Our Sweet Jewell turned 5 today

Yep Addie is officially 5 today. She and her brother will be starting Kindergaretn in less than a month. Wow I can't believe we'll be starting school AGAIN! Seems like Jonathon and Joseph were just starting Kindergarten yesterday and they're now 23 and 19.
Her Daddy took a cookie to preschool this morning so she can celebrate with her class mates. My mom will be picking them up this afternoon for a trip to Chuck-E Cheese and then we'll have dinner together as a family tonight. On Sunday we'll head to the river so the kids can swim and celebrate Addie's birthday with her.
I hope each of you has a wonderful week filled with many blessings.
Blessings to you,
Tina

Pictures

Here are the girls 4 years ago. From left to right.

Carlie, Gentry, Addie, Charlotte, Erica, Susanna, Kaylee

Here they were last weekend. (Carlie was not able to make it)

Susanna, Charlotte, Gentry, Erica, Kaylee,(Alex), Addie, (Larkin)
Cooking at Camp

The kids had a great time at camp. We also had a wonderful time seeing friends and seeing how much the girls have grown over the last four years. Many of the girls are starting kingergarten now. So hard to believe it's been four years.

China Camp

Last month we traveled to Tulsa for Vietnam Heritage weekend and celebrated Alex's heritage with his friends from Vietnam. This week we'll make the journey back to go to China Camp where Addie will get to celebrate her 4 year anniversary of being home with friends from our travel group. It's always great to see old friend and see how the girls have all grown in a years time. It's hard to believe they've been home for 4 years now. We've committed to each other to get together each year to continue the bond for the girls so they can grow up knowing each other and having a link to their home country with fellow friends. Addie always gets excited when I tell her it's time for her to see her "China" friends again. Our travel group for Alex was so much smaller and the boys so much younger than Alex it's not easy to get together and the bond just isn't there yet. We have seen his friend Binhson the last 2 years at Vietnam camp. I'm hoping as Binhson gets older the bond between them will also grow. We have met several wonderful children that we at the same orphanage with Alex that are closer to his age so hoping eventually the friendships there also develop over the years.

Johnny will be staying home this time around. He's just been so worn and still recovering/morning his dad's passing a few weeks ago. He decided that he just wanted a weekend to himself. So the kids and I'll make the trek ourselves! I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone.

On a side note. I wanted to thank everyone for all their prayers and support over the last few months. It is so much appreciated. Please don't stop now. We still need them directed our way!

Something bit Alex last Friday. We're still not sure what it was but he had a severe reaction to the bite and we spent Saturday evening at the ER and then returned for a checkup Sunday morning. I feel like it was a spider bite of some sort. The bite traveled up his vein under his arm which really alarmed us. I'm attaching a picture from Sunday. The swelling was already gone and the redness decreasing but I think you can get the picture of why it concerned us so much. He's on medication for infection and they are doctoring for a possible tick bite to ensure he doesn't end up with Lime disease or tick fever. He never really felt bad but really itched like crazy and the swelling and the traveling streak up his veins concerned us. The itching is gone now and the mark is nearly gone. Hopefully whatever bit him is no longer around!
Blessings to each of you.

Tina

Blessings

As many of know it seems like when it rains it pours and recently it seems like everything has been raining on my parade! Well this week I've been asking God to show me some signs regarding some things I have questions about. I can't go into all the details but God has been working hard to show me the signs I've been looking for. One prayer I had was that God would show me a way to advertise our business without it costing us an arm and a leg. As you know with any new business you need to advertise and If you've never paid for advertisements just let me tell you it's expensive. So yesterday guess who shows up at the Valley Inn? The local news crew for 40/29! They interviewed several customers, came into our kitchen and filmed our crew and then stayed for lunch. They will air the peace the week of the 16th. So how's that for an answer to prayer! I was so tickled. God worked it out to give us free advertisement. It doesn't require anyone to read a paper and like our add. It just requires them to watch their local news program. Plus it reaches a far greater audience than we could have with an article or with a single advertisement in any news paper. I've been rejoicing all day at how God moves and how he works things out in ways we would never dream of. I praise God for being faithful to me even when my faith seems to be weak. He reals me back in and says see I'm still here, I'm still in control and reminds me to let go and let Him!

Blessings to each of you.
Tina