Happy Birthday Day!

It's hard to believe, but our little Sweet Pea (Liz) is turning 3 tomorrow (June 6th)! I remember so clearly how she was 2 weeks late and had to be induced...on MY birthday, nonetheless! Yes, Liz and I share the same birthday. I have this feeling, that June 6th will be more her birthday than mine, but that is okay. She is the best birthday present EVER!! We plan on making "our" cake together tomorrow while Stephanie is at summer school. Her big birthday party will be next week, with 12 little friends attending a My Little Pony themed event! She is very excited to be turning 3! I just wish she could stay little forever! Happy Birthday, my beautiful girl!

FAMILY UPDATE

We have been very busy (hence fewer entries)! Danielle has been our daughter for 6 1/2 months already! I can't believe how fast the time has flown. She is adjusting amazingly well. We have left her with friends a couple of times (along with her sisters), and she has done great! No tears. She is definitely getting over her separation anxiety phase (Thank God!). It truly has been hard to be with her 24/7, but as long as it has helped her to be more secure, then it is totally worth it! I have signed her up for preschool next year, and I think that it will be great. In fact, I will be working at the school as well! I am very excited. I will be an assistant teacher (I really didn't want the added responsibility of being lead) in a 3 year-old preschool class. I am really looking forward to it! Stephanie and Liz have been going to this school for 2 years, and we all love it! If I need to work, I can't think of a better place to be....at school with my kids!! I am so grateful that God has blessed us with this opportunity.

God continues to amaze us! His plan to add Danielle to our family is perfect - she is truly our daughter! She is growing bigger and stronger every day. She has the most muscular legs - everyone says she should be a gymnast. Our Naturopath was in awe of her today - the fact that she is so flexible and has no fear. I don't know if that is a good combination though :-) Her new favorite thing to do is hold hands with her sisters when we are walking. It is adorable. She calls her sister's names (or at least an approximation of them) and holds out her hand to them. Very cute! Today, she started coming up to all of us and giving us kisses...she goes from 1 person to the next giving lots of slobbery kisses! She is an angel - most of the time. Don't get me wrong, while she is a beautiful child, she does have her moments! She is getting really good at saying "no" and can be very rebellious at times (and she is not even 2 yet!). All 3 of the girls are playing quite well together (most of the time) and love having each other. We are quite content with our family just the way it is....although Stephanie has been bugging us for a little brother. For some reason she keeps asking us for a baby brother from China named Charlie. Who knows what will happen next - only God does, and hopefully he will make things clear!

Enjoy some current pictures of our family!

Check out my Slide Show!

Can you believe it?

A whole year has passed since we first met our daughter! Our adoption agency's Waiting Child List came out Monday night, April 30, 2007...and that is when we first saw our daughter's face! I remember that night so clearly! I had just gotten off the phone with my friend Amy, and thought, "Why not?" and so I checked my email and there was the long awaited news...the list had been posted!!! I scoured all of the names and DOB of all of the 10 children on that list, and only one met our age requirements....Lai Fu Tao. I did a little bit of quick research on her "special need" and found out that it was no big deal, and then I waited. I waited for Steve to get home from his softball game before I looked at her picture. I just knew that this was our little girl - the one we had been praying for, and I wanted Steve to be here when we saw our daughter's face for the first time. When he got home, we opened the file, and this is what we saw.....

Beautiful, isn't she? It's amazing at how perfect she is for our family. I can't believe that we have only "known" her for a year, it seems like she has been a part of our family forever. We are so grateful that God placed her in our family - not a day goes by where I am not in awe of the miracle that He performed by choosing her for us. We are eternally grateful. I am so grateful that we were able to find our daughter on the List. All of these children need homes and families desperately, and they are all so beautiful. It breaks my heart that there are still 2 little people on the Hope For Children's current Waiting Child List? Why? Go and check them out and maybe one of them are meant to be a part of your family. They all need homes....why not yours! Here is a current picture of our little one...what a difference a year makes!!! To God be the glory!

Check out my Slide Show!

Update

I know that it has been a VERY long time since I have posted, but life has just gotten in the way! Our family is continuing to adjust to being a family of 5 quite nicely. Danielle is a little ball of fire - one that gets into everything!! I always seem to be about 3 steps behind her, needless to say, my house is never clean!! She loves to read books, play outside and dance with her sisters. She is just doing great! Danielle is also starting to talk A LOT! I am now Mommy - all the time. She will run around the house saying, "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" over and over until she can locate me - very cute - sometimes. She is also saying Daddy, jie jie (big sister in Chinese), puppy, book, bottle, more, eat, drink, Man! (she got that from me), shoes, nice (whenever she gets dressed) and she has just learned nasty (because she was putting something nasty in her mouth) - just to name a few. Danielle loves to imitate, and therefore her language skills are really kicking in. Stephanie and Liz love to play dress-up, and now, so does Danielle. Stephanie and Liz continue to be great big sisters and are usually very willing to help. I love having 3 little girls, although it can be very exhausting a lot of the time. I am trying to get more organized, but that is quite difficult with 3 little ones under the age of 5! Maybe I will get my act together by the time they move out.

