Cristina in Nashville!

Many, if not most, of you know that Cristina is in Nashville! While her journey from her life-long orphanage in the DR here to the Walton home is unfinished story, we trust in God's sovereign plan for her and rejoice daily in the blessings we are experiencing through the journey. Hope you'll enjoy some of the these fun snapshots of her first days and a her first holiday weekend in the US.

And check our updated family photos....

http://networkedblogs.com/miuYT

Please keep us in your prayers!

End of Summer in the States

In addition to Jay and I having time of our life on our DR trip (see previous posts), end of summer got hot as usual in the South which means 2 things......

1) stay in A/C and get creative. As you see, Ruby has no problem coming up with something to do even in the dog days of summer. How about just dress up your dog in a cheerleader suit???

2) or stay in the water!

Annual trip to Lake Martin to visit my dear friend Wendy and family.

These are legs of a 4 year old!!!!!



The big kids....
and baby B!

And a perfect summer day with our friend Montreal at a local splash park.

With school back in session and flag football practice starting, we welcome the crisper days to come. Summer 2011 was full of blessings!

LipscombSports.com - Dominican Travel Blog - Day 6: La Romana Orphanage

LipscombSports.com - Dominican Travel Blog - Day 6: La Romana Orphanage

This link will take you to our visit to the orphanage in La Romana. For my Faithbuilder friends, you'll see a few glimpses of your contributions at work. Willie, Ruby, Nana & Papa and I assembled the donations into backpacks for each player to have some "tools" to play with the children. Thanks for providing those tools!

LipscombSports.com - Dominican Travel Blog - Day 5: Church and Bisons win

LipscombSports.com - Dominican Travel Blog - Day 5: Church and Bisons win

All is well here in the DR! Actually, absolutely great and if our kids were here with us we may would just stay forever. The pace is much better and the need is much greater. Our resources are invaluable to most amigos here in the DR.

The link above links you into the daily blogg maintained by LU Athletics.

We added some family pictures on FB with Cristina who has traveled with us all week. What a blessing to have Cristina traveling with us and bonding with Jay and me all week. We pray and hope all will go well for her to visit us very soon in the States.

Thanks for everyone's prayers!

Summer Scenes

Whew! This summer has been blazing by and has left us sizzling. I just can't believe how fast it has gone and how much family fun we've been able to pack in. We're savoring the last days of summer while the heat cranks up.

If you have the time, the following scenes are from crawfish boils, Walton family trip to beach, 4th of July fun on the Farm, and 20th year class reunions.

Soccer and Golf

Can you see that smile? Hard to believe that Ruby had to learn the lesson of we finish what we start each moring week of soccer camp. Maybe she wasn't quite ready. Maybe it was 95 degrees that week but she survived and is tougher for it. She was so excited each day when we picked her up to tell what she had learned but she's made it clear. She doesn't want to go back. Maybe her confidence will rise. Maybe soccer will never be for Ruby.

Willie went too. Coaches were super complimentary of his play (which was them just being nice since he doesn't play in a soccer league); but they went out of their way to tell he was a leader in his group and humble. (Keep praying!) I think I might do like Tim Tebow's parents and tell Willie I'll give him a dollar everytime another adult compliments his character. (Just finished reading Through his Eyes by Tebow. I can't wait to read it with Willie.)

Below is Willie after his last regular season baseball game. He was struggling at the plate b/c we had been on vacation. He had lost his mojo while we were gone. He and I stayed after the game to watch next team. I love doing that with him b/c it's a quiet time to just to chat. He confides. "My swing was really off tonight."

"Yes, it was."

"I shouldn't have played all that golf while we were at the beach."

"What golf?

"At putt putt." Too sweet.

(And his swing really was jacked somehow.)

After baseball ended, he did officially head off to his 2nd golf camp at Miss State! Makes us feel good for him to spend time on campus and especially with his Walton grandparents. Ruby got the week Gran and Granny too. More precious memories. Nana and Papa swung through Starkville, retrieved the children and brought them all the way to Nashville for us. (Did I tell you thank you!!!)

Willie wanted to show off his new skills so he and Papa Willie hit the Little Course in Franklin the very next morning. Somehow, Willie won by one stroke. You can guess which one.

Basketball Camp Week

Hope your summer is treating you as well as ours. Each week tends to take on it's own theme around here---I've got to catch us on up we started off with beach!, then soccer, golf, and now basketball!

As you might know ori magine, Jay runs alot of basketball camp in June but this week is extra special b/c it's Jr. Bison Camp. Willie started going when he was 3 since Daddy was the coach so we kicked him out a couple of years early. He was ready to go with the bigger boys and he got play basketball all day and was in Coach Pete's gym. He looked great out there with the older boys....Here's a clip fo him winning Gotcha in his gym yesterday (3 or 4 gyms running at same time). He's the 2nd little boy that shoots which is his winning shot....watch the celebration!

And for her debut, here's Miss Ruby at Jr. Bison camp. She really improved and loved it! (You never know how Ruby will feel).

Jay signed autographs for half hour after camp eneded! 125 Jr. Bison this year... And Willie even signed a few autographs himself.

I found Ruby after first day of camp. She's started "taking over" my IPOD. She crashed on Shizzles new bed. (She wouldn't care if it was old.)

I'll update you on more summer themes we have going now that have 200+ pictures downloaded!