The Secret Upstairs Playroom
Swimming in the Pool
Please pray for us today and tomorrow. My father is auctioning off some items tomorrow (Saturday) to raise money for our trip to China.
Thank you Dad. We wouldn't be able to do this without your help. I appreciate you more than you know.
I'm hanging in there. I'm waiting for our Visa's to return. Tim went today and made arrangements for our 'new cash' for the orphanage donation. Our travel back and forth to China has been confirmed, but we are still waiting for our agency to confirm in country travel. I am asking everyone I know about what we should eat and what we should do. I am hearing rumors that the Civil Affairs office is shut down in Beijing and we won't be able to complete our adoption. Our agency says we are all set up and fine. We are traveling ALONE...no travel group. I went to Target yesterday and bought a My Little Pet Shop play set and a Disney Princesses miniature play set for Sophia for the plane rides. Eli has pirate finger puppets waiting for him. Then I also have a lot of books and coloring books for both of them. Tim is going to put over 20 kid movies on his ipod for the kids to watch while traveling. I am bringing my big Jeep stroller. Eli cannot fit in an umbrella stroller (he's a big kid) but he and Sophia can both fit in the Jeep stroller...so too big or not...that's what I'm bringing. Tomorrow I am going through Sophia's closet to determine what outfits I am going to bring. THANK YOU to all of you for the wonderful things you have sent, I am going to try to clothe her exclusively in your gifts while we are in China.
I have purchased hand sanitizer, hand wipes and flushable wipes. I met with the pediatrician and have a good medical plan. We still have to meet with our Social Worker to make sure all of our paperwork is done correctly. THOSE ARE ALL OF THE THINGS SWIMMING IN MY HEAD RIGHT NOW :) Did I forget anything????
Thank you for lunch today Steffie. I needed to purge my brain. Now tell me again how you are going to be there for me while I'm in China and you are in Maui....you won't forget me right???
Please come over and take a peek at my new bow blog. I think Verna and Becky did a wonderful job with it. Check out Busy Mama Blog Designs to see their work.
If you add my sidebar link to your blog, please leave a comment and let me know. I will be doing a drawing and the winner will receive a free membership to the Hair Bow of the Month Club and will receive 13 free hair bows!
If you purchase a bow and are a regular reader of this blog, let me know and I will send you a second bow of your choice for free. I'm not putting it on the bow blog, but I am happy to do it for my friends.
All prices include postage.
Thank you so much!
This weekend I was hoping to get our boat in and cleaned up. But it's rainy today so far. I also have some flowers that still need to be planted. Hopefully it will clear up and be fabulous!
I have also formed a little addiction to making hair bows. I have a whole work station set up for them and every day I am coming up with new styles. I think I will have a bow blog made to sell them. I'm having a lot of fun with it.
People are asking me how I'm doing with this waiting, I'll give you an update. I am doing fine. I wish that there wasn't this pig flu scare, but I know that something amazing is about to happen. I am filled with the awe that I know Sophia will bring. I live in a home filled with guys whose hearts are filled with love for a little girl they have never met. We talk about her every day. Her toys are everywhere, her clothes fill a closet. Eli pushes her stroller around with 3 babies in it and has Cinderella and the prince in a Volkswagen Barbie car spinning through the kitchen.
I know my daughter is alive and that she is beautiful and doing well. I know she knows that we are coming and has seen photos of us and has heard the words of our hearts in the letter we sent to her. I feel exactly like I did when I was 9 months pregnant with the boys. I knew a miracle was coming and I couldn't wait!
This year is the first year that I have no one to buy a card for on Mother's Day. The first year that I stand alone as the oldest woman and female leader of my family. With the death of my Grandmother came the death of my support group as a woman. The core that was my family source of strength. My Mother is gone, my Grandmother is gone. And there is no one else now. It's just me.
It really hit me about three weeks ago. I found a lump (not the good kind). For four days I was terrified because the not good type of lumps run in my family. I thought I may not live to see my children grow, I feared it would be the end of my adoption and how could this happen to me now when I had Sophia's referral and my children still needed me. It was an awful four days and I had no one to call. Even when I found out everything was ok, I had no one to call.
I miss my Mom. Despite her shortcomings. I wish she was here to love me. I wish she was here to love my children.
And I miss my Grandmother who held everything together and brought out the best in everyone. When she left, the good went with her and all that was left were dishes that I wasn't allowed to have. Eli is still crying for you Grandma and wondering where you are and asked today if we saw Jesus come to take you to heaven. I have so much to do. And I know I can do it, I just wish you were here to talk to.
I have known much loss in my life, but I have been blessed as a mother. Blessed with three sons who I live for. Three angels who I was chosen to mother, and I am so grateful. Tonight I saw my oldest son in a tux taking his favorite girl to prom. I cannot tell you how beautiful he is to me. Tyler is at the store buying the food he is going to make for me for a special breakfast on Mother's Day. On the way home tonight Eli told me that he loves me and he wants to marry me and be a ninja with me. My heart is so full, I just can't even find words. And now I have been chosen again, one last tiny miracle for me....my daughter who I have waited for truly all my life. I do not deserve such blessings...Lord, help me be the mother I need to be so that they can reach the potential you have for them.
This is one of my angel's referral photos. She looks so sad. There is not a smile in any photo I have of her. Hold on my babygirl, Momma's coming.
