A Merry Christmas

What a wonderful season. My favorite part of the holiday season is how much time we get to spend with family.


Gracie says her favorite part of Christmas this year was that Faith was here and she got to give her presents. Here are Gracie and Pappy on Christmas morning.

Faith's favorite gift was a Kai-lan doll that Gracie gave her.

Gracie's favorite things were the baking items she received: baking mixes, utensils, a cook book. These are her cinnamon muffins.


Even with Mitch's crazy work schedule this year, we tried to fit in as many of our usual traditions as we could and I was please with how many of them we were able to squeeze in.

The Family

"THE FAMILY"

"THE KIDDOS"

"THE SNOW ANGELS"

And Lastly, I like to call this photo: "A FAR CRY FROM FUZHOU"

Sugar Cookie Time

It was sugar cookie time at our house...and OH, the mess! I think it takes as long to clean up as it does to do the whole project. When we were done, I said to Aunt Sue, "It doesn't seem like you should be tired after baking cookies, does it?" "Well, I know I am!" she said. It was alot of fun though.

The cookies that Faith worked on were completely non-edible. She played with the same piece of dough forever. She separated her piece of dough into about 20 little pieces and said they were snowmen.

Rice and Snow

Ok, so we were grocery shoppping at Walmart and the boys laid this gigantic bag of rice in the cart with Faith and said they were getting her back to her roots!!!

...and today was the first substantial snow fall of the year. Notice I took the pictures from INSIDE. Gracie and the boys were showing Faith how to eat snowballs. She was skeptical at first but soon caught on, only to be slowed down by her freezing cold hands.



I was noticing how close Christmas is and I haven't bought a single gift yet! I am not on the ball at all this year!

"The First Thanksgiving"....to follow "the first birthday"

Might we call this "The First Thanksgiving" ?!! We've had so many celebrations since this little one came home, she'll think that's all we do....and wouldn't it be wonderful if it was!


Cousin Laura finally makes the blog!! Remember "Aunt Lou" who blogged for me while we were in China...well this is her daughter and my lovely cousin Laura.




Christian and Faith look through the Christmas cookbook. Christian wanted to look for a new recipe he might like.



Hooray for cousins! And let's talk about the blessing of cousins for a moment. My kid's cousins have been such a big blessing in their lives. I'm so thankful for them.



And tonight we had Gracie's ingenious creation...A "Big Girl/Little Girl Sleepover". Three "big girls" and 3 "little girls" and lots and lots of nail polish!!!! The boys all conveniently flew the coop for the night except poor Christian who was stuck at home and hid away in his bedroom most of the night. I got Faith to bed and came back to the kitchen to find them all in a line doing the cha-cha.


...and after crafting, the dining room table could barely be seen and there was glitter from one end of the house to the other.

What fun! Thank you big girls!!


Today I am most thankful for God's faithfulness. I am thankful that God shows His faithfulness ever so clearly when the road is rocky. I am thankful that even though we can't see the end of the road, we can see His footsteps on the road ahead of us. I am thankful that it is not I who order this life, but it is Him, and I am only responsible to follow.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

My First American Birthday!! I'm 3 Years Old!

It seemed really strange having a 3-year-old birthday party for a little one who's been with us only 3 months....I guess each month counted for a year!!

Her first American birthday party was obviously her first ever birthday party. She had no idea what was going on. But next year she will!!

Jennie made her a beautiful Dora cake and she got lots of Dora and Ni Hao Kai-Lan stuff. We just discovered Kai-Lan who is a little Chinese girl.


It was a good day... and then...

she was all tired out.
I like to call this photo: "All the comforts of A home"
It's beautiful because she's surrounded by all these cuddly things that she used to make her angry. And HOLDING A DOLL !!

For Uncle Dan and Aunt Jessica

Dan and Jes,
Sorry the quality of this video isn't very good, but I thought you would enjoy seeing Faith open the birthday presents you sent her all the way from Texas. She loves her Kai Lan things!!

