Becca had a wonderful first day of Third grade! She said it was AWWESOME (extra W on purpose!)! She did a small project for extra credit for homework. It included an “All About Me” page. I loved her sweet answers! One that was really cool: “I have 4 people in my family. I have 0 sisters and 1 brother” I LOVE THAT! I am so excited that Becca can finally truthfully say after our long adoption journey: “I have a baby brother!” 🙂
As we near the end of 2011, I want to encourage y’all to rent or buy a DVD called “Gifted Hands-The Ben Carson Story”
You can find it at Lifeway Christian Stores or probably Netflix it. Having had neurosurgery myself as a baby, I personally have a great respect for and thank God for men like Ben Carson, and my pediatric neurosurgeon, Mark S O’Brien, whom God uses on a daily basis to touch and repair and give a dose of hope to little lives. Go out and buy or rent this today. It is produced by Sony Pictures and has Cuba Gooding, Jr. in it, and man what an awesome true story! You will not be disappointed!
I can’t say enough how inspiring that man’s story was for Sarah and I! On so many different fronts.
1. Life is so much about choices. Thank God that we can freely make those choices to not let society put us in their little socio-economic box. We can choose to believe God’s vision for our lives and live life outside the box!
2.Ă‚Â We are not necessarily who our past says we are. We are not necessarily who people say we are. We are God’s creation. We were made by Him for a purpose! We shouldn’t let people or our past dictate our purpose, but let the Word of Christ dictate our purpose and dwell in us richly! MOVE THIS YEAR INTO HIS DREAM FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!!
Happy 2012 to all!
We went on our annual “light-seeing” trip as a family yesterday. 🙂 What a blast that was. Even the dog went with us. We saw some very pretty Christmas lights in our area here. Below is the most memorable one we saw. It was so amazing, I had to take a picture.
There were a gazillion lights on that tree! It must’ve taken a very long time to do that, and it had to have taken a crane(or a monkey!). Not only that there were led lights strung all over that made it look like snow was actually falling from it! PRETTY AMAZING!
Another amazing thing about this was it was turned off for the night by its owner right after we drove by.
The other amazing finds on our light-seeing trip were several church nativity scenes:
This was at First United Methodist in Old Town Spring.
Advent Presbyterian Church in Old Town Spring
We had a lot of fun laughing and driving around together last night. Family memories are made in times like these!
Merry Christmas to everyone! May you make memories of fun and laughter this year and may love fill your homes during this wonderful time of year and every day!
Love this time of year!
I just had to write something today to make note of how wonderful this Christmas has been. Sarah and I have had 15 Christmases that we have been blessed to celebrate together. The first eight with just us and extended family. The last seven have been with each other, extended family, Ă‚Â and our sweet Becca. I want to declare to you how utterly wonderful it is as a parent to just sit back and watch your child tear into Christmas gifts, and watch their eyes light up as they open them. The first eight Christmases were wonderful, but these last seven as a dad have been filled with joy!
"Mommy and Daddy this is the best Christmas EVER!"
This year after Becca finished opening her gifts, she looked up at us and said, “Mommy and Daddy, I have one more gift for you…” and then she put her arms around both of us and gave both of us a huge bear hug. After that she said with a big smile on her face…”I gave you the BEST gift.” That SO blessed this dad’s heart. It blesses me to see her growing into a little girl who enjoys life, relishes every day, and who sees where the real value of family times of celebration like Christmas is found… the value of our relationships with God and with each other… the value of the eternal fruit of the spirit found in Galatians such as JOY, PEACE, AND LOVE. As Paul said in the last half of 1 Corinthians 13:13… “…the greatest of these is love.”
That truth was brought home to me in a real way as Becca hugged us last night. Truly, the greatest gift illustrated so well in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of a sinless Savior for undeserving mankind… is LOVE. “For God SO LOVED the world that He gave…” WOW! What an awesome gift Jesus is to humanity!
I am writing this today because I want to encourage you… Take time this year to hug your kids, no matter how old they are. Take the time to thank God for the gifts he has blessed you with found in your children. Take the time this Christmas as a family and discover together the greatest gift of all this Christmas… LOVE.
So grateful tonight as I had the honor of watching my little princess, Becca, who is in second grade at Lifestyle Christian School sing her heart out tonight in praise on the stage as a part of the choir in the school’s Christmas program. She did great! She sang every word and sang it with all her heart! #lovebeingadad
Here she is on stage. Picture is a little grainy, but she is in the choir and she sang with everything she had straight from the heart!
Here is a video slideshow of the Christmas Program:
Star of Wonder – Beccas Christmas Play 2011 from Brandon Battle on Vimeo.
Becca and I had a wonderful time today! We fed ducks at the Duck Pond in Kingwood.
AtĂ‚Â Princess Becca’s request :), we then ate lunch at Chili’s. She had Mac and Cheese and I had the turkey sandwich and soup.Ă‚Â
Then we went to Old MacDonald’s Farm in Humble. There we spent four hours and did everything we could do! We had a ball! We rode the train, fed all of the animals we could feed(goats, deer, sheep, ducks, emu, cows, pigeons, pigs, etc…) We played on the sand mountain, and Becca rode the horses twice(she loved that best!!!). One of the cutest things we saw was a baby lamb that had just been born! I had never seen a lamb that little. It was an amazing site to see that big mother ewe standing by her little one and protecting and nurturing it. You could tell she was so proud of her little baby.
