A Broken Record..Another Great Place to Visit Here

 I feel I constantly go on about the incredible things to do here where we live, but we discovered another amazing, free place to visit today.  It was a beautiful day so we decided to check out our local nature center.  I read about their natural sensory based play trail online, and it sounded right up our alley.  It was amazing.  I can't wait to take Jillian here.  It has all the makings of a wonderful day for her without a doubt.  We also had a special guest go with us.  Our friend back home sent us her Flat Stanley to visit for a few days.  We took him with us on our adventure and will chronicle it for her class to read after we mail him back.

 Digging through sand searching for fossils was one of our first stops.

 I can't believe how well this little lady does with all fine motor and gross motor tasks.  She is incredible.

 There was a pit to assemble bones.  There were baskets and baskets of all sorts of bones.  Anna Mei began to sort them by type touching them ever so delicately.

 It was a picture perfect day!  It has always been a dream of mine to be a stay at home mom playing with my littles.  At nearly 40, God has certainly granted me the deepest desires of my heart!

 There were giant rocks to climb on!

 At every turn, there were logs, stumps, and other wood things to explore.  I love the natural blocks and table to build with them on.  I really want to build one in our backyard now.

 After we were done playing on the sensory trail, we had a picnic, and then headed to the hiking trails.  We climbed down the embankment and explored the creek from a dry sandbar.  I really can't wait to have Jillian here!  It will be a dream come true!

Flat Stanley lost an arm along the way, but, no worries, we repaired him in our kitchen hospital when we returned home.  These two both took stellar naps this afternoon, and I am so grateful for the time with these babies!  Good, so very good!

On the Pumpkin Farm

 Daddy and Em were gone for the day visiting a local Bible college so Grandma and I took the littles to the pumpkin farm.  Today friends is a day that my heart looks at my girls and gives abundant thanks to God for the great, giant sized joy they fill our hearts with.  They are incredibly wonderful and I just can't imagine my life without them!

 Anna Mei is growing so much.  She is turning into a big girl right before my eyes.

 This little punkin is so adorable exploring everything for the first time and loving every single minute.

 Jilly really enjoys lots of activities at the farm.  She loved climbing on the piles of pumpkins.  I can't honestly believe how easy life is for this girl these days.

Her second Halloween home, we had to leave the pumpkin farm we visited because she was melting down and terrified of everything.  She is such a miraculous thing!  I just never dreamed all those years ago when her little heart was so broken that she would be able to live life so fully.

 How I love them so very much..these two adorable little girls were so made to be mine.

 Getting all three to look at the camera is next to impossible, but still I try.

 The whole way there, this big girl signs "corn, in, walk"!  Jilly LOVES her some corn so the corn maze is one of her favorite activities!

 She also loved pulling her sister's wagon.

 Her first apple cider donut.  Oh my heart, she is so adorable!

 More donut goodness was to be had by my dear four year old.

This face is pure joy and I rejoice that she is here enjoying fall with us for the first time!

My First Baby

 My first baby is growing up too fast.

 She is an incredible young woman.

 She hates to be photographed, but I had her cooperation the other night so I took and took and took pictures of her.

 The garden was as beautiful as the young ladies I captured, and it was so fun to see them all dressed up.

 The littles didn't mind jumping in for a few shots.

 These frames were so fun!

 I am so grateful to have the chance to parent this young woman.  God is so very good to have blessed me so with this child of mine whose face matches her daddy's to a tee. I know these moments together are fleeting, and I long to sit and soak her in as long as I can.

DIY Lightbox Play

Have I mentioned how much I love to play?

I am planning a little learning unit all about the moon to do with my little girls this month because of the mid autumn moon festival, and I knew this kind of light box would compliment our unit perfectly.  It was a rainy night when I introduced it for the first time.  Thank goodness I had it finished because rainy nights can be a killer as we are stuck inside.

 I set out some translucent jars and bouncy balls on the box initially.  The girls moved the jars, unscrewed the lids, rolled the balls, and put the balls inside the jars for a long, long time while the light shined through.

