Just cuz they are so cute...

Alot of my pictures of Kloe have Mya in them. With each one of MK and Keith's babies one of the kids sort of "takes" over. I think Miss Kloe will be Mya's baby :) She walks her, gets her up, changes her diapers and will be right my MK's side when she gives her a bath. I love this maternal stuff....

Tebow time in the Briggs family :)

We have a family that loves to watch football...mom not included ( well not to much). The kids all have heard about Tim Tebow and his amazing way that he honors God. So we had a bit of fun Saturday...We were also cutting the boys hair and so Isaiah got a T for Tebow :) Even little Mady got into it. We as a family love how you believe and how you express your thanks and love for the Lord. Great role model for the many watching you.

This leads to this...which leads to the last 3 :)

 Snow and more snow and the kids start to beg, "Can we go outside ?"

 Then it is total chaos but in the end they are dressed and they stay outside literally for hours :) So it is worth it. Fortunately many people over the yrs have shared boots, and snowpants so we have enough for everyone to stay dry and warm...again the Lord has provided and we are thankful.

Some have asked how the new kids from Ghana like the snow....See for yourself

They love it ! There was no adjustment problems with the cold at all. Which when you think about it and where they came from- Ghana which is hot all year - Pretty amazing ! but they are :)

More snow joy...

 We had snow over a week ago...and the kids took full advantage of it.

 Even Andrew got in on the fun....

 They stayed out for hours....

And of course you have to drink hot chocolate afterwards :)

Praise God once again for His provision.....11 of us needed fingerprints for our I600a

These are the 11 of us who are 18 and over still at home...I call them our "Briggs team". Or the A team of caregivers and they are super! They also are required for our adoption to all be fingerprinted at a USCIS facility for our I600a approval. In almost all of our adoption journeys I have stressed about this part. Now since the girls all turned 18 last year you would think , " How do they coordinate getting everyone to get their fingerprints ? " 11 is alot to get together and our fingerprint appt. are in Baltimore which is a 2 hr drive. They have jobs, school including college schedules and our own childcare. I don't why I always stress but it might be do to the "personality" of the USCIS. ( If you have ever adopted you understand my comment). In the past they have not been my favorite authority to deal with....However for both of our Ghana adoptions- the previous one and this one now we have been amazed at how wonderful our communications have been and their willingness to work with our unique family. We received Paul's and mine appt. notices to get our fingerprints last wknd...but not the 9 others because they are not the petitioners and the system usually assigns an officer who then looks at your homestudy and then sees you need other people fingerprinted and so it looked like it was going to be a long , drawn out process just to get us all there. Also for our earlier adoptions ( 9 and 10 yrs ago) we could go to a closer facility. ( They actually recognize there because of how many times we have done this). We also ask but no one ever has let us go there. Until this time. Paul called and got a personal phone number from the I600 unit that the applications are all mailed to and has been communicating with them. This am an officer called us and said that she called the closer facilty herself ( she did not have to) and they agreed to accomadate all of us when we come in. Even though we only have 2 letters for Paul and me. Also we can go anytime now even though our date was for Feb. 14....So most of us will be going down to get this down Friday...and we are praising God today because we know that it was Him who set this all up....When we are obedient to His will than He puts His plan in place- and we are always amazed at how He does this. As much as I love adoption and growing our family , it is the best thing ever to be apart of what the Lord is doing...and to watch His plan unfold. Thank you Jesus for your provision once again ! I can't wait for the next part....eagerly waiting and praising Him for allowing us to be apart of this journey.

I am adding this info...because you asked. The biometric fee for one set of fingerprints is 85. So multiply that times11 plus the application fee for the I 600a and we paid $1655.00 just for one of the steps to adopt our 3 from Ghana...I did share before that the Lord met that need...It was the stress of getting us all there and hoping to use the closer facility that was met this am.. :)

Birthday wishes for Caleb ( 13) and Abraham ( 29)

 Of course their choice of dessert was our ever famous, Dirt Dessert :)

Caleb never wants to smile so the small squeaks of a smile is all we got Sat. during his celebration. He and Abraham chose to celebrate on the same day this year. Abraham is getting to be an old man now :) and Caleb just stepped into the teen world. Happy b-day guys !

My "grand" babies are the grandest.....and a blessing to us

 This is how Kloe is wrapped and so the other 2 girls ( Mady and Ava) wanted us to wrap them. We have lots of fun with them...and thankfully they live so close we see them lots.

 This was taken last week when I went down for the consignment sale. Zoe is 5 months now and so cute. She has the biggest eyes and funniest expressions with her mouth.

 These were taken at the Mexican restaurant...they love Mexican.

 I grabbed these off of Jenn's bloghttp://www.thehambrickfamily.blogspot.com/

Oh how I wish the NC grandbabies lived closer...I miss them and have to settle for long distance loving on them.

I also have 2 grandsons ( Laura Jeane and Brian's) , Tyler and Drew who live closer to us but we do not get to see them often. They are very busy and we are not to much into their lives- Not at all our choosing but their parents. It is just as painful to be close but not "close"...I do thank the Lord for the gifts of my children and the blessings of grand children.