The Bennington Bunch: 6 months home with MaeLynn!

Can you believe it's been 6 months since we held our precious, youngest daughter for the first time?!?! MaeLynn has gained 5 pounds and grown 2 1/2 inches since Gotcha Day! Praise the Lord, He has nourished and helped her develop into such a healthy little toddler. I feel like I say this every month but this past month has been full of bonding and laughter. MaeLynn has truly let down some of her last remaining walls and let us love her and experience the joy that this family shares. We have had another blessed month of family fun. We enjoyed a visit from our dear friends, the Bogue's, traveled to Silver Dollar City with the Kennett family, the kids and I started Adventureland at our church, we traveled to Lawrence to visit the Stelk cousins, the family celebrated Chinese Moon Festival and Nana and Papa came to visit! Whew, what a month! The smile on sweet MaeMae's face says it all.

MaeMae loves to make friends. The scared, shy days of MaeLynn are definitely behind her! My sweet friend, Amy Bogue, and her two kiddos, Brooklyn and Bryson came to meet MaeLynn for the first time. They live in Mississippi. Brooklyn and MaeLynn are about 6 months apart and they bonded over toys and sitting in the backyard watching the older siblings play. It was so precious to watch.

Silver Dollar City is a quick 2 hour drive from our house and it is one of our kids' favorite places. Lilly will tell you if she could pick a dream day full of activities it would include a trip to Silver Dollar City;) This past month we were so lucky to be able to get away with our kindred spirited family, the Kennetts. If you remember, we traveled to China with the Kennetts and brought our girls home together. Khloe and MaeLynn are besties and had the best time riding rides and playing in the water fountains together. We are so thankful for more memories with this family.

Lilly, Fischer, MaeLynn and I have started back to school at Adventureland at our church. It is a structured mom's day out program that teaches preschool curriculum as well as biblical truths. The kids are having a blast. I was a little worried about how MaeLynn would do in a new environment. I was also secretly worried about how I would do away from her!;) We are all doing wonderful. All of the teachers my children have a amazing and I am so blessed to be teaching a class right across the hall from MaeLynn. I can watch through her window at anytime and I get to see her at our music and recess time! Such an answered prayer!

My sister, Ginger, and her family recently moved to Lawrence, Kansas to take a campus ministry job at Kansas University. We are very excited about the work God will do through them there and we are even more excited that they are a little closer! The kids and I took off during the week for a quick 3 day visit and to see the new house. MaeLynn loved the attention from the cousins. It overwhelms my heart to think that little things like a large family, cousins and even siblings are things that would have never have been a reality for MaeLynn in China due to their One Child policy. We have sooo much fun with our large family!!!!!

China has so many holidays and tradition, it is really difficult to keep up! However, we are trying our best. One holiday important to the Chinese is the Moon Festival also called Mid-Autumn Festival or Family Reunion festival. It is fun to read the mythical stories to the kids. We thought it fit to celebrate this festival with our friends that have become family, the Kennetts. We dressed Khloe and MaeLynn in their traditional Chinese dresses and ate our own version of moon cake:)

We are so blessed to celebrate another month home and another month of acclimating to our new fabulous family of 5! Thank you for your prayers, support, encouragement and love along the way. Here are some pictures from this month....