I Don't See It

I get so many comments from people that Hope really favors LeeLee. I don't think so. They are both uniquely beautiful, but they have no similarities except for the fact that they are both Chinese. Hope's eyes point up, LeeLee's eyes point down. LeeLee has the round face, and Hope's face is long and narrow. When Hope smiles, she shows all her gums, LeeLee doesn't show any. LeeLee has broader shoulders and is more compact. Hope is long and slender (not that LeeLee isn't thin too!) They are developing into not only sisters, but friends. It has been fun to watch LeeLee be so protective and helpful to Hope. I am convinced that God has his hand in every step of this. Even though LeeLee led the prayers for being able to bring Hope home, we didn't believe she would be willing to share her spotlight. She has graciously shared, and I am proud of the good work that God is doing in her life.

Simplistic Beauty

So, I get out the camera so that I can take pictures of Hope's legs. I have gotten lots of emails from friends and fellow potential adoptive parents asking about Hope's leg situation. I thought instead of just trying to answer all the emails that I could just post some pictures and explain here. But in typical Hope fashion she wanted to model first before I took pictures of just her legs. Honestly she takes my breath away! She has the most simplistic beauty, and the most radiant smile. So after a few "modeling shots" I was able to capture some leg shots. In the picture below you can see that the leg on the left (her right leg), is smaller than the leg on the right (her left leg). The bone on the leg on the left also bows out more, because the bone now has a curve in it to try and compensate for the difference in leg lengths. This all starts at the hip. Her knee cap on her right leg is below the one on her left leg. I included the picture below to show you what the difference in leg lengths are now. You can see that her right leg sticks out further than the left. It would stick out even further if the bone on the right leg was straight. We start physical therapy today, so we shall see what the recommendations are.

A Glimpse of Hope's Life

We are blessed to have been provided with pictures of Hope's life inside the orphanage. These pictures are priceless as they include her best friends. They are such a part of her life, and as long as she can still speak Chinese, we will allow her to call back and talk to them.

Our biggest prayer is that all of these kids would find there way into families of their own.

These are the precious younger children that Hope helped to care for. We sent money for them to buy her a cake to share with friends so they could all celebrate together before Hope left. When the staff threw her party they decided to gather together all the children who had families coming for them. Each of these precious children will soon have a family.

However, only one of these is getting the chance of a family. The other three will be left behind. As of now, no one is coming for them. No one is willing to call them their son. Because they are older and have special needs, they are left behind.

This picture breaks my heart because here are these precious children who all dream of a family looking at our photo album. Hope has the joy in this picture of knowing that she was chosen. She gets to see pictures of us, our home, her room, our vacations, and our pets. The other children get continue to dream of those things. Do you have room in your heart and your home for one of these precious children? If you feel God pulling at your heart, then please answer the call.

Homework, Homework, Homework!

Hope is so excited when Noelle and Hunter come home from school that she doesn't want to leave their side. Unfortunately, they both have tons of homework and have to work after they get home. This is our new normal for doing homework. Hope just stays behind them and tries to help out anytime she can. She keeps a smile on her face and motivates them to finish so they can make her happier by playing. It is super sweet how much they all love Hope. I am so glad they are not disappointed with what they prayed so hard for.

I'm Raising a Redneck!

I think I'm raising a redneck, and I love him! Hunter loves the outdoors. He thrives when he is fishing or hunting for something. He worked hard and helped me do some things to earn money for a live animal trap. He was so excited when he finally got it. He baited it with hamster food hoping to catch a squirrel. Instead he caught the cutest little chipmunk. This is the very next day. My theory was that this was the same chipmunk that decided it was worth it to get the food. Then during the Auburn vs. Arkansas game, another (or the same not so smart one) chipmunk was caught. He had to wait for Hunter to return from the game to set him free. I have now quit taking pictures of the chipmunks. He is having good luck with them and it is fun to watch Paul scream when he walks in a sees a chipmunk on the kitchen counter. Sometimes it is hard to promote the things Hunter is interested in, but this one, I don't mind.

So...Here is How it's Going

When I went into an older child adoption I clung to the blogs of those that had gone before me. I prepared myself for some of the nightmare situations I read, but of course I prayed for the best. I also promised myself that I would be as real as possible after I returned home so that others could learn from our experience. I am happy to report that this whole experience has exceeded our expectations in every way possible.

