A litte fresh air!!

While we missed the St Patrick's Day parade today, due to my cleaning bug and not realizing the time, we did get out for some air. The kids all enjoyed the sun and while we were a bit miffed that we missed all the shamrocks, we still had an extremely enjoyable and fun day. Aubri's bedroom is on it's way to being reorganized too!!

It is amazing to me to see how much these little people are changing and growing. I had to post some photos just for this reason. We weren't doing anything special, but the sun on their faces and their sunny smiles sure made it a nice day, nice enough to share!

BTW.. It was 81 degrees today!! I could really get used to this spring weather, but alas, this is the midwest.... It will be cold tomorrow!

Whew… catching up

It has been a wild few weeks here. We have yet to get to celebrate at T-Rex with Andy and our birthday celebrations for both Andy and Aubri were pretty low key. I like them better that way but it was not what we had really planned on. Both kids had chosen to take a day to go into Kansas City to eat out and enjoy the day as their party. Aubri wanted to just go and enjoy the day 1:1 with me and get her nails painted and do a little shopping. Nothing super huge on most people's scales, but none the less something we really only do for special occasions.

We had several complications come up which complicated our lives a bit. Nothing life threatening, but it has been an absolute whirlwind of Dr visits and recuperations, to say the least. I had a tooth pulled and ended up with a dry socket, and on pain meds, so driving long distances was not an option for the kid's desired out of town celebrations…. Then Aubri fell off her scooter when the handle bar came off and landed on her left hand. She fractures all of her growth plates in her knuckle joints and fractured two fingers. Then Pop decided to climb a step ladder to change a light bulb, rather than ask for help, and fell from the 2nd step. He tried to tough it out when his doctor told him that he would be fine, other than being sore. After 4 days of excruciating pain, I had him taken by ambulance to the ER. Sure enough, he had fractured a vertebra! Amazingly, after I had imagined having to have him in the rehab hospital to be able to care for him, they glued it back together and sent him home that day! He has been sore, but it really changed the recuperation time for the better! Sera had pneumonia in the midst of all this. Andy had a tooth pulled and another filled and also chewed up his lip. After Sera was off her antibiotics, she came down with a viral cough and a serious asthma flare, and has been down with it for over a week, now. She started antibiotics again yesterday.

We ended up eating at CiCi's on Andy's birthday because he wanted to make his own pizza. He really enjoyed this too and also liked being allowed to play in the arcade a bit, which I never generally allow them to do. ( I know…. I am cheap, but we ARE on a budget ;-) He loved his Ben 10 Voice changer and has been avidly playing his DS games and Leapster games. Aubri went out to eat 1:1 with Grandpa for her birthday and got a new DS lite. She had the older version, but was very excited to get a pink metallic one like her friends. She also got a game and an American Girl evening out IOU, for when we go to Chicago again. She also got to go out and eat at Applebee's so that she could be sung to. I also took her to have her nails done. ( jus 3 days before she fell and messed up her hand L) We had cake and ice cream at home with Grandpa. All was low key, but still went OK for them. Maybe next year I will do a party for them where they can invite friends. Aubri wants to do a skating party, so that will probably be what we do.

Sera was just getting to feel better from her first round of pneumonia for CNY, so we did not do the big group FCC activities. Getting too excited and playing hard just seemed to make her cough so much more…. We did go eat out at HuHot, however and I let the kids dress up in their Chinese clothes. They had fun showing them off and they looked so CUTE!!

I did not want Sera coming down with anything else at that point. Even with all the precautions I took, though, she still caught something …. I so hope the spring brings better health for her!! Respiratory difficulties seem to be a problem for her and everything she gets seems to settle in her lungs. Aubri had fairly serious asthma when she was younger, but she never struggled as hard as Sera has these past few weeks. Honestly, even with steroids, inhaler, breathing treatments and trying to keep her quiet, she sounds like she is coughing up a lung….

Pop has been recuperating well. He stayed house bound for over 2 weeks, but he is now getting out for short periods and is even driving again. We were both a bit worried, but he has done really, really well. He vows he will never climb a ladder again. I know this is hard on him, though. He is so independent….. We are just so glad to have him close and able to spend time with him!

