We're getting in a pretty good groove over here. Ava has settled into a sort of routine. She goes to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 then sleeps until 3am then up around 6. She will nap again around 10am for a couple of hours. Then we play and hang out until 3:30 or so and she'll take another short nap. She's eating well and growing. At our doctor visit Monday she had gained another pound so she's up to 14.7! The doctor said she is very strong and looks healthy. Music to my ears.


We took Ava to church for the first time on Sunday. I'm not comfortable yet leaving her in the nursery, not b/c of the nursery itself, just b/c of Ava's having been in an orphanage. I just want to make sure she feels secure enough before we set her in an environment like that. I have a feeling she will be fine though. She's handled everything else so well. We'll have to work up to that. She did great in Sunday school and church though. She got a little vocal in Sunday School so I took her out for a bottle. Everyone was so happy to see her. When I went back to the Sunday School room I couldn't go right in because they were having prayer time. Meanwhile, another class let out right next to ours and many people stopped to see her and told me they had been praying for us and reading the blog. A lot of them I had not met before. I just think that is so neat that we had people who don't even know us praying for us and for Ava. That happened all day long before and after the service. What a blessing it was to us to hear that! We are still talking about it. Ava doesn't know it but she's already special to so many people. I think this process of adoption is just a reminder of how Christ has adopted us into His family. It is a precious thing. We, like Ava, did nothing to "deserve" such unconditional love. But it has been poured out for us and now we belong to His family as Ava does to ours. In the service, on the pulpit, they had a rose and a pair of booties for Ava's first day. They had an announcement in the bulletin also. It was a day that we had been looking forward to for a long time. I had daydreamed about bringing our baby to church for as long as I can remember. Now it's a reality and a beautiful memory. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people around us at church. They have prayed with us and for us and covered us with those prayers. They have brought us meals and shared in our excitement over Ava. It's fun to have people excited with us!! It makes it even MORE special to have friends to share this time with.

On our way home we saw there was some sort of art festival in Fayetteville so we stopped there. It was a beautiful, windy day and we got to enjoy that as we got some food there and ate outside. Ava enjoyed it too! They had all sorts of food there and we got a little of almost everything. But we missed the kettle corn booth-rats!!

That afternoon we headed home for a nap. We got a call from Jack and Sherry Hancock that they were celebrating some birthdays over there and we were invited. We headed over there in the evening. Sherry is an awesome cook and we always enjoy her food and the company of course is always fun. So we had dinner there and got to see their new grand baby too. They show so much love to Ava and their friendship has meant a lot to us over the year . Ava seems to have fun with them as well! But, who wouldn't?!?

So we had a pretty busy weekend. It was full of fun and also some firsts. We hope to have more weekends just like it! I threw in some random pics from the week.