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Pumpkin hats were made on Wednesday by the girls…mini fudge stripe cookies, mini marshmallows, melted chocolate, yellow icing. 

Final product…

Tiny bites of goodness…and, what do you do with leftover marshmallows and chocolate?

Our Christmas cactus - who thinks he’s a Thanksgiving cactus, and blooms this time of year like clockwork. 

I cooked most of the morning on Thursday, while watching the Macy’s parade and dog show.  It was “only” the 7 of us, but we had to go all out so it feels like Thanksgiving.  We had a turkey, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, roasted potatoes, corn on the cob, cranberry sauce, and corn bread.  I own a wheat grinder, and make my own flour, but I’d never tried corn before.  It worked really well! 

The kids look less than impressed in this shot, but I promise they were!  Maybe they were just hungry. 

The girls shared the wishbone with Lainey…she won, but seemed quite confused by the whole process. 

Being the mean parents we are, we made them pose in front of the annual Thankful Tree.  Lainey even added some leaves this year (with help from her sibs).  She was thankful for Jack, coats, food, Tiger, mommy and daddy, feet, her siblings, and her babydoll. 

Okay, now it’s downright abuse.  We made them pose AT the table before feeding them.  Cruel. 

After L’s nap and a walk around the neighborhood, Abbey, Marley, and Payton put on a play they’d been working on for days.  “A Pilgrim Play”, directed by Abbey Clark.  (EJ opted out of this production)  The pilgrims and indians were played by various Webkinz animals.  Costumes were designed and produced by Abbey and Marley.  The play was narrated by yours truly. 

A success!  The actors take a bow! 

Two stars of the show :)

After the play, EJ played a little piano.  He’s doing so well, and just tonight told me how much he’s loving it – especially now that he is playing songs. 

Lastly, I attempted to make my very first chocolate pie this year.  My grandmom in NC makes THE best chocolate pie…it’s the only thing I ever ask her for at Christmas time.  This one looks good, right?  Well, it didn’t set up like it should have, and is very soft.  It’s good, just not grandmom-good.  I’ll ask her for some pointers when we’re home after Christmas. 

I’m sleeeeeepy from being up since 4:30am.  I think I’ll go have a piece of mushy pie and relax! 

 

 

More pictures tomorrow…the alarm clock is set to go off EARLY, so I need to hit the hay.  Happy Thanksgiving :)

Here is Abbey’s softball team, after winning their last game last Friday night.  They had a 10-1 season, finishing in 1st place!  Can you tell it was COLD?  It was 45 degrees cold!  Those of you up north, go ahead and snicker. 

Lainey congratulates her sister…yes, I try to keep gloves and a hat on her.  She rips them right off. 

Yea!!  I can go home!!  Uh…I mean…they won!! 

Switching to baseball…the next afternoon, we headed to EJ’s championship baseball game.  As you can tell, they won, too!  They are the Rookie 10 champs. 

The score was 0-0 up until the 4th inning.  We had a guy at 2nd base.  Then, EJ came up to bat.  His bunt got it all started.  :) 

That bunt scored 1 and the next time up to bat, he got a hit, scoring 2 more.  The final score was 9 to 3. 

That afternoon, our good friends Bob and Valerie Clade came to visit us.  They were on their way to the Orlando area for Thanksgiving…we get most of our visitors that way!  We’ve known the Clade family for more than 12 years.  Their oldest, Zachary and our Abbey were babies together…awww!!  The 7 (our 4 and their 3) big kids are in the tree picture. 

Here’s Lainey trying to give Joshua a squeeze…this is the only pic of him I got, other than one when the little kids were losing it fussy.  Josh is younger than Lainey by 2 months, but is so much bigger!  Lucky kid looks just like Valerie.  No offense, Bob ;) 

Don’t they looked thrilled?  We just had to get a new pic of them together…we still remember them toddling around as babies.  Boy, does time fly by or what. 

It was a fantastic weekend, with the business of ball games to the “volume” of fun that 13 (most of them kids) can make.  :)

 

Abbey cutting the celebration cake, with Deni smiling behind.

Last Sunday, Abbey participated in a very special evening with her Real Life Group at church.  Let me back up…her group is made up of all 7th grade girls, and they’ve been meeting weekly since the beginning of 6th grade, with Mrs. Deni (as they call her) as their leader. 

Recently their topic of discussions has centered around the concept of “True Love Waits”…going against the mainstream attitudes toward physical relationships and instead encouraging moral purity and abstinance until marriage.  Deni felt led to arrange for a beautiful night, where the girls took group and individual pledges.  She also led us all in a lesson on what it means to have a real, God designed love story. 

