05/23/09 four years ago today

Four years ago today I was at work. It was a Monday - and having confirmed with our agency coordinator on Friday, there had been no package in the mail from China - so we were not expecting referrals for at least another week.

So, when the phone rang minutes after I got to work - I expected nothing. And when it was our family coordinator - I really just thought she was calling for another reason. Then she said, well, I am looking at a picture of your daughter. She is 7 months old, she is healthy. I had a list of questions to ask when I got the call - and none of them seemed important anymore. I had a baby girl, whose picture was on a desk in Lexington. And she was young - very young. My heart began to pound. I had to leave then to go get John to go to Lexington to see the picture of my baby girl. It seemed like eternity - the drive I mean. I was scared - what if she was not what we expected? And I prayed, NO MATTER WHAT God, please let me think she is beautiful.

(I have to admit, some referral pictures from China could be well, not the best pictures.)

So, we got to our agencies office in Lexington and saw that picture - and she was - just the most perfect, the most beautiful, the most adorable baby I had ever laid eyes on.




And here are some pictures of our referral day at the agency -





For the next two months until we traveled to get Lacie, all I could say is, "she is just the cutest thing." "She is just so cute." AND SHE IS A GIRL!

05/20/09 I will accept you as you are . . .

The other day we were walking and I was pushing a double stroller with a 4 year old and a 2 year old. The 2 year old was being a bear and fussy and was kicking the 4 year old. I was beginning to get grumpy (or drumpy as Lacie used to say). After I had grumped for about the fifth time, "Paul, please no kick Lacie," Lacie asked me, "Mommy, are you happy."
Me: Well yes Lacie, I am very happy. I have the best two children in the world."
Lacie: you are happy?
me: Yes Lacie - I am very happy. Sometimes mommy just feels grumpy.
Lacie: Well Mommy - I will accept you just as you are.

Ahh - what a blessing.

Lacie is always telling me that she does not want to ever leave me. She does not want to get married and have her own babies some day. Why? "Because I do not want to leave you mommy." Why Lacie? "well, who will take care of me?" This she is adamant about.

Tonight when I got on her about something she said to me, "Well, I am going to run away." I did not respond - really it hurts to hear this. So she said it again, "I am going to run away." I responded, "ok." She then said, "will you come with me?"
Ahhh - my girl will never leave me - at least not any time soon.



Oh my potty training Paul! He is losing interest already. Bummer. We finally threw out all the Easter candy. What shall I bribe him with? So, I tried something I did not think would work - after Lacie went potty I picked her up and hugged her and kissed her and said, "Oh, Lacie went pee pee on the potty. What a good girl. Lacie gets kisses and kisses." Of course Lacie loved it and Paul, he dropped his toy and ran to the potty as fast as he could. His bribe will be jealousy and his reward - kisses from mommy!

Look at this face. Does he look like he is up to something or what?

05/15/2009 Junior Prom

Euitag went to Prom on Friday night. He had fun! He was so excited - well, ok - we were all excited. One would have thought it was Lacie and Paul's prom the way we were all excited about his night out. We had dinner with John's extended family on Wednesday night. Our brother-in-law Dennis sat and gave Euitag a lot of tips. I helped too. Always hold the door for her. Always race to the car before her so you can open the car door for her. When you arrive at your destination tell her to sit still so you can open her car door for her. When you get to the prom, make sure she is comfortable - get her some punch. Get her a corsage, take her to dinner. Euitag asked, "so I am like her slave?" I said no, she is to be treated like a queen. He said, "really?" I then asked him, "does your father treat your mother like a queen?" Euitag said, "yes." How sweet - I can see it. He is such a great kid.

Anyway - they had a great time. My mother, MawMaw, actually picked him up, took him to pick up Taylor and took them to dinner before she dropped them off at Prom. I think John was a little jealous - and said, "how are we going to get pictures?" - Trust me - MawMaw will take pictures. MawMaw offered to sit across the room and let them have dinner alone - but they wanted her to join them. MawMaw was very honored and flattered. I can only pray that my children will want one of us or her around for initial dates.

Euitag had fun - he said he danced all evening long. They were picked up and safely home by midnight. John could not wait to talk to Euitag about his night.

Anyway - here are some pictures.
MawMaw - not the date.


Taylor and Euitag



Euitag leaves in a few weeks - we are going to miss him terribly. I pray we stay in touch and that he always knows he has a home in the U.S.

Blessings!

Mothers Day with their real mom!

I know - I am a week late writing for, about and/or on Mother's day. Guess I could say that ON Mother's day I spent the day with my kids and my mother. I chose not to spend time posting that day. The days that followed - well, they were pretty busy too.

Mothers day was the absolute best - I do not know if I have ever had a better day. And I have the two most special children in the entire world. I could not be more thrilled to be their mom. Which brings up an interesting topic of late and in case anyone would be interested, I have found their real mom. Oh I know that may be a surprise to some - that I might even blurt it out so easy and fast. I always said I would be open to knowing her. Let me share about her. She loves them like she has always been with them, and will comfort them when they are sad or scared. She loves them enough that she would get up in the middle of the night with them - and lose sleep over them. She is so real that she hurts when they hurt and is happy when they are happy. And her children - my children: They laugh, scream, cry, go pee pee and poo poo - they play, hug, kiss, and love. They are warm to the touch and breath like real living kids. Oh they are real alright. They are my real kids - the most special and wonderful real kids. They are not imaginary - I promise. AND I - I am their real mom. I am also a warm to the touch mom, and breathe like a real living mom. I love them so much it hurts. So, you see, I am Lacie and Paul's real mom. I am as real as all the other mom's I know. So you see, adoption does not create imaginary families. It does not make imaginary moms and dads and kids. Adoption creates real live God made families and moms and dads and children. And sometimes there are also real dogs and cats too. I am so so blessed to be Lacie and Paul's REAL mom. I would have it no other way. "Biology is the least of what makes someone a [real] mother."

