Halloween Fun

Lily missed the pumpkin patch this year, so we brought her back a small pumpkin to carve.

Carving Pumpkins

Carving

Kitty, the finished product

 This year was the first year, Lily didn't really "plan" a costume.  She mentioned she wanted to be a wolf, so I bought her some ears and a tail, which declared were for a "toddler" and she threw something together 10 minutes before we walked out the door.

Grey Wolf and Steve from Minecraft

Trick or Treating with the boys

I had asked Lily if she wanted to go trick or treating this year with her friends or maybe her "boyfriend" Kobi, but she wanted to go to Pop-Pop's neighborhood.  So as usual she had a little boy Posse with Garrett, Keagan, Micheal, and Ashton

This young lady is truly exceptional!

I've got to give kudos to Lily!  She really is growing into an exceptional young lady!  This week her middle school class (45 students)  took an overnight tenting/camping trip to Little Bennett Park.  At night 30 students snuck out to the bathrooms and played spin the bottle and 7 minutes in heaven.  Lily was the only one in her tent group that remained in her tent.  Doing the right thing when everyone else is doing the wrong thing is tough even for an adult, but Lily blew us away with her maturity in what I suspect was a difficult situation.  I pray that she continues to have a good head on her shoulders and continues to make good decisions.  Like her Daddy said, "We trusted you before, but now we trust you even more".  I'll tell you, she is truly a good egg!!!!  We are super blessed!

A first time for everything

Well "we" bit the bullet and bought Lily an electric razor.  I had tried to convince her to wait as long as possible, but she wanted to do it.  So last night we had a crash course in shaving her legs.  Armpits will be next.  My baby girl is growing up so fast!!!!

This girl is on fire!

Watch out world!  7th grade!!!!!

This girl is amazing!  Today was her first day of 7th grade!  She reported she had a good day although she felt a little overwhelmed!  She reported that many of her friends had moved on to other schools, but was happy to be reunited with her other friends.  Kobi (her "boyfriend" and her are still sitting at the same table!

Her Daddy and I could not be more proud of her!  She is really coming into her own!  She is super kind to others, making them feel loved and special (except her annoying little brother...although sometimes she will try!).  She shows a maturity beyond her years!  This past weekend we went camping and we had another little girl from Lily's school Emery, also adopted from Guatemala join us.  She and her friends welcomed Emery in with open arms and did everything in their power to make her feel comfortable in the group.

Lily is also beginning to take ownership of her health and fitness.  She seems to be taking an interest in being more healthy.  I am so proud of her.  She has even taken a little interest in weightlifting!  Today she had her swim evaluation and the coaches said she did a great job!  She gets to move up to the next level.  They even think once she gets back into shape she can move up to the level after that as well!  Go Lily!  She seems motivated, so we will see!  It's nice to see her setting goals and going after them! 

Beautiful Guate girl gang!

One tall Rudy with 3 lovely Guate girls!

All the kiddos!

An awesome human being!

Lily really is an amazing human being!  I am in awe of her much of the time!  She has such a big heart!

So first, she still has the "boyfriend".  They haven't seen each other over the summer, although we did try to find him in Bethany Beach, but they continue to text and "duo" each day.  It continues to be pretty innocent, but there sure is a lot of I love you going around!  He was using a lot of bad language initially with her, but after we told her it needed to stop, he stopped thankfully!

She just finished a week of babysitting camp called Safe Sitter.  I was super impressed!  Once she is 13 years old she will be an amazing babysitter!!!!

We went to Bethany Beach with the Best family and Ms. Jessica's family.  I think Lily had a good time, but I think the girls got on her nerves. Both Chloe and Isabelle would go at it!  I don't think Lily cares for the drama too much.  But I must admit I was really proud of her, she did extremely well!  I asked her what her favorite part of the beach was and she said it was seeing her cousin Aly at the beach!  My sister and her family were there at the same time and came to visit us at the beach 3 times!

We recently got free backpacks and school supplies and Lily with her big heart wanted to give them to one of the little girls we sponsored in Guatemala!

Yesterday we were driving and she decided she wanted to de-winterize our homeless bags and hand them out.  Again, such a big and thoughtful heart!

