More Than A Home

We've MOVED!!

2011-05-28T17:05:00.000-04:00

We have our own domain now! bye bye blogger.

click here to go to our new site------> Our New Home!

Please update your bookmarks!

shew!

2011-05-11T13:30:00.000-04:00

Things happen so quickly around here I don't always have the time to sit and blog about them. But I try to take pictures and vid so I can eventually get them on here.

Mother's Day pics- Matthew (15)

We had a great Mother's Day weekend. We planted some vica with the Littles and it was... fun. Definitely made some memories. I think the plants that got stepped on while the Littles were planting others are going to live too. :) Then James and I hung out on the front porch while the Littles played in the sprinkler (vid).

Maddie (9)

Noah (7)

Sophie (6)

Last night Maddie and Noah's school had their last PTO meeting of the year. They sang a song with other 1st graders and enjoyed every minute of it. Afterwards Noah asked me, "What you favorite part, mama?" I told him the very end (don't want to spoil it for you) and he said, "MINE TOO!!" yeah, I knew that. lol

Sophie has had some achievements too. The biggest is that she is mostly potty trained. I say "mostly" because she will consistently pee in the toilet but not poop. That's ok though. I will take what I can get at this point. We are now down from 6-8 pull-ups a day to ONE. She wears panties to sleep in and never has an accident during the night. She is inconsistant about "telling" us she needs to use the bathroom but if she is asked, she will "answer" appropriately by stopping what she is doing and heading to the bathroom. She still needs assistance in the bathroom. I don't dare leave her alone with a roll of toilet paper, but she is great about flushing the toilet every time. lol

We still plan to get Sophie an iPad to help her communicate. I am excited to see what she can do with it. We had hoped we would have it this spring but our tax refund has faced one delay after another and now no one knows when we should expect it.

We sent Josie's dossier to China on April 29. We expect to receive Travel Approval around August with travel in September. We are praying our tax refund has arrived by then as we need it to travel. If not, I'll have to do some heavy last minute fund raising.

Matthew is doing fine. I don't write about him much or post many pictures because he doesn't like me too.

There is a lot more I could say but I've got to run. (surprise-surprise) My next blog post will be about the letter Noah received from his foster family in China. For now, I'll leave you with one more vid that is sure to bring a smile to your face.

About Peter- Tian Yi

2011-05-09T23:56:00.000-04:00

Another adoptive mom who runs an advocacy blog for special needs orphans, posted about Noah's older foster-brother, Tian Yi (Peter), yesterday. On May 3rd Peter turned 14 thus closing the door for his adoption. Annie wrote a post about him, and all the children who "age out" without finding their forever families. You can read that post by clicking here or on any of the pictures in my post. If you would like to help provide a birthday gift for Peter, my paypal id is pastorjames1070@gmail.com

Here are some pictures of Peter.

Hippotherapy!

2011-05-03T20:50:00.002-04:00

I've dreamed of hippotherapy for Sophie and Maddie for a while. In December when on Sophie's Wish Trip, they got to ride horses it was everything I dreamed it would be. One day that dream will come true. Until then though... we have Lucy.

I was so thrilled to find Lucy at a 2nd hand shop today. I was actually dropping Matthew off for his algebra class which is right next door to this shop. Lucy was sitting out on the sidewalk and she nickered when I drove by. How could I resist? I had the car and not the horse trailer so I ran in, paid for her and called James to let him know to stop by with the trailer.

He brought her home around 5:30pm and the kids have been riding her ever since. After getting to know her a little bit they picked out her name. Sophie even tried some trick riding. I must admit I even sat on Lucy's back for a second or two, reminiscing about the time I had my very own horse.

summer haircuts!

2011-05-01T18:47:00.000-04:00

Maddie and Sophie have both had summer haircuts. Sophie's was actually cut before Easter so you can see it in the Easter pics. Sophie had about 4 inches cut off. Maddie had 7 inches cut off.

Before 1

Before 2- last time I cut about 2 inches straight across the bottom. interesting how it grew back.

in process- she thought this pic was really funny. Noah thought I should have left it this way.

after 1

tada! after 2

Share the Love

2011-04-26T19:11:00.000-04:00

Another adoptive family has two give-aways going on right now I wanted to tell you all about. The first one offers choice of a Macbook or Nikon D90 camera for 1st place, an iPad2 for 2nd place and a $50 Pottery Barn Kids gift card . They are also giving a free "So Loved" t-shirt for every $35 donation. The second give-away is for a neat necklace that can be stamped with the name(s) of your children. You can enter that one simply by posting about it on your blog or Facebook. Do you want to help share the love? Click on the button at the top of this post to go to the website.

Easter weekend

2011-04-25T12:07:00.000-04:00

The Haircut, Dossier and Pressure.

2011-04-21T18:50:00.000-04:00

Noah & Maddie holding Josie's dosser!

Who can guess what that is a picture of? yep, Josie's dossier. yep, I had to lock Sophie out of the room to safely take the picture. The really exciting thing?? ~~Its on the way to California today and should be sent to China tomorrow!!!~~ ~~As of 6:30pm the FedEx guy has not shown up. If he shows up tomorrow it will be on the way to California but will not be sent to China until the 29th. (sigh)~~ The FedEx guy just showed up. It doesn't change anything though because today's shipments have already left. So our dossier will go to California tomorrow and to China on the 29th. I can hardly believe we are at this point. It has seemed to go so quickly and slower than Christmas all at the same time. One thing for sure. My kids... My life keeps me so busy the days just fly by.

A couple of days ago we were thrilled to get some new pictures of Josie. We laughed and laughed, posted some on Facebook and laughed some more. Josie is not only sporting a new summer haircut, but she is wearing smashingly stylish clothes as well! Don't you agree?


Our 1980's punk rocker!

loving that crazy hair!

Lastly, I'd like to ask you to pray for Josie. The pressure in her worst eye continues to increase and the medication is not stabilizing it. We are pretty certain there is no hope for that eye to have sight, so my prayer request is that Josie not be in any pain.

She is such a happy, dancing, singing little fairy child. I can't wait to bring her home.

a cryin shame... maybe

2011-04-12T16:26:00.000-04:00

I have a secret. I hear voices. It's true. When I'm helping my kids through some emotional crisis, I have a little voice in my head asking "Is this an adoption thing or a kid thing?" There is constant chatter in my head as this voice analyzes life with my kids.

Sunday morning Sophie and I stayed home since I was still feeling sick. About 1pm James and the rest of the kids came in the door. Everyone was happy and talking...except Maddie. She had a storm on her face. She started talking to me and it was just a mess. She's a challenge to understand on normal days but throw in bouts of tears and it's nearly impossible. In the middle of one tearful outburst I looked at James, "What in the world happened???" He had no idea. "clueless about adoption issues" added that voice in my head.

I started asking her questions, "Did someone say something mean at church? Did something hurt your feelings? Were your brothers being bossy?" She kept shaking her head no. I finally asked her to sign so I could understand and she signed "No help. No fun." and burst into tears once again.

That started a whole other round of questions as I tried my hardest to figure out what had upset her so badly. "Did you need help and no one would help you? Did someone tell you you were no fun?" And the whole time that little voice in my head is asking "IS this an adoption issue? Is it about her cleft? her speech? being abandoned?" I want nothing more than to beat up whatever demon is causing her pain.

She continues to sign, "You tell me clean my room after church." ::BIG shaky breath tears and slobber flying:: "It NO FUN clean room with NO HELP!" ::another eruption as I dab tears and dodge slobber balls::

And then.

I begin to realize.

That demon?

It's

me.

I sat back suddenly with a gasp. "Oh! Is that what this is about?? You don't want to clean your room?" And then that little voice in my head breathes a sigh of relief, checks off "kid issue" and begins to laugh.

poor Maddie.

Being a kid is tough.

A Springbreak for the Record Books!

2011-04-04T16:47:00.000-04:00

The kids went back to school today. This is one Springbreak we will never forget.

5 straight days of cold rain
1 set of broken glasses
2 sinus infections
1 dentist appointment
1 broken camera
1 set of wax clogged ears, tearfully unclogged
1 sliced foot
3 trips to the hospital
4 trips to the Pediatrician
2 admittances to the hospital
2 blood draws
6 IV pokes
2 IVs
2 IV medications
1 chest x-ray
1 EEG
and a partridge in a pear tree

My house is a wreck and I'm exhausted. Here's to trusting summer break will be a little less exciting! oh wait. Maddie just walked in from the bus with 102* fever!

poor Sophie

2011-04-02T21:33:00.000-04:00

This morning Sophie was admitted to the hospital for dehydration. She lost 3 pounds since Thursday. After 8 hours and 1 1/2 bags of fluids, IV antibiotics, 2 bowls of jello, 1/2 popcicle, 2 grapes and SIX chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A, she was released to come back home. Please continue to pray for her. She is still pretty sick and very pitiful. James took these pics with his phone at the hospital today. There is more I could say but I am exhausted and heading to bed.

and more Sophie...

2011-04-01T19:41:00.000-04:00

Sophie woke up today with a 103* temperature. I called the pediatrician but he didn't think it was related to her foot. She doesn't have any other symptoms. All day she has laid in one spot with her favorite red blanket. About 30 minutes ago she finally drank some juice. It hurts my heart to her so sick. It's even worse than when the other kids are sick. She just can't tell me what hurts. I haven't been able to convince her to take medicine and so we wait it out. My sweet girl.

Sophie Sophie Sophie

2011-03-31T20:25:00.001-04:00

Sophie has had an eventful week.

On Monday she had a dentist appointment. It was time for her first cleaning. We've been doing dry runs...Happy Visits, as my dentist calls them. I felt she was ready to take the plunge.

I sat with her, facing her in the exam chair. I had Mr. Thirsty (suction) which Sophie thinks is pretty cool. I would put it in different parts of her mouth, wherever the hygienist needed to go to clean. I think we worked well as a team. It sometimes takes a team approach with Sophie. She wasn't able to clean each tooth perfectly but I was happy with what was accomplished. We started off with the Bubble Gum flavored toothpaste but Sophie really liked the cherry. It was a pretty purple color and the Hygienist let her hold it (and smell it) while she worked. After polishing she flossed a little. Sometimes Sophie will allow me to brush and floss her teeth really well. Other times she will clamp her lips and jaws tightly together and unless I'm willing to force the issue (I'm not, btw), there will be no tooth brushing on those days. For the past week we've been in the jaw clenching phase. Thankfully Sophie will allow me to wipe her teeth though. The hygienist said overall her teeth looked really good. We then waited to see the dentist.

While we were waiting I was still playing with Mr. Thirsty to keep Sophie occupied (she's not real good at waiting). At one point I pushed her tongue over and out popped a large cavity on the inside of her back lower molar. Her tongue covered it perfectly! When the hygienist stuck her head in to the room I told her so she came over and confirmed what I had found. She sat down and took out a small digital camera that looked a little like a wand. She showed Sophie her picture on TV and then put the wand in her mouth. The next thing I knew, I heard a very loud SNAP! My heart sunk and I wished the floor would open and swallow me whole. Sophie bit, and broke, the camera. o_O

On Tuesday Maddie had a doctor's appointment to check her ears. She failed the hearing test at school and I had a feeling it was a wax issue. Sure enough her ears were packed with wax. After some digging, flushing and crying her ears were clean again and her hearing was much improved. Matthew wasn't feeling well and went to the same appointment where he was diagnosed with a sinus infection. Sophie and Noah were there too and with 5 of us together the exam room seemed really small.

