Happy New Years!

We received our last update of Ruthie Joy. I cannot wait to have her in my arms and see her cuteness in person. This update was by far the most difficult one to receive. We are so close, but I feel like our departure date will take forever to get here. I was also sad to see the little sores and bruises on her head. I am ready to leave today.

Beautiful

Precious Smile

We are looking for our TA any day now. OUR plans are to travel February 1st. Please pray for sweet Ruthie this last leg of the journey.

This New Year is going to be so very big! Happy New Year my sweet Ruthie Joy!

Terrible Blogger!

Okay I INTENDED to complete the Christmas countdown. I INTENDED to journal leading up to Christmas. I INTENDED to post the fun and exciting pictures of the children leading up to Christmas ~ but I didn't. I am sure that does not surprise anyone who reads this blog ;)

This Christmas was truly one of my fondest memories with my family. We celebrated Jesus' birthday and the blessing of my stepfather's full recover from just a few weeks post brain surgery. We met my parents and brother in Tennessee at the cabin on the Cumberland Plateau. I left on the Monday before Christmas and Skip came up the following Wednesday with a packed sleigh.

The air was crisp and cold, so perfect for Christmas. We all (including my stepfather!) walked through the woods, rode four wheelers and fished. At night we all sat by the fire and enjoyed the exhaustion and just being together. This little town has stopped in time and the cabin does not have internet, so for Christmas our lives slowed down enough for us to just be together. It was such a sweet time.

The last Christmas we spent together was 12 years ago, Olivia was 1 and Annabel was on her way. Five children later, we had all the chaos and laughter I remembered dreaming of wanting as an only child. My brother, who is 24 years younger, has also grown up basically an only child. I am still not sure if he also dreams of a lively Christmas, but that is exactly what he got!

My mother has set up a room for Skip and me in the cabin. This is the first time since I got married that Skip and I did not use the guestroom. The room has a beautiful very tall heart of pine bed and the most beautiful quilt. The linens are so comfy and the room is sweetly decorated with pictures of our precious little ones. The room is a perfect gift!

Santa found us! Thanks to the luminaries we set up on Christmas Eve. Christmas day was alive and full ~ Just like Jesus.

Joy to the world! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Countdown!

13!

The number of years this precious girl has been my daughter.

13 years ago you entered the world at 9 lbs and 22.5 inches long and our lives have never been the same.
Olivia you are a treasure. You have such an ability to touch lives in a powerful way. Your love for Christ continues to point every one in your path towards Him. Many time I have heard people call you an angel and I must agree. You are very smart and have such clear vision of right and wrong. You are very tiny and at the same time extremely strong minded and determined. I know how powerfully He has used you in 13 short years and I cannot wait to see how your passion for Christ will continue to make a big impact. Your name means olive branch, which represents peace. It is the perfect name for you. I have loved the last 13 years as your mother! You are growing into such an amazing girl. You bless me more than you will ever know.
I love you!

Christmas Countdown!

14 !
The number of shoes that will very soon line up at the door.

Christmas Countdown!

15
The number of times I pleaded with Amelia to help her with the frosting.

"Ooopps mama, I did not know it would come out the top."

A gingerbread house with a pool which is what she intended to do from the start.

Grace's masterpiece

Quinn's masterpiece

Micky Mouse

We have been able to enjoy 7 years of my parents living in Orlando, Florida or as my children say, Pop and Grandma Lulu live at Disney World. My step father's surgery was in North Carolina so I came down to watch over my teenage brother, Kurt. Pretty easy job. The condo my parents live in is a retirement golf community and let's just say my littles have livened up the neighborhood!

Yesterday was our big adventure at Disney World! Although outnumbered and a bit intimidated, 1 to 4, I managed to keep track of everyone. We had such a great time and it really kicked us into the Christmas spirit. The park is so beautifully decorated for Christmas and Cinderella's Castle is breathtaking.

The carousel, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and Splash Mountain were the favorite rides. We had a packed 12 hours of fun and beautiful weather. Tomorrow we will head home to Daddy and the two older girls. We are ready.

Praises!

The surgery went very well! He was able to respond to everything they asked during the surgery and the entire tumor was removed. He woke up from the surgery with his same sense of humor. We are so grateful for this blessing! Thank you for praying.

Please Pray

Tomorrow my step father is going to have brain surgery to remove a tumor resting on his major motor control panel. 9 years ago he began experiencing symptoms of loss of feeling in his leg. A back injury was his diagnosis 7 years ago and he had surgery to repair a disk. Thankfully his tumor is very slow growing, it has only effected his one leg and there is a very high chance it is not cancer.

Tomorrow morning he will have surgery . He has a wonderful surgeon, but he will have to endure surgery awake. The surgical team will stop the surgery if they begin to see any signs of loss of speech or gross motor function. As you can imagine, he is fighting off a lot of fear.

