Ready for Spring

The past two weeks have been a little busy.

We have been super busy around here. Some of you have told me that reading my blog makes you tired, and the past couple weeks should definitely make you want a nap. We (different family members, but I have been present for each visit) have seen 3 different doctors, an audiologist, speech therapist, early intervention coordinator, and visited the county preschool to inquire about services for next year. Ben has had an all day field trip (where he says he saw bears and Kentucky wildcats and climbed 16 mountains) and ridden the bus home for the first time. Kate has spoken about a half dozen new words, including bowl, ice, hide, Paul, yellow hay, hat Bob (as in Bob the Builder), and bad mama (she learned that little jewel from Will). She is also blowing bubbles, which is a HUGE deal. She has worked so hard on that. Will (in addition to teaching his sister unfortunate phrases) has been his usual funny self, playing with his imaginary bullies - that will be a story for another day. We have been to visit my family in P-ville, and Tim is in Chicago with Alex and the Jesus People, getting ready for his student mission trip in the summer.

But perhaps the best story of the week is from Kate. Yesterday she came into the kitchen and signed "potty". I said "Yes, Will is using the potty upstairs." She signed "diaper". I said, "Oh! You have to go to the potty?" "Yes". Ok, well then let's do it.

I had to go outside to get the potty because we hadn't even brought it in yet. I set it up in the kitchen so that she could sit while I ate my lunch. I knew that this could take awhile, and I wasn't sure how long her attention would last. She sat there for about 15 minutes chatting with me. I would occasionally ask if she was done, and she would say no. Then I hear her say, "Hello, poo poo!" Sure enough. There it was! The boys came running in so that we could celebrate. We called Da (that's what Kate calls Tim) to give him the good news. We are very proud of our little girl, and the boys are excited to learn a new phrase to drive me nuts at the kitchen table (hello, poo poo- I can hear them downstairs saying it right now). I don't know if she will do it again, ever, but we had a great moment of success. Yay, Kate!

As for the next two weeks, we have more doctors appointments (and dentists - did I mention I had a filling fall out last night?), ST, and regular school stuff. T-ball starts for the boys next Saturday, which is also when I am supposed to have a yard sale and go to a Derby party. That is also the weekend that the candidate for our senior pastor will be at our church. Maybe I need to start the week with a nap?

So, this is my new normal. I have to say though that I am incredibly thankful for all of the busyness (well, maybe not the tooth thing) because it just means I have more blessings than I can count. Amen?

My Sons!!!

No, not my sons. My sons' sons. I may be too young for grandchildren, but apparently I am not too young for grand-stuffed animals. Confused yet? Let me back up a bit for you.

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out the boys rooms. Not just cleaning up, but cleaning OUT. I was getting rid of out-grown, worn-out clothes and shoes, toys that were buried under heaps of closet junk, and stuffed animals that the boys don't play with very often. I had Ben and Will help me by showing me what their favorite animals were. We wouldn't want to get rid of our beloved stuffed lizard, now would we?

Anyway, after we were done, I was making a pile of animals that I was either going to give away or sell in a yard sale. Will comes running into the room screaming, "MY SONS! MY SONS! DON'T GIVE AWAY MY SONS!!!" It took everything in me not to laugh my head off. But I was good. I said, "OK, show me which ones are your sons so that I don't get rid of them." We were safe because the ones he pointed out were in the keep pile anyway. Phew. That was a close one (for him anyway).

A few days later, the boys were going to my Dad's for a few days, and I told them to pack the toys they wanted to take, but only one stuffed animal each. Will worried and fretted over which "son" to take, finally deciding on his Elmo. He told me he was worried about Grover though. (Yes, your adorable pal Grover.) According to Will, "Gwover has been thwowing up thwee times a day, and he is vewy sick. Aftew he eats wunch, he will thwow up, and you have to give him a bath and cwean him up." Well, since I was apparently Grover's grandmother, I assured him that I would take care of him and put him to bed so he could get healthy.

I thought that would be the end of it, but poor Grover has been throwing up repeatedly ever since. When the boys are supposed to be in bed asleep, I hear Will say, "Mommy, Gwover thwew up in my bed and you need to cwean it up." Uh-huh. Yeah, right. Or when I am busy doing something I will hear, "Mommy, Gwover thwew up in evewy woom downstaiws. You've got to come hehp us!'

Our friends who were here the other night suggested that Grover might need to see a doctor. I am starting to wonder myself.

Easter!

(For those of you who read Tim's blog, the pics will be a repeat. But I am sure you will get over it:)

I have been trying to write a lengthy post about Easter and spring, but Number 3 seems to think it is her job to type. While this may be fun for her, it isn't really helpful for me. So I will post cute pictures of my children instead. Oh well, maybe I will try again later.

