more from a 4 year old

This morning my mom came over to take Owen for the day as I am feeling under the weather. She decided she would take him to the park.  I handed her some low socks that would fit with his low top converse. As my mom is putting them on him, he tells my mom he doesn't like these type of socks.  She asked him why and his honest response was,

"Because they make me look totally not awesome."

I almost died laughing, I was standing right there when he said it. Seriously, I don't say things like this, where do they learn these things?

details about the below picture...

Owen and his buddy, Matt, got into a box that a crib shipped in...full of styrofoam...shredded it and there you have it...child covered in styrofoam balls and we used a vacuum to get it out of his hair, his ears...it was everywhere.

here's a picture mom!

Our weekend in Bakersfield.

At the beginning of this month, we headed down south to celebrate a very special day, cousin Emmy turned 1! We got to spend the day with some old friends at the park as well as have lots of cousin time and end the weekend with Emmy's birthday party!

Anything yellow is Owen's new favorite, which explains him loving to wear Noah's new sunglasses....

A day at the park with Briggs and Hadley Murphy

Princess Emery turns 1!
And the princess gets her first bite of sugar...and she loved it! Join the club, Emmy!

Acupuncture for a 4 year old!

Yes, Owen has been doing acupuncture now for about a month. He's doing amazing. We take him three days a week to the same doctor I see and we're seeing great results. What motived us to take him at 4? A continual runny nose and despite his healthy diet and getting plenty of rest, he just seemed to have a perpetual stuffy/runny nose. Both my dad and I are prone to sinus infections and I think he got this trait. After about two weeks, he was snot free, yahoo!!! The doctor is just now starting treatment on his eyes, seeing if we can get a little more correction with his cross-eyed condition...we'll see. Check out our brave kiddo.

Major Catch Up...

Taking you all back to January, as Owen turned 3 and I didn't have any pics of the day...all on my sisters camera. So here's a few. On his special day, he got to pick the days activities which consisted of going to get donuts with daddy, having pizza for dinner and going bowling with the family. Diet wise, a horrible day but it's one day, right! And he lived and he had a blast, thought he was pretty special and of course, so do we!

What did mommy and Auntie do to my cousin?
Pin "Flicker" on the toolbox...
"Cheese" before cutting up mom's hard work...
Favorite treat, every year daddy takes me early in the morning on my birthday for a sprinkle donut and cup of milk.


Finally mommy found "Grabber" - a little die cast tractor

Favorite pizza

Favorite cupcakes

Loss and Hope

Hi all!
Well, God's been working over here in the Stokes house! God has been putting His hand print all around our circumstances and this is what has kept us encouraged and hopeful in Him. On Tuesday we found out we're in the middle of a miscarriage, I was 7 weeks along. It was a sad appointment and I've definitely had my moments of tears and heartache...but there's more to our story. There's hope. The day before this appointment, we got a call from our adoption attorney and a young Christian woman had chosen to pursue our family. Not knowing we were in the middle of a miscarriage when we got the call, we felt the Lord was leading us to pursue the adoption, even if it ment twins (the due dates of us both were very close). So yes, of course I was sad about the loss of our pregnancy and still have my moments, but at the same time, I have seen first hand the mighty and compassionate hand of the Lord...he gave us hope in the midst of pain. He knew and still knows the final outcome of our season of life and we have peace because of that. We feel so humbled that the Lord would choose us at this time, after waiting two years on the adoption and really feeling called to take this route, that He would have it come at a time that could only be explained by Him and we give Him all the glory! So, thank you for your kind emails and for praying for our pregnancy. Once again we are reminded that this life is not about us and our plans but rather about Him, His will being done and we're simply the vessels for Him to be glorified through.

So, on the adoption front, we had our first meeting with the birth mom on Tuesday evening and it went great! She is amazing! We will take the next step in the process which is to meet her in person and we're so excited. We're really looking forward to spending some time with her in a few weeks, getting to know her more and seeing what the Lord has in store. The baby is due Sept. 18th.

This is going to be a daily surrender to Him because adoption definitely has its risks but we want this little baby to be where God chooses, if with us we will feel blessed and honored that the Lord chose us, but if with someone else, God will take care of our hearts in the process.

Noah has such a great attitude about it all...he encourages me everyday to see life from the Lords eyes and not from my own. He told me, "Honey, think of it as an adventure, we're just watching to see where God takes us." So that's what we're doing:)


"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." Prov. 16:9

We're pregnant!

Well, what can we say but Praise God! After being told we'd have a better chance of winning the lottery than ever conceiving again, we found out last week, after three long years, that our second baby is due Nov. 5th. How awesome is God! You may be wondering why we're telling you when I'm only 4 1/2 weeks along and really I had no intention of telling you for a while, in all honesty:) But as I was sitting with God this morning, praying through the many issues we are already facing with this pregnancy, God really challenged me on my rationalization for keeping it a secret. He basically asked me, "Do I not get the glory if this doesn't go your way? If no one knows and something happens, my miracle no one would know... the outcome is not in your control but by you withholding my works, others can't be encouraged." I realize there is vulnerability in sharing this so early but who am I to decide when God should deserve the glory. When God does something our praise should immediately follow! Plus, it's not about me, it's about Him. So praise Him today!!!
So I could ask for you to pray for the health of this baby and for the my health as well, but really at this point, we just want to praise Him for what He's just done. For those of you who've been praying for us, He's answered your prayer and we thank you for interceding for us. We pray you're encouraged by Him today.
Now we start the whole slew of things that come with high risk pregnancies but God is still God and regardless of what the circumstances look like, He's still in control. And in all honesty, there are days where I'm living this and days where I'm struggling to believe this. The day we found out the positive results through blood work was the same day we found out that my liver took a nose dive. I've struggled to rejoice in the pregnancy because fear set up camp in regards to my liver. And then I turned to Psalm 27 today, "The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" I'm still learning that it's a choice sometimes to rejoice and it requires discipline to dwell on Him when my feelings of fear want to dwell on the "what if's". Regardless, God is still doing miracles and by His grace, He's given us another one.
Praise be to Him,
Love,
Danika, Noah and Owen