Yay! Holidays!

It's been a little while since I posted, so we have lots of pictures! Yay!

We will do the most exciting news first! On November 19th, in the Whatcom County Superior Court Gaspard Chancy and Anthionine Petitome officially became Isaiah Gaspard Scheffer and Annecy Anthionine Hope Scheffer. Even though this happened already in our hearts over 10 long years ago, the papers are now official. Here is a picture of everyone in their smiles, after Mom had a good cry while signing the papers. Following the court appointment they had a reception for all of the adoptive families that had their papers finalized that day and they had lots of sugar, presents and most importantly a really funny balloon man. Her are all of the kids sporting their balloon decor.

We hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving sharing it with family and friends. Ours was wonderful, we got to share it with lots of friends and followed the dinner up with a Wheeler/Scheffer re-enactment of the original Thanksgiving! Here are some pictures of our little Pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower and the Indians saying goodbye to Squanto (the pilgrims look very similar to the indians).

And finally we have a picture of all of our kids together for Christmas time. They all had so much fun putting up the tree and all of the Christmas decorations together. When Elijah was still in the womb, Mom made felt stockings for all of the kids with their names on them. For the last 8 years we have hung Isaiah and Annecy's stocking with all of the others, in faith that they would be home the next year to use them. This year our faith came to fruition. They were so excited to hang them on the mantle and know that this year they would get filled with goodies like all the rest.

All together a pretty productive and blessed couple of weeks. We pray your holiday season holds the same and we'll miss seeing you that are far away, but know we love you just the same.

Harvest time!

We had our church Harvest Party on the 31st of October. Isaiah had a hard time deciding between dressing up as Zoro, a Ninja or Superman, Superman finally won out. Annecy was a Princess and Kenya was a pirate girl, wiht Elijah as the Pirate. They had lots of fun making Carmel Apples, fishing, bowling and bean bagging for candy. They also got to do a cookie walk and a cool craft.

Isaiah and Annecy got to experience their first fall season this year. Piles of leaves are now their favorite thing. This is them at our friends The Wheelers.

Hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving, if you don't have a place to be, we would love to have you. We thank God for our countless blessings and hope you are blessed even more!

First Face Painting

We went to Dusty's pumpkin farm for some Fall festivities and Isaiah got his face painted for the first time, it was not a simple heart and balloon shape either, he and Kenya got the whole works.

We got to go through the corn maze with help from the Wheelers, we made it through after several failed attempts. We found some cute little pumpkins, did a couple three legged races, some gunny sack races and Isaiah and Annecy came in first with their long legs, on all of them.

Annecy got to take her first horse ride and since she didn't want to wait in the long line for the more detailed face painting, she did get the heart shapes along with Elijah, who got a snake.

We had so much fun and we are looking forward to lots more Thanksgiving and Christmas memories coming up. Please continue to pray for the building we are hoping to buy. We need to give them an answer in the next week, as to whether we can come up with the down payment they are looking for and it will definantly be only God if He makes this possible. Thanks for the prayer if He wants it, He will do it! Happy Fall to you all!

It's show time!

The kids have started putting on shows for anyone who will watch. So we got the camera out and figured we would broaden the spectrum. It starts out as practiced, serious drama and some how turns into serious goofing off with in a matter of minutes so here is a little of both.

We got to go to the Northwest Pastors Conference in Seattle last Monday and Tuesday. We spent the night in a hotel and got to eat vietnamese food for dinner. It was so nice for us to spend some time together while the kids stayed with a sitter. You forget how much you need it until you get it. If Charity would have not had a sore throat clogged sinuses and a cough. It would have been even better.

We are enjoying the fall activities with the summer weather. We turned on the air conditioning closed the blinds and made hot chocolate to pretend it was a snow day, we snuggled and read books most of the day. Then when we got tired of that, we took blankets and pillows out on the lawn and enjoyed the hot sunshine while we read some more books. Those are the days I live for. To bad they have to come to an end.

