May 14, 2009 Lainie has been home 2 years!

Changsha, China May 14 2007 Home 2 years... May 14, 2009

As I write this I am still in awe of how our lives have been transformed by this little girl. Yes, it is easy to see the transformation in her face, but I hope that those looking in from the outside can also see the transformation that she has brought to each of our lives. Many have said that we "rescued" her. Actually, it was our journey to her that rescued us. Rescued us from a life of mediocrity and complacency. Before Lainie we had grown much too comfortable in our lives. God's call in our lives to adoption took us to a place where we were totally out of our comfort zone and as a result built in us a stronger faith and a desire to know Him more.

Does she understand all this day means? Of course not, but she does already know that she was born in China and that Mommy and Daddy came to get her there. She loves to hear the bedtime story of how Mom and Dad came to get her on the big airplane. It will be years before she fully understands the beginning of her life story, but we have begun already explaining it to her in ways her three year old mind can process.

We recently had a family discussion about the color of everyone's eyes. Bobby and Will have blue eyes, Lainie has brown eyes and the rest of us have green eyes. She kept saying, "I have green eyes like you Mommy." And I kept having to tell her, "No, your eyes are brown." She kept saying, " I want green eyes like Jillian and Mommy and Trey." I just kept reminding her that God gave her beautiful brown eyes." I took her to the mirror and said, " See, look at those beautiful brown eyes." That was the end of the conversation, but apparently it was not the end of the thought process in her little mind. About a month later, when I picked her up at the sitters whom she calls MawMaw and Pawpaw (although they are not really related to us) she exclaimed, "Look Mom, I got brown eyes from Pawpaw." While it was so sweet of her to make that connection with his brown eyes, it also made me sad when I began to wonder how long she had been looking into the eyes of those around her trying to find someone who had eyes like her. So, while her adjustment as been so, so, easy, I know that there will be tough questions and tough answers down the road. It is my prayer I will have the wisdom to answer them in a way that points her to the love of her Heavenly Father and his good and perfect plan for her life.

What's going on with us??

We love that summer is now here. The kids have had a great time being able to play outside! Here they are at my mom's house on Easter Sunday. We can't be there without playing at least a few innings of wiffle ball in her backyard.

And, as if we weren't busy enough, our lab, Rosie, added 11 puppies to our family 2 weeks ago. You know you want one!!

Trey turned 13 in April. He had his friends over to our house for a small party. They are such a great bunch of kids. Most of them have known each other since preschool. We are proud of them all. Trey is second from right.

We had a beautiful Easter Sunday. I managed to get all four kids looking at the camera in one picture out of about 30.... they were so patient.

Lainie LOVED the egg hunt!

Thanks for checking in on us. I haven't blogged for quite awhile - my computer and my camera had a disagreement and weren't speaking to each other for quite a while. I think we have things patched up now.

The Voice of Adventure

David, Abigail, Julie and Honor

We are thrilled that Bobby's sister, Julie, and husband David, have announced their plans to adopt from Russia.   We've been praying for them for a quite awhile and we are thrilled to see them follow The Voice of Adventure.....  Check out their blog, but be careful, you might just hear The Voice too!!!

www.voiceofadventure.blogspot.com

I just need ONE day...

If the world could just stop spinning for one day I think I could catch up. Catch up on laundry, e-mail, grading papers, packing lunches, lesson plans, cleaning house, science projects, filing, printing pics, reading for my Bible study...... the list goes on. I just can't seem to stay caught up because every minute that passes by brings more things to do. But, in the moments that I feel overwhelmed, I am also aware of how grateful I am to be such a busy mom. Grateful that I have happy children who are healthy and can play sports - which creates Mt. Washmore in my laundry room. Grateful that I have a job that I love even when I have to stay up late grading papers. Grateful that I have food in my frig to pack all of those lunches for all of those field trips. Grateful that I have good friends who totally understand me when I have "those days" when all of the "to dos" get the best of me. Grateful that my husband isn't above cleaning toilets and doing laundry to help our family out.

I'm thinking time isn't going to stand still anytime soon just for me, so I'll keep taking it minute by minute. Doing what needs to be done in the moment - and doing it with a grateful heart (most days :) )

Here are a few things that have been keeping me busy lately.....

My three big kids finished up their basketball season. So now we go from the gym to the ballfield. Here's Jillian with her team. These girls were by far the most improved team in the league. They are all such good friends and we had a great time spending time with them all.It is the year of milestone birthdays at our house. Jillian turned 10 and Trey will be 13 in April. WOW is all I can say......