Wednesday afternoon I ran to the bathroom and left Matthew in charge. When I came out he was putting something on the kitchen counter and said, "Sophie broke her bowl." I thanked him for cleaning it up and stood there a minute wondering how she managed to break a plastic bowl when I started noticing blood on the floor. "Who is hurt??" I asked and Maddie, Noah and Matthew all said "Not me!" Sure enough it was Sophie. She had sliced her heel open on a piece of the broken bowl. I cleaned her up and saw it was deep so called James to tell him I thought she needed stitches. Neither one of us like the ER so I thought I would call her pediatrician first. I explained what happened and was told "take her to the ER." (sigh)

Off to the ER we went and to our great surprise we were ushered back to a room within half and hour. We had a nurse give her opinion that nothing would be done, then a PA came back and said it was deep enough for something but they didn't do stitches in that area. So she glued it shut with Dermabond. From that moment on I knew our challenge would be to keep Sophie from picking off the Dermabond.

It lasted a little less than 24 hours. I was at the church cleaning the gym when Matthew said, "I think I see blood. Sophie might have taken the glue off." I called her over and sure enough. She had taken the glue off and her foot was bleeding again. Another call to the pediatrician. This time he wanted to see her.

Back in the small exam room, this time with the start of a killer migraine. The ped looked it over real good and gave me two options. 1- re-glue it or 2- keep it sparkly clean with antibiotic ointment on it until it healed. I chose the 2nd option since I knew Sophie would not leave the glue alone. He asked if she would leave an ace bandage on, thinking he could wrap her foot to keep her from picking the glue. I gave him the hairy-eyeball. "Sophie? Leave an ace bandage on? Surely you know her better than that. She won't even leave her clothes on!" We both laughed and agreed option 2 was the best. I'm just concerned about infection setting in. I told her ped that I couldn't carry her much longer (she weighs 45 lbs now). She needs both feet! lol

This week Sophie has discovered the joy of coloring. Her OT has been working with her on coloring and if you put a crayon in her hand she would scribble for a few seconds. Now she wants to color though. I love watching her color on paper that she then carries around for quite a while before it finally ends up shredded. She has also colored on windows, walls, the floor, her shoes and my office chair. Don't tell anyone, but I think it's great.

I hope to soon be able to purchase an iPad for Sophie. I hope it is another step closer to communication with her. I would so love to know what thoughts are going around that beautiful head of hers.

As you can see life with Sophie continues to be an adventure. And really, would I have it any other way? I don't think so.

budding artists

2011-03-31T19:42:00.000-04:00

Maddie sitting next to her shadow that Noah traced.

Noah sitting next to his shadow that Maddie traced.

"Rocky Girl I miss you. I love you Rocky Girl." The pictures at the bottom are a heart and a fish. Rocky Girl is the name Maddie gave her guppy. She wrote her this note to tell RG that she would be missed while Maddie was at camp... in May.

Noah is crazy about the Wild Krat Brothers show. Maddie wrote "Wild Krat Chris" then crossed out Martin when she realized she didn't know how to spell it and instead wrote "Rug Rat".

a happy face from Maddie.

You probably already know this but just in case... this is Zaboomafoo's snack machine, by Noah.

Again, I probably don't really need to say but this is two of the Rug Rats, by Maddie.

spring has sprung

2011-03-14T20:24:00.002-04:00

The weather has been so nice these past couple of weeks. We had some chilly days pop back up but then yesterday and today... wow. Here is what the kids do as soon as they are done with homework on these nice days.

I can't believe I caught all 3 Littles in the same picture!

Sophie was determined to draw on this magazine page with sidewalk chalk. Didn't work too well.

James was making sure the lawn mower remembered how to mow grass and Sophie wanted to follow him.


Maddie with "Woody" and Sophie's hands. It ended up being a picture of all of Sophie.

Noah kicking around the soccer ball with dad.


Noah said this picture was "cool". I think so too. (Though he did wonder what happened to his right arm.)

Since the magazine didn't work so well Sophie colored James' car

shhh! Artist at work!

Then she climbed up and discovered...

her reflection!

Sophie was chasing Maddie. She loves playing games like that. I love the joy on her face.


Ready to get cleaned up for supper. Check out her nasty mouth/chin from rubbing on the back of the car!

This is our 2011 family pic. I really love it. By the end of the year we'll have added one more so we'll be getting a new pic next year. :)

It's been a while!

2011-03-04T13:09:00.000-05:00

the lighter side of life

2011-01-16T01:52:00.000-05:00

Getting into bed.

Noah: (big belch) eww...Maddie, guess what that tasted like?
Maddie: I don't know. chicken?
Noah: (laughing) No! My toothpaste!

A few minutes go by.

Noah: (big ~~fart~~ poot) ewwww...Maddie, guess what that smelled like?
Maddie: Like YOUR toothpaste!!! (laughing)
Noah: No! Like my butt! (laughing)

Noah: Sophie YOU stink and it's NOT FUNNY!

Noah: When I grow up I'm going to Disney World to marry Minnie.

Me: Hey Maddie and Noah, on your next birthdays instead of turning 9 and 8 you can just stay 8 and 7. (stunned silence)

Noah: (in soft whiny voice) But I have to turn 8. I have to grow!

Maddie: (giving every word careful thought) In the Bible, in Luke it says...the Bible says, 'You can only turn 8 once. This is the truth for your parents.'

Noah: Hey dad, What day did Jesus make Disney World?

Noah: For my 20th birthday I want a Hannah Montana cake!

Noah: You need to train Sophie not to play with trash!

Noah: She said 'Yes' and that means yes!

Noah: My name is not just 'Noah'. You can call me "Dr. Noah".

Me: What kind of doctor are you?

Noah: I'm the yummy kind!

Me: What kind of doctor is the yummy kind?

Noah: They are very very good.

Maddie: Noah, people cannot have puppies in their belly.

Noah: Why?

Maddie: They just can't.

Noah: I not believe you Maddie. You make steak. (mistake)

Maddie: Noah, people and dogs are different.

Noah: Why?

Maddie: They just are. That how God made them. They can't have puppies. Now that IS IT!

Noah: My toes smell good like Scooby Gooby Doo!

Noah: Mommie, Albert (dog) has a delicious nose!

Noah: (upon meeting a 2 week old infant) Can she walk?

Me: No, she doesn't walk yet.

Noah: Oh yes, oh yes. I know, 'cause she does not have legs yet!

(Rethinking the decision to let the kids watch a tadpole grow into a frog.)

Maddie and Noah playing "Mom and Dad".

Noah: (to Maddie) You go to WalMart to get these things... peanut butter, jelly, bread, bananas, pizza and apples. I stay home and work on computer like mommie!

At the grocery store-

Maddie: Mommie? I want diarrhea!

Me: What??

Maddie: I want diarrhea. puh-leese!!

Me: Maddie, I don't have diarrhea to give you right now. (trying to look sympathetic but feeling confused.)

Maddie: Yes, you do mommie! I see it right there! (pointing at the "Dairy" sign hanging over the aisle.)

Depraved Indifference

2011-01-10T11:15:00.001-05:00

Every now and then I come across something that touches my heart so deeply I want to share it. The problem is, I never quite know what to say. There are so many emotions and feelings and thoughts going through my mind and heart that I'm not sure how to put it all into words. How do I convey what I feel with each heartbeat and think about with each breath? How do I explain how my view on the world has changed?

Maybe the best I can do is pray that you are listening when God speaks to your heart. "...Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act ..." -Proverbs 24:12

Depraved indifference- a state of mind involving both moral culpability and extreme indifference to the lives of the victims.

Lost Doj

2011-01-07T21:39:00.000-05:00

On Valentine's Day 2010 we gave the Littles each a small stuffed animal. Noah's was a little dog whom he named "Matthew". Maddie named her bear "Duo" and thus began the Matthew/Duo friendship.

Through the months more stuffed animals and dolls were added. Maddie saved her money and bought a Georgia Dawg cheerleader doll she named Helen. Helen and Matthew hit it off and every day Maddie and Noah played "Helen and Matthew". And every night Helen and Matthew went soundly to sleep with Maddie and Noah.

We marked their birthdays on the calender and learned their family tree. Noah was Matthew's grand-pa and Albert was Matthew's dad. (Don't try to figure it out...just go with it.) They even accompanied the kids to Florida on Sophie's Wish Trip. You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) the mischief Matthew, Duo and Helen could get into. They've even gotten themselves stuck in a tree.

As you might have guessed, these little stuffed animals had become pretty important to our Littles. So last week when they came inside and Noah announced he couldn't find Matthew, I was sad for him. The last place Noah had his little pal was outside and we couldn't find him anywhere. The next day Maddie made a "Lost Dog" poster. Noah loved the idea and soon added his "Lost Doj" posters. Then they borrowed tape and started putting the posters up on the porch, the electric pole, the mailbox, the garage, the driveway. yes, the driveway got it's own poster. Later when it was about to rain, I took the posters down. My mommie's heart was sad.

Maddie's poster "Lost Toy Dog Have you seen him"

Noah's poster "Have you see Matthew Break (heart)" ;(


Noah's poster- "I NEED MY DOJ" ;(

This afternoon after school Noah and Maddie were playing outside. I asked them what they were playing and they said, "Matthew and Helen". "Oh, did one of the other animals get Matthew's name?" "No!" "How do you play Matthew and Helen without Matthew?" "We pretend Matthew is on a trip", Noah answered.

Right then I had an idea. We have some woods behind our house and I wondered if the dogs had grabbed Matthew and run through the woods with him. I asked Noah if he had looked in the woods. "No. Bears live there." I told him it would be ok to go a little ways into the woods to look. "About 70 inches?" Noah asked. "Yes, just 70 inches." I watched as he and Maddie very hesitantly stepped into the woods, looking out for bears. I confess, I whispered a prayer that God would let them find that silly little dog that meant so much to them.

Not 5 minutes later I hear whooping and yelling! I instantly thought "no way... really?" Noah ran to me "Mommie! Mommie! We FOUND him! We FOUND MATTHEW!" and held up a soaking wet stuffed dog. I grabbed my camera and took a quick pic. We danced and cheered and celebrated.

I see smiles on both of their faces.

After supper we watched Toy Story 3 as part of our "Matthew is found" celebration. Noah said, "Andy lost his toys and found them just like I lost Matthew and found him!" My mommie's heart rejoiced.

Sleep well.

A year in pictures- 2010

2010-12-31T18:54:00.000-05:00

God has blessed our family in 2010!

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

April 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

Christmas Blessings

2010-12-25T23:27:00.001-05:00

Maddie asked me today where my presents were. I told her "right here" and when she looked confused I started naming names, "You, Noah, Sophie, Matthew, daddy and Josie. You are my Christmas presents." I'm not sure she understood but it's so true. I can't think of anything else I would even want. But enough with the mushy stuff.... let's pull out the Christmas day pics!

It actually started on Christmas Eve. James' dad came up from Florida and he along with James' sister and her family came over. We had fun and food and "cousin presents". We were up late the night before with the whole gang as well. Christmas eve was another late night. Even so, I was surprised this morning when all the kids were still asleep by 9am.

After waking we always eat breakfast together and then get dressed... before presents. I know, I know, I'm so mean but the kids don't really seem to mind.

This year the big gift for the Littles was a toy chest full of dress-up clothes. I'm not sure who enjoyed them the most today though, the kids or James. ;) I also got the Littles and Matthew robot roaches (ha) called Hex Bugs. They are pretty cool too. Sophie and Noah seemed to love them the most. They kind of freak Maddie out. lol I'll have some vid of them soon.