I meet on Wednesday with Dr. Mike. I adore Dr. Mike. He is an amazing pediatrician who speaks at our adoption agency's medical presentations. He has a son from Korea. He is Sophia's pediatrician.
I want to know what to ask him. What medications should I ask him for? I know that Sophia has had open heart surgery to repair a hole in her heart. But I have no medical information about her surgery. I want to be prepared. I don't want to forget anything. I want an antibiotic that doesn't require refrigeration, something for parasites, something for ear infections. What about the scar down her chest? What do I do for it?
Please share with me what you took when you went to China to meet your child.
First I will begin this post by telling you all that yes I am aware that my trip to China is being delayed at least a month because of the pig flu. I am coping with that the best way I can.
When I look back at my life, I can see how God's timeline has fit everything together perfectly. I know it was no accident that I did not receive Sophia's referral until after my Grandmother died. I needed to be with her. She was there with me on the day that I entered this earth and I was there with her on the day that she left it. As it should be.
I have seen so many things happen along this journey that were perfectly orchestrated. I truly believe in my heart that this delay has a purpose for us and that one day I will be able to look back and see it. Until then, I truly have peace in my heart and I sit here and think of my girl...constantly.
So....now we're moving to the crafty part. Last October, Meredity Teagarden 'The Things We Carried' did a post about how to make hairbows. I had thought it would be cool to be able to make hairbows, so I pulled up her post over the weekend and went out and bought my first glue gun and some Fray and ribbon. I followed her post word for word tonight and check out my bows!!! Woo Hoo...how's that for crafty???? We'll see how many I make before I travel to China...probably a hundred :)
Have a great Monday everyone!
We are all having a hard time getting out of bed today. Yesterday was our 6th Wedding Anniversary, so we went out for a wonderful dinner which makes me tired. Eli stayed up late with our friend who came to watch him while we went out.
Tim worked with the men in our neighborhood yesterday to get the remainder of the docks and shore stations put in. So, he's pretty drained.
Eli's preschool is riding a school bus today to the elementary school to show the older graduating preschoolers where they will be going for kindergarten next year. He's very excited about that even though he won't be in kindergarten this year, he is too young and will be a preschooler again next year.
Hopefully we'll all have a great day and be able to keep our eyes open :)
It's been raining all day...for the past 4 days. I guess that's fitting. It looks like we are going to be delayed at least a month in going to bring Sophia home. The new pig flu has caused the CCAA to issue a statement asking families to delay their travels to China. I understand their concern and desire to protect the children. I just wish my girl was here with me.
I met Gwen Oatsvall/The Oatsvall Team, a couple of years ago at a birthday party. Yes, we have a great friend in common, Miss Steffie B/Never Too Many. I so wish I had known when I met her that she would become one of the most inspiring people in my life.
Gwen has become involved in a life...an amazing life. There is a young woman named Katie. She followed the Lord to Uganda and is raising 13 orphans who she calls her children.
Not only is this young woman raising 13 children on her own in Uganda, but she is also feeding the local people and ministering to them. She is living her life completely in Jesus. When you read her words and follow her journey, you cannot help but long to do more and to be more. I just want to say that when I grow up I want to be this woman who is at least 15 years younger than me. She gets it and she lives it.
Please read her story and get to know this young woman. Start at the beginning, you have no idea how blessed you will be just by reading her words. If I had to list off the top 5 living people I would like to meet one day, she would be one of them.
I have felt God's push (as my good friend Sharon calls it) to become more involved with certain people. He puts them in my heart and whispers the need to serve them into my ear. I don't always know what He wants me to do, I just try to wait and hope that in the chaos of my life...I will hear and know what I am supposed to do. This is the name He is whispering in my ear right now.
click here to read her personal blog: kissesfromkatie
click here to see the official website: amazima.org
I took last Friday off and went with Eli on his first preschool outing. The class went to one of his teachers homes. She has a horse and a rabbit and a pond with tadpoles.
We had a lot of fun. We went on a nature walk around the pond and collecting things that we thought were special (Eli picked dandelions). We had a scavenger hunt and a cook out.
The pictures above are during circle time when the teacher read about tadpoles and how they turn into frogs.
Eli absolutely loves preschool, but I'm afraid he is one of the little boys known for mischief. He has a lot of energy and doesn't like to sit still. I'm hoping that he will mellow out over the summer and do a better job of paying attention when he should next year.
It was wonderful to see him with so many little friends who are his age. He has learned so much just in the past three months he's been in preschool. He has started to color and draw all of the time. He's doing better with recognizing his letters and numbers. Tomorrow is his snack day and the theme is the beach. So we are bringing ice cream sandwiches!
On Wednesday night we went to the airport to welcome home Steffie and her family. And most especially to meet their new son Andrew. Welcome home little man.
Tim was hearing about the logistics of the trip from David. We will be taking their exact same journey to bring Sophia home since we are with the same agency and our children were in the same orphanage. Evidently it was very hot and there was no air conditioning in the hotel. Oh man, that's not sounding good.
Just look at this little darling. He was so happy and all smiles. He played with the children who were there and had a wonderful time.
I don't have any photos of us together, but here is Kim K. (at least her hair :). It was great to see her too.
Welcome home my dear friend. Even though we don't see each other all of the time, having you nearby is a source of strength for me. I am glad that you are home. Andrew is absolutely beautiful. I wish I would have taken a photo of him and David together, you can tell that he is one proud Daddy. Can't wait to see you.
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