A few photos to go with last post....

The new 5 song CD!


Libby loves to play with baby Ari and baby Ling


Libby loves the Martine girls!


Still lovin' on baby Aria (she's practicing so hard to be a good big sister!)


All girl and yet she carries a ball with her wherever she goes!


Sharing snack time with baby Aria and baby Ling


Billy and I just before going on to celebrate our dossier being shipped to Ethiopia! (funny note: the grimace on Billy's face is bc Libby hit him right in the "you know where" just before the shot. She was mad that he was touching me. Can we say jealous? She promptly was "reprimanded"!)


Daddy gets the thumbs up for being the best dad in the world! This shot was taken on Father's Day! Billy is such an awesome dad!


The new house!

Just Saying Hello

Just posting to say hello and update you on our move. We survived! We have been in our new home since Saturday and we've unpacked most of the boxes and even done some decorating. Friday - closing day - was quite a crazy day. All was fine until Libby "tinkled" on me during the closing appointment. I was soaked (so was the nice, cushion office chair - ick!). From that point on the day went down hill.... We had packed the car with some items and planned on moving some things on our own that day. When we got to the house Libby just wanted me to hold her. That is usually fine, but this was the day I really wanted to work and get some things done. As the day progressed, the painter arrived, the refrigerator was delivered and we made several trips back and forth with items we had not boxed and wanted to move on our own. Libby became more and more difficult and I just couldn't believe how little I was getting done. (also, the first color I picked for Aria's new room was the worst coral, neon pink/orange I have ever seen and I was so very sad to admit I picked it out). Anyway... by the end of the day I couldn't believe how tired I was. I was beyond exhausted. At this point, Cristie Martine had joined me and we took Libby back to the old house to put her to bed. I was brushing Lib's teeth and she said she wanted to do it herself. She took off holding the toothbrush in her mouth and fell face forward lodging the toothbrush in the back of her throat. Mommy was horrified as Libby lifted her head up and the tooth brush was obviously stuck. I gently pulled it out and she started SCREAMING! She coughed up some blood for a few minutes and sobbed on mommy's shoulder. Thank you Lord that Cristie was there because I would have been in a serious panic without her aid. We tried for the next 20 minutes to use a flash light to see the back of Libby's throat and she wouldn't let us. She was able to breath and not bleeding anymore so we put her to bed. She kept waking up ALL NIGHT because it hurt for her to swallow. As I laid down to sleep (knowing that moving day was only hours away and it would be a long one) I prayed and asked Jesus to take her pain away and allow her to wake up with no problems from her accident. The next morning.... prayers answered! She was perfectly fine and she joined the Martine Family for a pool day while mommy and daddy moved.

At the end of moving day (which was incredibly productive without a toddler hanging on my leg) Libby came home telling me about her day at the pool. I told her it was time to get ready for bed and she said, "I want to go home now." I said, "This is our home now, Libby." And she said, "No. This is our new house. I want to go home." She didn't sleep so well that night.

We are now happily sleeping well and wonderfully adjusted. We have tomorrow to rest. Thursday we pack. And Friday we fly to TN for our first camp of the summer. We'll be leading worship for a Student Life Camp near Chattanooga.

OH! - Our new CD is finished and we've worked out all the problems we previously had with the digi info encoded on the CD. Independent bands should have the new CD posted in the next few days and it will be available to the public at that time. It will take another few weeks, probably, before it's up on iTunes and other digi music stores. It's called "All The World To Me" so look it up when you get the chance (www.independentbands.com). We are having our website updated right now and when it's done I'll send a newsletter out to let everyone know about the new CD, the updated site, the adoption news and our new address.

Talk with ya later! - C

In The Zone

Our Olympic Swimmer! She does look like she's in the zone - studying the waters before diving in... but in reality she is completely dependent on her floaties and only kicks her feet once in a while. She is floating around independent of mommy's hand which mommy will take any time over last summer's long pool days of holding baby while baby tries to get away bc baby doesn't understand the concept of drowning.... I digress...

