fathers day fun and baby raccoons

fun at the park

Family Update!

Happy holidays from our family to yours!

The past 2 years have been full of excitement and change for our family.  We were able to complete the adoption of our 2 youngest boys!  They have been a great blessing to our family and have brought much joy to us.  We worked on the interior of our big yellow house and brought it up to date.  Dan was able to switch jobs and work for a wonderful man in our church as a mechanic.  And finally, and most importantly God has worked mightily in our family, through our church, and we are excited to see the future he has in store for us.  We have put our house on the market and moved to Wyoming!  This is just a quick highlight of our past 2 years.  More details to follow – so keep reading!

Dan and Tara

We have now been married almost 8 years and are so thankful for each and every moment.  The challenges have grown us as Christ followers, as a couple, and as parents.  Dan was able to change jobs June of 2011 and became a mechanic.  In doing so, Tara was able to become a stay-at-home wife and mother.  It was a huge adjustment for Tara and one she is still working on figuring out!  Dan greatly enjoyed mechanic work and doing something different each day.  We were able to travel to Ethiopia twice in 2011.  The first trip, we went for our court hearing for the little ones, and

were able to travel to numerous places in Ethiopia.  During this trip, God greatly started a work in our lives.  We were finally able to travel back in December of 2011 to bring our little ones home and finally become a family of 5!  We went through some medical struggles in 2012 – measles for most, ringworm for all, a dislocated shoulder, appendicitis for Dan, and finally surgery for Mason!  It has definitely been an interesting year.  There were many ups and downs, but we can see how God has been orchestrating our lives to fulfill His will and plan.

 

Mason, Sieber, and Justus 

The boys have done great getting adjusted to one another!  There are lots of hugs and kisses as well as lots of hitting and wrestling!

  Mason is now 3 ½ years old.  He still loves playing football, soccer, and basketball.  Everything to him is a race – from going up the stairs, to eating, to taking a walk. 

  Sieber is almost 2 ½.  He loves animals – any kind of animal is a complete fascination for him.  He rambles all the time.  We are not quite able to understand him yet, but he has a lot to say.  He is also the smallest of the three, but can definitely hold his own with the others. 

  And finally, Justus, the baby, is now 2.  He is the biggest of them all, weighing more than Mason.  He is a mama’s boy through and through.  He is fairly laid back, and wants to be just like his big brothers!  Anything they do, he is right behind them trying to do the same thing! 

  All three are just fun to be around and are very loving to each other and us.  We are so blessed to have them in our lives!

God is at Work!

God has been at work in Dan and I over this past year.  It has been exciting to follow His leading.  This past fall, Dan made the decision to follow the Lord’s call to the ministry.  We have put our home in Garden City on the market and have moved to LaGrange, Wyoming.  We would like to ask first of all, if you would join us in prayer for our house to sell.  We believe God has the perfect family out there who will love our house as much as we did.  At this point, God has led us to Frontier School of the Bible.  Dan is taking classes full time and Tara is able to take a couple classes as well.  We are unsure as to what the future holds for us, but we trust the Lord in this first step of preparation.  The program here is a three year program, and we trust that the Lord will open our eyes to the next step He has for us.   I would like to ask you to pray for our family.  Pray that we would raise the boys as he would see fit, that we would continue to follow in His steps, and that he would provide for us financially as well during this time here at school. 

Thirty-One

Tara has been blessed to have the opportunity to sell Thirty-One products.  In doing so, Tara is able to help in supporting the family financially, but is also able to get out and spend time with other ladies.  She loves the products and using them daily around the house.  Thirty-One is a Christian based direct sales organization that is named after the Proverbs 31 woman.  If you have time, we would love you to hop over to Tara’s website (www.mythirtyone.com/tarasimmons) and look through the products.  If you would like to place an order, you can do so directly online.  If you would like to be added to our mailing list, let me know, and I can email you when there are specials and other great deals.  Also, if you would like to host a party and earn some awesome incentives, let me know!  Even from a distance, we could hold a catalog or online party to get you some great free stuff! 

Would you please join us in Prayer?

• Pray for our house in Garden City to sell.
• Pray for our finances for school and living.
• Pray for Dan to find employement.
• Pray for the boys and our new routine.
• Pray for Dan and Tara to keep up with studies.
• Pray for us as we seek the will of God.
• Pray for success for Tara in Thirty-One.

