The T Zone

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T07:57:00.002-05:00

This was Livi's first ever Halloween and we were so excited to see how she would react. It's been fun to see her go through all these things for the first time. She just goes with the flow and I often wonder what goes through her head when she watches us do things like carve pumpkins and go trick or treating. I suppose she's like every other kid who, if it's seems like something fun, she's all over it.
I kept trying to figure out what to dress her as. I didn't want to do a princess or something like that because every little girl that comes to the door is a princess and I wanted to be a little more creative than that. I'm sure by next year when she understands that she can pick out her costume, that's exactly what she'll choose....so for this year, I went with a cowgirl. I called it her "Eastern girl goes Western" costume. It was super cute. I had the stuff from when I made cowboy costumes for Tyler, Timmy, and Trae years ago. She loved it and she loved that she could wear the cowboy boots that she's been parading around the house for 2 weeks. Tony and Tanner wanted to be pirates....another one we've done before....and Trae wanted to be Madea. You have to know the Tyler Perry movies to even know who that is. I'm sure for most of the people he saw that night, he was just a 10 yr. old boy in a moo moo with curled, grey hair......but to those familiar with the character he was dressed as, they may have recognized him when he would loudly say "Thank Yer" after getting his candy. That kid is a character!! He cracks me up daily.
Tim was a zombie and Tyler was a teenager with a white painted face and black sprayed hair.....whatever that is.

The 3 oldest boys went over to friends and went trick or treating with them so Jay took out the youngest 3. We ended up with quite the haul of candy this year. Good Lord, just what we need.

Apple Orchard

2011-09-26T07:20:00.001-05:00

This fall we went the Cindy and Erin to the apple orchard. We do this every year, but this was the first time we went to this particular one. It was okay. I liked the hay ride better and they had another little train ride that the kids liked, but the orchard itself left something to be desired. That didn't stop us from picking apples though. All in all it was a good family day.

Seeing Livi's face

2011-09-19T09:05:00.000-05:00

On Sept. 19th, 2010 we got the email that had Olivia's file in it. Pictures of her, medical records, her story, her likes & dislikes, her diet, personality....everything they knew about her, we got to read. It was the part that said she was "Outgoing, extroverted, active.....likes noisy and busy places......and likes to imitate and show off..." that got our attention and helped us KNOW this was a child who would fit right in with our noisy and busy family.
I can't believe it's been a year already. Here we are all this time later.....know knowing her firsthand, not just by what we read about her......and realizing that the person that wrote that report.....knew what she was talking about.

Our new addition

2011-09-12T21:12:00.000-05:00

Not me, of course. hehe...
But we did have a new little nephew and Godson come into the family 2 weeks ago.
Baby Joey was born on Sept. 23rd in the A.M. weighing......I can't remember....and a certain number of inches long.....gotta think about that one too.....Hmm...not a very good Auntie.
Hey, don't feel bad Amy if you're reading this. I can't even keep my own kids' weights and lengths straight.
Anyway, all that matters is that he's here and he's just precious.

Welcome to the world little Joey!

Waking back up....

2011-09-10T08:59:00.000-05:00

Holy cow. Now, this is just crazy. I have been so good for over 2 years on keeping up with this blog and now, for the past few months, I've hardly said a thing. I know what started it. It was when Jay got sent to second shift at the end of July and stayed there through September. The boys were still off of school and Jay was gone from about 1:30 - 11:30pm Mon.-Fri. It was terrible. Especially because at the same time, 3 of the boys were starting football. Something that was in the evenings when he was at work and so was I a couple nights. Long story short....our parents were so helpful and we got through it, but not before I seriously thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. Not a good place to be. The house got neglected.....the marriage got neglected......this blog got neglected. Everything revolved around our crazy schedule and passing eachother in the foyer as one got home and another one left. But for now...Jay's back on his regular schedule, football is over, we're in a routine that is easier now.
I really need to get back into a habit of posting.
I wonder what I can do to get into a habit of excersizing.....
Hmmm.....

Children's Museum

2011-09-06T12:26:00.000-05:00

Okay, so here we are again......always on the lookout for cheap and free things for our huge family to do. Not an easy task sometimes, let me tell ya....

But this one is a good one. Every third Sunday of the month the Children's Museum is free. YAY.

We take advantage of it at least once a year and this was our month this year.

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. We had a great time!

Saints game

2011-09-06T12:06:00.000-05:00

In August every year, Jay's company sponsors a family outing. The past couple years its been at the Saints Baseball game. It's pretty cool actually, because they not only have a picnic area reserved where they feed us dinner before the game starts and get us tickets to get into the game.....they also give every person $10 in Saints bucks. That means we got a free dinner, free admission, AND $80 in dollars to spend on treats, drinks, food....whatever. What a deal! Oh, and they even had the beer free for our company section so you didn't even have to use the dollars on that. Basically, what this meant was that the boys could have anything they wanted.
You'd like some cotton candy?? No problem
Cookies? Sure
Your own lemonade? Of course
They thought this was great. These are kids who usually have to share a free refill pop at McDonald's and who, at the State Fair, get told no 10 times more than yes. I hate that, but it's just the way it is when you have 8 people in your family. It all gets so expensive, so this was really a treat for all of us.
Oh, and I actually had $20 in the bucks left as the game was ending so I went to one of the T-shirt stands and got myself a shirt. Hey, I'm not walking outta that place with it in my pocket. Might as well get something.

VBS

2011-09-06T11:55:00.000-05:00

True to form this summer, this post is long overdue. The boys had Vacation Bible School the first week in August. Actually, we all did. I volunteered all week as a 5th grade governer and Livi went to the childcare for toddlers.

It's always a great week full of fun and friends, but it's exhausting too. By the time Friday hit, I was ready to be done, but that doesn't mean I won't do it again and again. It's really a lot of fun!

The best part of the week is Thursday night when they have the program. All the kids have a chance to get up on the alter and sing one of the songs they learned during the week.

Tony's hiding in there somewhere.....

Tanner's turn....

Trae is in the front row with the blue striped shirt

Olivia was really wanting to get up there herself.

The best part of the evening every year is when the 7th graders get up and do the routine they've been working on. They all have their faces painted white like mimes and they haven't talked or ate or drank since putting it on hours earlier.
The performance is always so powerful even when it's not involving one of my children,

but when it does....it just makes an even bigger impact.

They always do a dance to a Christian song first

Tim is in the middle of the second row with yellow shorts

Then a silent performance to another song that tells a story as they act it out.

This was a part that Tim had at the feet of Jesus.

I had the kleenex out for this, it just was so moving to see him up there like that.

After their performance is done, they invite anyone who wants to come up and receive prayer.

It's just so amazing to see these 12 year olds praying over all the people. We waited in the line that Tim was in. While he prayed for us.....I prayed for him.

First day of school

2011-09-06T07:35:00.001-05:00

First thing I want to say about the first day of school is that I feel like I am always unusually excited for it. This year though took the cake. I love my boys so much, bet I'd be lying if I didn't say that I count down the days until school starts like a child waiting for Christmas. This summer was especially hard because Jay was put on second shift from late July until late Sept. That's about the worst schedule you can give to a family man. Too much going on with sports and my job to have him away from 1:30pm until late night. A little reprieve during the day is just what this tired mama needs sometimes.

This year the boys entered 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 7th grade. Wow, I think I must have blinked one too many times.

This was a huge year for us. Tyler started high school! I really can't believe it. When did this happen? I still remember his first day of kindergarten so well. Watching him get on that big bus and waving goodbye without hardly even looking back and me getting choked up as the bus carried my baby away. Oh my gosh, I just realized as I wrote that what a different mom I've become. I've gone from crying on their first day of school to crying on their last. That can't be a sign of a good mother.

I'm so proud of him and all my kids. I have to put that trust in them as they go to school that they will be good kids and kind to others. I have no doubt they are.

Park

2011-07-31T16:15:00.000-05:00

This past week we took the kids to a "kinda" new park in the area. It's actually been there for a long time, but last summer it was closed for renovations. We loved it before so we were anxious to see what changes they made. Well, we were not disappointed. It was amazing!

It was really unlike any park we've even gone to. There were so many pieces of equipment that I've never seen at a park and the kids were lovin' it!

They have a smaller kids area that Olivia started out on. There's a huge sandbox area that had a buried dinosaur skeleton you could uncover and tons of things for the toddlers to do.

The boys were having a blast finding all sorts of older kid things to do!

I sat and watched.....and worried a bit about the heights they were reaching.....

While dad decided to give some of it a try....

If it hadn't felt like 100', we probably would have stayed all day....

They waited in line to get a chance to ride one of the really cool, saucer shaped swings...

Livi wasn't too sure about it at first....

but only a minute into it, she was loving it....

...and hanging on tight to Tony

Then, we couldn't get her off the thing...

Finally, we found some refuge from the sun in one of the caves.....

Livi was beat......

What a fun day.....

We'll be going back before the summer is done.

My Veggies

2011-07-26T08:31:00.001-05:00

When we bought our first house over 10 years ago, the backyard had a beautiful vegetable garden. It was really huge and was able to fit just about any plant out there. The man who lived there before us had planted it every year for over 30 years so the soil was very rich and even I, who does NOT have a green thumb, was able to grow tons of great veggies.
When we moved to our current home almost 7 years ago, the backyard was perfect except for one thing....no garden. Every summer I said I wanted to get one started, but spring would come and summer would end and it just didn't get done.
One of the reasons I think we avoided it was because of the work it would take to clear a spot in the yard. One summer, we'd done it for our swing set area.....
Another summer, we'd done it for some landscaping....
so we knew just how much of a pain it was to skim off the grass and dig through the roots.
Then a couple years ago, as I was mentioning this all to a client of mine, she told me of a great way to clear a spot without as much work. In the fall, we would map out the area we wanted and lay down about 3 -4 layers of newspaper and wet it all with a hose. Then you rake the leaves onto the newspaper and wait.
So, we did that. And last year in the spring we rented a roto-tiller to get it all mixed together.
That proved to be quite the pain in itself. We have a ton of mature trees around our house and the roots alone were giving Jay a lot of trouble. But....we got it done, and I planted my garden.
The seeds started to grow into plants and get bigger and bigger and even started to flower, but they never produced any vegetables. Ever. Every flower that should turn into a cucumber or green bean or zucchini just eventually died and fell off. Nothing.
I knew the first couple years would be rough until the soil had a chance to get more primed, but I didn't expect that.
Okay, well moving on to this year. We rented the tiller again and it was much easier this time. I planted and waited.
I am very happy to say that last night I ate my first 2 cukes out of my garden. YAY!
There are plenty of veggies coming in this time. I'm sure the weather has been a part of it as well. We've had a good combo of sun and rain this year, and someone told me that even though super humid days can be good for keeping moisture in the soil. Not sure if that's true or not.
I've yet to see a zucchini starting but they flowers are huge and bright, unlike last year, so I'm sure it won't be long.
There's nothing like a fresh garden veggie....I just love them.
The boys are excited to pick the green beans today, and I'm excited to let them.....those things can run a muck and be hard to keep up with.
Here are some pics of my garden......

I have 2 rows of green beans.

One green and one red pepper plant......

Several onions......

A huge row of cucumbers with about 100 flowers on it ready to grow and be eaten.....

Four hills of zucchini........

Five different tomato plants, including Cherry.......

....and Roma

Tony turns 8

2011-07-20T00:12:00.000-05:00

I know I always say this, but I really cannot believe that Tony is turning 8!
Wow, where does the time go.
It was 8 years ago, yesterday, that I gave birth to this beautiful sweet boy.
He was my one and only 'almost' bald baby....
He was born just 8 short days after his daddy returned home from the war in Iraq....
He was 2 weeks early...
and he was the sweetest little thing ever....and still is.
Oh my gosh, how I love this boy. He is such a little stinker, but he sure has a tender heart. What a precious combination.

The day started the same as every kid birthday in our house......with a birthday pancake in the shape of their age. I decided to tease him and made a 7 first. His face was priceless....

