That summer made my head spin!!!!

Catching up: Post #1!!!

                  I am not really sure where to start! This summer has been complete chaos in the McQuilkin household! With four children running around and one husband that never wants to sit still I have been completely exhausted. We started the summer with an immediate trip to the beach the day school was dismissed. We are so blessed to have the chance to spend so much time by the ocean! 

        As soon as we returned from that trip we were playing a little baseball and getting ready for a big reunion trip with our Ethiopian Adoption travel group in Branson, Mo.  We knew we were going, but had failed to look up the traveling distance until the week before. Wow, we were surprised, it was a 12 hour drive. The kids are troupers! They made it no problem. We were so excited to be reunited with all 6 families that had traveled to Ethiopia and met and brought our children home at the same time. I pray that we will be able to keep this connection throughout the years and the busy-ness of life! These children were all placed together in the House of Hope before our families were all united together. What a special bond these children will always share.  So here are a few pictures of all of the kiddos, getting to know all of the other siblings!

All of the families children, minus a few older siblings!

By the end of the photo shoot, all of these little guys were quite tired of posing for pictures. I have to tell you the matching t-shirts didn't exactly make us blend in with the crowd. It was an amazing testimony to other families that passed by and were curious what we were doing. Everyone in our group is amazing and more than willing to share with curious people. We explained that we were reuniting our children and people were touched that our families felt it important to keep this bond. 

We spent time going to silver dollar city, eating a Lambert's (a restaurant where they throw rolls at you), swimming and enjoying an indoor water park. The kids had a great time, and so did all of the adults, catching up on how life has changed since we met our sweet children almost one year ago. 

Mezzi and Khari enjoying the pool!

We have been able to catch up with the Freking family a few times in this past year, so our kids were already friends before arriving for this week!  It has been such a blessing, because our children are such similar ages, they get along great!

Max and Brennan pushing their sisters!

Before we left, we were all trying very hard to motivate Khari to walk, she was now aware that other babies her age were on the move (and not just on all four)!!

So, when we made it home from Branson, we were back to baseball season. Our team, The Phillies were in the playoffs! Max was so excited and nervous for this game!

 

We won in a very tight game, and the kids were so proud of their hard work with several players on vacation. It was one exciting baseball game!

Next thing you know we were on to tennis with Max. He was playing in a junior tennis league this summer and it was really fun to watch him play tennis with other kids his age. We knew he was good when he played with his daddy, but it was even more fun to see him play with other kids!

So that concludes part I of our summer update, the other two are back at school now, Samuel is asking for breakfast and I hear Khari waking up. I will try to catch up the rest in another one of my rare downtime moments!!!  Blessings!!!!