Springfest

Today we went to Springfest at a church down the road from us. The first thing we did was let Sarah jump in the space jump. Mommy is usually too nerotic to let her do this, but since she was the only one in there I relaxed a little. :) Sarah enjoyed being in there but wasn't sure what to do really. Ironically she'll jump all day long in the living room. Finally some older girls got in there and showed her what to do. Then they did flips....and while I was thinking "don't show my daughter that!" :) I didn't say a word. :) Then a little boy fell off the space slide that I thought Sarah would enjoy......ummmmm, sorry Sarah you'll never be aloud on one of those now that mommy has seen what can happen. (The boy bounced off the slide about 1/2 way down and landed on the parking lot!! But I didn't see it happen so I don't know if he was doing anything wrong or what. They did take him to the hospital in a brace but thought he would be ok.) So anyway, mommy had seen enough of that to last a few years, so we went looking at the craft booths. I saw a cute little purse that I thought Sarah should like :) but she had no real interest in :).
Of course the sparkling, expensive stained glass was more her thing *rolleyes*.
So we sat down for our picnic...which she couldn't stop talking about. She had her first bag of chips (that I know of anyway) and a hot dog. The chips went in no time, as I suspected they would, and she thought it was such a special day for her to get her own chips! Then the hot dog was left. And that disappered too!! And then! she won a door prize!!! You'll never guess what it was! The cute little purse that I thought she should like!!!! She went up to claim it and brought it back to our blanket and was, of course, more interested in the crumbled up newspaper inside the purse! That's my Sarah. But I did get lots of cute pictures of her so I thought I would share.
p.s. Where did April go??????

Easter weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend!!! Saturday morning we got up and colored eggs and then had a mini egg hunt in our backyard. Sarah loved it all!!!! Once she found all her egss she sat down and started opening them all (the plastic ones), completely unaware that most kids find something inside them. :) I figure next year I'll have to fill them.
Then we headed to the airport to pick up her Godmother from China!!! Godma was so excited to see how much Sarah had grown from last time. Sarah had only been home 3 months the last time Godma saw her. Sarah was shy at first, but as soon as they got in the car and Godma started peek-a-boo Sarah perked right up! They played and played and played!!! We talked about China, well ok, Godma talked about China and we just drank in every word. She wants Sarah to know the beauty of China so much and so with every visit we learn as much as we can.
On Easter Sunday we went to sunrise service at Bill Ury's house. It was such a big day because Sarah was going to be baptized there! As we hit the road it was still dark, and our little genius said "God turned out the lights". Just as a matter of fact, everyone must realize this tone. It was so cute. The baptism was beautiful and simple. It was important that Bill perform it because of his love for God and China, and that Godma be here because she is the string that keeps us connected to Sarah's homeland. Godma blessed Sarah in Mandarin and the Holy Spirit filled the air. Such a beautiful time.
And on Monday we took Godma to some bookstores and back to the airport. We will miss her. We will have 1 final opportunity to see her in the US in May of 2007 and then thousands of miles will seperate us, but our hearts will be forever changed. We pray that when we go back for Mei Mei we will have a chance to see her in China.

Where's my little sister????

The million dollar question...sorry I haven't posted about our current "pregnancy" lately. The good news is that there is still a baby at the end of this story. The bad news is that the story keeps getting longer!!!
We continue to get news that the wait is getting longer and longer and longer and, well, you get the picture. As of today it's likely we will not even see a picture of mei mei in 2006, let alone have her in our arms before Christmas. It could go as long as 18 months from our LID (Dec) to referral (just the picture). Everyone can do the math, but that means we may still be traveling in the summer time, just not the one coming up.
I thank God that this wait is happening with #2 and not Sarah. THAT would have been so hard. Now, it's just mildly uncomfortable to know a baby is coming but still so far away.
Now before anyone says "gee, you'd think with all those babies needing homes they would do it faster". That's not fair to the ones doing all they can to place so many babies. I believe they are doing everything they can to get the babies into homes, because they do love them and want the best for them. But you know what? It took our gov't 5 months to read a 2 page document and approve us with a single piece of paper...there is so much more to be done on the other side of the world. I am just grateful that they continue to have the program and work as hard as they do. For a mom who has always believed all her children were waiting for her in China I count on this system to work, not just work fast to get me any child.
And I can't forget how big my God is. He is bigger than our BCIS, bigger than the CCAA, and bigger than the biggest rumor....He's in control. And He's watching over it all and making sure that the stories He has for each child and family come together at the exact right time.