I've been promising Jillian a sleepover birthday party when she turned 10. So, this year she invited 12 of her closest friends (yes, that would be a 13 girl sleepover) to her slumber party. They had a blast in the basement. Note the unfinished walls. I need the world to stop spinning for at least two days so that I can get to that project.

We also had another snow day that brought about 5 inches of snow our way. The kids had a great time getting together at Mamaw's house with all of their cousins to play in the snow. Bobby's family always seems to gather at his mom's house when there is inclement weather. It most likely has something to do with the fact that his mom is a wonderful cook. Here we are enjoying chicken stew at her house during the snowy weather.Nothing like family and good food to warm you up on a cold, snowy day. I'm so grateful. Now I'm off to tackle a few things on that to do list....

Lainie is 3!

Lainie turned 3 on Monday. We began with a big party with friends and family on Sunday at Mamaw Jackie's house for lunch. On Monday, we had a quiet birthday dinner at home. Afterwards Lainie opened her presents and had a special visit from her Aunt Michelle who enjoyed a birthday tea party with her. It was a great day ! We are so thankful for this precious daughter who has brought us pure joy! No birthday celebration is complete around here without a chocolate birthday cake made by Mamaw Jackie!
Posing with Mommy and Daddy! (Check out Lainie's cute cousin, Honor, sneaking up in the background of the picture.)
Her birthday cupcake from our celebration at home.A pretend birthday cake set for her kitchen. We "played birthday party" all night long!Cruisng in the Barbie Jeep!

More presents!

Birthday tea Party with special guest, Aunt Michelle.

"Enough birthday pictures already mom!!"


One last birthday kiss before putting my sweet birthday girl down for the night!

Happy Mushy Gushy Heart Day!

We had a great Valentine's Day. It is one of my favorite days of the year, albeit a little stressful for this mother of four. Let's just say the sermon today on Mary and Martha was a good reminder for me. I'm afraid I sometimes get wrapped up in the details and miss the moment. We did share some great moments together... Here are a few....

Trey had a Valentine Dance at school. I was a chaperone. He was such a great sport about that. He was also SO, SO sweet to his little sister (who was there with me). He danced almost every single dance with her and didn't complain once! He has the SWEETEST of HEARTS...


Who wouldn't want this cutie pie for their Valentine?

Will had his last basketball game on Valentine's Day.

He scored 21 POINTS! How SWEET is that?????

Will at school with his Valentine holder that we made together....

Jillian passing out her Valentine's at school. (yes, there are some advantages to teaching at their school). I get some great photos.....

We just LOVE this pretty smile.

Little Lainie, who has captured our HEARTS....

I hope that you and the ones you love got to spend some special time together too!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

We had a very low key and casual Chinese New Year ! We read a book about The Chinese New Year, hung a red paper lantern, and helped Lainie make some Chinese New Year cards for her friends. She used the "name chop" that she was given as a gift from her orphanage. It is a beautiful stamp with her Chinese name in Chinese characters. It hangs from a red thread. It was one of the things that was given to us on the day that we met her in China. We are so grateful to the orphanage for this kind gesture. I believe it is a standard gift for all babies from Chenzhou SWI.

"Is this from my China?" That is her favorite question of late. Lainie's Chinese name stamped with her "chop".

Chinese New Year is actually a very family oriented celebration. Much time is spent celebrating with family. In fact, almost everything closes down so that families can be together. We like that idea! We are keeping most of our Chinese heritage celebrations low key. We want Lainie to care about her Chinese heritage, and to be proud of it, but we want her to decide how much she wants to participate in their customs and celebrations.

A Beautiful Sight!

Hooray! The weather-men got it right this time! We woke up this morning to several inches of snow. I was worried about how I was going to entertain 4 disappointed children if we woke up with no snow. Today was already a teacher workday so we were going to be home all day regardless. Thank goodness they were not disappointed !

Everyone had a great time playing out in the snow. It has been quite a while since we had a snow big enough to play in. Even Lainie didn't seem to mind the cold at all and she followed along right behind everyone else. We had great fun playing with all of our friends in the neighborhood too.

Now we have come in to warm up by the fire with hot chocolate. Snow clothes are all in the dryer - getting ready for the next venture out. Later tonight we are headed to Mamaw's for chicken stew. It doesn't get much better than this!!!I love this picture of Lainie and Will. So often he is following right behind her - always making sure she is okay and that she is having fun! He doesn't want her to miss anything!

Taking time out to warm up and play Knex!