A Sweet Pic

You know, you don't really know how great your teenage son is until he scoops up his very tired little sister in his arms and carries her in from the car.

And you don't really know how rotten of a photographer you are until you make your picture bigger on your blog and realize the picture is completely blurry. Ugh.

That's why, in the midst of beginning another adoption, I am also taking a photography class. I really want to take better pics of my children, but I also need to learn some type of editing. (I cannot over-emphasize how incompetent I am when it comes to anything technical, so if I edit one thing in the near future it will be a miracle).

So I'm adopting again, taking a photography class, home schooling, running one child to pre-school, another to public school, and 50 other things. Occasionally I have time to bathe...if not, I just spray Lysol in the air and walk through it and head off to my next destination. 

She turned 5!!!

It's kind of weird telling people that my little girl is 5 now. She looks (and still acts) a full year younger.  She was so excited for her birthday. I couldn't help but think of her birthday last year.

I had an unbelievably long LOA wait (Letter of Approval, from China). It normally takes 60 days, tops. Mine was almost 130. Yes, torture. I wanted to get to China sooo bad before she turned 4 and it just didn't turn out that way. I kept praying, crying, and begging God...get me to China before her 4th bday!! I could not understand why it wasn't working out, and then one day it dawned on me...what if Lily's foster Mama is on the other side of the world praying, "Let me just have one more birthday with her."

Yikes. I calmed myself down and just yielded my desires. I sent Lily a cake for her birthday...and the pictures I received back were priceless. And we have a photo of her with her foster Mom which has become a wonderful keepsake for Lily. She loved Lily and treasured her (and spoiled her). I thought of her Foster Mom on Lily's birthday...my heart hurt for her. Lily was her only foster child. I do have plans to send some pictures of Lily to the orphanage and request they be given to the foster Mom. It's the least I can do to say "thank you" for taking care of my daughter.

You would think Lily received tons of toys for her 1st birthday with us, right? Nope. She's not into toys, she's not into dolls. She is 5 going on 15. She wanted clothes and hair stuff and lots of it. So that's what she got.

It was kind of funny watching Johnny's confused face as she opened her gifts. He finally said, "Why Lily not get any toys?" I said, "Because she doesn't like toys." Wow, he had a flying fit when I said that. He went off about "who doesn't like toys, yada, yada." I think he's afraid now that he won't get any toys for his birthday.  

Not to worry, he reminds me with every commercial that he wants that toy added to his list. I'm sure I'll remember that he wants toys and not clothes and hair stuff for his birthday. ;)

Today We Begin

I have been up since 2:00 a.m. 

 Lily was coughing a little bit so I got up and gave her a drink of water. She fell back to sleep and I went back to bed, and of course, you know the rest of the story! I'm such a light sleeper when I'm adopting!! It used to be 3:00 but lately it seems to be 2:00. Seriously God??? I know you want me to pray, but I'm starting to miss my 3:00 a.m. wake-up calls from you. 

Today we begin our home study. 

This is where a social worker comes to visit with the family and prepare them for adoption. Most people get nervous, etc. because they feel like they're not going to pass the social worker's "test," ha, ha.  I don't get nervous about it because I love talking about adoption. Plus, they're goal is to help you bring a child into your home, not slap you on the hand because you didn't scrub the toilet very well. :)

So it's kind of weird, I'm feeling all this de ja vu. (I bet that's not spelled right.) I've been down this road before, I know what's around the corner, but yet all the feelings are the same. I have this immense anticipation of when we will receive our referrals. I'm excited to travel back to China (did I really just say that???).

So I got on the computer a little bit ago and for some reason, I went back to my old emails and found Lily Anna's referral. I stared at her picture and all the emotions came flooding back. I remember when I received the phone call for our referral. It changes your life. You have a picture...just a picture!! And your life changes...from that moment, in an instant of time. How does your heart love someone through a picture?? How do you travel all the way to the other side of the world...because you saw a picture?

My mind cannot comprehend it, but my heart totally gets it!!

I love this quote:

The heart has reasons that reason cannot understand.

Get that? Our hearts have reasons that logic, intellect, our reasoning just cannot understand. 

I'm so happy to be back on this "ride" again. (You know, the roller coaster). I really, truly am. I know I've said it before, and I sound like a broken record, but...I wish more people would adopt.

Ok, enough on that, because I could write a whole post about it!

I will keep you all posted on our home study and how things are progressing. I loooove our social worker (she's super bubbly!!) so it should be fun!

Btw, we were finger printed yesterday...and Josiah had to get his done because he's going to be 14. That was a story in itself. I'll post that later. Let's just say it was kind of comical. ;)

11 Months!!!

Wow...I can't believe we're coming up on a year! In some ways it feels like yesterday, and in other ways China feels like a dream that I had. Sometimes I have to remind myself I was on the other side of the planet a year ago.

What's amazing now is watching Johnny get excited about our next adoptions. It's kind of surreal. One year ago, I was praying with Josiah and Brianna for these two littles in China, and now Johnny and Lily are joining hands with us, praying for the next two.

Most people celebrate their Gotcha Days with their children by going to a Chinese restaurant or something. I'm not sure...Johnny and Lily are meat eaters so I'm thinking maybe steak.

11 months...not much has changed...Lily is still a pill. :)

But oh, how sweet!

Chinese Marilyn Monroe

Pillow fight in the car

Ha ha, I couldn't help posting this pic; Lily's face cracks me up.

What a team.

Btw, Johnny now understands celebrating the day we met him...Lily, yeah, she's clueless. The girl is at the top of her class, learning her high frequency words ahead of schedule, but when it comes to her emotional level, or comprehension of events in her life, she's still at a 3 year old level. I just roll with it. 

Can't wait to post our 1 year mark!! It's crazy to think in one year we went from a family of 4 to a family of 6 and next year 

we'll be 8!!!

I still don't think that's very big. :)

Rylands Family

Want to help out a family adopting from China?

These guys are super cool and they just don't do adoptions like other people...they adopt out of birth order, they adopt at break-neck speeds, they adopt boys aging out of the system, they adopt two at once, they do back-to-back adoptions, and they have to get age waivers for one of the parents, tee hee.

But it's all God.

And Angie Rylands is a friend, a bloggy friend, a Facebook friend, and a fantastic Christian.

Here's a cool link to help people with the costs of adoption (it ain't cheap y'all!) And the Ryland's family is featured. All it costs is $1.00. We all have that, right?

Here's the link:

http://www.give1save1asia.blogspot.com