Oh, also our little yorkiepoo, Bitzi, had a litter of 3 pups about 3 weeks ago. We stayed with her on puppy watch for a week, and I even took her to school with me . Finally I took her to the vet and they ./'
}|were delivered by C section. She is so tiny and I was so afraid of losing her. She weighed 6.2 lbs when she went in and 3.8 lbs when she came out. She has 3 very cute pups who are looking around now and trying to get up on their feet to walk a bit. Holding puppies is so calming. I just love our puppy therapy!!!

Ok… outside of all the normal chaos of work and daily life, I think that is all that has been going on! Please say a prayer for us that our Spring break will be totally boring and uneventful!!! No more Dr. visits!!! J

Wahoo!!! We have a DATE!!!

Sera's surgery has finally been scheduled!!! She will have 3 docs for a 4.5 hour surgery, so that complicated things among the other complications of lost 3D CT scans. HE has his hand in everything and they will be done during the summer while I am off work!! Sera has been down with pneumonia all this past week and has been such a sick little girl that I have almost used all my sick days already this school year and the deducts for a single parent hit hard. While part of me would love to have her have it sooner, and just stomach the deduct time, the docs even feel this is the best time for her growth wise.

She is very comfortable with me now and wants me when she is sick, which will definitely help when she tries to rock and bang herself when she is uncomfortable. I do believe that she will let me hold her, since she is enjoying having me rock her to sleep more and more each night now. I will worry that she will still want to rock herself hard and possibly disrupt her stitches, but that worry is easing too, each night she snuggles in with me to rock her to sleep in the rocking chair now.

I just love being out of LIMBO!!! :-) I can make plans now for spring break!!

CNY Tea Treasures!

I have had an uncomfortable last week, with a tooth infection, extraction and now I have an even more painful dry socket.... Just my luck! I hope it does not bode anything for the upcoming year! It is also Chinese New Year tomorrow and Andy's birthday! Aubri's birthday is next Thursday! Life does not slow down when you want to hibernate... Getting myself animated to go to work this week, get the basics done here at home, get out to help him select his gifts and celebrate has been a bit tough, but in trying to find ways to do this while also soothing my nerves and sore face, we discovered a really cool kind of tea! Flowering tea!

The kids love to watch it bloom! Click on the photo of the tea to watch it yourself!

I had seen these little tea bulbs, so to speak while we were touring the teahouse in Beijing, when we traveled to bring Andy home. We never toured while bringing Sera home, but I know I also saw some in one of our hotels. I thought they were really odd looking and of course I was not brave enough at that point to investigate further. I read about the Numi teas while looking for some herbal relief and saw this photo. I had to check it out further. Turns out our local health food store carries it! It is tea leaves sewn together with flowers, which are also used as teas. When the boiling water seeps the tea benefits from the leaves, they unfurl and open. We don't have a glass teapot, but our glass measuring cup works great too! Maybe someday a teapot will turn up in my oldest's birthday gifts... Just maybe :-)

Now, finding this will not be all we will do to celebrate the CNY or Andy's birthday, don't worry! I just thought that it was a neat new experience and a different way to share my kids culture with them. Tonight we are going to our local Chinese community gathering for CNY. Andy has chosen to have pizza for dinner tomorrow, even though it is the real CNY. On birthdays, the birthday kids gets to pick the meal. so pizza it will be! He picked out very age approprite gifts which didi not break my bank! For that, I am so thankful!! He only wanted a Magna Bones Sabre Tooth Tiger, and Sp*nge Bob Lego kit and a Ben 10 DS game as his birthday gifts to open and a trip to TRex ( a huge restaurant with a fossil dig and animated dinosaurs) in Kansas City ( to be taken when mom is not on pain killers and can drive on the highway :-). Pictures will follow, don't worry!

This little boy is growing up so fast!! I so love the excitement on his face when he talks about dinosaurs, legos, Pokeman, Ben 10 and his DS! Oh, and when he even thnks about or talks about pizza and having a special day just for him, his eyes light up so brightly and he even bounces! It is just too cute!! I hope I can get some photos of that to share with you. It is the best!! Even if my face fell of, this old mom could not be more thrilled to watch him be so full of glee!

In the mean time, we are all getting our hair trimmed this afternoon and getting ready to celebrate the Year of the Ox. I wish I could say that I cleaned the house top to bottom to welcome the new lunar year...... But at least the kids have clean new clothes to wear, birthday plans in place and all their laundry is done for the week!