A few weeks ago Noah brought me his Chinese Bible and asked me to put it away in his China box and then he asked for an English Bible. Today he received his new English Bible. It's meant for kids younger than he is but is perfect for where he is in learning the language though. Maddie has grown beyond the little kid Bible she was carrying that only had summaries of stories and pictures. She received a big kid Bible today. They also both received books I made from pictures taken while they still lived in China. Both books are called "My Life in China" with either name on them.

Another adoption mom I met through the yahoo groups surprised me by sending gifts for all of us too. Unknowingly she helped me save face with Noah. One of the things he asked for was a computer game and I hadn't had a chance to get one. When he opened Lynnea's gift today and pulled out two computer games his eyes got big as saucers and he was quite excited! I was excited too! lol Maddie received an adorable Precious Moments doll which she promptly named, "Lula" and Sophie got Princess dress-up heels. It was funny when Sophie unwrapped those shoes she smiled and immediately put them on. lol Matthew got a gift card for iTunes. Lynnea and I have never met in person but yet have developed a very special friendship. I'll share more about her in future posts.

As usual, I don't have a lot of pictures of Matthew. He's at that age where he doesn't like me taking pictures. He spent his Christmas money at Disney World but of course he didn't go without today. He got a robot roach too and a therapeutic pillow he's been wanting. I know that sounds weird but both Matthew and I have scoliosis and I got a special pillow that he really liked too. I was able to order one for him and keep it a surprise until today. He got a few more little things too.

Maddie ended our present time with reading the Christmas story from her new Bible.

This afternoon all the family came back over and we shared a huge feast together and then play Scattergories and Fact or Crap while the 4 Littles (my three plus 8 year old niece) played dress-up. A fun time was had by all and I can hardly wait until next year when Josie will be running around as one of the pack.

Speaking of Josie I have to relate a short conversation I had with Noah in the car yesterday.

N- "Hey...we don't have a seat for Josie in your car." (My car only sits 5 comfortably with an extra seat that folds down that only Maddie can fit in. Right now we have to take two cars everywhere.)

Me- "Well, hopefully we'll have a van like the one we drove in Florida, when Josie gets here."
N- "That will have 7 seats? We need 7 seats." And then he named all of us with our corresponding seat.
Me- "Yes, 7 seats will be perfect."
N- "but not 8, 9 or 10 seats?"
Me- "No, just 7 is good."
N- "But what about 8, 9 or 10?"
Me- "We will only have 7 in our family."
N- "But after Josie we need a boy. We will have 4 girls and only 3 boys. We need a boy. How about DuoDuo (youngest foster-brother)? Can you bring DuoDuo here?"
uh oh...

Without further ado.... here are our Christmas pictures! I hope you enjoy them.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

2010-12-24T23:22:00.002-05:00

Family pics

2010-12-13T22:14:00.007-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I found myself in need of a decent family picture. So I called the family together and with much joy we all sat down and smiled nicely for the camera. uhhhh....yeah, right. It took us a while to get everyone dressed and finished with various tasks and all over to the couch. I should have spent that time putting on make-up but instead I put a chair on the kid's craft table and put the camera on the chair. I set the timer, ran to get into the picture and pasted a smile on my face. Sounds easy enough, right? lol We did end up finally getting a decent family pic but looking back on what it took to get there I can't help but laugh.

So, you may be asking yourself why did I need a family pic? Was it for our Christmas card? no. Was it for our family album? no. It was for her...

or more accurately, for her paperwork. Yes, it's true. We are adopting again. A little more than a week ago we received our pre-approval from China to adopt this precious 5 year old girl. She was Noah's baby foster-sister and you may recognize her from James' posts during their trip to China. Or maybe you recognize her from the picture I slipped into the video I made in November. She had us at "ni hao". It just took us a while to admit it. Stay tuned for more about our Journey to Josie.

Mayor Clayton's Birthday party- GKTW

2010-12-13T01:42:00.001-05:00

The kids give their thoughts about their first trip to the Magic Kingdom

2010-12-13T01:30:00.002-05:00

Sophie and Maddie horseback riding at GKTW

2010-12-13T01:28:00.000-05:00

Sophie's Wish Trip

2010-12-12T15:32:00.045-05:00

The long awaited post about Sophie's fabulous wish trip is here! So...where do I begin. I suppose right at the beginning is as good as place as any. This is bound to get lengthy so I'll forgive you if you just want to skip over the words and go straight to the pictures.

We arrived in Florida at the Give Kids the World Village in the late afternoon of December 2nd. After signing in we were able to get supper and then went back to the House of Hearts for orientation. Soon after that we were shown our villa. Or, as the Littles called it, "our Florida house". It was a very spacious 2 bedroom, 2 bath villa. We loved it. Being a Thursday, it was Christmas at GKTW so we all went to theater, the kids picked a gift and got to visit with Santa. Maddie picked a doll, Noah picked the Operation game, Sophie picked a doll and Matthew picked the Sorry game. It was a lot of fun and gave us a tiny hint of how the people of the village were going to spoil our kids all week.

There were two restaurants at the village. One was a cafeteria style with a variety of foods and the other had food from Boston Market. We ate at both all week and loved it. All the food at the restaurants were free to all staying in the village. There was also pizza we could have delivered to our villa. Yes, we ate well. I can't forget to mention the Ice Cream Palace where we could get ice cream any time from 9am- 9pm and yes, free for those staying at the village (and their guests).

We did some exploring of the village and found Matthew's Boundless Playground where the life-sized Candyland game is played. This playground is built for children of all abilities and the kids just loved it.

We went to sleep that first day very tired and very excited. When we woke up we found out that every morning there was a character visit set up for the kids. We set out for the Star Tower and the kids were able to meet Woody Woodpecker and Scooby Gooby Doo (as Noah calls him).

After that visit was over we headed out for the Magic Kingdom. I have to stop here and tell you that for the entire previous day Maddie kept asking if we were at Disney World yet. We walked into the Orlando airport "Is this Disney World???" she asked excitedly. We drove past a gas station "Is that Disney World?" Drove past a housing development "Is THAT Disney World?" Drove into the GKTW Village "ARE WE STAYING AT DISNEY WORLD??" So when we finally passed the Disney welcome gate on the highway we all cheered and said "Maddie, now we are at Disney World!" She craned her neck and looked and looked and then in a disappointed voice said "It is? This is it?" It's been 20 years since I've been to Disney. I didn't know that when you passed those gates on the highway you drove several more minutes through nothing... before you actually entered the parking lots. lol

I had planned to have the video running when Maddie first saw Cinderella's castle but she saw it on the ferry ride over and I wasn't expecting that. They were filming the Christmas Parade so we didn't get to walk down Main Street. Instead we were taken behind all the buildings through the back lot and actually entered behind Cinderella's castle. Because of Sophie's Make-A-Wish button (which she wore proudly every day), and our GKTW badge, we were escorted to the front or near the front of every line. Due to that we were able to see and ride most everything we wanted to at the Magic Kingdom in about 6 hours. I loved revisiting my favorites from years past and seeing the improvements. I loved seeing the Magic Kingdom through my kids' eyes. Sophie LOVED the rollercoasters and other rides. In fact, having her leave the ride was a problem. lol I took pictures on most every ride we went on. I didn't realize until Melissa told me that night that we weren't supposed to do that. (oops)

When we visited with the characters we were very mindful of all the people behind us waiting. I think we rushed through the visits more than we needed to, but the kids still loved it. When we saw Winnie the Pooh and Tigger I was quickly trying to take the kids' picture and not paying close attention to Sophie. I mean, I knew she was approaching Pooh, but other than that I didn't see her. I heard James calling me over and over and finally turned and looked at him and he pointed to Sophie. As she was running to Pooh her pants had fallen down. She was waddling the rest of the way with her pants down around her ankles. I wish I had gone ahead and taken the picture but my first instinct was to run and pull her pants up quickly, which I did. :)

I have more pictures to show you from the professional photographers at Disney but I will have to wait until the CD arrives. We were able to meet 3 of the Princesses, Cinderella, Belle and Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora). All the kids loved meeting all of the characters. I am in nearly every picture because I would have to hold Sophie but it was fun.

That evening my sister Melissa, her husband Randy, and their kids Hannah (5), Emma (3) and Jacob (5 weeks) came by to visit. They were on their Disney vacation and it was fun to be able to see them. At the GKTW village that night we had a Princess and Pirates party. All the kids (including the cousins) were able to attend and have a great time. Treasure and candy was freely given. The girls received Princess make-up and certificates. The boys were given Pirate mustaches, tattoos, certificates and swords.

The next morning after breakfast was horseback riding at the village. The Littles loved it! I wish we had theraputic horseback riding nearby for Sophie. I love to see her on a horse. She is focused and just... connected when she is riding a horse. She didn't want to get off so they took her around a couple of extra times.

After horseback riding we went to Gatorland. Noah is fascinated with ally-lators so we thought this would be just the thing for him. We thought we would go and visit for a couple of hours and then head back to do things around the village. Let's just say Gatorland is a lot bigger than I though it was. We spent several hours there and still didn't do all we could have. We did get to sit on a live alligator named Gonzo, feed two 95 year old tortoises and hold a boa and a baby gator. It was another great day. (Oh and no, I am not scared of the gator I am sitting on. His mouth was taped shut and his handler was sitting 6 inches away. Matthew took the picture just as I was sitting down.)

We returned from Gatorland early enough to go swimming in the heated pool. Well, everyone but me went swimming. I knew the pool was warm but I also knew I would freeze when getting out of the pool. Plus, I had to take pictures, right? The kids had a blast in the pool. Noah pretended he was an alligator and the shallow part of the pool was his swamp. He patrolled his swamp and chased away all who entered. I think he said he ate a few dogs too.

That night at the village was Mayor Clayton's surprise birthday party. yep, you guessed it...the kids had a blast. And the parents? Well, we had a blast seeing our kids cut loose, enjoy themselves and be spoiled by all the adults running the party.

The next day we spent at Epcot. My favorite ride there was Soarin. That was very cool. Matthew had been on the hunt for a Donald Duck hat so we were glad to finally find that at Epcot. He even got it autographed by Donald. We met several of the characters too but those pictures are on the Disney CD that I will get in a few days.

That night at the village the Littles and I went to the life-size candyland game. There were all sorts of games the kids could play and earn tickets to trade for a toy. They were also given huge bags of candy. (Are you seeing a pattern here? lol) Sometime during the Candyland game I lost our Disney Photopass card that had pictures of the kids with the Princesses from the Magic Kingdom. I was pretty bummed about it but found out later from friends on-line that I could call and have the pictures sent to me. Even so, I checked with lost and found a few times every day just in case someone turned it in. While we were at the Candyland game, James and Matthew went back to Epcot and rode more rides and watched the fireworks.

The next morning at the village we met Mary Poppins, Donald Duck, Pluto and Mickey Mouse. Then it was off to Sea World where we spent a very cold day discovering dolphins, feeding manta rays, riding a manta (roller-coaster that James rode), finding Nemo and all kinds of other fish, riding the Polar Express to see a polar bear, watching a show with dolphins, whale and flying parrots and seeing the largest walrus I've ever seen in person. The Littles wanted to ride the Manta but weren't tall enough. There was a seat outside the entrance for people to sit in so they could see how they would be restrained so Matthew and Noah tried it out. That roller-coaster dips down toward the ground in a few places and I stood under one place to take a picture as a car zoomed by. I didn't realize until I had uploaded the picture that I had taken a picture of James. It was very cool! In fact, it was cold. A record setting cold front moved through Florida while we were there. We took a trip to Wal-Mart for sweatshirts and gloves. Well, I got gloves, but James and Matthew didn't. All the men's gloves were sold out at both of the Wal-Marts we checked. GKTW had knit caps and gloves for the kids (and a cap for me too). Thank goodness.

