Waking up with a Bang.

This morning Caleb came to my bed after his alarm went off, all the other kiddos were still sleeping, when we heard-- Thump, thump on the wall and "My-chul!"

Miss Melia who usually wakes up quietly and chats in her crib for a while. But today she awoke with a BANG. A few nights ago both of the girls had woken up in the middle of the night and I was trying to sooth them back to sleep, but I was unsuccessful so I knocked on the wall that separates our room from the girls and I said "Michael". He came and helped. Melia learned quickly that's how you get things done, so she tried it out this morning. She had us cracking up!

As I was getting out of bed to get her Caleb yelled "Mom there's a bug on your pillow!" Yup, apparently I had been cuddling with a rollie poly.

With a morning like that I was expecting a really crazy day but it's been surprisingly calm. Just lots of coughing, sneezing and watery eyes. Gotta love allergy season.

Birthday Girl

We met uncle John and the kids at the zoo for some birthday fun...

Eating lunch

Running through the garden with sissy.

Munching on a bagel.

Playing with some new toys in the lovely princess costume.

A visit from Bubba and Grammy is always fun....

Look they brought a new slide!

So big!

Fun family night eating birthday cones.

Good, good, good!

This picture should be first but blogger won't let me

move my pictures around...annoying.

Sunday Birthday Party in the Park...

Cheese

I love this picture of Aunt Meg!

The guys wearing the shirt we had made as a fundraiser during the adoption process.

They unintentionally matched. Aren't they cute?

It was very fitting that they wore it on her birthday.

Dan (the brother-in-law on the left) created these shirts for us. We gave him words like....hope, little sister, love, and lots of other stuff and then he filled Africa in with those words.

It's amazing that she's here now and she's so comfortable in our family. I am amazed by

the awesome gift of adoption. I'm blessed beyond belief by all four of my kiddos!!

It's the little things....

Only 5 short months ago we met our sweet girl. I can't imagine our lives without her. She's so amazing. Looking back on how things have changed, I realize that it's the little things that show how well is is attaching.

--She now cries when I walk out of the room, instead of when I walk into the room.

--She usually wakes up talking and singing in her bed, instead of screaming in fear.

--She lets me hold her bottle and plays with my fingers, instead of grabbing her bottle away from me.

--She sleeping through the night, instead of waking up every few hours for hours.

--Calms down quickly when she does wake up, instead of being awake for hours in the middle of the night! (This has made my life so much easier.)

--She laughs all the time.

--She's a little tease and loves to be chased around the house.

I could go on and on. Pretty much she's amazing and I love my little girl so much.

Mother's Day

Children are a heritage from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the children of one’s youth.

Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!

Psalm 127

Children are a blessing from the Lord. Having a house full of them, I don't always act and treat them like that. Earlier this week, I was reading (I mean skimming because of all the little people around me) this article. I don't yell at my kiddos all the time but I am guilty of it sometimes, some days more than others. I took comfort in the fact that it wasn't just me. If there's a New York Times article about it, lots of people must do it:)

As I was thinking about Mother's Day, I decided that I didn't want to get in the rut of focusing on myself and if I was being pampered enough. So, tonight as I was thinking about how much I love being a mom, I really do, even if it's crazy around here. I love being a mom because I have incredible children. Really, they're each individually cool people. They're funny, smart and really cute.

In life I tend to enjoy quality time with people. I love sitting down and having one-on-one conversations, laughing and talking about real things. Well, around here, it's hard to have one-on-one time with anyone. If I'm talking to one kid another one is usually interrupting. If I'm cuddling with one, another one usually joins. I love this, I love that my kids love each other and that we have a quiver full of kids. But sometimes being alone with one is such a blessing.

So, I decided that tomorrow is going to be date day. I'm going to go on a date with each of my kids and spend some quality time with each of them. With Michael coaching 2 soccer teams right now, life is really busy. He's often gone until late at night so there isn't much one-on-one time going on around here. It's more like 4-on-1. Anyway, tomorrow should be fun. I'm excited to hang with each of the kids. I got a good start to my mother's day tonight when Michael and I listened to a sermon and folded lots of laundry together :)

Beautiful Sisters

I received an email from AGCI today about two sisters at Hannah's Hope who need a home. They are 14 and 9 years old and they are so beautiful. Please pray that a loving family would adopt these precious girls and give them a forever home.

If you'd like more info on these girls leave a comment and I can email it to you.

Here's a quote that was in the email update:

Love is extravagant in the price it is willing to pay, the time it is willing to give, the hardships it is willing to endure and the strength it is willing to spend. Love never thinks in terms of "how little" but always in terms of "how much."

~Joni Eareckson-Tada

Pray for a Miracle

Please pray for this family!

They have adopted 2 sweet boys from the Ukraine and are in the process of adopting their son's biological sister, Anastasia.

Here's a blurb from their blog about what's happening:

A Ukrainian family has seen Anastasia (this was not legal) and has visited her (also not legal) and has filed for adoption of her (not. legal. according to what we had been PROMISED by our agency.) The director of the orphanage where she lives told this family that she is spoken for, but they did not care, and have gone forward with trying to adopt her. Now, if it's not legal, you might ask, how can they do it? This is Ukraine, where money and influence talk (and they clearly have both, or they wouldn't have gotten this far), not America, where people who take bribes get in trouble. We should have known this could happen, but we were too busy trusting our agency, believing in a flimsy "legal document" that we signed a year ago, and waiting to make our move (at our agency's instruction.) Our agency's initial response was, we're sorry, there's nothing we can do.

The distressing thing in all of this is that we have absolutely no recourse, except through our agency. And while they are sympathetic, and willing to "ask questions," time is passing, and this other family is DOING something -- they are adopting our child! And we are waiting, waiting, waiting, totally unsure of what will happen. If we do nothing, for sure she is gone. If we move heaven and earth (not even sure how we would do that) she might be gone anyway. Unless God intervenes, it looks very very bleak.

And some specific prayer requests:

• That our letters would reach the family, judge, and director, and be read.


• That God would even now begin working in hearts to give us favor with those whose decisons impact this situation.


• That we will trust God to resolve this situation according to His will, while we earnestly pray that He would clear the way for us to adopt Anastasia!


• That He will protect our hearts from bitterness and doubt.


• That we will go to Him for comfort, and wait patiently in the days, weeks, even months of uncertainty ahead (this is especially hard, as the outcome will forever change our family. I like to plan ahead, and this will have us living in a state of being "on hold" for potentially a long time.)

Our God is powerful! Please pray for this family as they deal with this ridiculously hard situation.