It is the last day of school

before Christmas Break.

YAY!

For David it is a day of celebrating....

It's a Polar Express Party!

Everyone wore their jammies and they were making a special lunch

and exchanging gifts and watching the movie!

How cute that David and his teacher matched in their penguin jammies!

Meredith and Peter are finishing up their finals today.

Charlotte is also enjoying a special Christmas lunch with her class.

What a special time of year indeed.

How grateful my kids can and do celebrate CHRIST at school.

The world is a very dark and lost place

and that is more evident at some moments than others,

but Jesus Christ is the Light of the World.

The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light

on those living in the land

of deep darkness

a light has dawned.

--Isaiah 9:2

Thankful Turkey

What is David thankful for?

{poor turkey lost his eyes}

school friends, the trampoline, peanut butter sandwiches, 

mom and dad, brother and sisters, his dogs and toy trains

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good

His love endures forever!!!

David Day!

Two years ago today our family of six, with my father,

walked into the civil affairs building of Hubei Province

in Wuhan City, China

to meet our son and brother. . .Wu Yue He.

We walked out a few hours later a family of seven!

He was 2 1/2 years old and had been living with foster parents

under the direction of the city's large orphanage since open heart surgery recovery

at six months of age.

Oh how we longed for that moment to see him and hold him and love him

after waiting 11 months from the first time we saw this precious face

on AAC's waiting child list.

I knew this precious child of God was an Achterkirch and the Lord lavished us with

the blessing of calling him our son.

It is hard to believe it has been two years for it is like he has always been ours.

Adoption surely changes the lives of children

abandoned and institutionalized and forgotten
{this month is Adoption Month and I pray many children will find their forever family}

 God has used adoption to deeply change our family. . .

and we are forever thankful for the journey He has set before us and for our own

adoption as Sons of God!

We celebrate Wu Yue He today....how God graciously folded him into our family

from the other side of the world and made our hearts to love him

before we even saw him.

That's what God's love does.

We celebrate the plan God has for David - unknown to us, but known to God.

From Wuhan City to Houston Texas via Phoenix, Arizona through an agency in Colorado.

That's a glimpse of God's sovereignty.

We celebrate all the ways in which David has flourished in our family.

The joy he brings to everyone that knows him.

He is such a happy kid!

That is Christ's peace and joy taking root in him!

We celebrate our family -

authored by God

upheld by His grace day by day.

And we remember with wonderful fondness our journey two years ago to David's homeland

So rich with memories for us....
and a tangible reminder of God's grace and mercy and lavish love for us.

This video was made as a remembrance of God's mighty work in David's life and ours!

Glory be to our great God!

Happy Gotcha Day, David!!!

Taekwondo Cuteness...Hi Yah!

David started taekwondo 

offered as an after school enrichment class at his preschool

Oh was this little man excited  -  He looked so handsome in his tobok

It was hard to convince him he couldn't sleep in it after that first class!

The others in the class started at the beginning of the school year....

and have already advanced to their yellow and orange belts.

They are so stinkin' cute!

I can appreciate already the emphasis on

manners, respect, leadership, honesty, discipline

David smiles through the whole class and bounces around with pure joy

and excitement.  It cracks up the instructors. . .

They've already nicknamed him Mr. Happy.

But then again, he can strike the very serious pose, too!

Oh and the sound effects.  Priceless!

They are working to catch him up....

he's working toward his first three stripes on the white belt. 

Lots of stances, strikes, kicks and blocks.

I will need to learn all the names!

I think Tuesdays and Thursdays are fast becoming David's favorite days at school.

He loves his main instructor and he is great with the kids.

All the necessary discipline with a lot of fun and goofy, too!

He did it!

David wrote his name today.

All

by

himself!

This, my friends, is a major accomplishment.  

The boy resists coloring, writing or anything in that general category.

But boy was he proud today!

When I arrived at his classroom doorway - he popped up, ran to the door

and yelled, "Mom.....I did it all by myself. D. A. V. I. D"

Isn't it beautiful!?

I cherish little milestones of celebration in a child's life.

Like writing your name by yourself

for the very first time!

Which makes me remember that as soon as Meredith could do this....

she wrote it everywhere -

with a sharpie marker.

on her bed, on her wall, on the bookshelf, on her closet, out the door and on the banister, and all the way down the stairs.  

