Em here~

 Wow, where has the time gone? 

Chances are, no one will even see this. But just in case, I wanted to share what's up!! Remember me?! 

Believe it or not, I am officially a college graduate! I graduated last month from with my Bachelor's in Social Work. I'm now home for the summer, soaking up some time with the family and raising support before moving across the ocean for the next year

YEP! 

I've always been a dreamer. Dreamed big things and never set my limits. and then, my dreams started to die. I stopped chasing them, thinking I had to live another way and fit this certain mold… that dreams were dreams and they couldn’t be reality.

I started to believe that my dreams were too far out of reach. With that, came a loss of self.

And then I realized that maybe my dreams aren’t so out there after all. Maybe I really can chase after them. Maybe my dreams aren’t just dreams, but really truly the path the lord is taking me on.

So I ran towards them.

And now I find myself two and a half months away from boarding a plane with a one way ticket to a place where I’ll spend a year living what was once just a dream, a little inkling on my heart. 

Because this semester, the Lord has taught me to dream again. And that maybe I get to say no to one dream to say yes to another; the one I am confident the Lord is calling me to for right now… the one of moving across the world. 

I’m giddy thinking about it. Opening the door to big dreams once again, because all of a sudden, they don’t feel so out of reach.

I’m in awe at how the Lord lets me dream. And how it all started with a dream.

You see, towards the end of October, 2005, my mom had this vivid dream. Two little Asian girls standing in a crib in her bedroom. It sounds crazy, but that’s all it took. The Lord used this dream to so clearly speak to my mom and lay adoption on her heart. She called my dad the next day and shared with him. The rest is history.

But it took a dream. If it weren’t for that dream, we never would’ve found ourselves in Hunan a year later meeting AnnaClaire.

And we definitely wouldn’t have found ourselves back every 2 years after that until our family felt complete with 10.

And if it weren’t for the adoption journey and all the Lord taught me through that, through seeing the gospel lived out so clearly in front of my eyes, through stepping foot in a Chinese orphanage and seeing the effects of a world so broken by sin… I never would’ve found myself passionate about orphans or adoption or this country.

And if it weren’t for those adoption trips, soaking in every sight and smell and taste of too much rice, i never would’ve fallen in love with this country that is so beyond anything that feels normal, and yet so much a part of who I am. I never would’ve fallen in love with that place.

And I never would’ve had on my heart to live there for a summer, getting to share the best news there ever was with the friends I met. I never would’ve been broken for the reality that they had never heard his name, or had the desire to go back for longer and actually move there!!

But because of one dream. ONE dream that I wasn’t even the one to have. This is where I find myself today. Saying no to one dream that I can run in the direction of another and see how the Lord uses all of these little passions, desires, and dreams to allow me to do what he has made me to do.

And to think, it all started with a dream.

I can only say so much here, but I'd LOVE to share more so please be in touch with me!! (emilyann.horner@gmail.com)

I must be fully supported by August 1 in order for this dream to be a reality! If you have any desire to give, email me! I also wanted to share the link to a t-shirt that some friends helped me design to help raise support!

www.booster.com/goinjoy

Thanks for walking so many years of life with me! I never would've guessed when I started to blog 9 years ago that this is where I would be today, but praise the Lord for all the ways he works and his abundant faithfulness throughout.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

This Morning at our House~

This is where you can find Charlie most any time of the day.

From the time he comes downstairs in the morning, 'til it's bedtime, he's pretty much in the red chair.  Reading.  This guy LOVES books! 

And this morning, Kate joined him.

They both LOVE this, and can often be found reading together.

And then there's the piano practicing that needs to be done~ Christmas carols to be learned for a program at the nursing home.

Just a typical morning at our house!    

  

The Boys~

Here they are!

Together again!

This time at Pike's Peak.

I might have laughed at Son #1's hiking attire.  The button down shirt.  Need to ask if he's wearing his hiking boots or his brother's. But I am loving seeing them TOGETHER!

Looking very forward to seeing these 2 guys in a couple of weeks.  We haven't seen Will since last Christmas.  And that is just WAY too long.

