Soccer!

Samuel is playing soccer again this spring and Adam is coaching his team. Their first game was Saturday, March 28th. It was really cold and had been raining for days before so the field was muddy. They didn't cancel the game though, so we all sat out and froze watching the game. Samuel is actually doing pretty well this season and attempting to play. Here's a few pics of him in action.

Little Hands Toward Heaven - Unit 12

Unit 12 was titled Samuel Listens to God. Samuel liked this lesson from the start when he found out it was about a boy named Samuel. "Like me" he said when we first read about him. We started out reading about how Hannah prayed and asked God for a baby. I got out Samuel's baby book and he and I looked through his baby pictures and talked about how Mommy and Daddy had prayed for a baby also. He loved looking at his baby pictures and watching a few videos of when he was little. Samuel also learned most of the days of the week during this unit. Our rhyme for the week had them in the verses and so he can say most of them now. Sometimes he leaves out Friday, but for not knowing any of them before he does really well.

The next day we read about how Hannah's prayer was answered and she had Samuel. We also read how she took Samuel to the temple to live with Eli since she had promised to give him to God. We read a devotional about being joyful. We also painted a letter J. Samuel loved that!

The next day we read about how Samuel was in bed and kept hearing a voice calling to him. He thought it was Eli, but it was really Godl. We talked about the importance of listening. Samuel worked on his Letter J page and did a great job finding all the J's.

Samuel also got to practice following directions while we made this picture to show that Samuel said yes to God. First he had to draw black lines coming down from the top to be God's voice, then a yellow rectangle to be a pillow, then a blue square to be Samuel's blanket. I helped him a little with writing the letters across the bottom.

The next day we read about some things that happened when Samuel was a little older. We read how the Israelited turned away from God and the Ark of the Covenant was captured. We played a game called "Capture the Ark" Basically we had some yellow legos that represented the ark and we took turns hiding them under the cup and seeing if the other person could find "the Ark" Samuel loved this game and even played it again later that night when Daddy got home.

Today we finished the unit by reading about how Samuel (now an old man) annointed Saul as king. Samuel drew a picture of Saul and then using cooking oil "annointed" him. The pictures didn't come out very well because my battery was about to die.

Of course, the unit wouldn't be complete wtihout Tape Day! Here's the J we made this morning. Samuel was in a weird mood and refused to get in the picture.

Samuel Funny

Samuel is always saying crazy stuff and cracking us up. We've been telling him since he was old enough to understand that he's adopted. We have told him that Mommy's tummy was broken and so he was in Miss A's tummy. After he was born, she gave him to us and he became our son. He knows that God put him in Miss A's tummy and in our hearts.

So, here's the conversation we had the other night at dinner...

Samuel: Before I was borned I was in Miss A's tummy
Me: Yes
Samuel: It was dark in Miss A's tummy and I didn't have a flashlight.

Ha ha! We were cracking up!

Samuel's Birthday Pictures

Here's some pictures from Samuel's birthday. He actually got to celebrate twice - once on Sunday with my parents and then again on Monday with Adam's family.

These are from Sunday with Grandma and Gramps.

These are from Monday with Nana, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Wendy, Jacob, and Sarah Beth.

Happy Birthday, Samuel!

I can't believe that Samuel is 4 years old today! Four years ago today, we got a call at 4am from our social worker telling us that A (Samuel's birthmom) was at the hospital and in labor. We hurried to get ready and get on our way. We had about a 3 hour drive ahead of us and hoped to make it in time for Samuel's birth. We got to the hospital at 7:20am and our social worker met us in the lobby. She told us that Samuel had been born at 7:07am. He weighed 5 lbs 12 oz and was 21 inches long. We went to A's room and she was in bed holding Samuel. We went over and gave her a hug and then she said, "Here's your son" and handed Samuel to me. We were so excited to finally be parents! We spent the rest of the day with A and Samuel at the hospital. We were able to take Samuel home with us to meet the rest of the family the next afternoon. The past 4 years have flown by and I can't believe that Samuel is so big!

Here's a few pics from the last 4 years.

Samuel at the hospital a few hours after he was born

Samuel's 1st Birthday

Samuel's 2nd Birthday

Samuel's 3rd Birthday

At Cades Cove a couple of months ago

We're Moving!

We are moving! We've been in a 2 bedroom apartment since moving from Chattanooga and this week we found a great 3 bedroom house. It has a big yard for Samuel to run around in and is in a nice neighborhood. It's only a few miles from our current apartment so still convenient for church, work, grocery stores, etc. It's a brand new house and the landlord still has to do a few things like install appliances, seed the yard, and do some landscaping so it won't be ready until April 1st. We can't wait!

Kitchen - definitely more space than our apartment kitchen! They are going to be installing stainless steel appliances so they should look really nice.

Looking into the dining/living room from the kitchen

Looking into the dining/living room from the hallway

This will be Samuel's bedroom

The office/guest bedroom/catch all room

Master bedroom - it opens out onto the deck which kind of makes me nervous, but I'm sure it has a good lock :)

The back deck runs the whole length of the house and is all covered.

Garage - Adam is loving the size of the garage and is super excited about getting all his tools and yard stuff back from my parents house. He can't wait to mow the yard again. Yep, he's wierd!