6 months ago

It's been six months since the earthquake in Haiti. My heart is heavy for the many people still there struggling just to survive day by day.

I was thinking back and remembering the roughly 2 hours we waited to hear whether our kids were ok, the email from our agency telling us that our wait could now be much longer than the 18-24 months we were expecting so we were free to back out if that was too long for our family to wait and us knowing that Saraphina and Olivier were the children God had chosen for our family - how crazy that we would end up getting our kids just 11 days later!

We are so thankful for the blessing of Saraphina and Olivier joining our family early that we received out of this tragedy. We also continue to be touched by the amazing stories of people and organizations making a difference in Haiti. Please continue to remember Haiti in your prayers.

Here is a picture of the kids today.

Celebration for Saraphina and Olivier!

Please join us as we celebrate the addition of Saraphina and Olivier to our family!

On July 25 we will be dedicating the kids at Grace Church in Eden Prairie at the 10:30am service then heading down the street to Starring Lake Park from noon - 3:30pm. We will have an open house with food and drinks for everyone.

Please consider joining us to celebrate and pass this along to anyone that may be interested! Please no gifts.

Blessings,

John, Jennifer, Jacob, Saraphina and Olivier Bettin

Grace Church Starring Lake Park
9301 Eden Prairie Road 14800 Pioneer Trail
Eden Prairie, MN 55347 Eden Prairie, MN 55347
www.atgrace.com

surgery and leaving the kids

Jacob is being put under for some dental surgery today at 12:15pm - the other two kids are officially being left with someone else for the first time today - big day for our family so any prayers would be so appreciated.

too cute

I just went upstairs to see what was taking John so long putting Olivier down for a nap (it was his first time rocking him and putting him down) and they are both sound asleep in the rocking chair. I would take a picture but would wake them up. It really is so cute.

One month!

It's been one month since we got Saraphina and Olivier - what a month it's been. I was hoping to have time to write a great blog entry but I have limited computer access still and spent most of the evening folding numerous loads of clothes. I will try to post a bit more in the coming days and download the pictures we have been taking so I can share some with you. Thanks to everyone who has been keeping us in your prayers - we are so grateful!

a weekend of firsts

we had a pretty fun weekend with a few first time activities for us as a family of 5:
we went to McD's playland and ate lunch with friends on Friday - all in all it went well although I now know that a just turned 3 year old should not drink the chocolate milk there with an open top and straw, my more experienced mom of 3 friend Kim got a cup and cover and assured me it happened to her too
we went out to Jason's Deli to celebrate Saraphina's birthday with some friends and the kids all did pretty well - I did feel a little bad that we left pretty quickly after we finished, I think I was just happy it went as well as it did and wanted to leave while we were ahead
we took the kids to the MN Zoo on Saturday morning - we only stayed for about an hour and a half but everyone seemed to like it, except for the MN trail which was just a little too cold that morning
we went to church again on Sunday (our 2nd time) - this time we told Jacob he needed to go to Sunday School, he was upset and we had a hard time getting him into his room since we wanted to stay with everyone else and go to "big" church (we tried that last week and it didn't work too well) although Saraphina ran right into his room and started playing, she was not too amused about sitting through "big" church - I am not sure who is more excited about her being able to go to Sunday School, her or me - only a couple more months until they can be in Sunday School
All in all not too bad of a weekend :-)