Christmas Cookies

Last weekend the girls and I set about to make some Christmas cookies.  Well, I did most of the making, the girls did most of the icing and eating...

I tried VERY hard not to redo what they had done, but there IS a right way to ice cookies...isn't there?  I was happy as long as they kept their fingers out of their mouths.  Their biggest fans though, were their brothers, who made quick work of eating the cookies! 

Round two came this weekend, wonder if there will be any left for Santa?

She's afraid

You may or may not know that Olivia has a special need.  She was born without the bone in her arm that runs up the inside of your arm, thus making her hand turn inward in a "club" fashion.  She also has what is referred to as a floating thumb, her thumb just hangs and swings back and forth, hanging on by skin and tendon.  She has adapted very nicely over the last eight years and uses her pinky and ring finger as a pincher of sorts. 

When we brought her home, we consulted with an orthopaedic hand surgeon regarding what could be done to help her.  Ultimately we decided to have her thumb removed (we don't know how she has kept it this long) and the surgeon is going to reposition her hand over top of the bone she does have, thereby straightening it out.  We decided to do this over Christmas break, so she wouldn't miss any school (hoping) and get further behind.  So, surgery is scheduled for the 23rd.

Saturday night, Livi got out of bed and was sobbing.  She said she had a bad dream about her hand, that it would hurt to have the surgery, and she was afraid.  This was all triggered because she has a dr. appt. tonight, and she thought it was for the surgery.  Anyway, I talked to her, tried to calm her little fears and told her mommy and daddy would never do anything to hurt her, that we would control her pain as much as possible and that it would all be good in the end.  I reassured her that her appt. on Monday was purely a pre-surgical thing and she wasn't having anything done tonight. 

She seemed to believe me, to trust me.  That is a good thing, as some days I'm not sure she truly trusts me.  I want her to know we will take care of her and love her no matter what.  So, if you are reading this, would you say a prayer for my little girl, that she will be surrounded by God's love and grace and that her surgery will go well; that the Lord will guide Dr. Reilly's hands and eyes as he makes Olivia's hand and arm look more like her other one and that she will be free of pain especially for Christmas Day - her very first!

***UPDATE***

We are postponing Olivia's surgery until Feb. 3 in order for her to truly enjoy her very first Christmas (surgeon supported and suggested). 

Santa Claus

We had such an awesome experience tonight while taking the girls to see "Santa".  A local nursery really puts on a Christmas display and their Santa is so real and LOUD.  We headed over and got in line.  The girls were both anxious, Abigail because she really didn't like Santa last year and Livi because she just doesn't "get it" and I'm not quite sure how or what to tell her.  When it was their turn, they both went right up to see him (we were close by).

They were completely enamored with him.  He asked all the typical questions, what are your names, what do you want for Christmas...Abigail answered for both girls while Olivia giggled and giggled in amazement.  Then he asked them if they wanted to sing Jingle Bells with him.  Well, Olivia has watched the Curious George Christmas movie enough that she knew the words {sort of} and they were both ecstatic.  So, the three of them started singing and then we joined in and next thing we know, the whole line of people are all singing Jingle Bells with Santa and my girls.  It could not have been a better first time experience for Livi (and really Abigail too).  Everyone was so full of joy, it really was magical!

Now HOW will I tell them he's not real???  He was sooo very real...

Thankful for Aunt Lila

Who, you ask, is Aunt Lila?  In a nutshell, she is my mom's sister.  That doesn't do justice to who she REALLY is. 

Many moons ago, when we had just gotten out of the Marine Corp and my hubby started college, we moved in with Aunt Lila, as a convenience to us and company for her.  Here we are, two plus decades later, and we are all still together. 

When we gave her the option a decade ago to stay in her house she'd lived in for 40+ years or move with us to the "country", much to our surprise (and delight), she chose the country.  Who says old folks are set in their ways?

So, she has seen us through two births, two adoptions (which we couldn't have done without her); two dogs, three cats, six chickens, two hamsters, a gecko, and many fish {all of which she has fed when we have gone on vacation}. 

She has done PILES of laundry {we get so tired of hearing "is this yours" or "whose is this"}.  She has saved my arse many times when kids needed picked up from somewhere and I was at work and she has wiped many snotty noses, bandaged many a boo boo and wiped many tears away.

