More Dancing..

The kids have been having so much fun making up more dance routines, unfortunately to the same song!  These videos are pretty funny, especially the one with Luke singing.  Amelia shows us some fun gymnastics and I'm not sure where Emma learned some of her dance moves!

First Day of School...

Luke didn't want to feel left out.

Amelia at her desk (my camera was dying at this point)

Emma at her desk

When I picked up the girls at 3:00, both of them said they had a good day.  Emma's favorite parts were recess and lunch.  Amelia liked library time and recess.  They both said it was a long day!  They aren't used to being gone for so long.  Luke and I did some schoolwork, visited a friend, and read books.  We were excited when it was time to go get them, especially Luke since he wanted to play Legos with them.  I said that I could play Legos with him and he said that I don't know how :)

Esubalew

Esubalew Mengistu

Esubalew is our sponsored boy (man?) who lives in Korah, Ethiopia.  We have known him for two years now, his age is estimated to be 21 but he is in seventh grade this year.  He does not have any parents, and he has spent a considerable amount of time living in a trash dump.  We received his report card in the mail today and we are so proud of him!  He didn't miss a single day of school last year, and his grades in  Character Building were all A's.  Keep in mind that two years ago he was expelled from school for behavioral reasons :)  I'm sure he had a really rough time adjusting to his new environment after living as an orphan all of those years.  We love getting letters from Eusabalew, he always asks us to visit him, and we hope that one day we will.

Here are his grades for Character Building for last school year.

His semester grades for each subject and his yearly average.

School...

We are embarking on something new this year, sending both girls to school at Dayspring Christian Academy! This is the first time we've done this so it truly is a first day of school for everyone (including me).  The girls have new clothes, shoes, and every school supply you could possibly need.  Last night we spent about an hour organizing everything and writing their names on every single school item.

Massanutten

We went on vacation with Nanna and Pap-Pap to Massanutten, VA which is near Harrisonburg and JMU.  We spent a lot of time swimming, relaxing, and watching the Olympics.  

Joel and Luke relaxing.

The girls with their new stuffed animals.

Nanna and Pap Pap with their grandchildren.

The girls wearing some of their new school clothes!

Their fun new light-up shoes for school!

Frank

Of course the Huskies had to come with us, along with two new additions, Pandy and Fetch.

We also brought both American girl dolls, pillow pets, and baby dolls.  For a 4 day trip.

Camp Timber Ridge

Emma with her camp t-shirt.

Amelia's first year at camp!

A horseshoe, Chinese bookmark, and a bamboo picture made out of real bamboo!

Ancient Chinese picture

Amelia on her horse, Hawkeye

The girls spent one week in July at Camp Timber Ridge.  They learned about greenhouse operations, riding horses, pesky insects, and Chinese.  The week was very hot, temperatures were close to 100 degrees on some days.  They had a great time though and came home each afternoon very tired.  Their favorite part was of course, riding horses.

Call Me Maybe?

We enjoyed the summer Olympics so much this year!  It was the first year that the kids could really get into it.  Our favorite events were gymnastics (go Gabby!) and swimming.  The Olympic swimmers created their own music video to a fun song, "Call Me Maybe".  

I couldn't resist choreographing our own video to the song, and here it is.

In case you haven't seen the Olympic swimmers version, here is the link on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPIA7mpm1wU

I think you will agree that ours is better!

Grace Covenant

 Today was finally the last day worshiping at Grace Covenant in Blacksburg.  I have been dreading this day since last summer when the church plant became real!  Not because I am not excited about the new church, just because I knew it would be emotional saying goodbye to so many wonderful people.  I do need to remind myself though, they are only 15 minutes down the road!  I hope to be more intentional about getting together with the people that I won't be seeing every Sunday, and maybe we will end up spending more time together as a result.

Twelve years ago this summer we moved to Christiansburg from Williamsburg and the first church we visited was Grace.  It was also the last church we visited!  Everyone was so friendly and welcoming on that first day, we met some great people, including the Singlers, Gardners, Bowmans, and Smiths.  Dawn Bowman was pregnant with their first child, Drew.  We started going to the Gardner's home group right away.  I do remember teaching Children's Worship when we first started attending Grace, there were only about 8 kids in the class!  Today it is closer to 30 :)  Christina Ribbens, Michael Ribbens, and Cal Wontrop were some of my first "students".  Now they are either in high school or college.  One of my favorite memories from the early years was being able to reach out to international students on Friday nights in Squires.  Since we didn't have children yet, our schedule was much more free (although we didn't realize it at the time!) and we met a wonderful family from Mexico who we hung out with for the rest of the school year.  

Another great memory was the summer we led a missions trip to Fairmont, WV.  The Larsons came with us and some of the kids from the youth group, we barely knew each other but had a wonderful time.  Andrew Wolf, Corrie Holton, Lizzie Diller, Aaron Larson and Amanda Day came with us and strong friendships were formed.  I think it's impossible not to become friends after spending an entire week in the hot sun trying to fix up a house together!  And on the way home from WV all of the girls were in my Honda Civic and we listened to fun music and sang along.  I do believe that there was also a sleepover at our house in Pembroke?  I vaguely remember Corrie, Mikaela, and Claire coming over for some girl time.  

I have loved Grace Covenant for the authenticity of its members, no one pretends to have it all together and we all agree on one thing, we are sinners in need of a Savior.  The love and compassion that people have given us has been life-changing.  I can't count the number of meals that people have brought to our house when I've had a baby or struggled with depression.  People have mowed our lawn, helped paint our house, installed ceramic tiles in the bathroom, given us money "anonymously", and half of our furniture has come from Grace families.  We have renamed our house the McKnight-Rodi-Holton residence :)

Grace has truly shown us what the Body of Christ looks like.  We hope to take what we have learned to Providence, and try it out on them :)  Luckily some of my favorite people are coming with us to the new church.  And unfortunately some of my favorite people are staying behind.  It is God though who unites us and makes us One with Him.