1 YEAR!!

One year ago today, our 4th daughter joined our family. It has been such an amazing week, corresponding with our travel group about the awesome year that it has been. Awesome is not the right word, I don't even know what the word is that would describe this year. Maybe not the year, but Emily, and the whole adoption process. The very very best that there is.

 Look how much she has changed!!!

She's a happy, naughty, busy busy busy two year old!

 loves dish towels

 Can pretty well manage an iPhone

 loves to dig dirt our of sidewalk cracks

loves her some dorritos (she only likes the bag)

She is so happy and so wonderful and so LOVED!

In the past month, Em had another palate surgery. In our state, to close the cleft in her palate, they screw in a plastic prosthesis that has been custom made for her mouth. It looks like the roof of a retainer. They wear that for however long it takes for the bone to grow over it and close itself. As the child grows,  the prosthesis comes loose, they take it out and put in a bigger one. That was what happened to Em. So we went in for a prosthesis exchange and the surgeon came out and told us that her palate had closed. We were surprised, but so happy! They let the little screw marks heal for a few weeks, and we go back next week and they will close up the little fissures that are still there, and then her palate will be finished. They will do some cosmetic work on her lip and nose in 2 or three years, and close her gum line around age 6 or 7, and then we will be finished. The benefit of the prosthesis is that now her  bone will continue to grow with her face, and we hopefully won't have any underbite or jaw issues that can be so prevalent with clp. We love our clp team here.

 Em is signing a ton, and trying to talk. She is so happy and joyful, and BUSY! I love it more than anything! It takes nothing for me to remember that weak sad little girl that we brought home last year. She had no use of her hands, no muscle tone anywhere, and showed very little emotion about anything. Emily shines! She is so wonderful and we love her so very very much!

My favorite news of the month is that we have found out how to legally change Em's birthdate!! I am so happy about this. We have had 4 doctors completely independent of each other, tell us that her birthday is off by 9 months.  As soon as we are home from China, we will remedy that, and she will continue to be the two year old that she is!  

We are about a month away from travel approval to go get our little boy! It has been a long year waiting for him. We have his stuff all ready, and are reveling in boy things. It's so fun!! His room is coming together, the UPS man is coming frequently bringing BOY things!

We are so excited to be FINISHED adopting! I am so ready for my heart to be whole really, for the first time since Chloe was born.  10 years of waiting on the Lord to show us where our kids were, and to help us bring them home. 10 years of being patient, really really really impatient, wondering, worrying, lots of time crying, lots of time on my knees, and tons of peace and assurance that He is in charge. We have seen so many miracles in the past many years. Our family is the way it is by His design. We finally have the children we were meant to have. We had to find them, we had to look for them, and wait for them to be born, and we had to trust in God to lead us to them. Adoption has been a tremendous blessing to our family so far. We are ever so anxious to meet our baby boy, and start living LIFE instead of living adoption. All of our kids finally together. I will be grateful for eternity that we listened and followed when we felt the urging to bring our babies home from China.

11 months

I can't believe we've almost been home 1 year. A year ago at this time we had travel dates and were packing up and getting everything ready to go get our girl! My goodness we love her so much!

 At 11 months home, we have a spoiled little (I mostly blame Lily) who knows what she wants. She's signing a ton, rarely cries, sleeps like something out of a dream with unicorns in it, and is the cutest funnest thing in our house!

 She runs non stop! It's always go go go go! She has never been more pleased with her life than she is right now. She is all over the place constantly! She doesn't want to stop for any reason! I was filling out a paper for China describing her progression since we got her and MAN! That poor sick weak little thing has come such a long way. Her development is coming right along brilliantly.

 Our awesome therapists that come to our house are coming to an end as on paper Em is turning 3. Such a bummer. She's really only just recently 2, but what is there to be done? This conundrum is to be part of who she is forever. She will be the 30 year old that is really only 29! 

So as her birthday rolls around, we will celebrate HER instead of a number. She is worth so many celebrations daily! We love this girl more than we ever thought would be possible. She is amazing, and wonderful, and cute and fun!! She has her US passport and come what may, she's heading back to China to collect her brother.  I think she's going to be thrown for a loop but it will be wonderful, once were home.  I can't wait to be HOME with all of my babies under 1 roof! 

