Bailey

Today we had to say goodbye to our sweet, loyal, beautiful dog Bailey. There are no words to describe how much I loved this dog. He was my baby before I had children. He was my friend when I went through hard times in college and always just seemed to sense if I was sad. I spent countless days taking walks, jogs, playing frisbee - back in the day he pretty impressive with the frisbee, or just hanging out with him. He was my helper when Allee was a baby - always patiently letting her pull his fur in efforts to stand up and giving her plenty of doggy kisses. He alerted us to a peeping tom at my neighbor's house. He went on tons of tubing trips and camping trips to garner - even wearing sunglasses occasionally. He loved the river and would swim for hours. He was a bit of an escape artist and went on many 'runs' around the neighborhood but incredibly nice people always returned him unharmed. He was so calm and loving and loyal and has been part of our family for so long. I don't think I will ever have a dog like Bailey again and while I am so thankful for the countless joys and memories that he brought, we are feeling his loss deeply.

Horse Show

We are proud of our horse riding girls!!

Allee competed in her first all-around (meaning she did most all events) show this Saturday and Anastasiya competed in one novice class (see the other blog for more on her show). They both did incredibly well!!!

I was blown away by how much Allee has grown and matured in the past two years. Two years ago she was doing her first novice classes at this show and seemed so small and uncertain. This year she went in there and confidently rode her very best in over 10 classes. She rode all day and did a great job of staying focused and not giving up. She placed 3rd out of 12 in showmanship, 2nd out of 10 in two English pleasure classes, and continued to place in every other class as well. She did pattern classes, western pleasure, western discipline, halter, and I think some others too. About six months ago, my mom and sister found a great deal on this horse up in Minnesota. He sounded perfect for Allee to really start showing on. Her little pony just wasn't ready for showing.

But when Rue first arrived it was very intimidating for Allee. She was going from a little pony whom she could easily direct to a large horse who understood far more of the subtleties of riding. Rue is 15 years old and has lots of training and experience. But Allee had to learn how to communicate to him what he already knew. And that she has. She one day turned around from feeling discouraged and not trying, to giving it her all to learn to ride this new horse well. And she is certainly accomplishing that goal. They are quite the team now. They looked so great out there, and she rode Rue against other riders far more experienced and older and still managed to place high in every event!

This was one proud mom as I watched my little girl control that big horse with confidence and skill and remembering how far she has come through hard work and effort even when it was tough.

Way to go sweet girl!!

It was a fun fifteen hour show with my girls, my sis (aka horse trainer), and my mom as well as Zach and the boys popping in and out. You know boys of any age can't sit still too long - especially when Aggie football games are waiting to be listened to.

We are ever so grateful that we are able to ride and show like. What a blessing.

Future Electrical Engineer

Benjamin was given my parents' old fax/copier machine. He methodically took it apart and quickly pointed out that one wire had become disconnected and that that was the problem. He also showed us that the ink was all out of the cartridge and that was the other reason that it didn't work. Unfortunately he hasn't quite mastered the art of putting it back together :)

Can he get any cuter? I know I am biased but I seriously love this child. What a joy he is!!

Could I freeze him right now because I don't think he can get any cuter...

Rosemary Beach 2009

A serious game of chess...

Can he be any more precious?

How cute are these bobsey twins?!?

Here are the lovely pictures of our time in Rosemary Beach. It was an absolutely fabulous time. The pictures are worth a thousand words and my sister is an exceptionally talented photographer. If you are in Texas and need photos she is your girl. Visit her website www.ashgenephotography.com

Happy 11th Birthday Alexandra!!

We had a wonderful birthday with the Potts Birthday Cake Wake-up. Allee openned her first gift from us - the Mille doll that goes with the book series that she is reading. She headed off to school, which also happenned to be Latin Day. Since she is a big 5th grader this year - the 4th grades played the role of slaves and the 5th graders were the masters. So she was literally waited on hand and foot for her birthday :) It was pretty funny to watch. Then we had dinner at the restaraunt of her choice - Mamacitas. She loved having them come sing to her and wear the hat. Last, we went to Katya's first dance recital! Yes it was busy a day! The recital was beautiful and we all enjoyed watching Katya. Finally we headed home and had a nice long bedtime talk. It was a great day to celebrate Allee!!!

