Final Post

This is going to be my final post.  We're gearing up for Todd to do a bit of travel for work soon and I honestly have no idea how I'm going to get both girls to bed at night (it's a juggling act when we're both here) never mind be able to download pictures and write a blog post.

We are SO thankful for all of you who have followed along, praying for us and checking in on us.  It has been a huge blessing to our whole family.  Thank you for sharing both our joy and our pain through these past several weeks. We have not felt alone and that has meant so much.

Every adoption story begins with pain and loss. And this is no exception.  Valerie has lost so much in her little life.  She lived with her first family for several months. When she was old enough to know who they were, for some reason that we will likely never know, they felt like they could not care for her.  They left her at the gates of the orphanage where a passerby found her and called the authorities.  Her world was turned upside down for the first time.

Then just after her second birthday, more upheaval when we came to adopt her - looking, sounding and even smelling so different. We truly believe that God chose us to be her forever family.  Psalm 68:6 says that "God gives families to the lonely."  Valerie, on the day she was adopted, gained equal status in our family with our other children. But it will take years of love and building trust to redeem the pain.

In the same way, our adoption as children of God began with pain and loss.  Our sin separated us from God.  He then sacrificed his Son, Jesus, on the cross to take the punishment for our sin and to redeem us.  When we repent of our sin and accept Christ as our Savior we are adopted into His family.  And he spends years teaching us about his love and how to trust him.

But oh what good news!  And now we have the amazing opportunity of  following Jesus' instructions in Mark 16:15 to "go into all the world and preach the good news to everyone."  Again, we are so thankful for everyone who has supported us in this.  One more child is going to hear the amazing good news of the gospel. Hallelujah!

Previous Photos that I hadn't shared yet. At least I don't think I had.

Exploding Queue

A nice mostly relaxing Saturday.  Each day I'm trying to get the dishes done, one load of laundry plus one more thing from my to-do list.  Unfortunately my to-do list grows by more than one item each day so I've been in an exploding queue situation.  Thankfully I was able to take advantage of Todd being home today to make a little more of a dent.

The girls had a fun day and Valerie didn't try to bang her head on anything!

Fun Stuff about Valerie

We just all love this little girl so much!  Susan still struggles with worrying about Valerie getting into her toys but that's not really unexpected.  But when it comes down to it, she's concerned for her sister when she's crying and I overheard her tonight telling someone that she's proud of her little sister.

Some fun stuff about Valerie:
She hunches her shoulders when she runs and laughs like she's up to something.
She's very trusting - she'll launch herself off the couch or coffee table if any of us are nearby and expect us to catch her.
She loves to snuggle when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap.
She gives kisses to Todd and me!
She love stairs - her orphanage didn't have any, just ramps leading to the next level.  She didn't know how to go down a stair when we got her.  But she's picked it up very quickly and loves going up and down them (and up and down and up and down...)
She loves to be outside - especially on the trampoline

Working Through the Pain

 Today was like many others.  Some happy, some hysterical crying (Valerie, not me - yet!).  Today she had a big fit over a cheese stick.  No idea why.  As I was holding her and telling her I loved her and trying to keep her from smashing her head on me and hitting me and biting me, I kept thinking about what I saw at her orphanage.  No matter how kind or not the nannies are - it's still an institution.  She's adjusting so well in so many ways but it's still hard to erase all that time living in survival mode.

Most of her fits I'm able to stop early on with distraction so there has been progress made.

Fun night tonight watching Susan play soccer.

Where she slept

Her room

Lots of fussiness today but plenty of fun.  Susan got the megablocks out to play with Valerie.  Susan used a couple of the wheeled ones as roller skates.  Then, of course, her sister tried it later.  Funny. 

Valerie loves it when her family comes home.  She'll usually go running to whichever one of us comes through the door.

Greeting Daddy as he comes home from work

"Roller skates"

A fun game with Thaddeus -- throwing her bear up high

Mentoring

We went for a couple of car drives today that weren't a disaster.  Yay!

Susan has been teaching Valerie some very important stuff.  It's great to have a sister to show you around.

Learning how to play in the water while mom is busy on the phone - every kid needs this skill!

Playing in the dirt

Routine

We're starting to figure out a routine which is nice.  Valerie is really enjoying her family.  The kids are so sweet with her (most of the time for Susan).

She still has her screaming fits. Today she had a really bad one.  Up until now she has been fantastic in the car.  I totally predicted that wrong.  Since they don't do car seats in China I was expecting a fit every time she got in the car.  But for the past week and a half she's been quite content.  Until today.  For some reason she did not want back in that car seat when we were coming home from somewhere about 20 minutes away.  I had to force her in and then she screamed all the way home.  I debated stopping to get her out and calm her down but I didn't have the heart to fight her back in again afterward.

