Gotcha Day

Happy Gotcha Day! And what a full day it has been...lots of fun stuff to make memories with!

You know the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words?" This picture says it all.

We started the day by waking up at 5:45. Mom was not happy about this. At all. And little miss never did go back to sleep, even though she was sent back to bed. It was not the ideal setting for a warming family moment :)







We then went to gymnastics, and today was Bring a Friend Day. FUN STUFF! We took Kollin with us, and spoke on the way there about how Kollin was "counting on Melanie" to be his friend and show him around today. Both kids did so well. Here they are in their glory.

You can tell by looking at the picture - Kollin was so into this. Melanie was so NOT. Not gymnastics, specifically, but into the entire photo-with-her-cousin thing. She actually almost got into trouble, because she got really sassy. But finally, we got this one, where at least you can tell who they are. The other photos on the camera were poor at best, so we'll take this one without too many complaints.






Today, we really wanted to do something special for Melanie. We wanted to give her something commemorate this day, but didn't want it to be something too expensive, and we also wanted it to be symbolic and special. We researched and thought and talked and prayed, and finally decided to get her her first bible. We chose "My First Bible" - it has the entire scripture in it, as well as some "story book" sections, where they have pictures and a story-type reading. It also has some scripture memory parts, and lots of other things that we really liked.

Her comment when she opened the bible up was, "Wow!" I told her that a bible was God's special words to us, and that we must take very special care of it, and try to read it often so that we can learn about God. She said, "You have a special bible, right mom?" yup. "Dad has a special bible, right mom?" yup. "Now I have a special bible too! I'm really part of this fambily!" I had to do a lot of blinking on that one! I dont' think you ever really know what will get them. She did love getting that bible though. I thought she might be dissapointed because it wasn't a toy or something, but we never heard that at all, nor did she ask for anything else. I think God blessed that choice!

We also went to Chuck E. Cheese tonight, and celebrated with some of the families that prayed for us while we were picking Melanie up. I'm telling you, I think Chuck has some kid drugs or hypnotic music or something. She LOVES Chuck. She wanted to follow him (or she dressed as he) all night long. It was pretty funny, actually! We had a great time with our friends, and they prayed for and with us for Melanie tonight too.

I still can't believe it's been a year.