Now, we have heard it all!

Or maybe that just jinxed me to hearing more...

With Sera's lip and eye still unrepaired, we have grown accustomed to the quick repeated sideways glances, the abrupt double takes paired with blatant staring, the curious child like comments from both adults and children and even the really rude comments questioning why I would want a child with this problem.

This weekend, however, we ran into a totally different take on someone's first glance at Sera's lip. We had gone out to a school fundraiser at our local highschol. Sera and I had left the cafeteria building and were coming back in when a man rushed out of the doors and the big door hit Sera on the shoulder and head. She fell back into me and started to whimper from fright. I knew this was not a cry from being hurt, since Sera rarely cries from pain, but I was quickly checking her to see if she had been hurt. She was fine. The man was so shocked and apologetic for having rushed out of the building and hit her. As I tried to reassure him that she would be OK, he backed up and pointed at her lip and exclaimed, " Oh, no! Look what I did to her face!!". It was so hard to not laugh out loud.... He finally looked a bit closer and started apologizing even more profusely. I just told him that we were fine and not to worry any more and brought Sera in the building. Sera told me when we came in that he did not hit her lip at all, as if she also needed to reassure me that she was OK.

I wish this whole thing did not make me want to giggle, but it surely does!

We went to eat at Taco Bell's really quickly today and there was a large group of people who spent more time staring at Sera, than they did eating. It was very uncomfortable for me. Sera ingored it completely, but it even upset a lady at a nearby table enough to come apologize for them! She thought Sera was just perfect. Most people do, who know her.

She has provided an education to many folks who had never seen a cleft and left them with a great impression of a wonderfully bubbly and intelligent little girl. She knows so many people now and has quite a fan club of kids at school. They all seem to know her and she just waves like a little celebrity when we see folks we know when we are out. I have to often ask her where she knows them from. If people meet her or even just see her and leave with an impression of disgust, they just were not bright enough to understand the content of the lesson!

Since the lady I talked to at Shriner's on Friday who was trying to track down Sera's MRI still assured me that they would be calling me on Tuesday, please pray that she calls with a surgery date!! I don't think I can keep this up! I think she has done enough educating.... She needs to just enjoy being the beautiful little girl that she is, with people looking at her only because she is so darn cute!

Is there a current D*nnis the M*nace Movie???

If not, I have the perfect star for the Asian version!!

My sweet boy should be named Dennis and all the troubles he finds himself in would just be excused so much more readily!

He loves spending time with Grandpa, and until this weekend, I don't think Grandpa had ever fully believed me that Andy must always be within sight....

He tried to reset the thermostat, because he was too hot. He tried to help wind a clock and got the key stuck and the clock stopped... He tried to practice writing his letters... in salt he spilled all over the floor. He fell asleep with popcorn in his lap and poured in down the chair. He tried to figure out why a remote would not work and took it all apart. Since Grandpa was a bit reluctant to share all that he did there... I will bet that he did more that that in one overnight at Grandpa's house!! I know that last week he tried to replace the halogen bulb in the living room and ended up breaking 3 bulbs.... I wasn't watching him then either. He does these things so FAST! I can only hope and pray that I can work with him to help him direct this energy to something positive, or who knows what he will get into when he is bigger!!!????

At least now Grandpa is fully on board with not letting this boy out of our sight! He is such a sweet kid, and he knows he is not supposed to be doing these things, but just cannot stop himself when the thought hits him. At least when he knows no one is watching! :-) He is sneaky, but at least he is trying to be helpful while he is sneaking! :-)

New Year, New habits.... I hope!

Well, making resolutions for the new year is a good thing. I really have not done many of them in the past, other than to lose weight :-)

This year, I decided to make a resolution to be different :-) I actually made some resolutions!

1. I want to be teaching my kids to help around the house more and to learn the value of money more... so my kids chore charts are now tied directly into their allowance and spending money. I made picture charts, paired with money allotments for the chores I expect them to do. I will pay them a quarter per big chore, and a quarter per week for the routine stuff, like keeping their socks together, clothes in the hamper, dogs fed etc.... I don't pay well at all, but it is money they will not have otherwise and added up it amounts to a bout 8 dollars a week for Aubri, five for Andy and three for Sera. Sera doesn't really understand the money concept and would happily accept pennies, but she is also very willing to put her money in her bank and will be grateful for it someday. Now I have to stick to checking off ther chores DAILY..... and getting MY chores done daily..... That will be the biggest feat!!

