Happy Birthday (late) Abby!!

Abby turned 2 on August 25th...so, I am a little late in this post, but better late than never. :-) She knew JUST what to do on her birthday - she loved having everyone sing to her, and opened her presents like a champ! I can't believe that she has been with us for 9 months now! She and Maggie are becoming quite the little duo...the best of friends, the worst of enemies, and double-trouble when they put their minds together. We love you, Abby Grace, and are so thankful that the Lord blessed us with you!

Blessings and suffering

Yesterday we returned from our family "vacation" to Huntsville...enjoying the US Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville Botanical Gardens, and Constitution Village. We all had such a great time, and the kids learned a ton!

We came home to discover that a friend of ours whose family has been waiting for their referral from Ethiopia for over a year finally received their referral for a precious little 4 week old boy! "What a blessing!" I thought. Then, I read more recent news via email..."please pray for little Judah as he is suffering from intense vomitting and diahrea". Then, more recent news..."little Judah didn't make it." Ugh...how quickly my thoughts went from blessings to suffering. My friend wrote of the intense pain she is feeling in her heart...pain for a baby she never held, but has been held in her heart for months. I know that some people may not understand how she can be grieving so when she never met the child, but when the Lord places orphans on your heart, pain and grief can be just as intense as the love that you feel for each and every child that you know has no father, mother, home, food, on and on. In His sovereignty, the Lord will use this for His glory and for my friend's (and her family's) good - He promises that. But for right now, would you pray for Allison and her family?

The passion of my heart...

I have attached a new button on the side of this blog for a foster home in Beijing. They are currently working on a new home south of Guangzhou where there is a real need for foster homes and orphanages. Check it out you guys! The work they do is amazing - the kids are beautiful, and there are so many ways to help them out!

Summer fun

Well, this summer has been busier than I had planned, but it has been fun! Blueberry picking, McWane Center, travelling to Jacksonville, guitar camp, film camp...

I wanted to post just a little note on God's faithfulness. As believers we always talk about "God's faithfulness" almost to the point of trivializing His Amazing Faithfulness. We have been home from China for over 6 months now...I feel like I am just now waking up from a dream. It has been harder than I thought - not because of Abby, simply because of me...my selfishness, my pre-conceived ideas, etc. But, because of HIM, our family is adjusted amazingly well, and I believe that He allowed this 6 months to be crazy for me in order to show me that it is He who does the working in us. He caused Abby to adjust well, He caused her not to have issues with inappropriate attachment, He caused her to love routine and to giggle for 30 minutes when we got home from our vacation (she knows this is HOME). Anyway, He amazes me.

Here are some summer pictures...Abby and Maggie playing in the crib...Abby and Maggie getting into trouble (which they LOVE to do together)...and Drew's 10th birthday party.

Privacy...

As I am sure you have noticed (if you are still bothering to check if we have posted anything :-), I haven't posted in quite sometime. The main reason for that is privacy concerns. Initially, I had a privacy setting on our blog. Then, I took it off...now, I am going to put it back on again :-) I haven't been too smart about not putting personal information on this blog. So, I am going to put a privacy setting on the blog and continue to post for friends and family who would like to view things going on in our world. :-) If you would like to be able to view the blog, please email me. If you don't have my email address, post a comment so that I can email you. Thanks so much, you guys!

Easter

Easter is my favorite...I love spring, the new growth, the flowers, hiding eggs for the kids, watching their faces as they seek in earnest for each candy-filled treasure, but most of all, I love Easter Sunday - the celebration of Christ's resurrection and His payment for my sin...all of my horrible sin. I am so thankful for my Savior and all of the gifts that He has given me even though I deserve none of them, and He continues to be so patient with me as I have to be taught some of the same lessons over and over and over again. This Easter was awesome. It was Abby's first "American" Easter with her forever family. She was such a good sport. She took the basket I gave her and held it just like the other kids. However, she looked so confused - she looked like she was thinking, "What is with all these empty baskets?" She smiled sweetly for the picture before the egghunt (the picture with all 5 of the kiddos), and obediently walked with me while I showed her how to put the eggs in her basket. And then the "Ah-ha!" moment came. I showed her what was inside the eggs. Oh my word, she was THRILLED! When I wasn't looking, she put more jelly beans in her mouth than I have ever seen any child put in their mouth at one time. At one point in time, I looked over at her, and half-dissolved jelly beans were falling out of her mouth because she couldn't keep them in. It was great!