Hope is a joy! She walked into our home like she as always been here. She immediately took to her brother and sisters and loves them to death. She has overcome her fear of dogs, it only took three days. Now she carries Lulu around and tries to feed Rags from the table. She was thrown into life at full speed once she arrived. Of course an initiation to living in Auburn would be meeting Aubie, which she was thrilled to do. I think Auburn has their newest fan.

We have been working on English skills. She still speaks to us in Chinese, and when we don't get it, she will repeat it louder and slower. We bust out laughing when she does this. Hope is picking up some English words and here are a few common ones that she uses

• Come here
• Hunter quit
• ByeBye
• Well Hello
• LeeLee, are you okay
• Momma, I okay
• Milk please
• thank you
• and my personal favorite, "Momma, I gotta go potty"

We have been working on writing her name. This has been a big challenge seeing as she has no hand preference, and was writing bad with both hands. Imagine my surprise when she spontaneously wrote her name on her doodle board. I am one proud momma. She is willing to sit and work on things for as long as I will work with her. Which is a good thing, since she has a lot to learn to catch up and be reading for first grade in the fall. She just like the others has a favorite reward, icees from Sam's Club.

Most of you know, we took a leap of faith when accepting Hope's referral. Her file stated that she was mentally delayed, and from the sound of the file that she would most likely be extremely slow. We were prepared for this, and knew that no matter what her condition, she was our daughter. I had received two videos of her while we were waiting, and while I was able to see some sensory issues, I never saw in my professional opinion much mental delay. I also noticed that she had an awkward gate in the video, that to an untrained eye was almost unnoticeable.

Now that we have Hope, we are able to see for ourselves that the mental delay doesn't exist. She is smart and has exceptional reasoning skills for her age. She however does have the awkward gate. She is very spastic, like a child with Cerebral Palsy. I was prepared for this after watching her videos, so this hasn't been a surprise at all. We will be seeing a neurologist soon to determine if it is CP or not. Also, her right leg is longer than her left. None of this was mentioned in her file, so we are trying to sort all of this out now. We start physical therapy and occupational therapy on Wednesday. I am sure there will also be an orthopedist in our future too.

We also have one other concern that we will be seeing the Dermatologist for on November 8th. She has a spot on her finger that our doctor feels may be cancerous. She also has one coming up on her back that is much fainter that is about the size of the palm of my hand. Please pray that this is not cancerous!!

We let Hope call her nanny again. This time all of her friends were right there and one by one Hope was able to talk to them. She smiled so big and was so excited to get to talk to all of them. I have pictures of them all now, so it was neat to put a face to a sweet voices coming through the computer. She loves all her friends that were left behind so much. We know that one of them will have a home as we are in contact with his family. But she has many more precious friends that were left behind with no family on the horizon. Please pray for these precious friends that are still in the orphanage. They all desire to have families of their own. The picture above isn't by any means a great picture, however it is one that makes me smile. These are my kiddos enjoying each other on a Saturday morning curled up in my bed watching cartoons. Doesn't she look like she was meant to be there all along?

Home....Safe and Sound

After twenty-one hours of travel time, our family was finally united at the Atlanta airport. What a wonderful sight to see my kids waiting for us. I missed them so much! Mr. Toby drove my Suburban to the airport, and my mom drove my kids in her car. Once we arrived in Atlanta, we all headed to Chick-fil-a to eat. How exciting it was to all be at one table. We decided the international language was laughter, because there was a lot of that. My two big kids took to Hope the best. LeeLee is being a bit more reserved, trying to figure out exactly how Hope is going to affect our relationship. LeeLee has nothing to worry about, she will still get special time with just mommy. I can't imagine not having my precious LeeLee time. This is Shiloh, or as Hope knows her, Hong Mei. They were waiting at the airport too. Shiloh is from Hope's orphanage, and Hope knew her well. Hope knows all the babies. She loves the younger kids, and was so happy to see Hong Mei. I think it was good for her to see that when kids leave the orphanage, that they are still doing well months later. I am thankful to Kim and her family for making the effort to be at the airport to see Emma (the Sisler's daughter) and Hope home.

Last night went really well. We all made it to bed around 11 o'clock. That would be after she decided she hated dogs. (We will have to work on that one!) I slept up in the room with the girls thinking that she might wake up confused and out of sorts because of the 13 hour time change. However, everyone slept until 6 a.m. Now everyone is up playing and getting to know each other.

Please rejoice with us that our family is together and well! Rejoice that Hope seems to love our home and her new family. Please pray with us that this transition continues to go well. Also, pray that Hope overcomes her fear of the dogs.