Can you find James in the above picture? That's right. He is at the bottom left corner!

Our last full day at the village started with meeting Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants. Then Sophie decorated her star and put it into the Star Fairy's box. Every child who stays at GKTW Village gets a star that the Star Fairy puts up on the ceiling of the Star Tower to stay forever and ever. We were given a passport with the location of the star and an invitation to stop by to visit whenever we are in the area. They also sent an identical star home with us to put on Sophie's ceiling. We all participated in decorating Sophie's star. Maddie wrote Sophie's name. Sophie added some scribbles. I added a heart. etc. I took a picture of some of the over 100,000 stars currently in the Star Tower. Sophie's star is on Cloud 7 right above the Queen room (girl's bathroom).

'After leaving the village we went to Hollywood Studios. The weather was still cold but tolerable, if not comfortable in the sun. Yes, we are wearing the same sweatshirts that we wore the day before. We washed them every night to put on the next day. We were sorely unprepared for record setting low temps in Florida. At Hollywood the Littles were able to ride the Tower of Terror. Matthew and I had to watch the stroller and backpack. ;) Just like we thought, Sophie LOVED the Tower of Terror. She laughed the entire way down. In fact, she laughed through every single roller coaster she rode. The girl loves movement and never gets motion sick. The Littles were not tall enough to ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster though so that was disappointing, though James still rode. Once again Matthew and I stayed to watch the Littles, stroller and backpack. We all loved Toy Story Mania and rode it twice. We were also able to meet Buzz Lightyear. Sophie really seemed to adore him. She tried pushing all the buttons on his suit and even held his hand while smiling the most adorable smile up at him.

Since this was our last full day in Florida we didn't stay long at Hollywood. We wanted to get over to see some things at Animal Kingdom too. While there, we sat through a 4-D movie, "It's Tough To Be A Bug" where we smelled a stink bug, were stung by a wasp and even had roaches crawl across our seats at the end. Noah asked, "mommie? did bugs crawl on your butt?" James and the Littles rode Everest and loved it. Well, Sophie and James loved it enough to want to do it again. Maddie and Noah said they loved it but when I asked if they wanted to do it again they both quickly said "no!" They said that about every roller coaster. We also all enjoyed the Dinosaur ride. It was dark a lot of the time but Sophie just laughed and laughed. When it was a ride we all did together she always rode with me. I loved hearing her laughter. She would slide over close to me as she could and reach out and hold my hand and laugh and laugh. The other kids had autograph books for the character's signatures. Knowing how Sophie loves to tear paper I wondered what I would do about hers. Then a friend gave me the idea to have an autograph t-shirt for Sophie. We bought her a pink 2010 Disney shirt and the characters signed the back. I think it turned out really cute.

As we were checking out on Wednesday morning we were handed a Disney PhotoPass card that someone had found. We had no way to check it though to see if it was ours. We were told to take it anyway and if it ended up not being ours to mail it back. We stayed around the village for a little while to do some things we hadn't been able to do during the week. We rode the train a few times, played mini-golf and just relaxed before our flight home. Give Kids the World is an amazing place. I know we'll be back. Next time as volunteers to ministers to other families. Here are some random pictures from around GKTW.

So, that was our week or most of it. There are a hundred more pictures. It is hard to put my exact thoughts and feelings about this trip into words. I've worked on this paragraph for more than an hour, typing and deleting over and over again. I wish you could see my heart and you would know instead of me trying to write it out. Make A Wish and Give Kids the World are both amazing organizations that minister to weary families with children who have dealt with more than most adults ever will. After we were there 3 or 4 days I could look around and tell the new families from the families about to go home. The new families looked weary and unsure of what to expect. They were reserved and guarded and greeted other families quietly, if at all. The families who were about to leave appeared more relaxed. They smiled easily and greeted others enthusiastically. GKTW was a safe place to let loose and lay your burden down for a while.

This past week was like a lifetime of family vacations all pushed into one. The memories we created are priceless. The people at GKTW made every one of my children feel special every day. And as a mom, that is the best gift anyone could ever give.

Oh, and that Disney PhotoPass card that was found and given to us as we were leaving? It was the one we had lost. The perfect ending to an amazing week.

Sophie's Wish trip pictures!!

2010-12-04T20:56:00.002-05:00

I know you all have been waiting to hear from us. To say we have been a tad busy would be an understatement. Plus we don't have internet in our villa. But, enough with excuses... here is a link where you can see many (but not nearly all) of the pictures I've taken since arriving on Wednesday evening. We are having a blast. Sophie is having a blast! The crowds at the Magic Kingdom freaked her out a little. She wanted me to hold her nearly the entire time and by the end of the day I was wishing we had brought our Chiropractor along. I'm sore from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Carrying an extra 40 pounds will do that to a person. But I'm loving it. She did get kicked out of the Stitch ride because she ducked under the safety harness (went down onto her shoulders) and tried to climb into my lap. It was ok though because we heard that ride was pretty lame. Today they had horseback riding. This is the second time Sophie has ridden a horse and it is like magic every time. I wish we had theraputic riding near us so she could do this regularly. It seems to really ground and focus her, plus she is so relaxed when she finishes. It's just magic. Another thing she loves is swimming and they have a heated pool so she got to do that today. Well, I have to close this post because my pizza supper has been taken to our villa and I'd better got eat before it gets eaten by someone else! I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Sophie's Wish Trip Pictures here!

and...we're....off!

2010-11-30T20:01:00.005-05:00

Well, almost! We leave tomorrow afternoon to begin our journey to Disney. YAY!!! We'll actually flying into Orlando on Thursday morning. I will be blogging and posting pictures so stay tuned! Please pray for our health. Both Matthew and Noah have strep throat. They began antibiotics today so I'm praying they'll be feeling much better soon. Both girls had strep throat about 2 weeks ago.

I hope you enjoy these pictures of a visit with my brother and his family this past weekend.

Sophie's Wish party

2010-11-23T21:40:00.010-05:00

Tonight the Wish team gave a pizza party send-off for Sophie. They brought information and paperwork for us and lots of gifts for Sophie. It was so fun to watch Sophie. She was very interested in what was inside her pink Princess backpack. As she pulled each item out she opened it and either put it on or played with it, then went on to the next thing. I've never seen her do that before. In the past she would just tear through everything only wanting the paper or the package but showing little interest in the actual item. This time she was very interested and understood it was all for her. She even insisted on eating her pizza off her new Princess plate. After we finished eating Sophie passed around her tiara and Princess sunglasses to everyone else to have a turn wearing. It was funny.

Noah and Maddie enjoyed looking through the Birnbaum Walt Disney World guide and seeing pictures of all the places we'll get to visit. Noah asks every day how many days until we leave and how many days we'll be "living" in Florida.

We leave for Disney in 8 days. We were all excited before but tonight the excitement level has definitely risen. Here are pictures from tonight. Noah took most of them. He really loves cameras. He told me "some good and some not good". I saw one extreme close-up of me and groaned. "I say some not good" Noah said quickly. ::delete::

One Less

2010-11-01T20:21:00.002-04:00

Matthew West recently released an album called "The Story of Your Life". He asked people to write to him telling him of their stories and he put some to music. I really love the album, but my favorite is the song he wrote about adoption, titled "One Less".

There's a child
Been abandoned out on the street
Now she's waiting for someone to be her miracle

There's a wife
Somewhere halfway around the world
Begging God for a little girl she can call her own

Well, worlds collide
And colors fade
And a man and wife
Brought their little girl home today

And there's one less
One less
One less broken heart in the world tonight
Yeah, there's one less
One less
There's one less broken heart in the world tonight

We are called
To the widows and the orphans
But it's easy to ignore their silent cries
Oh, but every single time
Somebody reaches into the darkness
Makes a choice to help the helpless
They let mercy save a life

And there's one less
One less
One less broken heart in the world tonight
Yeah, there's one less
One less
Yeah, there's one less broken heart in the world tonight

Well the truth is we are all the orphans
But love has left the 99 just to find the one

So let worlds collide
Colors fade
Let your life
Be the miracle today

One less
One less
One less broken heart in the world tonight
Tonight I know there's one less
One less
One less broken heart in the world tonight

One less child without a home
One less birthday gone forgotten
One more soul rising from the bottom

One less night alone
One less child without a home
One less birthday gone forgotten
One more soul rising from the bottom

One less
One less
One less broken heart in the world tonight

lovin life!

2010-10-28T10:05:00.008-04:00

Things are going well. The kids love school. Maddie has taken off with her reading. Noah has glasses and is finally able to see. Sophie continues to surprise me. Matthew is moving along right through High School. James and I are enjoying every day being parents to such wonderful kids.

A couple of weeks ago we had the privilege of going to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert and volunteering at the Show Hope tables. It was a lot of fun and great to give back a small bit to this wonderful organization that does so much to help bring families together as well as care for orphans in China.

Last Saturday was busy. During the first part of the day we went to a party at our church celebrating the last soccer game of the year. The kids had a lot of fun on the blow up slides and the jump house. Of course Sophie stayed in the jump house nearly the entire time and she only got naked once. Oh yes, Sophie has moved into a stage where she would prefer not to wear any clothes. I think I preferred Strawberry Shortcake. She is potty training and the way she tells you she has to go is to take her pull-up off. Thankfully I was able to get her out of the jump house before she got that far. lol

Later, we carved pumpkins. It was a lot of fun for me and the kids. Maddie was so funny. She doesn't like getting her hands dirty and insisted on cleaning out her pumpkin with a spoon. Even using the spoon she managed to get pumpkin guts on her and had a large stack of wet wipes beside her where she wiped every time something touched her. The sad thing is her pumpkin turned out to be too hard to carve so she helped James carve my pumpkin. Noah deliberately picked out the smallest pumpkin he could find. He carried it around calling it his baby and the first night it sat out on the porch he wanted to cover it with a blanket. He totally cracks me up. Sophie couldn't understand why we wanted her to put the pumpkin guts into a bowl. She preferred eating them. Matthew worked for hours on his and it turned out to be pretty cute. It's a pokemon character, Vulpix.

My little sister, Melissa, had a 9lb 21 3/4 inch baby boy named Jacob Randolph, yesterday. He is so cute and I can't wait to kiss those cheeks! We'll see Melissa and her family when we go to Florida for Sophie's Wish trip in 1 month and 4 days. (But who's counting?)

Please consider stopping by my friend Connie's website and check out the camera she is giving away! Just click on her name or look to the side bar and click on her site button. I have two fund raiser buttons over there. Click on both and see if something grabs your interest. Help bring a child home and Christmas shop at the same time. What more could you want? :)

Last but not least...here are two vids I took of Maddie & Noah yesterday.

introducing Jetta

2010-10-15T17:35:00.004-04:00

Back in May I ordered a "grow a frog" kit for the Littles. I thought it would be fun for them to see a tadpole grow up. What I didn't realize is that the company I bought the kit from wouldn't ship the tadpole until the temperature was below 80* and in May it was quite a bit warmer than that. So I put the tadpole tank on a shelf and we forgot about it...until Monday when I checked the mail and found a small Styrofoam container and inside was our tadpole. I know what you are thinking. You are wondering why I didn't just get my own tadpole out of a pond, right? Well this isn't just any ol' tadpole. It's an African Clawed Frog tadpole. They are really cool because they live completely in water, all the time. They have a life expectancy up to 30 years too. The tadpoles have see-thru skin and you can all of their internal organs and you can watch their heart beat. Pretty neat, huh? Maddie and Noah named their tadpole Jetta. I hope they still like that name in 30 years.

