Monday, June 30, 2014

The Odd Couple

One hates food, the other loves it (it's kind of obvious which is which). 
One has a super low voice (Lily) and the other has a helium sounding voice (London).
One likes to shout (Lily) and one likes to whine (London).

They make a very odd pair.

 In China, London loved boy stuff, and actually acted very tom-boyish, much to my dismay. But I had a coniving little plan. I knew if I could just have London hang around Lily long enough, my sinister plan would be complete. It worked. Lily's girly ways seduced London and now she's all about pig tails, nail polish, and tutus. 

These two are interesting together. Although London is outgoing, her personality doesn't bowl a person over like Lily's, so sometimes she just gets trampled (sometimes literally) by Loudmouth Lily, tee hee.




But when they get all giggly like little girls do...they are just the same...beyond adorable. 
Although one has a high soprano giggle and one belongs in the men's choir. :)

Sunday, June 29, 2014

More Pictures

I have been busy with my camera lately and have been editing them as well. It takes me forever to edit so I have to call in my son and ask him how to do something that he showed me the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that...

So here are some more pictures I've taken:


This one is hilarious because Johnny's foot was dangling in the picture, so I used Photoshop and erased it...along with the other chain Lily Anna is swinging from. :) I refuse to go back in and fix it. Once I'm done editing, I'm done, so I'm just calling it a miracle. I mean, how many other children can swing from only one chain? 




Beautiful Lily Anna. 



The theme for this one was "Vintage." My niece was kind enough to model for my assignment. She is a photographer herself and has taken some of the classes I'm in. I'm kind of addicted to them, actually. I have no aspiration to be a photographer - I just want to take great pictures of my family. 




And this one is my beautiful daughter, Brianna. She is going to be 13 in a few weeks. It's soooo hard to get her to pose for me anymore! She promised a photo shoot this week with me, so we'll see. 



That is all for now!  

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

4 Months!!

 I now know how many children it takes until you start calling them by every name but their own. 

It's six. 

Today I was calling for Roman and kept calling him Pucca. That's our dog's name. Sheesh. He looked at me like I'd lost my mind. 

We are home 4 months  now. 4 months!!! 

I am busy from sun up til sun down. Literally. I'm barely on any forms of social media and I'm loving it, to be honest. School is out and I'm enjoying sleeping in and sunshine. There is something about summertime that helps me bond completely with my new kiddos. I don't know why, but it was the same with Johnny and Lily Anna. 

The kiddos are still in the middle of doctor appointments. At first I was overwhelmed by how much these appointments were increasing, but it is all starting to come together. I am so happy with where everything is headed. 

Roman in particular has been a mystery...like puzzle pieces scattered everywhere and some are missing.  I remember when I saw Roman's daunting file. I had already seen his video so when I saw his file, his diagnoses just did NOT match the little boy on the screen. I watched that video over and over and over again...trying to mesh the two together. Every time I played that video, I heard a song go through my head..."Take a chance on me." I don't know who sings it, but it's rather irritating, so leave it to God to use an annoying song to get through to me. 

So, I went with my heart because I fell head over heals for this little boy, and I took a chance on him. And I'm so glad I did. I've never spoken about Roman's "special need." Actually, I've never posted about any of my children's special needs. I'm not sure why. I guess because I feel it's their story and if my Mom had a blog, I'm not sure I would want her posting about my medical hurdles  that I had to overcome in my life. 

What's odd is that I gain a wealth of info from people who DO post about their children's medical issues. And I'm so thankful they go out on a limb and post the gut-wrenching things they go through on their journey with their children's medical issues. 

The truth is though, there's not much to post. All of my children had correctable issues that were taken care of in China. That is amazing. Amazing! So I feel kind of tinge of guilt about blogging that every time we go to the doctor, we are told that our children are cleared, or a diagnoses in China was actually a misdiagnoses and the real deal is barely anything at all. Because my other bloggy friends have children that get blood transfusions...monthly...for the rest of their lives.  And they have had to travel hundreds of miles to have their child's club foot corrected...over a dozen times. Then there's the cleft palate adoptive parents who have sat with their children through countless surgeries. 

So while I rejoice that my children's medical issues are really non-issues, I continue to pray and stand with those parents that are just believing that their children will one day walk on their own. 

Last week all four of our children went to specialists. And all four were given good reports. 

My children continue to amaze me! 

And it is nice to FINALLY hear English coming out of Roman and London. That is another post for another day. Let's just say ESL services in school just can NOT compete with home life. The kiddos have been out of school for less than 3 weeks and they (just this week) began saying full on sentences! For instance, London came up to me about 5 days ago and said, "Can I sit by you, Mama?" When Lily asked Roman if he wanted to play a game he said, "No, I don't want to play that game." 

More photos to come...and by the way...they are going to come from my Nikon!! Gosh, I feel like I've crossed to the dark side! But some of my Canon pics (actually most) are not as clear as I'd like, so I'm using my Nikon for awhile. 

Canon users, don't judge!! I'm desperate here!!

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Pictures!!



I'm back into the swing of things in my photography class, so I thought I'd post some pictures. I'm super busy with being a Mom to six kiddos, so posting on my blog seems to be hit and miss for me these days. I'll get a post up soon, I promise.

 In the meantime:

Lily Anna and Baba having a frisbee moment.



 Super cool pic of Josiah. 



Love this picture of Brianna getting ready for her dance recital!!  She did a beautiful job.



 And lastly, Lily Anna also getting ready for her dance recital. Such a sweet image of her!


I'm pretty proud of some of these edits. I'm not on the level of a lot of the ladies in my class. Both editing and photography just do not come naturally to me, but I enjoy the creative outlet it gives me, so I keep plugging away at it. I'm sure I'll get there someday...perhaps in September when ALL my children are in school and I can prop my feet up and eat bon-bons. (Are those even real????)

I just noticed I'm missing pictures of Roman and London. I'll post some pics soon of them. I also need to update my blog cover! Yikes, I've got a lot of work to do!!!