I too was so proud of our Becca today! She shared the bread we brought with other kids who had nothing to feed the animals. She ate so good at Chili’s. She was so sweet and kind.
I thoroughly enjoyed going on this Daddy Daughter date with my sweet little girl today!
Today, Becca went to Isaiah Lopez’s Birthday Party. He is 10 years old now! He is our godson.Ă‚Â Another testimony to how time flies! Everyone bounced in the Inflatable Playground at Bounce City and then at Pizza and Cake.
Pictures below and a video! To watch the video click once and then click again!
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Video:
Becca slides down the inflatable slide at Isaiah’s Party at Bounce City!
My how life flies by!!! It’s hard to believe that it has been three years since the day we got our Becca! This week has been another week of milestones in our lives! On Monday the 3rd, we toured Becca’s future preschool for the first time. She will attend the Humble First Baptist Children’s Development Center Preschool. Then on 3/5, our little baby passed from toddler-hood to girl-hood! She turned four! Again: my how life flies by!!!! Everytime I listen to the “Cinderella” song by Steven Curtis Chapman, I am ripped apart with all kinds of conflicting feelings! On the one hand: I am overjoyed overĂ‚Â the little sweetheartĂ‚Â that she is growing up to be and all that she is learning, and then on the other hand I weep inside (and sometimes outside too!) when I think of all of the time that has flown by so fast, and I find myself renewingĂ‚Â a commitment to the Lord and to my little one to embrace the moments and squeeze every bit of joy out of each special moment that I am able to experience withĂ‚Â our sweet little princess!Ă‚Â
This morning when Becca woke up, we asked her, “What do you want for your Gotcha meal tonight as we celebrate your Gotcha Day?”Ă‚Â I expected either chicken nuggets or spaghetti noodlesĂ‚Â or french fries, butĂ‚Â out of her mouth came something I didn’t expect: “Cheeseburger!” sheĂ‚Â yelled with joy. OK we said! So tonight we celebrated Gotcha at Culver’s Butterburgers and Frozen Custard.Ă‚Â After that, we said, “do you want to get a toy or a book as a Gotcha gift?” She said: “A BOOK!” So we took her to the Woodlands Mall and valet parked on this special occasion. We went into the Barnes and Noble there and she picked out two books: One Little Critter book called “Going to the Hospital”Ă‚Â and one little book called “Morris the Moose.” After that we asked, now what do ya want to do? “Play at the playground!” she said. So off we went, and she played and played at the Woodlands Mall Playground, her favorite indoor playground.
This was such a memorable night! It is truly in the ultimate analysis a great and wonderful joy to see my little girl growing up and realizing two important things the older and bigger she gets: “IĂ‚Â am loved by my Daddy in Heaven, and I am lovedĂ‚Â by my Mommy and DaddyĂ‚Â here on earth!”
May eachĂ‚Â Gotcha Day remind her how special and loved she really is!Ă‚Â
Below are some pictures of our 4 year old Princess at her birthday party!! It was a Winnie the Pooh themed party.
Ă‚Â Becca with her balloons!
Ă‚Â Becca Pooh!
Ă‚Â Becca opens her presents at her birthday party!
Just an update to let you know where we are at and how you can pray for us from here on out. On Monday 12/3 (Sarah’s Birthday 🙂 ), we had the last of our home study interviews by our Social Worker, Beth Primm. She came to our home and interviewed each of us separately, including little Becca.
Just a little cute note about a question she asked Becca before we started our separate interviews:
She asked Becca: “What do you like to do with your Mommy and Daddy?”
She replied: “Say I love you.”
That made Mommy and Daddy, needless to say, VERY PROUD!!!!!!!
Just so you can know what’s next:Ă‚Â from here, after filing our home study, we will authenticate every form for our dossier. What’s that mean you ask? Well, every document we compile goes through an internationalĂ‚Â verification process.
First, after signing and notarizing each document, the notary must be certified as real and authentic by the US government and then by the Chinese government through their consulate.
After that, each document is officially ready to be sent to China as part of our dossier to China(DTC). We then have our dossier logged in in China, and receive a LID(log in date).Ă‚Â Then we wait however long it takes. Our main prayer at that point is for God’s perfect timing.
Ă‚Â We will also be looking at and filing a special needs application at the same time as our regular application, so that if we find the child God has for us on the Special needs list, we can quickly proceed with the adoption of that child.
Ă‚Â Anyway, thanks for y’all’s prayers!!!!!!
Brandon, Sarah, and Big Sis Becca
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On Saturday, Becca bravely participated in a dance outreach and recital at a nursing home. We were so proud of her! This was her first time to perform in any way in front of people. Her 3-5 year olds dance class was the first to perform, and there were about 300-400 people there in my estimation. I am certain that in her eyes it probably seemed like there were about 3000-4000 there!
Well, the music started and they all pretty much froze with fear. It was a quick onslaught of of a mammoth case of stage fright. However, they all stayed up there and endured even though they forgot their routine. I was so proud ofĂ‚Â our little one!Ă‚Â Even though she was scared, she did not cry, and she stood up there bravely and did her best.Ă‚Â For that we were so proud! We took her immediately afterwards and went to celebrate at McDonald’s with a Happy Meal, and then we went and bought a toy at Wal-Mart as a reward!
By the way, the dance company where she takes ballet is called Profusion Arts! It is a Christian Dance Company!Ă‚Â Check them out!Ă‚Â If you live in the area, I would encourage you to enroll your children in any of these fun classes in all categories of dance and theatre for all ages!Ă‚Â Ă‚Â