Noah lost his first tooth this week. I noticed it was gone when he came home from school. I asked him where it was and he said, "I don't know. I dropped it on the floor at school." Maddie told him "that's ok. mommie will tell tooth fairy." Then she suggested that I write it down so I didn't forget. lol

These last pictures are us playing a game we got James for James' birthday. It's called Headbanz and it is a lot of fun for all ages. The point of the game is to guess what your card is. Everyone can see your card except you. A sand timer is turned over and you can ask all the yes/no questions you can think of to try and figure out what your card is. As you can imagine, it can get pretty funny.

Tomorrow we are volunteering at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. James and I are pretty excited to finally see him in concert. We like being able to give back to Show Hope as well since we received grants for both Maddie and Sophie's adoptions through them. Maddie wants to meet SCC's girls since she found out they were from China too. Noah isn't sure what to think yet about taking a trip to see a "man who sings".

Speaking of singing, I can't remember if I ever posted this song that James wrote this past summer. I made a little video for it but then I couldn't post it because at that time no one knew that Noah was with us as our host child. If I've posted it before, that's ok. It's good enough to post twice.

Wordless Wednesday....I mean Terrific Thursday!

2010-10-14T16:21:00.002-04:00

Straw buh-buh-buh berry

2010-09-30T07:17:00.007-04:00

(I've been contacted by some of you to see how we are doing. Some have even asked if we were adopting again and that is why I haven't blogged in a while. I'm afraid it's nothing as glamorous as that. It's just life. Life keeps me running right now. I thought things would slow down once the kids started school but that hasn't been the case.)

Do you remember Strawberry Shortcake? Of course you do. She has been around since 1977. Recently, she moved into our house.

I'm not exactly sure when it happened. At some point Sophie was given a Strawberry Shortcake nightgown. In the past few weeks this nightgown has become the only thing she wants to wear. It's not good enough just to wear it for sleeping. No, it must be worn 24 hours a day or be deeply and loudly mourned. One day after redressing Sophie six times I let her keep the gown on. It wasn't that big of a deal. We really didn't have anywhere to go. It's not like she wanted to wear it to school or church right? Right.

Until that one Sunday morning she kept stripping her dress off and putting the gown on. I finally managed to get her out the door in a dress but it was a challenge. As soon as we returned home she stripped off the dress and put the gown back on smiling and singing like she'd found a long lost friend. That was repeated every day when she returned home from school as well. At least she didn't protest wearing her uniform to school though, right? Right.

Until yesterday morning when she cried and moaned and flailed around on the floor while getting dressed and kept trying to strip while waiting for the bus. (Come on...Are you really surprised I took pictures?)

Maddie even tried to comfort her which brought a quick smile but the loss of the gown was still mourned.

We finally compromised and she put the gown on over her head and was quieted.

When the bus drove up she started toward it and I quickly snatched the gown off her head with a cheery "Goodbye Sophie!" and breathed a sigh of relief as she ran up the bus steps happy. At least she didn't do this every morning, right? Right.

This morning? More of the same.

Don't get me wrong. Part of me finds the whole thing quite amusing and sweet. But at 6am that part is not very big. It can't last forever though, right?

Right. Eventually she'll outgrow the gown and move on to something else. For the moment, I'll be happy it's just an adorable pink nightgown. (Could be so much worse.) My little drama queen reminds me we all have our little "Strawberry Shortcake nightgowns" we cling to and hate to part with. What is it that God desires me to wear but I flail about and cry until He allows me to wear my own desires over my head? I can almost hear Him lovingly laugh at my dramatics as He encourages me to part with the unnecessary baggage I insist I need.

(Yes, I see the hem is ripped. Still trying to locate the needle and thread.)

a fundraiser give-away (not mine- lol)

2010-09-09T14:15:00.004-04:00

Check out this fun give-away. There are so many wonderful prizes that have been donated. Wouldn't you love to be involved in helping a little girl come home? It ends tonight at midnight.

Our Labor Day picnic

2010-09-06T18:16:00.010-04:00

making jiaozi (Chinese dumplings)

2010-09-06T18:05:00.006-04:00

School Days

2010-09-02T06:44:00.003-04:00

When I was growing up I remember my dad waking us up on the first day of school singing "School Days, School Days, Dear ol' golden rule days. Readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic all to the tune of a hickory stick." In looking up those lyrics I see there are a whole lot more but this is what dad sang each time. It was a catchy little tune I'd never heard before or since. I doubt I'll ever forget it.

Yesterday morning I woke Maddie and Noah up for their first day of school for this year. Before I knew it, I found myself singing dad's School Days song. Back when we were still in Missouri and Maddie and Sophie attended pre-school (wow. that seems like such a long time ago) I started singing them a song while waiting on the bus. It is to the tune of "Peggy Sue" and has each of their names in it.

"Maddie Jun, I love you. Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma Maddie Jun, I love you. My Maddie Jun. I love ya girl, I love you Maddie Jun." Then it's "Sophie Lu, I love you....." Yesterday as we waited on the bus we added one more "Noah du, I love you...." I love seeing each one smile as I sing "their" song.

Both Maddie and Noah are in the same class. Yesterday they were very excited to tell me about their day. Noah started with what he ate. "chicken and french fries, yellow fruit and milk!" Maddie started with naming all of her new friends. Noah interrupted with "I have friends too!" I asked him what their names were "I don't know... school has playground!" Maddie continued with telling me about some of the things she learned. Then Noah added "I ask to go to bathroom and somebody show me the way!" And so it went. Two different perspectives on the same day in the same class. It was fun to hear it. Both of them got good behavior reports with "hard worker" on Maddie's and "Good at math" on Noah's.

They both had some homework and after initially trying to get it done together I told Noah to go play while I worked with Maddie. They both have different strengths and weaknesses so even working on the same work is better done separately. I was so proud of Maddie for knowing all of her sight words and she did well on her math too. There were a couple of math problems she just couldn't grasp no matter how hard we tried so I didn't push it. Noah didn't know any of the sight words but he really wants to. By the time we finished he could recognize 2 or 3. He flew through the math assignment with no trouble.

After finishing homework we rushed out the door to church. After church we rushed home to baths and bed. (shew) What a busy first day of school. The kids were sleeping just minutes after their heads hit the pillow.

I have three 1st graders and a 10th grader now. I think it's time to add a preschooler. (sigh)

Quick Noah post-op update

2010-08-31T14:34:00.005-04:00

As usual I am running like crazy. I'm sorry I haven't updated you about Noah's Big Reveal yet. He did have his stitches out last Friday. Everything looked great, except the tip of his nose which the surgeon had been worried about anyway. It was necrotic so 5 stitches were left in and we are treating with Silvadene and keeping it covered. So far it is doing well. We are hoping to avoid another surgery but that may become necessary. We are keeping the surgeon updated with close-up pictures (I've attached below the pictures we sent last night). He wants to see new pictures on Thursday. So far so good.

Here are pictures....amazing, is'nt it? I've put a picture of him pre-op so you can all remember just how far he's come. btw, he LOVES his new nose. LOVES it. In his words, "I LOVE my nose mommie! My nose wery wery good!"

He and Maddie start school tomorrow. They are both so excited. They will both be in the same class, in 1st grade. I think Noah would do well in 2nd grad but he needs extra help on reading due to ESL issues. So in that way, the 1st grade was a better fit. Once he gets reading if he is excelling in everything they will move him on to 2nd grade.

Maddie's surgery update

2010-08-27T08:34:00.004-04:00

Maddie's surgery went well yesterday. She was sure the nurse understood it was "day surgery" only. She was excited that surgery # 6 would not require staying in the hospital. In this picture she looks pretty pitiful. She was much better once her pain med kicked in. Last night after the Loretab got moving and grooving she sat on my excercise ball, looked into space and bounced for more than an hour. That Loretab is good stuff.

Maddie wanted me to take a picture of her tongue. As far as surgeries go this was a fairly minor one but if you are the least squeamish you might want to skip the picture.

Noah's big reveal is this morning at 11am. He is excited to get his stitches out but he also remembers that stitches in the nose hurt. He has told me several times already "I not like stitches out. Little tiny scissors hurt." I said, "Yes, I know. It will hurt a little." "No! Not little hurt mommie, BIG hurt!" ;(

Noah post-op day 6

2010-08-25T12:03:00.002-04:00

Post-op day 6. He's a very happy, active boy today. Right now he is jumping on Sophie's small trampoline. I told him not to and he asked, "why?" I guess just because it seems to me that it would be painful, that's why. lol

Noah post-op day 5

2010-08-24T10:54:00.003-04:00

Noah is doing really well. He only needed Tylenol yesterday and so far today he hasn't needed anything. His pediatrician will be taking the stitches out on Friday.

Noah post-op pictures

2010-08-22T21:38:00.002-04:00

Post-op, days 1, 2 and 3.

a long, long overdue update

2010-08-22T16:05:00.013-04:00

I'd to think that someone out in blog-land is wondering where we've been. Why did we just disappear after the homecoming post? What has been going on in our lives in those 7 long undocumented days? Well, have no fear, I am here now to fill you in on all the details.

You'll recall that on Saturday the 14th Noah was running a slight fever and had swollen tonsils. On Sunday he seemed better and was very eager to get to church. On our way into the church he says, "mommie, I don't feel good". I looked down just in time to see him start gagging. I veered off the drive to the edge of the woods where he could have some privacy. I also noticed he was burning up. So Noah, Sophie and I went back home. I took his temperature and it was 102.8. After getting him comfortable and into bed I e-mailed his surgeon. I wasn't sure how this was going to affect the plans for surgery on the 19th. His surgeon called in script for antibiotics that I picked up and started him on immediately.

On Monday we took him to the Pediatrician who gave him a shot. By Monday night he began to feel better. Tuesday morning he woke up free of fever and back to his normal self. On Tuesday we also took Maddie to the ENT to have her tongue tie clipped only to find out it is too complicated to do in the office. The ENT is going to have to do it under anesthesia at the hospital on this Thursday the 26th.

Late Tuesday night (after revival services) we started off for a hotel by the airport so we wouldn't be rushing to make our 6:30am flights on Wednesday morning. We all got into the car and the car started before the first "forgotten" thing was remembered. Then we got about 1/2 mile down the road before the second "forgotten" thing was remembered. Then we got about 7 miles down the road before the final "forgotten" thing was remembered. Needless to say we arrived at our hotel very late. Around 1am. We were awake again at 4am to catch our shuttle to the airport.

As far as Sophie was concerned it was a replay of when we waited on Noah and James to come home from China. She was very pleased to be back at the airport and was skipping down the halls (I've never seen her skip before).

