Thank heaven for little girls ! older ones too!

These 1st two picture's were taken before church ,the others were taken to try to get the perfect picture of Lexis for our adoption announcements, there are SO many good one's to pick from.
Since Hayle and Lexis had matching dresses I could not resist dressing Hayle up and taking some picture's of her too .

Mark stopped along the way home and picked me this beautiful bouquet of flowers.

When Lexis doesn't understand the english , this is what you get along with her beautiful smile .

" I da know !!! "

Hawaiian tea party !

The girls were invited to celebrate a friends 9th birthday last week, it was a Hawaiian tea party . What little girl doesn't like a tea party ? They had a great time !

The birthday girl !!!!!

Happy Fathers Day !

Today I want to say Happy Fathers Day to the best Father on earth .

Even after working 12 hours he comes home and still finds the time and

energy to play with the girls and help around the house.

He shows them how a husband should treat his wife

he is a man of respect, above reproach and great integrity.

If you mention Mark's name to anyone who knows him ,

you will hear the same things I just mentioned above.

He is an example of Christ by his actions .

Of course , he had a GREAT example to follow of what a

Father and Husband should be.

His Dad went home to be with the Lord Jan 2008.

He is greatly missed ,but he left wonderful memories and a legacy of a very godly man.

I pray all 3 of our daughters marry men like their Daddy and Pappy .

I am so blessed to be his wife.

If you want to know what a mans true character is, ask his family .

HAPPY FATHERS DAY HONEY!!!!

HOME !!!!!

Cortney was not able to join us on our trip to bring Lexis home as she had finals
But she was waiting with open arms !
I will post more picture's later , I was too busy to take picture's once we got off the plane , but others were taking a lot of picture's , so once I get them I'll post them .
But here is what I do have .

This picture pretty much says it all about our trip home !

Lexies new cousin ,( the one in red) made matching dresses for Lexie , her little sister and Hayle. She is talented , she cooks bakes sews, plays the harp , piano and I couldn't even name all the crafts she does , and does all these well .

Giving Grandma a long awaited hug!

2 friends from our church , Kate and Nate , they prayed faithfully for Lexie to get to come home, even when I thought it was pointless, " To have the faith of a child !"

Our trip home began at 3:30 am Guatemala time .

The girls did great !

Lexis was so excited to get to her new home , and Hayle .... well for some crazy reason she loves to get up in the middle of the night for an adventure , like black friday shopping .

She bounces out of bed when she knows we are leaving in the middle if the night .

When we left the hotel , another gentleman was leaving at the same time .

When we got in the hotel van to head to the airport , we started talking to him .

With in a few minutes we realized he is a Christian , and what an incredible testimony he has .

I will post about that later.

When we had to show our passports , the man started asking questions about Lexie's .

I just began to pray , it's been such a long road I was just a bit nervous .

It was fine , Mark had the right answer for him .Lexie really liked the plane ride .

Once we landed in Pittsburgh , we were greeted by friends and family .

Lexie was amazing . she was hugging everyone , she was not shy at all .

When we got about 5 minutes from our house ,it was like she knew .

She would point to every house and ask Hayle " my casa?" casa means house .

When we got home Lexie came running in the house , she wanted to see every room .

Then we had a house full of people to celebrate !

Lexie had a great time , she seemed to love being the center of attention .

Hayle has been doing so well with her , we were concerned she would be jealous,

Ofcourse it helped my friend Anita brought her 2 year old , put a baby near

Hayle and the reast of the world goes away .

Shopping day !

Waiting in the lobby for our friend Monica to pick us up.

Then to the resturaunt for some lunch .

Looking for a good deal !!!!!

Our way back to the hotel

Hayle .......................hhhhmmmm do you think we will get back in time for 1 more swim ???????

How could you say no to that face ???

They went swimming when we got back to the hotel , then they got their showers , then into bed . We have to get up at 3:30 am for our fliht home . When Monica told Lexie we were going on the plane to go home , she started dancing and singing , she was so excited !!!!!

