Another Forever Family Day!

by Steph // Monday, July 27, 2020 // Comments off

Five years ago today Tate Owen leapt into his Daddy’s arms in Hohhot, China, and started his new forever!!

He yelled “BABA!” as he ran to Blake, and gave him a kiss on the cheek as he jumped into his Daddy’s arms!

I was sitting half-way around the world in front of a computer in the middle of the night waiting for my turn to tell Tate how much I loved him!

It was not too long after that first photo that we met over Skype and Tate immediately blew me kisses and called me Mama!!

I cannot believe it has been five years!!

It has been SUCH an amazing journey!!

Tate loved BIG that very first day, and he has loved big everyday since – bringing joy and smiles to anyone and everyone!

I can’t wait to see the plans the Lord has for our precious cherub!!

God writes the best stories!

Happy Forever Family Day to Zhang Hong Yang, our Tate Owen!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH, TATER TOT!!!

A Celebration!

by Steph // Tuesday, July 21, 2020 // Comments off

Our Tate Owen was forever ours on July 27th five years ago!

Our Eliza Claire was forever ours on July 14th six years ago!

We let them choose if they wanted to celebrate or not, and they chose YES!

A double celebration with Chop Chae, chocolate cupcakes, triple berry chocolate chip ice cream, and our favorite people!

It was PERFECT!

And dessert was YUMMY!!

Big family dessert prep looks like this!

During dessert Eliza hugged me and said “I couldn’t have a better family.”

CUE ALL THE TEARS.

Oh, how far they have come!!

After all that eating, we headed outside to enjoy a beautiful evening together!

It was one of those perfect temperature, slight breeze, can’t pull ourselves back inside kind of evenings!

Our simple celebration was SO perfect.

The best part about it was the opportunity it gave us to speak affirmation over Tate and Eliza, that evening, and for several days leading up to their celebration as we prepared for it.

As Grant prayed for the meal, he thank the Lord for bringing Tate and Eliza into our family and for how amazing it is to trust in God’s perfect plan for them both!

It was a beautiful, truth filled prayer – and those are the words we speak over them often!

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our Tate Owen and Eliza Claire!

We ARE trusting You with their future and Your plans for them!!

We cannot wait to see how you continue to write their stories!!

Because You write the BEST stories!!

Happy, happy forever family day to our precious cherubs!!

A Recipe//Smooth Sweet Iced Tea

by Steph // Thursday, July 16, 2020 // Comments off

I have a recipe for you today for sweet tea, but a secret ingredient makes this tea smooth and delicious!

A jar of iced sweet tea is such a treat on a summer weekend!

We found this recipe on line years ago and this tea is supposed to mimic the tea at the Lone Star Steak House.

Smooth Sweet Iced Tea

Bring one quart of water to boiling.

Turn off heat and add 3/4 cup of honey, stirring until dissolved.

Add twelve regular tea bags of choice (we use decaf green tea) and steep for 15 minutes.

Remove tea bags.

Add 1/4 tsp of baking soda and stir until dissolved. (This is the secret ingredient!)

Pour mixture, once cooled, into a gallon glass jar and add cold water to the top.

Store in the fridge and serve over ice.

*we make sure the tea is cool before pouring into the glass jar – we learned to be patient with this step when a glass jar broke as we added the hot tea one time!

*we changed this recipe (as usual!) from white sugar to honey and use half of what the original recipe recommended

Enjoy!!