Happy Easter!

This Easter we were able to celebrate with Grandpa! He fixed dinner even! Evelyn was feeling poorly so we had to be very quiet, but we were so grateful to get to spend time with Grandpa on such a special holiday. Andy and Sera really do not understand it yet, but were very willing to say prayers and enjoy the food with family. We did not go go church, and I know we should have, but since Grandpa could not go and needed to stay with Evelyn, we decided our time was best spent with him.

Some of the photos here are of our family "hams". The kids all loved the ham Grandpa made and he had saved the netting intentionally so that they could make a hat out of it. As you can see, he is the biggest ham of them all :-)

We love you Grandpa!!

The weather was chillier than we had hoped, but Sera figured out how to egg hunt pretty guickly. Andy was the fastest hunter and had to share his finds at the end of the hunt. He is definitely little Mr. Competition! He insisted on wearing a tie, on his polo shirt, because it was EASTER! He is just so funny!

The kids all enjoyed their Easter baskets and ate far too much chocolate, but it was a very enjoyable day.

We hope that your Easter was just as pleasant!!

Appreciating the little things...

We have lost a very dear family friend to cancer this week. It has really been hard on Aubri, since, of the three kiddos, she spent the most time with him and really looked up to him as a male role model in her life. She calls him "Papa" Terry and her little heart has been broken, not understanding why he had to get sick and leave so soon. She has spent most of the week keeping up a brave face, but melting into tears several times a day.

Today was the viewing and we had planned for both she and I to go, since the little ones really do not understand and did not know him as well. Last night, Aubri came to me in tears and begged me not to take her. In the past 5 yrs, she had been to Terry's daughter's viewing ( passed away from lymphoma), some of my student's viewings ( I teach very fragile kiddos), another very close family friend's viewing and even our school secretary's viewing. I don't like viewings at all, but have always felt that it was an important thing to do for the grieving family. I had to rethink that completely last night...

Aubri so wisely told me that she just cannot go, that she does not want to remember him sick. She simply wants to remember Papa Terry teasing her and the bright twinkle in his eye. She said, " Mommie, I want to remember all the giggles and jokes, all the little things that no one sees there. I don't want to think of him being gone. I just want to keep his smile im my heart forever. You always tell me that I need to appreciate the little things and not worry about the material things I don't have. Please let me appreciate the little things Papa Terry left in my heart. Don't let a scary casket take them away!"

Needless to say, we did not go to the viewing and we both have just talked about the fun things we remember about "Papa" Terry today. He was an amazing friend and a wonderful husband to our good friend Pam. We talked about how much she will be missing him and how we can try to help. the ideas the kids have are pretty good. They drew photos and wrote letters to Pam and really had some different ideas I would not have thought of. In fact, we will be taking cotton candy ice cream over to the house for when people come to visit. It was one of Terry's favorites and Aubri finds this very comforting since it is also hers :-)

We also enjoyed the "little things" we have together as a family, that I hope all my kiddos can always keeps in their hearts! Terry will always be in our hearts and I hope his memory keeps us on the right track as we continue to create memories together.

Rainy St. Patrick's Day

Well... going to the parade was not my smartest move as a parent, but we all still had fun! It rained and rained.... I really had thought that it would let up, but nope, it kept on raining and was COLD! So we enjoyed Spangle's breakfasts bowls and hot chocolates and came home for a hot bath!

The kids loved it all. I am hoping that we don't all get sick!

She can SKATE!!

Who would have guessed that the little girl who stumbled and fell while toddling across the lobby of the hotel at least 2x ,if not more, and refused to walk down a hotel hall without sitting down to rest would be skating around a skating rink just four months later!! Now, the skates were FP skates, but they still rolled and she still stayed up on them ( most of the time)!!

The funniest part of the whole thing was that whenever Aubri or Andy fell, she copied them perfectly!! She not only wants to do what they do, she is doing it! I sat there with tears streaming down my face watching her go! Everyone thought she was so precious. I knew that she was one tough little cookie! Every time she fell, she laughed and got right back up! ( Just like Andy)

Her gumption and willingness to try anything paired with her huge desire to imitate and do what everyone else is doing is something I will definitely need to be careful about when exposing her to potential role models, but, geez... This little one will never cease to amaze me and no doubt will do what ever she puts her mind to doing!

I would have loved to have the CCAA folks and the "brilliant" Dr. who labeled her so ridiculously be able to see her out there doing the Hokey Pokey, the Macarena and the Chicken Dance and shaking her stuff while on SKATES!! Nothing's gonna hold her back now!

I only had my phone with me so the video isn't the best, but Sera is the tiniest one out there, and her baby sitter's daughter is the taller girl skating by her.

Wow....

I found this video as I tried to put some photos and video together of our trip to bring Sera home. Evidently Aubri had taken it while I was showering or out of the room for some reason, and I knew nothing about it. Watching it made me cry, as I remembered how upset Sera was and how much she wanted us crazy people to GO AWAY!

Now she is snuggled up in bed beside her big sister, contentedly waking up slowly and being a total cuddle bug with a big grin for me as I check on her. Time does change so very much!

I think about the disruptions of children in China that have happened recently and look back at how many things were so stressful for us while we were there. I am so glad that I had prepared Aubri well enough for her to understand that Sera was just scared and would eventually come around. I am also glad that I prepared my heart for rejection, because she definitely did that. I have another video of her hitting me over and over with a bottle while screaming and spitting at me to remind me...