Love It!

Well, life has been great and busy!  We have had a great and busy couple of weeks.  Here is a picture overview!

We hosted 3 great boys from the Uganda Orphan's Choir.  They were so muc fun and absolutely love the boys!

Mason all dressed for church!

Sieber and Justus loving the Mashed Potatoes!!

Nap time with cousin Keagen

Apparently Sieber thought the dog bed was a good place to sit and have a drink

Pictures

Getting to see Dan at work.

Justus crashed in the car on the way to the jobsite to see Dan.

Getting ready for a picnic lunch in the middle of a field.

Sieber loved the wide open spaces to run

Dan and Sieber eating lunch

Sieber and Mason in a front end loader

Mason had to bring the football to play with Dan

BBQ at our house.  We made a water toy for the kids  They weren't so sure about it at firsst.

Justus loved his first ice cream cone!

Defitely not built for 2!

Cousins

Cousins

Brothers!  They have a great time together!

At this time, Sieber is winning - it generlally doesn't last long though!

Sieber

Justus and Sieber chasing me down when I was trying to get pictures of them

Happy Easter

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures of the boys dressed in their fine Ethiopian clothes for church today.  We picked out this outfit for Mason when we were last in Ethiopia in December, and the clothes that Sieber and Justus are wearing were given to us by the workers of the transition home at a final going home coffee ceramony.

Mason who is almost 3

Sieber who is 19 months

Justus who is 15 months

Remiss

I have definitely been remiss in my blogging as of the past two months.  It has been complete chaos around here!  We have really adjusted well to having 3 young boys around the house!  We have been fighting off one bug or another since we have been home, but are doing so much better!

So, to talk about the family - the boys are amazing!  All three of them.  Mason adores his little brothers!  He hugs and kisses them all the time.  Knocks them over to give them hugs quite a bit.  He also loves to wrestle with them as well and they have figured it out.  They are all doing so well.  Sieber is walking all over, running (or at least trying to) at times.  He has gained weight, but is still small!   He is trying to communicate.  You can tell that he wants to talk and tell us things, but can't.  I look forward to when he can tell us what he wants.  He is our impatient one also.  When he is ready to eat, he has no patience to wait for you, you must provide food NOW!!!  It's kind of comical.  He also absolutely adores the dog.  Can't seem to get enough of the mutt!   Justus is not walking yet, he crawls everywhere and is definitely a mama's boy.  He is trying to walk and has taken a step.  He is a beast!  I would love to be able to weight him and see where he is at, but it is at least 26lbs if not more!  we call him Chewie.  He doesn't really cry and scream, he moans and makes weird noises that sound like Chubaca (forgive the spelling) from Star Wars.  Too funny!  He is pretty laid back though, which is great!

They are just absolutely wonderful, and I have promised myself (and my mother, who will hold me accountable) to keep this blog updated.  We live apart from numerous family members and I am trying my best to get better at updating the blog to help keep them updated on our family and the boys.

I am enjoying staying home with the boys and Dan is doing great at work!  He loves working as a mechanic!  He is definitely in his element.  They are getting super busy already for the summer rush.  Dan is starting to work longer hours and starting to work Saturdays as well.  His boss is great.  Dan gets to eat lunch with his family every day - there will be the opportunity for me and the kids to join them as well.  Mason adores their little girl Karly.  I am enjoying staying at home.  It has been a huge transition for me!  I mean HUGE!  I have worked for so long out of the home, that being here all the time is so different.  The kids keep me busy!  Also, there is endless laundry, and dishes, and cleaning, and sweeping  It's hard!  I am definitely getting better at it.  I have never been the best housekeeper (any roommate I have had will attest to that - gladly I am sure), but I have learned to love to do the dishes and keep the kitchen clean.  I am working on a system to keep up with the laundry so it doesn't become such a huge project.  I am trying to deep clean things, organize things, and simplify things. It has been a good challenge for me.  I found and ave started working through the book - 31 Day to Clean, Having a Martha house the Mary Way.  It has been interesting to read and has been challenging at the same time.  It's been good and very helpful for me. 

Well, It is 10 and I need to head to bed so I am ready for a new day tomorrow!  I will post more soon!!!

Enjoy the pictures!!!