I love, love this time of year. Celebrating the birth of our Savior brings so much joy to my heart! The littles and I have been busy, busy with all sorts of fun and I couldn't be feeling more blessed.
We love play dough, and this sugar cookie play dough, with sprinkles rolled in, was so much fun!
It smelled so good!
They rolled, cut, and scooped for hours with this dough!
We haven't tackled any real Christmas cookies, but the teenager is asking for them so it won't be long until we get started!
This Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful for this beautiful six (almost seven) year old girl who has been home with us for four and half years. The progress that we have seen her make in the last few months has been beyond anything we could have hoped for in those first months home when she was so isolated and broken. God continues to restore her bit by bit.
He continues to put people in her life to love her, build her up, and push her to be all she can be. She sat at the table this very weekend next to her sisters and played a game that I made out of cups, pipe
cleaners, and beads. She willingly came to the table, signed work, and played for several rounds. This momma couldn't hold back the tears to see her interacting with her siblings. She put pipe cleaner feathers in her turkey, rolled a dice, used her nova chat to name the number she rolled, and put that amount of beads on her feather all to complete her turn in the game. She even seemed to keep "getting" six as if she understood that she could win if she rolled six.
He continues to use her in our lives to teach us so much. She can now smile for a photograph. When you say smile, she looks at the camera and smiles. To this momma, her smile is priceless. She loves so big, and, because I fought so hard and prayed so much for her heart to receive me, there is nothing like her signing "I love you". Oh, this girl can reduce me to tears in no time flat when she is loving her family.
He has shown us the value in the smallest accomplishments
as she faces so many challenges. We watch her living out life when it seemed she would be trapped in her own world forever and are so very blessed that she is our baby girl. She is sitting at the table regularly playing playdough right along side her sisters. AND...At nearly six now, she has potty trained. WAHOOOOOO!!! It has been so easy as she was ready to do it!
She continues to fill our home with much joy! We love, love, love her and are so blessed to be able to call her our daughter.
Before this week's snow fall, we have enjoyed absolutely beautiful fall weather. The girls and I have been living outside and enjoying every minute as I knew it couldn't last. Raking, (or more like jumping in and throwing), leaves is a favored activity in these parts. It is so good to have helpers with such adorable smiles and giggles. How I love these faces to bits. Spending time with them brings me such immeasurable joy!
I can't imagine raking leaves without these three. I can't imagine not having them calling momma, throwing big handfuls, and giggling. God is good to give me so very much!
This girl came running out of her room this morning at 7:20. Usually, Jillian opens her door without getting out of bed, and waits for her daddy to deliver her breakfast to her in her room so to see her running out of her room so early was such a surprise. She was ready to get out in the snow! She woke right up, ran to her window to see, then bounded out to me requesting to go out to play! She didn't even eat before her play session.
This one was right behind her. Going down the snow covered slide and dragging all the snow with your bumm to the bottom always makes you giggle. Anna thought it was hilarious!
Swing me in the snow. Please?
It is hard to be cranky about the snow with such enthusiasm from my little ones. I spent the whole morning dressing and undressing so they could be outside playing! I am relieved I got out all the boots, hats, pants, gloves, and coats last weekend when I saw snow in the forecast as there was no keeping them inside!
Life is so sweet with these beauties around. The temps weren't too cold so we enjoyed being out for short periods several times today.
After about three rounds without Molly, she decided to come out too. This is the first time she has seen snow with us. Her province is in southern China so it is possible that she hasn't ever seen it. She was very puffy in her snow suit, and not so sure she wanted to walk in the mysterious, cold stuff at first.
Anna was beside her, and doing her best to show her the fun!
Emily retrieved our sled for us, and Molly Kate loved it!
Listen to her giggles....
She did take a spill, and I had to snap a picture of her wrestling herself up before helping her. She was too cute!
This baby is quite pleased with her first experience which is good because this is only the beginning sweet one. We have many, many more snow filled days ahead of us here in the Midwest. Welcome to Winter Baby Girl! We are glad you like it!
As we have systematically evaluated all of Molly Kate's body systems under the guidance of our genetics team, (whom called themselves the medical detectives the first day I met them), we hadn't come across anything out of the ordinary. For the last five months, we have spent many, many hours in various medical offices and hospitals getting everything from blood drawn to an EEG. It has been exhausting, but necessary as radial dysplasia is associated with many other medical conditions. I knew this full well when bringing this babe home, and so far all has come back absolutely ordinary until this last week.
