Beach Fun!

We took the kids to the beach during a school day. We kept it a secret and surprised them. They had a blast and said it was better than doing school! Below are fun pictures of the awesome day we had!

What we are up to lately

We are currently at Fort Lee, Virginia and will find out the beginning of October where we will be moving to in January. I'm almost 26 weeks pregnant with baby "E". We call the baby "E" because both the boy and girl names we have chosen begin with the letter "E". The baby is due Dec. 29th so it can be a Dec/Jan baby. We are still adopting from Africa. We plan to continue with the adoption process in Feb 2012 after we are settled in with the move and baby. The kids are doing great in school. We are homeschooling and Josiah is in 5th, Malachi in 3rd, and Aliyah in K. Judah plays around, makes us laugh, and gets into everything during school! The older 3 kids are in soccer, cubscouts, and girlscouts. We are keeping busy around here for sure. Frank is doing awesome in his class and is in phase #2 of 3 phases. He will graduate mid December from this class. We are anxious to know where we are moving to! Well, that is a quick update around here!

Meeting my sister!

Labor Day weekend, we drove to South Carolina to meet my sister and her kids for the first time! I've posted before about my new sister but here is a quick update. My birth mom had my sister, Datra when she was single and 19 yrs old. Datra is 20 months older than me. She gave her up for adoption, and also kept it a family secret as well. My family did not know about her. Apparently, after the adoption, my mom did confide in my grandma and aunt that she did in fact have a baby and gave her up for adoption. She also confided in my biological father, who told me about the adoption when I met him in prison in 1999. I kept it a secret, as I was told that no one in the family knew about her so I didn't want to upset anyone, nor did I know if it was true. The secret was confirmed as truth about 3 years later by my aunt, (my mom died when I was 3 yrs) but she didn't have any info about my sister at all. Fast forward to 2011 when the internet is amazing! My sister found me on Facebook in March of this year! Amazing, right?!!

Anyhow, it was a great weekend and I immediately connected with my sister and just loved her kids! She has 3 children, Dacia 13 yrs, DaShaun, 11 yrs, and Da'mari 9 yrs. My kids loved her kids and vise versa! It was such a great time getting to know one another for sure. I also met Datra's adoptive father and he was such a great guy! He told me how my mom lived with his aunt for the last few months of her pregnancy and he got to know her well. He also commented on how much I look like my mom :) In the end, it is amazing how this story unfolds. One day, I may find the encourage and time and write a book about my life, and a memoir to my mom. I desire to do it, but at the moment, I just don't have the time to put into it.

Enjoy the pics!