I took these pictures almost two weeks ago, on November 2nd.
I'd kinda bypassed them thinking I'd already overdone the Fall pictures this year. Hold on, can Fall pictures even be overdone? I think not! Anyway, when I took a look through them again recently, I found a few keepers that I just couldn't give up. So now I'm taking the time to post them!
It was one of our last Fall day trike rides to the park. There aren't too many trees with leaves now. And I'd say the number of 'park days' left, are few and far between, unfortunately.
In Flaunders fields the poppies blow.
Between the crosses, row on row.
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
[ more pictures here ]
It's Orphan Sunday today and I wanted to share a little on something I looked into a while back.
There are approximately 32 provinces in China.
Lilah lived in an orphanage in the Guangdong Province.
In the Guangdong Province alone, there are about 58 known orphanages.
I can't even tell you how shocked I was when I saw this map (pictured below) and realized the staggering number of orphanages and orphans, in just one province of China. Never mind the rest of the world.
We've seen our Lilah's orphanage. We've been called out to and touched and held onto (through the windows of those little baby rooms) by those sweet little orphans. We'll never forget the look on each of their little faces or how some sit in their cribs swaying from side to side - rocking themselves. We say a special prayer for them every single night, that they will each get a family that will love them, with all their hearts.
Because of this experience, we have a greater appreciation of the Lord's compassion and love for the orphan. We are so blessed that He made our circumstances so and asked us to adopt. He was leading us every single step of the way and His reward was huge!
I have to direct you to Ni Hao Y'all, because Stefanie's post today, is incredible.
The pictures below are from our time in China - Dec 2008.
Our beautiful daughter, Lilah Grace Xiao Tong. Orphaned no more.
Psalm 68:5 - A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
I know, these cupcakes are so overdue!
But I knew we'd be at home all day today, so I kept this project for today. Remember this post about our pretty big renovation project? Yes, the one that started back in April! Well it's almost over. We had our new hardwood installed today, which means the leather couch (which is currently taking over our dining room) can be moved downstairs - relief! And I can officially start buying pictures, rugs, new playroom furniture, new office furniture, etc, etc! Oh I'm SO excited!
Oh yes, back to the cupcakes! So Lilah and I made cupcakes this evening and we brought them around to all the neighbourhood children. I think she liked that. She has a very giving spirit, which I love. Of course, by the time we got to the neighbourhood children, she'd eaten three herself!
We skipped Halloween this year.
We have Church on Sunday evenings and we make an effort to not miss, unless we're sick, of course! So I had to make up for skipping Halloween, not that our Lilah girl would ever have noticed. Anyway, yesterday was a crazy busy day, but today we pulled out the Tinkerbell dress, the wings, the crown, the fancy shoes... And Lilah, was in love. She looked at herself in the mirror in awe and said "I'm a REAL princess!" To be honest, I was going for the Fairy Tinkerbell look, but whatever. She's beautiful. Just plain beautiful.
We then walked down to the little corner shop at the end of our street and I bought her a packet of Malteasers. They're a big favourite around our house! And tomorrow I'm hoping to make those Halloween cupcakes we've been planning for a while now.
She's worn this dress before, I originally bought it for her 2nd birthday. Oh how she's grown since then!
