Lucky 13!

Well, we have now slowly but surely moved to #13! I never thought I would like the number 13, but now I find myself enjoying it! There have been a lot of things going on here lately. Emma has been asked to join the gymnastics team. She is so excited, but what a commitment for a 6 year old. It is 4 hours of practice a week, and somewhere around 4-5 competitions in a year. I haven't made a decision on this yet. Max is starting baseball season and we have his first game coming up soon. Samuel just continues to be an ever present and constantly happy 3 year old. As for our other daughter, we still have no idea! It is interesting trying to speculate on when she will or has been born, when we will hear about her, when we will become a family with 4 children..... so much to think about. Fortunately I have the other children to keep me busy so that my head can only dwell for so long!

So Kent was a part of the Charleston International Film Festival over spring break. He did a great job, and we got to spend an evening on the red carpet!! How exciting. His animated short film Al

fred Noyes' The Highwayman has been involved and entered into many a film festival the last few months.

Most exciting and newsworthy for me was an event I was privileged to volunteer for here in Knoxville, TN called Hope in the Dark. It was an event to benefit Africa and orphans. Wow, what a journey. Almost two years ago when adoption was put in my heart, I would never have thought that we would be involved in something like this here in Knoxville. I am so greatful to God, Mike and Beth Hamilton (UT athletic director who has 3 children from Ethiopia), Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda, Steven Curtis Chapman and family and B

lood Water foundation for making such a wonderful evening. I am sure it was a real eye opener for a lot of people who attended! They raised $230,ooo dollars in table donations at the end of the night alone. If you don't know anything about these people you should definitely look them up! Hopefully next year, our daughter will have been here with us for a while, and we will be able to sponsor a table in honor of her birth family and country. The amazing thing about this is that God seems to know exactly the right moments when I need a boost or confirmation that we are headed in the right direction. This event was yet another sign of our wonderful saviors presence in this world. So thank you God for making these opportunities available to all of these wonderful people to be advocates for orphans and Africa. So on that note I will try to leave you with a few recent photos of our crew!

Peace and Blessings!