2. I want to get their memory books from their adoption trips and for Aubri's first year of life all put together digitally and bound.

3. I want to figure out a way to get my school work done in the time the district actually pays me to be working, rather than dragging it out longer and coming home more tired. I want to have energy left to devote more good time with my kids, rather than be dragging because I am so tired.

4. I want to have everyone drink more water and sleep more each night. I think that may help the grumpies that tend to plague Aubri and I in the morning as we get up.

5. I want to really try to push myself to actually accomplish the above 4, since the losing weight thing has just never come to pass.....

Now, I am writing this publicly, so maybe I will actually stick to it????

Merry Christmas!!

We had a very enjoyable Christmas! We hope that you did also!

We opened gifts at Grandpa's so that he could be with us and be part of all the excitement, and also for him to be able to share the Christmas story with the kids again before opening gifts. He likes his space and feels most comfortable in it, without my little dogs running around. I can understand that since the morning was a bit chaotic as it was :-) I truly do think Aubri and Andy understood and Sera knew it was Jesus' birthday. She also was very certain Santa had to come down the "fire" , since they had discussed this aspect at school. We did not not tell her otherwise, so she enjoyed the magical moments of thinking the gifts had been delivered through grandpa's Amish miracle heater :-)

The blessings of the season were definitely apparent as the children hugged each other and us as they rejoiced in ther newfound treasures. They really played well all day with very few squabbles, even though we were in tighter quarters at Grandpa's and they literally were in each other's space quite often. It was so nice to enjoy this day with Grandpa and celebrate the best gift of all, the most special birthday, together!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Whew! Last minute adventures!!

With all of the hustle and buslte of the end of the school semester, etc... getting ready for Christmas at home had basically amounted to just getting the presents purchased. We did some cooking for snack type foods and wanted to do more, but time did not allow for it. So... we postponed to do some on Christmas day, rather than just play with toys. The kids liked that idea, so I relaxed a bit and decided to let that slide until then. Today, Aubri and I had planned on a leisurely wrapping/ cookie decorating day with Grandpa and possibly going out to see the Christmas lights before reading the Christmas story and going to bed.

Knowing that the wrapping was the last thing to do on the list, we slept in late, went to Grandpa's to eat a late brunch together and got ready to start wrapping. As I sorted out the gifts, which had been delivered to Grandpa's, or to our house and stashed away, I realized that a very major gift was missing!!! Andy had asked for a Nintendo DS for over a year. He has been very consistent in saying that was the one thing he wanted for a long time, especially when talking about his "Santa list". This little boy is so busy and active that I do not worry a bit about letting him have some sedentary time to sit and play a game some of the time ! In fact a few minutes of quiet are greatly appreciated by this old mom! :-)

We searched all over and since Grandpa had been the one to actually purchase this item in person, rather than the online shopping I have become so fond of, he started to question if he had actually purchased it. He got quite distressed that his memory is failing him and we decided to go to Best Buy to see if it actually did get purchased and if not we would get one and all would be just fine. Aubri stayed home with the little ones for the short time we planned to be out. She does a great job with them and I am so blessed! At the store, they were able to look it up and it had been purchased.

We decided. or rather I kept trying to convince him, that he must have been interrupted while he was putting it away and that it must be in the house somewhere, just not anywhere he was hiding anything else.

Since we were not sure that we would find it in time, however, we tried to find another one, so that Andy would have his desired gift tomorrow morning. WOW! Every child in town must have also asked for the same thing and the stores did not keep enough in stock. We raced into store after store. Each one filled with last minute shoppers! Our 2o minute jaunt took well over 4 hours!! Well, I hobbled in as fast as I could and my dad still kept up with me. No place we went had any... None at all! I truly did not know what to do, neither did my dad, but we kept calmly telling each other that it would be OK, while inside just feeling absolutely awful.

