Our daughter is now a teenager! Today is Angelica’s 13th birthday. She has been very excited for her birthday but not excited to become a teenager. We had her birthday party on Sunday, May 28 and she enjoyed playing two relay games (one with popping balloons since she loves balloons so much), opening presents, eating cake, and most importantly being the center of attention for an afternoon. She got many beautiful earrings which she was excited about because she said she now has all the colors to wear with dresses for church! She also loved getting a chocolate scented stuffed bunny, the game of Pictionary (she loves to draw and play games), a bath Barbie, and two gift cards to Target (her favorite store), and some birthday money. She wanted to go to the store immediately after the party was over but she had to wait until the next day.

Yesterday we went to Old Chicago for her birthday dinner since pizza is her favorite food. Waiters and waitresses came to sing happy birthday to her and they gave her a chocolate chip cookie cake which she shared with her family. After dinner, shopping at Target was quite the fun experience! Angelica wanted a journal with a lock, stickers for her sticker collection, tape to tape her drawings to the wall (she and her sisters used up all the tape we had decorating their walls with their drawings), and anything else she saw that she thought she needed. Unfortunately Target did not have any journals with locks so she wants to go to other stores to find one. She was surprised at how much everything cost at the store. Since it was her money she looked more at prices which was a good lesson!

She has already asked if she can get the mail today because she is hoping she will get more cards. On Saturday she got two birthday cards which was super exciting to her!

On Sunday we spoke with an adoptive family who is new to our church and the mom said that she would be praying for us this week. She shared that birthdays have brought up interesting emotions for their daughter. We have been so busy trying to make Angelica’s first birthday with us super special that I had not really thought about how her birthday might be emotional for her. We ask that you partner with us in praying for Angelica today that she will feel loved by her Heavenly Father and her forever family and that God will give her happiness and joy, not sorrow. We have a fun afternoon planned at the local outdoor waterpark so we pray it will be a special day!

We are praising God for providing a study Bible in Russian and an easy to read Bible in English. A dear friend spent days searching for a side by side Russian/English Bible appropriate for Angelica. She did not find a side by side Bible however she made several other helpful discoveries! She found a Russian Christian radio station in Estes Park and she bought us two Easy-Reading New Life Wording English Bibles so that Angelica and I can read together. This translation has a vocabulary of approximately 850 words so it should be much easier for Angelica to understand. She also connected us with the daughter of a missionary from Russia whom we saw twice before she left to go back to Russia for the summer. It was nice for Angelica to have a chance to speak Russian to a native speaker and she gave Angelica a teen study Bible in Russian that had been her sister’s Bible. Angelica has already looked through the Russian Bible on her own and we pray she will want to read it more and more.

We also praise God for giving us a positive court experience on April 28 that was truly a celebration. Now Colorado formally recognizes her adoption into our family! The judge was very nice and let each child choose a stuffed animal from the court room when we were done. Angelica and Levi chose the same soft teddy bear and Angelica sleeps with her bear every night.

Most of all we are praising God for each one of our children, His precious gifts to us. We are so thankful that Angelica is part of our family and that God worked out all the details of her adoption. We know another family who has been waiting since November to have court and bring their girls home forever. The parents arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine right after we left Kyiv to travel to the orphanage. Please pray for this family and all the adoptive families who have many challenges in the adoption process.

Romans 12:11-12 “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”