Friday Fun March 16th!

Hard to believe it's already March!! Last year at this time I was in the final stages of paperwork prep for my trip to China! As we approach the one year anniversary of being united with Elise, it's amazing to think about how far we've come! Not only with Elise, but everything that happened to our family as a whole. I'm happy to report things have calmed down quit a bit! 

A recap: In March of 2011 our house sold (which we had been trying to sell for a year!) We moved into a rental house in April. Tom accepted a new job in May. I went to
China in May. We bought a new house in June. We moved AGAIN in July!! All of that while adjusting to a 4th child, and helping her adjust to life with a family.... life was a little CRAZY!!

Things are much calmer, except for the 2 yr old and 3 yr old running wild around the house, making messes with whatever they can get their hands on!! 

Here's a few pics to show you how the girls and I spend our days while Tom's at work and the boys are at school!

The girls LOVE to make me laugh!!

We pretend to be camping.... only indoors, because that's more fun!

 I work as a personal Trainer, the girls like to help train people too! They are great weights to make training harder!

The girls go to school one day a week! They LOVE CMO.... and so does mommy!! The girls are ready to go with their lunch boxes!

We spend a lot of time in the car! So, this is how we roll....... headphones on (watching Mickey Mouse) sippy cup, snack & blankie!

Friday Fun!!!

Today we spent the morning at Chuckee Cheese to help my niece, Lindsey, celebrate her 4th birthday! It was fun to celebrate with her! She's a little miracle baby, who's not so little any more! Born 8 weeks early and weighing in under 5 lbs.... you'd never know it now!! Thanks Lindsey for asking us to come help you celebrate! The girls are so blessed to have a cousin their age!! We thank God for your miracle arrival and how you've grown and blossomed in the last 4 years!!  Now, watch out world, these three girls will keep all of us hopping as they grow up together!!! Ages 4, 3, and 2!! Little stair steps! With a whole lot of energy!

Wordless FRIDAY! February 17th 2012

 Play date at the Commons indoor Playground

So, the following pic deserves some explanation. Emmie has been waking up in the middle of the night and NOT wanting to go back to sleep. I told her she had to stay in bed, look at books and she was NOT allowed to come wake me up!...... Well, she did not wake me up, but she did NOT stay in bed either! She found sharpies, a black one and a red one, she let the dogs out of their kennels, she colored on herself (after stripping down to her birthday suit), she colored on the dogs and she colored on a chair. This is what I found when I went to wake her up the following morning .........

A pleasantly warm winter day!! Which hardly ever happens around here!!

 

Birthday letter to a Birth Mother I'll Never Meet.....

OK, so I've missed Wordless Wednesday the last 2 weeks :-)  I'll be more proactive this week!!

(typed all of this on Elise's birthday, Saturday February 4th)
So today Elise turns 2!!!!! I can't believe it! We waited for her for so long. At times the wait was painful, frustrating and seemed never ending. And now she's here! She's been here for over 7 months. It seems like yesterday I was opening up the email to see her face for the first time, then hoping on a plane 8 months later to go get her, then holding her for the first time, and bringing her home to her forever family and placing her in the arms of her daddy! Feeling so blessed by this amazing journey, amazing daughter, and an amazing God who orchestrated the whole thing!

There is also a mother out there somewhere who is remembering this day a little different than me. She remembers laboring and delivering a beautiful baby girl that she could not keep. She remembers holding her crying newborn baby and soothing her. She remembers staring at every inch of this baby girl and trying to memorize it. She needed to burn the image of her baby in her mind, because tomorrow she would not see this baby anymore. Maybe she begged her husband to let her keep the baby, maybe she named this tiny little girl she held so close, maybe she sang the baby to sleep......

My mind can go on and on imagining the joy she felt holding her baby and the pain she felt knowing what laid ahead. Sometime in the night of February 4th, she wrapped her baby in a blanket, she said goodbye to her precious baby and she, or someone she knew placed the baby at the gates of the Poyang SWI.

I wish I could tell her all about the baby girl she gave up. If I could, this is what I'd say......

Dear Birth Mother,

I wish I could tell you that she is doing great. That she is in the US, in a small town in the state of Indiana. She has a family with 2 brothers and 1 sister. She has a mom and a dad, and a huge extended family, and all of them love her very much!

I would tell you that Elise is happy, playful and full of energy! She smiles all the time! She smiles so big her eyes disappear! Her laugh is contagious. She walks, runs, and even skips! She talks nonstop :-) She LOVES food! She loves to play with her brothers and sister. She loves playing with sidewalk chalk, her power wheels jeep and baby dolls. She is very attached to her bear blankey. She is terrified of animals. She weighs 28 lbs now! She is growing like a weed! She has a great life full of everything she needs, and most of what she wants.

She was the missing piece to our family. We love her so much and can't imagine our lives without her! We are forever grateful for your sacrifice. You gave up something so dear and precious to you, in hopes that she would have a better life. Because of your sacrifice, we have been forever blessed with a daughter!

Thank you,
Tracy/adoptive mother

Wordless Wednesday..... January 18, 2012

Pics from our fun Birthday Lunch/Play Date with Cinnamon, Jacob & Claire!! Thanks guys for helping to make my birthday special!!

Birthday Traditions!!..... Daddy's and their Daughters

So, lots of birthdays going on around here! January 12th is my grandmother's birthday. We celebrated her 87th birthday! January 15th is Emmie's birthday, she was 3. January 16th is my Bday, we won't mention my age! And January 17 is my mother's birthday. Then we do it all over again in February starting on the 4th with Elise's 2nd birthday. February 20th is my sister, and February 23rd is my niece Lindsey who will be 4. WOW!! That's a a lot of birthdays in only 5 weeks!

Birthday traditions that started when I was a kid and I'm continuing with my own children have been fun. One is your birthday dinner! You get to pick what we eat on your birthday, sometimes its the restaurant of your choice, sometimes it's Mom's cooking of your choice, but either way, if its your birthday, then you get to pick it!!

There's one birthday tradition that my dad started many years ago with his daughters. He ALWAYS brought us flowers on our birthday. I can't remember a time when he didn't. Some of my youngest memories are of my birthday, and I always remember getting flowers! My dad usually had to work on my birthday, unless it fell on a weekend, so I mostly remember him coming home from work with flowers for me. Nothing makes you feel special like flowers on your birthday! Especially when you are a kid! It made a lasting impression on me. I'm not sure why, but it was important enough that I've asked my husband to carry on the tradition with our daughters!

So, Saturday night Tom surprised Emmie with flowers. It was the sweetest thing! She was so excited! She told me all evening as she watched me make her birthday cake, "These are Emmie's flowers Mommy!" Makes me happy to see her so happy.

I think I just really want Tom to hold the bar high for our girls. I want them to expect to be treated like a queen when they go out on a date, because their Daddy treats them like a queen. I want them to never settle for someone who doesn't treat them the way a lady should be treated, and I know we, especially Tom, has to start laying that foundation now! The relationship they have with their dad will establish a guide for them as they maneuver though other relationships with boys.

 My B-Day flowers from my Dad

 Emmie's cake & Flowers

 Emmie with her horse cake (which she requested) & below are her roses from her Daddy!

I'm very thankful for my relationship with my dad, and I'm very thankful for an awesome husband who is a hands-on dad! He's a great father, and very affectionate with his kids. I'm blessed to have him as the father of my kids!!

Wordless Wednesday.... 1 day late!!

This was a look back at a few pics from October, November & December... next week, New Pics!!