Sunday, May 30, 2010

Can you help?

I was asked to advocate for a very special young lady who is desperately trying to create a better life for herself. Her name is Mia and she is one of the thousands of children who "age out" of the Chinese orphanages and find themselves completely on their own - at - 14 - years - old!



Mia had a wonderful sponsor family who brought her here to go college and pursue a degree in Social Work. She wants to go back to China to help those, like herself, who age out and struggle.

She has now lost her funding and needs help so that she can help.

Please visit her blog to read more about this incredible young lady and forward this on to whomever might help.

This is just a little bit of what she has written about her life:

I was born in a small city, LuoYang, in China, and my entire childhood was spent at the orphanage. Due to the one child-policy, most people tend to want boys. My biological parents abandoned me after I was born with a physical defect called scoliosis, so I do not know what they looked like and I do not have any information about my family history. Living in an orphanage, life was different from a family life. The nannies usually told me what I was supposed to do while I was young. I had to remember what I should do or what I should not do. There are many different ages of children living together, and I remember there were many girls of different ages who shared a room with me. In a family life, parents usually give a lot of attention to their children and remind them what they need to do. Having lived at the orphanage, I observed what life is like being an orphan. I learned to be self-motivated. When we have parents, we know parents would remind us what we need to do or they would tell us to study. However, it was very important to be self-motivated at the orphanage because I knew the orphanage could provide opportunities for me to go to school. I knew that I must study hard if I want to have a good future. This experience gave me strength to figure out what I should pursue in my future.

Thanks everyone!

Sunday Snapshot - Party Girl

My Sunday Snapshot:



Happy Birthday indeed, sweet baby girl!

Lizzie's birthday was Thursday (posted a bit about it here ) but the party wasn't until yesterday at JuJu's house.



It definitely was a fine day!!

There were bubbles,



and water guns,



and cannon balls,



well armed cannon balls,



and double dutch cannon balls!



There were all the important party foods,

chips



and chips.



There was a slip and slide,







and popsicles,











and a cake,



a soccer cake, of course.



There were icing hand puppets,



and presents,







lots of presents,







and one very sweet, very excited 4 year old!





My 2 beautiful 4 year olds!! Virtual twins once again!



Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!

To join in on Stefanie's Sunday Snapshot go here,

Ni Hao Y'all

Friday, May 28, 2010

Time for New Shoes???



What do you think??

My poor, sweet Caleb has been walking around in these shoes for about a month now.

Finances the way they are, I have put off purchasing new sneakers in the hopes that these would make it til the end of the school year...

cause you know, with summer comes crocks or flip flops or bare feet, not sneakers.

Crocks are $8.

Sneakers are $20.

But because I am the one (still) tying sweet boy's shoes every morning, I just couldn't take it any longer and with the discovery of an old gift card (prob from Caleb's bday), we were off to Target...

for shoes - not a toy, sniff, sniff - but he was cool and only suggested once that we might want to spend his gift card on something else (aka: toy), rather than shoes. Sigh!!!

I was determined that he was going to pick whatever shoe he wanted. I mean after all, it was his gift card!

So out of all the shoes at Target, which ones did my sensory child pick???



Why the same exact shoes, of course!!!



No matter that these very cool looking Converse sneakers were brand new at Christmas this year and only lasted 4 to 5 months.

When you suffer from SID or Sensory Integration Disorder, you stick with what you know and like and that is just what my sweet boy did and I was not going to say a word!

I will worry about his next shoe situation 5 months from now, well, 5 months from now!! For now, I remain incredibly grateful for the beautiful blessing that is my Caleb!!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Happy Birthday Lizzie

Baby girl is 4 years old today!



She has once again caught up with Em - in age at least!



The pool party is not until Saturday but I wanted to post a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my incredible little one!

This is your fourth birthday but only the second one with your family.

I don't know if you celebrated your first birthday...



I doubt it, though.

I do know that you celebrated your second...



because we sent you a cake, but could not be there.

Two years later and you are 4 years old and ready to take on the world...



with your partner in crime...



and virtual twin...



by your side!



Happy 4th Birthday my sweet, amazing, inspiring baby girl!!

I will ,of course, post some pics of the PARTAY PARTAY on Saturday!!!!

Must go to bed now!

Three field days...



and three end of the school year parties later...





and I am pooped!!

The "twins" even got into the spirit of the games...



sporting the latest in field day attire...



and helping Mommie with the official time clock!



Miss Priss 4 year old even had to sit and rehash the games with her biggest bro's best buds!



When she talks...



they listen!!!



Hehe!!

Bed now . one . last . party . tomorrow!

Is it summer yet????

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Guess who got a haircut???

No we don't let Lizzie play with scissors...



but she did get a haircut...



or should I say a bang cut...



and she loves it...



but I think we may have created a monster...



she does NOT like to have her bangs messed up and will fuss at the unfortunate soul who dares to do the messing!!



I can't say that I blame her!!!



They are pretty "sic" as my 10 year old would say!

Um... That's "good" - right????? Hehe!!!