We've been "in the zone" as a family. Last week we began some intense days of packing as we have decided to move to a house about 5 minutes up the road. It's a better floor plan for our family and we're excited. So we've been packing and cleaning and all the things that moving and selling a home entails. (Secretly, I really enjoy all the packing and organizing... I'm a little crazy like that).

Around the same time we started packing we made the less-than-desirable discovery that our new CD was encoded with the wrong info.... long, complicated story short.... we've printed 1500 copies of our new CD only to find out that the digital info (which pulls up when you put the CD in a CD Rom) is all wrong - in fact - it is the digital info of another band called "Ten Pound Handle" and all 5 songs have "Ten Pound Handle's" song titles. Our songs are playing and they sound great (in my humble opinion) but anyone who purchases the physical CD will not be able to find "All Praise to God" or one of our other 4 songs by the song title. As you can imagine, we were not exactly happy about that. We've talked with our mastering guy and our printing company. Basically we've had to download software that is licensed by Gracenotes and submit our entire CD and supposedly it will give our songs their appropriate identity so that anyone who puts their CD into their CD Rom and has Internet access will have the correct info. Not exactly sure how that works and we still have to fix the problem before we print more CDs, but - just know it's been a major hassle for our non-techno-minds.

At the same time we found out that the stroller our house church purchased for some friends ministering in an Asian country arrived (by the hand delivery of this couple's family) without half the parts it was supposed to have. It was a doubles stroller and the doubles kit was not in the box. On top of that, the brakes on the stroller do not work. Okay - so imagine me (Cindy) on the phone with PishPoshBaby's northern, male employee trying to convince him that there really is a stroller in Thailand (where the couple went to have their baby) without parts and now PishPosh should ship them another one - ALL THE WAY TO Thailand- AND FAST, bc the couple is only in Thailand until June 12. Well, PishPosh doesn't ship out of country (supposedly) so, not too far into the conversation I realized I was waisting my time. The doubles kit is coming to our house now and we will have to ship it out - and there's no way I can get it to Thailand by the 12th. So... while I didn't/don't mind AT ALL trying to work that out for our friends (it's my honor and pleasure to do so!) I do want to take a moment to shout out to the world: DO NOT SHOP AT PISHPOSHBABY.COM and DO NOT PURCHASE THE PHIL AND TED'S SPORTS STROLLER WITH DOUBLES KIT! They stink - both companies just stink!

So within the same 5 days of packing, CD encoding, and stroller drama we ended up with a little adoption paperwork drama that you can read about on Aria's blog. It got solved, but not without shortening the length of my life by at least 2 days due to the stress it caused (haha). Anyway - our adoption paperwork is DONE (which is truly a miracle and I praise the Lord for his provision!) and off to our agency for it's final processes before being shipped to Ethiopia.

And in the middle of that... we received an envelope with some tax info. When we read it, it seemed to us that it was listed as a Billy Foote Music tax thing when it was supposed to be a personal Billy Foote tax thing... It's hard to explain, but it was another moment that took some days off our lifespan. After discovering that it's all written out correctly we started breathing again.

Okay... so in the middle of that - we've also been working with the Somali people and the Karen people. Tuesday night at ClubRising we had a record number of volunteers - 32 to be exact! And God really displayed his faithfulness to me that night. Today, we started a new summer program for the Somali's called "Reading Picnics" in which we read to the kids and have unstructured conversation/playtime. Have I mentioned how much I love those kids. I LOVE THOSE KIDS!!!

So, there you have it. Blessings, busy-ness and now - a confession - In the zone of hectic activity it is easy to forget about my dependence on the Lord. I focus on the stress and feel the burden of getting tasks done and before I know it, I'm trying to do it all on my own, without resting in my Savior. So tomorrow - I rest! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... long sigh of relief.... I am going to rest....I'm so happy - I'm back in the zone of enjoying my dependence on Jesus.

Enjoy 2 more photos and thanks for reading along.
Love ya - C


Libby and Maliah rest by the pool together.

Libby's new (and much more real - and much more loud) drum kit! Billy told her that the ear protectors are "in-ear monitors" so she wears it while she plays. But really - we want her to wear them because these drums are SO LOUD!!! Seriously, I must really love that girl bc those drums are going to be the death of me - or at least my ear drums and sanity.