As we stopped at the grocery store quickly before going home, I called Aubri again to check on her and the kids and decided that I had to also enlist her eyes to try to help find the gift while they waited for us. I did not want her to give away what she was looking for to Andy though. I told her to look in all the places Grandpa might have just set a plastic bag. I told her not to look IN anything, just on every shelf in the garage, in the den, kitchen etc.... She already knew not to let Andy know what she was looking for and really took this new mission seriously!!! I should have enlisted her help with this so much earlier!!! I was just too worried to think straight, I guess....

Within 5 minutes she called me back telling me that she FOUND IT!! My baby girl, who is such a responsible young lady now, saved her little brother's AND her mom and grandpa's holiday!!!

She found it right it plain sight... on top of the book case, where Pop had evidently set it when bringing it in to hide, but was disrupted. He felt so badly that he was losing his mind. It did not matter how many times I tried to reassure him that I do the same thing far too often. It is so easy to start doing something and get interrupted, set things down to take care of the interruption and then have no clue where you left them. Less than 1 hour later, I was searching for some picture frames that I knew I had, but had no idea where I put them! Yep, same kind of situation and they were also found!

The Heavens were guarding my two littlest ones surprises for tomorrow morning since Aubri and I quickly wrapped gifts, Grandpa went to see Evelyn and Andy and Sera enjoyed Grandpa's wide selection of digital TV holiday specials. Both of the were totally clueless that Aubri and I were up to anything! If they did know, they were extremely cooperative in allowing for some surpise tomorrow!

Our Christmas eve was not what I planned it to be, but all is done and we enjoyed our time together, so it went just as it should!! Suprises are all ready for tomorrow morning! We will open gifts at Grandpa's tomorrow so that he can be there with us without having to get out. It will be so nice to have him with us as the kids enjoy their suprises!! We will just have to read our Bible story together, decorate some cookies and go see the lights tomorrow!

Always too many steps behind....

I cannot begin to catch up... We are getting ready for Christmas today and will be wrapping packages etc... I went to charge the camera battery and realized that I hadn't even downloaded our Thanksgiving photos to the computer yet. Imagine that...

So, before I went to take my shower, I had to put some of them together to share and to print for our scrapbook before time slipped any further away and it didn't get done. Such is the life of a single parent of 3 busy little people :-)

Here are our scrapbook pages to record our Thanksgiving this year. It was the first we have been able to spend with our Grandpa in several years, since Evelyn had a difficult time being around the kids. As you can see from the photos, the kid love their 80 yr old grandpa and he loves them! I truly cannot imagine much more to be thankful for than the people in good health and sharing such happiness that day. We had a good family friend join us and enjoyed eating and playing the Wii, but the kids enjoyed playing with grandpa even more than the Wii!! Hard to imagine, but I am so thankful for his good health and the time the Lord is giving us to spend with him

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Santa, or Christ's Birthday? The answer is simple!

Today we tried to get out to get some of the necessary shopping done for the week. We bought a toy for Toys for Tots and a couple of things for the kids gift exchanges at school while they looked at things they are hoping Santa will bring. After we did the shopping, and I had them in the car. Andy asked me a question I truly had no answer for and still really don't. Thankfully he let me put of answering him when the phone rang and has not pushed me for an answer since we have come home.


He asked me, "Mommie, Does Santa not know where China is? He never brought me anything of my own when I lived there and now he brings me toys and clothes I do not have to share with everyone. Was I a bad boy in China? He never brought me black rocks either. Where was he?"


I am really feeling that this year it is it is necessary to be telling him the truth about Santa and just having Christmas in our house be about celebrating Christ's birth and sharing his love with those we love, as it really should be. Aubri already knows and was excited to be sharing Santa with them, but she also thinks we should let Santa just visit other homes and our gifts all be gifts of love to each other. Sera will not have a Christmas with a visit from Santa that she will understand, since last year she had no clue why we had presents under the tree, but I think it will be for the best now, especially hearing how Andy felt he must have done something wrong for Santa to forget him. Little children's fascination with Santa and the glee of Christmas morning are all so wonderful, but for my little ones who know Santa was not there for them, I truly am not sure trying to get them to believe in Santa is a good thing. Especially when I have to tell Andy not to tell lies other times!