...but I fixed it and all was good again.

I decided to ask Kristin and the kids to join us yesterday for an afternoon of bowling. I thought it would be fun to have a party with some of the cousins.

Kristin had a card for him with some serious loot in it. He was pretty excited about that.

They had a ton of fun and I'm so glad we did it. It was too hot to even be outside so this was a perfect thing for us to do to celebrate.

Then in the evening, we hung out at home with some of the family and a dinner picked by the birthday boy himself, of course.
He chose "walking taco's" for his birthday dinner. That meal has become a tradition for our family whenever we go camping and it was on the weekend of the 4th, while he was enjoying his 3rd one, that he told me he wanted this for his special dinner.

So...
we ate...
we opened gifts.....

we found the imfamous missing Easter egg in the coffee container.....
(obviously, Jay and I don't drink coffee or we would have found where that sneaky Bunny hid that last egg)
And let me just say.....
"Peeeee Yououuuuuu"

we blew out candles....

and we ate ice cream cake.

What a fun day!
Happy birthday sweet boy!

Boys camping weekend

2011-07-17T23:11:00.001-05:00

This weekend was the second annual father/son weekend that a friend of ours hosts up at his lake property. It's mostly guys from our Couples in Christ weekend with some new faces this year as well. Jay pretty much wins the contest, hands down, for bringing the most sons. The guy that hosts has a trailer on a lake with great swimming and fishing for them all to do. They actually brought the tent and did some roughing it at night. Last year, I was all on my own for the weekend....but this year it was just me and Livi.
On Friday night I met my friend, Helen, for dinner at Big Bowl....YUM.....I had Livi and she brought her 2 kids who are also from China. It was funny because not long after we sat down, I commented to her that we probably look like a couple with our 3 adopted children. Haha!!
It was interesting that when Olivia and I arrived and saw them there, Livi ran up to her son Alex, laughing and smiling until she was right next to him. He's 6, by the way....it's interesting because she doesn't even know Alex. She's never even met him until that night. But she ran up to him like she knew just who he was. I looked at Helen and wondered if she saw him and thought he was someone she knew from China. I mean, here he is with his short, black hair.....what if he reminded her of one of her friends there. It was very sweet and kinda sad all at the same time.
The boys came home today with tons of stories about catching fish and having cannon ball contests off the dock.....dads and all. They played flashlight tag at night and grilled up the fish they caught for dinner one night. The only complaints they had about it was that the mosquitoes were the worst they've ever seen. Jay said he's never experienced anything like it.....they didn't even stay out and have a bonfire at night, it was just too bad. They spent the evenings in our friends trailer with no bugs and air conditioning. The air was a welcome thing because the only other complaint wast he heat. It was hot! The temps have gotten into the 90's, but the humidity has made the heat index well over 100'. It has been absolutely sweltering! I can't believe they had to sleep in that out in the tent. Jay said that when they would wake in the morning, their sleeping bags were wet from the moisture in the air. UGH!! Thank goodness they had the lake. They said they were pretty much in the water non stop...even the adults. And they went through a ton of water and juice. Even the guys stopped drinking beer towards the end and decided it would be smarter to open the water. Ya think?? hehe....
They got home at about 3:35pm today....about 5 seconds after my brother, Mike, showed up to pick up Tyler to come babysit for the night. He didn't even walk in the house, he just went from one minivan to the next. Good timing!
Well, I wish I had pictures to share of it all but I didn't send the camera with them. I only have my nice one since the old one recently broke, and I didn't want them to have that in the tent just waiting to get stepped on.
Maybe if we're lucky someone else took some pictures of the weekend.
I'll have to ask Jay about that....hmmmm....
I'm so glad they get to do this. Hopefully, it's the start of a really great tradition. I know our friend that hosted has said he'd like it to be an annual thing, so that's great. It's good for the dads and sons to have that time together.
And, it's good for mom to have some quiet time at home.
See, everybody wins!!

Livi's surgery

2011-07-15T16:23:00.001-05:00

On Monday, Olivia had her palate repair surgery. It was a one hour surgery that required her to stay over for one night in the hospital. I stayed with her and we were home by about 3pm on Tuesday.
We knew this one would be harder on her because it is more invasive than the lip, but I don't think you ever really understand that until you see your child hurting and in pain. After it was over, the nurse came out to the waiting room to bring us back to the recovery room. I wasn't prepared for the sight of her. It was the most pitiful little thing I've ever seen. She was being held and rocked by one of the nurses and laying her head on her shoulder. She had her eyes closed and was only whimpering. Her lips were swollen and there was blood all over. She had it coming from her mouth.....her nose....and her ears (the ears and nose dried up pretty quickly, but the mouth bled constantly the rest of the day).
It just made me so sad to see her that way and I got very choked up. I took her and sat on the rocking chair holding her, wiping the blood she kept drooling, and wiping her tears....and my own.
There isn't much I can say to her to help her understand what's going on. I can't explain that we did this because we love her. I can't tell her that the doctors really are nice and good people who are helping her.....even though they had to hold her down while they put her to sleep in the operating room.....and I can't tell her that it won't always hurt this bad.
So I just whispered in her ears the things I knew she would understand.
"Mama's here......"
"It's okay....."
"I know that's a bad owie..." (she understands owie and points to her lip when we talk about it)
"All done....." (she knows what that means too)
In all these words I wanted her to understand the simplest parts of it......
That I know it hurts....that it's all over now....and that I'm here and it will be okay.
So I just kept repeating those things...over and over. When she'd get real upset and start writhing around, the nurse would add some morphine to her IV. That would help and you could feel her relax again for a while.
At one point, while holding her with Jason right next to us, rubbing her back, I looked at him and asked...
Who does this for all those little orphans getting surgery that don't have a mom and dad?
Who sits in a rocking chair and whispers comfort to them?
Who makes sure that they're getting enough medicine to help with the pain?
I imagine it's not the same for them and they are hurting and scared. That made me sad to think about and I was so glad I could be there for her at that moment.
After about 40 minutes in Recovery, they got us up to her room where we held her for another couple hours before finally trying to lay her in her bed. She was real upset at first, but then I got in right next to her and she calmed down.
She was pretty miserable that whole evening and so, because of that, we opted to have the boys stay home this time instead of coming for a visit. It would have been way too much for her. She just was not herself.
I really didn't see any perk of her until about noon the next day.
During that 24 hour period, I just spent time with her. Reading story books, watching kids videos, wiping her poor mouth...over and over....and trying to get her to eat and drink something. She has to be on a liquid/pureed diet for 2 weeks so we were trying things like applesauce, pudding, and ice cream. I knew she was hungry but she didn't want anything to do with it. Later on Monday evening, she would try a bite, but then it would just make her cringe and cry and she would refuse to try any more.
Lunchtime on Tues. was the first time I really got her eat anything. She finished a whole pudding and some ice cream. Healthy, huh. Who cares though.
They sent us home with some pain meds that we used along with Tylenol and IB pretty consistently for the next 2 days because it was obvious she needed it. You could just tell when something was starting to wear off so I really tried to just get on a schedule with it and stay ahead of her pain.
So, here we are on Friday and she's really doing better. I'd say yesterday was the first day she was more herself.....although she is pretty crabby still, today too. That's understandable though, I'd say.
I'm glad this is done and we won't have to do anything major again for a long time. Thank God all went well and she's going to heal up just fine and be good as new. What a sweetie.
So, just in case you forgot how amazing her transformation has been....this is how far we've come in just a couple months.

Sunday Snapshot: MOA

2011-07-10T15:14:00.003-05:00

For those of you NOT from Minnesota.....MOA stands for Mall of America.
Our house is about a 45 minute drive to the biggest mall around.
It's HUGE!
There's an entire amusement park indoors and over 520 stores to shop at.....hello, can you say "woman's paradise"?
In the grand tradition of trying to find things that are free and cheap to do with the kids this summer, I decided to take a trip out there.
Me....and 6 kids....
in a mall big enough to fit 7 Yankee Stadiums inside.....
big enough to park 32 Boeing 747's in it.....
and large enough to fit the 4 heads of Mount Rushmore in each corner of the building......
Smart, huh?
The plan......
to walk around the mall and play in all that it has to offer without spending any money.
**I even packed a lunch for us to eat in the food court......like we were going to the local park rather than a public mall**

Here's a fun fact about the Mall....
If you spend 10 minutes in every store there, it would take 86 hours to see them all.
Needless to say, we didn't quite do that.
But we did park....go in on the first floor....and start to walk around.
The goal was to walk around all 3 levels and stop and go as we pleased.
Here's a snippet of the conversation I had with the boys on the way there.....
"Don't ask to go on any rides......don't ask for ice cream or cookies at the Nestle stand.....don't leave my side.....if you get separated from me, stay where you are......don't get us kicked out of any stores.....Don't ask for any toys, not even to spend your own money on......don't embarrass me.......
Other than that.....Let's have FUN!" hahaha.....I'm so mean. :)
Alright, so what else is there.....
How much fun really can 5 boys and a little girl have in a Mall anyway.....
And what in the world will they do.....?
Well.....this.....

We played in this really cool novelty toy store.....

The boys looked around in their favorite shoe store.....

And we checked out the digs in the Vikings Store.....

We threw pennies in the alligator wishing pond at the Rainforest Cafe.......

I had zero change on me, so Trae decided to just grab some that was on the head of the gator.....

isn't it bad luck to steal someone elses wishes??....

and ate our lunch from home.....I did spend $2 on a large pop from Burger King that we shared and refilled about 8 times throughout the day....
We got a treat when we stumbled upon a stand with girls handing out free
cans of Pepsi Throwback.......
Um...we'll take 7, thank you very much.....

There were some really yummy cheese samples at the Wisconsin store

Next up was Lego Land.....a kid favorite.
We spent lots of time there and the boys all built some pretty fun things.

There was this really cool tropical restaurant...but we didn't go in.

We just had fun with the board out front....

We were there so long by this time that Jason decided to join us after work.

Here we are waiting for him....

and this is the "show me your muscles" contest that went on while we sat overlooking

the amusement park..

Olivia wanted in on the action too...

Oh, honey....we're gonna have to talk about just how far a girl can pull her shirt over....hehe..

Okay, so by this time....it's dinner time. We're hungry.

We decided to get some McD's at the food court.

After that, we had time to go to Lego Land again

and another toy store....

....and pose outside of the Bubba Gump restaurant .....

sitting where Forrest Gump had and trying on his shoes.

By the time we finally decided to call it a day,

it was 9pm. I had gotten there at 11:45 that morning. Just to be clear....

That's over 9 hours.....in a mall......with 6 kids.

But, ya know what.....we really had fun.

I think we just might do this again before school starts.

4th of July Camping

2011-07-09T16:48:00.002-05:00

Camping has definitely become of our families favorite things to do.
We love it!
The boys love it!
And now, Olivia loves it!
The kids love it because it's a perfect way to just be outside and swim, fish, and get dirty all day...
Jay and I love it because we know we are creating great family memories for them that will last a lifetime.
This 4th was no different. We went to the same resort up north for the 3rd year in a row now.
It's small and quiet and the fishing and swimming is great so it's perfect for us.

This year Tyler caught his biggest fish to date. It was a bass that weighed in at 3 1/2 pounds and he was beyond excited!

All the boys did some fishing and had good luck....both off the dock and out on the lake.

Livi had so much fun in the water. She wasn't too fond of the idea back when we were camping on Memorial weekend, but the freezing cold water probably had a lot to do with that time. This time....she was all fish.

We had gone up with some friends of ours this year. They had a camper too and have 2 kids...twins. Tyler has been in school with their daughter since they were in kindergarten together so we've gotten to know them that way. The other dad had a good catch like Tyler....pulling in a 4 pound Northern. The two of us decided to go ahead and fillet them up and cook them for dinner that night. I did Tyler's bass and he did his Northern. Between the two, we came up with enough meat for all 12 of us to have a good size piece that night.