What she has done for us is immeasurable and I know I don't thank her ever nearly enough .  She has seen the good, the bad and the ugly and while sometimes its been difficult having a non-traditional family, we wouldn't have had it any other way.  Who needs privacy anyway?

We have been so blessed to share our lives with Aunt Lila and for that, we are so VERY thankful.

Keep Trying - Thankful for My Buddy Zeus

 I really am thankful for so much in my life; guess I just have problems putting thoughts to "paper and pen".

Today as I look at my big guy laying curled up in a ball (its a big ball), I am thankful for the last eleven years I've had him in my life.  Hopeful for another eleven...

Zeus has been with us through a lot of change and he's been a trooper.  We've moved him, we've brought two more kids into his life that have poked, prodded and pulled...he hasn't cared a bit.  As long as he can be with us, and get the occasional "cookie", he's happy!

I watch him age and its hard.  The things he used to do, swim and boat with us, run after the quadrunner in the snow while Bern pulled the kids...for HOURS, run off and explore with our other dog; how I long for him to be able to do those things, but his tired old legs just don't let him.  Now he sits and watches as these things go around him, and he's still happy. 

When I say my prayers at bedtime, I ask the Lord to give me just one more day with my guy.  Everyone should have a Zeusy in their lives at some point, I'd just like to keep mine forever.

Thankful for My Hubby

The Hunter and Gatherer

The Provider and Daddy

My Lover and Sparring Partner

He's my guy and after almost 28 years of "sick and sin"

He's a keeper!

 {a tender moment so rarely captured on film}

My Savior

Today I am stating the obvious. 


I am so very thankful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  While I am not the most eloquent writer, and I don't wear my faith on my sleeve, I can tell you with complete honesty that I am a child of God.  Every day is a work in progress for me, but I know at the end of it, He is there for me, rooting me on, believing in me, forgiving me.  How Great is our God? 

You KNOW this is how He looks, right?


"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you... For I am the LORD, your God." Isaiah 43:1-3 (New International Version)

Thankful

Someone, somewhere, thought it would be good to post in November reasons I am thankful {thanks Barb}.  I really REALLY need to do this; to heal, to remember and to just plain have a little fun in the midst of my drowning...in my own sorrows. 

My life, its such a blessing.  The Lord has been sooo very good to me, even when I haven't been so good. sigh*

So, like Barb, I will try to post something everyday that I am thankful for...

Today {and every day} I am thankful for my family.

Goofy as they may be, they keep me going...

Somethin' New

We always said that if we ever sold our boat, we would consider putting in a swimming pool...

well, that time has come. 

So, after two weeks, water was added and that's all it took...the girls could barely stand it, the waiting...

The temperature in the air was a balmy 80 degrees for October in OH; the water, not so much...

it was all of 64.

Throwing caution to the wind, I let them go for it and go for it they did!

For all of five minutes.  But hey, they can say they did it!!

Heat is coming Friday {it'll be all of 58 degrees this weekend}

You can bet we will all be in for a maiden voyage,

for all of five minutes.

Six Months Our Daughter

Wow, I can't believe it. Our little bird has been with us for six months today.  Olivia speaks so much English, sometimes so fast we have a hard time understanding her.  She seems to still have her Chinese language, but of course no one is conversing with her so its hard to know. She is hanging in there at school, making strides in baby steps... Livi is very happy most of the time, her struggles seem to come from not comprehending what something means or is and then she gets frustrated...all very normal, but she stills has a smile on her face.  We are loving our little girl more every day. 

Older child adoption is definitely not for the faint at heart.  We imagine we are on the very good side of the spectrum, but it has not been easy...its very hard to explain, but its just a different dynamic and  

 we have had to take a step back and really THINK about our reactions to things and remember the things she doesn't know or understand.  Sometimes Livi tries too hard to fit in, but that we understand.  We are all learning together, patience and understanding. 

We are very proud of our little girl and know she has come so far and lost so much.  

We love you Olivia ZiJing!

