Wow.

Wow! Thank you to everyone who donated to our Thailand Adoption Fund this last week. I've been continually blessed and humbled by the support of friends and family from so many different areas of my life--from childhood friends to grad school friends to friends I've only met in person one time! I cannot tell you how much we appreciate it. Including a donation received just before the Week of Asking, we raised almost $2500! I'm overwhelmed with gratitude!

This may be the wrong time to tell you this, but today I learned of a non-profit organization that works with adoptive families to find a way for large donations to be tax-deductable. So if you are out there, Mr. $10,000, stay tuned! :) BUT, they only work with families who have gone through the home study, and we needed this week's support money to PAY for the home study. I can't stop grinning at how God has worked through all of you to make it possible for us to move onto the next step!

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As promised, I will now take a break from talking about money and go back to my best blog-fodder: pictures of cute kids. Saturday was a fun day with 3 big events. Arguably the most important being:

Sydney got pigtails! She is in a funky hair stage, with little growth on top and sporatic growth on the back and sides. It will be a learning experience to perfect the 'tails. But Trent and I were dying at how cute she looked.

Big deal #2 was going to an Easter egg hunt with Mimi and Bapaw Phil. Of course it was raining, so the hunts were divided up into age-appropriate banquet halls! Since our Easter morning is always super busy (and super early) I dressed the kids in their getups on this day, so I could take some pictures. Sydney needed a little coaching to figure out the goal of this strange tradition, but soon she was on a roll. Things really sped up when she realized she could put the basket down and use 2 hands.

I loved when she would crouch down and gently, so gently, put the eggs in her basket.

Carson was the only one brave enough to pose with the (poorly costumed) Easter bunny.

This is the moment he realized--this "hunt" was not going to be much of a challenge.

I was very proud of Carson, because before, after and during the mad-dash/hunt, he talked about not taking more eggs than other kids and making sure he never took an egg from another kid. May not sound like a big deal to you, but to a 4 year old with candy on his mind, this was a mature step!

Fortunately we got a couple outdoor shots with no flash needed. I love my cuties!

Then, for event #3, we went for an early Easter dinner to Jojo and Bapaw Roy's house. The cousins were there too, which truly made it an event! Let me tell you, this lovebug, Kaitlyn, is such a smiler!

I have three pictures of Jack with these binoculars in different areas of the house. I'm thinking he liked them.

Carson is lovin' on his baby cousin! He's telling Daddy/Uncle Trent that he has to wait his turn.

This was our best attempt at a picture of the 4 cousins. Hahaha! It makes me laugh just thinking about it. We were bribing Jack and Sydney with jelly beans to keep them on the couch at all. I'm sure there will be many more attempts that have various levels of success, but that doesn't mean we'll ever stop trying!