Sisterhood

Party Success

 

A huge thank you to everyone who came out yesterday to help celebrate

Ian's big day. Needless to say, Ian is now a fan of birthday parties :)

 I believe he will never forget his first one!!

Pictures Worth a Thousand Words

 

Big Day Minus One

Tomorrow we are having Ian's BIG birthday bash. He has never had a birthday party, so we have invited a whole bunch of folks over who helped us pray him home.

The boys were telling Ian about his party (he has no idea what to expect about a party at home), so the boys told him that lots of people were coming to his party. He asked who was coming? The boys said that "everyone was coming!". His eyes lit up with glee and then he asked, "Bible school china friend coming too?". His face was so excited, and then he even remembered his name, "Rob coming to me party tomorrow?"

Sadly I had to answer, no Ian he wishes he could come but Rob won't be here tomorrow. Deflated he simply said, "OK". And we then started naming some other people who would get to be here.

The ironic part is that without Rob, Ian would not be having a party this year. Oh how we wish Rob (Ian's advocate from Bring Me Hope) could be here to spend the day with us. Rob lives in Ireland. I hope he knows how much he stills means to Ian. We are forever grateful to our missing guest :)

Two Less!

My crazy-wonderful-supportive-insane-loving-friend Sharon is going back to China for TWO babies this time around.  I am SO excited for her family.  Pretty sure I have met my "match" in the crazy kid orphan loving department with her ;)

Go read about her newest addition that I got to share in the joy of finding him.  Isn't he so stinking cute?!?!  I love this picture of him learning at his little school.  Sharon is a teacher homeschooling mommy and I think this picture of her new son is quite appropriate :)

Adopters: Must Read

Please if you are an adoptive parent or about to become one, you must click here and go read this detailed blog post.  Truth About Adoption

Here are a few excerpts, but please go read the WHOLE thing!  This my friends is real-life-adoption.

"The house is a disaster. Your bios are huddled up in the corner, begging grandparents to come rescue them. You can’t talk to anyone. Everyone is still beaming at you, asking: “Isn’t this the best thing?? Is this just the happiest time of your life?” You are starving for truth-tellers in adoption. You scour blogs and Yahoo groups, desperate for one morsel of truth, one brave person to say how hard this in and give you a shred of hope. You only find adorable pictures and cute stories, and you despair. You feel so alone. You’ve ruined your life. You’ve ruined your kids’ lives. Your marriage is doomed. Your adopted child hates you. You want to go back to that person pining away in the Pre-Stage and punch her in the liver."

"Is adoption easy? No it is not. Is this simple? Nope. Complicated and long-term. Will bonding be immediate and seamless? Maybe, but probably not. Will you struggle with guilt and fear that first year? Yes, but you shouldn’t. You’ve agreed to partner with God in some difficult, heart-wrenching work, and it’s no kum-by-yah party. Give grace to yourself; God already has."

Together Again

I got to hang out with two of my favorite families from afar on Saturday. Hard to believe if had been a whole year since we have seen each other. Had a great time hanging with the crew and all our crazy kiddos. Thanks Ashley and Beth for a great Saturday of fun!

SO Bad

So off we went to the G0lden C0rral this morning for the humongous breakfast buffet. This is the first time I have ever taken the kids there. There was way more food there than anyone should ever have to choose from-haha.

Then to my horror I see that they are actually serving cotton candy...
for breakfast. OMGoodness that is just SO bad.

So I am sitting here trying to decide which is worse: that a restaurant would offer cotton candy at 9am, or that a mom would actually allow her children eat the cotton candy at breakfast?!?! You decide.

Finally

Today was finally the girls' first day of school! Faith has been asking when she could go back to school since the first week of summer-lol. She loves going to school, I am so thankful that she enjoys her time at school.