While Danielle is trying more American foods, she still loves her Chinese noodles! We often go to a restaurant up the street, which she loves! Stephanie has also become quite the little noodle and dumpling eater - she will be ready for a trip to China someday! Anyway, this past weekend Steve took the girls up there to pick up dinner, and met a new employee who was asking about Danielle and where she was from. Ready for amazing? It turns out that her mother is from Laibin, China - Danielle's birthplace! The odds of this are totally amazing - only God could have orchestrated this! I can't help but wonder if she knows Danielle's foster mom, or birth mom. Steve promised to take this girl some pictures of Laibin (she lived there when she was little) and she was very excited about that. It will be interesting to see if we can learn any more about Danielle's birthplace.

Growth

We have had a rough couple of weeks - I have been sick, then Danielle, and this past weekend both Steve and Stephanie got sick. Needless to say, the house is a mess and I have a whole lot of things to get done!

Liz has hit a milestone - she is "paci-free". Liz has always LOVED her pacis, but when she was about 1, she traded her paci for "E" (see photo). For over 1 1/2 years, she has slept with E, and she loved him! Well, last week, the Paci Fairy came and took E away. Liz did great, I cried. I was so sad to see this quirky little friend leave our home! I actually had a hard time holding it together when Stephanie started crying and said, "I am going to miss E!" It was an emotional night. I knew that Liz needed to get rid of it (we don't want her to have to have braces), but it was such a part of her...and it meant that she is growing up. She will be 3 this summer, and I am not ready for her to grow up - I am not ready for ANY of my girls to get any bigger! But I must say, that Liz has done so great without E - we probably should have done this sooner, but we didn't want to take away her E before we went to China!

Danielle continues to do fantastic! Over the past couple of weeks, she has really started to play and interact more with Liz. Since they are so close in age (only 14 months difference), there is some rivalry but lately they have begun to interact and play together just the 2 of them. I have actually been given the highest honor from my youngest daughter - she now calls me Mama! I was very skeptical at first that she was talking about me, but I have come to realize that I am now officially her Mama! Praise God!

This past weekend, I was able to go to a tremendous seminar (along with some great friends)with Sherrie Eldridge, author and an adoptee. It was incredible. She gave such insight into what Danielle may feel and experience as she gets older. So many things to think about. I ache for Danielle because she will never know her birth mother. I just pray that I can help her through all of it. That is why going to these seminars is so important - awareness and education is key. In fact, I may be able to help Danielle with her issues since I am more aware of them and have countless friends and resources to help me help her. I am sure that Stephanie and Liz will have some issues when they get older (don't we all?), and I just hope that I can be as aware of their issues and how to help them. Motherhood is certainly a tough job, but I am grateful that it is mine!

Thank you, Doodaddy!

About 2 weeks ago, I took Danielle with me to get me haircut - total disaster! Danielle cried the entire time - and she was sitting on my lap! Thank goodness I have a great stylist, Brynn, who stayed focused and did a great job, despite the distraction. I kept trying to reassure her that I was enjoying myself, but she didn't listen (next time I will go alone). So, you can imagine how I was dreading a dentist appointment for today!! How could I tell her that I liked getting my teeth picked at - NOT! Well, Doodaddy came to the rescue (when Liz was a baby, she couldn't say Grandaddy, so she came up with the name Doodaddy, and it has kind of stuck)! He offered to meet me at the office and watch Liz and Danielle while Stephanie and I had our teeth cleaned. We were both a little nervous, but all went well! Danielle cried at first, but only briefly, and Danielle and Liz remained happy for the full 45 minutes that I was in the dentist chair! This was technically Danielle's first time with a "babysitter" - other than me or Steve!! They came back to check on me a couple of times, but no more tears!! It does help that I have an awesome dentist that insists I bring my children and enjoys it when they run around the office. Dr. Ashley wants the kids to LIKE coming to the dentist and they do! Liz is very excited to have her own appointment in July! I am so grateful that Doodaddy lives close by so that he was able to help - thank you, Doodaddy! After our appointment, we met Nana and Doodaddy for lunch and playtime at McDonald's. And now, all 3 girls are peacefully napping - God is good!!