I have learned that the more children involved in the picture, the harder it is to get them to all smile at the same time.

Random Moments that Make Me Smile

Today I let Kate watch Handy Manny (he is a bilingual tool man, for those non-parents in the crowd). I plopped her on the couch and said, "Do you want to watch Handy Manny?" as I turned it on. Her response? She waved at Manny and said, "Hola!" (Hello, in Spanish, for those non-Spanish speakers in the crowd.) OK, so it was more like "Oh-wa!", but I will take a laugh where I can get it:)

Every time the commercial for the I-Phone comes on, Kate gets very excited and repeats "Phone! Hello?" over and over. Do you think she is dropping hints for her birthday?

Ben is my movie man. He LOVES movies. (Wonder where he gets that from?) His Dad took him to see Madagascar 2, and when he got home I asked him if it was better than the first one. He replied, "Yes, it was. In the first one, there weren't any bad guys, and the ending was both happy and sad. In the second one, there was a bad guy, and the ending was just happy. So it was definitely better." So just in case you ever wondered what is important to a 6 year old, apparently it is bad guys and happy endings.

Yesterday I was asking Will to use his fork for the bazillionth time. I pointed out that while his hands were functional, they are not utensils. He countered back, "But they are! They are really sporks. See? The fingers are the fork part, and this part (his palms) is the spoon part. Spork!" How do you even argue with that logic?

I'm so thankful...

As many of you know, Tim and I started out in the non-special needs line to adopt from China. At the time, NSN adoptions were taking about 6 months. We didn't really research Special Needs adoption very much, largely because we were uneducated about it, but also because we didn't like the way our agency handled SN adoptions at the time. Plus, Will was still an infant, and I couldn't imagine taking care of a one-year-old Will and a special needs child at the same time.

I won't get into all of the reasons why the NSN line slowed down, but it did, and two years after our log-in date of March 7, 2006, we found ourselves re-evaluating our decision. First of all, Will was 3, not under 1, and that changed things. Second, it no longer made sense to us to insist that our child be 18 months old or younger. Third, our agency changed the way that they handled SN adoptions. At first those changes seemed scary, but we soon discovered that we were comfortable with those changes. And we love the SN director... She is great:)

Last, we had two whole years to research various special needs, read the files of children that our agency were representing, and read blog after blog that described the day to day lives of families who had adopted both special needs and non-special needs children. Basically, I learned that adopting a non-special needs child did NOT mean that the child would not have things to work through. It did not decrease the possibility of attachment/bonding issues, and sometimes there was a special need that did not manifest until the family was home with the child. In other words, there was no guarantee. We had known this... I mean, there are no guarantees with biological children either, so why should we expect one with an adopted child? Evidently we are very slow learners, because it took us more than 2 years of waiting for us to understand all of this. But God was definitely trying to teach us. Thankfully He was patient.

This time last year, we filled out a special needs checklist and sent it to our agency. We met with our social worker, and she approved us to adopt a special needs child. In July, we were finally matched with Su Xu Na from Suzhou, China, and we were overjoyed to show her precious picture to everyone we knew. She was (at the time) 20 months old and had a repaired cleft lip and an unrepaired cleft palate. And she was the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen. We met her in October, and she has been the perfect addition to our family. As I type, she and Will are dancing around the house with their Elmo dolls singing some song that they made up about Elmo. She is a joy.

So, why am I bringing all of this up??? Because yesterday, April 3, 2009, the families who had a LID of March 7, 2006, received their referrals. After 3 years and 27 days of waiting, they finally saw the faces of their children. I want to congratulate everyone who was in this batch, and I pray that you will be blessed. But I also want to express my thanks to God, who led us to Kate NaNa, despite our ignorance and our stubbornness. He is good. All the time. And I am sooo glad we are not just now seeing our daughter's face for the first time.

God Things

Don't you just love it when God puts things in place in such a way that you just have to smile? Or maybe jump up and down? As you know, I am a blog junkie, and today I stumbled upon two blogs that had really cool stories, and I just had to share. I don't know these people personally, but I found their blogs through other blogs or forums.

The first one is the story of a family who is bringing home baby number 9 (seriously? - wow). They recently found out that their daughter who is waiting in China is receiving treatment from the ONE doctor in China who their American doctor recommended. Believe me when I tell you that waiting parents have absolutely NO control over this sort of thing. This was definitely a God thing. Very cool.

The second one is about a lady who bought some gifts to donate to an organization in China. Fast forward to when she receives an update about her daughter from the orphanage... there is a picture in the update of her waiting daughter wearing the EXACT sweatshirt that she sent. Somehow it made its way to her daughter. That is amazing to me. God thing.

So, what God things have you all seen lately? Anyone want to share?