And to or for all the other "real" moms out there - especially those who have had an impact on my life or our lives - especially including Lacie and Paul's biological moms and their early caregivers and foster mom's, including my mom, John's mom, our step-mothers, our Grandmothers, close friends who helped raise us, Aunts, sisters, cousins, former neighbors, much younger friends who became a mother long before I did, teachers, ministers, mentors - all those who have either loved us and cared for us AND/OR led by example in how to be a good mom - a huge THANK YOU! And Happy Mother's Day - Happy Mother's month!

Here are some REAL cute kids:

05/08/09 Family Portraits

We finally got our portraits done. It was fun as always. We wanted to get a family picture before Euitag went home. He is a part of our family now, even though he is going home to his family in Korea next month. Anyway - with the help of MawMaw AGAIN - we had a great day and time. Here is a slideshow of some - even those discarded. It is fun to see some personality.

05/04/09 Homework

When I picked Lacie and Paul up from school on Friday I saw that Lacie had a homework assignment due tomorrow (Tuesday.) She had to brainstorm what her favorite things are, then look through magazines and news papers for "favorite things" and then cut those items out. She is to return those cut items in a baggie on Tuesday. We spent about an hour on the project on Sunday and then about 30 minutes tonight finishing up. She loves to use scissors and cut and does not do a bad job with it.

Some of her favorites: a playground, bicycle, flip flops, sandals, cheerios, snack cup, grapes, macNcheese, ramen noodles, pizza, apple juice, flowers, zebra, pool, and a few other things. Then today she chose to cut strawberries. I reminded her that she does not like strawberries. Lacie responded with, "well, this girl can learn to like strawberries."

I have been reading a book about discipline. One idea is to not praise the child but encourage the behavior. This is not to say that children should never be praised - but the theory is pretty good and it is working. When I see behavior I like I say something like, "Mommy feels happy and is proud of you when you play with Paul, or hug on Paul or eat your dinner, or do what mommy asks without saying no or getting dressed in the morning by yourself, etc." She has recently asked is she is a good girl. I said, "of course you are a very good girl, but sometimes you do not make good choices, like: a, b and c." It seems that she is striving more to obey. (we are also utilizing Time out more often for offenses.)

Well, tonight I told Lacie that mommy felt proud when Lacie did her homework and when was sweet to Paul and loved on him. She then asked, "do you feel warm in your heart when you love on daddy?" I said yes. She then asked, "do you feel warm in your heart when I love on Euitag and Misty, but not Hannah who scratches and bites?" (Misty is our dog and Hannah our temper-mental cat - no one loves on Hannah.) She was too cute.

Speaking of offenses - yesterday she stuck her tongue out at me (which I thought was funny and cute - but had to pretend that it was not.) I told her that she would not stick her tongue out at mommy or anyone and she needed to go to time out. She began to cry and said, "I am sorry and I won't do it again." (This is where normally I would give in and let it go - but no longer.) I told her I appreciated her apology but she still needed to sit in time out so she would remember not to do it next time. She looked up at me and called me "You PICKLE!"

OK mommy hold it together - do NOT laugh out loud at your child who is going to time out. I have to say that I have never been called pickle before. With strait face I told her that she had to stay in time out longer for calling mommy a name. Guess what? She then said she was not going to be my friend any more.

Strait face strait face KEEP A STRAIT FACE - DO NOT LAUGH OUT LOUD! She was cute - really. But to time out she went. And she lost her shows for the evening.

Today she has been an angel - "I am really going to listen to you today mommy."

Over all my girl is a very very very good girl. My kids are awesome. When we have dinner out it is very common for people to come up to us and comment on how good our children are behaving and sitting still. We are very proud of our kids AND mommy's heart feels warm inside when I think of them.

Sorry no photos today.

05/02/2009 Speech therapy

I have so many updates and posts I want to write about and share about - the days and weeks fly by - we gather stories and photos faster then I have time to write about. Anyway - Paul has been in speech therapy since the beginning of the year and he is doing very well. He still does not want to talk independently - only using words mainly when prompted. He is a man of few words. Unlike his sister, she has talked non stop since she was about 18 months. She literally wakes up talking and goes to sleep talking.

Paul does have more words than the following videos show - and at the end of each session Laura will give me a list of what was accomplished in the session. We give him credit for word attempts too - which is still a huge step compared to where we were in December/January. His signing is becoming more expressive as well - he does rely on signing and we are ok with that. Signing has helped his speech development and does eliminate frustration. Some of his words sound the same: Ball = ball and ball = Paul. Ju = juice and Ju = shoes. He now points to everything and will say "ball". He is not saying ball - but "this is Paul's." Most the time I have to remind him that some things are not his.

Here is Paul and Laura in February signing "cracker."


Not sure the sign here - maybe please.


Video from February signing "fish, please, more."


Signing "go."


From April - just a few weeks ago - (sorry for the poor lighting)
spoken words: "down, Set-go, man" (for Awwww Man!)


Saying: Ball and push. Signing: wait


We so enjoy Laura. If you know anyone who needs a speech therapist - please let me know. I am excited to share all about her.

Oh, and Paul gets so excited when she visits that he hides behind me and flirts for the first few minutes. He just smiles so big when he sees her.

Blessings to all!