My Honey . . .

Here is my darling husband. What else can be said?! I love you, Shawn!

Last, but certainly not least, is Willow. She is our dog, but thinks she is 100% human. Some day we will break the news to her that she is only a dog! We finally got the kids to stop coming in and getting in bed with us and then we purchased this totally cute, chocolatey, ball of fluff and named her Willow who conviniently calls our bed, HER bed. She is a bigger bed hog and blanket hog than the kids use to be! But she does keep my feet warm at night, so I guess there are advantages to that! This poor puppy has been in 2 car accidents. The first one 2 days after we bought her when Shawn wrecked our little red Honda. Both were OK, both required a trip to the hospital and both eventually came home the same day. Shawn ended up having to have surgery to repair a laceration of his bottom lip and to attempt to place his front teeth back in the correct positions, what was left of them. Our doc did a great job and he is still very hansome! Then in September of 2004 (it was her and Shawn again), she ran out in front of our van when Shawn was coming home and he thought she went clear across the driveway. WRONG! So off to the vet again and this time she had to stay the night and have surgery! She had 6 pins in her leg and had them there for 4 months!! Finally, January 3, 2006 we got all the pins out!!! We were very thankful as they were really smelly! So, before she did like to go outside and explore and sit out in the shop while Shawn worked. NOT ANY MORE!! She is a total house dog now. She is by far the sweetest and smartest dog we have ever owned. In fact, most of the time she listens and minds better than the kids do! So here is our precious sweet Willow.

Shelby, well what else is there to say except that she is the baby of the family? She is always happy, always smiling, always upbeat! In fact, some of our friends (TheTjaden's) nicknamed her smiley because she was ALWAYS smiling! Well, you will be glad to know that somethings have not changed! She is in the 6th grade and is 11 years old. Time flies! She was on he honor roll at school for the first trimester and we were so proud of her! She has struggled a time or two with school but seems to really be excelling this year. Shelby's past times are listening to the radio, swimming, and talking on the phone! I am not sure where she got that great attribute! :)

Mabinty, well there is not much to say about Mabinty (pronounced ma-bin-tee) except that she is a very sweet, thoughtful, beautiful young lady! Mabinty came home from Africa a month before Josiah did. She was 4 years old. She is currently 11 now. She too is very smart! It amazes me how much those 2 learned after they came. Mabinty loves to read, play the piano, and read some more. She pretty much taught herself to read. If you cannot find her she will be somewhere quiet with a book, just minding her own business, reading! She generally gets straight As, but this year she got her first B. We were ok with it and I think she was too. We are very proud of her! One of her other favorite past times is spying on her brothers just to irritate them. : )

Josiah is 13 and even though he is the biggest of the kids he is not the oldest. Josiah likes football, girls, shooting his BB gun, girls, bow and arrows, girls, and eating! Josiah has very strong leadership skills we need to channel them in the right direction! He is a great and amazing kid. We adopted him 7 years ago and he has come so far! He could not speak our language and within the short 7 years he has been here he has learned to speak, read, and write the English language very well. It is amazing how resilient kids are! He came from a country that was in the midst of a civil war and that is all he had known his entire life. He left an older brother and 3 older sisters when he came to live with us, but more on that story later! Josiah LOVES to be the center of attention and he does well at being so because he has such a strong, loud voice. Next . . .

Kids . . .Starting with the Oldest

Tate is the oldest and he is now 13-1/2 years old! Wow where did the time go? He will start high school next year and then driving soon after that! I am not sure I am ready for that, but then again what choice do I have? A little bit about Tate . . . of course the obvious, he is really cute! But he likes to read, go outside and shoot his BB gun, bow and arrows, etc. He has a great sense of humor and can crack me up without notice, but of course, I am his mother, he may not be that funny to everyone else! Oh yeah, Tate's favorite pasttime? Bugging his sisters!! This is a picture of Tate taken at Christmastime with his favorite boy cousin on my side of the family! Mr. Sawyer Shane Perdue! Oh I almost forgot Tate's most favorite pasttime in the world!! BASKETBALL! Ok, on to the next kid . . .

Hi! My name is Loni. I have been married for the past almost 18 years to the most wonderful man in the world! We have 4 children. Two of our childen were adopted from Sierra Leone (That is inWest Africa for all of you who do not know your geography). We live in a large farm house on 20 acres in rural Oregon. I work at the local hospital as a medical transcriptionist and my husband works at home as the builder of lodge pole pine rustic furniture. Thanks for stopping by to learn more about our family. God Bless you!