Trick or Treating

Wearing a costume,

 riding in her wagon from house to house,

 checking out the Halloween lights,

 enjoying time with her sister and friend,

 watching the pumpkin balloons from a far,

 stopping a spell on the way to the door to play in the leaves,

(because leaves are WAY better than candy)

walking up to doors just like a big girl,

are just a few of our treasure's FAVORITE Halloween activities.

It was her first real Halloween.

And friends..

SHE DID IT!

She went trick or treating.

A simple, ordinary event

that is practiced by tons of children

each and every year

But for our girl

a miraculous feat!

My heart is full!

This little miracle has come such a long way!

Can't wait to have two.

JOY..TRUE JOY

This girl has known the depths of deep despair in her little life.

She has known deep hurt, abandonment, sorrow, and grief that I can only imagine.

 That makes it all the more miraculous that she has such exuberant joy.

 Joy that comes when she is playing in the leaves taking it slow with her momma.

 Joy that comes from picking up a leaf and shaking it in her hand.

 Joy that comes from sitting a spell to throw leaves by the handful at momma.

 Joy from enjoying the simple things that so many of us have taken for granted.

 She has a joy so big that it takes my breath away to watch her.

How I love this treasure!

How I savor each and every moment!

I wish I could just freeze time and drink in her joy just a bit longer because these days of fall will be gone all too soon.

She is growing up way too fast, but today I will choose to take life slow and soak in her joy as long as I can.

T-Shirts Are Ready to Order

 CHECK OUT ALL 6 COLORS TO THE RIGHT!

Shirts are $20.00 shipped.

You can order on the right using Paypal.

Shirts are available in sizes Youth S-XL and Adult S-XL.

Shirts will be delivered in time for Christmas.

If you're local, contact me directly at slmaster16@hotmail.com to avoid shipping.  Do not use paypal to order.  Sean will have order forms available too.  Thank you for helping us get our next little girl home.

We've Seen Anna Mei

We said yes to a sweet special focus toddler yesterday.

Her Chinese name is Jia Ren.

(Ren was in Jillian's Chinese name so we were sure she was meant to be ours.)

Our wait to see Anna Mei's face is over.

We can't share her picture for a few more weeks.

Trust us..she is beautiful.

She is 21 months old.

She is living in Xuchang City in Henan province.

 Jillian just wants to be sure that everyone knows..

she is still the top dog.



 Frankly, she is growing a bit bored of holding this sign

and being a big sis already. 

After all, it is almost bedtime.

Not getting much sleep here though as we are soooo excited to get this little lady home.

It will likely be about 7-8 more months though until we travel..maybe sooner if God sees fit.

Until she's here, we are rejoicing that God has set her apart for us.

Another girl is coming to our house.

WOOHOOO!



So Much More Than a Special Need

Dear Jillian,
As I lay today next to you snuggling your frame against mine, I have so much in my mind.  If 17 months ago, I could have known what lay ahead of me as your mother I may not have had the courage to keep walking.  Loving you now so intensely, I know that if I had let fear scare me away from you I would have missed one of the greatest blessings of  my life.  You are so much more than a label or a list of special needs..you are so much, much more than an assessment of all you can't or will never do..YOU ARE MY DAUGHTER, MY LOVE, MY TREASURE made just by God exactly the way you are so that your life might bring glory to Him who made you.  This week, you have signed "I love you" to me for the first time.  You love, you have joy, you are learning, and you continue to bless me beyond measure.  Yet, as I think of the future there are times that I am scared.  Scared of what is to come, but it is in these times that I remember how faithful God has been in our lives.  I remember how He has walked ahead of us every step of the way and how He continues to meet our every need.  I love you with all that I have because Christ first loved me.  I praise Him for making you and blessing me with the gift of you. 
Momma

On The Farm

I love fall.

Pumpkins.

Mums.

Cool weather.

Sweaters.

And visits to the pumpkin farm.

Unfortuantly, the little treasure was pretty stressed out around all those very strange orange things.

I couldn't give up so easily though.

Eventually, I got her to laugh.



Mostly, she just likes to stick with what makes her most comfortable.



But a momma's gotta try. Right?

Try I did, but she left the farm in a jumbled, screaming mess.

She fell into a pile of those scary, colored bumpy gourds and pumpkins

AND

it definitly pushed her over the edge.

Poor thing!

Maybe next year, we will enjoy the farm.

Then again, next year-there will be two.

Now I Have Her Trapped

What do you do when you are home alone with a

rambunctious, Chinese toddler and you really, really need to get dinner cooking?

 

Why, you trap her in a giant bin of packing noodles of course.