What a joy it is to watch our sweet daughter growing up and becoming a beautiful young lady! This has been an exceptional year as I have had the privilege to watch Allee grow in beauty and love and wisdom. When I thought that her heart was about as big as it could get, it stretched even bigger to embrace two new sisters. There have been times where it has not all been easy and there have been many sacrifices along the way. But during the trying times she had a chance to live out what she has been learning all her life - she turned to the Lord for strength and His love was evident as she loved her new sisters even when it meant giving up her own desires and even when they maybe didn't act too loveable. She has grown in faith, love, and maturity through this year and in the end she has found a far greater treasure than she ever gave up - the joy of having two sisters whom have also become her sweetest friends. Just last Friday they were all singing together and dancing around and then they locked arms as they walked around saying, "We are sisters and we are best friends!" She has discovered the blessing of sisters!

Allee has done fantastic in school this year and has worked harder than ever before with a heavier load of work. But she rose to the challenge and plugged away at the work with very little complaint. She made honor roll for the entire year, which is quite a feat this year.

Allee continues to ride horses regularly. She is able to ride so much more now that we live next to the horses and she is improving very quickly. It is a lot of fun to hang out at the barn with her as my sister gives her lessons. I am relearning a thing or two myself! Or at least I didn't fall off when her horse took off with me :) She has also enjoyed having Nastya and Katya joining her this year.

Allee, more than I can express, you are a joy and delight us - more and more the older you get. Your love and your generally happy disposition just make people love to be around you. It is such a privilege to be your mommy! Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!

Benjamin is FIVE!!!

Happy Birthday (yesterday) to my sweet boy! I can't believe that you are five. How did my baby get so big? It has been a delight to watch Benjamin grow this year. It seems to have been a very special year for him as he has matured so much.

Yesterday we celebrated with first waking up with a cake and singing him happy birthday. He was in our bed so I had to tell him to stay put while I went to get the cake. (He still likes to come snuggle with me a lot of nights and I love it!!) The candles seemed so bright to his sleepy eyes but he was grinning ear to ear and managed to blow them out. We headed to the living room to find a present filled with his favorite things - the first Narnia movie and the first Narnia DS gameboy game. We normally dont' let the kids play games or watch tv on the weekdays (a change that has been fabluous for our family), but we told Ben that he could play his game and watch his movie during quiet time. He was delighted as he dreams about playing gameboy all week :) (You see why we had to cut this out - the kid's obsessed!)

Ella came over and we played outside for awhile, read a book while sitting on a tree, and then had a snack. We enjoyed our first watermelon of the year - a big hit in the Potts house. Then we grilled some steaks and corn and everyone shared what they loved about Benjamin. After dinner, Benjamin and I looked through his first year book and reminisced a bit. I got a little weepy inside in thinking about my baby growing up. Five is hitting me hard and I really love him just like this. Can we just stop time?!? It goes by way to fast and it really is true that you need to cherish every minute because you blink and it's gone.

A few things we love about our Benjamin ~

• I love that he still dinds his way into our bed in the middle of the night to snuggle with Mommy!
• I love that he is so sensitive to my emotions and is always quick to give me a hug and to pray for me if he senses that I am feeling discouraged.
• He often says to Nastya, "You Momma?" as they play momma - baby games. Too cute.
• He is amazing at memory game and can beat me if I don't stay on toes!
• Benjamin is the best gecko catcher ever (actually they are called anoles we recently discovered).
• Even though we have to correct him, Ben gets into his 'grumpalufagous' moods when things aren't quite going his way and it is qute hilarious. He suddenly goes from liking everything to hating everything and stomping his feet. He will say something ridiculous like, "I hate donkeys,,," with a serious scowl.
• He is generally happy and light-hearted and brings great joy to each of us.
• He has a sweet, kind spirit and loves to make us smile with his funny antics
• He will take apart or tinker with just about anything electronic and unfortunately has damaged a few items - like our water softner. But he is learning to ask first I think...

Oh there is so much more I could say about Benjamin. I love that kid and thank God for making me his mommy. As much as I want to hang on to my sweet baby it is a joy to watch him grow and mature into the uniquely wonderful person that God created him to be. Thank you Lord for every day with my sweet boy!

Here are a few random ics from the past year...

Here's Ben loosing his swim shorts - he is soooo skinny!

Looking adorable at the beach!
Just chilllin on a camping trip with his brother and Daddy.

New Picture

You may notice to the right that our family has grown. Someone pointed out on our other blog that we had not updated the picture over here. Thanks! We have had quite an amazing journey to Ukraine to adopt our two new beautiful daughters. If you don't have that blog, it is www.twojourneysofgrace.blogspot.com and hopefully soon I can start posting here more often! For now I am barely finding time to post on one blog :) So come visit us at the other blog for now!