We went through security and Matthew's back pack was pulled. They called a security guy over and were all in a huddled conversation. They asked whose bag it was and Matthew and I stepped forward. They pulled out his key chain. When James and I went to China in 2007 we had a short layover in Tokyo Japan. We bought the kids some souvenirs at the airport. For Matthew we bought a key chain with small replica shuriken (martial art throwing stars) that fit together like a puzzle. They were completely harmless and he's flown with them before (like last November on this same flight to Dallas). But this time the TSA guy says to him very sternly "These look too much like the real thing. You should have known you couldn't bring them onto an airplane." I talked to him, asked him what we could do, etc. The only thing we could do was take it back out to the post office and mail it home. My flight was boarding in 30 minutes. The TSA guy took the key chain and deposited it into the collection box and Matthew will never get it back. Mr Big TSA probably felt very good about saving our flight from a potential threat. I was so angry. I fought back tears the rest of the day. Matthew was angry and sullen even more than usual for a teenager. It was more than ridiculous.

Our airline tickets were purchased with air miles so our family was on 2 different flights with 2 different airlines. James and Noah flew on Delta and the rest of us flew on American. Our flight was uneventful except for Sophie. She LOVED it. She stared out the window and giggled the entire time.

Our flight arrived in Dallas first so we headed for the gate that James and Noah's flight was arriving at. The Dallas airport is soooo big. It took a while to get to their gate but we made it. We picked up a rental mini-van that we all fell in love with. It was a Chrysler Town and Country, Touring model and it is now my dream car. lol We headed out for the Ronald McDonald House where we would be staying the next few days.

At RMH we met Bridget and Lee from the LEAP Foundation who would be making a short film about Noah. The kids were filmed playing inside and out. Then we had individual interviews. Maddie and Noah cracked me up. Everything Noah was asked he would say "I don't know!" but when Maddie was trying to answer he would jump in and say "I tell you....." After they were done interviewing James and I, we rushed to the hospital for Noah's pre-op.

The hospital has a very neat play area. Sophie had a ball crawling all over a huge caterpillar there. Matthew was an enormous help as James and I did all the required pre-op stuff with Noah. Two other LEAP kids, Mason and Elena were at the hospital for their pre-op appointments too and it was fun to have a little family reunion with them. During the pre-op the doctor who did Noah's physical (not his surgeon) told us she would only pass him if his bloodwork came back clean. We were confident it would. The one thing she said that got under my skin was "There is no reason to do an elective procedure on a child who has recently been sick." Now, excuse me but we do not see Noah's nose reconstruction as an elective procedure. It is correcting a birth defect, not tweaking something out of vanity. Anyway... After pre-op we drove for a while looking for a Subway but instead finding a Whataburger (blech)and then went back to RMH and crashed for the night.

Noah's surgery was scheduled for 2pm on the 19th. Check-in at the hospital was 12:30pm. The first thing Noah said when he woke up Thursday morning was "Today my surgery mommie?" "yes" "Let's GO! I ready!!" I told him we weren't leaving until later and he frowned saying "You say surgery today. No surgery today? Maybe tomorrow?" He was very excited. We hung out in the playroom and on the playground at the RMH. We thought Georgia was hot...until we got to Dallas. It was 104* that day so we didn't stay on the playground long.

We met up with the cameras again once we were checked into the hospital. I peeked in at Elena who had just come out of surgery. Mason was in surgery and Noah was right after. Noah told Dr. Hobar (surgeon) that he wanted a nose like mine. He said "mommie has tiger nose. I want tiger nose!" Someone asked him about daddy's nose and he said, "no. daddy has pig nose. I want tiger nose." And yes, this was all before the "silly juice" was given. He went very quietly into surgery without even a look back. Much different than Maddie. I was glad. It is hard enough for me to see them wheeled away quietly. I took a picture of Noah going to surgery with my camera phone and later showed it to Maddie.

His surgery went very well. It was scheduled for 3 hours but ended up being closer to 5-6 hours. Dr. H had some implants he was going to try but if they didn't work satisfactorily he was going to take one of his ribs and use that. We were praying the implants would work to cut down on recovery time for Noah. They didn't. About 3 hours in we got a phone call from the nurse to let us know he was harvesting the rib. Around 7pm Dr. H came out and told us how the surgery went. He is concerned about the tip of his nose healing properly so we will keep a close eye on that. Otherwise everything went well. We were able to see Noah around 7:30pm, in recovery. After that James took us back to the RMH for the night. On our way out of the hospital we saw a Subway which we grabbed for supper. (yay!) James dropped us at the RMH and went back to the hospital to stay the night with Noah.

Oh, on our way to the hospital we ran into a traffic jam on the ramp to the freeway. As we inched our way forward we saw everyone was pulling around a truck. When we started to pull around we saw the driver slumped against the window with his mouth hanging open. James and I had the same thought "he is dead". James put our van in park and went to the driver's window. He pounded on the window and the guy kind of shook himself and looked at James. James asked if he was ok and he nodded and drove away. I don't know what was more shocking...the fact that this guy fell so soundly asleep while driving or that so many people were pulling around him without checking to see if he needed help.

Noah was discharged from the hospital on Friday afternoon. When he saw me he pulled his shirt up and pointing to the bandage on his side said, "Look mommie". I asked him if he knew what happened there and he said no. So I explained it the best I could.

We said good-bye to the RMH house on Saturday the 21st and flew back home. Once again American arrived before Delta. (neener neener neener) Noah rode in a wheelchair at both airports and no doubt had the best seat in the house. Especially while we waited for almost 2 hours on Delta to unload the checked bags. On our way home we stopped at the original Chick-Fil-A, the Dwarf Grill for a yummy supper. It's the only full service Chick-Fil-A I've ever been to and they even serve burgers (don't tell the cows).

It is exciting to already see some changes in Noah's face. He still has a large bandage (hard like a cast) that keeps us from seeing too much but we can tell his eyebrows are closer together. His pain is under control and he is feeling pretty good. His side bothers him the most with pain. His nose is "stuffy" and the stitches itch but it doesn't seem to hurt him too much. He will get his stitches out this Thursday, either here with his Pediatrician or back to Dallas with the surgeon. Maddie also has her tongue tie surgery on Thursday so our lives haven't slowed too much but hey... at least you are all caught up now, right?

2010-08-14T23:51:00.000-04:00

Home again, Home again jiggity-jig

2010-08-14T22:07:00.004-04:00

The girls and I waited more than an hour for James and Noah to appear at the airport. I knew their plane was on the ground so each time a group of people would begin coming up the escalator I would turn the camera on, eager to catch those first exciting moments of reunion. The longer I did that though the more the battery was running down. By talking and texting James we worked it out that he would let me know when they were getting close to the escalators.

Sophie had worn me out. She was on her "leash" which is good for not have to wrench her arm around but she loves to "hang" from it. I had her with my left arm, my camera in my right arm, my phone in my back pocket. If I let up the slack at all on Sophie's leash she would fall flat on her face. There were times when she wrapped the leash around my legs, tried to pull down the security ropes, and rolled on the floor trying to grab people's feet (at which point I was just so glad to have a break from the swinging that I didn't care). Maddie was standing to the right of me holding Woody and Buzz pillow dolls I had gotten for their surprise for today. She kept fading in and out of La-La-Land, tripping over people and then giggling insanely like the Mad-Hatter. Life was interesting. I tried to catch some of it on film for you but I couldn't keep the camera on long. Here is the small bit I did get.

After an hour of this Sophie decided I HAD to hold her. I did for about 2 minutes. She started fussing and getting really loud, complaining that she was bored, I needed to hold her, she was tired, etc. Yes, she can ALL of that with a simple phrase of "UH! UH!" (said over and over and over and...) That was when I decided to sit on the floor and let her sit in my lap. Maddie and I had just gotten seated with Sophie comfortable in my lap (ah, peace) when my phone rang. I had to push Sophie up and get my phone (which she was not too pleased about) and it was James. As soon as I saw who it was I turned the camera on to record. So...that's the set up for what you see in this vid. Marjorie's eye-view of the airport reunion.

As I mentioned, we were sitting in front of but to the right of the escalators. Every time I saw the top of a bald man's head my heart would leap up into my throat. I was watching that closely. As you can see in James' vid below, as he and Noah came off the escalators they turned toward the left, missing us entirely. It had to have been at the exact moment I decided to sit on the floor with Sophie because that was the only time I wasn't watching every person exiting the escalators.

It all turned out good though. We found each other eventually. Who wanted a straight forward boring reunion anyway? ;) While James retrieved their luggage I took some more vid.

In the airport Noah looked dazed and tired (and drugged on Dramamine). James said he actually slept the entire flight. Once in the car though, he came to life. I took a vid of some of the action in the car. The lighting is horrible because it's midnight and very dark, but I thought the action and dialog was funny. Note that Sophie is nearly asleep in this vid and did in fact fall soundly asleep in the ride from the airport to the hotel. I guess she wore herself out swinging at the airport.

Sophie had an MRI at 6:45am so we stayed overnight at a hotel. We ended up going to sleep around 1am (after Noah, Sophie and James had showers). I had to tell Maddie and Noah to be quiet several times. lol

When our alarm rang at 6:15am no one wanted to get out of bed. Noah took one look at the still dark sky and said seriously "It not morning mommie". While we were in the waiting room at the hospital Noah started coughing and gagging. James looked at his throat and it was very swollen. He also felt feverish. After a quick discussion it was decided that James would stay with Sophie and I would take the other two back to the hotel. I was prepared to stay with Sophie but James wanted to give me a chance to get more sleep. How sweet was that? (or did he just not want to chance there being another bed bug in our bed?? hmmmm) So we went back. I told the kids to lie down in their bed and waited for the fussing but quickly heard snoring instead. Noah cried out in his sleep a few times speaking rapid-fire Chinese and then yelling "Daddy!" He later told us he was dreaming that a tiger was chewing on his head. I feel like that sometimes too. Other than that they slept soundly until James called telling us the MRI was done and we went and picked them up.

We made it home around 4pm and around 8pm everyone but me went to bed. I stayed up so I could fill all of you in on our homecoming. Oh, not long after supper Noah was watching TV and started coughing and ended up throwing up all over the TV. Poor Noah. He gets motion sick easily and has thrown up more on this trip than I have in my lifetime (thank goodness). As I was cleaning it up, I said, "Next time you feel like throwing up could you please attempt to make it to the bathroom? Or at the very least aim away from the TV?" He smiled big and promised to try.

And so, Noah has moved from being our host child to our legal child. He has been our child in our hearts for a long time now. It is almost surreal that his adoption is complete. On the way home I started automatically thinking "What is the next thing I need to be working on..." I had to stop and remind myself this adoption is finished.

Welcome home Noah. Welcome to the place where you are loved unconditionally. Where you have a dad who will keep tigers from chewing your head and a mom who will clean your puke off the TV. Where you have sisters who adore you and a brother who can be a role model for you (and show you new ways to tease your sisters). Where you are free to grow physically, emotionally and spiritually into all that God meant for you to be.

sickness, surgery, stories and graduating

2010-08-13T07:09:00.004-04:00

Some of you may already know this but James has been sick the past couple of days. He woke up Wednesday morning with a headache. When I saw him on the webcam I asked if he was feeling ok and he said "fine. I just have a headache." I thought it looked like more than that and asked him if he had a fever. He didn't think he did. So I was not altogether surprised when about 12 hours later he told me he was really sick with fever and respiratory symptoms. It sounded like an upper-respiratory infection and I know many people get that and sinus infections while traveling to China. The past 2 trips we have always taken antibiotics for "just in case" and we have never used them. This time it never even crossed our minds to get some. So just like it only seems to rain when I leave my car windows down, he needed some antibiotics the one time he didn't have any.

