Family of 14 (!)

We have been together as a family of 14 for one week.

Praise God!

Introducing . . .

We are thrilled to introduce our son, Dukes Templeton :)

 "Children are a gift from the Lord" Psalm 127:3

We are thankful for God growing our family and adding another precious child, our twelfth, through adoption.  We are thankful for the gift of 14-month-old Dukes in our lives. 

He is loved by many!

His arrival into our family was exciting and semi-unexpected for us.  Praise God!  We have been incredibly blessed.  We look forward to sharing more about our new babe and the story of how he became a part of our family.  

For now we are thankful.  Thankful to God.  Thankful for Dukes.  Thankful for his first family.  Thankful for the many who assisted in taking care of him and are a part of his story.  Thankful for the support of  friends and family as we traveled to bring him home.  We are thankful to have him home!

Family Weekend

Moving up north in December meant moving farther away from family, which has been hard.  We have missed seeing our extended family!  We were so thankful Amy's family was willing to travel north to see us for a weekend this summer.  It was such a treat to host family in our town the first weekend of July.  

. lake swim, canoes, peddle-boats . toy store and frozen yogurt . adult dinner out . 

. water balloons . volley ball . bike rides . walking trail . 

. community center . pizza picnic . playground play .

Puppy Kisses

Baseball

We have enjoyed the Summer Rec programs in our town.  The baseball and soccer fields are a few blocks from our home - it's been so nice to be able to walk over or ride bikes to practice (and then play on the playground afterwards!).  This summer, Tesfaye is playing advanced soccer and Dabney is playing soccer with the 4-year-olds, Maclaren is playing U7 T-ball, and Kolpin is playing U9 baseball.  It's been a fun and busy summer! 

Kolpin looks so big out on the field and is enjoying his first baseball season.  

Kota

A sweet German Shepherd puppy joined our family at 8 weeks old, and her name is Kota.  Prepping for her arrival, the kids created a list of names options and voted on the chalkboard.  Following our dog name tradition of place names, Kota's name is in memory of our recent Dakotas trip.  (Other options were "Dora" from Medora, ND, "Georgia" for Addy's birth state, and Maclaren's pick: "Patty" for the Bison patties we saw on our recent trip).   

Kota's spunky and snugly and super fuzzy and so sweet.  

We were careful introducing Kota to Layla - Layla is a shy dog, so we were thrilled she accepted Kota so quickly and has stepped into the mother role just as we had hoped.  

The kids are excited to work with this new puppy, training and socializing her carefully.  Kota has been sleeping in Hendrick and Tesfaye's room and the kids are all stepping up to help with the house training and clean up.  We have high hopes for this little, soon to be big, pup.  Her official training starts next month!