Please continue to pray for a meeting place for Calvary Ellensburg. We still have not been successful in finding one and know that it will all be in the Lord's perfect timing. Thanks!

Fall is Here!

We are back into school and the kids are doing great! Annecy and Isaiah have been working so hard to get caught up and most of the time it is with a great attitude. We have been enjoying the last bits of warmth here in Ellensburg, scattered with some sweet thunder and hail storms. The kids and their friends all ran outside in their swim suits on Sunday to get soaking wet from the down pour that was in full force.

We had a great time last weekend as the Men all went to the men's retreat and the mom's and kids had a chick flick and chocolate party. We all had way too much candy and not nearly enough sleep, which made for very lazy Saturday, Annecy got so bored though she proved to Mom that could actually do her own hair. It took her all day with play breaks in between, but now we know she's capable and I think she wishes she would have kept her secret talent hiddden.

We could use lots of prayer for our church building situation, we are really growing out of the one we are in and we have 2 building options right now but we are waiting to see what the Lord has in store for us. Please pray for wisdom and favor, in accordance with whatever the Lord has for us. Both are very exciting options and could really be great places to meet. Thanks for your prayers. Have a blessed day!

Ready for fall!

Summer is winding down and we are ready to slow down a bit and hand out at home. It seems every summer we commit to not being as busy, but for some reason it never quite works out that way. Maybe we should try to get busier and see if that has the oppisite effect. The kids had fun taking care of the new batch of baby bunnies this summer. As soon as another bunny has babies we become the favorite house on the block.

We have had a fun summer with lots of little trips and visits. Our highlight was Califonia with a stop over in Oregon to go to our favorite church retreat Applegate. While there we got to visit an art gallery. A woman who wanted to paint pictures of Haitian Children to benefit the rebuilding in Haiti had painted a picture of Annecy when she was about 5. It was beautiful! We got a shot of Annecy standing next to it.

We got to play with Grandma's and Granpa's a lot and had lots of snuggle and lov'in time.

And as a cherry on top of the cake, we had our wonderful friends the Wheeler's move into town.

We are getting ready to start school again and really put our nose to the grind stone this year as we are all getting older and that means mom has to actually start doing school along with them, since she didn't pay attention the first time around and now has to teach it.

Church is growing like crazy lately and we have officially grown out of the building we are in, we could really use your prayers and we are trying to get into a new building, but trying to work out the financial end of it and make it work for both parties involved. We know the Lord is the great provider and will work out all things. We have been very blessed financially with the building we are currently in, but unfortunatly we have way to many kids to make it still work. Please pray we will walk in his leading and not try to do what we think will work. God Bless you all!

it's been a long time com'in

wow, i guess weare in desperate need of updating! Summers get so busy and it seems like we can never catch up. So for the two grandma's who have been praying for us to update the blog, your prayers have been answered...thanks for the broken arms. now that i have figured out how to position the computer just right so i can reach most of the keys with my one hand i can use, i have lots of time to update as there is not much else i can do. so i hope you will forgive my lack of caps and punctuation as i don't have another pinky for the shift key.

the kids and i took a bike ride a couple of days ago and my seat was slightly loose, so with all of the smarts i could muster i decided to try to push it back into place while still in motion and spilled my bike catching myself with my non-shock-absorbing hands. I am now going to be a public speaker for bike safety rules. For the past couple of days my kids no longer fight over toys, they fight over who gets to feed mom, who get to brush her teeth and put her hair in a ponytail. God is so good at teaching us humility. My wonderful mother in law is now bunking with us for a week to wash my hair, among other things.

A lot has happened since Seaworld and i will post some quick pics to illistrate, but i will have to keep typing to a minimum as i am sure my Dr would frown on my use of reaching the full keyboard.

We have been enjoying lots of water and sun as it is a hot one, but nothing like doing it with lots of friends.

