A picture is worth a thousand words, right??

I hope so because I am beat!! I am just too tired to post all the scary details so I will just let the pictures speak for me!! Happy Halloween!

On Thursday we went to the Pumpkin Patch. I know, I know we waited way late to go but hey at least it wasn't the day before Halloween!! Hehe!















The kid's pumpkin pics!











It was a fun day!



Halloween














The party at the clubhouse


Where Em won first prize in the costume contest. She burst into tears!! You won baby girl!!


Trick or Treating




The horrible Halloween aftermath! Scary!!

Adoption Photos

The new carnival over at Grown In My Heart is all about beloved adoption pics. I LOVE taking pics and I LOVE having pics so this is a great topic for me. All I need now is a good camera and my kids wouldn't be able to stand me!! Years from now, they won't be able to remember what my face looked like without a camera in front of it!! Hehe!! Anyway, I hope you go on over to Grown In My Heart an join in!!

My first moments with Lizzie after waiting what seemed like a lifetime for her!



Sisters getting to know each other.



The first hint of a smile.



Daddy's girls!!



This one is probably one of my favorites. This was taken after we had been to visit Lizzie's orphanage. It was an important visit but a hard one, especially for Lizzie. She would not let the nannies get close to her and would scream and cry if one of them tried to take her from me. It was extremely emotional for all of us. As we got on the bus to leave, I sat down with Lizzie and just kind of offhandedly told Lizzie to wave bye bye. She had never said bye bye (or much else) and had certainly never waved bye bye. Well, as soon as those words left my mouth, our amazing Lizzie stood up on the seat, smiled like I had never seen her smile and started waving and saying bye bye, over and over and over!!! It was honestly like a weight had been lifted from her and she changed after that day. I did too because I knew at that moment that we were going to be ok!!!!



This was our last day in China. It was "shades of things to come" with our partners in crime! Hehe!!



Our sweet girl today...



and her partner in crime!!!



She is so loved and we are so blessed!!!

12 years ago today...

Twelve years ago today our adventure began, our adventure into parenting, that is!! Little did we know the flood gates that were being opened as our very first beautiful baby boy entered this world. I was never a "baby" person. Hubby and I joked about the fact that he could remember people by what cars they drove and I could remember people by what dogs they had! It made for some interesting conversations that went something like this, "Have you met the Jones'?" "I am not sure. Who are they?" "You know, the ones that drive the black Ford Escape and the 1996 red Honda Accord with the bumper sticker that says, Can you fix my husband? He says he's broke!" "Oh, you mean the ones that have the black poodle and the brown shepherd mix!" "Yep, I have met them and their pups are so cute!!" Hehe!!! Anyway, you see, I just did not notice babies or talk about babies or think about babies very much, until...



This one came along!!! The moment I looked in his beautiful big eyes and he smiled at me (I know it was probably gas but hey it was a smile!!!!), I was hooked!!! I was completely blown away by all the intense feelings of love and worry and protectiveness and joy that I was experiencing. It honestly caught me by surprize and shaped the path of our next 12 years. So, my sweet boy, it is all your fault!!!! Hehe!!!

You and your curls!!



You made it easy. You loved being a big brother...



and couldn't wait for a sister...



which lead to another sister...



and now here we are, 12 years and 5 kids later and you are a pre-teen today!!! Wow!! We are so proud of you. You are smart, funny, a soccer star, very resposible and so incredibly loving and instinctvely nurturing. You are so much more comfortable with yourself than I think I am with myself even now!! Happy Birthday sweetheart. Just remember as you become an official teenager next year, I expect to be able to write the same nice stuff about you then - get it!!!! Hehe!!! Love you!!

Just say no!!

This week at school is Red Ribbon week, aka drug awareness week. I thought I would post a video that my 9 year old produced for a project at school last year about drugs. It was actually about why the government should not legalize drugs but it was too funny not to share!! Enjoy!!

Waiting Children - updated

Guess what???? The precious little boy on CWA's waiting child list may have a family and sweet Josie is now "on hold" - see "Beautiful Children Who Wait" post. YAY!!!!! Thank you God!! Beautiful Anna, however, still waits. I honestly do not understand why she has waited for so long and still waits. Please help to spread the word about her as I am very worried that her file may be sent back to China soon. She is so cute and those who have posted about meeting her, say that she is very sweet and simply adorable. Again, she is at Small World Adoptions and their website is www.swa.net. Please help this wonderful little one who just turned 2 in July.

Tonight, hopefully, 2 more children have found their families. Tomorrow, I pray it will be 3!!!

Hats!!