Practice makes perfect!

First Day of Pre-K

David was all smiles today for his first day of Pre-K!

He is not at all a morning boy,

but he rose early and ate a good breakfast with his siblings

{mini waffles and turkey sausage}

He was very excited about his new backpack

and his Spider Man lunch box

I know he felt so proud and so big and so ready

And he walked right into his classroom and got busy!

My sweet boy.

Not even home from China two years yet.

So happy and so ready to be a preschool learner.

He is going to have a great day.

I can't wait to pick him up this afternoon and hear all about it.

My new job does not start until next week, so I have this week to

get appointments out of the way and to get my life/house in order.

Ready set go!

Ready or Not

Last evening we had an Open House at David's preschool.

We got to go and visit his classroom

and meet his teachers

and see the playground

and even though I've done this five times before,

the drive home resulted in that all familiar feeling. . .

You know the feeling -

amazing love mixed with joyful anticipation mixed with sentimental anguish.

My last baby is going to school.

Of course, it is Pre Kindergarten,

but it is full time and well,

I'm gonna miss my days spent playing trains and super heros.

I'm going to miss our lazy mornings reading books and making up stories.

I'm going to miss him like CRAZY, truth be told!

He is going to LOVE school.

He is very excited and I am excited for him!

A beautiful article came out this week on the Gospel Coalition's Blog

entitled, The Truth About Pain in Childbirth

Oh how it spoke to my heart and captured everything this transition

is pressing upon me.

Here is an excerpt from that piece:

As the years unfold we begin to understand that we have been introduced to the great truth of pain in childbearing, a pain we naively believed would be confined to labor and delivery, but that visits us at every transition we nurture our children toward: the measured inhale, the steady exhale, the mighty push. And separation. Preschool. Kindergarten. Middle school. High school. College. Career. Marriage. With a familiar aching euphoria, we push them out---from safety and provision to separation and uncertainty. It feels like they would be safer just staying with us, as if safety were the greatest gift we could give them.

Somehow, this painful separation process is for our sanctification as mothers. For years I was not sure what the Bible meant that women would be saved through childbearing, but it grows clearer to me now. I once thought it referred only to giving birth, but its meaning encompasses the span of motherhood. Children are born in an instant, but they are borne across a lifetime. Childbearing saves me because it faithfully (albeit painfully) reminds me over and again that I am weak. It reminds me that I am not self-sufficient, that I do not have what it takes to preserve and protect my children, but that my heavenly Father does.

The full article can be read HERE

Inhale.  Exhale. Push.

Another one of my precious babes is off to school!

My tears are tears of sadness, but of joy, too.

And thankfulness.  God is good.  He is faithful.  He is all together sufficient.

Monday is his first day.

Will you pray for him?  And will you pray for me, too!?

Blue & White Night

Somebody else wanted a Warrior haircut!

David is crazy about his brother.

And I am crazy about my boys!

Couldn't be more proud of both of them!

Peter is such a remarkable big brother....and David

is trying his hardest to follow right in his footsteps.

{Just the other day, he was sad he couldn't do something Pete was doing

and said, "It's NO fair.  While I was in China, you were growing up without ME!"}

Tonight was . . .

A great evening of Families, Food, Fun, and Fellowship!

It is the annual kick off for the new school year.

A time of prayer and praise, of thanksgiving and supplication.

And definitely a time of celebration!

It's all about school spirit

And seeing old friends

{like Mimi from the soccer team last year}

It's a time to welcome new families and

see friends from your class...like sweet Bella!

It's a time to celebrate being a Warrior

For Christ!

in the classroom

on the field

on the court

in our community!

It's a timet to revel in advancing to 

High School

It's a timet to introduce and celebrate our athletes and teams! 

And get super pumped for Warrior football!

Their Warrior chant was SO LOUD.... They are ready to RUMBLE!

The athletic theme for the year is

I feel so blessed, once again that the Lord made a way for our kids to be at

Cypress Christian School.

I am so blessed to know that they are challenged in every way

every way

to honor and glorify God in every endeavor.

SO to God be the glory for this new year.

We truly dedicate it to Him.

Family Photos

With a new school year right around the corner, I couldn't resist getting everybody's picture

with the beautiful backdrop of the Savannah marsh in the evening sunlight.

Don't we just look relaxed and ready for the new year!?