So Close We Can Taste It!

We officially have a court date to finalize the adoption and we are thrilled!  August 21st will soon be added to the Behnke Celebration calendar as Adoption Day!  God's faithfulness in all of this has been almost overwhelming at times......  if you had asked us 8 months ago where we thought we would have been in the process we would have told you that we would be waiting for a placement of 1 or 2 children.  God had a totally different plan in mind.  Far beyond and better than what we could have hoped for or even imagined.  Go figure.

In other parenting news we went on our first little mini vacation together.  We packed up the mini van (the fact that we own a mini van still has yet to fully set in) and headed to Appleton for a weekend of Fourth of July fun at Grandpa and Grandma Behnke's.  We went to the fireworks, enjoyed a cookout and kiddie pool afternoon on the deck with cousin James, had a campfire complete with s'mores and sparklers, and went to one of our favorite places as a kid, Bay Beach Amusment Park in Green Bay.

 We learned that our oldest daughter is fearless when it come to rides, that our son will tuck away half his s'more in the pocket of a lawn chair only to be found days later, and that our littlest daughter will touch the end of a sparkler if you giver her one.  (Who knew you shouldn't give a 2 year old a sparkler?... we are obviously still figuring out this whole parenting thing)

We also got to visit the Emergency Room on the Fourth of July with one of our kiddos. (not sparkler related)  If you know me, you know I am taking a picture about every other second so when it was all said and done and everything was fine, I had the regret that I didn't document our first ER visit via picture.  Have I mentioned yet that it is killing me to NOT post any pictures of the kids yet???  Soon enough though......August 21st to be exact!!! 

We also did a little Strawberry Picking.  Here are the PRE-picking shirts.

Here are the POST- picking picture.

Super fun and successful!

Fourth of July attire for the kids.

Cousin James enjoying the fireworks! (the kids adore him and so do we!)

Uncle Paul sitting around the campfire with his favorite little nephew.

The kids riding down the slide with their Aunts and Uncles. 

Uncle Ryan and Aunt Josie watching the kids ride the kiddie rides.  Bay Beach is pretty great.