First Days of School

As of today, all of my babies are back in school!  We are all trying our best to adjust to our new schedule, but with different starting times, buildings, and therapies all over town, it can be tricky.

Jillian is in third grade and started last Wednesday.  She has her Miss Debbie back this year, and we are so grateful for the support she gives our special girl.

It is freshman year again for our dear Emily.  This time she is far from home on her first grown up adventure.

Four year old preschool  was the destination today for our tiny, but mighty Molly.  She has the same teacher this year too which always makes the transition so much easier on all of us.

First grade started today for my Anna Mei who is in her second year of home school.  I love having her with me, and she still needs to be close so it works out for both of us.  I can't wait to see where this year takes us, and all that we learn.  Eighteen, eight, six, four, and two will never happen again around here so I am determined to savor it!

Today

The car is packed...overflowing really, and today is the day that I begin the journey to take my first baby to college.  I don't know how we got here, and I honestly don't know how we will survive.   I am an emotional momma by nature as I feel deeply about everything that matters most to me.  I can cry buckets over Gotcha Day videos even if I have no earthly connection to the parents welcoming their new babe.  I can rarely get through a worship set on Sunday morning without spilling a few tears, and often I choke back many daily as my sweet girls ask about their China mommas.  Anyway, the next three days as I move this dear girl of mine out of my house will not be pretty for this momma. No mascara will be worn.  Don't get me wrong, I want this.  This is what we parents plan our whole lives for..we love and train so that they can leave the nest and be successful.  I know that in my head without a doubt, but getting my heart to agree is another matter entirely.  I know many mommas say that the time goes by so quickly, and I would definitely agree.  I have done my best to prepare for this, and here we are just like that.  Today the journey begins.  Tomorrow, we will arrive at  her new home, unpack the cute, aqua decoupage crafts, hang the paintings, make her new bed, and close the door on her childhood.  YIKES!  My dear girl is ready, and I am so glad because this sobbing momma couldn't take it if my girl was a crying mess beside me.   If you think to pray for strength, this momma would be forever indebted to you as I know that I can do all things through Christ even if it means leaving my heart in the world without me beside her.

18

18.  How did we get here?

How can it be that we are moving this young woman out of our house in just three short weeks?

I have no answers, but the reality is our time with this girl as a child are gone..just like that.  I am grateful to God for the gift of this incredible girl who was the first to make me a momma.   I am even more grateful that God didn't follow my plan of only doing this momma thing once because having an empty nest in just three short weeks would not have been a good idea.  What was I thinking in my twenties? Grateful God gave me just a few more of these beautiful babies (two of whom will likely never leave me)  because my nest will never be empty.  Praise God for His plans!

Graduation

I am sure every single mother says this, but my word I can't believe this girl of mine is grown up.

We enjoyed the weekend of her graduation so much as several friends and family traveled to visit.  It was definitely a time for me to reflect on this mothering journey.  I have been thinking about what has had the most impact on my girl, and what are some things I could do better as I raise the littles.  God is abundantly good to give me a do over as I love being a momma so much.  I can't imagine being done with this season of life, but that is exactly where I would be had I not added my beautiful babes.

Our girl was the valedictorian.  She delivered a short, God honoring speech that made this momma proud.

Precious Babies.

One big girl whom I never dreamed would be surrounded by Chinese cuteness on this day, but here she is and I am grateful to God for the gift of my girls.

Just like that, we are done.  Looking forward to the fall, and all that this big girl will accomplish as the Lord allows her to grow.

Prom

Just a few weeks ago, we closed a chapter in my oldest life.

I brought home a new baby, had a senior prom, and graduation all within three weeks.

May was a crazy month.

This beautiful young woman didn't seem too frazzled though.

She took it all in stride.

I am still catching up though.

Thankful for this gift of my big girl and all that she adds to our life.

