Our family of six

These flowers were left on our doorstep last week when we passed court and Denver officially became our son.

I didn't know at first who they were from until I listened to the phone message explaining that the flowers represent our family. Two big ones for mom and dad and four little ones for Victoria, Austin, Samara and Denver.

Thanks Aunt Christy!!!

Field Day 2009

Friday was field day for the kids at school. This year Austin got to participate as well since he's in kindergarten and both him and Victoria were very excited about it. They both did very well and we were proud of their accomplishments. Here are some pictures from the day:

Victoria doing running long jump:

Victoria doing standing long jump:




Austin doing standing long jump:


Austin doing running long jump:

Samara practicing her dashes and standing long jump with Grandma. You have to wait a few more years to officially participate in field day Samara!


These next pictures are taken by Mike. He set the camera to click a picture every second or every few seconds or however it does that. (Can you tell I'm not a photographer?) This is Austin doing the 50 meter dash. I love how intense he looks. He's already a fast little runner and won both times he ran.

Mother's Day 2009

(Better late than never!)

I always love receiving creations that the kids have made at school or on their own. It’s so fun to see what they come up with and the love that goes into each card or gift. This year was no different. Here's something from Austin.

He had to fill in some information about me - he even got a few right. :) But to set the record straight, my favourite store is NOT Wal-Mart., my favourite TV show is NOT the news, I am NOT 11 feet tall and even though I clean the house, I am NOT a cleaner. His answers did make me smile though and I love the thought that went into this.

This is a recipe book that the kids in kindergarten put together for their moms. Every child had to tell the teacher a recipe that their mom makes. Austin chose Kraft Dinner. LOL!! The poor kid could eat that every week but unfortunately I'm not a big fan of it so I rarely make it (probably why he missed a few ingredients). This book also made me smile.

Here's a card from Victoria. It says "My love for you" and then every time you flip the top up, the giraffe's neck gets longer and longer and it says "grows and grows, etc." Really cute! I like how she signed it "Love your daughter Victoria". I guess that's just in case I thought it was the from the other Victoria that might make me such a card. :)

This is another beautiful picture from Victoria.

And here's a pendant I also got. It says Mother in three different languages - Chinese, Amharic (Ethiopian) and English. It's also my favourite colour (orange) and I LOVE it!!!

I was also spoiled with flowers and a beautiful plant. Thanks Mike, Victoria, Austin and Samara. I love you guys!

We have four kids!!!!

This morning we received the phone call to inform us of a positive court outcome. This was our second court date as the judge needed clarification on some paperwork last week when it was scheduled. We are officially the proud parents of Denver Jacob Baheran Carmody!!! We are so relieved that this part of the wait is over.

We can’t thank you enough for all of your prayers and support. I can’t believe how many people told us that they were praying in the middle of the night. I thought I was the only crazy one not sleeping!

Anyway, we’re ecstatic to be on to the next step which is more waiting. More paperwork needs to be done and it will still be another three to four months before we can travel to bring him home. So keep on praying – specifically that everything gets done in a timely manner, that God continues to watch over Denver and keeps him healthy and safe and that we all continue to have patience.

Exhausted

This whole ordeal has tuckered Samara right out! She's still not feeling 100% but definitely getting better. She never naps anymore so this is a rare thing to see - she obviously needs it.

Oh what a day . . .

. . . one we don’t want to repeat – ever!

Today started out like any other day. Got up, had breakfast, Victoria and Austin caught the bus for school and all was well. Until the phone rang. The secretary at the school where Victoria and Austin go (who happens to be my mom) called to say that Austin had scraped up his face pretty bad. He was running on the pavement and tripped over something. Apparently it didn’t need stitches but there was one sad boy that needed to come home. Since Mike was just on his way out the door, he offered to go get him and bring him home. The poor little guy. Here he is later in the day (when it was ok to take some pics).


And to top it all off, he was so disappointed that he was going to miss his class trip to the greenhouse this afternoon. So we made arrangements that Mike would come home to stay with Samara (who wasn’t feeling 100%) and I would go with Austin (who by this time was feeling better) to the greenhouse. So that’s what we did. Since it was the end of the day when we got back to school after the class trip, I also took Victoria home so she didn’t have to go on the bus. When I pulled into the driveway, the man that lives next door came over and I could tell something was wrong from the look on his face. He didn’t waste any time in telling me that Mike had gone via ambulance to the hospital with Samara. He explained that they thought she maybe had a seizure and I’m not sure what else he said because by this point I was already running into the house to call my mom so she could come watch the kids for me. It just so happened that she didn’t have to work tonight (even though she usually does on Monday nights) so she came as fast as she could (it felt like hours). I headed to the hospital, which is thankfully only five minutes from our house, and met Mike and Samara there. She was already a lot better by that point besides being a little dopey and out of it. The doctor was there explaining everything to Mike and then also to me. So without going into a lot of details about what happened, I’ll just say that Samara had a febrile seizure which can happen from a high fever. She’s fine now and we’re all home safe and sound but it was definitely a huge scare. Definitely the worst scare of Mike’s life. He handled it all so well though and I’m so thankful he was there. Looking back at it now, we can see that God was watching over the whole situation. There are so many things that happened that were totally from God. For example, the neighbour across the street is a firefighter and he just happened to come home at the exact time when Mike needed him. He came over and helped out and even took over the 9-1-1 call. I think it was very comforting and reassuring for Mike to have him there. And the fact that my mom was available to watch Victoria and Austin so I could scoot over to the hospital. And of course the fact that everything turned out okay and Samara is and will be fine. Thank you Lord for watching over our family today and providing for us once again.

Kissin' Cousins

Samara and her cousin Cassandra are only six months apart in age. Up until this point though, they've really been too young to interact and actually play together. But now all of a sudden it seems like they know how to play together and they love each other like crazy! We often hear Samara talk about "me friend" which is what she refers to Cassandra as. It's pretty cute because whenever they see each other now, there are many hugs and kisses and they act as if they haven't seen each other for years. They're quite the little trouble makers when they're together too. For example, they know how to quietly put on their shoes and sneak outside at Grandma's house when we think they're playing nicely in the playroom downstairs. It's enough to give everyone quite the heart attack! (right Grandma??) It should be interesting when they go to school too because they will actually be in the same class. Victoria, Austin and Denver also have cousins from the same family that are only months younger than them but their birthdays happen to fall in different years (since ours are December babies). So look out teachers when Samara and Cassandra end up at school . . . in the same class!

Here are some pictures from when they were playing at Grandma's house together on Friday. Grandma and her grandgirls.