On Sunday, we headed to Bay Lake where we had reserved a pontoon to rent for the afternoon. It was one of the best weekends we've spent up there for weather. The sun was out every day and it was just beautiful. The water was warm......it was perfect.
We spent 5 hours on the lake on that pontoon. We drove it to a sandbar and stayed there for the first 3 hours or so. Just swimming and hanging out on the boat.

We took the next 2 hours to just go around the lake and try some fishing. The fishing wasn't that great, but the view was beautiful and that 5 hours flew by.
There was a radio on the boat and we had the music playing while we swam.
At one point, Livi was over by Jason and he started to dance with her. It was the cutest thing ever!
All I could think of was that Steven Curtis Chapman song....Cinderella.
Made me want to cry.......This small child, never knowing a daddy before......will now grow up having one. How precious.

That evening, back at the campsite, some of the other people staying there had brought a ton of fireworks. All the people there pulled up a chair on the beach and watched.

Monday morning came and we took our time leaving. We weren't in a hurry to get home and wanted to get as much swimming and fishing in before we had to head out.
The night ended with us going to fireworks. We only had to go about a mile from our home where people lined the streets for a great view of the show. It was Livi's first 4th of July and her first as an American, so it was pretty special.
What a great weekend!!

The season of neglect

2011-07-08T22:50:00.000-05:00

...at least for my blog it is. My gosh, it's been almost 3 weeks since I last posted. I think thats a record for me.....a bad one. I have so much going on this summer with the boys that it just isn't on my mind to sit at the computer and write. It should be.....I'm sure there have been plenty of missed opportunities to tell a story or two.....
I could tell you about a couple random things the boys have said to make me laugh.
Like the other night at dinner when Tony looked at dad....holds up a big spoonful of food....and says, "If I eat this, will you think I'm a man?" You have to know Tony's personality to picture him saying this cuz it was hilarious.
Trae's been on this name-calling kick. It's not mean-spirited, he thinks it's funny to see what outrageous name he can call his brothers. Sometimes the things he comes up with make Jay and I look at each other with this look that says...."who IS this child?..." His latest and most favorite is fat hobo. Hm...not crazy about the 'fat' part, but I know he does it to be funny, not mean.
Then Tanner says to me recently that he is going to be a policeman when he grows up so that he can arrest people even when they didn't do anything wrong. Um...okay...
And lately he calls Olivia 'sweetie' all the time and even told her today that she was the cutest thing with a cherry on top. I mean really....how many 6 yr. olds do you know that are that precious.

The boys have been good, bad, and ugly so far this summer. They have nearly drove me to drink and made me laugh all in the same day. I suppose thats what happens when you have 6 kids. If life were boring I would be feeling their foreheads and checking for fevers.

Car Show on Father's Day

2011-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00

Every June, there is a huge "Back to The 50's" car show at the state fairgrounds. Jay and the boys went last year and this year, we all went. Mindy and Kaylee joined us too for part of the time. We were able to pack a cooler with lunch and some drinks and the boys got in free so it was a pretty inexpensive way to spend the day.
It was really fun to see all those old cars. Jay and the boys were in hog heaven. Livi has fun no matter what we're doing....and me...I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. There were some really crazy cars.

Happy Father's Day to the best dad to our whole gang.

InCinC Retreat

2011-06-13T17:20:00.002-05:00

This weekend was our Couples In Christ retreat. It was the end of our second year together and our second retreat. We rented a house about an hour and a half away that was very cool. An old style home filled with antiques and creaky floors. It was a little creepy to some....especially some of the weird portraits hanging on the walls of the bedrooms.....we kept waiting for the eyes to start moving back and forth like something out of a Scooby Doo episode.

There was a "therapy couch" that we thought we could use for actual therapy.....or it made a perfect reenactment of the scene from the Titanic movie....except Sherri remained fully clothed. :)

The foyer had some old style hats and canes......it was too tempting to just leave them hanging all weekend.

We got there Friday evening and stayed until Sunday. It was a really good blend of fun and partying....with prayer and marriage strengthening lessons.
Friday night was all party and fun.

We got unpacked, made some pizzas, had some drinks, and then did something that was really fun. We had come up with the idea that all of us bring our wedding albums. Then one by one that night, we shared our meeting....dating....proposing....and wedding stories. It was great because we really hadn't ever heard the details of it before that. We all found out a lot about each other and how our relationships all began. I think we laughed more than anything at all the details of awkward first kisses and creative proposals.

Saturday we did our retreat material from about 10am to 3:30pm with just a lunch break. It was all very good.
For about half that time, we broke into groups of guys and girls, which has become something we really like doing on retreat since we don't do that during the year at our monthly meetings.

After completing all our lesson stuff, we just hung out.

We had a great dinner....

Played a ton of games.....

ate way too many snacks.....

and finished the night by watching a movie.
We headed to bed about 1am with a wake up time on Sunday of about 7:30am to get ready for 8:45 mass.

This year we added something new to our weekend.
Each of the 4 couples took a certain time to lead the group in some sort of prayer or reflection. One couple had Friday evening, one had Saturday morning and one the evening, then the last one had Sunday morning.
Our Friday couple led us all in the rosary.....

Sat. morning we did a Lexio Divina (this is where you read the upcoming Gospel reading for that week 3 times and then talk about what parts spoke to you)

Jay and I did Saturday evening and read an article we had found called "Finding Time for Prayer In Your Marriage".
On Sunday, after mass and breakfast, we sat one last time together while our 4th couple played 2 Christian songs that they felt were like prayers to them and talked about how, even when we're busy and driving in the car, a simple song on the radio can become our prayer.
It was such a great variety of ideas that we may just stick with doing the same things and make it a part of our retreat tradition.

Needless to say, we had a great time! This has become such an important group of friends to us and we are so grateful for all of them.

We can laugh together, cry together, pray together, and be ourselves together.

I'd say that's the definition of good friends.

Trae's Fun Day

2011-06-08T12:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the 4th graders Fun Day field trip to the park. It's not just any park, it's the kind that is huge and fun and unlike your typical playgrounds.
I always go with for this and it's a lot of fun.
The major downfall yesterday was the weather. It didn't rain.....that would have been better...it was 102' for a high. It got to about 100' before we even left there. We arrived at 9:45am and stayed until 1:15pm, so it was a LONG time to be out in that kind of heat.
Poor Olivia's black hair was like a sun magnet and she was just sweating. My clothes were just sticking to me....ugh. The kids all had a great time though and I can't wait to go back to this park with our family.....on a little more mild weather day.

Trae was coming from the other way and when she saw him, she just started running.....

Seriously....how precious is this

Happy Birthday Tyler

2011-06-07T14:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, when did I become old enough to have a 14 yr. old?
I mean, it was only a couple years ago that he was born, started kindergarten, had his first communion, and played T-ball.
I wonder if I'll ever feel ready for such huge milestones like being a full blown teenager now....after all, 13 is just the warm-up....and starting high school. Doubtful. Heck, my mom was telling me she didn't think she was old enough for stuff when I went through it too....all the way up to getting married and having Tyler. I'm thinkin' I'll hear the same thing next year too when I (her oldest child) turn 40.
We spent the day at the lake swimming and fishing. It was a nice day and great to finally have some warm weather around here.

Tyler's graduation

2011-06-07T07:53:00.000-05:00

Thursday night, Tyler graduated from 8th grade. I know it's only 8th grade, but it was especially nice because he has been at the same school and with the same kids since they were all in kindergarten. I felt like I was watching all my own kids since I've seen them all grow up since age 5.
The evening started with mass and then the actual grad ceremony.
As I was sitting there listening to the mass I felt so fortunate that we're ending Tyler's time at his school this way. It made me think about all the times our faith has been reinforced during his 9 years there....going all the way back to when he was in kindergarten. Jason was serving in Iraq during a really scary time and I was pregnant with Tony. I got a call from his teacher asking if they could make cards for the Marines there and I could send them. A few days later Tyler brought home a large envelope full of papers that the kids had done. As I went through them, many said the same things.....as though the teacher had put some ideas on the board of what they could say on their card. Things like, "Thank you" and "God bless America" and "Jesus Loves You" were written on most. I remember crying at all the pictures of soldiers, flags, and crosses. I sent them off and Jay handed them out to his unit in Iraq.
Another time was about 5 years ago when a 6th grade boy was hit by a car while riding his bike home from school and killed. It was obviously devastating for the whole community and I remember being very grateful that the kids were going to be able to go to school and pray for him and his family. They were offered counseling and it could be faith based, the entire school went to the funeral mass during their school day.
There was the time the band teacher was done with a concert and started talking about the light in all of these kids and that this light was Jesus Christ. How it shined in all of them.
Or when we were going to China to get Olivia and I got emails from many of the kids' teachers telling me they were praying for us...and the same for the day of her surgery.
There's the daily intentions the kids can say in morning prayer, the daily rosary, the weekly mass, Religion class, the Christmas programs and Easter break. I'm grateful for it all.
It's not easy paying for the tuition for their school. Having 5 kids there this year was a struggle. But when I sit there looking at all these kids that Tyler has spent these years with....and I watch 2 of his closest friends get the Christian Leadership award.....I know that it's been worth every penny and I wouldn't change a thing. I love that school so much and I can't wait to be sitting there 5 more times being grateful for the years spent.

Camping

2011-06-03T08:27:00.001-05:00

If you add up
Two vehicles,
One little girl lovin' her first time in the camper,
A Dozen fish caught,
Five boys who went through
Twenty-five pairs of wet socks,
Eight meals cooked outside,
Twelve prizes from relay races,
Ten prizes from candy bar bingo,
One LOUD thunderstorm,
And Zero leaks in the camper,
It equals
ONE FUN WEEKEND!

Tanner's Zoo Trip

2011-06-02T12:17:00.000-05:00

I'm so behind on my blog and really wanted to get in a post about Tanner's field trip I went on last Friday.
It was the day we left to go camping so the timing was a bit hard since there's always tons to do, but I have gone to all the boys' kindergarten zoo trip and I wasn't going to miss his.
We had a really good time. It was a little chilly, but otherwise nice outside.
Tanner just kept hugging me all day and telling me how much he loved me and that he was so happy he had me all to himself.
Made me happy and kinda sad all at the same time cuz I know how important it is to have that one on one with the kids.....and also how hard it can be to do when you have 6.
It's worth making the effort though and I'm going to try and do that more often.

Tyler's awards Day

2011-05-27T14:31:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, the 8th graders had an awards ceremony during school in the church where they recognize kids in all aspects of school.
I was very proud of Tyler for receiving 2 awards. One for excellence in Math.
And another given to kids who show an interest in reading and love of books with higher reading levels and various topics on a regular basis.
He (and, frankly, I) was a little surprised he wasn't recognized for his leadership in Band. That is probably the one I would have bet money on before hand. I asked him if he was disappointed about that one and he said he was. He knows he does a really good job and has been section leader for 3 of his 4 years of playing....but he said, rather matter of fact, "it's probably cuz I never practice."
Um, yeah. Sometimes there's a downside to something coming easy to you.
All in all, I was very proud of him and all his accomplishments. He's a really good kid.
Oh, and one thing that made me almost as proud as if he had won it himself.......The boy that won the award for being an example of Christianity in his school was his best friend. I'm so happy about that because it means he is choosing good friends. This boy, along with his other best friend (these three are tight), are all going to the same High School this fall too so that makes me very happy. I really pray that he continues to choose wisely the company he will keep during the next 4 years.
Congratulation Tyler! You are a great kid and, better yet, a wonderful son.