She is fun to be with most of the time, except if she is moody:)  She's got a good sense of humor too!  I heard on the radio the other day Pastor Tony Evans talking about relationships and rules, and how as children age they may want to rebel against the rules, but if you have a good relationship with them, they will want to preserve that relationship and the rules deal more with respect, that children are more likely to respect the rules because of the relationship instead of rebel against the rules.  I am praying that is the case with her!

She loves her YouTube videos and constantly wants us to watch some of the funny things she finds!

I head to Thailand for two weeks in August.  I haven't been away from her for that long since we lived in Guatemala.  Hopefully, the nannies and Daddy will be okay and I won't miss her too much!

We have entered a new parenting milestone

Today was Lily's last day of 6th grade!  Hard to believe how much she has changed in the last few months.

Lily's last day of school in front of Daddy's new Hummer

We can really tell she is seeking her identity.  She has asked to have her DNA tested so she can find out her ethnic background.  The running joke in the house is she wants to know if she is 3% Irish!  As much as we want to give her this, we are just not comfortable with it right now.  Having her DNA out there is unsettling, in fact, there was just a DNA breach last week. 

We've also discussed finding her birth mom.  Again this is another huge Pandora's box.  We are praying on it now.  Like the DNA I do want to do this for her as well, I want to give her that gift of identity,  but it opens up so many things I want her to be "ready" or at least in a position to emotionally deal with anything that might come up. 

Also, spring fever hit the upper school this Quarter.  Lily has this boy crazy friend Taylor and I think Lily caught the bug!  She has "paired up" with a good friend of hers Kobi.  They text and talk often!  In fact, we found out about their "relationship"  because I noticed Lily used 500 texts within 1 day!  When I asked to see her phone she refused.    A big no-no...apparently she was embarrassed.  Anyway I've been tracking the texts and it's pretty innocent, but man I am so not ready for this!

Lily had another great season playing soccer.  Things are really beginning to click for her!  I think another season or so and she'll be on fire!  Her coaches this season were amazing too and developed great relationships with the girls.

A great group of girls!

Lily is maturing so much both physically and socially.  She did very well in school this quarter.  She is reading 2 grade levels above and all that math tutoring really paid off!  She scored Average-High for the end of the year!  Yeah, Lily!  The teachers joke that Lily is like a lightning bolt.  Everyone storms around her and yet she is focused in the center.  Then if she moves, they all move with her!  It's so funny how she is so focused at school because at home, she's all over the place!!!

Lately, she has expressed an interest in trying vocal lessons and guitar lessons.  So proud of her for trying new things!

Yesterday at school she had to give a speech to the entire upper and lower elementary school about perseverance!  So proud!

May download

May has been a wild ride in the Gjerde household.  We have taken three family camping trips with different groups and Lily has even gone camping with her 6th grade schoolmates!  First, we went camping with Cagle girls, then we went camping with our small group bible study, and lastly, we went camping with part of the Henry clan.  On Lily's school camping trip, she went on a ropes course and she said she did a zip line!  Lily definitely has become more teenager-like in that she seems to need time just to be alone and veg out, while camping she has fun, but then she would disappear into the camper to text on her phone or watch a video.

Cagle family

Lily and Abigail

Small Group Camping trip

Lily X 2

Ready to kayak

Lily had her first chorus concert at school. She said she didn't enjoy the experience very much so I don't know if she will do it again in the future.  She also played goalie in soccer for the first time ever.  She said she was near tears because she was so nervous, but she did great she prevented several goals!  It also seems like a switch has come on with soccer, like all those skills she has been practicing are finally coming together.  The last few games she really has turned on the skill!

Lily also has been wanting a bikini, I've gone back and forth on it...not quite emotionally ready for it, but I think we found one yesterday that we both can live with.  She does look super cute and I am glad she has the confidence to wear it!  I'm just not prepared for all the attention it may draw to her!

Also, our dear friend lice has visited us yet again. This time Lily found it herself!  I didn't even cry this time!  I've lost track of how many times our dear Lily has gotten this pesky disgusting bug! Hopefully we can get rid of it for good!!!!