Tea Party and Ballet Time

I just had to post these video clips of the girls (below). If you listen closely you can get a tiny glimpse of Faith's English skills. She is really alot more fluent than you can tell in these video clips though. It's amazing. We have several Chinese words that we are attempting to preserve for her by calling our shoes "high-dees" and our phones "peimbas" and saying "Boo-Yow" instead of no. I honestly have been listening for her to say "shir-da" (yes) ever since we got her and just heard it yesterday when her Aunt Susie took her out to eat. I said, "Did you have a good time with Aunt Susie?" and just as plain as day she shook her head yes and said, "Shir-da".

Her English is very functionable (is that a word?) already. She says many whole phrases and sentences and at times she's almost conversational. Her prayers really get you. Two nights ago she said "Dear God we love You. Thank you for my bed. Thank you for Mommy. Thank you for Daddy. Thank you for Mitchell....."and she went through the whole family without missing a person. I would love to try to plant a recorder to capture one of them. I wonder what my Chinese would be like if I had been dropped into China all alone 2 months ago??? Oh wait...most Chinese can speak some English so I wouldn't be totally submersed like she was. It's really amazing.

Many of you have asked me for an update on her night time anxiety and I am happy to report, she has not had any night terrors for several weeks. I am so thankful because they make for really abrupt awakenings as she would just scream in her sleep. Also, and this is the neatest thing, she almost enjoys bedtime now. A few weeks ago she stopped crying about bedtime and now she actually snuggles down under her covers with a big smile on her face and says "night mommy". She has started saying, "Thank you for my bed" in her prayers and I never prompted her to do this.

She also sings all the time. I don't know if I ever wrote about the fact that we were really shocked to see a child who never sang. I can't explain it very well but there was no music in her at all and wow, is music vital to the spirit. The first time I was ever holding her and sang, she pulled back and looked at me like "What in the World are you doing"??? ....She now sings all the time. By the way, just in case you don't understand it, she's singing "All the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white". She'll sing something and then look over at me a grin.


Her other favorite activities are drawing and eating, eating, eating. Did I mention she likes to eat? She calls herself Fay-ful, and she always says, "Fay-ful kungry" She says it constantly and the other day she was back in the bathroom on the potty and Mitch had walked out the hall and I followed him out and said, "Are you hungry?" and clear from the bathroom we heard this little voice yell, "Fay-ful kungry!" Yesterday she got up from a nap and I sat her on the potty and she took my face in her hands and very seriously said, "Go get pizza mommy".

I guess one last thing to report would be that she now rocks and sings to her stuffed animals and babies. The reason this is so momentous is because when we first brought her home, she was greatly angered by the showing of affection. When we would put a doll on our shoulder and act like we were rocking or patting it, she would swat at it and yell and if we put a doll in her arms, she would throw it down and yell. It is amazing how just a small amount of cuddling and rocking rubs off on a child so quickly.

Anyways...I hope you enjoy the video. Gracie is a very good ballet teacher. Yesterday Faith was trying to teach my dad ballet....imagine that. Hope you enjoy it.

Love as always.

School Daze and Ice Cream Craze

It was a beautiful day in PA, but as I walked out the door late tonight, I noted that the air had that snappy winter feel to it. You southern moms whose blogs I like to read...I'll be thinking of you as we go into hibernation. This is why it has been so great looking at southern beach houses with my cousin Jennie as we try to plan a spring, family vacation. Ahh...warmth.

Well, it has only taken me a month, but I think we have finally fallen into a school routine. This year's homeschool routine has emerged via playpens, fast movement on my part, a willing seven year old pre-school teacher, organization, and lots and lots of prayer. I realize I will now be homeschooling until I am fifty five years old. (Is there a law against that?) I always lament over the fact that the younger kids don't get to do some of the neat things that the older kids did when they were little, like the fun little science experiment books, or sitting and reading books with me for extended periods of time. I guess they have different things though, like lots of siblings to play with, or going to band, or watching older siblings play instruments, or going to ballet. It's interesting that when Mitchell was little he sang the Donut Man and Wee Sing Praise and my young ones now skip straight from learning to wave bye-bye to singing Britt Nicole and Toby Mac. Every day I long for a little peace and quiet, yet there's something really great about living in a somewhat chaotic household full of people. I know that someday when my house is quiet, I will look longingly back on the chaos.

