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.