Six months ago today our family became complete. It is hard to believe it has only been six
months. I am still amazed at the events
and God-moments that led up to January 8, 2013. I pray that Tim and I have done a good job telling our story to
people, as it is such a testimony to the power and love of our God. In fact, I feel a huge burden to talk about
how God formed our family because I want to share the love of Christ with
anyone who will listen. Unfortunately I
feel like some people who need to hear it the most have distanced themselves
from us in the last year. It is on my
mind so often that I know God is talking to me about it for a reason. Having a large family is exactly what God
prepared us for and I feel so blessed every day for each one of my six
kids. I know that to some it may seem
that the chaos, penny-pinching, and exhausting nature of such a big family is
crazy. But I say that I wouldn’t have
it any other way! I truly believe if we
hadn’t answered God’s call to adopt we would be spiritually broken. We would be searching for happiness and joy
in all the wrong places. But because we
did follow God’s plan, our hearts our filled with a joy only Christ can fill. At the Women of Joy conference in April, one
of the speakers talked about this and gave the analogy of filling a “Jesus” cup
up with water and visualizing that part of your heart that was made to be
filled with Him. Since then I have had
my little glass in my kitchen window and I fill it up and pray that I can keep
listening to Him.
All
that being said, I don’t want to pretend that our life is perfect and we are
smiling all the time! We have had our
rough days and our moments of frustration for sure! I still get very angry about the August trip to China and the
money that was lost because our agency wasn’t honest with us. I cringe at the debt we have and the
impossibility of paying it off any time soon.
The problems with the adoption world, especially the waiting and cost,
weighs on my mind, and I wish I could find a way to advocate for other
families. We are definitely done
adopting, but I want to stay involved with orphan care and adoption. We have some friends that are waiting to
travel to adopt their little girl from Thailand and the wait has been
excruciating. They should have traveled
in June, but keep getting delayed for no apparent reason. My heart aches for them, especially since
Lauren is turning two this month and isn’t home to celebrate. We all know that God’s timing is perfect, so
all we can do is keep praying for them and for Lauren. It will be a huge relief when they finally
get the call that they have their First Approval. I wish I had the magic words to comfort them while they wait, but
I know that nothing but God can take away that empty feeling of missing a child
you have never met. Our church has so
many adoptive families and I want to continue to build our Adoption
Ministry. Tim and I have so many ideas,
but lately, so little time! I know
there are big things in store and I have to have the patience and remember that
this season in my life is short and I need to devote attention to my family to
make sure I am being the best mommy and wife I can be. There is a very delicate balancing act going
on in my life!
Okay,
enough about me… my little ones have
changed so much in 6 months! Ethan is
so healthy, you would never know he had all those problems with his heart. He acts like a two year old boy, and I have
discovered that boys really are different than girls! He is rough and tough, but sweet, too. He can be very stubborn, but most of the time he is just an
awesome little Momma’s boy! He doesn’t
sleep very well and most nights we are up with him at least once. I don’t know if he has bad dreams or just
wants someone in with him. I stay with
him in his room until he falls asleep, but I try to make the most of that quiet
time and read my bible. I try to have
patience with this, but after having my girls be such great sleepers, it was
hard to come to grips with it. That
probably sounds selfish, but I am just being honest. Ethan’s language is improving, but he is still very hard to
understand. He has made up some sign
language to get his point across and definitely makes us aware of what he
wants. He loves to build with any kind
of block, I love watching him concentrate on balancing things. He uses his left and right hands
equally. He wants to be with me the
majority of the time, but he does well at daycare, even when he sees me in my
office or with my class. He got to
attend summer school in June and his teachers said he did well! He learned to recognize his name on his
carpet square and made some super cute crafts that he was really proud of. They made a portfolio of all this work and
it is so adorable! He loves his sisters
and he has some special times with his daddy, too. He still calls Reese “Mei Mei” and I hope that he always does
because it is so cute. They like to
water the plants on the porch together.
We just got back from Wisconsin where we visited my grandad. This is who we named Ethan after and it was
great to finally introduce them! It was
a 12 hour trip and went pretty smoothly considering it was our first long car
ride with two 2 year olds!
Reese
is still our little peanut and is very feisty!