Never judge a book by it's cover

2011-05-25T22:30:00.000-05:00

Tonight, Jay and I made a trip to Costco for our upcoming camping trip.
Afterwards we headed to Applebees where we had a gift card to spend on some half-off appetizers.
About 10 minutes after we sat down, a large group of about 15 teenagers walked in and were quickly seated at the table right next to our booth.
As I saw them ALL pass by, one by one, I looked at Jay and said, "oh brother".
Ya know, like "great, now we have a table full of loud, obnoxious teens next to us."
That really sounds terrible now as I write it.....it didn't feel that way at the time. Hmm.....
We continued on with our order and conversation.....pretty much forgetting about the teens next to us, as they were just pretty quiet and having some normal conversations between them all.
We saw them all order and about 15 minutes later receive their food.
One by one, they waited until all were served before anyone started in.
"That's polite of them." I thought "waiting like that for everyone to get their food before they eat their own"
As soon as the last plate was placed on the table....
and the server walked away....
all 15 heads bowed down....
and all 30 hands folded at the table.....
and they prayed.

That moment gave me immense hope for our future
and the potential for my kids to find good friends like these teens obviously had.......

.....and it taught me a very valueable lesson.

Trying again...and again...and again....

2011-05-25T12:37:00.001-05:00

In the spirit of the upcoming summer season, I've decided it's time, once again, to get serious about getting healthy.
I just finished watching the Biggest Loser Finale and was crying through most of it. Just seeing the difference in these contestants and the way their smiles have changed from when they started losing weight....
....made me want to be there
In a big way.
So, at the risk of failing...yet again...and doing in front of anyone reading this...again....I'm re-starting my diet blog.
I never got rid of it...just gave it a break for a while.
Okay, so it was a year.
Sheesh...I just think if I had stuck with it....where I could be right now.
But....I digress.
It's gotta be better to start over again...and again...and again...well you get the picture...than to never try again.
I know this is a cop-out, but I am starting after we get home from camping this Memorial weekend.
Not because I want to be able to eat everything possible....
Okay, maybe that is why.
But really I am hoping to use some quiet time in those few days to make some serious menu plans and snack idea lists.
I plan to make it a family affair.
I know Tyler wants to change some things before heading off to High School this fall....
And I know Jay could use some changes himself.
We all could.
Below is the button that will bring you to my healthy eating blog. I'll restart it on Tues. but you can check up on what I started last year.
I just did and I was surprised at how well I really was doing for those couple weeks.
I am determined to do better this year and stick with it.

P.S. I am eating a Hostess Ho Ho while I write this. Is that bad?

Baseball games

2011-05-23T14:57:00.000-05:00

For the first time, Timmy decided to play baseball this spring. He has been playing on the school's team for about 2 mos. and really loves it.
At first, all I could think of is how it was just one more thing to have going on....but considering we aren't in the midst of any other sports right now, it's been pretty low key.
They've had several games and practices rained out, but all considered they've done pretty good.
They started tournament playoffs last week and have their last game tomorrow. It will be for 3rd place.....not bad.
Tim has really come a long way with his playing since the season began. Hitting still remains his biggest challenge, but he's getting better.
This past week he really stood out in the outfield. Three different innings came to an end because of him getting the 3rd out.
Once was with bases loaded and a fly ball to left field that Timmy caught, forcing the other team to waste their chance to bring in all those runners.
The second was a line drive straight for him that he lunged for and caught just before it hit the ground. Very exciting.
And thirdly, he stopped a ground ball and made a perfect throw to first base to get the guy out.
I was so happy with just one of those plays....but three...??
He was so excited and it was really good for him to have some moments like that. We've really enjoyed the season and are looking forward to him playing again next spring.

Sunday Snapshot: Faces

2011-05-22T19:28:00.003-05:00

A face can tell a thousand words.
A person can be perfectly quiet and yet, just by looking at their face, you can tell what they're thinking....
....how their feeling.
Livi's face continues to tell a story every day that we have her.
She can't tell us how she's feeling.....
....but we see it in her eyes
A perfect snapshot of her heart
From fear and uncertainty.....

To the beginning of trust......

From the confusion of not knowing what's happening to her.....

To healing and understanding......

....about the smiles of happiness that lay ahead.

Olivia talking

2011-05-20T14:24:00.001-05:00

This is a video I caught of Olivia talking to me. Tanner was clearing the table after breakfast and took her milk cup from her spot. She was trying to tell me about it....like she was tattling on him. It was so cute, I had to get it on video.
She tries, but just can't seem to form the words.

Update

2011-05-18T10:20:00.001-05:00

Today makes 9 days since Olivia had her lip surgery. It's amazing how well kids just bounce back and you'd never know she was even hurting.
She's been doing really well. Eating, talking up a storm(nothing new that we understand yet), and healing has all gone great. She seems to be having fun with her voice these days. She is always jibber-jabbering about something, even when she's just playing on her own...more than she ever did before. It's like she's having fun seeing what new sounds she can make now with her new lip. Very cute.
We had our check up with the surgeon yesterday morning who agreed that it looks great and is healing nicely. Much to my surprise, we even went ahead and got her next surgery for her palate scheduled. It will be on July 11th. That one will be a little more difficult for her as it is much more invasive than just the lip. That part I am not looking forward to...but it will be nice to get it done and start to get working on her speech.
Just when I thought we were good and all was well, we were at Timmy's baseball game last night and that bubble burst. The game was going long, almost 2 hours, and she was just fine the whole time. Playing and running around. Tanner sat her down and went about 2 feet in front of her to rolled a basketball to her. Just as it got to her, she looked down and WHAM....right in the mouth. I saw the whole thing and it happened in an instant. As soon as I picked her up, she was bleeding quite heavily from her incision under the middle part of her nose. CRAP! I quick went to one of the other moms for reinforcement to see if she had a tissue. She went digging and about 3 other moms quick handed me some. There was blood on my shirt, on her shirt, all over her mouth, nose, chin....everywhere. She was screaming and Tanner felt horrible.
Thankfully, the game was just ending so we were able to get home where I could get it cleaned up enough to see what really happened. I gave her a quick bath and tried to wash it as best as I could. It wasn't that it was terrible, but the skin at that part did open up and was bulging out some. I decided to call the nurse line at the hospital where she had it repaired. I just wasn't sure if they would need to stitch it again or not.
Long story short, she called our Dr. and he said they really wouldn't do anything at this point...just put come ice on it and try and bandage it down with antibiotic cream. We ended up getting some butterfly bandages and so hopefully it will come back into place and heal well. What a crazy night. All this in between Tim's game that went way over on time and then having to quick get home, change, bathe her, call Dr., and get back to school or Tyler's band concert. I swear, I think the phrase "when it rains, it pours" was invented for us.

Finding her voice

2011-05-12T08:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday....

less than 48 hours after having her lip surgery....

and able to put both lips together for the first time in her life.....

Olivia called me mama.

Surgery Success

2011-05-10T15:02:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, May 9th, was Olivia's surgery to repair her cleft lip.
We arrived at the hospital at 11am for her 12:45 surgery.
She was in by 12:30 and done by 1:45.
They let me walk her in to the operating room and hold her while they put her to sleep. I just assumed that she would struggle for a bit when they put the mask on her, but she didn't at all. In fact, when the dr. came near her with it, she leaned forward and let him without one complaint. They gave her some nitrus first to relax her as she layed against me, then the medicine to put her to sleep. It happened very quickly at that point and they took her from me to lay her on the table. That part was hard to watch. It was hard to walk out of there and leave her looking so tiny on that big bed, and so vulnerable to what we were doing to her.
Then we waited.....and prayed.
It didn't take long for the first surgeon, who was putting tubes in her ears, to come out and say he was done. This meant the next doctor was now starting on her lip. It was strange to think about what she would look like when she was finished.
When the surgery was done, we got to go into the recovery room.
On the way there, the nurse told us 3 things....
...that she was awake
...that she looked amazing
...and that she was "P.O'd" (that's "pissed off", in case you weren't sure)
Our first reaction was utter amazement. We could not get over how different she looked. It's just unbelievable what a difference an hour can make.
She reached for us right away and so I picked her up and started to rock her.
We stayed in recovery for about a half hour until let us go up to her room she would stay overnight in.
Once there, Jay held her for at least an hour as she went back and forth between being awake and upset and asleep. They had her on some morphine, so she was pretty out of it for a while.
By about 2 hours, post-op, she was really starting to look a little better. She just didn't look so foggy and she let me lay in bed with her and put on an Elmo movie, which she loved. She even laughed at one part...that was huge.
As the evening went on, she got more and more like herself. She ate an entire plate of mac n' cheese, applesauce, and some yogurt. That was great. She even took some milk from a sippy cup....wrapping her whole mouth around it for the first time. Very cool to see.
Jason had to leave at about 5:15 to go to Tyler's National Junior Honor's Society Ceremony, but he came back afterwards with Cindy and the boys. They were so excited to see her. It was fun to see their faces as they saw her for the first time.
Tony said he was a little "freaked out"...and Tyler got light-headed and had to sit for a bit...but otherwise, it was all love. I think just the blood and all made them a little nervous.
She stayed close to Jay and I for a while, but ventured off the bed when her baby cousin Ben showed up with Pat and Lindsey. They brought her a Dora bath doll that flaps it's tail in the water. She will have a lot of fun with that.
The night went well. I was able to sleep on a pull out chair by her bed side. She slept good except when the nurse kept coming in to check her vitals every 2 hours. That woke both of us up, but luckily she would always fall back to sleep.
She was discharged by 10:15 this morning and has been noticeably happy to be home. She must have wondered what the heck was going on and where the heck we were. She looks even more amazing today as she did yesterday and I know it will only continue to get better and better as it heals. I'm so excited for her.

The morning of her surgery....

PLaying in the waiting room.....

Getting her blood pressure taken....

A bed was ready just for her....

More toys while we wait...

She got to pick out a scented chapstick....

We smelled all the different kinds before picking....

Picking out some new toys.....

Found one......

First post-op pictures.....

watching Elmo in bed.....

Her brothers come for a visit....

Playing with her new doll from Pat and Lindsey.....

Our first hospital family picture....

Livi's night before.....

2011-05-09T08:53:00.002-05:00

Last night when the boys said goodnight to Olivia, they knew that it would be the last time they saw their sister with her cleft lip open.
We are heading to the hospital at 11am today for a 12:45pm surgery to repair her lip.
We took video and pictures last night to have as our momento of how she once looked.
We've all gotten so used to it in the past 2 mos. It will be strange to see her all fixed up.
I feel bad for her that she has to go through this. It's hard because we cant' explain to her what's happening. But I'm also very excited for this new point in her life.
She will be even more beautiful than she already is.

Sunday Snapshot: Choosing Life

2011-05-08T08:49:00.059-05:00

This Mother's Day is more special than usual.
Sure, I have all my plans for sitting around and being waited on.
But today I'm grateful to 2 woman who I've never even met.
My nephew, Ben, and our little Olivia were able to join our families and become our children because 2 women chose life when they didn't have to.
One from America and one from China..both places where, unfortunately, it would have been very easy for them to not carry these precious lives.
What a gift.
One of these mothers can start to find peace with her decision to give her son a better life because she knows the family that adopted him.
One gave up her child in secret, never knowing what her fate would be...only praying it would be more than she could give her. I pray for her and that she is able to sense her little girl's smiles and laughter, love and happiness...and feel peace in her decision.
What an awesome gift they gave.

I think about my mother in law and how she found herself pregnant at 17 in 1971. I wonder....had it been only 2 years later, would there have been someone pressuring her into not choosing life.
Just imagine if that had happened.
I wouldn't have my wonderful husband....a man who I have no doubt God had big plans for from the moment he was conceived.
God knew there would be a Tyler, Timmy, Trae, Tony, and Tanner from this baby growing in his mama 39 yrs ago.
If he hadn't been born, they wouldn't even exist....except in the eyes and heart of God, who had planned on their lives through Jason. Does He cry for all the babies that could have been from all the parents that never were?

So this is what today is really about..right.
Not how we, as moms, can get pampered and spoiled...although I'll take every bit of it.....
At it's core, it's about thanking your mom for life....or thanking your mom for adopting you and choosing YOUR life.
Every life is precious
Every life is planned
Every life is wanted by someone
Every life is a gift from God
Who are we to not give that life a chance

Happy Mother's Day to all who chose to do just that
What a beautiful day.