We had our audiological evaluation. It was scheduled last. So after a long three hour appointment with OT and PT, we descended the stairs of the building to head to the first floor office. My Molly Kate's language is coming along very slowly. She is already seeing a speech therapist from the area association a couple times a month because of it. I thought something must be off because her language just hasn't been coming the way her other skills have been. I suspected she may not be hearing me all the time, but sitting in that booth hearing all the sounds she wasn't was astounding. She has a moderate hearing loss that is borderline severe in some tones. Despite this, she is picking up some language though her articulation is a bit off. She is following directions though it is probably more about watching and modeling previous situations and not understanding language. She is bright, so very bright, and I can't wait to get her hearing aids in place so that she can begin to experience all that this world has for her to listen to.
Initially, we were told it could be four months before we would be able to get in to schedule her sedated hearing test. We can't get her hearing aids without this test, and four months is way too long to wait for her to hear if you ask me. I did some calling, and lots of advocating. I found an audiologist a couple of hours away in a large city that could get her in this Friday! She will be sedated, and have a computer hooked to areas of her skull. The computer will read just exactly what our sweet baby girl is missing and what she can hear. This will help the hearing aid center customize her aids to her beautiful ears. We have an appointment at the hearing aid center the week after next, and, Lord willing, we may have these hearing aids in place before Christmas! I am so thrilled to be able to offer her this tool. As always, God has shown up in mighty ways for this beautiful girl of ours as He has opened doors to doctors and procedures that we were initially told would take much longer than this. I can't wait to see her face when she hears the birds sing for the first time. I can't wait to watch her actually hear Mickey Mouse's voice while she dances to the clubhouse music she loves so much.
While I am over the moon that my baby girl is going to have an opportunity to hear all the sounds God created, I can't help, but ache in my heart for those millions who will never have an opportunity to hear because they lay waiting in the orphan's bed for a momma to come. For those who wait, the opportunity to hear slips away as their chances of being chosen grow slimmer and slimmer as they get older. This sweet girl of mine is such a treasure! I can't imagine my life without her, and I know that there are many more, who are just as precious, waiting for someone to say yes to bringing them home. Waiting for someone to say yes to some needs that may be a bit unknown trusting that God will provide all they need to make that one a son or daughter. I have seen it each time I have said yes to adoption. God meets each and every need! How blessed I am to again have an opportunity to lean on the Lord trusting that He will meet all my baby girl's needs as this hearing loss is no surprise to Him. I wait in anticipation as I watch Him use her life, and my small part in it, for His glory on this Earth. I can't wait to see where this takes her!
This baby girl doesn't let anything stop her! She can completely dress herself independently. On a daily basis, I don't even think about her hands being different from ours.
She is adorable and I am completely smitten with this precious new treasure!
Have you ever gotten to be a part of something that is just so special you wish it could last forever? Well, last weekend my man, who is a youth pastor, performed the wedding ceremony for a young woman whom we absolutely love like our own. It was such an immense honor to walk alongside this young woman in her teens. We have stayed in touch despite moving out of state, and so we have a deep, deep love for her. The littles were so excited to attend their first wedding! This was totally a JOY for Anna Mei as she is so social.
This young woman, whom Sean performed the wedding for, was a huge part of our lives when we brought Anna Mei and Jillian home. We did life together with this special girl on a regular basis so seeing her marry a Godly, young man who is so in love with her was such a wonderful feeling.
Amber invested in my Em so much too in those days. Emily was about eight when she started having dinner with us once a week. She would do homework next to our little girl, who is now grown, and play games with her all night.
Molly was happy to meet everyone as this was her first large gathering of our friends from back home since she has joined us. She fit right in.
It was such a sweet night to celebrate and reconnect. My girls danced and danced.
Anna Mei, loved reconnecting with our friends the most. This girl is so wired for relationship. She loves so deeply with such a beautiful heart. She talked about how beautiful the wedding ceremony was for days. She kept calling the groom..Amber's boy. "Why Amber's boy...." she would say when asking about the night. It was darling.
