Too Cute For My TuTu!

Cheerleader's first bouquet of flowers from her brothers!
NaNa painted a ballet slipper with her name & date. A very special keepsake of her first recital! It even has jade beads & ladybug on the hanger!

It took 4 practice attempts to get the "Shirley Temple" hair just right!

It is NOT easy to get Asian hair to curl & stay curled, but I finally did it!

Cheerleader and cousin "A" with their flowers. Beautiful flowers for beautiful girls!

Maybe some day they can dance a duet together?!? Start the choreography now!

Cheerleader had her first ballet recital recently. Snow Bunny is also in her class. The girls were so cute in their blue "Cuddle Cub" costumes. At rehearsal many of the girls did not dance much for the shock of the large auditorium and bright lights. Come the actual recital, all the girls were perfect! We Mommies could not have been prouder! My niece "A" also takes dance from the same teacher. She received her 7 yr. award, and danced in 8 different dances! "A" absolutely loves to dance, jazz, tap, ballet & modern. I hope Cheerleader will continue, the 5 yr. award is only 4 yrs away!

For he is fully known!

Sardis UMC
Inside of Sardis UMC

Prayer candles lit in honor of each of the confirmands.

Quarterback about to be baptised by Pastor "N"!

We are so proud! Our Quarterback has accepted Christ as his one and only Savior! It was the result of a 16 week confirmation course at our church. A group of 16 kids bonded over lock-ins, Wednesday classes, field trips and prayer services. Several of the kids chose to be dunked for their baptism, so our associate pastor filled a giant 3 ft deep pool in our church courtyard and dunked them! The week before the confirmation, all the parents met at a small church in Sardis for a "Praise & Prayer" service to prepare the church for the kids arrival. That evening the kids themselves spent time in silent prayer & contemplation about their decisions in accepting Christ. The following Sunday the kids were anointed with oil & frankincense as they prayed aloud for acceptance with all of our family surrounding him. I was crying, so Mark had to say our family prayer. Afterwards the kids served the congregation communion. I cried once again as I took the "body of Christ" from my son, who served me. I cannot say enough about our associate pastor "N". He did a super job with all of our children, helping them to make their decision to accept Christ.

Math Pentathlon 2007

Getting ready to play FIAR!
Playing PAR 55

Running back with some of his friends!

This pic was taken when things were winding down. All the tables were filled with 4 kids & 2 adult judges.

Runningback had been participating in an after school program called Math Pentathlon for the past 3 years. The kids learn 5 different games, they are not just math. Some are analytical thinking, reasoning, or dice games. They make the kids think "out of the box". In April we traveled to Austin to compete against 25 other schools. Runningback won 3 of his 5 games. It does not sound like much but it is quite an achievement. Besides math skills, they are teaching patience & sportsmanship.

Runningback has had to overcome quite a few hurdles in the past 3 years. We have had to battle teachers who wanted to keep him back in the 1st grade, being diagnosed with eye & processing problems in the 2nd grade and now in the 3rd, he as been diagnosed with dyslexia. This last one explains all the things we have been struggling with. With all of these things he has maintained an A-B average in school! He has worked so hard for so long on an even plain with the "normal" kids, I am glad he will finally be getting the help he needs. Now with the extra help & manipluatives, who knows how far he will soar!

Boys will be boys!

For you Mothers of older boys you will understand, for those of younger boys your turn in coming! Quarterback was on his way to our neighborhood park on his roller blades when he met the pavement. Coach & cheerleader were already there and brought him home. One look & Coach knew it was a hospital visit injury. He has a cut requiring 5 stitches above his lift eye along with a abrasion the size of a 50cent piece above it. His entire left shoulder has no skin, 2 knuckles on the left hand are missing skin and his entire left knee and much of his shin are the same. He is one giant road rash!!!! He was pretty upset but it was not about himself, he was upset that he was going to miss an confirmation interview with our church choir director. He did not want to disappoint our Pastor on his assignment.

When he came home from the ER, he went next door to show off the "War wounds" to his friends! He did not show his Mother first! He was excited about showing all the kids at school the scars. I did write a note to excuse him from P.E. for a day or two.

This was not his first big injury and I am sure it will not be his last, but it still makes my heart jump to see my handsome son scaring up his face!

Why?

As may of you know, I recently had major surgery. I have good & bad days. Today, as I was trying to gather myself, cheerleader asked the question I have been dreading. Why am I here, Why am I from China? The boys have long been at school and she has only watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the T.V. Where did she come up with that question? I had gone over this so many times in my head, asked friends how they had answered the question. All of this I could not remember for the life of me. I told her she lived in China & needed a Mommy and I lived here & needed a little girl. This simple answer seemed all she wanted. The next question was "Why did I pick this house"?