Shopping with the girls is always an adventure and never, ever dull - no matter how hard I try!!! Hehe!! Today we had to brave Target (a dangerous place for this Mommie, especially with her partners in crime, I mean daughters, in tow) to get a birthday present for some great big 11 year old who is about to turn into an official (gulp) pre-teen!!!!! Anyway, the girls spent part of the time telling each other how much they loved each other (awwww) and part of the time picking out all the baby stuff and clothes they would buy for their babies (yikes) and part of the time trying on hats.





Lots of hats...









and sometimes, multiple hats...



and finally, the cutain call!!!



Like I said, never a dull moment! Thank you girls for turning something so mundane into something so fun and not even one whiney fit!! We might just have to do that more often, unless hubby throws a whiney fit!!! Hehe!!!

Beautiful Children Who Wait....

Since Lizzie's adoption and actually traveling to China and seeing first hand the beautiful children who wait and who may forever wait, I am forever changed. As our plane left Hong Kong that June morning and I held our precious new daughter close to me, I realized that a little piece of my heart had been left behind. Left with all the other precious children who still wait. As I held Lizzie on that plane, looked into her eyes (and she into mine for the first time) and sang to her, I realized that this was probably the first time that she had ever been held like this and lovingly sung to and then I thought about the thousand's of times that I had held and sung to our other children and I began to cry. For the first time, I understood what our beautiful little girl had not gotten the first 2 years of her life. She had been fed and changed and bathed but not truly loved. I cried for the times that I had missed with our sweet Lizzie and what had been taken from her and I cried for all the other children who had never been held and sung to and never really made to feel loved. Some of these children will eventually, finally feel the love of a family, most however, will not. I wish I could advocate for ALL of these kids. I wish that ALL of these kids could find families, but I do what I can and every now and then a waiting child will grab my heart. There are 3 right now that I check on every day. Everyday, hoping to see that they are "on hold" or that they are "matched" but they still wait and have been waiting.

The first is an adorable little 5 year old boy on Christian World Adoption's WC list. He has the sweetest face but he does not smile. In his video he looks so incredibly sad and I just want to wrap my arms around him and "make it all better." He has limb differences of both hands but is very functional and I know that his hands will not stop him from doing what ever he sets his mind to - just ask my Lizzie!!! Please go take a look or tell a friend about him. The website is http://www.cwa.org/ and his number is c0907-36.

The second is a sweet little girl on Small World Adoption's list whose name is Anna. Anna has been waiting a really long time and the agency is afraid that her file might be sent back to China very soon. I really do not understand why this little one has waited so long for her family. I have seen emails from a couple of people who have actually met her and say that she is just precious and that she is in a good place. She has several special needs but seems to be doing really well and thriving and did I mention how adorable she is?? The website is http://www.swa.net/. Please go look. She has been waiting a dangerously long time!!

The third is close to my heart because she has waited far too long for a family and because she is listed with Lifeline Children's Services which is the agency that our Lizzie waited with until we found her!!! Josie is a beautiful and amazing 10 year old girl. She has what I think are 2 clubfeet and several other issues with her hip and joints but she is so incredibly functional. Her video is simply inspiring. This is what is written about her on Lifeline's website: "Lovely and active, is the impression from everyone who meets Josie for the first time. Whenever you see her,she always looks happy. Josie likes beautiful clothes and headdress, and often asks foster mother to buy some for her and help her to dress up. Beautiful Josie has a ready smile and also laugh aloud which moves the people around her. If there are things at home,Josie always helps positively no matter if she has ability to do it. When guests come to visit the family, Josie is always very polite, greets the guests and offers her seat to them, then ask mother to prepare tea for them." Please, again, go and look or tell a friend. The website is http://www.lifelineadoption.org/.

Please help spread the word so that they may find their families and wait no longer!!!!!

This is a picture of Lizzie (pre-us) in her orphanage, crib surfing!!



This is just one room of the orphanage and you can see the number of cribs in this one room - 18 to be exact. This is one room in one orphanage in China. There are so many, too many children who still wait, who hold that little piece of my heart. I cannot help them all tonight but I can try to help these 3 tonight. Please help too!!!

It's the little things...

After a long hard day of, "Mom, he's hitting me" and "Mom, I'm hungry" and "Mom, I'm 'tursty'" and "Mom, I went potty in my pants" and "Mom, I don't want to do my homework" or "Mom, I need help with my homework" and "Mom, he's touching me" and "but Mom (this one is always preceded by a "but"), it's not my fault" and then "Mom, I didn't mean to do it" and my all time least favorite, "Mom, I'm bored!"

This makes it all (well most of it anyway) worthwhile!!



and the out take!! Hehe!!

Note To Self!

Put wax paper on the plate before placing candy apples on said plate!!!! OOPS!!!! Gooey + Sticky + Plate - Wax Paper = UhOh!!!! Re: previous post




Oh well!!



Like my new centerpiece!!! Hehe!!! The kids didn't think it was funny, either!!!