School's OUT!

Another year behind this little girl!  Time just goes TOO fast!! Caroline's 2nd year of preschool came to an end in May.  She started out at MacArthur Baptist and we switched her to Northwest Bible (our church) in January due to our move.  She did GREAT and didn't skip a beat!  She quickly made friends with everyone in the class and loved going every school day.  She learned quite a bit more at her new school and finished knowing how to write almost all of her letters, as well as her name.  It was also really neat that she got to see most of her classmates on school days, in the nursery at church and also at choir, so our weeks were full of friends!

Caroline got to take cupcakes on the last day of school to celebrate her summer birthday.  She picked out ones with hot pink frosting and princess hearts on top.

Here are two of a kind!  Caroline and her best friend Madie.

SO proud of our little girl!  She really has grown into a beautiful person both inside and out!

We love you big 3 year old!!  Off to the 4 year old class for now!

Yordanos

Meet Yordanos!

An adorable 4 year old from Ethiopia!  

We decided to start sponsoring this little one in March after an email went out to my home church in Colorado stating that children were awaiting sponsorship.  A girl I grew up with in Greeley, helped establish the Elshadai Development Organization and lives full time in Ethiopia.  She has made quite an impact in so many children's lives!  We saw this face and just could not say no!  Caroline loves the idea that Yordanos is exactly her age and it has been so neat to see my children really excited about praying for and thinking about someone else.  Every night at dinner and night time, both kids blurt out "Don't forget Yordanos!" every single time.  Although we've never met her, we sure love this little girl!!

You can read more about this organization on their website here.  There are many different places out there where you can give money, but I love this one because it is small and has ties back to home for me.  Caroline keeps saying that she wants to meet Yordanos one day and one day I really hope we get to!  I have always wanted to go to Africa and this just makes going even sweeter!  I can not tell you how many times I have been able to explain different things to my kids using Yordanos.  At the store today Cooper was crying about us not buying a toy that he wanted.  I told them that we can't always get what we want and we need to use our money wisely.  Our money has to go towards food, our house, our needs, gas and even money to give to Yordanos.  It is much more important to help others than to get toys.  Not sure they loved that answer, but they really did stop crying!  :)  And my favorite memory of this has got to be from a couple months back.  I had been explaining to Caroline that some children, like Yordanos, do not have food every day like we do and that we are very lucky.  She said "Does she even have a refrigerator?"  I told her that most likely she does not.  Then several weeks later we were talking about what to send her for her birthday.  The first thing Caroline came up with to send her was a Fridge!

This has been such an amazing experience for my children!!