I think we are going to have to have a very serious talk. My babies will all have to know the truth. I hope it helps them enjoy the season even more, rather than worry about why they had been forgotten by Santa before coming here. They really need to know that their Father in heaven has never forgotten them and what a great gift he has given them, even when they were in China and did not have the presence of their earthly loving family around them.

So, thanks to my very astute and questioning son, we are going to enjoy Christmas as it should be. A true CHRISTmas full of His love and family joy!

One Step at a Time

This past week has been so long, and yet so short. Not enough time to get things done and not enough energy to do them! We have all had a bad cold and resulting complications and I am soooo ready for the break!!

This week while we were rushing out the door, though, I saw my sweet Sera make a huge accomplishment, and I was almost too rushed to see it! She has always had trouble going up and down steps, since her rickets had made her muscles so weak and her balance much more difficult to keep. She has made good gains in walking and running, but steps were still a cause for caution.

Thursday morning I saw her pick up her brother's hat to take it out to the car for him, where he was already waiting. She flew down the garage step and never once reached over to hang on to steady herself!!

ONE step mastered!!!

Santa

Can you tell from the photo who was annoyed that Santa was not listening to what she wanted?

She didn't have a long list, but Santa did not understand her and would not let her explain.....

Mommie asked Santa to help hurry up the scheduling for her surgery!!!!

Opthamologist appt- the good and the bad news

Well, after waiting for what feels like forever ( actually just a little over 2 months) to get an appt with the dept head of Opthamology at our local Childrens hospital, we finally got to go.

I had taken the day off work and entered my absence on the computer weeks ago, but amazingly when I went it to talk to the sub this morning as I dropped Andy off, there was NONE.... My absence had been deleted when Sp Ed had deleted an inservice absence and I had to wait for a sub to pick it up after we entered it again..... Not a good start to the day, but it worked out OK.

It did not snow on the hour and a half drive ,both to and from, , so that was really good news! I was prepared to be driving n snow and ice. Pop came with us and had even packed blankets and a spade.

Sera was willing to have her eyes dilated and checked and even cooperated in reading the pictures after Aubri did it, so that was also good news! Then the Dr. told me that outside of her duct problems and the lower eyelid not attaching where it should, her vision is great. Another really great piece of news for the day!

Then the bad news.... We have to come back to have the occuloplastic surgeon evaluate Sera in January. I will have to take another day off work (of which I have very precious few left due to my knee replacement and know that I will need them when she ever gets to have these surgeries, let alone if anyone actually gets sick...). When I set up the appointment with the referral from Shriner the receptionist assured me several times that I needed opthamology not plastic surgery. I told her repeatedly that Sera has a Tessier Cleft and that it affects her eyelid and tear ducts... I guess I just said these things for my own benefit.

Soooo we wait some more and see a different Dr. in January. Hopefully her surgeries will now not conflict!! I so wanted to have one done over the Christmas break!!

"He" must have a reason why surgery for Sera is constantly being delayed!! I guess that I am needing these lessons in waiting and just need to develop more patience, or maybe He is trying to save my budget and keep me from total confusion and bankruptcy from all the medical bills that have been coming in from my surgery. Who knows? I know that I am trying to get it done now that she has become more safely attached and able to understand what is happening, and something keeps stepping in the way to let me know that we are just not as ready as I wanted to be.....

Something to think about

If we all take this approach, maybe no one else will literally get mowed down in our rush to spend money.

10 things

We have decided to each write 10 things we are thankful for this year and review it in years to come and possibly in tough times to come. We thought it would be fun to share them with you too and maybe you would like to share with us what you are grateful for this year!

Counting blessings is actually really more fun than opening boxes with colored paper!We had a lot of fun together trying to figure out how to limit things to 10!

Aubri
1.My home- because with out it we would not be safe from the weather.
2. My family- because I love them and they make me smile and they love me and take care of me.
3. Food- so that I don't starve
4. Education, because when I get older I will be able to get a good scholarship and a good job.
5. My dogs, because they help me learn responsibility and because they are cute and make me smile.
6. Books, because I like to read about other places and people.
7. Friends, because they make me happy when I see them.
8. Toys, because I laugh when I get to play and it is nice to laugh once in a while.
9. Singing is something I like to do and it makes me feel magical.
10. Art because it is one of my favorite things to do when I am bored.