For most families the question is "How did I get out of Mommy's tummy" and "How did I get in there". There are tons of books on how to answer that question. But when your adopted child asks, each child needs their own special answer. Because each child came to that family differently than any child came to any other family. Why did you adopt, Why did you chose a girl or a boy, Why a certain agency, Why a certain country over domestic?

I gave Cheerleader a simple answer to a huge question, she is 3 and that is what she wanted. Please pray that as she grows I am able to give her huge answers.

WHAT HAVE I DONE TO MYSELF!!!!!!!!

Well here I am in all of my glory! Everyone wants to know how I am doing. Words cannot express my feelings because I am so swolen, you cannot make sence out of anything I say! My family thinks I am crazy for putting this on the blog, but my blooging buddies have a deep understanding of why I am doing this! This first pic is right after surgery. My lips are grossly out of shape but the outside of my face is still pretty much the same. The inside of my mouth is swollen shut. When I woke up I found that I was not wired shut, I could breath, and I did not feel claustrophobic! Praise Him, Praise Him, my prayers were answered! It was my early Easter miracle!

This is me day 2. I am that blob under all the ice packs. They were my best friend. This was my nurse Hill, he gives GREAT drugs!
Can you believe I had to travel to Parkland for an X-ray looking like this. I got some of the strangest looks. Sad thing is, I did see some women having their X-rays done that their face looked like mine due to their boyfriend/husband.

Since I had only been out of bed once, to go to Parkland, and that was a bad 2 hr. experience, my pain was unmanageable, and I got the spins looking sideways I got to spend a second night. Praise Him, Praise Him!

These are the pretty flowers my Sister & her family brought me. I could not have them in my room because I was on the bone marrow ward. I was on the 7th floor where Head Coach usually works. I had people I knew taking care of me! My niece drew me this picture on her visit, she is always so good her artwork! It is hard to believe she will be turning 10 yrs old this next week. She was born on my anniversary!

This is a going home pic. Face starting to swell. Lips, is that what those are? Angelina Joli, eat your heart out!

And this is what we came home to, SNOW!!! It snowed all day! Nothing stuck to the ground but it was beautiful! Can you see the giant Easter eggs in the bushes? As for now, much is still the same. Went to the Dr. on Tues. and he is happy with the surgery and the swelling. I think I look like a monkey and my Mom agrees. Facial swelling will take several weeks to go down, bone & inner will take several months to a year. Today I started to turn greenish yellow from the bruising. Maybe I will update you with a greenish-yellow monkey pic!

M.G.M. Day 3 !

On day 3 we visited MGM Studios, it is a park dedicated to everything about movies. You can take back lot tours, learn about special effects & sound. You learn the magic of movie making. And for those keeping track, today was purple day!
When we first entered the park the first "characters" we met were "Tow Mater" and "Lightening McQueen" from Cars. They drove themselves around and "road" music was playing on their radios!

Outside of the Star Wars ride we ran into some Storm Troopers. The ride was really cool.

Toy Story has been one of the boys favorites for years, so seeing Buzz & Woody was a real treat.

Running back wanted his face painted "REAL BAD". I tried to talk him into a partial painting, nothing doing, he wanted the whole thing. The man was able to do the whole thing in about 10 min. I could not believe how good it was. Running back got so many comments all day, he looked sooooo cool. He would have painted his face everyday if he was able. He had his painted at 9:00 in the morning, and it stayed ALL DAY! We had to wash it off with soap & water at midnight so he could go swim at the hotel! That was the best $12.00 face painting ever!

One of the best shows we saw was the Paris Stunt Cars. Mini Coopers raced & slid around showing precision maneuvers we could not believe. Both boys agreed that both their Grandfathers would have loved the show. Smoke, the smell of burning rubber, engines revving & fast car chases, what more can a man want.

We saw how the newest cartoon movie, Meet the Robinsons, was made and ran into the Incredibles! Everyone had their pic taken but I only posted mine because we all know that Moms are truly incredible!

While waiting for dinner our "Mickey-Jack Black-Tiger" fell asleep. He was so cute that I was not the only one who took pictures of him. Several people asked if they could as well. He was clueless until he saw this!

We ate at Hollywood & Vine a 50's inspired diner. The food was great, of course.

After dinner we had reserved seating for the Fantasmic laser-light and water show. WOW, it was the best! I cannot put into words the feelings we had during & after the show. I remembered things from my childhood & wondered if my kids feel the same thing. Of course, it is the Magic of Disney! It is never ending!

Look!!!! The face paint is still on 11 hours later!

P.S. What color will we be wearing tomorrow?