Pennsylvania

Dallas' Adoption Hearing

The new family

Cousins

Visiting the Gross family

Boys

Kid table

Having fun at the science museum

Hey trouble

DeJong/DeMaster cousins

When we returned from Colorado, we were home about 3 days.  Then we jumped back in the car and headed to Pittsburgh to visit Colleen's family.  The summer of road trips!  It was difficult for all of us to get back in the car.  But, we survived the journey.  We met up with the Gross family, friends of ours from South Haven.  Our kids played in the park while the adults caught up, a really nice time.  We then arrived at Mike and Colleen's house.  Grandpa and Grandma D were at the end of their visit and we were all glad for a chance to see them.  On Sunday we went to church and celebrated Mike's birthday. The kids LOVE the trampoline at their house.  The kids constantly bug us to buy a trampoline.  We say no, you can use it at Uncle Mike/Aunt Colleen's house.  The cousins had lots of fun together.  Jack is 5, Abby is 4, Ashley is 2 and Kate is 5 months.  So we had 8 kids under the age of 9 in the house-party!  The adults had some time to play games, after the kids went to bed.

On Monday Mike went to work and Nate, Colleen and I took the kids to the Pittsburgh Science Museum.  The sports area had lots of fun exhibits.  I kept having mini heart attacks because we had so many small children to keep an eye on.  We could have easily spent all day there, but naptime and little kid attention spans wasn't going to let that happen.  That evening we spent more time playing together outside and enjoying each other's company.  On Tuesday morning we packed up and headed home, grateful for the chance to visit.

In between our Colorado and Pennsylvania trips, our nephew Dallas was officially adopted!  Going to the adoption hearing was wonderful.  Tim and Jenny love Dallas so much and have endured much emotional upheaval in the journey to his adoption.  Witnessing the adoption proceedings reminded me of Julia's adoption day.  The judge called our kids up to his chair and was asking them questions about how they were related to Dallas.  Let's just say they did not wow the judge with their knowledge of how our family is related to Tim's family. The judge let each of them bang the gavel to declare the adoption was final.  Also reminded us of when Caleb banged the gavel so hard at Julia's adoption that he broke part of the gavel.  After the hearing Tim/Jenny took the family to Boatwerks restaurant to celebrate.  It will be fun to watch Stephen and Dallas grow up together.  They are starting to fight about sharing and they give adorable hugs when they say goodbye to each other.  Adoption is always a bittersweet process, but we thank God for allowing Tim/Jenny to be Dallas' parents.