Christian found a great way to entertain himself the other day. Here's his pyramid made completely of Ritchey's Ice Cream containers. Now, I could tell you that we ate all this ice cream, or I could tell you that we just collect them to freeze applesauce in.....I think I'll just let you believe what you want.


My dear little ballerina...


Now this is one tired girl! She has an absolutely grueling schedule. She gets up promptly at 10:30 or 11:00am, she eats, watches Barney, eats, plays with Gracie, eats, falls asleep, eats....well, you get the picture. We say "She eats and sleeps with a vengence" She thinks I should feed her constantly and she is almost impossible to wake up and can fall asleep sitting stark upright.
Yesterday, I gave her a bowl of cereal and walked out of the kitchen for a few minutes to help one of the other kids with something and returned to find her fast asleep with her face lying in a puddle of soggy cereal. (Not sure if there was any drowning danger or not :) ) Crazy, huh?


And then there are our wonderful friends who we are so blessed to have as neighbors as well. Alexa's day was made when Faith let her hold her. So, here's Faith and Alexa...

And here's Faith and Zach, whom she lovingly calls "Zackol"...

I was reading today about Moses. And I was thinking about how God gives us grace in our weakness and how that is enough for whatever may come. He is our sufficiency, because we are completely and utterly destitute in and of ourselves. It is only by Him, and for Him, and because of Him that we fight this good fight of faith. Praise God, that His strength is made perfect in our weakness. Because if I can offer Him my weakness and in return He gives me His strength, that's a pretty precious promise. So often that's all we have to offer...weakness. But I will most gladly hand it over, "so that the power of Christ may rest upon me".

Much love
Cherie

Senior Pictures, Birthday Boys, and Goodnight Moon

Our Dear Christian turns eleven!

Wow is it hard to believe that our sweet Christian is eleven years old. It was a party complete with a Jeff Gordon Cake made by his cousin Jennie. He's a big time Nascar fan!


...and then there's our resident senior...how did this one get so old?!!


I really didn't plan on posting so many of these photos, but I love them all so much, I couldn't decide which ones to post. There are only about 100 to choose from!





This was Faith's idea of school today I guess. We are finally back to a semi-normal school day schedule. Although Mitch asked me how school was today and I told him, "It is INSANE"...and to think...I thought last year was a juggling act!! How's come homeschool mom's don't get teacher's aids? Although I did get my mom today for several hours of aid. THANKS MOM!

The world's best cousins, Ben and Jennie.

It has been incredible to me to learn how trying times in life deepen your love for family and friends. As I have leaned on my family and friends over these past weeks that our family has undergone so many changes, I have grown to see them with an even more intense beauty. Wow, I have been blessed with their amazing love. I have drawn strength from every hug. I praise God that at the end of this road of learning, He will have taught me so much more about Himself...and about how this life that we all tend to think we have figured out, is not about us, but about a God who is beautiful beyond our comprehension.

Love to you all
Clinging to a Matchless God

More Family

Finally, Uncle Dan and Aunt Jessica made it up from Texas to meet our newest addition. It was the cutest thing. They brought her a little pile of presents. (I must preface this story by telling you that Faith calls herself "Faiful" and when she see's something that belongs to her she says, "That's a Faiful") Well, Dan and Jess put this little pile of presents down in front of her. She didn't understand that they were for her. Jess tried to explain. When Faith finally realized they were for her, her face absolutely lit up and she started gathering the presents in against her in a little pile with a huge smile on her face and kept exclaiming, "That's a Faiful, That's a Faiful!!" It was cute/sad. Sad that an almost 3 year old has never had presents and she just could hardly believe they were for her.

They got her a Mulan doll and a beautiful set of Chinese pajamas.
Today when I put her on her stool to eat lunch she folded her hands and said "Pray."
Then she bowed her head and said, "Dear God" Then she sang "All the Children of the World" (from the middle of Jesus loves the little children)
She's getting the idea!!!

Corner Number Three

Off to Ballet



Playing Mini Golf with the Cousins


I find myself wondering how many corners one can round until you've come full circle. We have rounded our third. And in my heart I know...it is I who rounded it. I've been told, "Watch what you write." But I can only write what's on my heart. And because I know there are other adoptive or would-be adoptive moms out there reading this, I can write nothing less.