Spring has arrived (I think...)!

We finally got to get dressed in shorts and t-shirts this morning - no jackets! It was so great to get to go out and water plants and play for a while. We have also gotten to start back with our tradition of giving the garbage men freeze pops (or popsicles, whatever we have). The girls had a great time with that this morning - it is amazing what can provide entertainment.

This past weekend we had some of our dear friends from Jacksonville up to visit. The kids had a blast, and the weather was wonderful - thank you Lord! (Keeping 7 kids inside a house all weekend might have been a nightmare) The boys' buddy, Jackson, was able to go to the boys' track meet to cheer them on. The girls had a fantastic time driving the Barbie jeep all over the yard (which might be one explanation as to why we have no grass growing). All-in-all, it was a wonderful visit, and we are so thankful that they made the trip!

Forts and Frogs..

We have had a busy, busy week! This past weekend, the boys and Mike had an amazing opportunity to go to the Eufala Athenaeum (over $13 million worth of first edition books, civil war documents, and other cool documents signed by different Presidents), spend the night on the USS Alabama, and tour Ft. Morgan and Ft. Gaines. It was an exhausting, but very fun weekend for them...cool Dad/son time! Because the boys are doing a research project on it to present to our cover school, I told Mike "Please, please take pictures!!"...he did...over 100!?? Hopefully, this is the only picture we will ever have of the boys in jail. The girls and I hit the zoo while they were gone. I thought Abby would go crazy with all of the animals there (she is a huge animal fan)...but she wasn't too impressed with anything EXCEPT the monkeys - she LOVED them!! It was so much fun to watch her laugh and scream at the monkeys and gorilla. The zoo was insanely busy because it was spring break here...it was like Disney World on a smaller scale. Did I mention that we are potty training Maggie? So, imagine me with a double stroller, standing in quite a few bathroom lines so that we didn't have any accidents - that was fun. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post because I had to borrow a camera (mine was being abused, I mean used, by the boys at the time :-)

Today, we went to a family's home to learn about running a business and tadpoles (I know, I know...2 very different things...I mean, who would have thought you could make money mailing tadpoles?). They run "Ribbits Galore" - shipping tadpoles to kids who have habitats to put their little tadpoles in and watch them grow into frogs. The husband/wife team also have their own toy company, so the kids were able to learn about how to take an "idea" and turn it into a "product". It was pretty amazing. The kids had a GREAT time, but of course, we had to come home with 3 tadpoles of our own...."Yoda, Princess, and R2". Hopefully, they will live longer than a week.

Cardiology Appointment

Well, we went to see Dr. Romp down at UAB on Friday for Abby's cardiology appointment (the picture is of Abby and me before leaving for her appointment - I had to wake her up...she wasn't thrilled). The whole hospital was awesome, and Dr. Romp's office couldn't have been more helpful or professional. Dr. Romp looked over Abby's records that we had received from China. We had an EKG done, and then went to the room for a sonogram to be done on Abby's heart. She was SUCH a big girl!! The only time she cried was when the nurse told her "No M'am" (because Abby was trying to take off the wires they had put on her chest). Bless her heart, she just got her feelings hurt. Dr. Romp said that he could see no trace of an ASD anywhere! He was very thorough and said that the only thing that he could find was a slight mitral valve insufficiency...he said that he wouldn't even have mentioned it except that he was "backing in" to another doctor's diagnosis. So, she has a healthy heart!! We are truly overwhelmed with thankfulness. My heart ached the whole way home because 3 days before our visit, a friend of ours took her little boy (also adopted from China), Kevin, in for an appointment with Dr. Romp. They knew that Kevin had heart issues, but the diagnosis was much worse than anticipated. Kevin has VSD, only one ventrical (a healthy heart has 2), an enlarged heart, and another problem not detected in China. The doctors are not even sure if he is a candidate for surgery because of the severity of his condition. The whole way home, I couldn't get this family off my mind...while we leave Dr. Romp's office with intense joy and thankfulness, our friends were overwhelmed with heartache and just trying to process their emotions. Kevin will be going in for a heart cath on Tuesday - please keep this little guy (and his family) in your prayers. God already worked many miracles to get these children home - healing little Kevin's heart is nothing for Him!

