Fun pictures!

She's not in pain, this is her "smile for the camera" smile.

Holly, check out our new (sale!) Keens!

My first small group girl got married a couple of weeks ago. This is one of the bridesmaids, Megan, and Sabrina in their Converses. Megan is our friend Sue's daughter.

Sabrina took this picture at the reception:)

Third big event in one week!

Sunday, the 22nd, was our 23rd anniversary. It is was also the day that Scott left for Ethiopia to pick up Temesgen Jonathan Larson. I took him to the Cedar Rapids airport for an early flight. He then flew to Chicago and on to D.C. He had a long layover in D.C. then finally left for Ethiopia around 7pm. I heard from him today and he is with Temesgen! They are doing great! He said that Temesgen is happy and skinny:) After their embassy appointment tomorrow they will go on a trip to visit Nazret, Sodo and Hosannah. Sabrina was from Nazret so we have been there. Temesgen is from Hosannah. I am so excited for him to see so much of our children's birth country! My guys will return on Sunday the 29th!

Another one at a new school!

Wow, Noelle's in high school! So cool! She is going to West High, here in Waterloo.

It is a public high school that Jake and I both graduated from! This is the first year they have required a strict dress code, much stricter than when the kids attended private school.

I really didn't like the idea, but they sure do look great!

Orientation: Payton, Noelle, Lena, and two Kaitlyns

Second day. I screwed up and forgot to take a picture the first day!




I am not sure if her excited expression is from the picture taking or going to school!

Freshman again?

I am not sure that I pictured Jake as a frat boy, but he is! All summer different ISU frats have taken him out trying to impress him. He narrowed it down to three frats, and the Pi Kappa Phi house "won". Partly because they had the "nicest" house, definitely in the eye of the beholder. His roommates are both design majors and have lots of creativity and skills for college students, so they have a nice room. It has actually changed since I took these photos on move in day.

Jake and Sabrina chillin' on his bed.

Full size fridge and mega TV! Love upper class men roommates!

Jake's bed is on the lower right. Where the dressers are in this photo,
the guys are building a closet. Including shoe rack!

Gosh I love that boy!! Pray that he finds a fellowship of Christians! Pray that he would do well in his classes. He is a Bio-chemistry major with dreams of doing medical research, possibly medical school. Pray that he could stand up to the intense pressures of living in a fraternity and that he might be a positive influence!

Embassy Date!!

We have an embassy date!! August 25th! We haven't purchased tickets yet but that is the week we will be travelling. It will just be Sabrina, Scott and I as Jake starts school at Iowa State University and Noelle starts her freshman year at West High School. Please pray for all the details to fall together. Please pray for Noelle's first two days of school to be fantastic so that she is not so nervous about us leaving!! I'll add more prayer requests later. Thanks for your prayers, they mean so much!

Are you Radical??

TEMESGEN UPDATE!

We do not have a travel date, which is really frustrating. We traveled to get Sabrina just under a month after she passed court. Temesgen passed court May 20th and we are still waiting for our US Embassy date to be approved. They used the term "investigating" today. We are unsure what that means. I asked if there was any way the courts could be reversed and our agency representative gave me a very reassuring, "I don't think so." OUCH! They are shooting for an embassy date of August 25th. This gives us time to get Jake to Iowa State, where he will begin his freshman year, majoring in Biochemistry. It also gives us time to support Noelle as she begins her first year in high school. Unfortunately, it also means that neither of them can travel with us. I so wanted Jake to travel since he did not travel to get Sabrina. Pray that even though he can't travel that he and Temesgen will have an opportunity to "bond" in a unique and awesome way!! I keep trying to remember that God's timing is perfect and that His plan is much better than my plan. Please pray for us as we try to make preparations to bring our son home. I really have no idea how to pursue issues of language, education and even medical issues with Temesgen's leg. Pray that God would guide us and give us peace and patience. Pray for the unbelievably hard transition that Temesgen will have to make as he leaves Ethiopia!

This is a great book recommended to me by many of my blogger buddies. I am waiting for Scott to read it to fully process what it is saying to me. But, as Scott's dad would say, it resonates with how I am feeling about the American Dream right now and how I think God wants us to live and deal with our wealth as Americans. Pick it up and see if it challenges your thinking!

Family reunion!

Many thanks to Riley and Kathy Tonkin and Steve and Nancy Tonkin for hosting the first, hopefully annual Tonkin reunion in Lincoln, Nebraska. Thirty-six of us gathered from Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa. My grandma is 96, her three sons and their wives, their nine kids and their spouses, and their thirteen kids (not including the three expecting mommies!)

Highlights included a video montage of the lives of the Tonkins!

Snuggling after the brunch!

Working it, in our picture clothes and some shoes
apparently high-jacked from someone else!


I love to take my kids to places that I went as a kid!
This is the Lincoln Children's Zoo, an awesome place!
Sabrina, cousin Christian and Aunt Karen

Cousin Emilee, Noelle, and cousin Elizabeth.
Noelle was such a great help and entertainer over the weekend!

One of the cute moments!

Spider cousins!

Beautiful sisters!