share some of these memories and sweet thoughts with all of you soon.

Here is Elijah about an hour after his birth…

Evelyn loves her baby brother SO much!

She also discovered her love for the rain.

Elijah likes to swing.

He also loves to be in his Ergo Baby Carrier!

Family time before dinner, baths and bed.

We have yet to get a good video of Evelyn jumping, but it’s super cute!

Neither of our kids like to perform for the camera…but we finally were able to get some of Elijah’s babbles recorded :)

This was a rare sight yesterday and today. It seemed Elijah wanted to be more active…so I had to get this moment on video.

No pictures… just a quick story.

We had wondered how well Evelyn would do with a baby brother.  Would she be jealous?  Disinterested?  Well today as we were opening gifts, we got a little hint.

After she had removed every last scrap of wrapping paper from each gift, she would jump up and run down our hallway with gift in hand.  At first we thought it was a little game like she wanted us to run and catch her.  But when she got to the door, she would say “Be be.”

She wanted to show her gifts to her little brother.  I’m not sure whether she would have wanted to actually share or just show him, but it was neat to see that she was thinking of the newest family member.