Friday, March 5, 2010

the kids first BIG concert

we have an awesome time rockin to toby mac, skillet and house of heros last night
I know the kids didn't know what they were in for, fire, explosions, slam dancing and a thousand people packed in a gym floor, true concert F-U-N
we went to see Toby Mac and he was as great a show as we expected

it was really great to be with the boys for their first concert. my mom used to take me,she even took me to REZ band concerts maybe she secretly loved it like I do anyway it made me feel great to be following in her loving steps
Al was truly one step from heavens bliss you could just see it, this was praising God to the extreme! This guy beneath is Toby's bass player he just came out a walked around after the concert which was cool
I've been thinking of our boy Phily lately and on the way to the concert we passed his cemetery and I felt a sting in my heart like , oh man really not today, but after the concert on a total high praising God with my family we passed it again but this time I had a smile on my face and heart thinking of Phil, He truly was a Jesus freak and he would have LOVED this concert!

Monday, March 1, 2010

how is she doing? 6 months later



we have walked a long road to here. As you can see from the 2 pictures it is evident to see she is feeling very much like a Rill. Her English started at nothing and these days I actually am surprised when she says "what does that word mean?" I forget that she still doesn't know it all because she speaks it so well. It is so crazy to think how much your life can change in 6 short months at this time last year we had never seen her face . She has had so many firsts as you have seen. Is always willing to try anything new and loves to have fun. We often comment how happy we are God gave us a daughter who fits our family not a "stage dweller" but an adventurer. My cousin kyle said once "she was born to be a Rill she just had to find her way home" that really sums it all up I think.

The recent death of the policeman from church has really opened Mei's heart for Gods love, Jesus and heaven we continue to pray God will give her the understanding she needs to make a personal commitment not just love Jesus because we do.

The kids naturally have excepted her as we knew they would and she has come to love the kids. B and Mei still have the tightest relationship but her relationship with David is priceless to think that he actually worried about it is kind of a laugh now. She has thankfully aged down becoming more dependent on us. It broke my heart at first to see her do everything by herself. She will now sit a play little kid stuff with Gray and enjoys babies so much more now not as her duty but as her family.
School is a big question a lot of people ask about. David and I teach her kindergarten at home with gray which is going good she loves school.She can recognize most all of the letters in the alphabet and most of the sounds. She does well at Math and said that she had studied that in China as well as printing which I am not sure if she is just good at copying or they practiced them there too. I certainly know that it will be a long process to get her caught up as phonics is a hard thing to learn.

Mei lynn Rill is what she would say if you ask her name. It is really sweet how proud she is of her name and will always print it on all her school papers. She is also proud that she shares her name with aunt lynn and LOVES going over to 4027. We are really happy for that as it is nervous when you choose something that may be a problem taking old names away forever and adding the new. If you say her Chinese name now she puts on a unfavorable face and firmly says NO mei lynn...
Naturally it is hard to put everything down in a few paragraphs the wonder of life, the human brain,an differences in culture are amazing daily. She freely speaks of China very often with us and says the only thing she misses is a friend there but if asked says she has no need to go back there which I know will probably change and that's fine but for now she feels comfortable right where she is.

If you keep up with our blog you know that she considers herself "a 2009 like Emmett and Adeline" which is still interesting to me that to her that is her birth year. It will be interesting to see how her birthday and then her rill day go I have no idea. There are so many wonderful stories God has allowed us to be a part of and we know 6 months is just the beginning

just for fun a look back at a great day

as I was thinking of chad and liv I had to go back and look at Abbie and Chris' wedding pic's here are some of my fav's











i love this picture it is just who she is





















this really was the most fun wedding I've ever been to. What a great day Abbie and Chris we love you!

"it's my favorite weekend of the whole year" David

winterfest 2010

mei's first time tubing "I was really scarry" (her word for scared)
Brixton was the first to take the jump, shawn's there taking the close up pictures
power tubing always fun
mei was at the top of the hill and saw some one go by at the bottom on the power tube and turned to me and said "mama I want to try that" she's always surprising me



having some fun with the camera
got to love the honeycomb, 4out of 5 of my kids are in that mess

so what do you think does she like tubing or not, hard to tell
yes even David got in on it, I kept him off until the last night and then he just couldn't stand by any longer
I put in a few pictures of the Bacon boys for our family in Japan
the little kids and I had 2 fun room mates this year
the sound crew

I always love pictures of chad and liv, if you remember they were Abbie and Chris' flower girl and ring bearer and it still makes me smile

Monday, February 22, 2010

the little things that mean so much

as you know the blog doesn't get many updates simply because we are not able to get out so much anymore. Life is different for us now. Things like these are our special times these days.
Today we found out a policeman from our Church was killed on the job. It has really shaken me, living with a first responder the fear of him not coming home one day is always on my mind. It also infuriates me at what a sinful world we live in. our pastor reminded us yesterday we are to live each day with Christ in the center of our lives, matching His message with our life style. It is alot clearer today thinking of Al Haymaker who sure did that with his life. So although my life doesn't look anything like it used to activity wise I pray that is evident what is really important to me, my God and the little miracles he has given us a few of which are in these pictures, thanks be to God that He is bigger than sin and way smarter than I am.

an outing to the fire house

with a stop at spunky dunkers for donuts we visited our favorite fireman
this picture reminds me of the last scene of the muppet 3D show at Disney. Thumbs up to all who know what I'm talking about.

always nice to visit especially when Dave's on a 48.

Happy Chinese New Year

we celebrated down in china town and visited the firehouse watched the parade and ate yummy food. She didn't seem to know anything about Chinese new year which is weird and still isn't sure about china town