Over Come with Gratitude

Wednesday, I stood next to my high school senior in a college chapel service with 3,500 students worshiping together.  Next year, I will drive her to this place and leave her there to begin the next stage..the first stage of her grown up life.  I am not sure how this happened, but standing there next to her singing praise and worship in such a God centered place I was overcome with gratefulness to God for the gift of my oldest.  I was so overwhelmed by His goodness as I sat there thinking about parenting my dear Emily, and thinking about how she has grown up.  I have made so many mistakes. We dabbled in church, at best, when we were planning our lives, and giving birth to her.  Our first years of parenting had us attending church, and experiencing some radical changes because of the teaching of His word, but we didn't plan for this.  We didn't begin our life on the solid rock.  We didn't start off praying over this baby, leading her in family devotions, or even hoping that she would give her life so fully to Him.  We didn't have a clue about doing any of that in those early days of our faith.  As God has begun to set us apart as we have studied His word, our Emily has watched us stumble along.   She has experienced the radical change that God has called our family to right beside us, and she has seen the repentance of practices and sin as we have learned more and more about who He desires us to be.  I have been far from the model that one would set out to be when they begin this life in Christ, but in His goodness God has blessed me with this big girl anyway.  She has a heart for the Lord.  She is going to a bible college in the fall.  It is a place where they have corporate worship together twice weekly, and bible studies in the dorm.  It is a place where the professors disciple their students by doing more than teaching them academic content.  It is a place where my sweet girl will be challenged to seek God's will for her life, and given skills to use all her talents and interests for Him.  As I stood next to her, I was absolutely overcome that God would allow me the blessing of this child.  I definitely didn't earn it, but that is the beauty of our Lord.  Because of His grace and mercy, I am able to enjoy watching God working in the life of my precious bio baby.  We will miss her oh so much as she leaves our nest next year, and moves to this place, but we are beyond excited to see where the Lord takes her as she grows.  We couldn't be more thrilled that she is able to attend such an amazing, Christ centered place to explore what God might have for her in this next stage.  He has provided immeasurably as the scholarships she has been given are amazing.  Only God could have orchestrated such an incredible life, and I pray that she grabs hold of it as she leaves our nest to build her own.

Rolls and Cookies..OH MY!

 Every Christmas season, we are busy in the kitchen.  Like most families, food defines most of our traditions.  One traditional food that we always make, and give as gifts, is Jumer rolls.  They are a small rolled cinnamon sugar nugget of goodness that was served in a local restaurant back home.  Our church there would mass produce these at Christmas time to sell at our bazaar.  They always sold out.  We made 55 trays this season for others, and also baked about 6 that we consumed for ourselves.  The girls are very, very good at making them after so many attempts.

 There is nothing in this world like having a little help in the kitchen.  I love, love having these littles beside me every day.

They are a tremendous blessing, and they also make everything I do take about four times longer, but it is so worth it.


And then there are the cookies!  Boy do we make cookies.  I probably would have scaled back this year, but the teenager insisted we make all the cookies.  We got a late start, but I made more than seven kinds, and twenty dozen in one day.  Tradition is important to my biggest girl.

In most every picture this year, our Jillian is smiling.  This is the happiest holiday season she has ever had.  She has done this Christmas thing five times now, and I feel like she finally is enjoying it.  It makes this momma's heart overflow with gratitude to God as I watch her trusting so much.

 We make these cookies that I made when I was a kid.  They are not cut out, but formed by shapes we cut.

 Emily has been making them her whole life, and she insists we do it every year.  Many, many memories have been made while we have made these cookies.  Many Christmases spent with good friends decorating with laughter.

 Jilly doesn't chew so she won't eat a cookie, but she isn't afraid to touch and play in the trimmings anymore.

 This is the first one Molly ate.  She came home not liking sweets too much, but Anna Mei has successfully converted her to the sweet side.

 I am not sure there could be any more frosting on this cookie.  Anna ate it all though.

 Who needs to eat?  Throwing is so much more fun.

 Daddy stepped in and finished, as usual, when the girls were tired of decorating.

Here is Anna Mei over looking a favorite variety of ours for Christmas.  These are her beloved Mrs. Larkin's cookies minus the frosting.  We had no trouble polishing off three dozen of these babies as they are our favorite.  Now after I see all that we have been eating around here, we may need to fast for the entire month of January.  I hope your holiday was a blessed one, and you ate a bit healthier than we did.

Seventeen

 Just over a month ago, we celebrated our biggest girl's birthday!  I can't believe that she is almost grown, and ready to leave our nest.

 She has been an absolute joy to raise, and celebrating her on this day with a chocolate peanut butter pie was a delight.

Gone are the theme parties, little friends, and decorations as she is way too grown up for that, but this almost adult child of mine is growing into a pretty cool woman that I am happy to call my daughter.  She has been so patient with me as I made many, many mistakes testing out my parenting on her.  By God's grace, she has turned out okay.  I can't wait to watch where this life takes her.

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.

A Special Trip

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!

Sixteen

 Recently, we celebrated our biggest girl.

 It is hard to believe that she is 16.

 It seems like yesterday that I was delivering a six pound beauty whose head was rather cone shaped from being lodged in the birth canal for six weeks while we tried to stop my preterm labor.  When I became a momma, I was overcome with joy.  Being a momma was all I ever wanted and I was so happy to have to her in my arms.  She has been a joy to raise up.  She is bright, gentle, and funny.  She looks just like her daddy and is cautious, can memorize anything, quiet, and so very easy going. 

I could have never imagined my baby would be surrounded by three beautiful, little, Chinese faces on her sixteen birthday that day I gave birth to her.  I am so proud of the big sister she has become.  I know she has moments during the hard of raising these girls that she thinks this crazy, family life is nuts,but God is using each and every day to shape her heart for Him.  I pray her life will be used in big ways to glorify the God we love and serve.  Parenting her is such a tremendous blessing!