Five Fingerprints of God: August 2014

Life has certainly gotten a whole lot busier since our youngest daughter has come home! I pulled up my blog this morning and realized that Philip's Gotcha Day was the last time I posted. Sorry Auntie A, Brenda, and other precious family and friends who like to catch up now and then through these posts.

Vacation time: Kevin and I took our four littles on a wonderful vacation to Virginia to visit historical sites like Thomas Jefferson's home, Williamsburg, and Jamestown. These were great destinations because we had spent the last year studying the birth of our country (our littles' new country), and they relished the visits to each significant place.

But, I gotta tell you, the most beautiful and significant parts of our vacation came with our time together as a new little family, bonding and building lovely memories for each of our kids to tuck into their hearts. Some of the most beautiful of those memories were spent visiting family far away, an aunt, uncle, and cousins in Virginia Beach, an aunt, uncle and cousins in Roanoke, and along the way home another aunt and uncle. Time spent with each of these beloved people helped solidify our littles place in their loving family. They met family they didn't know they had along each stop. They were engulfed in extended family love, and it was beautiful!!

Each layer of family we have added to our littles' world has brought them so much joy, from our immediate circle of a mom, dad, and siblings, to a grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins, to great aunts and uncles and second and third cousins here and far away, Sophia, Philip, Elijah, and Grace continue to grow in love and a knowing of their place in this world. When each of our youngest came home, little did they know the ever widening and deepening circle of family in which they belonged. That has been such a joy for Kevin and me to witness for each of them.

Here are some pictures of our vacation out east. Love, love, love the smiles of our little children's faces in each of the images! Know that they will treasure this time for the rest of their lives. We love vacations!