Hand Picked

Today is the One Year Anniversary of Li'l Empress's referral date. I've spent a lot of time in recent weeks re-reading archived posts related to our adoption journey around this time last year. Many of you may remember the tumultuous times we went through in June and early July of last year. The highs of thinking that we'd found our Li'l Empress (here) and the lows of the failed first referral (here). In between those extremes, we tried to live life as normally as possible. We tried to keep our hearts and minds stayed on HIM and HIS plan for our family. It was an excruciatingly painful journey, and often times felt like a miscarriage. (I say this because I had one many years ago, filled with similar extremes, questions and unknowns over the three weeks of waiting to know the final outcome.)

We had so many questions during that season. So many tears. We took strength from the prayers of our friends and family, including many of you. I spent many early morning hours sitting at the front window, Bible open on my lap, coffee cup at my side, seeking wisdom and peace. Through it all, we hung on to the promises of the Lord. We clung to the verses that you all sent us. And we clung to the words that our wonderful agency director shared with us, as he and his staff walked through this uncharted territory. (To our knowledge, there weren't very many other such referral failures happening with the then-new special needs program of "locking in" a child's file.) Here is a quote from a post on July 3rd, last year:

Here's where we are now: apparently, there was some mistake made in the SN offices at the CCAA that resulted in the failure of this referral being definitively matched to our family. When pressed by our beloved director at Living Hope to make things right (we thank God for him!), they (the CCAA) agreed to hand-pick a child for us based on our Special Needs application that Miss Ashley has on file.(bold and italics added today for this post)

As a family, we stood on those words, "hand-pick" and began that day interceding for THE LORD to be the one to hand-pick our daughter. That the plan of the LORD for our family, and for the little girl that HE had hand-picked from the beginning of time, would NOT be thwarted by the enemy. We filled the house with music that would keep our hearts and minds focused on our mission. (Thank you, Lord, for Steven Curtis Chapman's cd This Moment. It was an integral part of our healing process and our journey toward our Li'l Empress in that season.) We posted verses and quotes all over the windows, mirrors, and the fridge that would aim our prayers like arrows into the offices of the CCAA. We honed in on the concept of Li'l Empress being hand-picked by the Lord for our family. We went after it. Looking back on it now, it's amazing to me that all this happened over a four week time frame. It felt like MOOOOOONTHS while we were in it. But God was faithful. He met us in a powerful way. He taught us valuable things about Himself. And about our own hearts. He moved mountains with our prayers. He bonded hearts in unity over the hand-picking of our daughter. He used our story to move the hearts of many who read or heard about it.

On Monday, July 14th at 8:17 a.m. we got a phone call that changed our lives. It was the moment for which we had been praying. Our adoption agency called to say that a referral had been delivered for a little girl that they believed was our "hand-picked" daughter. (You can read about the phone call here.) It was the first day of a joyful, exuberant, exciting journey (most of which is chronicled in our archives if you are interested in reading more).

Now, one year later, how do I know how much God loves me? How much does my Father love to remind me of the beauty and joy that He has brought into my life? Well, on a recent trip to my local K@hl'$, look at what I found waiting for me on the racks.

No matter that this daughter of mine has plenty of jammies to get through the summer and fall season. Never mind that these particular jammies are just about the cutest ones I've ever seen. And please, who even cared that they were 40% off with a 15% coupon? This little kiss from My Abba Daddy was the perfect touch-stone by which to remember all that He has done for us. And all that He has in store for Li'l Empress.

I'm just so blessed that He has allowed me to join the fun!

These two pictures are of Li'l Empress at about 6 months old, when she was entered into the Waiting Child program of the Chinese International Adoption program. The same month that we filed the paperwork with our adoption agency to pursue a waiting child (special needs.) How cool is God?!

Oooooh, I'm All Goose Bumpy!

Okay, I've taken a lot of heat (well, not heat, mostly giggles and fond eye-rolling) over the last couple years for my um, fascination? obssession? with certain celebrities. I admit it. Some famed beings capture my interest. Some noted personas make my little heart go pitter-patter. Not like it never happens to you. I just happen to talk about it. A lot. I'm not the only one. Really. I mean, even my MOM has a few notable little crushes.

(I mean, the woman was practically in tears when she thought this character might actually be guilty of treason. It took all summer to convince her that he's just a character and not a real spy.)

So, can we please acknowledge that it happens to all of us? That we all have a couple famous folks that cause a little twitter (the old-fashioned kind, not that crazy one-liner status stuff). I just happen to be a blogger who gave those posts their own label. Go ahead, type "celebrity crushes" in the search function and treat yourself to a look inside my scary little world. Don't forget to come back here. And don't judge me. You know my insanity is what makes you come back again and again. It's part of my charm.

So, imagine my joy and excitement when I found out the other day that this celebrity is coming back to weekly television. Imagine my thrill when I found out these interesting facts about my childhood (and adulthood, yes, I can admit it!) crush! It seems that I'm not so silly after all. Thousands, nay millions, around the world agree with me. I'm not as crazy as you all thought.

Granted, he's coming back without the bell bottoms and nifty vests. And without the long flowing mane of gorgeous brunette softness. But he's coming back. And I can hardly wait.

Language Explosion!

Recently, I started a list tracking all the words that Li'l Empress uses regularly, that we recognize, or that are clear steps in the direction of the real word. It's become quite an impressive list. She's so verbal and just chatters away all day long. I'd post the list but seriously, every day she attempts at least one or two new words and tries them on for the rest of the day. I can't keep up with the explosion. Yesterday, she said "Nigh Nigh" for the first time. Today, she repeated "Meeee" when I asked her if the big kids were being mean to each other. Already, she's said it four or five times when they were misbehavin'. And that's another thing: she's figured out that nodding means "yes" and shaking her head means "no." She uses it so appropriately, after months of not even trying it at all!