I say it is I who rounded the corner because Friday, God began to answer my prayer to peel away the uncertainty of how to look into the face of this beautiful little child that I did not bear, and love her the way she needs to be loved. There have been crazy 'stages' to go through as we adjust, and there has been competition for my love. Thursday I cried alot. The weight of all the drastic changes in our lives gave way to tears. ..but Friday I looked on her with different eyes, as if Thursday's tears had washed away the haze that clouded my view. It has not been easy and I have much further to go, but I feel God placing her as a permanent fixture in my heart. I have gone through feelings of guilt and sadness, joy and uncertainty...but because Faith will read this some day, I want her to know that we didn't just pick her up and merrily go on with life as usual. But we laughed and cried and learned many things along the way. We didn't know each other, we didn't understand each others words, we didn't understand each others tears. But someday I want her to understand this...that she grew in my heart, and that what I always thought was compassion..had no legs to stand on until she walked in.

We are plodding our way through the loss of having Daddy working a mile down the road and accessible to the kids at all times. This has hit me harder than I would have imagined. Here are a few good things about being more on my own...I have written them here to cheer myself in some manner: I now know how to renew car registrations online and I even know where to put that tiny little registration sticker. I now know what a 'vin' number is. I have spent hours on the phone with our insurance salesman, and overseen the repair of several household units.

Thanks for praying about Faith's great anxiety regarding sleeping and waking. It is difficult for her anytime she is about half awake or half asleep. You can continue to pray for her in that manner. Her English is coming along. She speaks many phrases: "Wash your hands, Brush your teeth, Gotta go to the potty, Are you all done, etc." She has a little backpack that she possesses with a vengence! She carries all her most prized treasures in it...a few bills of monopoly money which she calls "yuan" (we heard pretty quickly in China that when the Chinese people pronounce this word, it sounds almost exactly like "yen" and so does she...she says "yen"), an old Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game ticket, a baggie of peanuts, a little red matchbox car, a hair barrette, a mini flip-flop keyring, and a few cards from the game PayDay.


Saturday Gracie caught Faith taking something downstairs that shouldn't be down there. "You need to take that upstairs," Gracie said.
"Boo-yow (no)," yelled Faith.
"Yes," said Gracie.
"Boo-yow"
"Yes"
"Boo-yow"
...well, we thought it was funny.

Sunday we visited a sister church where I had to sing and Faith walked right in, had a cookie, smiled and played with the other kids. It amazed me.
Gracie has been trying so hard to teach her to rock a baby doll and then play like she's putting it to bed. She has been trying to teach her to cuddle stuffed animals too and it is beginning to work a bit. This is significant because for the first couple weeks we had her, when we would act like we were patting a baby doll or something she would bat it away. The display of affection seemed to anger her. We can only guess it's because nobody ever showed affection to her. We have all also been working really hard to get her attached to a blankie because I think having a comfort object would be so good for her. It is working a little bit I guess.

This afternoon I found her setting out the little glass tea set and ever-so-gently acting as if she were pouring tea. She also stood at the mirror and pretended she was putting on makeup. Little normal things like this seem like such great victories to me. The most significant thing was that when Gracie and I sat down to the tea party, Faith folded her hands together and said, "Pray." Gracie and I then said a prayer and she repeated every word of it. Praise the Lord!

Gracie had Faith helping her clean her room on Sunday and then she would give her prizes. Gracie said, "It's nice having a little sister to help me clean up my room."
The boys really want me to try to preserve her use of the word "boo-yow". I had no interest in doing that for a long time because she would scream it at me in China and it really left a bad ring in my ear...but now that she says it cute, my heart is softening a bit to the idea :)

It's so amazing to me how much more every little thing means to me now. I know I hug my friends mercilessly. I made one friend put her car window down in the parking lot of the dollar store the other day just so I could hug her. I know just the sight of my mother brings tears to my eyes. I'm not sure if I'm loving more or needing loved more...?? hmmm...maybe both

...and yes....this is Ritchey's Ice Cream


Much love to you all
From corner number three