My Timmy

2011-05-06T22:17:00.002-05:00

On May 5th...Cinco De Mayo....My Timmy turned 12.

Wow, just to say that amazes me.

I was just getting the hang of Tyler being a teenager...

and now I'm on my way to having two.

Every year at his birthday, I'm reminded of how wonderfully special he is.

I remember his birth so clearly and the absolute joy he instantly caused

He has always been my warm hearted boy.

The one who cried at every Livi milestone during our adoption...including telling the boys we were going to adopt, telling them we got matched, and seeing them at the airport coming home from China.

He's good at sports...wrestling and football are at the top of his list.

He loves fishing and biking and camping

His favorite thing for dinner is pasta with shrimp

He has the thickest head of hair in the bunch and takes the most time combing it after a shower

He is a great big brother and loves his new little sister

He is a bit of an debater and will argue that the sky is blue
.....I wonder where he gets that from.....

He's kind and respectful at school and makes people laugh

He's a really great artist

He blushes when he's embarrassed

He's known now as Tim to his friends...but he will ALWAYS be Timmy to me

And he hugs his mama whenever we're in the same room

How can you not be in love with that.

Happy Birthday to my Timmy Fimmy Cocoa Pop.

My sweet boys

2011-05-05T22:23:00.000-05:00

My boys have a knack for making me smile.
Sometimes without even realizing I need it....they say just the right thing.
I've always said they are very affectionate and protective of their mama....
so maybe they sense when something they say will offset some of the stupid things other people say.

These are just a few of the things that people have said to me about our adoption and about Livi.

Before adopting....
"Are you sure you want to do that?"
"What......5 isn't enough?"
"Want that girl, huh?"
   -I know that one doesn't sound that bad, but I've really gotten sick of it after hearing it about a million times-
"Kept trying for a girl, huh"
    -Um...no, we kept trying for a child

Since we brought her home....
"You adopted when you already have 5.....wow, I hope they have a return policy?"
    -and this chick wasn't even smiling when she said it
"Is she yours or did you adopt her?"
    -Umm.....both?
"Finally got your girl, huh?"
   -I know...not terrible...but again...a million times...every.single.day. ugh
It makes me feel like I wasn't happy to complete with my boys and that makes me feel very defensive of them and has made me really hate that comment.
"How much did she cost" (store clerk....they always have the most interesting comments)
    -um, she was marked down on sale....yep, we got a good deal on her. She's like a little bargain baby.
And then there was the store clerk who, as soon as we got the the checkout, kept saying...."Oh, poor baby....poor, poor baby.....oh, that poor thing....."
About 25 times during the whole checkout process.
I finally said, "She's not a poor baby...she's a very happy, healthy baby and she'll be just fine".
To which she replied..."Oh, I know...but poor, poor baby"
Oh, brother.

This is what I hear at home from my boys.....and it makes me forgot all those
stupid comments. Why are kids smarter than some adults?

When Tyler found out she was scheduled to get her lip surgery done...
"aw, I'm gonna miss it. It's like a part of her"

Trae, the other night as we are all sitting in the family room getting a kick out of something silly she was doing...
"how did we get so lucky to get her?"

Tanner, when he came in from outside and left her out there with dad and his other brothers...
"mom, she was so sad that I was leaving her....it's because she just loves me so much"
He's always saying how she's so cute and how much he loves her. And this is the kid that everyone was wondering if he'd be jealous.....nope.

Those are just a few of the things that come to mind.
There are so many times, daily, that they all say how much they love her.
They hate to see her cry.
They fight over who's next to hug and kiss her goodnight.
Anyone who ever teases her or, God forbid, decides to date her will have to get through them first.
She is so lucky to have such sweet brothers.....
....and I'm so lucky to have my beautiful boys.

Happy Easter

2011-05-02T16:23:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm a week late. I've been so terrible about getting on my blog lately. Lots to do around here and, truth be told, it's garage sale season so that has taken priority these days. I never drive by a good garage sale.

Anyway...getting back....Last week was Easter and it was not only Livi's first Easter with US, it was her first Easter EVER.

She's had a lot of "firsts" in the past 6 weeks and it's been fun to have a front row seat to each and every one.

It doesn't take her long to get the hang of things that are new and fun.

I wonder what she must think when we do things like coloring Easter eggs.

The Easter Bunny knew she couldn't really tackle the traditional candy in the baskets, so he brought her the movie, Tangled.

Our annual picture on the steps before the kids get to come downstairs.

She was so excited!

And loved finding all the colorful eggs in all their hiding spots. The Easter Bunny made sure to make some easy to find for her.

We were all decked out in our Easter best. Coordinated and all....much to Tyler's chagrin.

Time for Grandma's annual Easter egg hunt outside. Thankfully the weather was nice enough.

Carrie Underwood w/ Vince Gill How Great thou Art - Standing Ovation!

2011-04-23T21:44:00.000-05:00

This is amazing and just proves to me again why I absolutely love Carrie Underwood....both as a singer and a person. Love her!

Two things

2011-04-20T18:21:00.000-05:00

First...
Yesterday was Livi's first dr. appointment for her cleft lip/palate. She saw the orthodontist and the surgeon who will do all lip and palate operations.
It was really just a consult and info appointment to see where we needed to get started with her care.
The ortho first thought, upon seeing her, that the gap in her gums is rather large and may need to have a procedure done before we could go forward with her lip repair. It would involve having a device surgically implanted into her gums with pins going up into her palate. It would then be tightened over 3 weeks to bring that gum line together a bit.
When we saw the other surgeon, he agreed that it may be normally something that she would need....but because of her age (it has a better result on babies) and it being 2 additional surgeries, he felt we could go without it. Good.
So, as of now, I'm waiting to hear from the surgical scheduler to find out when her lip repair will be. They said they would like to get her in within the month.
After that, we wait 6-8 weeks for that to heal and then do the palate.
That means that by the time summer is over, she will look like a very different little girl.
I'm nervous for her and the discomfort she is certainly in for......
but I'm so excited for her too. It will be a whole new life for her.

The second thing is that Tyler was nominated for and accepted into the National Junior Honor's Society. YAY Tyler! He had to write an essay about why he should be accepted. He also had to ask an adult (non-family member......he asked his best friend's mom) to write a recommendation for him. It is also based on his grades and conduct.
He found out today that he was among the kids chosen. We are soooo proud of him. He's such a nice boy and just a really good kid.
He graduates from 8th grade this year and I can't believe he's starting high school this fall.
Am I old enough for this?
Way to go, Tyler!
You make us very happy.

Bonded

2011-04-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

My little nephew Bennett was adopted last summer so we wanted to get a picture of our sweet kiddos together.

Adoption has touched our family in a big way this past year!

Benny is Hispanic and Miss Livi is, of course, Chinese so this creates even more of a reason for them to be special cousins.

They have so many things in common.

They were given up in love with the hope for a better life.

They were so very much wanted by us.

They will always know their stories and how God created them

just for our family.

They will always have that special connection....

unlike any of the other cousins....

a bond.

Baptized

2011-04-11T16:25:00.001-05:00

Today was a very special day for Miss Livi.

She was baptized today.

I had bought a dress for her while we in China and was so excited for her to wear it and show everyone how darn cute she was.

We took pictures beforehand

Some with Mike and Lindsey, her Godparents...

And some of our family....boys and all...

When it was time for her to be Baptized, she just looked around, wondering what was going on.

Prayers were said over the moms and dads.

We try and take these opportunities of all the cousins together and dressed nice to get a group picture. Besides, it was the first one that Olivia got to be in.

Miss Livi posed for some pics in her pretty dress. She knew she was the guest of honor today.

We headed home where we ate some lunch and opened presents...

Then it was time for cake.....I had made it the night before. It was the first one I got to make for her.

What a great day! She was soaking in all the attention. I think she's growing quite used to it.
God Bless Olivia.

First Haircut

2011-04-11T14:44:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, Jason brought Olivia to the salon so I could give her a haircut.....okay, a trim. Okay, a dusting.
It's not like it's long and getting shaggy...but it just needed the edges cleaned up a bit. The buzz cut she was sporting was starting to show some stragglers and those just had to go. I figured it would be good to get her all cleaned up before having her Baptism the next day. She sat so still, she just laughed and watched. I'm thinkin' you get used to haircuts when you get one as often as she probably did.

Tim's China Project

2011-04-08T20:02:00.001-05:00

In 6th grade the kids have a huge state report and project that they have to do. It started back in November when the kids pick what country they want to do and they start the research. Timmy picked, of course, China.

Every few weeks a new part of the report was due and different worksheets were completed as part of the assignment. It's quite a large project.

It ends with the kids doing a display board and setting them all up in the gym during the Festival of Nations night.

They get extra credit for many things.....

like if they have food from that country ~ Tim had a bowl of Chinese candy for people to try

....or if they wore clothes from that country ~ Tim borrowed some shirts from a friend who has 2 children from China

.....also having artifacts from the country ~ Tim had plenty of those

I'm thinking he did pretty well on his project.

I asked his teacher if he would get extra credit for having a sister from the country.

It turns out there was a local newspaper writer there to see the kids' projects and she showed quite an interest in Timmy's. Not just his work, but his story. She noticed the pictures were not just from the computer and that they had his family in them. Then she saw Jay and Olivia. She ended up asking them a bunch of questions and taking his picture for the city paper.

He was pretty excited about that and can't wait for it to be in the paper next week.

Big girl

2011-04-08T11:48:00.001-05:00

I had to go to the mall to get some new tennis shoes for Tyler the other day and on the way out we passed a Claire's Boutique. I went in looking for any new headbands...of course...and suddenly got the urge to get Olivia's ear's pierced. I knew Jay wouldn't mind so I did it. I actually ended up going somewhere else because I thought they were too expensive....I think I might just be cheap....but I just didn't want to spend $50 for her to get them done. Tyler and Timmy were with me and they were making me feel so guilty for wanting to do that. They just thought she was going to cry and it would hurt too much.

I know, probably not the best way to bond with her....holding her head while they punch holes in her ears....but honestly, she cried for less than a minute and that was it. We got a mirror and she was smiling at them.

Now, she points to her ears and shows everyone.

Sooo cute.

We got home and I wanted to see how long it would take Jay to notice. He picked her up and saw them right away. He really liked them. I think he was glad he wasn't with to see her get upset like that.

So, I would have pictures, but I got there and took about 2 pictures before the battery died. I knew it was really low, but I hadn't charged it since I hadn't planned on needing it for anything that night.

Oh well, I have a before picture.......

.....and an after. Pretty girl.

Sunday Snapshot: Piano, Ice Cream, and Playtime

2011-04-03T19:21:00.001-05:00

I just continued to be so amazed at how Olivia is doing since we've been home. She is just thriving better and quicker than we could have imagined.

She is doing so many new things every day and she is experiencing new things on a regular basis.

These have been some of her favorites.....

We have a piano in the living room that she loves to pound on. Tyler has fun showing her some songs to play.

We went to a friend's house the other night and Livi was amazed by the fish they had. I'm sure she's never seen a real fish. She loved it and she even got to help feed them a bit.

That same night, we were celebrating a birthday so we got to have some birthday cake and ice cream. She was diggin' in for a bit, but only had a little. That's pretty good for her, she's eating different things every day.

Today, we went to McD's after church with Jay's mom. She had so much fun! There she was....all decked out in her Sunday dress and tights.....having a blast.

I even managed to get a few pics of the boys......though getting all 6 of them to look and smile at the same time proved to be nearly impossible.

Hey, as long as they were having fun!

Say what?!

2011-03-30T00:34:00.001-05:00

Poor Olivia has had some major diaper issues since we got her 3 weeks ago. Let's just say, she has either been constipated or just the opposite....never just in between.
Today, I was changing her and she was a total mess!
I mean, mess!
Like...lay her on a garbage bag so the floor is protected....kinda mess.
Tanner was standing there at one point and plugging his nose, saying 'ewww' when he said to me..
"Is that what China poop looks like?"
Oh my Lord....where do my kids come up with this stuff?!

