Proverbs 27:17

"As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."

We have been asked many, many times why we love Tennessee so much, and we have never been able to communicate the fullness of our hearts on the matter. However, a friend summed it all up in an email the other day. I hope this friend does not mind me sharing a little piece of their story that has been such a blessing to our family. This particular set of friends have been on a journey to adopt not one, but two children from Rwanda. They traveled in May to bring their children home to their forever family. Their homecoming proved to be a great blessing to them, and this is a piece of the email we received the following day:

"Just wanted to let you all know that your kindness and generosity has blessed us greatly. The welcoming crowd was amazing and we certainly appreciated seeing so many familiar faces after a long tough journey emotionally and physically. Our home and car were professionally cleaned, our refrigerator/freezer and cabinets were fully stocked. We had diapers, wipes, pull-ups, clothes, toys, beds, car seat, booster seat, high chair, baby gates, strollers (2 doubles) swim diapers, baby monitors, swim suits, picture frames and a beautifully painted canvas with our names on it and so much more not only at our house but set up. Our yard was mowed and our flower beds mulched. I had new candles waiting to burn (i love candles) and new sugar scrub and lotion... no detail was left undone or not thought of. I am still very tired and not sure I have processed it all but it was overwhelming in good way, we felt the love that was poured out and know that was the love that Christ gives so freely. We have meals set up for 4 weeks 3 time a week... amazing friends. The process of cleaning our pool was started and all the chemicals purchased. We truly have been blessed beyond belief. We want to and will thank each of you personally but wanted to just let you know that you efforts and sacrifices were a true gift that are appreciated."

After reading the email, Greg's exact words were, "The next time someone asks us why we love Tennessee so much and would love to move back, we need to show them this email."

"As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."

There is no better way to say it. When you are daily sharpened and lifted up by the friends that surround you, it makes life a little easier and lots more enjoyable. What our friends came home to was a collective effort of friends and family alike. We do not know all of the people who helped and contributed, but we are blessed to call many of these people friends. And they live this type of servanthood daily, not occasionally.

What a privilege it is for us to call you friends. We love you all and want to say thank you for the blessings you are to our lives and family.

Frustration

No pictures for today. Our computer has been graced with a virus, and we have to send it to the beloved computer doctor one day soon. We cannot open any program besides Internet Explorer directly. We have been able to "back door" programs except of course any type of security or system restore. Joy! Joy!

We have been busy bees lately. John Reagan had his Pre-K graduation last week. I can't wait to post a few pictures from that. It was a fun and very sad time. We cannot believe our little boy will be turning 5 in two weeks. T-ball is also in full swing, so we are running the roads. We are supposed to be keeping up with cousin's/nephew's games too. We have failed at that task so far.

Evie and Averi are happy to follow along in tow. As long as they can go and check everything out, they are happy. Averi FINALLY has 2 teeth now. She will be 8 months old next week. She has fallen right in line with John Reagan and Evie. I have to say I am quite surprised she is not crawling by now. From the first time she watched them play, she has been anxious to join in. Those will be the "interesting" days.

Our minds have been a little boggled for the past several months, and we have not done a good job of keeping up with everyone and everything. We are hopeful we are moving out of this season of our lives VERY soon! Shoot us a "catch-up" email. We would love to hear from all of you!

A Few of My Favorite Things

These are a "few" of my favorite photos over the past 3 months.

John Reagan is my helper in the bunch. He was a big help getting leaves up this year. His make shift wheelbarrow!

He wanted his golf clubs and his bike, and he decided he could have both.
This is John Reagan and Evie to a tee. He told her, "Evie, scratch my back." And she did. How funny! She is even getting instructions.
Evie girl loves the outdoors, and now that she has figured out how fun the trampoline is she stays on it. This was a cold day in February!

Our day at Jimmie Davis State Park.

And Miss Averi...
This is her favorite place to sit and her favorite way to sit.

Her favorite seat! Her favorite activity...working that tongue.
After bath time is just as much fun as bath time.

Whew! I am finally caught up. Now to stay on top of it!

A side note...I HATE when blogger decides to have a mind of its own.

Something Old, Something New, and In Between

Since I am so behind on some of the Hasley Happenings I will be condensing today. You faithful blog readers know what that means. Yep: long and lots of pictures. We will start with some of the old.

First of all, something old! I cannot believe I forgot to put this in our "Family Additions" post, but I sure did. A piano...new to us, old in every other aspect. I have always said I would like a piano; however, it had to be the right piano. I ran upon that back in June. We were at my Grandmother's church, where my mom grew up. The piano has been there for umpteen years, but it caught my eye this time around. Of course I haven't been in the back of the church in umpteen years myself. So I asked my grandmother what they planned to do with the piano because they haven't used it in years. How convenient for me that they were wanting to get rid of it. Woohoo! We picked it up at the beginning of last month. After emailing a man with the serial number I have found out it was made in 1915. And yes it does work and sounds very good. This particular brand was and is known for its sweetness of sound and tone.

Now the something old happening that I should be ashamed of for not already having on here. Averi's baby dedication was March 6th. She is the only child of ours that had family other than my parents at her dedication. The whole thing was very sweet, and we enjoyed sharing it with church family who have been church family for decades.

This is not the best picture but one of the few with the whole gown.

The In Between:

I would say this is a tired little girl.

This is not the best looking picture overall, but I just love the look that Averi has here. She is getting so big. I look at her and am in awe at how big she looks, and the funny part is that she is our smallest baby at this point. So then I think, "Wow, how big the other two were!"

We went to the "local" State Park one day and grilled hot dogs and had lots of fun together.

We have come to discover this is a baby blue heron. This particular area on the way into the park is a bird watchers hot spot known for the eagles' nests. We were very surprised to catch the baby heron peeking out of the nest because we had no clue that they normally nested this far above the ground.

The kiddos enjoyed being outside and playing around.

And finally the something new:
Yesterday John Reagan had his school Easter party at the director's house. He got to have Mommy and Daddy all to himself for a couple of hours. Pawcaw and Nana came over to watch the girls. We had lots of fun watching him with his friends and watching him take it all in.
He even got to take a picture with the Easter Bunny!

We have been busy running the roads and anything and everything else. T-Ball has officially started, so the pace has picked up even more. We are happy for the opportunity to slow down and celebrate Jesus and his Resurrection. Hope all of you have a wonderful Easter!