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