I have no idea if my having shared any of our struggles while in China will help other families traveling to cope with the unforeseen stresses that may be in their future. I do hope, however, that it helps at least one family to look less critically at the angry child in their care, who seems to be so delayed, angry and hostile that they cannot imagine them "fitting" into their family. I have heard that reason given so often for the disruptions I read about.... Time really can change so very much. It takes a lot of work, a lot of patience and truly a lot of tears shed by everyone at points, but all children need love and will eventually accept it, and return it. Added to her rejection of us, we were even told by the SWI staff that we would not want her, that she was too difficult, her needs were too great, etc.. We ( Aubri, Sera and I) had so many moments to encourage us all to give up. I am so thankful that some how we just kept taking one step at a time, moment to moment and had so much support to help us hang in there!

I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am to my Father in Heaven for giving me the courage to see past all the negative information, to endure the stresses of the trip and to be able to cling to the hope that His plan leading me to this wonderful child was going to bring better things for all of us. It most definitely has!




Look at them now!!

Glorious Sunshine!!

Oh, this morning was tough. For some reason Sera decided that she was not going to wear long sleeves and kept going to get a short sleeveed top and begging to put it on. Every time I tried to put on a long sleeve top, she melted in tears and kept holding the short sleeve top. I gave in, which I know will haunt me later, and had her put a sweater on under her coat as we left this am. She was fine with this.

Aubri, Andy and I all wore long sleeves, as usual. I wonder if Sera actually listened to the weather report this am and understood it, because today was beautiful!!! Sera went to day care when I was in inservice and Andy and Aubri went with Grandpa to the lake to feed the ducks. When we got home the kids rode bikes and played in the front. It delayed dinner and getting everything done, but it was soooooo worth it!

Sera amazes me daily at the new things she does. Today she RAN down the hill and didn't fall once! She even tried to ride a scooter! If Jie Jie and Ge Ge are doing it, she is going to do it too!! Andy is now riding a 2 wheel bike now and I will bet that she will be soon!

2 daredevils in my house... Oh MY!!!

Sad news.....

One of the little sweeties from the foster center we visited in Siping, run by IAAP, passed away yesterday. She had hydrocephalus and had several shunts fail and be replaced in her short little year of life. She was a happy baby, though and never complained. IAAP, the agency who helped me bring Sera home, cared for her, fought for her and did everything possible to keep her comfortable and loved. Loved she was. The nannies in the foster center were so good to her. She was always sweet and never fussed, even when very ill. I know they are missing her now.

We had the privilege of sharing some smiles with her when we were there. She was sick then, and running a fever, so we did not hold her, but we will always remember her sweet smile.

I know that she is smiling down on those who helped care for her now.

Enjoy your peace sweet little angel. We know you have a very important purpose. Your little life was very meaningful to those of us who remain and to the little ones I have no doubt you will be watching over who still need our care....

IAAP does a miraculous job of helping little ones who have no other help. If you would like to help them, please visit http://bringinghopetochildren.org/index.html
They truly saved my little Sera with their TLC.

Grapefruit juice anyone?

I so wanted to grab a few pics of my three kiddos happily sitting at the table squeezing grapefruits into their cups and thinking they had created the equivalent of pure ambrosia! My battery needed to be recharged though!!

Ohh... the sticky juicy mess, which is also now in Sera's hair ... But the wonderful grins of pride are just priceless!

Showers here they come!!

"Out of Reach" ????

Yesterday was such a nice day. The weather was super and the kids had so much fun together without squabbling. It truly was a wonderful day.

Today is windy and the kids are not happy about getting chores done. We also woke to a very odd situation...

Andy got up in the dark hours of the morning and wanted to play. He knew that I had told him to stay in bed and sleep in a bit, since he had got up at 5 am on Saturday and woke us all up wanting to play. This morning however, he was quiet. He tried to let me sleep and evidently thought that if he could figure out how to spring Yang Yang from the playpen she is sleeping in in my room right now, he could play with her quietly and not wake me. The problem was that he could not pick her up out of the playpen and that she was also still sleeping...

He solved this by going to the bathroom, putting the step stool on the counter,climbing onto the counter from the toilet and standing on the step stool to reach the scissors which were on the top of the medicine cabinet, in the imaginary place called "out of reach". Somehow he climbed back down safely and proceeded to cut the netting in the playpen OUT! He then crawled into the playpen with Sera YangYang and woke her.

When I woke, they were both sitting on the floor looking at a book and Sera was screaming at him to let her hold it.

I was furious... to say the least. He told me that he could not sleep and just wanted to play with Sera so that I could sleep. He knew he shouldn't do it, but he did it anyhow because he wanted to play.... He could have hurt her, or hurt himself. I don't understand it, because he knew he was supposed to stay in bed and rest. I also know he was wide awake then and that sitting still period when he is awake and not on his meds is absolutely impossible for him. Staying in bed must be worse? AKKK! What can I do with this boy?

I have calmed down and can now see that while he totally ignored what I asked him to do and acted on impulse without thinking of consequences, if this little soul can be steered in the right directions- he will someday be able to really think out of the box to solve ANYTHING!! I just hope that it is not to figure out how to rob a bank.....

Here is a photo that reminds me how much fun he is and how much I do love this little monkey.It also clearly depicts how he can climb so high to get to the land of "out of reach" so easily!

Warm Weather!!!!

Today the sun came out!! It was wonderfully nice outside and although we had planned to stay home and get things done there.... Guess where we ended up? We will get the laundry done and floors swept. We needed some SUNSHINE!! After all isn't sunshine part of the remedy for rickets? Excuses or not it was a lot of fun and I so love being with these little people!! They all have such huge amounts of personality and really keep me on my toes, and continually feeling worn out, but I cannot imagine a better life at all!