One Smart Cookie

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Pavlov's dogs, and classical conditioning.  Well, Darya has been conditioned to sign "cookie" repeatedly when we pull into the Publix parking lot and as we go into the store.  (Publix is a grocery store chain and they give out free cookies to kids in their bakery.)  I have absolutely no doubt the next time I take her there, she will sign it all the more until she gets that cookie! :-)  Here she is, enjoying her reinforcement:

Oh, and on a side note, what do we do with her hair??  It is very fine and kind of scraggly.  We were going to let it grow out, but we are thinking of cutting bangs and cutting the length a smidgen, similar to a page boy cut like the drawing below, though her hair is still so fine so I don't think it will quite look like this. Any thoughts?

Father of the Fatherless

Tomorrow is Father's Day.  Though it is a Hallmark holiday, it has caused me to reflect upon the father of my children.  As I type this, Joel is in the other room reading to the boys.  He is such a wonderful father. He adores his children and takes pleasure in spending time with them.  He makes the time to play with them, read to them, and most importantly lead them spiritually.  He faithfully teaches the children about our Heavenly Father.  One thing I have been reflecting upon is how he absolutely loves Darya.  Though she is not biologically his daughter, it makes absolutely no difference.  Darya is his daughter and he is her father.  Such a godly example of how our Father looks upon us.  Though we were once children of darkness, God saw fit to sacrifice his son to make propitiation for our sins, so we may be called His children.  We are redeemed and adopted by God!  He loves us that much!!   Ephesians 1:4-7  "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.  In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,"  You should read the whole chapter.  It is such a beautiful picture of our adoption as children of God.

Psalm 68:5 "Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation" 

This morning, I was reading one of my favorite blogs.  My heart ached at these boys who do not know the love of a father.  Every day, my boys pray that the orphans would find loving families.  Are you one of those families?  I know not everyone is in a position to adopt, but everyone can pray and advocate!

I love you Joel! Happy Father's Day!

A few pictures

Happy 3rd birthday, Darya! She devoured her piece of cake :-)  I should have gotten a picture of it! But she'll get another one in a few weeks when Grandma comes to visit us from California. We'll just say this was a practice one:

I guess Darya liked her spaghetti so much she wanted to share it with her bear:

Here we are posing near her new kitchen in our matching matroyshka (nesting doll) aprons I bought for us in her birth city.  They were made by a cute old babushka:

In other news, things are finally simmering down. I feel like this spring has been incredibly busy and I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit more this summer!  Hopefully that means I can blog a bit more.  Not that I have anything witty or profound to write about, but I do enjoy it. :-)  

Happy 3rd Birthday, Darya!

Darya loves to "help" me in the kitchen, so we decided to use her birthday money to get her her very own kitchen (thanks Grandpa and Grandma, and Papa and Lala!).  Here's a video of the big revealing moment.  Mind you, she just got back from a doctor appointment where she got some shots, so her reaction is a bit anticlimactic. But I know she'll love slamming those cupboard doors as much as the ones in "my" kitchen!