 Then I remembered an old transparency set I had from my teaching days, and set out the shapes for them to explore.  Anna "wrote" her name.

 They had great fun exploring the shapes and colors.

 Is she not so cute?

 The glow of the light made creating so much more fun!

 Before long, houses were being created, and shapes were being named.

Jilly even came down off her trapeze bar that is mounted to the ceiling in our playroom to join in.

Making this box was so easy, and we have continued to play with it.  I took a 60 quart clear under bed clear storage container that I had laying around to make our box.  Then I bought a 16 ft string of rope lights that I also purchased at Walmart for $12.00.  To assemble the box, I had to drill a hole in the side of the storage container so that the light cord could come out the side in order to plug it in.  Once the hole was drilled, I strung the lights throughout the box, put the cord through the hole, and plugged it in.  I used some "spider web" Halloween decorations on top of my light in the box to diffuse the lights.  You could use colored tissue paper, parchment paper, or a number of things to change the light if you want to experiment.  I just had this webbing on hand, and so I threw it in there.  This project cost less than $15 to make because I had many of the items on hand, and the container stores easily under the couch in our playroom. I love it and so did the girls!

Ayi For a Day

 Recently, I hooked up with the Sparrow Fund to support their "Ayi For a Day" project by ordering a kit.  Ayi is the Mandarin word for nanny.  The box arrived and I started to plan our day in regards to how/when to use the box.  The kit was full of hands on goodies that made this day real for the girls.  There were Chinese snacks, green tea, a newspaper, sleeve covers, shoe covers, a small toy, and a typical schedule for a ayi included in the kit.  Because my girls are so young, the hard spiritual truths in this kit were beyond them, but it was very real to this momma's heart as I read about the daily schedule of these women, whom cared for my precious Chinese babes while they waited for me.  I can only imagine what it is like to care for so many babes at one time with so few resources in a land that doesn't value these little, abandoned lives, knowing that you must say goodbye day after day never to see their faces again.  This kit gave me a small glimpse into what a day might look like for them, and it prompted us to pray for them.  Honestly, this kit changed me as I watched my darling babes interact with it.  I have spent little time dwelling on the hands/hearts who have loved my babes before I did.  It certainly led me to pray for these women who do so much to care for the least of these in a place that is so beyond hard to be.

For my babes, this day was pure fun.  They acted out Ayi For a Day in pure preschool fashion.  When I introduced the kit, I presented dress up uniform pieces, gathered toys to play out nanny, and introduced the sacrifices, as well as my daughters personal stories and experiences, as they could handle it.  Anna LOVED this day.  She loves all things baby so this was right up her alley.

She gathered all her supplies, and cared for her dolls all day long.  She did open the door for me to share some photos of her with her ayis in China, and, as always with my very verbally princess, she had lots of thoughts and questions.

For our littlest babe, home only four months now, this role playing is so fresh in her mind.  She, like Anna Mei, did love playing with the babies, and caring for them because she does EVERYTHING her sister does.

I must say that it is so sweet to see her loving her dolls exactly as I love her.  She babbles words that sound similar to those I speak over her while I rock her.  She strokes their head, and kisses them just as I do her.  If you doubted the impact of a momma's love, you couldn't deny that it is so very crucial when you see my littlest babe act it out with her dolls.  God made babies to be loved in families for sure, but I am so thankful for the many who have loved and cared for each of my girls before I could.

The kit included a recipe for a typical congee.  It is stew-soup with rice.  It is likely that my babes ate this stuff every single day.

For Molly, this life is so fresh and new that it was very comforting to her to be eating it.

She ate her weight in the stuff asking for more and more.

The typical schedule included in the kit had feeding times, and I imagined feeding so many babies at once with such limited resources would be heart breaking.  As I watched my littlest gobble up her lunch, I am so very thankful that we access to so much here.  I can't imagine having to choose who is fed, and watching some go hungry as I am sure Ayis must have this scenario play out before them daily.

