Zhu Ni Sheng Re Kuai Le, Daddy!

This little Chinese birthday greeting is especially for you, Hung Chow! I'm so proud of you and so glad to be your daughter. It was a fun time walking down the aisle with you not too long ago. Thank you for all the hard work you did to make that day happen. You were amazing! I love you, Daddy, and just know you have another adventure-packed year ahead of you.

Your little China Doll

Carly and I just watched a rough cut of a documentary called INVISIBLE CHILDREN. It was very moving, and we wanted to share it with you. Three college-aged guys from San Diego set out to shoot a documentary covering the war in Southern Sudan (2003). They didn't have any luck so they traveled to Northern Uganda where many of the Sudanese refugees had fled. What they found was a tragic subculture of thousands of children that fled their villages each evening to sleep in a nearby larger city, avoiding kidnapping by a rebel group, the LRA (Lord's Revolutionary Army). The LRA (named a terrorist organization by the USA Patriot Act) recruits new conscripts through kidnapping and violent initiation. The children are threatened with death if they ever attempt to leave. These three young filmmakers went looking for a story in Sudan, but found one in Uganda. And now they've started a movement of people wanting to put hands and feet to what they felt and realized after learning about these invisible children. Pretty cool if you ask us. So after we watched the documentary, Carly and I asked each other, what in the world are we supposed to do with that? Sadly, this is only one of a thousand tragic stories like it around the world. But should that keep us from asking God if he wants to connect us, in some way, to His children there? All that to say, we wanted to share the title of this documentary with you, and to give you the link to their website for more information. If you want to borrow the DVD, feel free to ask us. You can also purchase them on their website: www.invisiblechildren.com

with love,
Kyle & Carly

p.s. I've heard about this from Caleb and then from Cynthia...we're just a little slow to watch the DVD ourselves.

Happy Birthday Doc!

A friend of ours has used her blog to wish a "happy birthday" to some of her family members by posting pictures of them to celebrate. I wanted to do that today for my father-in-law, Doc. His birthday isn't until next week, but I wanted to go ahead and share some of these pictures. So here's to Doc, still a young man!

One thing I've learned about Doc is that he REALLY loves his family [Doc, Cynthia & Carly at a cousin's wedding in Montana].


Jeremy's birthday


In the backyard where Carly and I were married! [The whole family, pre-son-in-law #2]


If you know Doc, you know he loves to hunt! Here the hunter has bagged a big pig.


He also loves to fish...a tradition passed down from his dad. These are some stripers that Jeff, Doc & I caught in the Arkansas river.


The filet master at work.


Here is the AWESOME birthday gift that Doc got from Jeff & Emily. A much purer breed than Parker's little offspring! Say hi to Miss Peaches!






Happy Birthday Doc! I love you and am proud to be your son-in-law.

dad, here are your grandkids

It's taken us a little while to get a picture of Parker & Belle's puppies, but Carly was able to take the camera over there on a recent visit. They are already so much bigger than this, but still without their eyes opened. I must say that I'm a little confused as to their coloring. Parker, being totally blonde, and Belle having typical German Shepherd colors...I guess Parker's dad Rowdy was a black lab. He must have passed along that genetic code to all 8...or 7 (we lost the runt) of the puppies. They all have a tiny white star on their chests. Four boys and three girls now. Tell your friends that we have full blooded German Labradors that we're giving away (or more technically, half Labrador - half German Shepherd).