Just Her

As we approach the six month's home mark with Livi, I will just say things are going very well.  Life isn't without its struggles and second guesses, but what we have is one strong little girl who tries soooo hard at everything she does.  School is going okay, but we know how hard it really is for her.  She is being tutored and Title 1'd to death, but the highlight tonight, for me, was when she recognized 90% of her alphabet letters.  Everyone who encountered this little survivor while we were in China said what a smart cookie she is, and we know she is...she is processing and converting and learning, yet every.single.day, she has a smile on her face.  Her teacher says she has no frustrations at all, just smiles away...what more can we ask for.  It'll all come, in His time, at her pace...

For now though, she's hangin on for dear life!

Another First {First Grade x 2}

I woke the girls softly this morning at 7:15am and told them it was time!  They both slowly got up and awake and then the chaos ensued.  They wanted to get dressed right away, not waiting for breakfast or potty break or anything.  The new “Twinkle Toes” had to go on their feet before they even touched the ground!  It was the perfect start to the day; I only hope the whole day goes so well.  We had a scare; Abigail ran a high fever the last two days and of course, she has strep throat.  The doctor said no school, but once I got home last night, she was feeling much better and the fever had broken.  Soooo, three doses of antibiotic later; she got on the bus with a kiss and a wave. 

Olivia was her usual self, giddy and excited, while Abigail was “nervous”.  We got to meet both of their teachers last night and I think things will go very well for both of them!  Our prayers are for Olivia to comprehend all that she is about to learn.  We know she is catching on to the language, our concern is she doesn’t know what she is talking about. So, again, praying she will have understanding.  Abigail is very bright, she loves to read and she can only be a help to her sister in those areas.  Her Kindergarten teacher invited her to come read to her new class this year, they allow that; how cool is that? 

P.S. To quote Abigail, school was "AWESOME"!!!!

What's Been Going On?

I hate to admit I’m not the blogger that I want to be.  I want to keep a record of life with my girls (and my guys), but life interferes with my wittiness and time to actually think about something to say that might make a memory. 

Things have been going “okay” with Olivia.  She is truly a great little girl, and she is a trooper.  We have to keep reminding ourselves who she is and where she came from just a short time ago, and not let frustration take over. 

We need to rely more on God and not so much on each other, because that just doesn’t work.  Livi wants nothing to do with her Chinese language, only wants to speak English and so wants to be like her sister.  Her English has come along very well, especially when we remember she has only been here for four months!!!  She comprehends a lot of what we say, some not so much, but we usually get our point across.  Where she struggles is basic stuff like the alphabet and colors, things we take for granted.  I didn’t even realize she didn’t know her colors until just recently.  She knows them in Chinese!  So, we have tried to work with her more on that kind of thing and I am really looking forward to her going to school NEXT WEEK.  They have more tools than I do to help her overcome what she doesn’t know. 

Abigail continues to be the bossy big little sister.  Some days, they get along great, others, not so much…typical sisters I guess!  We are encouraging Olivia to be her own person, not try and copy Abigail so much…more baby steps.

We have had a pretty fun summer, I’ve been able to take off most Fridays and do things with the girls; plus we had a wonderful vacation in Hilton Head, South Carolina a few short weeks ago!  We had never been there and now that we have…well, we may never go anywhere else!  It was a great time! 

We sold our boat (sniff sniff), which we’ve had for 12 years, kind of on a whim…thought we’d post it and see if we got any bites, and whoa, it took all of 12 hours.  So, to make up for it, we’ve done a lot of swimming at friend’s houses and enjoyed every minute of that.  Both girls are fish and really do well in the water…

Here we are, in all our glory!

So that’s the quick update from Ohio.  Next up, school starts…

 

Another First

We have a very nice boat that has become a thorn in our sides over the years. 

Having said that, we finally uncovered it and took it out for the 2011 maiden voyage yesterday. 

 It was a beautiful day by any standards, 90 degrees and the lake water was perfect. 

Olivia knew we were going "boating" but she didn't have a clue what that meant! 

Oh but when she figured it out..she had a blast! 

 She didn't like watching the boys tube as much as swimming

BUT when the girls got to tube with the boys, they both liked that VERY much!

It was an exhausting day as you can see below from the view of the back seat of the truck, but oh so fun!

Fourth of July - Independence Day

We had a wonderful, busy weekend; gotta love three (and 1/2) day weekends! 

The girls spent 8 hours in our friends pool on Sunday, we are so blessed and thankful for that gift of friendship! 

