A long awaited update...

First I would like to apologize (especially to Beth:) for failing to update this blog regularly. However a LOT has been going on in the Arp house for the last 6 months or so. We have been adding to our family yet again. The story of Dakota all started before Ainsley was even conceived. I had a friend at church (shout out to Kendra Chambers) who said she had a family we should meet that was keeing their great nephew and might need an adoptive family for him. At the time we had just started our adoption process and we were really thinking about a baby girl, not a four/five year old boy. A few months later just after we finished our homestudy, I found out I was pregnant. Surprise! And of course then we found out that we were having a girl...it was as if God said "well here's your girl so that obstacle is out of the way." And He really started working on us. During my pregnancy I talked to Kendra a few times about Dakota and then Andrew and I decided to meet him and his aunt just so we could talk and the boys could play. So the first time we met Ainsley was a little over a month old. We then met multiple times and the boys LOVED playing together. Then God began working on us again. We were slowly falling in love with Dakota. One week we were talking and decided that if Dakota's aunt asked us, we would adopt him. So as God would have it she asked and we accepted and it was one of the best decisions we ever made. He is the sweetest little boy ever. He and Jonas just LOVE each other. They even refer to each other as "twin brothers from another mother" already, HA! And he absolutely loves Ainsley. He kisses on her and tells her he loves her constantly. We are still getting used to being a family of five, but we wouldnt change it for anything in the world.