Andy
1. I am a boy, because I am happy like I am.
2. Food because I can share with people who need to eat.
3. My Mom, because I love her and she loves me and she feeds me and give me neat clothes and reads to me.
4. My sisters, because I love them and they love me and play with me.
5. My dogs because I like to play with them.
BaoBao, because he likes to play with me.
6. My family, because I love them.
7. My grandpa, because I love him and he cooks good food for me and plays games with me.
8. My teachers, because them help me to learn.
9. My country, because you have to keep your country safe and clean.
10. My drawing, because I can draw nice.

Sera
1. Mommie- I am a mommie's girl
2. My sister- She play wtih me
3. My brother- He play lego with me
4. My Grandpa and Grandma- He feeds me food
5. Dora and Kai Lan- I like the TV
6. Dogs- They cute animals. They nice doggies.
7. Eating- I get hungry
8. Miss Jenn- She MY teacher
9. Friends- They play with me
10. My blocks- They fun to play with.

Mom
1.My faith in my Heavenly Father and his help in guiding me though many difficult times.
2. My dad- because he has been my rock for my entire life. He stood by me and has helped support me emotionally and far to often financially when things have been tough. He has given me my sense of values and I know that they are the most important things in this life, both for me and for those sweet little people I am blessed to be able to also share them with as they begin their lives.
3. My sweet Aubri because she has been such a good influence on my life. Her bright and cheery spirit and abilities to care for others, especially when I have also needed her help this year are absolutely priceless.
4. My wonderful and loving, busy little boy, Andy, because his unique way of seeing things in this world from a different perspective has really helped me broaden mine and learn to see the fun in many things I would have simply ignored.
5. My sweet, silly and sassy Sera, who makes me smile every day and be so gratefu for everything we have. She has a true gift of warming hearts and l love her so much.
6. My health, while it definitey has been better in the past, I am so thankful that I am able toget up each day, walk on my own, think clearly ( most of the time, when I am not too tired :-)) and hold a useful job.
I really am not kidding when I say that I am grateful for my messed up leg (s), even though it has annoyed me often and caused me more pain than I ever want to admit, it has also taught me humility and patience which come in very handy on a day to day basis.
7. My job, because while it is definitely not the high paying job I might have held if I had taken a different road many years ago, it is very meaningful to me and has very little risk of disappearing and leaving my family without income.
8. My friends, who keep me honest, keep me smiling, listen to my gripes and shove me in directions I need to go.
9. My home, while messy and not the show place I would like it to be right now, it is very comfortable and keeps my children safe, healthy and happy ( due to all the toys scattered everywhere!) I also love my Amish heater which keeps us so toasty warm at night!
10. My dogs, who have kept me company in the past when I was lonely and who now ease my nerves after a long day of noise and kids :-)


Thanksgiving day photos to come later!

Amazing change....

Last night as we hustled in and out of the grocery store to purchase a few last minute things, I realized something.

At this time last year, my little Sera never asked for anything, not a drink, not to eat or even to go to the bathroom. It was not just a communication issue either, since she did not ask our guide for any of these things either. She just sat and played with her empty bottle while she waited for life to pass by and was absolutely thrilled when anything was offered to her.

Last night, she was tired and hungry and was very clear about that as we waited in line. She wanted to eat and she wanted to do it SOON! When I would tell her that we were going to eat as soon as we got home, she would frown and put her little hands on her hips and tell me very loudly, "Dut Nonnie, dere is fwood here wite now!". Everyone around us could not help but smile.

While it would have been so much easier to have her simply wait quietly, I am so thankful for her to have been able to make this so important change in her way of interacting with the world! She now sees herself as IMPORTANT and deserving of having me meet her basic needs.

She truly has no idea how how much I love her, but she is learning!

365 days ago....

