Catching up!

For Matthew, Vivian, and Annie Kate Bonner, July has been a month full of meeting family and making fun memories!
It was neat that it worked out for our first American holiday to be the 4th of July since our kids had just arrived as American citizens.
We took the kids to Gareth's hometown (Waynesboro) to meet the great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, and spend a day at the farm. 

Our initial stop was to Ninny's house to have their first Bomb-Pop. It's a grandchild, and great grandchild tradition. (Wish we would have taken a picture with Ninny but we got busy and forgot!)

Ninny invited us to her sister's (Aunt Mickey) house to pick some blueberries. They have lots of animals there, and the kids especially loved visiting the horses.

Next stop was to Mammaw's house for lunch! She lives on a farm with cows, a dog, a cat, and new kittens. We heard lots of begging for the kittens to come home with us. Sorry, kiddos....Mom's allergic. 

Matthew's middle name is Mallie (so is Gareth's), and Mammaw lives on Mallie Bonner Road, named after Gareth's great-grandfather. We paused our cow-spotting adventure to snap this shot.

It was a great first 4th of July!

A week later, they made their first trip to my home state: 

 We were on our way to Ormond Beach for my sister's wedding, but stopped at Navarre first to visit family who were already there on vacation. We did our best to describe to the kids where we were going and what we would do when we got there. Just knowing we were going swimming made the ride even longer for them!

Matthew could barely stand the wait. 

 This was their first beach experience. "Big Water" as they call it :) Matthew jumped right in, but the girls were timid at first. It's an overwhelming place if you've never been before, but after watching us get in, they quickly learned how fun it can be! It was especially fun to play with their cousin Bren and aunts and uncles. 

The next day we continued our quest through Florida to be a part of Aunt Terri's wedding festivities. 

This time we were on the Atlantic coast! 

These are my younger siblings. Since we live in three different states, it is very rare that the four of us are together! We were thankful we were able to make it!

Here we all are with our families.

While I was helping Terri with the last minute wedding details, Gareth took the kids to the beach. It's not easy keeping up with three kids who don't speak English in a fun, new place, but he did it like a pro, and I love him even more for it. 

Check out these awesome photos he took of them :)

I'd say they were doing just fine with Dad.

Terri and John's big day turned out beautiful! 

I'm so glad my family could be a part of it! 

Our next big adventure was going to the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham. We took our kids for initial physical and developmental assessments. We will go again in 6 months to see their progress. The kids had to have blood drawn, and that was quite dramatic. They recovered quickly, and we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch, and they got to play some. The best and worst part of our medical visit was that the doctors want to make sure the kids do not have any parasites. 

They asked us to do stool samples at home. For each kid. Three separate times. Every other day. 

The kids think we are officially crazy.

I say it's the best for this reason: it has caused A LOT of hilarious conversations in our car and house. Currently, if they have to go Number 2, and they tell us in time to put the bucket in, they get ice cream. Yep. We are bribing our children, but you know what, it's working. You can imagine why it's the worst part, but I'll spare you the details. 

We couldn't visit North Alabama without going to Huntsville to see Gab (Gareth's sister) and her family: her husband Joseph, 2-year-old Banks, and 2-month-old Jude. Matthew, Vivian, and Annie Kate had never met any of them, and we knew they'd especially love their kids. So Gab prepared a delicious lasagna, and when the kids finished theirs, they got cookies (again with the bribing)! Then we all played outside with Banks and the dog, Cash, until it was time to go (sadly). We would have loved to stay longer, but it was a wonderful 3 hours!

Baby Jude love :)

We are all happy to be back home again! Our minds are now focused on getting ready for school. Not only do Gareth and I have classrooms to get ready, but we have three kiddos to enroll, and we need to shop for school clothes and supplies. Just this week, we were blessed by a family donating money to help us buy those school supplies. God knows our every need!  I can't wait to load up a basket with school goodies and put their sweet names on everything. 

We would appreciate your prayers as we prepare them for going to school. Annie Kate will start in Kindergarten, Vivian will be in 1st grade, and Matthew in 3rd. Please pray for a smooth, positive transition for them as we enter into this new phase together. 

Thank you :)