Monday Snapshot: Changes

2011-03-28T15:00:00.009-05:00

After watching our China videos yesterday, I was reminded just how far our new little peanut has come in such a short time. It was 3 weeks ago today that we first met her, first held her, and could first finally call her ours.

This is what I know.....

Three weeks ago....

~She was physically shaking for almost 2 straight days
~She would rock back and forth when we sat her down, she had learned to self sooth.
~She would hold her bottle because it was all she ever knew
~She didn't make any sound. No babbling, talking, laughing
~She would only eat noodles and congee
~If she wanted something, she didn't know how to tell us
~She had never been in a car, train, or plane
~She lived in 2 rooms at her orphanage where her daily scenery never changed
~She never saw TV or movies
~She turned her head away when we tried to take pictures
~She slept in a hard crib
~She was so scared and her face showed it
~She didn't really get tucked in or rocked at night
~She didn't know the love and protection of a big brother
~She didn't know what it was like to have a mom and dad that would love her no matter what
~She was an orphan

Today....only 3 short weeks later.....

~She is no longer shaking or rocking back and forth because she knows she doesn't have to sooth herself, she has us
~She doesn't hold her bottle anymore because she's learned that she doesn't have to
~She is saying words like "Uh-oh" and "Hi" and lots more that we think are probably Chinese
~She is eating things like applesauce, cheese, meatloaf, and bananas
~when she needs something, she taps our arm and points to what she wants....she manages to let us know exactly what she needs
~She has been on a train, 2 planes, and many car rides and done great
~She now has a house with many rooms and play areas for her to discover and call home
~She loves Barney and Toy Story and when we took her to see her first theater movie (Yogi Bear) this weekend, she kept pointing to the screen and saying "Hi" to the characters.
~She loves getting her picture taken and will pose by putting her arm around us and smiling for the camera
~She sleeps in her own soft bed decked out in pink just for her
~She doesn't look scared anymore, she looks happy
~She gets rocked every night before bed and tucked in warm. I just put her down for a nap and she kept puckering up for me to give her a kiss...it was adorable. When I turn to go, she waves and says "hi". For now, that also means "bye".
~She has 5 big brothers who totally dote on her and she's eating it up every day
~She has a mom and dad and is very affectionate with both of us. She gives out hugs and kisses every chance she gets, it's the cutest thing. She has bonded with us so quickly and it's been amazing to see the transformation every day.
~Today, she is no longer an orphan.
She is a child of God and a child of ours.

Welcome Home Olivia

2011-03-25T09:13:00.007-05:00

I know so many of you are curious to know how she's doing at home with the boys. Well, let's just say that if I could have prayed for the perfect scenario, this would be it. Honestly, it has gone better than Jason and I could have ever dreamed. I had no doubts about the affections of my boys towards their new sister.....but had no idea how she would take to them at first.
It's been amazing to watch. They are completely enamoured with her and she is soaking in all the attention with a giddy heart.
We had showed her pictures of the boys the whole time we were in China and we talked to them on Skype with her on our laps. I really think there is some recognition there and for some reason...she just seems to know. She just knows that these guys are here to stay and that they love her.
By the first 20 minutes we were in our home....her new home....she was upstairs playing in her new room with her 5 new brothers. Everything new and yet, comfortable to her to her little spirit. Only God can make that happen.

How precious is that....

She smiled and played and interacted with them as though she'd known them her whole life.
We had only a few people over that night and then it was time for bed after such a long day of travelling. She slept in her own bed for the first time. It was so sweet to see her there finally after seeing it empty for all those months. Surreal, actually.

The next morning, she was all over her toys like it was Christmas morning. Which for her....is not so far from the truth. She's never had so many things at her disposal, all for her.

We spent the day as a family on Saturday and then had the whole family, cousins and all, to the house on Sunday after church.
With 5 brothers, 8 cousins, 3 uncles, 4 aunts, and 3 grandparents there...she didn't even flinch. Her records had told us she liked noisy and busy places, and they were not kidding. I don't think much phases this peanut. I even took her to lunchroom duty that I do every Monday at the boys' school and she was loving it.
She had fun opening gifts from everyone too. I wonder how many presents she's ever gotten. She got the hang of it real quick.

All the attention didn't slow her down one bit. She even played Legos with Uncle Pat.

The cutest thing was on Saturday afternoon....a mere 20 hours after first meeting her brothers.....she was sitting by me at the table and Timmy came up with a camera to take a picture. As soon as he lifted it, she put one arm around my shoulder, looked at the camera, and smiled. She posed. Seriously? She's posing for pics already? This little thing is a dream. The boys thought that was just too darn cute to not get a piece of it, so they sat by her to see if she'd do the same with them. Much to their surprise...and mine...she did. Only this time, I had the camera and she has a bro on each side so she lifted 2 arms around their shoulders and, once again, posed. It was absolutely priceless. Any concerns I may have had at how she'd feel around all these crazy boys just melted away. She was home and she knew it.

Home Sweet Home - Part 2

2011-03-23T10:02:00.005-05:00

We arrived home to a very nice welcome.

The driveway had been artfully coated in chalk drawings welcoming us all home....(I asked Timmy to get a picture of it for me and this is what I got...not exactly what I was thinking, but you get the idea)

There was a balloon tied to a "It's a girl" sign in the yard.

When we got inside, there was more balloons and crepe paper...pink, of course....

The boys and all our nieces and nephews had made great welcome home signs.

One of the best parts was seeing a huge area of the wall covered in pictures of the boys and all the things they did while we were gone. My mother in law and Jason's aunt, who helped watch them for us, had made it. It had pictures of walks outside, their wrestling matches, Tyler's spelling Bee, playing board games at home, and doing some craft projects. Then they had all written nice side notes around all of it. It was soo nice to see all of that, I still haven't taken it down.

I took a much needed shower and we had some cake.

This was after I had emptied my suitcase to show everyone all the fun stuff we bought while we were there. I had bought a silk scarf for my mom, Jay's mom, his aunt, and his grandma. We got my dad a great hat and a t-shirt with the Chinese character for grandpa.

It was fun to tell some of the stories that didn't make it to my blog, like how crazy the driving is over there and how Jason said "si" to a taxi driver one night. Ya know, "Si".....as in Spanish for yes. It just spilled out as we got out of the cab. I looked at him as the driver took off and said...."did you just say "Si" to him? He just said it before thinking. Um...Jay....it's China, not Mexico. Whoops. Oh my gosh, I laughed so hard that night.....good stuff.

P.S.

2011-03-22T09:58:00.003-05:00

I forgot to mention the funniest part of our airport homecoming. In the midst of all the excitement and happy tears, Trae.....who has obviously heard us talk about saving up for the expense of this adoption just one time too many....looks up at me and says, "so.....are we pretty much broke now?"
Oh my gosh, do you want me to pee my pants in the middle of the airport?? HAHAHA!!!!!!!!

Home Sweet Home - Part 1

2011-03-19T15:27:00.004-05:00

We're here. I can't hardly believe it. After 17 hours of travelling, we made it back to Mpls. on Friday at 4:30pm. Of course, for the three of us, it felt like 5am on Saturday. The past couple days have been a blur of family, home, jet-lag, and sleep....sort of.
We left our hotel on Friday morning at 10am to get to the airport for our 12:30pm flight. We flew first from Hong Kong to San Fransisco which took 11 1/2 hours. Olivia had her own seat since she was over 2 yrs. old and we were thankful for that. We sat her in it and didn't pick her up as long as she didn't reach and ask. We knew that as soon as one of held her once.....we'd be holding her and passing her back and forth the whole time and that just sounded exhausting. So, there we sat on the plane and she was soooo great! She never moved from her seat, once.
She just played with her little backpack of toys....

When she got tired I laid her down with her doll.

We even put a Barney video in and oh my goodness...she was mesmerized.

When we arrived in San Fran. we only had 1 hour and 22 minutes. Seems like enough time to connect to another flight, but we had lots to do. First, because it was our first stop in America, we had to go through not only the line for citizens and show our passports.....we had to then go to a second line for new immigrants for Olivia. We had to show her Chinese passport and give them all the paperwork from the US Consulate. That took some time. This was actually a pretty exciting moment because ya see, as soon as Miss Olivia had stepped off the plane on American soil.....she was officially an American citizen. That was enough to get this overtired mama all choked up....right there in the customs line.
While we were waiting in the customs line, I was hoping the employee who chooses who's luggage they rummage through would show a little mercy on us. After all, we were a sight. We had 4 suitcases, 4 carry ons (our duffel bag, one diaper bag, computer bag, and Jay's sleep machine) AND....a 2 yr. old strapped to Jay's chest. Well, he did and we sailed right by without a hitch. We re-checked our bags and got to our next gate just in time to start boarding. That flight was over 3 hours, but by this time we were so completely exhausted. It was the middle of the night for us and we had barely even slept. We were so excited though to be on our last leg to get home though that I didn't even care. I think I was also to tired to even care that I had forgotten my plan to get my makeup out of my luggage before re-checking it. I hadn't put any on that morning. I figured it would be a mute point with all the travelling we were going to be doing. Well, my plan fell through and so I was headed home looking awful. Ask me if I cared....I just wanted to see my boys.
Back home, they were just as anxious as we were.

I had emailed my family and asked them to make sure to let the boys come to us first before letting everyone else. I wanted to see them first and give them a chance to get the first glimpse of Livi. I'd say my brothers did a good job of holding them back.

I remember getting off the plane and heading to the baggage claim area. Jason saw them first...off in the distance. Then I did. I had already been crying as we headed through the airport, but seeing them I waved real high above the crowd so they could see us. Oh my goodness, did they come running.

It was the best thing I've ever seen. I was bawling by the time they reached us....this, of course, made me even more beautiful than I already was for all the pictures I was going to be in....and they just surrounded us. It was soooo good to see them. I can't tell you how much we missed them and how hard that was to be away all that time.

Jay and I had predicted that our 3 oldest would be crying and we were right. They were very emotional and looked very happy. They looked at their new sister for the first time. She was a bit stunned by all the commotion. She just looked and watched them. It took me a few minutes, but I soon realized that my whole family was now standing behind us and had been watching.....along with everyone else in the airport....
After giving everyone hugs, we had the fun task of getting to finally show her off in person. The grandma's were the first ones in to see her...and everyone else followed.

Olivia didn't cry or seem overwhelmed. She just watched and held on tight. I think she knew she was in for a ride with this big family.
After spending quite a bit of time at the airport, we said goodbye to everyone except our parents. We wanted them to come back to the house with us. We thought it would be too much for her to have the rest there, but they were coming over on Sunday.
My dad helped by grabbing some of our bags and we all left. We were heading out of the parking garage when I realized that dad had taken the diaper bag. That was the bag that had our wallets, our passports, our licenses, our money, our debit card....everything. We had no way to pay for our parking. No way. We didn't even have a cell phone on us to call them back. Besides, they had almost a 30 minute head start on us (mostly because Trae realized he had forgotten his jacket with his DS inside back in the airport and we had to go all they way back in to the baggage claim area only to find that a security guard had taken it away since it was 'unattended' so it posed a security threat. We finally tracked it down and convinced them it wasn't a bomb). We pulled up to the cashier and told her the problem. We said we didn't know what to do and was there a way we could send in our payment....something? She didn't seem to have an answer for us. We all kinda sat there for a minute trying to decide. She said she'd probably have to call her supervisor who would have us call our parents back to the airport to help us out. I said okay, but that it would be a while. She asked if we were at the airport often, we told her no..we just got back from China adopting a child. We hemmed and hawed for another minute or two about the dilemma and then I saw her reach for a purse....her purse...and start to pull out her wallet. I asked her please not to do that. She said "you did something good and adopted a child and I see you have other kids too....now, I'll do something good for you". We offered to pay her back, but she wouldn't let us. So, of course, I start crying and telling her "God bless you". She says "God bless you too, and your family". There really are a lot of good people in the world. The poor thing probably got yelled at by the car behind us who kept honking. Makes you think twice about being impatient, huh. You never know what's going on up ahead.