Abbey, repeating the pledge to us.  We also had something to repeat to her, pledging to help her as she follows God’s plan for her life. 

Randy puts the silver locket around her neck.  It’s a small silver box that opens.  We typed up 2nd Timothy 2:22 and rolled it up inside.  We gave her the option of a ring or necklace, and she chose necklace…but we surprised her with what it looked like. 

Deni and her girls…she’ll have them all together for one more year, 8th grade. 

Thank you, Deni, for taking the time and effort to put this together.  It’s obvious that you love our girls, and desire only God’s best for them.  Thank you for the example that you are to our daughter. 

Yet another month has gone by with Lainey Q!  She was in the orphanage for the first 19 months of her life, so we’ve almost had her half that time.  Experts say that children need to be with their family at least as long as they were in the orphanage, to start feeling like “this is it”. 

Marley shares her ice cream with her lil’ sister.

I don’t think I remembered to mention before, but something amazing has happened between her 8th and 9th month with us.  She’s finally full.  Remember how she used to eat like mad, always cleaning her plate?  That has stopped being so consistent recently.  She eats much slower, plays more, and seems more picky about what she wants to eat.  Don’t get me wrong, she’s still an awesome eater…she’s just eating more like a “normal” toddler now. :) 

Patiently waiting by my computer…wheels on the bus, please??

Lainey has her last visit at the infectious disease clinic tomorrow!  She’s almost done with her INH therapy medicine that started back in March.  She’s on this due to testing positive for TB at her initial pediatrician visit.  She had a chest x-ray, which came back clear…but, it’s customary to still be put on the medicine for the whole 9 months.  She’s tolerated it perfectly, absolutely no side effects at all.  Her last dose is mid December.  

I haven’t weighed her in a little while, but she’s HEAVY when I carry her upstairs.  She’s still making slow and steady progress in the speech/communication department and doing well with the potty… though, she’s still not TELLING me she has to go so that’s the big hurdle to get over!  Maybe by her 10th month?  I can hope!

One last thing…Lainey’s story is on a new website started by Stephanie (the link to her personal blog, Ni Hao Ya’ll, is on the sidebar).  She had a desire to have a website dedicated solely to helping educate others about special needs through personal stories of others adoption experiences.  I think it’s an awesome idea, and wish it would have been in place while we were in the researching stage of our SN adoption.  There’s nothing like learning the “real deal” through the eyes of someone who has gone before you.  Click below!

www.nohandsbutours.com

 

 

Today was children dedication day at our church, and today’s children were ALL adopted…very cool!  Lainey was the only international adoption, the others were either domestic or were foster-adopt children.  It’s so wonderful to see so many adding to their families through adoption!  What made today even sweeter was the day.  November 16th.  Need a hint?  ONE YEAR ago today, we received the call that our agency had matched us with this sweet girl and we first saw her face.  So, let’s go down memory lane, shall we?  Here is my write-up of “The Call” that I wrote a year ago.  I didn’t want to forget any details about that day, so I wrote it all down….

The Call

I woke up on Friday, November 16, 2007 feeling only a little bit optimistic about getting “the call” from CCAI.  It had been more than a week since we thought we WOULD get a call, and the phone just wouldn’t ring.  I was starting to lose hope, and just begin wishing for next week. 

We had a busy day planned.  I had Jazzercise class at 8:45 and then we were due at the Operation Christmas Child collection center at 10:30.  We had a great morning volunteering; the kids really enjoyed helping to pack the crates full of Christmas shoe boxes for the kids around the world.  I had my cell phone on top of my purse, and for the 3+hours we were there, I constantly checked to see if I had any messages…none. 

We finished up volunteering around 2pm.  We were all hungry, but I decided to run by Office Depot to get a new pencil sharpener.  Our existing one was terrible, and really needed to be replaced.  So, we ran in, I found a high end model that I felt sure could handle the amount of sharpening we do in a day, and headed out to the truck. 

We got into the truck, and I cranked it.  Suddenly, I felt my cell phone vibrating in my jacket pocket.  Could it be?  Took it out…looked at the number.  It was a 303 area code…Colorado.  I remember repeating “oh my, oh my, oh my…” and Abbey (who was in the passenger seat) tells the kids in the back “it’s the call!”  I shushed everyone and answered the phone.  It was Deniece, and she asked if I had a minute to talk, that she had a little princess to tell me about to see if this is our daughter.  I squeaked out “yes, please!”  She asks if I’m somewhere where I can talk.  I tell her “Well, I’m in my truck, but I’m parked so let me find a pencil and paper!”  Of course, I had my neatly typed up referral sheet (in the plastic sheet protector) in my purse so Abbey helps me dig it out and find a pen.  Around now, my seatbelt signal is going off, telling me it’s time to buckle up.  I try to decide if I should attempt to buckle up (which I try but it doesn’t work while holding a cell phone, pen and paper) or just turn off the truck (it’s still cranked).  I turn the truck off.  My head was swimming. 

