Becca turns 14!

It is hard to believe our oldest turned 14 on July 8th! We celebrated while we were in Birmingham and we will celebrate with her friends once everyone is back in town from camps, etc. She is so mature for her age and shows so much wisdom and discernment. We are so blessed!

Alexandra was pleased to celebrate Bec's birthday with cake and candles. She loves a good celebration.

We did make it through 2 trips to the lab for blood to be drawn. She definitely doesn't enjoy needles and gets quite scared. Even with a handful of tootsie rolls, we screamed through both times. The second time I did take the other kids and let Becca sit next to her while I held her. Even with both of us there, she hollared for her brothers, hoping they would rescue her. I know the lab techs at Maxwell were glad that was over (as were we!)

We were able to get an appointment in Bham for her eyes in a couple of weeks, so it will be very interesting to see what they say!

Our days continue to be fairly slow! We try to get to the pool at our friend's house quite often, or have play time in the water in the yard!

Friday was our first really busy day as we headed to the lab for bloodwork, went to a luncheon for Layne with his work, had a visit from Allison from Lifeline and then went to house church that night. She did amazingly well with everything, but we did see more of her indeiscriminate behavior at the restaraunt for Layne's luncheon. As we were leaving, she got away from us for a moment and walked behind a man as he was bringing his food up to his mouth and she grabbed his arm and shouted "HOLA!". He just looked at us as his wife just laughed out loud. As I looked around I saw many at different tables witnessing this and smiling. I thought about explaining, but thought it best to just to scoop Alex up, say "I'm sorry" and head out.

She did reasonably well at house church as well and our friends were so kind and patient with us as we asked them to help to send her to us when she went to them for attention and affection. She is getting better and better with each day at coming to us for that attention. She couldn't resist running into our friend's arms however as she was worshipping with her hands raised while on the floor with her child. Alex just knew that was our friend looking for a hug. It was so cute! It was wonderful to hear her say 'Halleluia' along with us! It sounds wonderful in any language! It was so great to have some much needed fellowship.

This weekend has been more swimming and playing. and as I type this, Alexandra stands here in a "ballerina" outfit looking at pictures of us from Peru. She remembers all of our friends we met while there as well as her friends from New Life.

God still continues to remind us of His unconditional love for us. It is nothing we do that earns His love, just as it is nothing Alexandra does to earn ours. We love her like our own, because she is our child. Such a great picture of how God loves us, because we are His, not because of anything we do!