When we went to China for Em, I was so nervous! Scared half silly would be accurate. The reality of being handed over a baby with some serious special needs, and she would forever after be MINE overwhelmed me a lot. This time around, I am so excited! I'm going to really enjoy China. I loved it last trip, but I was so concerned for Em and just wanted to get her home and get her healthy that I wished away my days there, and just couldn't get home soon enough.  I cannot WAIT to get my little boy, special needs and all, I. CAN'T. WAIT!!! I am so head over heels in love with him already. I know-ish what I'm in for this time, and it's going to be marvelous.

LOA

This has been the best week ever! The whole entire wait for the boy has been hard. I know too much now, and I just want him home! My heart has been half way in China for too long, and I'm tired. I want all of my littles to be together in one place. Our LOA wait has been hard, because the time frame is so wonky. 2-30 weeks. That's forever. It was narrowed down to 2-4 months for someone in our particular situation, but that was still FOREVER! I wanted him home before he turned two. You shouldn't turn 2 in an orphanage. You should have a party. and cake. and presents.  I have been praying for that since we got matched. Please let us be home before he turns 2! With the 2-4 month wait, and friends on FB that have waited that long and longer, I was loosing faith. Earlier this week, we received a great gift, an update!

Fluffy hair!! Is he not the cutest ever??? He climbs, he talks, he sings, he plays, he laughs. We are in LOVE! We have been waiting for this update for 3 months! I thought that this was a tender mercy helping me to be patient for another couple of months. I was crying to my sister last night that if we didn't get our LOA tomorrow (today) that I didn't think we would be home before his birthday. We all prayed so much last night that it would come, and it came, after 31 days. We're going to China in November. We're going to be a forever family!

 Sisters!!

 A brother??

 A playmate and best friend.

 Still has the best bed head ever!

We are so super completely and totally excited.

10 months

10 months ago

today

 Chicken has spent 2 of the last three weeks traveling and she has been a trooper to say the least! We spent a week at the ocean and baby girl was in heaven. Sand, water, more sand, more water.  It was a dream vacation for her.

 We all loved it.

 She still will not use her hands to put things into her mouth (except for shoes. Shoes go straight to her mouth). So when you want to taste the sand, just bend on in and take a bite. Tasty.

 She chased after and loved the waves.

 We celebrated our LID for the boy! 7-22-13! Next stop LOA.

 We came home with enough time to do some laundry pack a totally different wardrobe and head south for a week on the river. I have done river trips with all of my babies and I don't remember thinking a thing of it. A 7 year hiatus of not having a little baby on the river turned me into a paranoid mama. I was a mess before the trip. How was I going to keep her happy in her life jacket all day, keep her fed, hydrated, happy, rested, not sun burned .......

 She styled it. As usual. She LOVED it! I mean look at that face! That is the expression of true love. I tell you this girl and the camera don't get along. I don't know what it is! She will be so happy and smiley and giggling and I'll whip out my camera, BAM! Dead dog serious. Just like that.

 She went from crawling about 50% of the time to walking about 90% of the time.

 More sand, more water, and rapids! She would laugh and giggle all the way through the rapids. She'd take a big splash to the face, and crack right up about it. amazing.

 A fourth river rat was born.

 She took two long naps on the boat every day. She'd go through rapids, water fights, lots of happy chatter, and sleep through it all. She in every way is our girl.

The boy. Oh how we want our little man home. The one document that we are waiting on right now, has about a 2-30 week wait.  Somewhere in that range. Oh dread. We got Emily's in 21 days. That would be in 3 days. I'm counting on it, praying for it, and anything else I can think of.  Everything is on hold until we get it. When we receive it, we will travel in about 12 weeks. Still no update on him. That is the hardest part. Not knowing. I just want my baby home.

9 months

9 months ago today we adopted Emily! She is still our favorite thing to wake up to every morning, and everyones favorite thing throughout the day, and the one that gets her face kissed off before she goes to bed. She is still sleeping so amazingly well. We are so beyond thrilled with that. She is such a happier baby too.  At nine months home, Emily's favorite things are:

 Walks around the block although the stroller is waning in popularity, she used to love it a lot.