Isaiah and mom went to "creation fest 2010" in enumclaw, which is a huge 4 day long christian musical artist festival with speakers and concerts all day long, we only went friday for Isaiahs favorite artist, "toby mac" it was so much fun and we loved it. Dad took the other kids camping and they had a blast also.

it was also kenya's 9th b-day this month and she had lots of friends over for a pool party, since, mom could not do a darn thing to help, we had lots of friends who pitched in. one of them made a sweet puppy cake.

well we will try to keep up a little more, but have great summer!

Family Fun!

We had an awesome opportunity to drive with Tadd down to California for a Pastors conference, while he went to the conference we stayed in our Trendwest timeshare and spent lots of time in the pool and got a once in a life time chance to go to Seaworld, as it was re-imbursable by the homeschool program we are a part. Here is a picutre of the kids at the Shamu show, right before they got soaked by a wave of his tail.

They hid out in the ice cave at the Artic explorer exhibit.

After a day of education we hit all of the rides and not one of us had a dry spot on us, so the kids threw up their arms and said lets do it again. After the sixth time I drew the line and we had to move on.

We got to spend some sweet time with our friends The Wheelers at the beach and they treated us to Lego Land.

We were all so blessed, but so exhausted by the end of each day!

Tadd was very blessed by the conference and the whole adventure was a blessing to us all. We were very happy to be home in our own beds and wake up the next morning to put our noses back to the grind stone. School is almost over and we are looking forward to 2 family reunions at the end of June and then some down time in July to catch our breath. Hope you are having a blessed summer and we will keep you posted on the festivities to come. Have a blessed week!

face paint or skin dye?

The kids go to "Miss Heidi's" 2 days a week and she helps them with school, it is just a fun way to see someone other than Mom everyday. In order to motivate them last week, she said she would paint thier faces if they got done quick. She used washable markers and they washed off so nicely, so the kids decided to use our washable markers and try it again last night. I think we have a different kind of washable markers, as my children are still displaying faint markings of a clown, spiderman and a puppy on thier skin.

Maybe we will save the facepainting for Miss Heidi to do.

Summer is coming up quick and the kids are so looking forward to it. We are going to have to do some minimal schooling during the summer months to get caught up grade wise, but we are still going to try to make it fun. We have a Scheffer & Davis family reunion in June, so we will be spending some time in the car and we will try to cram as many books on CD in as we can.

Church activities are cutting down to once a month rather than weekly, (except for Midweek and Sunday Services) So we will be able to spend some sweet time hanging out and having fun. We will have a couple of visitors and are looking forward to lots of camping and fishing trips.

Tadd may not be able to join us on all of our excursions, but we will sure try to fit in as many as we can with Dad. We have been so blessed to have a couple of Date nights the last few weeks and it is so good to remember how twitterpaited we are with each other still, even though the business can distract.

We are now back in the bunny breading business agian, as summer has come around. Isaiah and Annecy are so excited to have cute little baby rabbits to cuddle. We are so blessed to have property to do all the things we love to do. The kids love having room to play, as well as a place to put up a pool, have animals, help plant flowers and a garden and it's all fenced in only a couple blocks from town. We can not say enough how God is so great at providing just what we need.

We will try to keep the camera clicking over the summer to capture some of the family firsts, as we are experiencing so much for the first time all over again. Have a blessed week and don't forget He loves you more than you will ever know.

Sidewalk Ministy

We had a great time out on the sidewalk last night. We had hot dogs and smores and apparently when your really intoxicated, those sound very good. We had a group of kids from our neighborhood hang out for a while and they could really use some prayer. There was a lot of stuff going on that was really wrong in so many ways, we just loved on them and hopefully can develop a realationship, to let them know there is more to life than what they have currently.

It was very convicting to our hearts also, about what we are willing to give grace for and what we want to just run away from. God is good all the time though and he is so great at giving you just enough grace for what you need. It started to spinkle a little and we prayed that the Lord would hold the rain back until "party time" died down, he did and then later, just as we got up and said "lets call it a night" it started to rain again. I guess that means God is definatly into what we are doing and He has made provisions for it.

Sorry I haven't been posting many pictures, I wanted to take one last night, of all the people hanging out making smores and hot dogs, but I thought flashing pictures might kill the mood a little. We will have to see if we can sneak one in of just the people from the church next week.