Merry Christmas!!

School Days!!

Allee and Jadon started back to school last week (5th and 1st) and it has been a great start this year! Allee was a bit nervous about a week before school started and was just loving summer and didn't want it to end! I was sad about that because it just seemed out of character and she has always been so exuberant and joyful about school. I guess it is a lot harder now that she is getting older!

Anyways, about five days before it started, we took a walk to the mailbox and what was there but a letter from her teacher, Mrs. Elliot! Mrs. Elliot had planned to retire from teaching last year and Allee had been sad because she was really looking forward to having her. Well, Mrs. Elliot wrote that she felt that the Lord was calling her back for another year and that she was so excited about what He was going to this year. It was just a great moment, and somehow, the words that this sweet, godly woman wrote, just turned Allee's entire perspective and suddenly she was excited about school! We are just thanking the Lord for such wonderful teachers at this school who are there to serve and glorify Him by teaching, equipping, and inspiring the students. I just can't say how thankful we are for Mrs. Elliot and expect her to be one of those teachers that you just never forget! Then we went to orientation and found that there is a new little girl in Allee's class - that is exciting as well because not many new students transfer in by 5th grade. Allee told me that she imagined that the girl was both excited and nervous and that she could understand because she was in her shoes just a year ago. She said that she hoped to help her feel comfortable - I just love her kind heart!

Jadon is also off to a great start with school - we had known who his teacher was for a long time. She goes to our church and is another amazing woman whom we have heard is one of those you never forget as well! We are just so excited to be going into a year where our children have been placed with teachers who understand and support the journey our family is on and the challenges that may cause this year and who are ready to support our children through this process. We could not have handpicked more perfect teachers for them this year but of course we didn't have to!! Jadon is already loving first grade (can he really be that old?!?) and will learn so much this year. He looks SO big in his uniform!

We are just unbelievably grateful for The Master's School. I have posted about it before, but I have just never seen a school like it before. Some really neat things are happenning in the life of the school right now and we finally have a permanent location (that we will move to in a few weeks - for now we are in a church that is sharing their space with us). Despite the fact that it was not ready on time due to some unforseen setbacks, the Lord provided and pulled together many people within the community, including the city council and the mayor, and as a result, the Lord is being glorified as so many people are watching how He has provided and how the leadership has responded to some difficult issues with grace and faith. It has been awesome to watch!

Poor, Sad, Neglected Blog..

Much apology to those of you who have been waiting for an update here... We have been busy with the other blog and have kinda forgotten this one. It is soon to be updated!! And if you don't have the other address - leave me a comment and I will email it to you. For varying reasons we didn't want to link this one to the other but would love to share it with you.

More coming soon!

Almost Home...Please Pray

And update on my sister and her adoption of Bennet~

Ashley and Jason (and my parents) left the country on August 2nd to travel to Ethiopia to bring home 18 mos old Bennet Toufiq. They found out just as they were leaving that the immigration paperwork from USCIS had a mistake about the age of the child that they are adopting. It was off by a few months. As a result, it had to be corrected at the San Antonio CIS office and then sent to NH and then to Ethiopia. This saga began August 1st and it is STILL not corrected by San Antonio CIS. There is a Senator involved but still no results. We do not understand - this is a really simple typo that just needs to be redone but no one seems to grasp the urgency of the situation.

So, Bennet cannot be issued his visa to come home. Ashley and my parents are (as I type this) flying home and will arrive tomorrow afternoon. Jason stayed in Ethiopia to take care of Bennet and wait for the visa. This is difficult for all involved because Bennet bonded almost immediately to Ashley but to noone else. Ashley can't stay b/c all flight are booked and there is a better chance of only one adult getting a flight out on standby. And they didn't feel comfortable for many reasons with Ash being the one to stay. Soooo, Jason is alone now in Ethiopia with Bennet, hoping to come home next Tuesday if this paperwork is resolved by then. If not it could be another six days.

PRAY

for a sense of urgency for all those responsible for the paperwork

for Jason during this time - that God uses it for good to bond him and Bennet

for Ashley as she is heartbroken at leaving her new son who has already faced so much loss in his life

for Ashley and my mom as they both just came down with a stomach bug and are on a 16 hour flight

One last note - it will be a sweet reunion between Ella and her Mommy tomorrow!! Ella has been nothing but a delight to have but the last day or two she has REALLY been missing her mommy. I think it has been pretty crazy for her here with the arrival of Nastya and Katya. Going from usually being an only child to one of SIX is hard on a little girl!!