Thank you for your prayers!

The Bug

We have the stomach bug making the rounds in our house. As each 24 hours pass, someone else begins to get sick, but it is very predictable because it ALWAYS begins around 1AM and continues until about 4:30AM. Why?

Now to my agenda,

I have the "get organized" bug because soon we will have seven ! I want to clean out every closet, pull down all the Christmas decorations, finish all sewing projects. All today!

Instead I will hang out in the laundry room and serve gatorade and crackers. All kidding aside, I would not trade this job for all the jobs in the world. I love serving this precious group of children. I am so grateful for my generous husband who can survive on 2 hours of sleep.

Clorox is my best friend this week!

It Came!!

LOA! ~ Day 68
Praises

Emotions

"Where is the LOA for my Ruthie WeiHuan?"

"Okay, if that does work, I'll try this!"

Pleeease CCAA send Ruthie Weihuan's LOA!"

Happy Fall Y'all

We have really been enjoying the fall. It is beautiful here this time of year and the temperature is amazing. It is nice to spend more time outside and the colors of the leaves are spectacular.

These are some fun pictures from a festival we went to this past weekend. We joined some good friends for a day of fun and a night of roasting hot dogs and marsh mellows. All the fun of camping and no sleeping in a tent! (LOL) It doesn't get any better!

brave

sweet

free

joy

kind

life

love

missed

Day 61 waiting for LOA. We are soooo close!

Happy Birthday Grant!

first day ~ December 2009 ~ Chengdu China

now

Sweet Grant is 4

he is

busy smart brave
highly capable
strong character quick extremely observant
Passonate about sweets funny
Joyful beautiful
easily excitable
full of love

My precious gift that only God could have hand picked just for me. I love you with a love that is much greater than anything I have to give. I am grateful for you. Happy happy birthday!

I LOVE ladybugs!

In the China adoption community there is a belief that if you spot a ladybug, then good news is coming soon. We are on day 57 waiting for our LOA (second to last approval to bring Ruthie Joy home). Yes, we are counting every single second. My sweet dear friend, who is also waiting on LOA for her daughter Willa, delivered this to my door step. We have both been looking every day for some good news. Hoping and praying we get our LOA news at the same time! This really brightened my wait!

It will be here soon and I cannot wait!

Opps . . .

I forgot to post the update of Ruthie Joy. Busy, busy busy is my only excuse. We are now on day 40 waiting for our LOA YEAHHHHHH!

Anyway, back to the report.

I love reading this report. God's plans are perfect and wonderful!

She can sit up and crawl, stand up with support, can hold on to railing when held under arms, she may walk alone in the future, yet very likely the deformity of her feet would affect her walking and motor function. (We believe she will be walking before we get to China. I will post this week about why Ruthie is considered special needs).

She is in rehabilitation at present time and is using diapers all day long. ( I am so thankful for her therapy)

She gets along well with caretakers and other children. She likes being held and every time when held, she would hold on the caretaker's neck with cheek to cheek. (Oh my, I cannot wait to be cheek to cheek with sweet Ruthie!)

When playing together, sometimes she grabs other children's toys while sometimes hers may be grabbed by others, however, she will try to grab them back as otherwise she will cry. (Perfect fit!)

Her nickname is Huan Huan which means Joy Joy. SMILE

She loves cookies and candies and uses a bottle. (Sweet tooth ~ just like daddy and Grant)

She cries when she is upset, hungry or being bullied by other children.
She stops crying when comforted. She will cry if she is not the first one to get her meal. (happens just about every meal here at home with at least one child)

She is very bright. (Just like her mama ~ LOL)

I just adore her! and do I really have to wait? Are we almost there?

Camping

This past weekend my family and I went tent camping along with some other families. Everyone was very excited about adventure except for me. For the last five years, Skip has taken the older children camping with a group of other fathers. I always gladly stayed home with the little ones. When this group invited us to come along and the thought of how much fun the fellowship would be I eagerly said YES! I really did not have an excuse this time because our youngest, Grant, will be four on Monday.

Over all, the fellowship was such a blessing and I loved spending time with these families. I wish I could say I LOVED camping or that I did it well. When we first got there the smell of the campfire brought back wonderful childhood memories. The temperature was perfect and the children were full of excitement and after 5 hours of running around and endless burnt marshmallows and chocolate (they skipped the graham crackers) they all crashed hard!

