It's Official

Tonight at 7:07 p.m. Bret put a ring on my finger and asked me to marry him!!! Of course, I said yes. The significance of this day and that time is that today marks 7 weeks that he came and brought sweet corn and stayed and talked for over 4 hours. It is also 7 years since I have been widowed. For those of you familiar with the Bible, you know that the 7th year marks the year of Jubilee. Even before Levi and Bret came into my life, I declared that this year was my year of Jubilee and it has certainly been proved to be so. In this 7th year, God has fulfilled the prophecy spoken over me at the time of Brent's funeral. He has brought me a future and a hope. Praise God for His faithfulness to me through all the seasons of life I have walked through. The best is yet to come!!!

By the way, the picture does not do the ring justice. It is much more beautiful in person!! You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get a good picture of a ring.

My Guys

I just love my guys. They bring me so much joy. Here are some pictures I have taken of them in the past couple of weeks. One day Levi crawled up on Bret's lap with his barn sorting toy. I just had to snap a picture because it was too cute.

This week Levi discovered the riding mower. He was so proud of himself that he could climb up on it. He knows exactly what to do with the steering wheel. Isn't it amazing how little boys know that and what sounds trucks and cars and tractors make without anyone teaching it to them? He also had to check out the wheels of the mower as he is very much into those as well.

Tomorrow maybe I'll actually sit down and write an update of what has been going on in our lives since Labor Day weekend. I did say maybe so don't get too excited yet!!

Family Weekend

My parents and my niece and nephew came for the Labor Day weekend. We had an enjoyable time spending time outside and being together. I'm glad it was such nice weather that we could be outside a lot of the time.


On Saturday morning before my family got here, Levi climbed into Rachel's lap to watch the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show.




We went to the Lock and Dam that is just a few miles from our house and watched a large barge come through the Locks. Actually, Bret and dad stayed to watch the whole thing but the kids got bored after a little bit so we left and went to the park.












The kids had fun playing at the park. Levi loves the slide and the baby swing.


On Sunday we went to church in the morning. The children were all dressed in plaid shorts so we had to get a picture. We didn't even plan this.






My dad and Bret put in a fire pit so that we could have a campfire. When we originally planned it, it was just going to be our family. Then, Rachel asked if she could invite a few friends over. That turned out to be 10 or 12 friends. Then, Bret suggested we invite our neighbors. So, it turned out to be a quite the party.

Six Months as a Family

This post is for all of you who have been getting after me to put on a picture of Levi. With school starting and other things going on in my life, we haven't been as "camera happy" as we were this summer when I had more time.

I think my son has a shoe fettish because he loves to pull out the shoes from our shoe rack and carry them around. This has been a fascination from the beginning. His latest thing is to try on my shoes and walk around in them. Tonight I got a picture of it. It was funny!!

Today we have officially been a famly of three for 6 months. Wow!! That just blows my mind away because in some ways it seems like it has been so much longer and other times it feels like just yesterday. I wouldn't trade one day of the past 3 years of this process for anything in the world. The wait to bring him home was well worth it!!