Our four wonderful kids helped plant the garden and flower beds all weekend. They are such great helpers and they love taking ownership of "their" flowers and plants. We love working outside on a sunny day with the whole family, not sure there is anything better.

We will try to get some pictures up soon. Have a great week and God bless you.

it's been a long time com'in

Sorry it has taken us so long to update, we had our churches woman's retreat this last weekend and it kept Charity slightly busy, a long with 4 kids and homeschooling it seems like momments to update are few and far between. Anywho...

We had a great woman's retreat and Charity was very blessed. It was so good to hang out with the other ladies, get her baby fix with all of the ones who came along and also be blessed by a great speaker and time with the Lord. Tadd did great with all of the kids, as well as doing our first "sunday in the park" and potluck of the season. The guys were amazing and everything worked out great, dispite the very cold wind that blew the whole time.

We started our "Sidewalk Ministry" last weekend, the Lord put it on our hearts to bring our sofa to the sidewalk outside our house, along with some coffee, a fire pit and some smores, just to love on the kids coming home from parties all night long. We live on one of the main walking roadsto parties and if for no other reason, we thought some kids might hang out and talk just because they can't walk straight. We set everything up last friday and realized it was the "college rodeo" weekend, so the sidewalk was pretty quiet. Please pray for this ministry as we will continue it this weekend and possibly make it mobile. We will drive to the highschool hang outs or skateparks and offer smores and a place to hang and talk for a while.

Our family of six is still doing wonderful, we are so excited for the weather to get nice, so we can get some camping and family visiting done. We will have to push the homeschool thing a little into the summer, as we took some time off when Isaiah and Annecy came home, but we have lots of fun on the calander too. Sorry no pictures this time, I was hoping to get some of our sidewalk ministry to post, but since not a lot went on last weekend we didn't snap a shot. We will really try to post after the weekend with some pictures. God bless you all and have a sweet spring day.

Snow in April?

Well we have had a lot of different weather for Elijah's Birthday from year to year, but I don't think we have ever had snow. Isaiah and Annecy had never actually seen it snowing. They were having lots of fun playing in it, until they came in saying their toes and hands were hurting. They were so excited to play outside, they had not put on their gloves or boots. They warmed up quickly by the fire and then put on the proper attire and went right back to it. Isaiah loves to have me take pictures of him with things he has never seen before. Therefore he even picked the back drop for me and then told me to come out and take a picture. He called the other kids and gathered under the tree in the front yard, then we snapped the shot.

We had Elijah's birthday party this weekend and we all had lots of fun. The boys all got to make sheilds and swords, the girls make "blessing stars" and butterfly wings. A friend made a lego cake, which was awesome and delicious.

It has been so nice having two more helpers around the house, Everyone loves to help out, especially with the cooking,

We are always busy, but enjoying all the things we are busy about. We are planning to head to Bellingham this weekend, to spend a little more time with family now that Grandma and Grandpa are back from Arizona. It will be a quick trip, but good to spend two days with all the cousins. Isaiah and Annecy really want to go to the beach, I told them we would take them to Birch Bay this weekend, but it is nothing like the beautiful Caribean beaches of haiti, so don't expect to go swimming. I am sure it will be fun to see different shells and marine life that they have not seen before.

We will fill you in on all of the fun, when we get back. Please pray for safe travels and that Dad won't miss us too much as he has to stay home to work and study. Hope you all have a blessed Resurection day!

Gett'in Ready for Easter

The kids went to a homeschool P.E. class today and they got to do an Easter egg hunt. Isaiah and Annecy were amazed that you actually got plastic eggs with candy inside, instead of a boiled egg. After the newness wore off, Isaiah asked if he could just have a basket of boiled eggs instead. He is not a big sweet tooth.

We are gearing up this weekend to have 8 students from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in Mt. Lake Terrace, come down and canvas the neighboorhoods and college campus to let people know that Calvary Ellensburg is here and invite them to an Open House on Saturday. We are hoping to maybe get of few of the people who don't have a church to come out and see what we are all about this weekend. It will be fun to have the Bible College kids here too.

