AGCI Reunion Weekend & Official June Number

This past weekend, we had the wonderful privilege of reuniting with local as well as out of state adoptive families that traveled to our area for a little reunion of our kids(each of which was adopted from Ethiopia and some of which were at our agency’s transition home, Hannah’s Hope, together).  The entire weekend filled my heart with joy as I witnessed the amazing transformation each of these beautiful children has undergone after being placed in a forever family.  My heart will never tire of seeing the children orphaned no more. 

We started off Friday night by having dinner with Kim Hull and three of her children.  She was the first one to get a smiling picture of Silas for us during his time at Hannah’s Hope so she will always hold a special place in our heart for that. Tisha Alexander and her twin daughters were also able to join us.  Her girls came home from Ethiopia a couple of months after we brought Silas home.  Finally, the Galbreath family joined us.  They were the ones that so graciously hosted the large get together on Saturday, and two of their five chilidren were adopted from Ethiopia in 2011.   I captured a couple of pictures below from Friday night:

Hannah, Liya, Chloe

Silas and his buddy, Finny

 

Kim and Tisha invited Silas for a pre-bedtime swim with their kids at their hotel.  Our water loving boy wasn’t going to turn that down!

THEN…on Saturday, my wonderful husband spent most of his morning helping me prepare some fun treats for the get together later that afternoon.   Below we have oreo pops(with our official taste tester:) and Africa shaped watermelon. Both went over well with the kids!

Thankfully, Silas took a good nap and we headed over to the Galbreath’s around 4:00.  They did such an amazing job hosting with plenty of water activities, a pool, hot tub, and delicious food!  It was very HOT so the kids were grateful for all the water related activities.  It filled my heart with joy to see all the beautiful brown kiddos running around, and we managed to get a few pictures from the afternoon/evening below.

The homemade slip-n-slide was a hit!

Silas loved the attention from some of the older kids

Sweet Chloe

Silly boy in the hot tub who insisted on wearing goggles even though he never puts his face under!

Lucy Lane and Silas. I don’t think Lucy is too keen on having Silas’ arm around her!

This is just a handful of the children that were there.  It was quite the feat to try and get a picture of all of them together.

Goodbye hugs!

We had a great time, and there was discussion that we should make this an annual event.  I think that sounds like a great idea, and I hope it comes to fruition!

Finally, we received our official number for June at the end of last week.  Once again, it was no surprise that we are still holding strong at:

Please continue to keep our family in your prayers as this Friday will be a full 16 weeks at #1.  We would love to have a referral this week with a miraculously quick court date before court closure in early August.  We serve a God of the impossible so I have no doubt this can happen if it lines up with His perfect timing for our family.  Until then, we will continue to trust, pray, and lean on Him.