Memorial Day Weekend

What a weekend! Actually, what a week! Sarah has been so busy amazing her mommy my head is spinning!!

Some of you might remember we potty trained back in March and by April she declared she preferred diapers…ho hum…Well as of this past Tuesday we’re a “big girl”!! There’s a long story that goes with it, but I can’t seem to bring myself to put it out in cyberspace for all of eternity. J

She also decided this week to know her phone number, some new praise songs, the apostle’s creed (except for one sentence), mom and dad’s name, and has started tackling a 50 piece puzzle….24 pieces are still her favorite though.

We went to the movies Saturday (Over the Hedge) and she sat amazingly still…and ATE, my did the girl EAT!! She started with about ½ of my nachos (no cheese for some reason), then ate an entire hot dog, and then ½ a tub of popcorn!! Once she had the popcorn she never moved from her seat. It was her first taste of popcorn, and it made quite an impact. She kept asking “can I take it home??”. Oddly, she hasn’t asked for it once since we’ve been home even though she can see it plain as day. The picture is of course not at the movies, just wanted everyone to see this TUB of popcorn that kept her so happy!

Today we planted more plants but she showed less interest than usual in it. She loves to pick them out at the nursery, and move them around the yard….but it was up to Glen and me to do the dirty work while she played with her play-doh.

Oh, and she took her first shower today. She hated it. She said “it raining in there”…. Heehee

Hope everyone else had a good weekend. We love you!

A little (itty-bitty) update on Mei Mei

We learned today that CCAA matched a whole 7 days worth of referrals this month. That comment is dripping with sarcasm. At this rate we could very well be looking at an 18 month wait for our daughter...that's 18 months from Dec 2005.
Please pray that the slow-down is resolved soon. Not only is it hard to wait for Mei Mei at this point, but we are looking at added expenses because documents start expiring soon.
It's not that "China" is not wanting to get the babies into homes but good ole gov't paper work (US and China) is causing headaches everywhere.

2 toilet paper rolls, some stickers, and some string

It doesn't take much to eat up an afternoon....we made these binoculars the other day. Took about 20 minutes to make (not counting the time it took her to cover them with stickers), and we played with them the whole day. She used them "right" for about an hour....then her task (in her mind) was to remove each sticker and place them along her arm (which we wore to Lowe's by the way!) and then distribute them throughout the house as she deemed necessary.
At least she recycles!!! :)

O.K. it's official.....

Our daughter is a genius. :) She is. I'm sure of it. :)
We bought her a new puzzle this weekend...still only 24 pieces. She watched me put it together once while she ate dinner. After dinner she took the puzzle to her table and put it together in the exact same order that I did it without missing a beat!!!
Doesn't that qualify as genius???
Well, of course I had to take a picture because she was so proud....ok, I might have been a little proud too. Kids are amazing!

Footprints on our Heart

This past week and weekend we said "farewell" to some dear friends who are setting out for an incredible journey. For the past few years we've watched Billy and Joanna go from newly married and just starting seminary, to a devoted couple venturing to Arua, Uganda to share the love of Jesus with whoever the Lord places in their midst.
Uncle Billy and Auntie JoJo have loved Sarah since before we saw her picture...and we are grateful that she's had this time with them.
You can't meet Billy and Jo and not be changed by them. And I know Uganda will never be the same. We acknowledge fully that where they are going is not "safe" but we also acknowledge that we know the Lord will not leave them or foresake them...that they will be safe in the shadow of the Almighty.
So, Billy and Jo, as our human natures say "goodbye", our spirits are forever connected through a God who gave us friendship that will last an eternity. And we pray that our physical paths cross often...perhaps in China or Uganda. :)
We love you both!!!

1000 smiles a day

Sorry about the pitiful arrangement of pictures...I have no idea how to fix that.
Anyway...this day, her last day of Mother's Morning Out, she looked soooo cute in her new outfit I just had to share. So in order to get a picture I thought we should get a new pose. She ate it up! She was so excited though it was hard to get a picture of her being still. She'd sit for a second and then jump up to "see Sarah" (the con of digital if you have a child under 4...they want to see every picture you take!). But I thought these were still cute. And pink is sure her color, isn't it???

