Happy 1st July 4th to 2 New American Citizens!

Hi blog readers. We have been home from Bulgaria with Martin and Emilia for about 5 weeks now. It has been a big transition for our family and I have not had time to blog! I did want to share a few pictures from our kids first July 4th (or "Happy Birthday to America" as we explained it to them!)

I invited our family over to our friend Craig's and Vivaine's house for 4th of July. (Because I am learning that I have to ask for help during this transition! I can't do it without Jesus and the support of family and friends!) We went to brunch and had blueberry pancakes at Craig's and Viviane's, who have been giving us wonderful support through this post adoption adjustment for our family. Craig watched all 5 kids (our 2 and there 3) while Vivane listen to me cry about some of the hard parts of adoption and gave me wise advice from her own years of parenting 3 children through adoption. Thank you so much Craig and Viviane! We left your house feeling refreshed and encouraged!

Last night, our little family of 4 went to a local park for a fireworks show! The kids LOVED it! I enjoyed having a happy family time together and getting to snuggle with Andrew and watch the fireworks with him and Martin and Emilia. (Couple time has gone down since adding kids and we try to catch a few minutes to be together whenever we can!)

LOVE our family!

Martin and Emilia enjoyed some sparklers while waiting for the fireworks to begin!

The fireworks were beautiful and lasted for about 30 minutes. I loved that patriotic music played while we watched the show. Every time there was short few second pause between fireworks going of, "Martin would ask me "All done?" Emilia said "Boom-cho-co-la-ta!" Then came the grand finally! Oh how they loved it! On the way back to the car Martin was saying "Happy Birthday to you, America!" and "I love you, America" and explaining to me "boom, boom, boom, 20, 21" (the grand finally, and counting to show that there was a lot of fireworks all at once!