After a sweet time sitting around the quiet campfire with our friends, it was time for us to go to bed. I crawled into the tent for 8 and slid into my new sleeping bag atop the large blow up mattress. In that moment I could not take in enough of the sounds and fresh air, being surrounded with my precious children and wonderful husband. I praised God for the day and how the bright moon lit up the tent and the beautiful sound the wrestling of the trees made. Skip fell asleep fast. A little time went by and I was not falling asleep, more time went by and slowly I slipped into discouragement and dread because I could not fall asleep. Two hours went by and I was beginning to become more and more fearful, the wind picked up and I could not fall asleep and my heart began beating faster and faster. Every loud noise would startle me and as much as I tried to pray (which usually lulls me to sleep) the more awake and fearful I became. Afraid a tree would fall, afraid I would be too tired the next day, a child would drift off into the woods, spiders, snakes . . . It was not long and Grant began to cry. He joined me in my sleeping bag and we both drifted off to a shallow sleep and morning came very quickly.

We arrived home around 9:45 PM last night. It was fun and the children had a wonderful time and I did it! I made it ! I will enjoy it more next time and eventually I hope that by going again that I will eventually become a "camper". The other families we were with were "real campers" and I did learn a good bit from them.

After a 3 hour nap today, I am looking back more fondly on our adventure than I was last night at 10:30 as I pulled ticks off Amelia's tiny little body. Grant only had 5 and the other children did not have any. I am very perplexed by only the little ones having ticks. I enjoyed tucking my clean sweet little ones in bed late last night and we all slept peacefully.

Ruthie Joy Pictures!

She is sitting up,

standing while holding on to something,

full of joy ( I LOVE THIS PICTURE!),

and crawling!

Oh I love you my precious little girl!

I have been in northern Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau for the last seven days without internet and cell phone service.(truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been). Once we stopped for lunch on the way home today, I was able to check my emails. It was such a gift to open an email and see pictures of Ruthie and hear about how well she is doing. Thanks to the suggestion of my dear friend Sara, last week we ordered an update of Ruthie from Isabel at China Adoption Help. Just to see her face warms my heart.

When we accepted her referral in May, she did not sit up nor did she crawl. One IA Dr. suggested that because of her head size she perhaps was mentally delayed along with her motor delays. Five minutes after Skip and I discussed the possible grim future of our Ruthie according to this doctor, we heard from our pediatrician who had just flown in from a cruise and just happened to stop by the office at 5PM and saw Ruthie's referral sitting on his desk. After reviewing her file he called and his perspective of Ruthie's medical report was much different and more encouraging. It is so difficult to have such conflicting reports, but we felt a peace accepting her referral and believed God did not want the IA doctor's view to be the last consideration.

I am so proud of sweet Ruthie and I can tell she is such a strong and courageous little girl.

Along with the pictures we also received an update. I will share that tomorrow. Time to unpack and relax from a 7 hour drive. I am so happy, now it is time for her to come home.

Happy Birthday Gracie!

I cannot believe my precious baby is EIGHT! Gracie I am so thankful God gave me the gift of having you as my daughter. I remember thanking him over and over when you would wake up at 3 AM for a feeding as a tiny baby. We would rock and I cherished every second you were in my arms.
At 2 months we were told you would never have any vision. God had other plans for your life because by 5 months all of your vision was restored. A miracle. I love the way you embrace life and the strength and determination you enter into any challenge. God has such great plans for your life. I will be very surprised if you do not become an attorney like your daddy ~ you have mastered the gift of holding on strongly to an opinion. You are grace and beauty!

I love you precious girl.

EIGHT!

11 Days and Counting

Our New Kitten ~ Atticus

On Labor Day we heard that our LID (log in date) was September 2. China has all of our papers and we are now waiting to receive our LOA from China. This is the most difficult wait, next to being matched. There is no rhyme or reason to when it will be. The wait has been as short as 30 days or 100+. It could happen with the group you share the same LID with or not.

I pray we will travel with my two dear friends who have very similar time lines. We would have so much fun bringing our girls home together.

Home schooling is going great. It was VERY difficult the end of last week and we hardly finished our weeks worth of work. This week will be hard, but all things considered we are having fun. I did not know how it would be having Grant and Amelia home, but I really do love teaching them. The fighting between them is not as bad as I thought it would be. I so badly want them to really love each other. It is going to take some time.

Grant is really talking! He can carry on such a sweet conversation. I can understand almost all of what he says, if I cannot, someone in the room can. He keeps calling for Annabel when it is time to go to sleep or timeout. I will say to him, "I am your mama." For a long time he would say, "I am your mama." I would say back, "you are my Grant." Today we were headed to his room and he asked, "I am taking a nap?" After I told him yes, he cried for Anna and then daddy. I looked him in the eyes and said, "I am your mama." And he said, "And I am your Grant." Isnt that sweet. I have no idea how to pour into him how much I love him. I pray my love reaches the place where it can really change his heart and allow God to heal him from such a hard start in life.

My last post I said I loved reading 100 Dresses and I am changing my mind. It was a terribly depressing book. I do believe it was an important book for Grace to read, I just wanted a different ending. It made me very sad. I think we are going to rewrite the last two chapters together.

