The Wedding

The wedding of the oldest Barbee grandchild has been a much anticipated event for my kiddos.  Jeremy has been a huge part of their lives and his new bride Stephanie has become equally adored in their hearts.  The wedding plans were already underway when we received Mia's referral.  They were kind enough to include Mia as a bridesmaid even then we knew nothing of how her transition might be at the time.  I think you can tell by the pictures that she had a blast.

Mia dancing with Jeremy

Lainie and her Daddy

Will doing the YMCA dance.  He was the cutest ring bearer I've ever seen!

The wedding took place in a church at Myrtle Beach so that was a extra bonus.  Mia saw the beach for the first time and loved it.  It was also the first time she's been swimming in a pool and she loved that as well. Of course, she has a long way to go before she loves the beach quite as much as Lainie whom asks about going to the beach from the time we leave in July until we finally arrive back the next summer.  I am confident that she'll live at the beach at some point in her life.  That works for me!!

We had a great weekend.  All of the kids were in the wedding so it was just a little stressful - but so much fun.  I have to say they all clean up pretty nice don't they???

Congratulations Jeremy and Stephanie!  Thank you for including all of our children and making them feel like such a special part of your big day. My prayer is that one day each of them will find a husband/wife like each of you.....

My Little Boy Is Missing....

Has anyone seen this little guy?  Pretty cute isn't he?  He seems to have disappeared when I wasn't looking.  Around the same time he went missing, this big guy showed up.  He's pretty cute too isn't he? 

This big guy is nice enough and we like him just fine, but I sure do miss my little guy.  The big guy is fun to hang out with, and he's very well mannered, but I'd love to have the little one back for just one day.  I'd love to hear his little belly laugh, run my fingers through those curls and hear his sweet little voice.  Here's a warning to all of you moms out there with cute little guys:  Don't blink.  Before you know it you may also find that a big guy is living in their place.  You'll be plenty in love with him too, but you sure are gonna miss the little guy.

Happy 14th birthday to my big guy, Trey, who I love more than I could have ever imagined.......

I Saw God Today.....

Lainie, Lilly, Anna Claire and Mia L.

I saw him in the faces of these four little girls.  It is an amazing story really.  These four girls (along with Sarah Mei whose family had previous plans)  spent their very first days and months together in a tiny room in an orphanage in Chenzhou, China.  Before any of them met their forever families, they were together.  They heard each other's first cries and first giggles. What is amazing is that they now each live here in the Carolinas and even more than that, four of them live within 45 minutes of each other. 

I just love the fingerprints of God in this story.  Who else could have orchestrated such a story?  I sometimes take for granted how incredible it is that in all of the world, these girls from so, so far away wound up still being so close together after being adopted.  The story of how each family found out about the other is also incredible.  Too much to explain here.

So today, we spent the day together in the park.  God who watched these girls as they were infants in a Chinese orphanage watched them today as they ran and played on a sunny day in a park in North Carolina.  It is simply incredible when you think about the odds of it.  I love how God has given these girls this connection.  There are so many things  I don't know and won't be able to explain to Lainie about her infancy, but there is one thing I will be able to tell her for sure.  She was not there alone.  Lilly, Sarah Mei, Anna Claire, and Mia were there with her.  And perhaps that will some day bring her peace.  When the girls reach an age when the questions are hard and the answers are even harder, I hope they find solace in knowing they share the same story together.  God is good like that isn't he??

For more of the story, you can visit Anna Claire's big sister's blog:  http://www.andthentherewereseven.blogspot.com/

Happy Easter!

As we celebrate Easter with our family we are more and more aware of the true picture of Grace.  It is because of THIS day that there will one day be THAT day when we see Him face to face. On that day my two little girls with so many questions will finally see the Father who never leaves, never forsakes, always LOVES. 

After lunch we headed to Mamaw's house for the traditional grandchildren egg hunt. 

All of the tiniest grandchildren in the family and a few extra friends...

The "big" kids to the hiding and all the little ones to the hunting.

Mia loved the egg hunt and had no problem understanding the rules. 

Her language has "exploded" in the past two weeks and she is now talking in sentences.  Amazing!

Thank You

I am so grateful for all of your kind comments about my "honest" post earlier in the week.  We are blessed to have so many people who care about us !  It is this smile that makes it all worth while.  
 And yes, Mia does have a scrape on her face and a black eye.  It is the result of falling out of bed one night and bumping her nose on the doll cradle.

There are days.....

Mia has now been home 6 weeks.  I suppose I can say she has done as well as we could have possibly hoped.  Is life perfect?  No.  Is she totally happy?  No.  Has the transition gone without a hitch?  No.  But, are we still amazed by God's faithfulness and the brave heart of this little girl?  YES!