I got onto the yahoo groups and put out a plea for anyone currently in Guangzhou who had antibiotics they weren't going to use. I know. I know. This is not a good practice, but I was a bit desperate. James and Noah would be leaving to begin their journey home the next day and he had no time to visit a clinic first. If he waited until he got home to see a doctor, it would be 3 days that this infection was let run rampant and we had much too much to do for that. The yahoo community came through and before long I had several e-mails telling me that antibiotics are available over-the-counter at local pharmacies. I immediately contacted James and first thing the next morning he was able to start on some medicine.

Any of you who have traveled to China know the danger of traveling with a fever. Your temperature is taken at train stations and airports. In recent months when H1N1 was causing worldwide panic, families were quarantined just for sitting near a fellow passenger who was running a fever. So we were a little nervous about James and Noah's trip home. James took high doses of Ibuprofen and was still running a 101* fever when he was stopped at the Hong Kong train station. Thankfully, they gave him a mask to wear, information on the avian flu and then let him enter the airport. We were able to connect by webcam for just a couple of minutes before he lost connection. Noah looked into the camera and said, "Mommie, daddy iz seek". They were about to board the plan and fly to Korea.

I didn't hear anything else from them so I assumed they got onto the flight with no problems. I knew James would call me if he had been detained. Their flight landed in Korea at 4:55 and at 6:00 I started waiting for him to contact me. I will spare you all the details but let's just say by 11:00 when I still hadn't heard from him I was studying a map of the airport in Korea trying to figure out where he would be if he were quarantined. (And yes, they do have a "passenger quarantine" room.) Finally at 11:30 I heard that familiar ding on my computer that let me know James was trying to connect to chat. The immediate rush of relief was followed by many tears as I heard that everything was fine, they had just had an unexpected adventure in the city. I'll let James fill in the details. ;)

They had a 12 hour layover in Korea which was supposed to be a fun time of site-seeing but no one planned on James being sick. Thankfully his antibiotics were starting to kick in and he was feeling "a little" better. He apologized more than once for worrying me and of course all is forgiven. They are now on the long flight from Korea to San Fransisco. We will be meeting them at the airport tonight. Sophie has another MRI at 6:45 in the morning so we'll be staying in the area overnight. James will fill you in on the last few days in China when he can.

On Wednesday we will be traveling back to Dallas for Noah's next surgery. This surgery will be reconstructing his nose. If all goes well, he'll be released from the hospital the day after and we'll be back home on Saturday.

Lately Maddie has been obsessed with birth stories. She asks me questions like "did I cry when I was born? Did I have hair? What happened the day I was born?" etc. Earlier this week she was asking me those questions and instead of telling her (again) that I don't know I said, "I wasn't there the day you were born, but I can guess what happened. Would you like me to tell you?" She beamed and said "YES!" So I proceeded to tell her a simple birth story that started with her mama's belly hurting and ended with her mama holding baby Maddie and loving her. Maddie loved it. She drank in every word. When I was done she ran to her room and started drawing. She worked for a while then brought out her notebook to show me. She had illustrated her birth story. I asked her if I could film it and she said yes. Here she is, telling me her story. Some of it is a little confusing and muddled due to the speech issues (and spelling errors). For example, near the end she draws a picture of her 1st parents and I thought she was saying "which way?" or something like that. Actually she was saying "went away". Before that it is a picture of her 1st parents taking her to "meet Duo", then they went away and then she was alone, crying. The End.

Last night marked two-weeks since Maddie's surgery. That meant she could graduate from liquids to soft foods. She helped me fix pancakes and scrambled eggs and ate them with gusto. She has had such a wonderful attitude about her diet these past two weeks. She has never whined or complained about not eating what the rest of us were eating. She has drank every meal shake and blended soup with appreciation, thanking me each time. My children continue to teach me lessons about life. Here is a short video of Maddie cooking pancakes. She loves cooking.

The picture at the top of this post is self-explanatory but I wanted to say that I didn't even notice Maddie had spelled out "Noah" under the calender until I was uploading the picture. Our next update will see us all together as a family once more. I can't wait.

Red Couch pictures

2010-08-10T09:03:00.004-04:00

Well, the morning of 8/9/2010 was a banner day. All of the BAAS families under I-800A rules met at the medical clinic for TB tests to be read. All of them were negative. So we headed out to shop a little. Our guide turned us loose, so we made the rounds to the few shops that remain on Shamian Island. Many are either closed temporarily due to the remodeling of the island or have been closed permanently. The street vendors on what I like to call "White Swan Corner" are all gone. I miss them. Running the gauntlet and hearing the constant promise of "best price" is entertaining to me.

Anyway, after the ladies bought all their squeaky shoes and various gift items, we returned to the White Swan for the traditional "Red Couch" pictures. This is always a blast, because you never know what to expect from the kids...or the parents. Here are a few of those pictures.

(from Marjorie- The picture above is a badly photo-shopped picture of Mason, Marsha and 3 of their children from our trip in 2007. They were with us for Sophie's adoption in 2006 and for Maddie's adoption in 2007. I felt it was only right they were there for Noah's adoption too. As Matthew informed me, I could have worked on that picture more and made it look less "photo-shopped" but, alas... I like it that way. lol This is the picture James is referring to on his last picture, posted below.)

Can you guess which one is not from China?

Noah looks confused...or a little tired

The Studdard Family

James and Noah, with the victory sign

Brett, Nicole and Family (I'm bad with names)

Aren't these sisters cuties?

Dave and Ashley

Rick and Velrose

Noah...I hear that Marsha and Mason were sitting with him...

Vids that you haven't seen yet

2010-08-09T20:01:00.004-04:00

Noah & Sophie playing

Noah & Maddie showing Carly & Ming to their new families

The kids at church singing on Mother's Day

Super Heroes have invaded my house

outside fun to music

silly songs with daddy

The kids were wired the night before James & Noah left for China

A taste of Guangzhou nightlife

2010-08-08T20:18:00.003-04:00

Tonight, after dinner, Noah and I took a lengthy walk. We have had a bit of a lazy day...a Sabbath rest, if you will. Noah needed to use a little energy. Ben and Susan told us about a large square where people gather for an evening of dancing, martial arts and various other recreational activities. So we took off and followed the loud music. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. I wanted to share a bit of it, so I will post a few videos for your enjoyment.

This first video is a group of people practicing some type of ballroom dancing:

In this next video, Chinese line-dancing...no boot-scootin' boogie here, sorry:

A taste of the scene on the river:

Tomorrow, we get the TB test checked. It was non-reactive, thank the Lord, so he will not have to get a chest X-Ray done. Then, I hope to hang out with the other BAAS families a little bit and get to know them.

meanwhile, back at the ranch...

2010-08-08T18:50:00.010-04:00

Sophie started 1st grade last week. She really loves school. When she saw her bus stop, she took off running and giggling straight for it. Never even looked back. lol I'm pretty sure I've already blogged about her new school and class. We took her to meet her new teacher and she approved. Though she was really taken with the police officer who was in the room. She kept trying to take her badge and name tag off her shirt. What can I say? The girl loves bling. ;)

Maddie continues to progress in her recovery. I'm still not sure if this procedure has been completely successful. I looked at 1 day post-op and again at 3 days post-op and just scared myself. So I've decided not to look again. She has her post-op appointment with her surgeon the last week of August. I'll wait to see what he says. She continues to have difficulty breathing at night. I do feel this is improving though so hopefully once all the swelling goes down she will be able to sleep through the night without having to struggle for breath. She is still on a liquid diet but is tolerating it well. Last week we added blended soup and though it looks gross she is enjoying it. The first time I put some blended vegetable soup in front of her she looked at me like I lost my mind and signed "gross. can't eat that." I asked her to taste it and she did, promptly adding "yummy!" But I agree, it looks gross.

On the 16th she is getting her tongue-tie clipped and then everyone will leave her mouth alone for a while.

Maddie has been blessed by friends who gave her gifts. Here are some pictures of her enjoying those. She named the doll Mei (May). Maddie says Mei is 6 years old and she goes everywhere with Maddie. Sophie has decided that Mei's purse is just the coolest thing and she carries it around, putting things in it and then letting other dolls carry the purse. lol

Sophie was given a doll too. I've never seen her play with a doll like she plays with this one. I love just watching her. She knows it's her doll too. Maddie will get it when Sophie doesn't have it but as soon as she sees Maddie with it she says "uh UH!" and takes it from her. lol Here are some pictures of Sophie playing with her doll. Oh, the picture of the doll up close? I had asked Sophie to "show me the doll". She cracks me up.

In the past few weeks I've decided to take a different approach with Sophie and her obsession with tearing paper. I now will give her a magazine or two every day, in her room, and allow her to tear to her heart's content. This has seemed to make her less determined to get into my papers but it is still quite messy. Every day we take the garden rake into Sophie's room and rake up the shreds. As hard as I try though I still can't get her to leave all of the paper in her room. She will inevitably bring some out into the rest of the house. So some days...like today, it looks like a tornado went through the house. It's all in a day's work for my little Sophie though. You can see some of the shreddings in this sleeping picture I took of her a few nights ago.

A couple of weeks ago (before surgery) Maddie was at a friends house and saw her helping her mom make pancakes. She asked me if I could teach her to make pancakes. Last night Matthew and I thought breakfast for supper sounded good so Maddie got a pancake cooking lesson. She caught on really quick and took over cooking them. I poured them into the pan but she decided when they needed to be flipped and flipped them all by herself. Why of course I took some video of it. Did you even have to ask? I was very proud of Chef Maddie. She enjoyed it and when we were done said "shew! cooking makes you hot!" I apologized to her for not being able to eat the pancakes that she made and she said, "You don't have to say I'm sorry to me about food. I am oh kay!" Sometimes I'm still surprised by her sweet spirit.

Matthew has been a huge help while James has been gone. Yes, we still have teenager moments but for the most part he has really stepped up and helped out. This afternoon at church I fell in the foyer. I'm still not sure what happened. I was talking with someone and holding Sophie's hand. Sophie is constantly in motion so she was just doing her thing and pulling on my arm. The next thing I know is she had fallen and I was falling on top of her. I managed to get my knees down so I landed straddling her on my hands and knees. I immediately felt the impact in my knees and she hit her cheek. Otherwise we were both ok. I was just really embarrassed. By the time I had lunch on the table I could feel a migraine coming on. Matthew said he would watch the girls while I laid down. I woke up 4 hours later. wowzers. When I got out of bed I felt stiff all over. I guess falling down is hard on old folks. lol Anyway, I've been so thankful for Matthew during this time.

(insert picture of camera-shy teenage boy here.)

Maddie is crossing off the days until daddy and Noah get home. We miss them both so much. Talking with them twice a day on the webcam has helped a lot though. Maddie has a "daddy/Noah" meltdown at least once a week. Otherwise she is handling it well. We will meet them at the airport on Friday night. Then we are staying overnight because Sophie has an MRI early the next morning. Noah's surgery date has been set for August 19th. This should be his last surgery until he is a young adult.

Medical Check or Cattle Call?

2010-08-08T03:15:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the scheduled day for our medical check. Our day started with my giving Noah a small dose of motion sickness medicine. I was not sure how he would do on the bus or subway, so I made him wait to eat until we arrived at Shamian Island. Rather than ride the bus, we walked to the metro station close by. I am a metro veteran now, so nothing particularly interesting happened along the way.