Counting down

Hayle loves to set the camera on the timer and take picture's of her and Lexie, She does a pretty good job ! It's pretty sad when your 6 year old knows how to use the camera better than you .

We are now counting down the hours until we are on the plane home .

As I'm sure you have all seen the news reguarding the swine flu .

We will be in Houston for 4 hour's , This Mom who is already a germaphobe ,

will be trying to keep a 6 and 7 year old from touching everything ,

and using hand sanitizer like crazy.

But my very good friend Deb Kerr sent me this verse

I immediately thought of Psalm 91. "...If you make the Most High your dwelling --- even the Lord, who is my refuge --- then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you... .... in ALL YOUR WAYS

I'm really not freaking out , I know we are in Gods hands and will , there is no safer place to be.

Fun at the mall !

Just a couple of fun picture's .

Got the visa

Mark went to the Embassy alone , because about an hour before he had to leave the girls both fell asleep. Hayle slept fora little over 3 hours and Lexie for over 4 hours and we had to wake her up to go eat , and eat she does .This tiny little girl can put the food away .

Praise the Lord !!!!! We have the visa .

After we ate it was back to the pool , then to our room for some water fun of a different kind .

To get clean , They had a blast with the bath foam I brought .

I think they may start to grow fins before we leave for home.

Morning swim

We ate breakfast , then it was pool time AGAIN .

We will go to the Embassy this afternoon to pick

up Lexie's visa .

Then probably eat , and you guessed it, back to the pool.

Embassy Day !

We had our Embassy appointment today , had to be there at 7:15 even though they didn't open the window until 8:15 . our friend Monica meet us there , that was a blessing .

There was only one other adoption appointment .

When we had Hayle's appointment therewere atleast 20 other families waiting.

Just a sad reminder of the children being left in very bad situations due to adoptions being closed.

Please pray God will move the right people to get a good system in place soon.

Monica then brought us back to the hotel, 1st thing on the to do list was swim , so we let the girls swim for an hour , then we all took a nap woke up, they swam some more, atleast we know our pool will get used this summer.

After the second swim it was to the mall to dominos, you would never know from looking at the girls witch one eats the most .Hayle ate 1 1/2 pieces of pizza and Lexis ate 4 1/2 pieces.

Then it was back to the room where Hayle and Lexis did each others nails .

It's amazing for 2 little girls who speak different languages they sure do seem to comunicate well.

They giggle a LOT !

We thought Lexie would be a bit shy ........ AAAHHHH NOT !

She really did pick up where we left off 2 1/2 years ago.

She also seems to really understand the whole family concept .

I believe that is because of all the prayers !

We showed her picture's of Cortney and asked her if she remembers her and she smiles and giggles and says yes !

Last night she looked at Cort's picture and said " Cortney "

Cortney ... you might have to get a double lock on your bedroom door these 2 together just might figure out how to get in your room locked door and all .

Reunited !!!!!!

They arrived at the hotel about 1/2 hour ago. She ran straight for Mark ,

jumped in his arms and said PAPA!!!!

Gave him the biggest hug , then she hugged me and Hayle , she has

not stopped smiling since she got here.

She and Hayle are waiting to go swimming, they already have their

swimsuits on.

More later , but here are some picture's.

Pictures from the past !

Here are some pictures from our visit trip with Lexie , Oct, 2006 , yes ! 2 1/2 years ago .

Saying goodbye to her, knowing she was going back to live in the orphanage and not knowing how long or IF we would ever see her again was the hardest thing we ever had to do , it was awful !!!!!

She was so happy with us , right before they came to take her back , she woke up from a nap, clinbed up on her Papa's lap( that's what she called him ) put her arms around him gave him a big kiss and said " I Love you Papa !"

It will be so wonderful to hold her in our arms again and tell her she never has to go back there .

We have had friends who have visited her for us and taken gifts and she would ALWAYS when is Mama and Papa coming to get me .

The last time was Feb 2009 our friend Suzanne visited and when she told her the gift was from Mama and Papa Zeiler , she said her little face lite up and she had tears in her eyes .

Suzanne told her not to lose hope , imagine a 7 year old child waiting half her lifetime to be with her forever family .