Our Weekend in Indiana

This past weekend we traveled to South Bend, Indiana for a tournament....of course the first thing on the agenda was to do some swimming!

Only Daddy knows how to do the waist-towel-wrap-around-look just right.

The games were held on the Bethel College campus...normally the tournament is held on the Notre Dame campus, but they are doing lots of rennovations this year, so we'll have to wait til next year to see it.

I thought it would be fun to have a picnic by this pond, but JJ was not diggin it, so the girls hung outside for a bit while the boys went and coached. Jayla LOVES dirt, sand, grass, anything that she can dig in with her fingers.

I could sit and watch Jayla all day. She is such a hoot.

Can you tell she has a chicken nugget in her mouth?

The inch worm crawl.

Standing preferred.

It is so hard to catch JJ in a picture right now....can you tell? He RUNS from the camera. :)

The high school boys have a break from tournaments during the month of June, so Jake coached the little guys this weekend. Here he is giving the 6th grade boys some strategy before the game.

JJ drew up a few plays of his own. This one was for JJ, Yaw, Dow, Esi, Solomon, and Mommy. Now, that is QUITE the team!

I cannot believe these subtle, yet precious curls on Jayla's noggin. I just LOVE them!

Missy girl can now walk well holding onto only one hand. Today I tried letting go and she took two steps on her own and then was on the ground....she is getting the hang of the balancing thing.

I have to tell you the story behind this little girl reading books with Jayla. Her name is Bella and her big brother plays in Jake's program...... Bella was adopted from Guatemala. Her mom came and sat by me at the tournament this weekend and shared with me that originally they were supposed to be adopting Bella's biological and older brother (who at the time was around 2 years old). After they had prepared themselves to adopt her brother, something happened with rules/govt/etc and they were not able to adopt her brother. They were heart broken and she started crying just telling me about it. She said how she completely understands how hard it is to prepare your heart and mind for a certain child and how you really grow a little spot in your heart for them, even before you have them in your life. Anyways, after things fell through with the adoption of Bella's brother, Bella had been born, and they instead were able to begin the process of adopting her instead. She told me SO MANY little stories about Bella and what a sweet little girl she is, and what a big blessing she has been in their life. They have 3 other children already, and she said Bella just loves being part of a family - and has especially grown attached to their youngest son - Thomas - who plays in Jake's program. She said that we don't always know why God leads us to certain things, but He certainly worked their situation out for good. I have been so amazed at little stories like this that keep popping up within Jake's program....I had no idea Bella was adopted before this weekend. I love how God continues to keep me inspired and excited about adoption in the midst of us trucking along in this process. :)

Okay - back to the trip....lucky for JJ our hotel had a park right outside our rooms!

I think all boys go up the slide like this.

Watchin the Doodle Bops on the way home.

While we were in Indiana Nana Yaw had some excitement of his own....this weekend marked his first time playing in the summer league with what will be his Des Moines Christian high school team (if everything pans out with his student visa).

I had no idea what a summer league was....I am pretty sure they did not have this when I was in high school, but then again, I didn't play high school basketball, so, who knows? Basically all the area teams get together each Sunday and play 2 games each....this weekend's league was held at Ballard High School right here in Huxley. This morning I chatted with Yaw about it, and he was still pretty excited from yesterday. Des Moines Christian won both of their games, and he said he had a lot of fun! It's going to be so fun watching him play high school ball this winter!

That's the scoop for now!