Our Trip to Hong Kong

2011-03-17T10:36:00.007-05:00

If I said we had a busy day would you believe me? I mean, it's not like we've been busy any other day, right? Well, couldn't help it today....we had to go to Hong Kong. We got a better deal on our plane tickets by flying out of Hong Kong rather than Guangzhou. I was up late packing last night and then we were up early to get everything ready and have some breakfast with Mark and Barb before our driver came for us at 10am. Before leaving though we had to do something very important that we hadn't done yet. We had to get the kids' pictures done on the Red Couch. It's the famous red couch in the White Swan hotel that all adopted kids have to get their picture taken on. It's become a real tradition for all people there for adoptions.

I got some of Olivia on her own......

Then we added Logan and Megan too.....

I've seen so many pictures on that couch with other kiddos so it was very cool to finally be there taking pictures of our own.

We had to be at the train station on time for a 12:12 ride. Our driver brought us and Lucy had arranged for someone to go in with us and make sure we got to the correct place. I've been pretty nervous about this trip all week because I just couldn't figure out how we were going to manage with all our luggage and Olivia in tow. We had 4 suitcases (this included the extra one I bought last night for shopping stuff) a computer case, a duffle bag, a diaper bag, and Jay's C-pap machine case.....plus a 2 yr. old. Luckily I had brought the snugli so Jay was able to "wear" Olivia while we each pulled 2 suitcases, each with a carry on on top. It was enough to make us both literally sweaty by the time we finally boarded the train.

There was one strange thing that happened when we boarded the train. I was ahead of Jason a bit and when he got on the main car where the seats were, Olivia totally freaked out! She about jumped out of the thing Jay was carrying her in. She acted terrified....but of what? It took me a while to calm her down, we've never seen her so upset. There was nothing obvious that triggered it....just getting on the train. So....here's what we think. We think she actually took a train for her trip from the orphanage and we wondered if maybe she thought she was going back. Maybe? I know she's only 2, but she's smart and something that significant in her life only 10 days ago is not easily forgotten. It's the only explanation we could think of.....I mean if she could have jumped out of Jay's arms and off that train, she would have. I just rocked her and held her tight and just kept whispering in her ear...."we're not taking you back......we're taking you home.....we're not taking you back....we're taking you home" ...... I realize she doesn't understand my words....but I believe a lot can be said with just a tone of voice, and I think, somehow, she understood.

We arrived at our hotel at about 3:30 and were completely amazed at what we saw. Holy cow....I had read all good reviews about this place and it was listed as a 5 star hotel, but SHEESH!!! I said last week that the White Swan was the nicest place we've ever stayed in.....it's now the 2nd nicest place. Funny thing is....I found it on Expedia for only $90. What?! Is that a typo?!

The room is twice the size of any room we've ever stayed in. We have this amazing view. And....we have an entire balcony overlooking the beach. It could fit 40 people...it's huge...and it's only for our room. Sweet! Off in the distance you can see the mountains and the coast line.

------------------------

I'm going to go take a hot bath, so Jason is going to take over and tell you more about our evening in Hong Kong......over and out.

------------------------

Unbelievable!!!!! We walk in this place and marble floors everywhere, stone granite tops for the check-in area, beautifully decorated. Outrageous views! As you walk inside there is a huge water fountain area, nice restaurant, gazebo type hut which the bar wrapped around, and also a lounge area where you could play games or socialize this was equipped with nice couches and love seats and then two coffee tables made of stone granite. The floor in this place sparkled just gorgeous!!!!! Did I say the floors looked nice.

Then outside there was another place just off the courtyard where they were serving an outside buffet dinner. NICE!!!!!!!!! This is also right off where the huge outside pool area is as well.

We then checked in at hotel, and then noticed they have both inside elevators as well as outside elevators to your room. Wow, what a view!!!!! We can see the hotels, yachts, boats, ships, and beautiful channels of the ocean. And our room is huge as Jenny already explained!!!!

We sat in our room at just chilled for a hour watching an actual English speaking movie called Premonition. Good flick.

Then we ventured out to the restaurant and seven eleven grocery area. We ate, you won't believe it, we ate at an Italian Restaurant. We ate BBQ chicken pizza with bell peppers and onions and mushrooms. Not bad!! I forgot, we started off with some bruschetta and Olivia ate for the first time, tomatoes and some bread. She loved it. Then Jen decided to try to give Olivia some chicken from the pizza and she ate it. She is really trying some new things lately and surprised both Jen and I tonight. That is good news!

We were done eating and waiting for the check, when two small children from the area I guess, a boy and his big sister (maybe 7 and 9). She stopped as she walking on by and looked and asked Jen, in English, "what's wrong with her lip?" Curious !!! So Jen asked them to come over to the table and proceeded to explain to the girl and the boy Olivia's cleft lip and palate situation. Explained to them that she is okay and some babies are born like this, but it is okay, this can be fixed very easily. And I have to say this little girl was very sincere and cute and she made a final comment and said, " I thought she was bleeding from her nose". We laughed and said , "No she is okay". And then the little girl took another look closer and asked, "can she breathe through there?" And we said absolutely she is okay, she has adapted to this condition all her life. I'm sure when Jen takes Olivia to Epiphany for lunch room duty on Monday some of the kids will have something to say or talk to their parents about that night.

Afterwards, we went and got Jen a Diet Coke!!!! They actually had some coke light at the seven eleven. And then we headed for home. We decided to look around and take a few pictures of the hotel entry level area. We went over to the fountain area where there was 3 fountains creating little bubbles in the water. So Livi and I took to the bubbles and decided to start popping them. We had a good time, and I think she did too.

I have to say, that Livi is getting more and more brave with each passing day. She will wander off sometimes a little bit from us and then look around and notice that she is too far away, and come running back to us with this big grin on her face. It is so cute!! She is pretty daring too, she will go right to the ledge and lean over to see something without hesitation. She is becoming very independent little girl at times. But, this means that she is getting that much more comfortable with us and trusting us to care for her.

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Hi, Jenny again......Thanks dear........Well, this is my last post from abroad. Tomorrow we board a United Airlines plane (that will certainly have REAL diet coke!!!!!!!!!!) and head home. We leave at 12:30 Hong Kong time and arrive home 4:30 Minnesota time. Kinda funny, cuz it will be about 20 hours later but only 4 hours later in the day. I doubt I'll feel like posting tomorrow night so I'll try and catch up this weekend. Thank you sooooo much to all of you for your sweet comments and for caring enough about Jay and I and our family to even follow along all this time. We feel very blessed.

Okay......America or bust!!!!!! We're going to be home soon boys!!!! We miss you!!!! XOXOXOXO

Last day in Guangzhou

2011-03-16T12:49:00.006-05:00

Today marks the last full day we spend in Guangzhou. It’s been such a great trip and whole experience that we will never forget, but we are SOOOO ready to come home. We have to take the train tomorrow to Hong Kong where we will spend one night before flying out on Friday.

I’ve been packing and it’s almost midnight and I’m exhausted so I’m going to let my pictures do most of the talking tonight. We went to the Buiyun Mountain about 20 minutes away. They have a cable car that takes you up this huge mountain and then you can spend time up there on paths and with a great view of the landscape and far off city.

There is also a bird sanctuary where you walk through this enormous area outside that is like walking through a jungle only there’s a steel cage surrounding the whole thing. You can’t really see it though unless you look hard because it’s so high up and so large in area. It’s not the most conducive place for a stroller though. There are hundreds of stairs. I’m tellin’ ya….If I have not lost some pounds on this trip, I’m gonna be shocked. The amount of walking and stairs we’ve done in the past 2 weeks is unbelievable.

At one point, before going into the enclosed area, we went to the scenic overlook and there was this teenager climbing up on the railing. I about had a heart attack……though I managed to snap a picture first…..because there was about a thousand foot drop on the one side of him. Oh my gosh, seriously?!!!

Then there was the bird show. The bird show was very……..um, boring. But it was made better by 2 things. First was the fact that Barb and I couldn’t stop laughing at the guy running the show. He had about as much personality as a rock. He would bring out a bird, it would do a trick, he’d bring it back. No smile, no ‘voila’ arms up high, nothing. He just stood there, didn’t say a word, and waited til the bird was done. It was hilarious. I was getting some serious church giggles.

The other thing that spiced it up again was, of course, my hubby. Never a dull moment with this guy, I swear. There was music playing loudly on a speaker throughout the show. It was Chinese music until all of a sudden the song, “Islands In The Stream” with Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton came on. Well, Jay must have thought it was karaoke night at the local bar because he started singing…..loudly. This was a small, small, little outdoor theater area and there was only us, Barb and Mark with the kids, and Mark’s parents, and then about 10 Chinese people…….all of which stopped watching the bird show and started watching Jason. Ya know, I never really realized just how catchy that song is…..or maybe it’s just because we haven’t heard music we know for weeks…….but the rest of us just couldn’t help ourselves and before we knew it, Barb and I were singing along too. I think Mark was probably getting into it as well, but he was mostly getting pictures of Jason…….who was now holding his hand up like it was a microphone. Oh my gosh, I’m laughing as I write this because the poor bird guy just kept bringing out his birds and having them do their tricks. At one point during the song, I looked up and the parrot was adding numbers……good stuff, letmetellya……sorry we missed that one. Between this and the ape incident the other day at the zoo, word just might spread that these American guys are a bit crazy.

Okay, so now I wrote more than I expected…but I couldn’t go to bed without telling that story. So….that was our day. We went to dinner together at Lucy’s for our last night together and then Barb and I went to buy a new suitcase so we could get all our stuff home that we bought here. I just finished packing it and I think I should have gotten a bigger one.

Day 8 with Miss Livi

2011-03-15T22:22:00.002-05:00

This morning was our appointment at the U.S. Consulate. This is our last step we have to do before we leave. It is the part that gets us Olivia's Visa to enter America. We get the visa on Thurs. and then we leave Friday so we are almost on our way. YAY! We had to meet Lucy at 7:30 am for our 8:30 appointment so we got up at 5:45 to be sure we had time for getting ready and going down to breakfast. We got to the Consulate building about 8:00 to give us time to get through security and such. When we arrived, we noticed a very long line....at least 100 people.....going down the front steps. We asked Lucy what that was and she said it was the Chinese people trying to get an immigration visa. Mark thought she maybe meant a visitors visa, but she said no...they are wanting to emigrate to the United States. She said the line is a block long every day and most are turned down. Some try many times and they have requirements that they must meet to even apply....things like having a certain amount of money in a savings account. I suppose so they know you're not coming to America penniless. I watched the people as we walked by them with no line to wait in. I watched them watch us. I could see it in their faces. It wasn't envy....but it was like a longing. A longing to be in our shoes and come to our country. I have always tried to appreciate the blessing of living in the United States and not take it for granted, but it really hits home when you travel to a place like this. We are fortunate beyond belief.

Once inside the consulate and through security, we were brought into a waiting room with 11 other couples where we were greeted by an American woman who went through some of the formality and explanation of what we were doing there and why. She gave us one very interesting statistic.......Last year, China issued just under 10,000 adoption visas to children just like ours and over 3,500 of those were for American families. That means in the whole world, we adopt 1/3 of the orphans from China. Say what you will about greed or over abundance in the U.S.....we are a very generous and giving Nation. That made me proud.

After her talk, we all stood up, raised our right hand and took an oath on our promise to care for this child. It was a very cool moment.....I wish I had a picture, but they wouldn't allow any electronics....so we just have the memory.

After leaving there at about 9:45, we headed to Grand Buy again to do some shopping. Mark and Barb hadn't been there yet and they really wanted to check it out. The guys waited patiently while Barb and I were checking out the children's clothing store.

We took some streets this time that Jay and I hadn't yet. It was much more rustic China this time. Alleys with one little shop after another. Each the size of a walk in closet. It was almost like going to a flea market with rows and rows of things.