"Hey Mom, I can wink!"

So Abby has been able to wink since we met our little sweetheart, but it still continues to amaze me. I have also posted a picture of Maggie, who (prompted by her DADDY) has decided she is "Maggie Dog"...rapper extraordinaire, singing very loudly to Toby Mac. If her speech therapist could hear her now...

I decided that I am going to answer a question that I seem to be hearing a lot lately. "So, now that you have 5, are you guys done?" As if 2, 3 or 4 children weren't enough, we just had to have another? I would like to say that after Emily was born, we thought we were "done"...But God. I love that phrase. We moved to Birmingham, had 3 awesome kids, a good-size home, Mike had a good job - things were comfortable. But the Lord changed our hearts, and we had the desire for another child. Enter Maggie. We really thought we were "done". But God. We still had a "comfortable life". A little less room but still plenty of room, still had a good job, and now 4 awesome kids. The Lord then changed our hearts again - reminding us how amazingly blessed we are, and reminding us of the 147 million children who don't have a loving family, who don't have "plenty of room", who often don't have enough to eat, who often don't feel safe when they go to sleep at night, and who, most importantly, don't know of an amazing Savior who loves them more than they could ever imagine and who died so that they may know and have life abundant and life eternal. So, are we done? We live our lives for His glory - we feel "done", but our future is entirely in His hands.

"Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'" James 4:13-15

Knocked OUT by the stomach bug...

Haven't posted in a while because we were down for the count...we battled the stomach bug, and the stomach bug won. Emily was the first to fall, then Luke, then Mommy, then Maggie...Mike and Abby just had tummy pains, and just when we thought we were in the clear - down went Drew. Drew is our "immune system of steel" child. So, he got sick once and was done - must be nice. Anyway, we are now back to the grind...ballet, track, piano, school, etc. Boy, are we looking forward to summer!! Here is a picture of the girls, not feeling so well, but LOVING the sing-a-longs on the portable DVD player (THANK you Grammy and Grandpa!:-)

Winter Wonderland...

For all of our awesome Florida friends, here are some pics of Abby's first Alabama snow. For the life of me, I couldn't get her to give me a smile. She seemed to enjoy it a little bit, but you know, I think she would be JUST fine if we moved back to Florida and traded our snow boots for flip flops! The picture without any kiddos in it is of the view from our backyard...

The stupid screw-drivers are back...what have I done?

Thank you!

Okay, either I am losing it (which is quite possible) or someone removed those crazy screw drivers for me, so thank you! :-) I took the toddlers to the pediatrician this morning for a follow-up appointment. Maggie and Abby both don't have giardia - praise the Lord for that! The doctor wants to keep Maggie on a preventative antibiotic for a month because he said her tympanic membrane is not functioning as it should, and he said this would prevent another ear infection and possibly tubes. I am not sure I agree with him - I think she is just stuffy because she came down with a cold yesterday. But, alas, I have not gone to medical school, just "momma" school. So, I will probably go with what he said. After the doctor, we headed to the Social Security Office to apply for Abby's social security number. I took EVERYTHING with me...except for her Chinese passport. Wouldn't you know it? The woman wanted her Chinese passport. Ugh. After explaining that I would be back with the passport AND all FIVE of my children (the big kids were at home with Mimi), somehow she miraculously got everything "fixed" and taken care of. :-)

Attention all you "professional" bloggers out there...

Do you know how to get rid of those crazy screw driver looking things on the side of my blog? Am I the only one who can see them? Hmm....I am sounding like a crazy person, but I was trying "clean" up our blog a bit. I am learning as I go...apparently, I am not learning very fast.

Whoo - hoo!