Deniece gives me all the wonderful details about 16 month old Ling Qing Qin in Bengbu, Anhui province.  I write as much down as I can, in my “oh wow, this is really happening” shaky handwriting.  She asks if we want to see her file and I say “yes, definitely!”  I tell her that I’m going to try and NOT get a ticket speeding home to see the file and she makes me promise to do just that!  I thank her profusely, and hang up.  Immediately, the kids and I let out a few yells and screams of happiness, and then I call Randy.  Quick small talk and then I tell him “We got the CALL!!!!!!”  I tell him the basics and ask him WHEN he can get home so we can see the file.  He leaves right then and we’re racing to see who gets home first.  Okay, not racing since I did promise Deniece I wouldn’t.  I’m sure I had this silly smile on my face all the way home.  The kids and I talked about her a mile a minute, all anxious to get home.    

I get home first, and call Randy to see where he is.  I wanted to look at the medical information and he forbids me to until he arrive home!!  Thankfully, it was only maybe 10 (long) minutes.  We all gathered around the computer to read her medical information.  All sounds good, no red flags, standard cleft lip/palate that can be corrected, small hemangioma that most likely won’t need any intervention.  The reading takes a while and the kids wander off to do other things. 

By the time we’re done, it’s just Randy and I and we look at each other.  We decide that this is, indeed, our girl and we’re ready to see her.  Those moments waiting for her picture to pop up were so long…first we saw her “mug shot”.  Adorable…her slight little pouty face and beautiful eyes, big round cheeks, dark brown hair.  She’s wearing what looks like a girl’s shirt with a boy’s orange/brown sweater.  Next picture, she’s in a walker and has the slightest smile with an open mouth, and wearing a red velour one-piece.  Next, she’s in the same outfit, riding a yellow plastic horse.  She looks a little anxious in this one, like she’d rather the person taking the picture be beside her.  There are also two close-up pictures.  One of her full face, with someone behind her (I assume holding her up to the camera), and another with just her lip.  It looks like a good repair, from what we can tell. 

Sometime during all this, the kids run back to the computer and see the pictures, everybody oohing and ahhing and saying how cute she is.  They ask…is this Lainey?  We tell them yes, this is your little sister.  The kids are happy, all smiles and excitement.  Ethan comes up to me and gives me a long, tight hug.  I wonder if he’ll ever let go and when he does, I see tears in his eyes.  Talk about melting my heart…my baby, happy that he can now be a big brother. 

We spend time researching her province and orphanage and then decide to go out to dinner.  We end up at Jackie Lee’s Chinese Bistro and have a nice Chinese meal in celebration of our little girl.  At the end of the meal, we all get fortune cookies.  The best one says this:  “The joyful energy of the day will have a positive effect on you”.  What an understatement.  We’re overjoyed and over the moon for our Ling Qing Qin, our Lainey. 

Here are more pics from our morning…

Look closely to see the scrape on her nose that she got last night…she fell in the truck and her face met the console.  Randy said it gives her character. 

Randy and Jon…two very goofy good friends. 

Our boys with their great friend, Zach…they were headed to his house today after church. 

Lainey surprises Zach’s sister, Kate, with a “squeeze”. 

Marley restrains…I mean holds Lainey. 

Remember me with this short hairdo?  My nannies at the Bengbu SWI gave me this haircut as a going away present.  My parents kinda wish they would have asked first.  Well, my hair has grown and Mama and Dada thought it was time for a trim.  So, they took me to see Rona, my mama’s hair stylist. 

They let me sit on mama’s lap and gave me a huge bib…not sure why, there was no food in sight.  The nice lady did give me a fancy, purple comb to hold. 

She started spraying my hair with this wet stuff that kinda smelled like shampoo. 

See how long my hair is?!

I wasn’t too sure about this part, but I didn’t get upset.  I sat pretty still…Rona told mama that she was good at working with moving targets, whatever that means. 

 Hmmm… I wonder what’s for lunch?

She’s still working…will she want this comb back?

Will she ever quit?

I’ve seen mama use this thing…

The bib is gone, I’m outta here…oh, wait.  Dada wants an “after” picture.  Okay…

My new “bob”, as the lady called it, looks pretty cute on me. 

Mama said she likes the back, too.  This hair cutting thing worked out well, don’t you think?  And, I even got to keep the comb.  :)