At one point there was a woman who wanted me to sit down to try some string thing on my face. She had a large spool of thread and she started using it on my forehead to show me. I figured it was some sort of hair removal. I let her try it for a minute, but then declined when she wanted me to sit down. I kinda wish I would have just let her do it....it would have been an experience for sure.

When we got back at about 2pm, we spent some time just playing in the room. And we took her down to the Swan room to play. That's always fun and each time, she gets more brave and ventures away from us a little more.

We were supposed to go on a dinner boat cruise but had to cancel because of the weather. It got real cold and super windy while we were out shopping. The boat would have been even colder so we decided not to go. I really wish we would have gone Tues. night after the zoo because it was a beautiful day, but that's okay. There's no time tonight because we have to meet Lucy for one more visa thing between 5 and 6pm.

Instead, we went down to the lounge area and the guys ordered some beer while the girls played with some toys on the couch. That was actually nice to just chill and visit for a while.

One full week with Miss Olivia

2011-03-14T09:53:00.007-05:00

Today marks one week since we first laid eyes on our little girl. It's like her birth....to us anyway. We are getting to know her ins and outs, her moods, her likes and dislikes, her faces, and her laugh just the same as any child born to us. The transformation in just one week has been beyond anything I could have imagined. For the last couple days, she can't hug Jay and I enough. She tag teams between the two of us, back and forth...lap to lap, hugging us both with both arms and head laid on our shoulder. It's almost like she's saying "I'm so glad you're finally here to get me".

To celebrate this anniversary, we took her (along with the other couple) to the Safari Zoo.

It was awesome! It was unlike any zoo we've ever been too and ranked right up there with Disney's Animal Kingdom. Our guide helped us hire our driver to bring us the 45 minute drive there and wait while we spent 5 hours in the park. It cost only 200 Yuan per couple (that's 3 couples including Mark's parents) which is only about $30. Not bad. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one, but I do have to mention two things. First, Olivia had her first taste of ice cream and she loved it. We were shocked because she doesn't like things that aren't warmed up. She kept making a sour face at it with each bite, but she liked it so she suffered through the cold. It was super cute.

The other thing was something Jason did. There was a monkey behind some glass and Jay caught its eye and started to kinda lean back and forth with his arms out like an ape would do. The monkey imitated him. It was the funniest thing ever and the best part was seeing all the Chinese people start to laugh and clamor around to take pictures of this big American guy playing with the ape. They stopped for a minute and then as soon as the ape looked at Jay and he started to do it again, the ape did it too. There was one part I was able to catch on tape where Jay opened his mouth real big and the ape did the same thing. Oh man, did the people laugh. It was priceless and I have a great video of it.

One of the first things we did was go on a "Safari on Wheels" adventure where you take a trolley train for over 30 minutes through all the animals.

That was just amazing. There was hardly any (and sometimes no) space between us and the animals. It was really a great ride.

We also went to two shows, one for Elephants and one for the lions and tigers.

There were several classes of kids from the local elementary school. All the school kids here wear uniform. I just thought they were so cute and it made me really miss the boys.

We saw so many animals that we've never seen or that you can't find in America. I'm so glad we did this, it was a memorable day.

We went out on the town for dinner at a Pizza Hut tonight......it's that whole 'no more being adventurous with our food' thing.....and it was sooooo good. It just hit the spot. The nightlife was pretty busy even for a Monday night in this square. It's the same place Jay and I went to earlier this week, only this time we were able to see it at night and it was lit up like Vegas.

Tomorrow we have a wake up call set for 5:45 am because we have to get ready and have breakfast before meeting Lucy at 7:30 for our consulate appointment to get Olivia's visa. It's already past my bedtime then considering. Thank you so much for all the kind comments and continued prayers. Only 3 more days, once we wake up, until we go home......I'm very ready and can hardly wait.

Day 6 with Olivia

2011-03-13T12:58:00.005-05:00

Today is Sunday so we went to church. There happens to be a Catholic church just a few blocks away from our hotel. We walked in and were the only white people there.....and people were lookin'. We got some help finding a place to sit (it's a small church and it was almost full by the time we arrived) and tried to follow along. I was actually amazed at how easy that was to do. You could tell what part of the mass it was and I would quietly say the English version of what was said. You could tell when the priest was saying "Peace be with you" and you could tell when it was time to recite the Lord's Prayer. The kiss of peace was so nice. Everyone around us either shook our hand or gave a nod with their hands together in front of them. They were all smiling at us and so genuine. It was really something actually when you think about it. Here we are, half way around the world, with different cultures, different language, different look, different expectations in life and yet we were all there in that church serving the same God, the same Christ. For that hour, I didn't feel so different at all.

After mass was over, we headed outside where we were met by many Chinese people wanting to talk to us. A couple spoke English and others spoke in Chinese but you could see in their eyes and faces they were pleased. We were asked many questions about her and if she was our first child. They all gasped when we said we have 5 sons at home. Everyone does here....they can't possibly relate to such a large family. And the church women, like every other person we've met who's found out about our 5 sons, told us we are very lucky and that we would be very popular in China. Shortly after, the Priest walked outside too and he spoke English really well. He asked us about our family and told us she was a lucky girl to be getting adopted by us. He then asked if we were planning on having her Baptized. We told her it is already scheduled for April 10th. He was very happy about that and surprised that it was already arranged. We talked for a bit more with everyone and then said goodbye to the sound of many Chinese people saying "God Bless You". It was one of the best parts of our trip so far......honestly. As we walked back to the hotel, I told Jason that I'm sure they are so happy to see her being adopted into a Christian family. She had no hope of ever knowing Jesus as long as she stayed in that orphanage.

Later we met up with Barb and Mark again (they went to church with us too but hadn't stayed after as long cuz their little one was getting hungry) and had some lunch together. Today's weather is the nicest it's been since we arrived....about 76' today....so we ate out on the patio and the guys shared a pitcher of beer.

Afterwards, we went to a park right next to the restaurant and the kids played for quite a while.

Livi had so much fun. I wondered if she's had the chance to go down a slide like that before.

She sure loved it!

She started crying when we left and she doesn't do that very often at all.

We went around to a couple shops where Jason started learning how to play China's version of 'hacky sack'. It was funny and the girl from the shop was getting quite the kick outta him.

Kinda took it easy the rest of the afternoon and met up again for dinner. We walked for about 15 minutes to get to a "western" style restaurant only to find out it had gone out of business and a French one had taken over. Good Lord....French? I can't even imagine what would be on a french menu. But, we were there and we were hungry so we went in. Well, to keep it short and sweet, it was probably the worst meal I've had since we've been in China. I ordered a Mediterranean style salad. Um...no. Not even close. Even with everything they said was on it, it was terrible and I could hardly eat any of it. Jay liked his okay, but Mark decided he's done 'branching out'....which is what we said we were doing when we decided to stay at the French place. Haha....no more adventures for him. I'm kinda with him actually. One thing I will NOT miss here is the food. I think the only time I haven't been disappointed with some aspect of my meal was when we've gone to McDonalds and when we ordered Papa Johns one night. All I can say is that I am dying for some homemade spaghetti and french bread......anything just normal and flavorful. No more bland, blah food thank you very much.

Well, time for bed, it's late and tomorrow we are spending the day at the zoo. Til then......

Day 5 with Little Olivia

2011-03-12T19:51:00.003-06:00

Day 5 was good with Olivia. We didn't do much which was a nice change of pace actually. Last night our friends, Barb and Mark, got in from Nanjing where they got their new son and today we pretty much spent the day together. It's nice to have another couple here now to do stuff with. Don't get me wrong, the time with just Jay and I has been nice, but considering we've spent every single moment together for almost 2 weeks......It's nice to have someone else to talk to. :)

After breakfast we had to go to the Dr. and have her TB shot looked at. It looked fine, so that only took a minute. We then had about an hour of paperwork to get completed with Lucy. Barb and I did that while the dads played with the kids in the Swan Room.

After lunch we decided to take a ferry to the other side of the river where there was supposed to be a park. Barb and Mark had gone there 2 years ago when they were here adopting their daughter, Megan. The walk to the ferry was very interesting. It was along the canal that runs into the Pearl River and there were men selling things they had either caught in the canal or found nearby.....I'm really not sure. I got some video of it, but when Jay took out his camera, the man told us to move on so we didn't get a picture. They were selling fish, snakes, eels, turtles, huge frogs, crabs, birds (not sure what kind, but they had tons just crammed inside these crates) It smelled pretty bad just walking through there. It was only a couple blocks of this before we got to the dock.

We paid the half of a Yuan to get on.....that's about 5 cents and took the 5 minute trip to the other side.

I was able to get some good pictures of our hotel from the water. It's the highest one on the island.

The air is strange here. When you look outside, it first looks like it's foggy or maybe hazy from humidity, but then you realize it's really probably just smog. It's like that every day. You can't look far out and see the horizon or buildings far away. I'm so used to being in the city at home and seeing for miles. Not here....it gets almost a little depressing after a while cuz it almost blocks the sun. It's been overcast every day here, but I'm starting to wonder if the blue sky every gets through all this bad air.

Once we got off the ferry, we soon realized that the park was gone. There were some walking paths so we just did that for a while.

Usually the dads were up ahead pushing the strollers and Barb and I, along with Mark's parents who are with, followed along.

That was nice to just get out and take a walk and it was a nice day.....close to 70', I'm sure.

We got back and chilled for a while in the room and in the Swan Room again, then headed to dinner at Subway with the others.

Yep, all this time there's been a stinkin' Subway and I didn't know it. They still don't have diet coke, but the subs were good. They had about half the selection of veggies, but it was still yummy. I tried to give Miss Olivia some break and cheese and turkey....but, nope, so we got her some chicken congee at Lucy's on the way back to the hotel.

After I fed her, I painted her fingernails. I had completely forgotten that I brought pink polish to do that, so we had some manicure time before bed. Too cute.

Day 4 with Princess Livi

2011-03-11T08:10:00.010-06:00

Oh my gosh, what a busy day. We haven't stopped since going to breakfast. We went to 3 main places today. The first one was pretty close as it is actually inside the hotel. It's a playroom called the Swan Room and it's with is great space for the kids to play and interact with others. We happen to be the only ones in it this morning but that was fine with us. We stayed for about an hour and Olivia was loving it. She loves playing with balls. She was sharing them with us and keeping 2 for herself at all times.

By the way, we tried the stroller again today and she started to cry a bit at first, but then stopped and was fine the rest of the day. I loved my friend, Sue's, suggestion to use it to go to a positive place nearby so that she won't associate it with the Dr. again. That worked great and she was fine all day after that. We have to go back to the Dr. tomorrow morning just for a bit so they can check her arm where she got her TB shot. We're going to carry her there this time. :)

After the playroom we hopped in a cab and went to a shopping area that our guide had suggested. It is called Grand Buy and it's HUGE. I find myself saying that a lot, but it's true. Everything here is hustle and bustle and crazy busy and big.

We got a few things at the stores, including way too much candy at a cool candy store where Jay got one picture before the lady scolded him for taking photos of her store. Whoops.

I kinda snuck around a corner of a store and had to take a picture of the rows of boots for my sister. She loves shoes/boots whatever. She would be in heaven, and if you look at the price....they were only 89 Yuan a pair. That's about $11. Heaven I tellya.....heaven.

We left Grand Buy to get back to the hotel by 2pm to meet Lucy who was taking us on a sightseeing tour. We went to a place called Yun Tai Garden. To say this place was beautiful is a total understatement. It was breathtaking. 2011 is the year of the rabbit, so although to most of us looking at the pictures we'd think it was decorated for Easter, it's obviously not. It will have the rabbits all year until next year when they will redesign it to go with the animal of 2012.

It had lots of natural beauty........

lots of exotic flowers and trees......

and many fun kids' characters.

It was really a great place to visit. Just nice to be in a relaxing place vs. what we've been around lately. Today's gone really well and, as usual, we're exhausted.

Tomorrow is another adventure waiting........