We are now parents of 7 children. We met the kids through the foster care system and came to know and love them. They moved in with us on March 10 and the adoption was final on November 19. Let us introduce our new members of our family: Timothy Hezekiah is 11 and is in 5th grade. Elizabeth Rose is 9 and is in 4th grade. Jacob David is 6 and is in 1st grade. Daniel Nathan is 4 and is in Preschool. And Lydia Pearl is 2 and is in the home. Adoption Day was at the Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas. We plus 37 other families adopted 63 children on the National Adoption Day. The day opened with an Opening Ceremony with guest speakers and a dove release. While we waited for our time to appear before the judge we were free to explore the Exploration Place. It was a fun place to explore with family and friends who came to watch the adoption. After a box lunch, it was our turn. Our judge shared that he was a juvenile judge and doing adoption is a highlight of his year. And it is personal to him since he was adopted too. He then signed the papers to make our adoption final.
Peter and Ruth both made a career change in 2016. Peter finished his time at KU and is now working in Topeka at the Department of Environment and Health as a Chemist. He continues to live in Lawrence and enjoys running and biking. Ruth moved to South Africa in January and is serving with Onthatile Children's Ministries. She works with missionaries, Joel and Rachel Kirby, taking care of abandon babies until they are adopted. Ruth helps with the administration and office work. She also is able to serve at her church and is involved with the college ministry. She has been accepted as a full time missionary with IBM Global and has began to raise support to continue her ministry in Joburg. If you would like to learn more about what she is doing, visit: www.onthatile.org/ruth.
Celebrating 70th Years of Marriage for Veva's Mom and Dad. Veva's family gathered together over Labor Day Weekend to celebrate her Mom and Dad's Anniversary. Their actual anniversary was on November 7, 2016. Thirty-eight of us gathered together to celebrate being a family. We had fun hanging out together, eating together, playing together and spending time with Veva's folks.
Celebrating the Ark Encounter Opening! We were honored to be present at the Grand Opening of the life size Noah's Ark located in Williamstown, Kentucky. The 7 of us squeezed into our van and headed to Williamstown on July 3rd. Upon arrival on July 4th, we set up our tent and began getting the supplies needed for the week. We also took in the area fireworks show. On the 5th we went to the Pre-Grand Opening of the Ark Encounter. It was fun to run into friends from the past, Russ Wight and his daughter who only parked two cars away from us and also Carma Rethmeier and her family from Winfield.