Then we capped it all off with a visit to watch fireworks {even though it was late on a work night, the joy in watching their faces as they watched the fireworks was worth all the tiredness today}

(I can say that because its early in the day, check with me later on that opinion).  Enjoy!!

The girls were watching Mulan II on daddy's laptop while we patiently waited for dusk. 

Can you hear the ooohs and aaaahs? 

 Extraordinary!



I need to blog, I need to blog, I need to blog...

So much has been going on that I'd like to share, I just haven't had the energy to sit down and formulate my thoughts.  Things are going very well with Olivia, she continues to expand her language and her comprehension of what we are saying is awesome!  She has been going to an early intervention "school" from 9-12 every day, just to help her assimilate better.  They have a field trip every Friday, which is very cool for her.  She got to go to the library and the Akron Zoo so far.  This week is the McKinley Museum.  She is finding her way in the family, bit by bit.  She still imitates EV.ERY.THING. Abigail says and does a lot of the time, which at times can be very annoying.  We have to step back and remember that she is learning and just wants to fit in. 

I took a day off last Friday and it was all about the girls!  First we went to the mall and had Olivia's ears pierced {she didn't bat an eye}.  Then a trip to Build-a-Bear was in order, they both picked out new animals and appropriately dressed them. First time for Olivia and she had a ball...then we went to Panera for lunch and off to the grocery store and home...but wait!  Abigail had the option of getting her ears pierced when Olivia did, and she declined.  It scared her!  Well, of course, after we are miles away from the mall, Princess changes her mind.  Being the good mommy, I take her back, we wait a bit and she too gets her ears pierced {she balled like a baby}.  In the end, she recovered nicely, her "little ear" looks adorable pierced and we went home to show daddy what we were up to!  They've both been very good about cleaning and turning them!

 

Fathers Day turned out to be a nice day.  We had the family over for some ribs on the grill and all the girls (3 cousins + my two) played very well together.  All were full and exhausted by days end!

See here it is another week gone by...oy vey.  I'll be back!

Updates on Olivia

Olivia has made huge leaps and bounds in many areas since we've been home and I feel the need to document some of them:

1. She can ride a bike (which she could not do AT ALL when we came home)
2. She can say I Love You in English (sometimes to everyone she meets)
3. She is seeming to prefer English over Chinese right now (which makes us very sad) and is saying MANY things in English, sometimes too fast for us to catch it!
4. She wants to grow her hair long like "sister's"
5. She loves school
6. She loves to do anything "Sister" does
7. She loves to swim and is FEARLESS...scary, huh?
8. She goes full tilt until bedtime, no down time for this girl
9. Her sullenness (is that a word?) is getting less and less
10. We love her very much.

First Time Swimming?

We have some very good friends who have an inground swimming pool and they are gracious enough to have us over frequently during the summer.  We had our maiden voyage for 2011 this past Sunday when the weather was finally nice enough to go!

Let me back up and tell you that Abigail has been taking swimming lessons these past few months and Olivia has gone to watch a couple of times.  This past week, Olivia expressed the STRONG desire to "yo yong" like her sister does.  We held out hope that the weather would break and we could let her try it out. 

Well, let me tell you...she took to it like a fish to water, after the initial "wildness" since she was nervous and excited. 

As I've said before, she has a tendency to copy everything Abby does, so she tried it ALL.  She even jumped off the diving board, no wings, a few times until she stayed under just a.little.too.long.  It was a great day and I am certain this is the first time Miss Olivia Zijing has ever set foot into a swimming pool...what a joy to watch!

Abigail has come a long way in her swimming abilities over the last couple of years.  She is moving up to "EEL" now at the Y and is very excited!

Here's to a very warm summer this year, so we have lots of opportunities to swim!

Not Just Any Mothers Day...

Four years ago today, we became a family of five with the adoption of our precious Abigail Xin Ru. 

God knew what a blessing she would  be to our family, even when we didn't.  {He told your baba!}

 It hasn't always been easy; in fact, looking back, it was darn hard. 

Having recently adopted Olivia Zijing, many of those hidden away, long forgotten "sore spots" have come back as reminders that this road is NEVER easy, but the joy we have received from having Abigail in our lives is immeasurable. 

 I can't even imagine what life would have been like without her in our family, ours...or hers...

THANK YOU Lord for this gift we love so very much.  You've come along way baby!

Happy Gotcha Day, Abby!