Her baby babble is quite a treat for all of us. Especially fun is when we catch her "talking" on the phone. She's got inflection, expression, and attitude galore. She even throws her head back and laughs in the "conversation!" We've been trying to capture it on video but you all know how that goes. The minute the camera is on, she stops the stuff. It's driving us crazy, and our little digital camera has been getting quite the work-out with the "delete" function!

She's also taken to praying for anyone and anything around the house that strikes her as a need. Randomly throughout the day in this past week or two, we hear her yell, "Pay!" "Pay!" She lays her little hand on the need, bows her head and mumbles. Followed by "Ahhhhbuh." Yesterday, she prayed for my cousin's large and tender, ummm, uh, facial blemish. Yeah, we'll call it that.

But the cutest thing of all is that last night, while prepping her for bed, she was trying to sing along to "Jesus Loves Me." MELT. MY. HEART. I am not the world's best vocalist by ANY stretch of the imagination. But my already screechy voice got totally choked up at the sound of my sweet girl chiming in "I Luh Uh" (I love you) and "Gee Gah" (Jesus).

This coming week marks the one-year anniversary of the first day we saw her sweet little face and got the word that we got our girl. (Stay tuned, I have a cool post coming up on that very topic!). When I listen to her singing and babbling, I can't help but think of how different her life might have been had we not heeded the call of the Lord to pursue her.

Would her heart and mind and mouth be exploding daily with new words?
Would her little voice still be petitioning the throne on behalf of those she loves?
Would her little heart still be full of song to her Maker?
Would she be growing in the security and confidence of knowing that her Savior formed her, loves her and dances over her with His own singing?

I may never know the answers to these questions. But from where I'm sitting, I'm totally okay with that. After all, I have the joy of watching her personality and character explode alongside with her language right here in front of me. And I believe that's just how the Lord intended it for her all along.

Wordless Wednesday

There were two of these strange
fungus-y looking things
growing in our garden this week.

Looks like there's a fungus amung us.

I couldn't resist the corny joke.
Thanks, Mom! I get that from you.

For more (really, truly)
Wordless Wednesday fun,
head over to 5 Minutes for Mom.

Dodged a Bullet!

Wow. I have been such a bad W*!ght W@tch*r these last two weeks. I haven't journaled my foods. I haven't exercised. I missed last week's weigh-in while we were away. I've hardly had any water (I've been surviving on coffee and iced tea and diet Wild Ch*rry P*ps!). I even ate regular ice cream. Often. With real peanut butter and nuts in it. :)

I was soooooo dreading the return to regular meetings and weigh-ins. But I bit back my apprehension and went. I knew I had to muster the courage and abandon the pride to step on that scale. I was truly sweating it as I stood in line for my turn.

I only gained 1/2 a pound. Whew.

I think I dodged a major bullet. And I'm back to all my healthy W*!ght W@tch*rs' habits. Starting now.

Weekend By The Numbers

10 kids, ages 15 years thru 22 months
4 adults
2 pounds of pretzels
2 1/2 gallons of milk
2 dozen eggs
2 dozen donuts (thanks Mr. B - you rock!)
4 boxes of Suddenly Salad
24 ears of corn
2 sticks of butter
4 jumbo cans of baked beans
2 huge cantaloupe
1 ginormous watermelon
6+ hours of swimming
6 pots of coffee (it might have been more!)
14 beach towels
12 swimsuits
3 swimmie diapers
2 very sunburned daddies
0 pictures

Yes, you read right. All that fun. All that catching up. All that eating. And not one darned picture to show for it.

But a good time was had by all. And real life resumes today.

Bracing for Re-Entry

Well, we made it home from our long weekend away. A good time was had by all. We got the extra treat of stopping at my BFF's house for lunch and a few hours of catching up. It's wonderful that they live at the half-way mark between Grandma and Grandpa's home on the mountain and The Gang's home. A wonderful get-away. The remainder of The Boss's vacation week is being spent in a "stay-cation" here at The Gang's place.

I find myself struggling today with the re-entry. Does anyone else experience this? Often, when we actually take the time off for a nice, long visit away from home, I return recharged and refreshed. Ready to jump in to our "regularly scheduled programming" with both feet. Rarin' to go. Like I can take on the world. You know, all those old cliches. (Boy, that was a lot of cliches, too!)

This time, I'm feeling prickly and frustrated. Overwhelmed by the laundry. The grocery list-making. The bulletin to be written. The kids squabbling (Comfy, is it contagious? Is it a virus going around the country?!) incessantly. That darned W*ight W#tchers program waiting to be resumed. The book I started and can't get back to yet. The grocery shopping that has to follow the list-making. Meal planning for 14 people for the holiday weekend. All thoughts of preparing dinner for my family tonight COMPLETELY slipped from my head. What kind of mother forgets that she has to feed her family?!

I'm overtired, for sure. One of the fun things about being at the mountain house is the absence of clock-watching. I stay up too late and get up too late. The days get skewed. I'll have to work on that after the weekend. Our awesome friends from VA Beach (who also have 5 kids!) are driving in tomorrow for a rather spontaneous weekend together. I canNOT wait to see them, to introduce Li'l Empress, and to talk long and late into the night with them. I can't WAIT!

So, tonite? The Boss is making breakfast for dinner. Homefries and eggs. The grocery list is started. The house is mostly clean, except for the floors that must be mopped. And the toilets that must be scrubbed. And I'm going to finish that list and curl up with that book and read till I drop over asleep. I have a raging head-ache and am still feeling prickly and frustrated.

Re-entry is a process and I musn't rush it. I'm pacing myself back into real life.

Which is perfectly okay, since The Boss is technically on vacation until Monday morning. Right?!