Anna Mei was full of ideas about how to care for her babies.  She changed diapers, fed them, changed their clothes, and gave them baths.  This passionate, loving, little one of mine is going to change the world for the least if she is willing to give her life to the Lord as she grows.  She is very, very special.  I am so thankful for this day, and our experience with it.  It is wonderful to take time to reflect on the girls past, and those still living in it.  I pray this day impacts them as they grow, and they will be moved by my prayers for these women who care for orphans everyday in their homeland.

Church Don't Miss This

I had another long appointment with my beautiful Jilly at the U the other day.  I wish, somehow, I could describe the immense privilege I feel to walk alongside her during these hours at the hospital.  Honestly, watching her get her blood pressure taken as she signs "squeeze" to me makes me bawl my eyes out.  It is so beyond anything that I could have ever fathomed that she can now handle an afternoon like she did at the hospital this week.  It really is beyond any words that I could type the level of trust for me that she displays and how she is able to stay calm and control her terror is just something I never dreamed she would be able to do during the first year home with her when everything..everything..was so incredibly hard.  I left that appointment, as I do every other, carrying that 43 pound six year old like an infant all the way to the car speaking my love over her.  I just can't believe that I have been able to experience the blessing of this girl. Some people live their entire life running emptily around wondering about their purpose or if there is a God at all, and because of this girl God has allowed me such incredible blessing, fulfillment, and a purpose beyond my wildest dreams.  Hear me when I say this..caring for my daughters from China is the hardest thing I have ever done, but it is also the most blessed.  I have had the blessing of experiencing God more each day as I have loved them.  I just wept the whole way home because we ought to be breaking down the doors of the orphanages to get these children home.  We ought to, but millions wait because we are all too worried about how it might change our lives, how we will pay for it, how it will affect our bio kids, worrying about our children not having their own room, and on and on and on.  Church don't miss this.  Don't let Satan rob you of the blessing of loving these amazing children.   Don't listen to the lies he fills your head with.  Go.  Do. Be Jesus to the least.  You will know Jesus more.

Language Development

Our newest treasure is such a tremendous blessing.  She is finally getting comfortable enough to test limits, and she is beginning to babble up a storm.  She is modeling everything, and is even beginning to get some sounds that mean words to her.  It is always so exciting to watch language coming in.  This is also one of my favorite times of development so I love, love, love everything about her right now.

 She willingly engages in most every activity with great joy, babbling away, and modeling so many of our sounds.  We were painting glue on an apple form so we could put torn tissue paper on it when she decided the paintbrush should be a microphone, and started singing away.  

While her big sis works on writing her name, she is also working on finding a picture of herself to glue on her projects.  She is a smart, little lady, and I am enjoying all my time getting to know her.  I do wish she would stop growing so fast.  She has grown 2 inches and gained 6 pounds in the 15 weeks that I have had her home.  I can't wait to see how far she comes in the next year, but I also want to savor the here and now as I know she will be grown up way too soon.

More Messy Fun

 We are having so much fun learning all about apples right now.  So to extend our little apple learning unit, I set out some applesauce trays for the girls to dig in.  Anna Mei had to dig letter tiles to spell her name out of her tray.

Molly Kate just used various utensils, and her hands, to explore the texture because I was afraid she would try to eat letter tiles. :)  I will have get some edible alphabet cereal for next time so that her tray can have treasure to dig out too.

 This one wasn't shy about getting in it with her hands.

 The baby, however, preferred to mostly use the tools to dig and swoosh.

 She did eventually get in there with her hands for just a bit though.

There were many, many smiles and giggles coming from our kitchen as we played which led me to send a quick text to thank my man for working so hard for providing for our family so that I can be home playing in applesauce with our babes.  I am so truly, truly blessed to be able to focus so much on these beautiful treasures, and to have a husband who believes it is important for me to be able to care for them full time.  They are growing and changing so fast that I just want to savor each and every moment because these are the moments that matter most.