She loved seeing her big Anna most. Anna (the big one), and her amazing mom, were with me in China when Anna Mei was placed in my arms. Anna Mei is named for her, and my little Chinese treasure loves her with all her heart so seeing her big Anna always makes her happy. I sat looking around and feeling so very blessed to have so many special people in my life. What an incredible trip for an amazing union.
Our Jillian reconnected too as these were her people in the beginning. These were the friends who saw her so broken and near death. She was so isolated, and in darkness, but they loved, supported, and prayed for us as we worked to win her heart. It was beyond hard in those early months, but this village was always, always what we needed. I left this weekend sad to not have them so close, but so very thankful that God allowed them to be near in that season that was so very hard because they were Jesus hands and feet to me again and again. I will be forever grateful for that, and for this weekend!
Recently, we were able to make a trip home for a very special occasion. We stopped by our old neighborhood park. This place was one of Jillian's most favorite in the world at that stage in her life. She was a swinger then. She hasn't been into swinging like that for years, but here, in this place where she was a swinger, she was swinging and swinging just like she did when she was two and these were her stomping grounds. This momma's heart knows that she knows when she is home. I know she remembers these places where we overcame so much, and where light shown through her dismally dark world as she learned to live in our family. These are the places where her heart, ever so slowly, opened up to receive our love. These were the fields we ran with her, stared into her eyes, and just learned to be still together. There is something so very sweet about being home with this baby where her life first began with us by her side.
It is especially sweet to have Molly here now. Those early days, nearly five years ago now, I longed to bring home more, but never dreamed we would actually do it.
Seeing them all together, though they were gathered from different corners of China, as sisters in matching clothes playing here in this place makes my momma's heart fill with gratitude that God would bless me so!
I remember Jillian, at two, climbing here for hours.
Jilly's love of gravel was born in this very pit as she would spend hours raining the gravel over this giant tire. She would watch it fall again and again.
We stopped on this hill many, many times as we played here. Through snow, falling leaves, and rain we explored this park. Now, we are so far from it as we live in another state, but it is still so near to my heart. Beautiful memories were made here. Moments that define me, and changed my life as I was able to reach my first beautiful Chinese treasure walking beside her here. God restored her before my eyes in this neck of the woods, and it is so very special to walk with her here again! We have all come a long way in the last two years since leaving this place. We have added two more daughters, and continued to see God move in ways we never dreamed. I can't wait to see where the next five years take us, but for now I long just to sit and savor these days together.
This girl has such a desire to learn. I am homeschooling her for kindergarten next year and I couldn't be more excited because she loves learning! I have been creating experiments for her and she is so easily engaged.
We put some apples in different liquids to see what would happen to the fruit if they were left out for a few days. She even helped me choose which liquids we should use as variables and, boy, did she think she was big stuff designing her own science experiment.
She was very serious about recording her results too.
This little lady is right in there no matter what we are doing. She can snip with those scissors like nobody's business. She even found the scissors on my desk last week and did a bang up job snipping most of my papers. Oh to be two again!
Making puzzles for daddy, aka cutting paper into a million pieces for Daddy to reassemble, is Anna's favorite cutting activity right now. She is so determined to stump him that she will cut and cut!
These two littles are always under my feet when I am in the kitchen. The other night, as I was trying to prepare dinner, I kept them busy with tongs, scoops, bowls, and some ice in trays in the sink for a good thirty minutes.
Molly was engaging in great fine motor practice while Anna Mei was experimenting with the science of ice.
We have a tent full of rice and dried noodles. The girls can go inside and scoop for hours with shovels and containers. Each time I get an interesting new container, like this plastic cookie tray from the kitchen, it keeps this little lady busy scooping and filling it up.
Anna continues to need to work on writing her name. This girl has, unfortunately, inherited her Daddy's penmanship. This was just another way to reinforce her name practice. She used aluminum foil to squeeze and form her name which was great fine motor practice.
Painting is classic. This little lady hates to be messy so painting with her is a breeze. I love that smile. These two fill my days with endless joy, but man are they busy!
I am a Christ follower, wife of 20 years to my best friend, and a stay at home momma to five amazing daughters. I am currently waiting for one precious special needs treasure to come home from China. I am passionate about the orphan and special needs adoption. I love to teach God's word, am involved in youth ministry alongside my dh, and love,love, love cooking. Above all, I desire to serve God and surrender my life to His call.