Aubri and I had traveled to Beijing, spent a day in Changchun and Siping visiting foster homes, and spent the previous day and part of the night fogged in the Shenyang Airport, managed to run to catch a flight to Shanghai, raced across Shanghai by taxi, slept for 3 hours at the Pudong Airport hotel, rushed through huge crowds to catch a flight to Taiyuan, worried all the way to Taiyuan about what would happen next, met our guide and traveled to the Taiyuan Civil affairs office and then FINALLY we met a wet, tired, scared and angry little Sera!!! It truly was the biggest whirlwind of travel I could ever have imagined possible!! I signed the paperwork saying that I wanted to be her mother, no matter what the nanny said about advising me to wait and see if I liked her since she was sooo "difficult", what ever that meant. It made me angry and I had no intention of not bringing her home, no matter how much she hated me ( which she very definitely did!) . Aubri was overwhelmed with exhaustion and excitement to meet her new little sister, only to be whacked in the head with her water bottle, repeatedly... Thankfully our guide was able to convince Sera to leave with us!

What an emotion filled family we were that day!

Fast forward to today, we are a busy and very happy little family! Sera is full of smiles and cuddles from the moment she wakes up each day. She can be stubborn and get her feelings hurt and wear them on her shirt sleeve a bit, but very quickly lets it roll of and is back to being her happy little self! Even today, when she has a stomach virus and cannot keep a thing down! She is quiet for a while, and then once she has an empty stomach again, she is up and playing and wanting to be cuddled and loved. She is as smart as a whip and learns new concepts so quickly! She loves to sing and dance and is a total little charmer! She mimics everything and keeps her preschool teacher on her toes too! She is talking a mile a minute and makes sure that everyone around her falls in love with her instantly!

I cannot imagine life without her. I cannot imagine not having survived and successfully made that life altering trek to Taiyuan to bring her home. I cannot imagine never having been inside the police stations in Taiyuan and GZ chasing down a new visa and reporting our stolen passports. I cannot imagine having closed my heart to even considering bringing her home when I was first told of her file and asked if I thought she would be OK. All of these things could easily have never worked out the way they did.

I am so grateful for His hand in shaping our lives and cannot wait to see what the next chapter will be, no matter what worries about the future may shade the path as we travel it!! We are truly blessed and I am so happy to be able to look into her sweet little face, receive the best sloppy kiss ever and cuddle her while telling her our story to bring her home.

We are finally part of the Wii generation!

Grandpa and I had promised Aubri and Andy a Wii for their birthdays last January and they have patiently waited almost 10 months for me to find it in a price range we could swallow. We had put aside the money for it, so that I couldn't use the excuse that I couldn't buy it when we found it, which is a good thing since money has been so very tight due to my being off work with this knee replacement. I had truly been searching all this time. Finally today we found it!!! And is was in my price range!!! Aubri was so excited that she was literally bright red and jumping up and down for almost 30 minutes, before she started breathing easier as she realized we really did have it and she was going to get to play it! She has played it at some of her friends homes and has truly been such a trooper waiting for me to find it for her. I am definitely not a fan of buying games or even systems new, kind of like new cars, and absolute despise the inflated prices for buying something everyone wants.... We truly lucked out today!

The used game shop in town also had 2 of the games she and Andy had wanted and now they have something to put on their lists for Santa! We are using the poem of " Something you want, something you need, something to play with and something to read" for their Santa gifts and 2 will fit a game category :-) Today they got Nights and Mario Galaxy, which are both able to be played as 2 player. Sera is very interested in it and maybe a Princess game will be on her Santa list.. She is loving wathing Aubri try to learn to play Nights right now. We will see :-) I know Aubri wants Cooking Mama, Animal Crosing, Harvest Moon and some game that you sing and dance with. If I have to buy them new, she is going to have to make a choice of one! Geez ,these Wii games are really pricey!! Andy doesn't know yet what he wants, but I have no fears that he will soon! I need to get him deciding so that I can put in a wish list at the used game shop. Good thing their birthdays are coming soon after Christmas and they can get a game then too.

I guess I will not be watching much TV in the future, but that really may be a very good thing! they won't be wanting to either!

Some photos of the crazy times around here

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I wish I had been able to get more photos of Trunk or Treats or out Trick or Treating last night. I at least got one of each child in their parade at school. We went to a small town about 20 miles from home and had and old time Halloween. The kids walked to the church and to trunk or treats and then rode around in the back of a truck to the different houses. The church had a really neat Enchated Forest and Sera fell in LOVE with the miniature horses. We also saw owls, close up! We went back to a good friend's house and had the best ribs and potato salad ! It was tiring and lots of walking for Mom and for little legs, but it was worth every step. They will have lots of memories, I hope and I know they had fun!