3-2-1 Blast Off!

Hendrick had a ball playing with his splash rocket outside today - very exciting!

UFC 76 announcement

For all you mixed martial arts fans out there...we heard some big news today. The UFC announced the final card for UFC 76 on September 22nd. Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell takes on Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine and #1 Light Heavyweight Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (pictured) makes his UFC debut against Forrest Griffin. While neither are title bouts at 205 lbs., they still hold the top two light heavyweights in the world (Liddell and Rua). Chuck was the UFC champ for 3 years before a shocking knockout loss to "Rampage" Jackson and Rua has for three years torn apart the competition at 205 lbs. in Pride FC. While Griffin and Jardine are both very popular fighters, no one really expects them to last past the first round against these top specimins.

On a side note - former Purdue wrestling captain Jon Fitch will take on Diego "Nightmare" Sanchez (who is a devout Christian) in a great matchup of two top 10 welterweights.

Should be a great night of pugilism. If any of you are in the Jackson area, you're welcome to join us.

Water Babies

Hendrick and Davis enjoyed the beautiful Tennessee weather last night and had a bath outside! They are both little water babies (although Davis didn't like the cold water at first!).

All Packed?

Hendrick is so excited about going to Ethiopia (no, he's not actually going). He has been saying for weeks "when I wake up from my nap, we can go to Africa". Hendrick can't wait for his brother to come home. Today, he packed his bag and informed us that he is all ready to go! (yes, it's a bag full of hotwheels)

The Dream Center

We would like to share with you an organization very near to our hearts. Mike has been on the Board of Directors of a very special homeless shelter since last January: The Dream Center of Jackson. We are using a converted hospital and are able to house approximately 50 residents. To stay at the Dream Center (DC), people must have an intense desire to address their issues and transition back into society. As such, we offer GED classes, job search assistance, transportation, addiction-recovery programs, financial self-sufficiency classes, and smart purchase coaching.

One very unique aspect of the Dream Center is that we accept families. Most shelters are for men or women only, and destitute families must split. We are blessed to handle entire families and give parents a steady address so their kids can be registered in a school. To the left is a picture of some current residents. The United Way referred them to us in April when they were evicted from their apartment. Joe and Shawna now both have jobs and are saving all of their income to buy a car and eventually a house. Kaitlin and Cole are getting ready to start another school year at a local elementary. Because of the support we receive from individuals and churches, they are able to stay together at the DC and save up for the next phase in their lives.

Even more important than the financial freedom we provide to our residents is the spiritual coaching we are able to give. Residents must attend on-site chapel at least once per week in the evenings and attend a church on Sunday morning. Our addiction recovery program is a Christ-centered system aimed at addressing the root cause of life-controlling issues (people seeking to fill the hole in their hearts with something other than God). I am blessed to see destitute people who have nowhere to turn come to the DC and end up finding an unexpected blessing - to be introduced to Jesus' love.

If you feel led to support us, please contact Mike directly, or call the Dream Center at 731-512-0095 and ask for Dan Herlihy (Executive Director).

Referral - It's a Boy!

We are pleased to announce we just accepted the referral of a baby boy - Praise God!

We don't have a lot of information on him, and the little we do know we will be keeping private out of respect for our little one - it's his history. We can share that he is around 6-9 months old (we don't know an exact birthdate) and he looks wonderful! He is currently in the capital city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

We're not sure when we will be able to bring him home. The next step is the court date, where he will legally become our baby - this typically takes about one month from referral. However, the courts in Ethiopia are scheduled to close August 5 and will remain closed for 6-8 weeks (during the rainy season and their millinium celebration - yes, it's the year 1999 in Ethiopia). So, most likely we are looking at an October court date. Typically travel occurs about one month after the court date...so, that would mean traveling in November.

We are so thankful to God for revealing this precious angel to us. We lift this adoption and the coming court date up to Him and pray that we will be able to bring our little boy home soon.

Oh Deer!

We have a fairly large wild black raspberry patch in our backyard. We look forward to picking and enjoying the berries every July (they are wonderful on homemade vanilla ice cream!). This year...our friendly neighborhood deer ate all our berries before we could get to them. I sure hope they enjoyed our delicious raspberries! (Hopefully we can beat them to it next year.)

West Tenn Diamond Jaxx

We had so much fun this evening...watching one of our favorite sports and supporting our local minor league team. We all love going to Diamond Jaxx baseball games. Hendrick's new highlight (besides the mascot, Ribbee) is going onto the field to do the Chicken Dance!

Artist

Hendrick has been very busy painting. His most recent creation: a volcano exploding, with the sun in the sky (can you see it?).

Parent's Night Out - Memphis

We took a long over-due night out...of town! It was so nice to get away together (thanks Mom and Dad for watching the boys!). Mike and Amy went to Memphis, Tennessee. We stayed at the historic "South's grand hotel", the Peabody (home of the famous marching ducks); ate at an amazing Brazilian steakhouse, Texas de Brazil; and spent the evening enjoying the sights and sounds of Beale Street, "home of the Blues, birthplace of Rock N' Roll". It was wonderful for us to spend some special time together - an early celebration of our 5th wedding anniversary.

Look Out!

Davis has a fancy new trick. He discovered he can pull/push himself up into our bookcase. So much fun!
Our little guy is now 15 months old - he is getting so big. Davis now weighs a whopping 19.7 pounds - a full 3 pound weight gain in just 2 months. Give him a few more months and we're sure he'll finally make it onto the growth charts!

4th of July

We enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July with Amy's parents visiting from Ohio. We took the boys down to the lake for swimming, cooked burgers on the fire pit, and even celebrated with a few fireworks in the backyard.
Happy Birthday America!