As we were walking up the stairs out of the metro, Noah started complaining about his foot hurting. He was doing his best imitation of Festus from Gunsmoke (do you even remember that show?). So, I decided to make an attempt to find him some socks. As we rounded the corner, there was a vendor...and he was selling socks. Most of his childrens' socks were of the frilly and lacy variety. I finally found a pair that, though they had cats on the front, looked more masculine than any of the others.

Socks for Noah

Our first destination on the Island was the White Swan. I had to pay a quick visit to the Deli Shop (Bakery) there to get us a bite of breakfast. I asked Noah if he was hungry. "No. I not hungry, Daddy." I picked out a "beef and egg loaf" that amounts to a couple of slices of roast beef with a fried egg baked into a bun of bread. For Noah, I bought a "cheese bar bun" that was something like a cream-cheese danish. We sat down at the

Waiting in front of medical clinic

table. He pointed at the cheese bar bun and said, "I want some of that one." "But you said you weren't hungry." "I hungry now, Daddy." He polished it off in seconds flat.

We were meeting the other BAAS families in front of the medical clinic at 10 AM, so we walked over and stood across the street. I explained to Noah that a doctor was going to look at his eyes, ears, nose, throat, etc. I also told him that he might have to get some shots. I added, "...but don't be scared. Daddy will be with you." To that he said loudly, "I not scared, Daddy. It's OK."

The bus with the rest of the families had run into some traffic and was running late. So, when they did show up, we went straight to having our visa photos taken. Everyone knows that Noah likes his picture to be taken...so that was no problem for him. He stood and gave a pretty funny look, though, that made him looked worried.

We were whisked into the medical clinic, then, with the rest of the "cattle" and herded to the medical examination area.

All smiles before the medical check

The eye exam was first. As many of you know, prior to Noah's surgery, he had monocular vision, giving preference to his right eye. It was very interesting to see how he handled them covering his right eye for the exam. He was still giving preference to that eye, even though it was covered, so that he was looking across the bridge of his nose toward the eye chart with his left eye. His vision was recorded as 35/15. Next was the the general physical examination. That physician seemed to be confused about the medical report. Of course, it was the Chinese medical report that said nothing about his surgery in December. So, the doctor spent extra time examining his face and nose, etc. In the end, all was satisfactory.

The guide delivered the news, "Tian Duo needs two shots." This was actually welcome news, since we were concerned that he would have to have many more. So, I paid for the shots and waited. They went ahead and placed the TB test. Noah watched and smiled at the nurse, showing no concern whatsoever. He liked that she gave him a piece of candy, immediately tearing into it and popping it into his mouth. Then it was time for the shots. Noah was seated and the nurse was looking at the medical record. She said something to the guide and left the room. When she returned, she had found that Noah actually required only one shot. My guide, Simon, smiled and said, "It look like you get a refund." What is funny about this is they continuously told me to bring $2,500 Yuan to cover the cost of the shots and the medical exam. In the end, I paid the $500 Yuan fee for the exam and just over $200 Yuan for the shot.

After a 15 minute wait for any adverse reaction from the shot, we were free to grab a quick snack and head to the bus. I rode to the Garden hotel with the group to complete all of the paperwork for the USCIS. At this point, I want to publicly thank Marjorie for doing such a good job preparing all of the documents and assembling all of the information I needed for this process. Though we had one form that was outdated...it had been reissued on July 21, 2010...everything else was just what I needed. Thanks, Marjorie! Your preparation work has made this trip much more enjoyable for me. I love you!

While waiting for the medical exam, I tried to get some pictures of some of the new friends we have met along the way. Here they are.

New friends from New Orleans with their son...isn't he cute!

Waiting for medical check with Noah and Mei Li

New friends from CA with a precious son

Randy, Robin and daughters (from GA)

More BAAS friends from GA with their beautiful daughter

GZ with Ben and Susan

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Here are some pics from tonight:

Noah and I playing "slaps"

Walking home after dinner

Noah checking out his Ultra Man figures

Trying to decide which Ultra Man figure he wants...(he wants all of them!)

Jumping for joy over Ultra Man (That's him on the right)

No explanation needed...

How do you like the shorts, Noah. I like. I like. Yeah, right!

At dinner, trying to decide what we want to eat. Way too many choices

Susan and her beautiful baby, Katherine.

On the way to Guangzhou...

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and I wish we were boarding the plane home. I will never get my fill of Chinese food, but I have had my fill of being away from family. Just a few more days, I tell myself. We have a few more hoops to jump through. A few more fees to pay...and we hope, very few shots for Noah.
The one redeeming thing about the trip to Guangzhou is seeing our guide from our adoption in 2006, Susan. I also look forward to meeting the man who won her heart, Ben. So...we'll be boarding the plane soon. Hopefully the US side of the process will go smoothly.

China Buddies

Noah being silly

Stepping further back in time...

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Not sure what it says...that's my little China buddy beside it, though

Well...yesterday, we took a trip back in time with Noah, returning to his "hometown" and all. Today, we stepped further back in time. We visited a 1456 year-old giant stone Buddha that sits on the outskirts of Taiyuan. It is carved into the cliff-side of Mengshan mountain and was discovered by a local farmer in 2005. Since then, the city government has halted all coal mining in the area and the Ministry of Land Resources has poured 10 million dollars into improvements in the area to stabilize the mountain and renew and reforest the area.

I would encourage anyone who visits Taiyuan to take in the sights and sounds of Mengshan. It is a beautiful area, with improvements still being made. Noah and I took a Taxi from in front of our hotel and it only cost 25 yuan for the ride out. I hired a van to drive us back for 50 yuan. You could also take the bus, if you are that brave.

Just a quick note of the Taxi ride. It was a little hot, since the Taxi did not have air. We rolled down the windows and that improved the ride significantly...that is until Noah said, "Daddy, my stomach hurts a little." Ok...do you want to drink some water...then he lurched forward. I knew what was coming and before I knew it, he was losing his breakfast (that included corn) into my hand and onto the floorboard of the Taxi. I did not know how to tell the Taxi driver to stop (see post, "Sorry, I don't speak Chinese" for more insight). Noah was puking, so he couldn't really say anything. So...he just finished it into the floor. Of course, I didn't have a kleenex, a wipe, a cloth or anything to wipe Noah's face or my hand. I pulled off my shoe and used a sock...it was all I could think that would work. Remember, we were heading to a park to hike around for a couple of hours. I wasn't about to use our shirts. So, I used the sock, slipped it back on my foot and put my shoe back on. The driver was none too happy when he discovered what had happened during the trip. At that point, I am glad I did not speak or understand Chinese. Fortunately, the floor mat was clear plastic and cleaned easily. I volunteered. I figured it was the least I could do. I rinsed my hand and cleaned the mat, using two of our four bottles of water I had brought along. By the way, Noah felt better after the episode. So please do not think me a cruel parent for going ahead with the trip.

Be ready to walk up many, many steps...you are climbing a mountain

There is a bus stop close by, but it would add a little more walking to the trip.

We chose to walk up the road to the base of the park. It was a long walk...more than a mile. There is transportation available, but it will cost a bit...not sure how much, since we walked. Anyway, it was a great trip for us for 75 yuan. There are numerous vendors hawking all sorts of souvenirs and snacks. There are restaurants there, as well.

Noah is almost as tall as the Buddha...or maybe not

You must consider this fact: You are climbing a mountain to get to this thing. There are three paths, both of varying levels of difficulty, but you must be prepared to navigate rough stone paths, numerous steps (some of them very steep), and cross a creek on stepping stones that are a little wobbly (is that a word?). I saw one man slip
off of the stones and fill his shoe with muddy water.

My conclusion about the trip is that it was worth the time and effort to get up the mountain. It was not a pilgrimage for us. We are not Buddhists. However, you cannot help but appreciate the time and effort...the blood, sweat and tears that went into this work of religious art. Pictures and video do not really do justice to the scene. You really must experience it for yourself...and be sure to try a nice frozen treat from one of the vendors. They are cheap and tasty.

Buddha from across the valley

Looking back from our descent

He's a big statue...

I was impressed with the detail on the face

To view some short vids from this trip please click on this link.

Jinci Park

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Between Dong'ergou and the Taiyuan CLF home, we stopped at a "famous" park, called Jinci. Within the park are many beautiful natural and man-made wonders. Noah and Do-Do played hard throughout. It was a neat little sight-seeing adventure. I hadn't posted any of the pictures yet, so I thought I would today.
Noah, Do-Do and Jenny

Gate into the park

Small water-fall beside the lake

Noah and Do-Do in front of warrior statues

Steps that lead to temple area

Gardens were abundant in the park

A reunion at CLF Taiyuan

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One of the precious babies at CLF Taiyuan

Yesterday, after we visited Noah's "hometown," we also paid a visit to the China Little Flower long-term care home. As has been the case very often, we were received with graciousness and hospitality. They fed us well, with some home-grown corn thrown in by one of the Ayis. Once again, it was great to share at the table with people who love Noah.

Taiyuan Ayi loving on Noah

The meal, though wonderful, was not the best part of the visit, however. I witnessed Noah's reunion with the Ayi who brought him from Dong'ergou to Taiyuan. I told someone later, "You would have thought God walked into the room. The world stopped for that Ayi." The look that came across her face was joy...joy...joy. She let out an exclamation that I cannot interpret, but she immediately scooped Noah up and hugged and kissed him, speaking words of obvious love to our little boy.

Noah and Sally in Taiyuan CLF

Noah's reaction was priceless. He was surprised and overwhelmed, not knowing what to think about this lady. After a few minutes, he had warmed up to her and was talking and telling her about me. Like everyone who knew Noah prior to his surgery, she could not believe the change in his face. She told him over and over how handsome he was.

Noah was also excited to see "Sally," one of his foster care sisters who has since become a resident of the long-term care home. They played and talked together. Noah was especially proud of how well he could dribble the ball, encouraging me and others to count the number of bounces.

Another Ayi speaking words of love to Noah

He also continued to play with Do-Do,who had gone with us to Dong'ergou. They became quite a pair throughout the morning. Do-Do, who looks to be 3 or 4, followed Noah's lead, trying to do everything Noah wasdoing. If Noah climbed onto a rock, Do-Do was sure to attempt to follow. If Noah ran up the stairs, Do-Do was following closely behind. I encouraged Noah to be mindful of the example he was setting. This, of course, was met with "OK, Daddy," only to be followed by some risky feat that I was sure to lead to one of the boys being hurt.

Sally loving on a baby...she enjoys helping

We left the CLF home with a chorus of love and good wishes following us up the alley. I was made to promise that I would try to return one day when Noah was older. Noah,always the pragmatist, said something to the Ayi in Chinese. Jenny laughed and translated for me, "Noah just said that when he is older he will not be able to speak Chinese."

Visit to Dong’ergou, Noah's hometown

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(note from Marjorie) This post had over 40 pictures in it so instead of loading all those pictures I will simply direct you to see them by clicking on this link.

This post includes 44 pictures that I took today on our visit to Noah’s hometown. He was brought to the orphanage at the Catholic church there just after he was born. The church ran the orphanage from 1994 to 2004, when it was forced to close. At that time, China Care took all of the children that remained there into their care. Noah was one of those children. It was in the Taiyuan China Care home that we first met Noah in 2006. This was a very emotional experience for me. As we left the church grounds, I was shedding tears of gratitude that Noah and I could share this experience together. I hope that he will cherish the memories that are preserved in the pictures and video we shot while we were there.

Some interesting history about the Taiyuan diocese can be seen here.

You can learn more about Sister Maria Assunta here.