Isaiah had a Dr. appt. last week in Seattle at U of W and we went to the Zoo afterward. It was so fun to see their faces see some animals for the first time ever and the excitement of a small child in my 9 and 11 year old. We are so amazed and excited to have them home, still! God has been so amazing at the minimal amount of adjustment it has taken for the whole thing to feel so perfect. Well, I just thought I would post a quick update but, I should probably get to bed. I will try to post more soon. Here is a cute picture of Isaiah, being the big teddy bear that he is.

Family night

We had 5 Dr. Appointment this week, as (after a year here) we finally got a Dr and went in for yearly check ups. Unfortunatly most of them were followed by an Ice Cream trip (for good behavior during shots) or a trip to the Lab for a test or two. That means 5 out of our 7 day week were mostly gone, by the time we got home. That also means we have a huge pile of clean, but unfolded laundry on our bed that never got taken care of this week. Amazing how time spent somewhere else, equals something at home being left undone. Poor Tadd has had to search through a pile of clothes, the last 3 mornings for clean socks. Atleast, next week is looking up, as we got all of the appointments out of the way in one week.

Tadd has started a new position at work that is garanteed Mon-Friday 7-3:30. It has been such a blessing to have a little more time to hang out as a family. The other night Annecy and Isaiah were teaching Tadd, Kenya & Elijah, some of the games they used to play in Haiti. All of the songs to the games were in Creole, but some how, that didn't effect how much fun it was to play. Here is a video of two of the games.

Emergency?

The other day Annecy was playing with Tadd's old cell phone and Charity told her it could not dial #'s, but do not dial 911 as it would call the police. Annecy is a lot like her sister Kenya, so she needs to find out what will happen, if I do the thing you just told me not to. Therefore she said, " Mom what if I do call 911?" Charity told her that if she did the Police would come and instead of Mom talking to them she would have to explain what she did and apologize for keeping them from the people who may really need help. She said, "will they kill me?" Charity told her they would not kill her, but they would have a hard time doing their job like they are supposed to if she called them when she didn't need them. Annecy then asked what would happen if she just dialed 91 instead of 911. So we had a conversation about how we need to try to keep far away from things we are not supposed to do, instead of do the closest thing to them. She decided she was done hearing about what she wasn't supposed to do and let it rest.


Two days later the kids and Charity went to her brothers house near Pullman, WA. Annecy was playing with her cousin Brooke and Brooke went in the other room. 2 Minutes later, the phone rang, Brooke answered it and hung up shortly saying Annecy had called 911. Uncle Chris had a talk with her about why that was not OK. Shortly after the conversation ended, a knock came at the door. Uncle Chris answered it and of course it was a policemen. So just like mom said, she had to go out and have a talk with the nice officer and came in head down and on the fringe of tears. Which made a perfect opportunity for a lot of loving and a prayer of thanks for "Natural Consequences" We are hoping the next time she will trust that Mom knows best, without testing the results.



We had lots of fun at Uncle Chris's house, Annecy became his shadow all weekend and helped him out smoking turkey, making jerkey and fertilizing the lawn. Isaiah got to go paintballing with Uncle Chris and cousin Devyn. He had so much fun. Elijah I thought would get his fill of video games after 2 days of breaking only for meals, sleep and bathroom breaks. I guess he dosen't really get sick that quick. Kenya got to spend some reading time with Aunt Brandie and Aunt Brandie gave her lots of books she could read and some stationary to write her letters when she needs more.

















The kids are still doing great and we are still so blessed to have our whole family together. Annecy and Isaiah had to go to University of Washington Medical Center last Wednesday to get their first check up. They did great even after 4 shots and 8 viles of blood taken and a 1.5 wait. So far they are healthy, but not too happy about the certain "samples" that needed to be provided. All is great on the home front. Thank you to all who are and have prayed and all who have helped out in many different ways. Here are a couple pictures of the kids in Gymnastics.