Glad you're enjoying your brother time, guys!

 

Family Game Night~

Better late than never, I guess.

After all these years of parenting, we've FINALLY decided to implement Family Game Night.

And Emily, this is in honor of you! Our girl who LOVED to play games, has always said that's one thing (among many, I'm sure) she would have changed about her growing up years.  We didn't play enough games.

I LOVE the idea of playing games.

I love all that the children learn while playing games.

I love the family togetherness. 

 

 I LOVE the idea of family game night.  

But actually doing it????

Well, that's another story.

BUT Bill and I had talked and decided that TONIGHT would be THE night.  And once we told the children, we KNEW there would be no turning back.

So, this morning at breakfast, we told the kids that TONIGHT would be.....

FAMILY GAME NIGHT!

We all got in jammies, turned on Christian radio and then started our evening with a pizza dinner.

Then we moved in to playing our games!

The first game of the evening was "Drop the Bean into the Tin Can."  What, you've never played that game????

Well, I will tell you, I wasn't sure if we'd be playing any other games tonight, because they LOVED this game and kept wanting to play.  (Charlie was working on his Wolf badge for Scouts and needed to play a homemade game.  This one was one of the suggestions and sounded easy enough, so we tried it.) 

Here's Grace taking her turn.  Can you see the concentration on her face? 

Next we played Uno.  We chose this as it's one that we could all play together.  Team Ellie/ Daddy were the winners of that one.  Ellie actually did a lot of the playing since it's just basically matching colors and numbers.

  

After Uno, we divided into 2 groups.  I had the 3 younger children, and AC and Grace played games with daddy.

Ellie chose her new Elephant's Trunk game.

Then Kate chose Orchard.  We are big fans of Haba games in our house! This is a REALLY cute co-operative game that Ellie could play as well.

 

 And  here's Charlie with his choice. A race car game~ just perfect for our little man.

  

Meanwhile, AnnaClaire and Grace were busy playing Grace's choice of the Great States game.  I think they were playing the Jr. Version tonight, though we have both.

  

Then it was time for our "Special Dessert!"

Although I had visions of baking a special dessert, in the end I made things easy on myself and we served Root Beer Floats.

This was a first for the children and they LOVED them.

Except for Kate, who announced that she doesn't like soda, "like Sissy."  Ok then.  She enjoyed a dish of vanilla ice cream.

   

After dessert, Baby Sister headed to bed, and we played one more round of games.

AnnaClaire chose Trouble.

    

And Charlie, Kate and I played the pirate game. The name is in German, so we just call it The Pirate Game!  For some silly reason, I REALLY like this one, so this was my choice!  

We all had SUCH fun.

Want to join us next month?  We'll be having Family Game night the first Saturday night in Dec.  Not sure what our "special" dessert will be, but we'll be having pizza again for dinner.

It's already on the calendar!

 

She's Eight!

The Birthday Girl!

AnnaClaire chose On the Border for her birthday lunch. We do love us some Mexican food in this family!  

And here's the usual "pose on the bench" after we had lunch. 

Back at home we snapped a few more photos (because that's what we do when Sissy's home!) before heading in to open presents and eat cake.

Everyone had a turn to pose with Sissy~ 

Love this one of my oldest and youngest daughters having some fun! 

 

And here's the birthday girl with her balloon!

Love this shot of Ellie that Emily took!

 

For her cake, AnnaClaire chose a banana cake recipe from the American Girl "Kit" book.

 

Happy Birthday, Dear AnnaClaire!

May all your wishes come true! 

Saturday Fun~

Emily came in to town this weekend to celebrate Kate's gotcha on Friday and a certain someone's upcoming 8th birthday on Sunday.

She had a fun morning planned with AnnaClaire Saturday morning.  They started out with a pancake breakfast.

And then they headed to Claire's!

Can you guess why????

There were no tears.

Just a squinchy face.

And then it was over and done!

Can you see the cute blue sparkly earrings she chose?

In the afternoon, Em spent a little time in the kitchen.  She made us some yummy pumpkin granola.

And we ended the day with a campfire and some s'mores!  Yum!

  What a fun Saturday!