 This plan works great as she is laughing and

rolling in the noodles for a few, short moments.

 Then, it happens.

She takes a hand full of them and

decides it would be oh. so. very. much. fun

to pelt momma with said packing noodles while she is cooking!

This game made her very happy and

she even had to include her big sister in the fun.

Not sure why in the world God thinks I deserve such goodness..

But having these girls playing at my feet in the kitchen is

SO. VERY. GOOD!

Being a mother to these two precious blessings..

It is reason to praise God today!

Calling All Adoptive Families

I am working on a super cool t-shirt design to raise money for our Annamae's adoption.  The front is WONDERFUL thanks to my designer.

(It says Another 1 home in black and God sets the lonely in families in white.)

BUT..

The back is where I need families of adopted treasures to help.  I would love to have a list of children's names to include on the back.  Names of precious treasures who, by God's grace, have been set in a family.  If you submit your adopted child's name, it will be listed on the back with all the others.  The shirt will make a great personalized gift just in time for Christmas too.  I will have ordering information up next week, but for now-SEND ME THOSE NAMES. 

I would like your children's first and middle names please.  You can leave them in the commments or you can email me at slmaster16@hotmail.com .  I want the back of that shirt to be filled with names so that people might see the "faces" of our children and rejoice that another 1 is indeed coming home. 

Thanks so much for your help!  This is a special project for me as we also did a t-shirt with children listed to help get Jillian home. 

Hiking with Our Treasure

 We decided to hit the trails today since everyone was home for the day.
This is the first time since Jillian has come home that we have gone hiking.

The sun was shining, the leaves were turning, and

Emily agreed to pose for one picture.

 It was so nice to have everyone together today.

 Our Jillian is definitely a nature fan.

This is her running dragging her Daddy at full speed through the grass.

Her laugh kept all the wild animals in hiding as they ran.

It could be heard for miles.

 She loved exploring the tall plants.

 She couldn't get enough of throwing the leaves.

But when we came around the bend to find a creek,

she let out a huge shriek of glee.

It was cold.

She didn't care.

 We let her wade a few minutes and she was thrilled.

 At first, she held on to Daddy.

 Then, she broke loose and enjoyed squishing those toes in the mud.

She was a HUGE fan of the creek.

I have a feeling we may be spending lots of time there next summer.

However...

She was not a fan of getting out to continue the hike.

She was really mad about leaving that spot.

 She did recover and was enjoying exploring

nature again

with her Sissy on one side and her Daddy on the other.

 It was a beautiful morning with lots to explore.

She took full advantage of the time.

She must have touched every tree we hiked by.

Mostly, we just stepped back and watched her taking it in.

She is so very cute and we are so very lucky she is ours.



Another Obstacle Overcome

She's putting that toothbrush in her mouth.  We have been working for 15 months to desensitize that oral cavity and little by little she is letting me in.  She fussed a bit at first when I tried introducing this into her routine, but nothing like the meltdowns that she had when I initially tried to do it months ago.  She even avoided taking a bath, which is her favorite activity of the day, for a time because she knew we would be getting this brush out.  I felt like the fussing was just that though-normal fussing and so I persisted.  I pushed her a bit more each night...

AND 

now she is putting that toothbrush in her mouth all by herself!

This is huge!  She is making tremendous gains.  She is communicating by using more and more signs each day too.  I will update that next because it is blowing me away! 

I am so blessed to have this little as mine.  There are still so many days that I am overwhelmed that God allowed me to be a small part of the miracle of who she is and what she will become.  Can't wait to have her little sister home and next to her. 

Her First Photo Shoot

We had a gift certificate for photos from a dear friend.

We have had it since bringing our treasure home, but I never thought she would be able to handle a photo shoot.  A new place, sitting on foreign objects in front of strange backgrounds, and trying to get her to smile seemed like inviting a meltdown and so I have never attempted to do the photo shoot.

Never tried until today..

My word friends, this momma just cried through the whole thing.

She rocked this place like the star she is and you would have never known how hard this last fifteen months has been for her if you were just happening by and saw her.

 She smiled.

 She laughed.

 She held the strange props the photographer gave to her.

 She screamed with delight while momma jumped around like a monkey.

 She LOVED the flashing lights.

She took a little time to hula hoop.

She made some silly faces.

 And then she made some more.

 She stole the show with her sweetness.

 And she left this momma saying MIRACLE under her breath as we were leaving.

Today the words of the official in her country were ringing in my ears.

I wish they could see our treasure now.

She is growing more and more into the little lady God intends her to be.

With an overflowing heart, I was praising God all the way home.