Fun big brother! She loved it and kept coming back for more!

Trying to bypass the baby gate to get upstairs!

Car seat fit

Susan's reaction

Sunday

A nice relaxing Sunday. Thaddeus worked on college applications this afternoon - see the picture below - funny.

Valerie's adoption has brought up some questions and concerns for Susan.  Birth family, abandonment, care in the orphanage... Lots of heavy stuff for a five year old to handle.

Soccer

We went to Susan's soccer game this morning  It was nice to be outside before it got too hot.  The last couple of days Susan has been having a harder time being a big sister - hoarding her toys, blocking Valerie from different areas of the house...  Although not surprising (honestly I expected this to happen sooner) it's still something that needs to be worked on.  It's a little different becoming a sister to a 2 year old than to a newborn.

If I ever lamented having a messy house before this adoption, I really had no idea.  It's so hard to keep up right now.  I know things will settle eventually but for now we just step over the stuff on the floor.

It's crazy being a family of seven.  Last night we ate at Chick-fil-A (to see Ivan at work).  Although we were missing two of the kids, we still had five people eating together.  That's a big family!

In case you thought I was exaggerating about my messy house

Smoke Alarm and Presentation

There has GOT to be a better way for a smoke detector to let you know that the battery is low - and a better time than 2:30am!  After several hours of very restless sleep and some waking periods, we were jarred awake by the crazy smoke detector (whose battery was not that old, I will add).  Honestly I'm surprised more people don't have heart attacks from that.

Anyway, rough night.

Today we managed to get out the door to our homeschool meeting.  Susan did her presentation (think show and tell) on her sister.  It was hilarious.  I won't get the exact wording but here's the gist of it:

Hi my name is Susan and today I'm going to talk about my sister.  Do you know what an eclipse is? It's when the moon goes in front of the sun. We saw it in Kentucky. After that I was bored. Sawyer went to college and Thaddeus and Ivan were doing school.  And mommy and daddy were taking naps.  So I wanted a sister who I could play with.  Her name is Valerie.

I could hardly hold it together.

Tonight we spent some time at a play area in the mall.  Thaddeus was really excited to see that Valerie is a climber.

Valerie had a few times today where she started to bang her head but we were able to distract her and she stopped.  She also had a few other times where she cried and was just sad but it didn't escalate into a screaming fit.  That's an improvement for sure.

We are so thankful for all our friends and family who have supported us through this time.  We appreciate the prayers and encouragement.  We have not felt alone and I can't tell you how important that has been.

A little boost

He's really proud of her for getting up on her own this time

I find it hilarious that this place is sponsored by the local medical center

Doctor Visit and Park

Oh my, how perspectives change when you have a good sleep!  We haven't totally flipped our schedule back to normal yet but I think the end is in sight.

Valerie had her first doctor's appointment today.  It went really well despite the nurse practitioner being over an hour late!  When we arrived, I noticed that the wait time status board had her as green (meaning - running on time). "Excellent," I naively thought, "we'll be in and out quickly." After waiting 20 minutes past our appointment time I took the liberty of changing her status to yellow.  Then about 10 minutes later we were taken back to an exam room. "Oh wonderful, we're finally being seen,"  I again thought with unwarranted optimism.  But there, away from the waiting room TV and toys, we were told that it would be another 20 to 30 minutes. Are you kidding me???  I immediately went out to the waiting room and changed the status board to red.  I felt like it gave me a little power since we were otherwise at their mercy.

Anyway, two lollipops later, we're all set up with referrals to everything we need right now.

I'm including a picture I took the other day with Valerie in the baby carrier on my back.  This is a great way to get a bit of dishes done when she won't let me put her down.  But I gotta tell you, that thing is way harder to get into than it looks.  Up until now, I've had Todd to help out. But the last time I did it on my own.  I was a sight to be seen!  First you have to strap the carrier around your waist, then hold the kiddo on your front, then gradually rotate everything to the back while keeping track of the arm holes so you can put them on when the child is positioned correctly.  All while not dropping the baby!  I must have been much more flexible 3 1/2 years ago when we adopted Susan.  Because, although I wasn't graceful, I was still able to strap her on.  Well this time I was alone in the house and I had visions of Todd coming home and finding me lying on the floor half strangled in the stupid thing! Good grief!

We went to the park tonight.  Hilarious giggle session on the swings - I think it was Valerie's first time on one.  She loved it!

A much better day in regard to fussiness.  No need to use the scream zone today.  Yay!

Why do I find this so adorable?