Well, we just got Abby's Certificate of Citizenship! I took the cutest picture of all the kids with Abby's Certificate to post, and then I noticed that on the Certificate it says in bright red - no photocopies or pictures may be made of this Certificate, punishable by U.S. law. Hm, guess I won't post that picture. :-) We had some friends over the other night that we met in Beijing - they also were there adopting through Holt. It was so great to see them and to see how things are going for them and their little girl, Rinnah. They are from lower Alabama - so, while we were in China, Tim was such a stress reliever with his great sense of humor during difficult times (for example, our bus accident on our way to our consulate appointment...he made us laugh so hard we were able to not think about the consequences of missing our appointment). :-) We are praying that little Rinnah's left eye will just be healed completely. After Tim and Jennifer took Rinnah into the opthamologist, they discovered that she is completely blind in her right eye and her left eye has significant damage. Please keep this sweet family in your prayers.

Our morning...

So this has been our morning...Maggie woke up Abby earlier than Abby likes to be woken up. Result?...cranky Abby. We had a hard time getting into a "school groove", but finally managed to get things together when I hear someone call from the bathroom, "MOM, I was doing my math while I was pooping, and I dropped my pencil in the toilet!!" Seriously? "Can you flush pencils?" I thought to myself...probably not a good idea. We solved the pencil problem (I will spare the details). Then while making Abby a bottle, I hear Maggie and Luke screaming and crying from upstairs. I grab Abby, run up the stairs, only to find that Maggie had been playing too wild with Luke. She had been trying to "play" bite him, and he managed to FALL on top of her - her front tooth gashing his eyelid. After calling the dentist, I was relieved to discover that we will probably not have to make an emergency visit to the dentist or the e.r. this morning (even though Maggie's tooth was bleeding, and Luke has looked better...) Finally, Emily managed to burn her hand on a tray that had been pulled out of the toaster oven. Hm, is it bedtime yet? Ugh, we have just finished lunch. I have thanked the Lord repeatedly for His protection this morning.

Praise the Lord - No Cataracts!!

Whoo-hoo! We won't have to have surgery on these sweet little eyes! Abby's pediatrician had mentioned cloudiness in her right eye (concerned about the onset of cataracts) so we went to see a pediatric opthamologist today. We got great news! He didn't see anything seriously wrong. He did say that she is near-sighted (and said that over 50% of Asians are...who knew?). So, she will probably need glasses when she is three, but we shouldn't need to come back in until then - yea!!

Okay, so I am not smart enough to be able to post 2 pictures in one post? I thought I did that before...???

Learning our likes and dislikes

We have learned that Emily really, really wants to take violin...so much so that she turned a Wiggles guitar into a violin and used a chopstick to play it like a violin. :-) She even got Maggie to join her. We have also learned that Abby really, really likes cake...you might say, what 17 month old doesn't like cake? To that I would say, what 17 month old doesn't like Chick Fil-A or macaroni and cheese? Abby. So, she continues to amaze us and bring even more laughter and joy into this crazy household of monkeys!

Not too good at this...

Okay, so I am horrible about keeping up with this blog stuff. We are home, and I am trying to adjust to life with 2 toddlers...questions - how do I keep up with laundry? Didn't I just sweep the floors 5 minutes ago? Have you finished your math YET? Um, where is Abby? When did she learn to climb the stairs so fast? Good grief, is it 10AM already, and I am still not dressed - UGH. Slowly, we are adjusting. The kids love Abby to death - even when she scratches their faces. She has so much spunk and life - it is absolutely amazing.
The Lord has been using this time, as well as the time on our trip home when Maggie was so gravely ill, to sanctify me. Let me just say, that I never realized how difficult sanctification can be. "How much does this have to hurt, Lord?" was what I kept asking for a while...I am slowly realizing that there are lessons that apparently I am having to learn over and over again. For example, His ways are not my ways. My "plans" must be His "plans" or they are going to get changed. I am learning how to love when the one that I am trying to show love to does not want to be loved, held, or kissed...she just wants to lay on the floor and tantrum. The Lord used that to remind me of all the times that I acted un-lovable, and yet, He loved me anyway. So, all in all, this adoption process has been amazing, and such a joy that I wouldn't trade it for anything.