Thankful Thursday...

Today I am thankful for...

SNOW DAY!

Off to play with the amigos!

Tooth #4...

Princess Grace lost tooth #4 this week. It just doesn't get any cuter than a toothless first grade grin!

Glimpses of God's Grace

Noah's a big fan of his big sister.
A pre-date night photo of us taken by our stylists.

Me and my stylist

Right now I am typing and listening to Eli over the monitor singing his little heart out during nap time. Currently he's doing his rendition of "Tantrum" from Sandra Boynton's Cow Planet CD. It's a pretty jazzy version. (Too funny, if you haven't heard it, by the way.) He's pretty funny but I can see why he drove Noah a little nutso while they were sharing a room. See Eli sings and talks himself to sleep while Noah needs peace, quiet, stillness (things that aren't part of any other part of his life!) to be able to rest. So when Eli moved into his own room this weekend, we immediately noticed a change in their relationship. They are Jedi partners now. They battle the bad guys together. What a blessing!

Here are glimpses of God's grace over the past few days. Some of them may seem a bit trite but, to me, they have made all the difference!

• hearing songs that soothed my heart and soul on the radio with just the right lyrics at just the right time



• feeling God's presence in a very real and tangible way when I really needed Him most



• a worship service that was both amazingly personal and powerful...and having my WHOLE heart in worship for the first time in a long time



• conversations with friends and with Steve that were so Spirit-filled that I felt like I was walking on holy ground



• discovering, to my delight, that Family Bookstore's $5 items right now happen to be a pink New Testament (which I really wanted) and the Wemmick story on DVD (which, as you know, just happens to be my favorite kids' story!).

The photos are Steve and I prepared for date night by our stylists, Grace and Noah. Notice my very fashionable pink feather boa and purple eyeshadow and Steve's very handsome tie (as you'll remember, ties are the key to true handsomeness) tucked into his shirt to prevent tie-stains from dinner. Fabulous stylists, eh? Stacy and Clinton have nothing on them. We expect a call from TLC any day now.

Thankful Thursday...

Today I am thankful for...

• worship team. The people, the praise, the songs...good, good, good!
• being able to lose myself in a book.
• having people who are willing to help so close by for things like...returning escape artist dogs, staying with sleeping kiddos when it's time to pick up Grace from school, telling me when my lights have been left on...
• the kids' really kind friends.

Eli is thankful for...

• eating lunch with Mommy and Noah
• playing with Sam and Nevin at school and playing dinosaurs with them
• resting in the basement (Eli has decided that life is better as a basement dweller...more on that later)
• taking my shower and brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed. And that's all.

Grace is thankful for...

• God and Jesus
• my family
• Mr. Bear (her VERY well loved teddy bear that she's slept with since she was born)
• a warm house to live in
• good things to eat
• able to learn at school
• having so much love from my family
• lunch and dinner and breakfast
• a comfortable/not so comfortable bed...it's just that I have so many pillows and stuffed animals at the end so I'm like...(mimes kicking)

What are you thankful for?

St. Patty's Day...

Happy St. Patty's Day! I'm such a big fan of St. Patrick. What an amazing guy...heading back to the place of his slavery to bring the good news! Seriously!
But, of course, that was not on the amigos' minds this morning as they dressed in as much green as humanly possible (I won't tell you which amigo is even wearing green underwear!). Grace's first grade class is writing a how-to paper about how to make a leprechaun trap. She had to make the actual leprechaun trap at home so there has been much leprechaun discussion at home. So this morning, Noah asked (a bit meekly I might add) from the back seat as we drove to school, "How hard do the teeny leprechauns pinch you if you don't wear green?" Poor kiddo was pretty afraid of tiny leprechauns wielding tiny pinching fingers searching for people not wearing green. I assured him that people do the pinching and he happily hopped into preschool searching for people who needed a little pinch. Huh. Wonder how preschool went today...

Thankful Thursday...