Ahhhhh Mother's Day. It was beautiful, even if it was completely different than I hoped. In the first two pictures you see Sarah decorating my mother's day/ birthday cake...that part was perfect!!!! My mother's day/birthday gift was my iPod (which is the best thing since french fries!!!) so all I wanted after that was a cake made by my 2 favorite people. It was yummy and beautiful so they both did a perfect job!
So my dreamy plans for mother's day was to go to church and have my daughter sit in church with us while I finally listened to a mother's day sermon that didn't hurt and then we were going to go eat lunch in the park and watch our much prayed for daughter play.
We get to church and just before the sermon (after all the music etc) I took Sarah out to go to the bathroom when she said "Mama, I wanna go play with my friends"...I tried to convince her differently, but she was positive. So I took her to the nursery, thinking at least I'll really be able to listen to the sermon now.
Well, it just happened to be Graduation Sunday too. Wouldn't you know the sermon was for them...every word (ok, us mom's got the prayer, but still!:) ). Glen and I both laughed on the way to Sunday school that I got jipped. teehee But, ok, at least I'm a mom forever now...they'll only graduate this year. Maybe next year.
Then it was time for lunch....and it was raining. Of course. So we went to McDonald's drive thru and ate at home. So, nothing went as planned. But it was still a perfect day. I'm grateful to get to celebrate on this end of it this year.

Life doesn't get much better than this.....

So here we are May 9th. In 1 month we will be at our "1 year ago today we started paperwork for mei mei" anniversary. And, we are about a year away from getting mei mei home. That's hard. Sure I know God's plan is best, and his timing is best. I wouldn't want anything besides His will. I know we will end up with the perfect daughter. I'm grateful we know there is a daughter at the end of this. It's just frustrating not knowing when. How long will this wait last? With a biological pregnancy you KNOW in 9 months you will have a baby...or someone is going in after it! We KNOW we're "pregnant" because we are logged in...we just don't know when we are going in after it! So anyway, it's just hard right now because a year ago we thought we'd be seeing her picture about now. Please keep praying for her...
BUT....the wait is so much easier with Sarah here to keep me company. She's so incredibly sweet. And growing like a weed!! She is 36" tall now. And so smart. Yesterday she started tracing letters...and is hooked! She is always asking to trace letters now. It's as if she knows she's just steps away from writing! :) She goes to the refrigerator and gets her sippy cup out all by herself and even puts it away sometimes! She rides her bike like she's been doing it all her life. And talking all the time!! She will thank you for everything! She loves playing outside with her play-doh, chalk, and bubbles. And I am teaching her to garden (which is really the blind leading the blind), and the names of flowers. We water in the morning and she's just now starting to understand what we are doing, but it is so cute to see her looking at the plants like she knows she should be doing something but not sure what. We will plant our veggies after her nap today. I'm just in awe that the Lord has loaned her to us....Thank you Jesus.
Sarah, I love you sweetie....with all my heart.

It's a grassHOPPER!!!!

Ok, ok, I bought a bug catcher. For my girly-girl. And I’m too girly-girl to catch anything for her. Enter Daddy.

He was mowing the lawn when he came in and asked for the bug box…”ewwwww”, I thought. But, hello, what good is a bug box without a bug!?

So here he is…Mr Grasshopper. Sarah’s first bug. And yes, she was totally girly-girl about it. But she did attempt to touch it once, which is more than I can say for me.

Thank goodness for Daddy. He’ll help balance out what I’ve taught her.....when you see a bug move away and say “ewww yuck, daddy come get it!!!!!!”

"Mommy I did it!!"

On a whim I thought I would try a jigsaw puzzle with Sarah. We found a cute Dora puzzle with 24 pieces and Sarah was so excited. Of course she was only so excited about a box with Dora on it…she had no clue the disaster waiting inside of it.

After lunch we sat down and I showed her all about matching colors and straight edges and “see it makes a picture!”. She looked at it, tried it a little, and quickly proclaimed “I done”. While it looked like she didn’t have much interest in it, I knew Sarah better than that. Her personality is to watch, touch a little, try very little, then think about it a lot!!, and finally attempt it with much success. So every once and a while she’d ask to play with the puzzle and she’d try, almost as if she thought of something last night and needed to try it out today. Usually, she’d ask for help, but Glen or I would end up really putting it together. But after about 4 days of this, she was determined to do it on her own…and she did!!!! This picture is from 4/27, the first morning she did it by herself. Now, it doesn’t take her long at all to put it together! She loves her Dora puzzle!!

"I'm such a big helper"

Sarah's favorite activity is cleaning, I'm sure of it. I'd like to believe it's because she sees her mommy doing it all the time....but sadly, no. :) But she does see me do it some :). Sweeping especially. Of course she's oblivious to the fact that it's do in large part to her and Katy (dog) that I am sweeping as much as I am. hahaha
Anyway, this particular day she noticed some grass on the floor and announced that she needed to sweep. So off to get the broom she went, and actually did a pretty good job! Until this day she only swept the patio, but I think I've decided to promote her!