too many pictures :)

We've had such sweet and chaotic happy days!  We did a water park. Time at the pool. A birthday party. Grandfather's day fancy dinner. A day at Busch Gardens. Sunset on the beach. A few restaurants (Ayars party of 14...oh, and a few of them might be children!).  Lots of good cousin coloring time and popsicles and late nights of Speed Scrabble and too much cotton candy.  I'm feeling like I want something cotton-y! Evie kept hinting :) 

As we're sitting in loads of traffic this Saturday heading back up North to New Jersey, it's with a torn heart...I am so thankful for those days of vacation and sad-sorry they are over...thankful we still have time with family and friends ahead...heartbroken as tensions continue to run high in Haiti...thankful to talk to friends in Haiti and how easy it is to just call...grateful that we have a happy home to go to today, thankful for the borrowed van we're piled into and the fixed car waiting for us, for these beautiful chances to be with family, something we miss so badly when we're in Haiti. 

Tomorrow morning baby Mayah is going to be dedicated at their home church, and I am so thankful we get to join them and be right there, celebrating publicly the gift that she is, the mighty things God has already done in her life, the true miracle of her life with us today, and to celebrate with Adam, Lisa, Evie, Jayla and Addy!  

We've come a long way, baby!! Busch Gardens last year I was 8 months pregnant, Lisa Northam was newly pregnant, and it was some adventure! This year, we had 8 babies, six of them under 5 years old, and I've never had so much fun working so hard :)

I can't help but marvel at the large, loud gathering of little miracles that have become our clan, especially when we're all together!... hospitals, home births, NICU, breast-fed, bottle fed, epidurals, all naturals, an emergency c-section, overdue, underdue, cloth diapers, disposable, blankies and thumbs and pacis, working moms, stay at home moms, working-stay-at-home moms, homeschool, Haitian school, preschool, 2 countries, girls, girls, boy, and still some oxygen tanks under the stroller...8 amazing gifts of grace in all different ways with all different personalities through two women who have been through an awful lot of His faithfulness together.

I'm thankful for all the chaos and crumbs of this season, tired and sticky though we may be, and for a dear sister-friend to do it with!