Summer Is Offcially Over

I am actually excited about moving into homeschooling. We started back on Labor Day; felt like the celebration was a perfect day to begin laboring over our studies. The kids felt differently. Skip had the day off, so he could help me with the little ones while we tried out our first day.

Grace and Quinn are my younger elementary students and Amelia and Grant are my preschoolers. I cannot tell you which group I love teaching more. I LOVE reading 100 Dresses with Grace! and Quinn's math is coming alive for him. Together we will study Countries and Cultures by My Father's World. This will be the second time I have taught Countries and Cultures so hopefully it will be easier. The first year was when I first began homeschooling (a great big blur).

Preschool is sweet! Amelia and Grant are so much fun ~ a big gigantic explosion of personality! This week is A week. Today they loved marching to "The Ants Go Marching One By One" . Grant kept saying, "Do again, Mommy! Do, again!" with a big toothless grin on his face! I love his little eye teeth! Yesterday when I pulled out the shaving cream, oh their faces! They played and played ~ giggling. The lesson was to practice writing their As, but I think the shock of me allowing such a mess distracted everything. The older children begged to practice writing their As too. I just responded, "the rules are no fun will be had by anyone over 4!"

My junior high school girls started a Christian Classical school that meets once a week. They go to school one day a week, get all of their assignments and report back the following week and had in their assignments. They are still home with me, but it is nice to have most of their teaching done by someone new. They are learning the important lesson of how not to procrastinate. They actually started school a few weeks back. I am very proud of how hard they are both working. The work is a lot more challenging than what they were used to. Annabel came home the first day of school and said, "Mama, Mrs. N makes learning so much fun!" (never mind I have been her teacher since 2nd grade!) With all that aside, it is going to be a year of growth for both of them ~ really for all of us.

I am very thankful to be able to spend this time with the children. I am learning so much about who God has designed them to be and even more about myself. Still cannot believe he made the all so different! LOL

Great News!

DTC! (Dossier to China)

Today we are one step closer to our sweet Ruthie Joy.

Exhale

Wordless Wednesday

I-800A Approval!

I called today and found out we received our I-800A approval! I should be over the moon, however, I am a bit embarrassed. I just knew in my mind we received our approval last Wednesday, because that was the day that worked (best for me). That would have made our approval letter arrive last Saturday or today. Well, our mail does not come until 4:30 and that was too late. So, I found our mailman making his deliveries and I asked him for our mail around 12:00.

I am glad I did this because after living here for 2 years I have never formally introduced myself. He is such a kind man. In the 5 minutes I spent with him he told me about his 82 year old mother who just had knee surgery and how difficult her rehabilitation has been. I am thankful to have met him. He did not have my approval and I got back in my car with a very heavy heart.

I really wanted that piece of paper called the I-797 today. It worked for me to have it today so that I could get it all ready to send. It was all about ME. I did call the USCIS later and found out we were approved today. This is a big celebration, but I am embarrassed and disappointed. Embarassed because I was so head set on getting what I wanted regardless of who in slowed down and I am disappointed because I allowed this one piece of paper to become more important than pretty much everything. It is hard to trust that the God who created the heavens and the earth has dominion over all! WHY do I forget who He is?

Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. Psalm 86:3-5

They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

Psalm 112:6-8

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,

Philippians 3:12-14"

Hopefully our letter will arrive sometime this week and soon we will have our dossier sent off to China!

Family Beach Trip

"Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare."

Psalm 40:5

We had a great time on our vacation.
The beach was beautiful and wonderful and full and needed!

We packed and loaded up for the drive to Carabelle, Florida.



Some of us were in absolute shock watching God's wonder.
Grant stood at the beach for a very long time and watched the huge ocean and waves.
All I could do is thank God for bring Grant home and for allowing us to be a part of so many first in his life. The world through Grant's eyes is really different and I forget to slow down to understand what he is thinking or feeling.



While the others delighted in it's great mighty power. And experienced some first too.




We collected a lot of sea shells and

hermit crabs,



larger crabs,



GIGANTIC crabs



and some kind of non-stinging jellyfish.

We relaxed,


and ate wonderful seafood and the best junk food and candy you can find!

Grant ended up loving the beach.



Towards the end of the trip, Grant would head out to the beach first thing in the morning. I love this picture of him dragging the body board in his PJs.

Another first, the oldest children had so much fun kayaking. They have always wanted to swim with the porpoises. God blessed their socks off! The porpoises became very interested in the kayaks and would play next to the boats.

Another first for us was having my step-father, mother and brother join us the last three days of our vacation. We were so grateful to have had this time together with them too.

During the trip, Skip and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary!
I asked Skip if he had a favorite year which led to us down memory lane. What stood out the most in our minds were the births and adoption of our children, our family vacations, and the difficult trials where God pulled us so close and then revealed to us His Glory.

I am so blessed.

"Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare."

Psalm 40:5

Thank you Lord!