Have you read the Max Lucado children's book about the Wemmicks? See Wemmicks are these little wooden creatures that run around all day putting dot and star stickers on each other. If they think the other Wemmick is "bad," they put a dot sticker on them. And if they think the other Wemmick is "good," they put a star sticker on them. Well, there was one little Wemmick named Punchinello that had many, many dot stickers plastered all over him, so many you could hardly see his little wooden body. And it bummed Punchinello out to have so many dots...bummed him out so much that he just hid so the other Wemmicks wouldn't be able to put more dots on him for tripping, or dropping something, or saying the wrong thing... And there was another Wemmick who, Punchinello noticed, had no dots or stars. So he asked her why. Turns out, she was spending time everyday with the woodcarver and because she cared more about what he thought than what the other Wemmicks thought, their stars and dots just didn't stick. So our sweet Punchinello started spending time with the woodcarver, too. And as he did, one by one, his dots fell off.
So today, I'm thankful for the woodcarver, for spending time with Him and for each time a star or dot is unable to stick or falls off.

Really? Huh.

Usually, I am a fan of telling happy tales here. And this one is as well, kind of. Well...I guess it depends on your perspective. Grace came home from school a bit upset today. Seems some boys were taking the opportunity (while there was a substitute there) to make fun of China, its people and specifically her brother. Grace was heartbroken but strongly stood up for her brother and the country of his birth. And her friend told on the boys and they got in "big trouble...well, kind of big trouble...they didn't get on yellow (the discipline system) or anything." It was all I could do not to grab the school directory and call the boys' parents right up and give them a little Chinese culture lesson. But tonight when Grace and Eli prayed, Eli prayed that people would not say bad things about China and Grace thanked God that he made people different all over the world, thanked God for her "awesome littlest brother" and prayed that her friends would be able to experience China so they would know more and understand. And I learned from them. I learned that we have the opportunity to teach through our family, in love, what diversity means. That we have a calling to live out loud a celebration of God's people everywhere. I am surprised at how early those little amigos understand such things. And I'm grateful that Grace had an opportunity to be strong for her brother and his country of birth and that she was willing to be. And I'm so glad I didn't pick up that phone.

Thankful Thursday...

'Sup with your thankful self? As for me...

• I'm thankful for warm weather and gardening and new growth springing up everywhere.
• for smelly markers and how much fun it is to color with them.
• for Papa Noodle and how much Noah loved spending time with him yesterday.
• for friends who have different gifts than me and share them...like Andi's gift for floral design for Lindsey's shower!
• for being so close to finished with adoption paperwork that I can almost taste it!
• for Eli and Noah's rest/nap time in the afternoon that allows me to get stuff done and refreshes me.
• for all of the new family members my buddies are adding to their families...for Janet, Ayden, Sophia and many more babies to come (hopefully one for us, too!)
• for you!

Speech Therapy...

Eli's journey though speech therapy began after his palate surgery. The first few weeks at speech therapy started with us singing the "Who's in charge of speech therapy? Miss Theresa! Who's not in charge? Not me!" all the way to speech. Eli, you see, wanted to do speech his way. His way was defined as fixing all of the toys in the room so that they were in the right (Eli's right) spots and organized correctly. Then he wanted to direct his own therapy by choosing the activities and the sounds he wanted to work on. It took him a little while and a bit of singing to realize that possibly Miss Theresa knew better than Eli what was best for him when it came to his speech development. He also struggled a lot with focused sitting and working and needed some help from some therapeutic aids. He also was pretty difficult to understand. Theresa needed lots of translation from Mommy at the beginning.

And now on this, his last day of speech therapy, he sits, he reads, he focuses, he listens, he talks and she can understand every word. Theresa and I were tearing up as we remembered the Eli of less than a year ago and looked at the very different little boy before us. I have to admit, there were quite a few tears in the waiting room while I listened to Eli and Theresa have their final chat through the door. Eli looked at my tears in the car on the way home and said, "Why are you crying? I all done with speech therapy!" Thank you, God, for Theresa and for Eli and for him being here and having the opportunity to have her in his life!

Preschool and the Zoo

Noah's preschool class (with super teacher DeAnn) getting ready to act out a book.

The three bionicles...Joshy, Noah and Joe playing on the school playground.

Eli and his friend Ryan building roads like Daddy.

Adam, Owen, Noah and Eli run from the HUGE elephant at the zoo (notice the shorts...nice weather, huh?).