Chinese Festival

 Our local art museum, held their annual birthday celebration.  This year it was China related, so we jumped at the chance to go.  The kids learned how to do traditional Chinese calligraphy.

Hunter really got into this, and was the only one who attempted to do the Chinese characters.  His sisters roots are someone seeping in.

 Hope cracked me up, because when she finished she looked at me with all sincerity, and said, "Look, I wrote Hope just like in Chinese!"  And of course my response was, "Well of course you did baby, and it looks just perfect.  I'm so proud."  And at those words of confirmation, she beamed....Have I mentioned that I love her?

Noelle got into the pottery making.  She made a penguin, which had nothing to do with Chinese culture, but it had everything to do with her interests.  She is so serious.

We finished out our day by having tea with the Chinese emperor, and listening to him tell us about what life is like in China.  Hope looked at him when he finished and said, "That is not the same China I am from."  I guess the China he described is very different from the China an orphan knows.  It makes me anxious to take her back one day and introduce her to her homeland in a different light.  The land that I have fallen so in love with.

One Year With our Hopey

It is hard to imagine that it really has been a year since they walked in with Hope in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.  She ran into our lives with a smile on her face.  She was ready...ready for a family, ready to have fun, ready to have someone pay attention to her, and most importantly, she was ready to be loved.  Our sweet girl ran in that day and ran straight into the arms of her father.  She had arrived, she had a earthly father who scooped her up and made her feel secure and safe.  She just kept staring at him wondering if he was real, or if the idea of a daddy was still just a dream for her.  The expressions and smiles on her face that day is one of the things that will forever be retained in my own memory.  It is almost as if I can hit rewind and watch the scene unfold again and again in my head.  Isn't it such a lovely picture, and picture of how we should all be?  We should all run straight into the arms of our heavenly father realizing that we were chosen, chosen to be adopted by him.  I am so thankful that everyday I get to replay this real life example of Hope's forever family day in my head, so I can be reminded of where to run to....and boy do I need to run there so often.

Surprisingly, adopting an older child has been such a blessing for us.  Hope's adjustment over the last year has been easier than we ever expected it to be.  I kept wondering, when is this all going to fall apart, but it hasn't yet.  She just fits in so perfectly.  She somehow seemed to be our missing link.  She still is everyone's best friend in the house, and with her here, there is just more peace and harmony.  Now, it is definitely louder with Hope around.  I was once watching a video series where a man mentioned that loud children were a good thing because it meant they had life, and to a mom who had lost her children, noise would be something she longed to hear.  So, I try my best to rejoice in all the noise....after all, they are all full of life.  Now that Hope has been home for a year, and is in school, we are starting to see where she struggles.  She is an amazing auditory learner.  She picks up language quickly.  She also figures things out quickly, and remains the tattle tale that her orphanage described her to be.  She also likes to fuss.  It is funny, because after living with our sweet Emily for a year, I got used to the fussing.  When Hope starts it, we call her our mini-Emmy.  Emily of course says she doesn't remember fussing, but the two of them are very similar.  I think God prepared us for Hope by giving us Emily first.  Hope appears to struggle with academic learning.  At this point, she just doesn't see a need, so we are working to point out why she needs to learn.  She still struggles with her fine motor skills because of the mild cerebral palsy, so her writing skills are still lacking, but are improving.  

To us, Hope is, well...PERFECT!  I know she isn't perfect on pen and paper, but she is perfect for us.  I think she has taught me much more than I have taught her.  What a blessing she is to us, and what a blessing she will be to us for many more years to come. I love you my sweet girl...I am glad that you found your way to us....my only regret is that we didn't find each other sooner. 

Little Blessings

The greatest rewards are sometimes the smallest!  A few weeks ago, on a hurried Sunday morning, Paul went out to dump the bacon grease, he came in and got me and showed me a helpless little baby squirrel laying on the ground.  We decided to leave it there while we ate breakfast in hopes that the mom would come to fetch it and put it safely back in the nest which was 40 feet up in the tree.  After breakfast, there it still was, so I scooped it up and warmed up some almond milk for it since that was all I had.  It ate and I put it in a nice warm shoe box while we headed off to church.  At church I told my sweet friend Kim about it, and she texted a friend of hers who has raised them before.  When we got home from church Kim's friend Leigh was already waiting for us.  She took the pitiful baby we had named Squirmy, and vowed to try her hardest.  I really wish I had taken a picture of Squirmy then.  She had little to no hair, and her eyes were still closed.  Two days later, two more baby squirrels came falling from the nest.  By this time, I had located the dead mother in the road, so I drove these two to Leigh too.  We named those Squealy and Scaredy.  Scaredy ended up going to be with Jesus, but the other two are doing great.  So, I promised the kids we would go up to the vet school for a visit if everyone had a good week.  They were so excited for Friday to come so they could go visit the babies.

We were shocked to see that Squealy was this big and climbing all over us!

Hunter took to Squirmy, he had Squirmy curled up in a little ball in his hands for half an hour or so.  Squirmy looks so good and so healthy.

LeeLee enjoyed Squealy.  She loved on her.  Noelle and Hope went on an adventure and found a three legged dog to play with.  I eventually had to drag them and myself out of that place.  It warmed our hearts to see how precious and how well our babies were doing, it was a great reward for a long week!

