Introducing the Newest Member of the Hammond Family!

According to the ultrasound, it's a girl! We will name her Ava Grace Hammond. In Spanish Eva (pronounced Ava) is Eve, and Eve means Life. So her name will mean "Life Grace", for by God's grace he has given us this little life. I just keep thinking about how much God has blessed us recently. There were times a few years ago that it seemed like we would never know the joy of parenthood. Both pregnancy and adoption seemed so far out of reach. Now we have a son and a daughter, and know the miracle of adoption and pregnancy! God's love and strength were with us when we were in the midst of the pain of infertility, and his blessings and healing have been poured out on us by first giving us Jonas and now Ava. Wow. I feel so inadequate to receive such blessings. But that's the awesome thing about God. He blesses us simply because He is Love!

In other news, we are in the process of buying our first house! That's another thing that I thought was impossible that God has made possible. I'll write more on that later!

Splish Splash

I just found out there is a spray park in a town very close to where we live. I wish I had known about it at the beginning of the summer! Jonas had a lot of fun running around in the water. His facial expressions were sometimes hilarious. It was hard to get good pictures without getting the camera wet, but here are a few. After our fun at the park, Grandma took us to Abbott's for Frozen custard. Yum! It was a fun afternoon.

The Little Drummer Boy

Vacation

Ray's Papa Gerlach turned 80 years old and had a family party in Ohio last weekend. We decided to make it a mini-vacation to visit family. So Thursday night we traveled to Beaver Falls, PA (home of our Alma Mater) to stay with Ray's brother Tim and his family. Jonas had a great time playing with his 3 cousins and getting spoiled by his Aunt Amy. Friday morning we all drove about an hour away to Ohio where Ray's grandparents live. His parents were staying there also. So, after a long nap Jonas got to visit with his Nana and Papa Hammond, Uncle Bryan, Uncle David, Aunt Raelynn, and great Grandma and Papa Hammond. On Saturday we drove about 2 hours away to another part of Ohio for the birthday party. Jonas got to meet all his relatives on that side of the family for the first time. On Monday we drove to Mahaffey, PA to stay at the Alliance camp with Ray's parents. Ray's sister (who is 10 years old) was going to a horse camp for the week there. Jonas had lots of fun there too, getting spoiled by his Nana and Papa and Uncle Bryan. It was a ton of driving, but we had a great time. Here are some pictures of our week.

We went to some really fun play-grounds

We did a lot of walking.

We swam in Great Grandma and Papa's pool. Jonas LOVED the waterslide!

Kissing Aunt RaeLynn

With Cousin Alycia and Aunt RaeLynn

Jonas did a lot of his napping in different places. He was a trooper!