First Pictures of Gabriella Smiling

We're exited to pass along these updated pictures of Gabriella (thanks Donna). Hoping to get pictures of Josiah soon too. In all our previous pictures of Gabriella, she seemed to be pretty "stone faced" so seeing her smile and showing off her pearly whites was exciting to see.

Gabriella is taking steps now (standing here on her own) but is not walking yet - but close.

We've been told that Gabriella and Josiah make a very compatible sibling group. Though not biologically related, they seem to compliment each other. Josiah is a little firecracker and Gabriella is very even tempered. They are both very sweet kids, and this papa couldn't agree more. :)

Quick update on Ava our foster child. She's doing well and is already 2 weeks old today. Her adoptive parents joined us for dinner again on Friday and will be returning again for a visit on Sunday. Things are going smoothly so far in their adoption and we hopefully will be able to hand her over by the end of the month. We are very much enjoying getting to know her parents and will post a picture of her as soon as she's legally theirs.

Lastly we've been working with our church on getting an adoption ministry going. Some of you had asked about contributing towards our adoption, and within the next 4 weeks we'll have everything finalized so that if you would like to contribute to that, you can. I'll have more information forthcoming.

Thanks again for praying for us, and for honoring us by reading our exited blatherings. We truly are humbled by that.