She LOVES her brothers and sisters and rarely shows anything but love to them.  She really likes school.  I think she gets tired and frustrated by the afternoon - but we are working on that.  Thank goodness for her sweet, sweet teacher.  Her English is incredible.  Her newest word is because.  Yesterday she said, "Lainie cry BECAUSE she want pink crayon."  She's learned how to communicate without words too.  She can almost figure out a way to tell or show us just about anything she wants to say.  She is so incredibly smart.  She sleeps great.  She goes to bed and sleeps through the night without a peep. 
I have seen a few attachment issues that we will have to work on - but nothing major.  She does remind us occasionally that when she is big she is going back to live with her foster grandmother.  She tells us this when she is mad mostly, but this week she also said it in the middle of a very fun playtime.  I think she wanted to let me know that just because she was having fun with me didn't mean she had forgotten her plans to go back to China to her grandmother when "she gets big."

All in all, Mia has done very well and our little family is "settling in" just great. 

However, in the spirit of "keeping it real", I will have to say there are good days and bad days.

There are days when I feel totally inadequate for the task. There are days when I am so tired that I could cry - and in fact, I do. There are days when I wonder what in the world God was thinking. There are days when I miss not having to wonder what will trigger the next melt down. There are days when I don't want to look at our family calendar because I don't know how we are going to to do it all. There are days when I just want to sit down and be the mother of one child at a time. There are days when I wonder what I could be doing with the time I spend putting laundry away.

BUT, there are also days when I wonder why am I so blessed? There are days when I look at the miracle that is unfolding before me and am filled with thankfulness that God chose us to witness such a thing. There are days when the joy is simply unspeakable. There are days when "I love you mama." spoken by my newest daughter touch my heart in a way that nothing else can. There are days when my family of 7 packed into our van, laughing together, is simply heaven on Earth. There are days when I am so proud of how all of my children have adjusted to our new life that I can't stop smiling.  There are days that I am just so happy I could cry - and I do.

I took these today of the girls on our fancy swingset.  We bought this metal swingset for Trey's first birthday and thought we'd replace it with a super duper wooden one later.  That never happened.  This little swingset has survived 5 kids and a tornado in 1999.  We drug it back out of the woods where the tornado deposited it. We thought for sure we would replace it soon after - but it just kept on seeming to be all the kids really needed to keep them happy.  So, it is still all we have.  And it is most likely all we will ever have.  It is one of the few toys we can say we have definitely gotten our money's worth out of.

Thanks for thinking of us and checking in here.  Sorry I've been such a slack blogger.  I'll try to update more frequently, but I make no promises because sometimes there are days........

A Whole New World

Today Mia has been home exactly one week.  Just seven days and she's already tried so many new things.  For starters, she lives in a new country, a new house, a new neighborhood.  She  has met 2 new brothers and 2 new sisters along with 4 new grandparents, 4 new aunts, 5 new uncles and 14 new cousins.  She has met new neighbors, eaten new foods, slept in a new bed, gotten her first pair of new shoes and new clothes, and she's gone to a new church with lots of new people to meet. That is quite a lot of a 7 year old.  I didn't have intentions of introducing her to quite so many new things this early - but she is soaking everything up like a sponge.  So much so, that she even went to her NEW school on Thursday and Friday.  She met new teachers, new classmates, and is hearing a new way of learning.  She LOVED her first two days at school and I can tell they have already made a difference in her confidence level.  She was so worried about school and not speaking English, but I think these two days helped her see that somethings about school are the same - and the rest isn't going to be as hard as she thought.  We've been connected with a precious Chinese friend who lives not too far from us and Mia was able to SKYPE with her before she went to school.  I just wanted to be sure she understood what she was asking to do.  It was a great conversation for Mia.  We've been invited to dinner at this lady's house and we can't wait.  The more Chinese people Mia sees her in America, the more at ease she feels.
So, you are wondering, how are we doing with all these new things?  How is Mia coping?  How are we all coping?  The answer is different every day.  Somedays are very, very hard.  Some days are much easier.  Today is the first day I've woken up and felt "normal".  The long trip home that we took almost killed us both, but we wouldn't have done it any other way.  It has however, taken me almost the whole week to recover. I'm hoping I'll be able to function better this week.  Mia has come along way since January 31st when she met us for the first time.  There is still a long way to go - but we've seen so many glimpses of hope in her - we hold on to that on the difficult days.  One day I want to share the whole expereince of those first few days with Mia.  I just can't seem to decide how to do it and how much to share - so I'll wait.  Just know that God was there.  Even in the darkest moments we were never left alone.  He who promised is faithful.

These are pictures of Mia at the Guanzghou Zoo.  It was quite interesting.  I wasn't feeling very safe there - perhaps Chinese aren't as obssessed with safety as we are here.  There just wasn't enough adequate railing and protection for me.  I mean really, have you ever been those close to an elephant.  And do you see the miniscule railing that is keeping Mia from jumping in with the Panda?  It was a great day, but I was a nervous wreck by the time we left. 

 

 

This last pic is her getting ready to head out the door for her first day of school. 

And loving life with sisters......