She gets in to stuff and does things the other kids never would have
thought of doing! She gives us a run
for our money but also has us laughing hysterically most of the time. She is a somewhat picky eater, yet she will
pick stuff up off the floor and try to eat it no matter what it is. She can be pretty gross, but so stinking
cute you just have to laugh. She is
talking pretty well and saying a lot of words very clearly. She still jabbers like she is speaking
Chinese, too. To say thank you she
still says it in Chinese and I hope she never stops because it is so cute. She went to summer school, too, where she
“pushed the limits” as her teacher said.
I think she makes up for her small size by being a very mighty
presence. Most of the naughty things
she does are not being mean, just ornery.
She has bitten Ethan several times really hard, but so far, no other
kids, so at least I don’t have to worry about kicking her out of my
daycare! Her attention span is pretty
short with toys and she loves to drag toys all over the house and leave
them. She is showing a lot of interest
in potty-training and is highly motivated by candy! We are proud of her for going on the potty and hoping now that we
are back from vacation we can be more diligent with helping her. She does not like to keep her ponytails or
hairbows in which drives me crazy! She
is a good sleeper except when she falls out of her bed. She also loves her big sisters and her
brother. I think she is more of a
daddy’s girl but that might be because Ethan gets jealous when she is having
mommy time. Sometimes she laughs at
herself for no apparent reason and it is really funny, her giggle is contagious
and precious. When she knows she is
really in trouble, she closes her eyes and pretends we can’t see her
anymore. It is very hard to discipline
her because she is so hilarious! She is
finally outgrowing her size 5 shoes and her 18 months shirts. Both of them have such tiny bottoms that 18
month shorts still fit them.
We
have made a lot of special memories as a family in the last 6 months. It has been so awesome to watch the girls
bond with Ethan and Reese, each in their own way. To say they have been helpful is an understatement. They amaze me every day with how responsible
they are with helping with the little kids and household chores. We have a pretty good system with laundry
and cleaning. Isabella, bless her
heart, loves to do dishes, so 99.9% of the time she does all of them. She loves things to be neat and tidy, so she
does a lot of housework for fun, especially this summer when she is home during
the day. The others help, too, but not
quite as willingly as Isabella. We just
got two kittens for her today. She has
wanted a new pet since Justin, the guinea pig, died. We know she will take excellent care of them.
Becca
kicked butt in soccer this year! As a
freshman, she earned a Varsity letter, the Team Spirit award, and Most Improved
award. She also had a trip to the
Emergency Room when she was playing goalie in her first Varsity appearance and
she sliced her hand open on the goal post.
We had left the game because we had no idea she was going to play. It was really disgusting! She ended up with five stitches between her
middle and ring finger. This prompted
her teammates to hold their hands up in a Star Trek pose all the time to greet
her or cheer for her. Although she
plays basketball, too, there is nothing better than watching the determination
and love she has for the game of soccer.
She gives 100% all the time and we were so proud of her for not getting
caught up in some of the upperclassmen drama and bad attitudes. We are thrilled
that her 8th grade basketball coach is the new head coach for
soccer. He is a great guy and
coach.
Ryleigh
is looking forward to starting junior high.
She loved sixth grade with all the extra things like archery and
band. She has been going to summer
basketball and we are praying that it goes well for her. She got to join the Youth Group at church
and she loves it. She is still our
worrier, but is also like a second mommy to Ethan and Reese. Ethan calls her “Dah-way”, it is so
cute!
Reagan
is getting so big all of a sudden! She
has changed so much. I think she has
had the biggest adjustment of all, but for the most part, she has accepted her
role as middle child like a champ! She
loves us to compare Ethan and Reese to her, just to make sure that she was
adorable and funny when she was their age!
She is still shy outside of home and we have noticed that she prefers to
be at home rather than out and about.
She is still sure that she wants to be a “hair-cutter” when she grows up
and spends a lot of time practicing on her Barbie heads.
One
of the most difficult things about life right now is not having a lot of time
for just Tim and me. We haven’t had a
date night in a very long time. We are
so exhausted at night and we talk about needing to plan some time for us, but
it seems like that gets pushed aside. I
am hoping that will change because I don’t want to neglect our marriage.
We
continue to feel so blessed by all the friends and family who have loved and
supported us, cried and celebrated with us.
I love that Ethan and Reese are surrounded by the wonderful people who
prayed them home.