What is She?

That seems to be the question I get everywhere we go.  Everyone wants to know what she is.  Honestly,  I don't know.  I am real tempted to get a canine DNA test, but I really don't want to invest the money, because it won't really change the fact that she is mine and I adore her.

The original shelter that took her in says that she was a Shih tzu mix.  This is where she was turned in by her owners, so I tend to lean towards that one.  The first vet that saw her, said Schnauzer mix.  The groomer that cleaned her up and shaved her down was convinced she was a Yorkie Poo.  My vet is 100% positive that she is a Shorkie (Shih Tzu/Yorkie mix.)  The groomer I had help to trim around her eyes is also just as positive that she is a Dachshund Poodle mix.  So, the question remains, what is she?

Little miss Pippa is an eight pound ball of goodness and evil all mixed into one.  For the most part, she is the sweetest little dog, laid back and loving.  Always looking for a lap just to curl up in.  However, she doesn't like to share much.  She doesn't really want to share me, and she is not going to share food or bones.  We are taking the dog whisperer approach to her negatives, so hopefully she will learn soon.  She has been just what I needed!  My heart is still broken in ways I can't even express, but Pippa helps make each day a little brighter.  How could it not warm your heart to come home to this precious little face waiting at the end of the bed for me?

He Lives!

Of course Jesus lives, but Hunter is finally among the living.  I cut his hair last night, made him take a shower, and picked out his clothes before he went to bed.  He was finally going to start school, so today is Hunter's first day of 3rd grade.  I can't believe how big he is for a third grader.  Finding him shoes this year is a challenge as he is in between a kids shoe, and a man's shoe.  He just has big feet.

I pray that he is a blessing this year to his teacher and the students around him.  He has such an amazing heart, and I can't wait to watch it mature over this challenging year.

A New Home

Not a new home for us, but a new home for our sweet ducks.  It is crazy how attached we have become to Cole, Sam, and Ducky Duck.  (Turns out Cole is not really an appropriate name seeing as he is really a she.)  Hunter has been their primary care giver, so when he got sick, we knew it was time for the ducks to move to a new location.  So last night after the girls first day of school, we took the ducks to our friends house.  Mr. Ernest graciously offered to let our ducks live on his lake.

Hunter one by one got them out of the storage container, and helped them find their way to the water.

All the kids seemed a little sad, but the good news is, we will get to visit them often.

We pray that our ducks blend well with the six ducks that already call this pond their home.  Our weakest duck was being picked on when we left, but we got a sweet call to the children letting them know that all the ducks were doing well.

Back to School-2011

The anticipation and excitement has been at an all time high in our house for the first day of school.  Our back to school shopping was done, book bags have been lining the hall for days, and lunch items had been purchased.  The girls were just missing one thing, first day of school outfits.  As always, I left it until the last minute, so as they ventured off into dream land, I got to sewing.  So, they woke up to three brand new outfits for the first day.....that gave me the smiles I love to see, and I even got hugs!

What was even better, is that they all fit.  Trying to adjust sizes on sleeping children is not easy.

Can I just say, that I love that they LOVE to match?  I would make them all something different, but they love to dress alike.  This is one of the things that makes my mommy heart smile, because they truly see each other as sisters.  We had even bought three different types of tennis shoes, and I could sense that  none of them were overly happy with theirs, but then we found these, and they all loved them.  So even their shoes for the year match (we returned the others).

One of my hardest decisions as a parent has been whether or not to send Hope to school, and if we did, what grade we should put her in.  She should be in second, but of course is so far behind.  We decided to send her to first, so I am praying that the Lord will bless this decision.  On meet your teacher night, her sweet teacher came to her and said, "I'm Miss Gorman."  Hope shook her hand, looked directly at her, and said, "I'm Miss Hope."

 This is Noelle's last year at Dean Road.  It is tough for me to swallow that I have a 5th grader.  She is such a mature young lady, and I know that she will blossom at school as she always does.

Then, there is LeeLee.  What can I say about her?  I was fine about school starting for everyone but her.  Even though my LeeLee is firecracker, and keeps me on my toes, she is also my baby.  I figure she will be teaching the class soon.  It won't take her long to figure out how to manipulate every situation to her advantage.  I pray her young teacher is on her toes, or she won't even see it coming.

Look at the smiles....it is if they are excited to leave me or something.  I did some last minute begging for them to stay home with me another year, but it wasn't received to well.

We took Hope to her class first.  She unpacked her backpack, and put up her lunch box.  Then on the way to her seat, she panicked  because she couldn't remember what she had done with her lunchbox.  We reminded her that she had put it in her cubby, then all was well in her world.

LeeLee walked into her room like she was already in charge.  The other kids looked terrified, and LeeLee was already working her teacher over.  Paul and I sat at the door and just laughed about it.  I'm just hoping she can at least make it through the first day without getting into trouble.

Did you figure out yet that someone was missing?  My boy obviously needed some alone time with his momma, because he decided to catch the Chinese crud that Noelle brought back from our trip.  It has made its way through all the kids.  Our little Pippa has loved that we have had sick kids for over two weeks now, she has had a constant companion to snuggle with.  We are praying that she won't have this bed mate for long!