First Time Fall-Time Fun

The older kids in our family did a good job of getting Daughter of Purpose all worked up about the fall-time activities. She was so excited, but really had no idea why. It was pretty funny...I can only imagine what the anticipation of Christmas will do to her since that will be a new experience too.

Nate was such an awesome dad and tackled pumpkin carving while I was gone one evening this week. I made Mini-Me promise to take pictures since Nate's hands would be busy. I think she did a great job. I loved what Nate helped Daughter of Purpose pick out for her pumpkin carving. I asked the kids if she seemed to like the whole carving thing or whether she seemed grossed out, but they said she was fine with it. Whew!

As stated before, the kids absolutely love dressing up so this holiday comes with much anticipation. I do have to say that I appreciate their willingness to be creative and accept homemade costumes and now they even pride themselves in putting their costumes together with stuff around the house. Really can't express my thankfulness for that enough because getting 5 costumes together can be an overwhelming task! So we arrived at our church's Pumpkin Patch carnival with Indiana Jones, a cowboy (who called himself George Washington--go figure), a fairy princess, a bat and a laundry basket. At one point, Mini-Me took off her laundry basket in order to jump in the bounce house so I was stuck holding our dirty laundry! Sheesh! It follows me everywhere!

Daughter of Purpose, in her normal fashion, relentlessly asked me all day when she would be able to put on her fairy princess outfit. Finally, the moment arrived and she was beside herself. She seemed to enjoy the time at the Pumpkin Patch and being able to play all of the games.

The moment during all of these festivities that sticks out in my mind the most involves cotton candy. Obviously Daughter of Purpose has never had cotton candy before, but I didn't really think about it until I handed her a stick of it and she proceeded to just carry it around with her. It was like as if she was wondering why I handed this to her, but simply did it because she trusts me and Mommy must have a reason! After awhile of her just walking around with it in her hand it dawned on me that she didn't know she was supposed to eat it! So I stopped and showed her how to pull off a chunk and eat it. She downed it after that, but I just had to chuckle...who would've thought that I'd need to instruct her about something as common as cotton candy.

At one point, one of the older church members said to me, "You know she's stealing the heart of this church, don't you?" I just smiled because I want that to happen--not that I want it to be about her or us as a family--by no means. What I wish for more than anything is for her to steal enough hearts that more people become open to adoption and are willing to give an orphan a family--their family. God is the Father of the fatherless and I believe He delights in "setting orphans into families." (Psalm 68:5-6a)

1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him."