"Let the little children come to Me"

Sarah LOVES church. I mean LOVES it!! She loves Ms Michelle and Ms Christy (Ms Tristy as Sarah says) ,who are her teachers at Mother’s Morning Out…not at our church, but it’s all the same to Sarah. She loves Ms Jue and Ms Jean from her nursery at Mom’s Bible Study at our church. When we leave she wants to go see Mr Chuck and Ms Terri, just to say Hi because we did that when they first came to our church and now Sarah thinks it’s part of the day at church. She loves to go in the choir room because she loves to bang on the piano and sing Jesus Loves Me. And on rare occasions I’ll take her in there with me on Sunday morning during rehearsal and she will stand and face the choir and help direct. She loves Mr Keith and Mr Jim who are just always there and she loves to say hi to them. She loves Ms Julie in the Sunday morning nursery, just because, well, probably because Ms Julie loves her so much. Every day we wake up she says “We go to church today in just a minute?”. Usually the answer is yes because we are at a church 3-5 times a week. She loves to greet with Glen and me on our Sundays to greet at the front door. And just a nice “good morning” does not a greet make to Sarah…no, Sarah runs up to them (any one that looks receptive to be honest) and gives them a hug and attempts a “good morning”. Although, to be honest, once the person gets that big smile and hug I don’t think they ever hear the “good morning”. She’s comfortable there and that thrills my heart. There are so many that she loves to see there. But always when we leave, there is one thing that Sarah must do. She must touch the feet of Jesus on the sculpture on the outside of the church. And most times it’s the same conversation. “I want to touch Jesus”. So I lift her up (we can only reach His feet) and she touches His toes. “I want to touch His hands”. “We can’t reach His hands, too high”. “Ok, just touch His feet”.

I’m nearly brought to tears every time. Touching His feet are enough, even though it would be great to hold His hand. His feet are enough. There are lots of things she likes to do every time we’re at church, but how could my heart not love that touching Jesus is one of them?? And that His feet are enough?

I hope that we are teaching her all we can about our Savior, the One that knew we needed each other, the One that used rough beginnings to say “My grace is sufficient for you…and the beginning of your story is only that…the beginning”. Jesus has poured out so much love on her at CUMC through the people she meets and that means everything to a mom who prayed that her baby would be loved and accepted for who she is, without regard to the first page of her story. But this past Sunday I realized Sarah does her own share of touching lives in the little things that make her “Sarah”. As Glen and Sarah were coming into church someone stopped them and gave Sarah the picture you see here. Know what it is? It’s the Jesus she has to touch every time we leave church. During moments that I thought only I was capturing in my heart, someone else had been touched by the tiny gospel of “touching His feet”. They had this picture taken just for Sarah and gave it to her as a special gift. I don’t know who it was, but thank you. May it always remind us that just touching His feet can be enough.

Big girl jammies

As we wandered through Wal-Mart gathering some play clothes Sarah noticed this "dress". "Those are big girl jammies" I told her in all confidence that they would never fit my baby. She pressed on...so I showed her the tag only to prove it to myself. AGH!!! 3T....my baby would fit in these big girl jammies!!! She loved them, I bought them, still 1/2 sure the thing would swallow her when we put it on.
Well tonight we gave them a try, and I was stunned to see them fit perfectly!!! She's growing up so fast!! The other day when we got in the hot car she said "oh mommy, get the air going". And she'll say "we'll go outside in just a little bit". She's amazing!

Mommy came back!

My weekend away was fabulous! We stayed up way too late, got up way too early, and scrapped like crazy!!! It was so much fun to hear Sarah on the phone, talking like a little girl who wanted Mommy to know what was going on.
It was great to come home too. Seeing the faces of the ones you love....nothing like it!
Sarah and I recently decorated some wooden eggs...our new Easter tradition. And I discovered that Sarah is pretty happy to have her picture taken. Every time I laugh at her she says "take my picture?"....heehee
Anyway, here is a picture with her creation. And also a picture of jr lance armstrong in the making.
Love to all,
Kim