Elise is in the big "potty trained" 3 year old class, and Faith gets to go to a young 5 year old kindergarten class. Hoping the girls have a fabulous first day :)

Perfect First Day

All the kids had a fabulous first day of school yesterday!  Everyone was happy and talked and talked about their new classes.  Ian was the most excited child EVER to simply have homework :)  He smiled from ear to ear all evening long talking about school.  I thought I would share a few emails from Ian's teachers about his first day of school:

"Ian had a great first day of school. He is very good at paying attention to his surroundings to try and problem solve. Thank you for sharing his story with us. I look forward to working with Ian and your family this year."

"I did go check on him during lunch today  and he did great with all of the utensils, carton, etc.  He ate everything on his tray and drank every drop of his milk! He followed all the rules and seems to be doing fine. His teachers know I am here if anything comes up in the are of fine motor as it relates to his academics.  What a wonderful story and he is so lucky to be part of such a loving family."

"Thank you very much for all the information about Ian.  It is so helpful to know more about his background and what has worked well with him so far.  Your love and support is such a major component to his success.  He is so lucky to be a part of your family.  Ian’s first day at school was fabulous!  We were so impressed with how he observes the other students to know what to do and how to act even though he might not understand the given directions.  He didn’t seem to even come close to a meltdown, because he was smiling and seemed positive the whole day.  He was a joy to have in the room with us and we look forward to helping and watching him grow!"

So as you can see, I think the first day was a tremendous success.  A big thanks goes out to his school and all the teachers who will help Ian become a great student!

And They're Off

Final Weekend

We enjoyed some swimming and of course some ice cream on this final weekend before school starts in the morning. Tomorrow Caleb will start 7th grade, Travis in 4th grade, Ian will start 3rd grade, and Shelby will be in 1st grade. (Faith and Elise don't start school until Wed)

Everyone seems pretty excited about their first day. Guess we will see how excited they are at 6:30am!?!

I Am His Mom

Today I think I really became his mom. I know I have been his mom officially for 3 months now, but honestly I really haven't "felt" much like his mom...until today.

Attaching with an older child has proved to be much different that attaching with a younger child. You see the younger kids NEED you from the very beginning. You are their source for a their basic needs like food, clothing, bathing, etc. With Ian he has been able to do most of those basic needs himself, therefore no "need" for a mom. So our attachment has been much much slower than my other adoptions. It has really felt a lot like babysitting someone else's child...until today.

Today I was his mom
Today I was his advocate
Today I fought for him
Today I was the one to meet his need
Today I actually FELT like his mom!

The incident today wasn't that grand, (I went to bat for him at his school), but the change inside of me was huge. I was the Moma bear and he was my cub. And everyone knows not to mess with a Moma bear!   Today I became his Mom.

Bye Bye Summer

Hope your summer has been as sweet as ours has this year! Meet and greet at schools tomorrow :)

More than Translation

Ian is starting to really take off with his English. We can communicate pretty well about most things. But today...

Today he asked me to take him to the doctor to "fix hand".

I told him his hand was OK, like Elise's, it was OK, just different. He replied and said, "no like hand, want new big hand".

Some things even a translator can't fix :(

Yep, He's a Straight

Camping Fun

While CJ is busy packing up the camper, we are "working hard" at enjoying our last couple hours at the campground. As you can see, the boys started making their own version of a diving board-lol. Good thing all their Asian siblings are light ;)

Joy of Three

A few more pics showing off the new three year old :)

Camping and Caking

Elise scored a camping trip for her birthday this year! Having fun doing the things we love. Ian thinks camping is the best, and he doesn't seem to understand why we have to go back home tomorrow. If we only had that money tree-lol

My Baby is Three Today

3 years ago her mother held her with tears in her eyes. I can only begin to imagine how he
heartbroken she was that day when she realized that she would be unable to parent her...

Now 3 years later, look at what an incredibly smart, funny, determined, beautiful little girl she has become! Elise is one amazing creature that God has given me the pleasure of being her mother forever. What a gift of life she truly is. Happy Birthday sweet girl!!

Spray Park Fun

We ventured out to the Roswell Spraypark today. Lots of fun for just $1 a kid! Bonus is that the boys get to fish in the Chattahoochee while we play. Win Win

My Babies