Flower Painting

Madison's "Art Camp" started today at the Quinlan, and as you can see, she started off the week with a painting of flowers, using water colors and other paints.  It was something new for her to try out, and it turned out well!  We dropped her off at 2:30, and while she was getting into her painting, Mommy and Daddy were doing a bit of looking around for our new Toy Story series.  We also stopped at Panera to sit, eat, and do a bit of brainstorming for the series, writing out series messages.  One message in particular came out of this time together, one I've been looking for since we started thinking up ideas for the series.  It was related to the character of Jessie, and I've got a better idea about where to go with her, as far as a message goes.

Along these lines, Daddy plugged in the movie "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command:  The Adventure Begins" tonight to watch.  It's short, but it's fun, and it gave me a few more ideas, and some funny lines too.  We've really been diving into the Toy Story material lately, even replaying some of the Disney Infinity levels, and exploring the game "Toy Story 3."  We got a Slinky Dog today, adding to our collection of props and toys - soon enough, we'll be doing this series, and it's going to be fun.

It was super hot today, as it has been and apparently will be for a little while.  Tonight we stopped by Nana and Ye-Ye's house to visit an old friend, one who lived in New Jersey - and then in the Florida Keys.  Back in the 80's we visited her and her husband, and the two of them shared the gospel with Nana and Ye-Ye in a way they hadn't heard it before.  The end result was a change in churches, and a change in destiny.  It's safe to say, without this woman in our lives, I wouldn't have met Mommy and we wouldn't have adopted Madison.  Little actions are like dominoes that cascade through the years creating enormous consequences, in this case wonderful ones.  We're thankful Cynthia Ratey told us about the love of Jesus.  Though I was not quite old enough to fully comprehend, it changed the lives of my parents, and set in motion something quite remarkable.

We spent a while talking tonight, catching up.  Daddy visited her back in the 90's, back when we were going on road trips to places like the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.  It was a nice visit, but that was the last time I've seen her, the distance between here and Minnesota being a little longer.  It was so nice to see her tonight though.  It made for a wonderful end to a very nice day.