Baby 4 Herr T-shirt Fundraiser

The graphic on the front reads..

Children are a gift from the Lord

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

Blessed are they whose quiver is full

The back will feature..

one less orphan

one more in the quiver

(and the list of names as they come in)

SHIRTS ARE $20.00 

(plus $2.00 shipping per shirt)

ORDER THROUGH PAYPAL BELOW...

(you don't need a paypal account to order)

The Sale Has Finished.

Growing Up

 This girl is growing up faster than I could have ever planned for.

 I am so excited to watch who she is becoming.

I know the next year will bring many changes, but I am confident that God has great plans for her.

 I continue to give thanks that this girl made me a momma as the lessons I have learned parenting her have been so valuable.  I wish I could just go back and enjoy her littlehood all over again as I never dreamed it would go so fast, but here we are growing up.

We Are Not Fragile

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

I was driving home with my littlest peanut from speech therapy Friday afternoon.  It was just she and I, along with our amazing speech therapist, at the session.  Our speech therapist is practically a part of our family as she has been working with Jillian the last two and a half years since we have moved here.  I am so thankful for her.  Since our speech therapist is so incredible, Miss Molly and I have started seeing her too.  Molly's speech and language development was significantly behind her peers as she couldn't hear anything we were saying until about four months ago when she got her first set of hearing aids.  Since beginning to hear though our girl's language has taken off.  She has made nearly a year's growth in the last four months which in itself is incredible, but when you throw in the fact that she has only heard English for a bit less than a year, it is is down right impossible that she is making such great strides.  She is bright our girl.  She is creative.  Inventive. Amazing.  Honestly, her potential to change this world for the better is limitless!  This week, she even started labeling objects with color words.  I suspected she had learned them, and so I set up a few test scenarios for her.  Well, she does indeed know her colors!  Anyway, I thought about how her special needs have really been a nonissue.  I recounted the first conversation I had about her in my head with the worker assigned to her file by the agency.  I thought about the feelings I had when I found out that so many families had asked for her file as I was sure she was meant to come home to us.  There were many, many families "in front" of us looking at our daughter's paperwork.  Her special need, and saying yes to her, was risky.  Radial Dysplasia can be associated with a lot of scary stuff, but oh how I am thankful that we didn't let fear rob us of the pleasure of knowing this baby girl and calling her our daughter.  She is such a joy!  She is an amazing, wonderful little babe who is bright, capable, and remarkable!  I recently talked with a friend about a podcast she listened to that challenged Christians to stop thinking we are so fragile.  I thought that fear must have kept all those other families from saying yes and moving forward with bringing our babe home.  (I am so thankful it did as she is now mine.) Mostly though, I thought about all the things that fear has kept me from doing.  I am certain that I have missed out on much as I haven't said yes to things God has called me to do as I have been paralyzed with fear.  How I long to live in a place in my life where I run to the truth of God's word.  We are not given a spirit of fear, but one of power!  We are not fragile!  In the coming months as life is settling in to a peaceful ebb and flow here, I am praying that I will not be paralyzed by fear, but I will live each day ready to say yes to the next thing God shows me to do even though it is CRAZY.     

Mall of America Trip

 Molly Kate had an appointment at Shriner's in the Twin Cities, and it was so fun to make a vacation of it with our entire family.  We hit the MOA the first night as we stayed a few minutes away.  I got a groupon for a diner type restaurant so we got to enjoy chili dogs, burgers, fries, and shakes to kick off our trip.  Anna Mei loves, loves vacations.  She was one happy girl to be on our trip.

 This girl ate like a champ in this crazy, over stimulating environment.  I used our manual chopper to puree a foot long chili dog and she ate it all!  This manual food chopper has greatly improved our quality of life as now Jillian can eat at a restaurant without packing her food from home.

 Notice the toddler harness on this one.  She is CRAZY!  She needed a harness so bad as she just never stops going, but she loved our trip.

 The girls love legos so the lego store was a great stop.  Jilly flings them like she does everything.

The littlest posed by the lego friend.

 We spent the next day at the aquarium at the MOA.  The girls absolutely loved it and we are so grateful for all the perks available to Shriner's patients in this area as the tickets were a great bargain.

 This girl is a lover of water so her aquarium experience was over the top!  She was thrilled with all the sights.

 The touch tanks were enjoyed by everyone.

Just look at this face!  She was truly happy to be here.

 I think Molly would have jumped in.

 The stingray tank was an absolute favorite!

 Jillian spent a good part of the day revisiting the stingray tank.  It was so peaceful in the dark area there watching the movement of these amazing creatures.  She would watch and watch and watch with a smile the whole time.

There were some toddler activities at the mall we enjoyed as not everyone wanted to just take up residence at the stingray tank like Jillian did.  We had a wonderful trip and Molly's appointment was awesome!  She showed herself to be truly amazing with her little hands and no surgery or treatment is recommended right now.  She uses them so well that anything we could do to alter them would put her at a disadvantage so we go back in a year. :)

Her First Birthday..

 Mere words could never, never do justice to describe the sheer joy this darling girl has added to us this year.  Celebrating her first birthday with us, as she turns three, was very memorable!

 She has watched everyone in our family have a birthday since coming home nearly a year ago so she knew what to do.  She put the candles right on her cake all by herself.

 She was beaming...BEAMING..as we sang to her.

 She positioned herself just right and blew out the candles.

 I couldn't be happier to call this amazing Molly mine.

 Then as she was eating her cake, she began to examine it under the magnifying glass.

 She cracks us up!  Happy third birthday punkin!  We love you!