 Being outside is always the best! If she spies someone going outside without her, oh my watch out. Her tantrums are the only thing about her that is 2!

 The swing set is the best! I love her end of the day hair. And her morning hair. All of her hair!

 Peek-a-boo. At all times.

We left Em for the first time with our girls for longer than a few minutes. We went to a conference for our church, and were gone for about 3 hours. About 20 minutes into the conference, I got this text from Lily. We laughed and laughed about it. She was well taken care of!

 

This little chicken will find water. The local splash pad is so perfect for her. She loves it. The other evening we were outside and the neighbors sprinklers came on and she was in them faster than fast. She loves water!!

 4th of July! Loved the fireworks and of course more swimming.

 Em LOVES her sisters. Each one is so wonderful with her and to her. Lily walks her. Everywhere, all the time. When no one else will walk with Em, Lily will.

Chloe sings to her and plays hide and seek. Emily loves to play, and Chloe gives her lots of play time.

 Austri is her other mother. Austri makes her laugh harder than anyone. Austri is also the only person next to dad that gets hugs.

Our favorite thing TODAY is that Emily started WALKING!!! She just up and walked across the room to daddy! AMAZING!! She is a darn heavy little tiny, and her walking is going to be so nice!

What a blessing this girl has been to our family. We love her more than we can say. She is just the coolest thing ever.  We really got her from new born on. She couldn't even hold her head up when they handed her over to us. It was so scary! There were a lot of unknowns with her. The only thing we knew was that she was meant to be out daughter. Everything else would have to sort itself out.

We cannot believe how far she's come. All the way around, she's about at a 12 month old level. In all of her therapies, she was soooo delayed, they all placed her at newborn status. She is doing amazingly well! There is still a lot to do, but she's progressing just beautifully and we have no reason at all to believe that she won't be completely caught up in another year.  It's been fun to get to witness all of her stages.

The Boy on the other hand is at his age level already. It's going to be a whole other story with him. He can walk and talk and hear, and he understands Chinese, and he is very aware. It's going to be different but oh my we cannot wait. Our documents are on their way to China. We didn't get the June LID that I was so hoping for, but we will get a July date. This means that the soonest we can possibly travel will be November, but we'll take it. Let's just get him home.

8 months

8 months ago yesterday our adoption was finalized! Yahoo! At 8 months, Emily is loving summer and being outside so much! We spend lots of time on the swings and the trampoline, on walks, and in the grass. She LOVES outside. She is a total water baby. She will seek out any water, and get herself wet. 

 She is so smiley and happy! Em is so close to walking!! She can totally do it, she just won't. Stinker. We spend our days and nights like this...

...or this.

 Our favorite thing lately is that Emily sleeps! She has played musical beds like crazy. In our room, in her room, in Chloe's room, in her crib, in her bed, in my bed, and my personal favorite for the past two weeks, on top of me in the guest room!

Earlier last week I went into her room and she reached out for her crib. This is a far cry from where she has been, but I stuck her in it, and from that day on, she's loved her crib. Again. She has been sleeping all night, waking obnoxiously early, like 5, but sleeping all night. It's been nice.

 The crown hair do. Our favorite.

 The carnival came to town. She wasn't feeling well, but tolerated it ok.

 Emily loves Austri so so so much!! She prefers her to anyone. Gary is next in line. His identical twin brother stayed with us this past weekend, and Emily had two dad's! Awesome! I'm in third place, or sometimes 5th place if anyone else remotely interesting is in the room.

 best. bed head. ever!!

The Boy:

We got his primary immigration back and it is presently being sealed and authenticated at the state and federal government levels, and also at the Chinese Embassy. We will send it off to China hopefully in 10 days! We are still on track to potentially travel in late October, early November. I'm counting on it. I need the boy home! I have requested an update, and new photos, but I haven't heard anything back. I want to hear about him so badly! The poor little orphanage workers have such a tremendous job simply meeting so very many children's basic needs that pictures, updates, and paperwork don't always happen. Our next thing that we are waiting for is a Log in Date (LID) to China. When they receive our paperwork, they log us into their system as adoptive parents.  We can travel as soon as 4 months after LID. I'm praying for a June LID.