My Kid Circus

This month is an important month for our sweet Hannah.  This month she has officially been home with our family longer than she was in China.  It feels like she has been with us for a very long time, and it is still hard for me to accept the reality that she lived so much of her early life without us.  I grieve the precious time that we missed with her, but celebrate that she is ours forever more.

This month we also went back for her check-up with her cardiologist.  I was pretty nervous going into that appointment.  I know that at some point we are going to find out that surgery is now inevitable, which means that I will be filled with apprehension each and every time we go.

The overall good news is that she does not have to have surgery now.  She has a leaky pulmonary valve (which we knew), a leaky aortic valve (which we did not know), and now some enlarged vessels in her heart from the back flow of blood.

So, we continue to watch her.  She can continue to grow bigger and stronger before she has to have surgery again.  We can breathe a sigh of relief, even if only until next time.

Today was a big day for Miss K.  She got her very first haircut.

Beforehand she was feeling pretty good about it, and happy to pose for me for her “before” shots.

When we arrived and it was time to sit in the chair, she started having second thoughts.

Then the hairdresser started cutting.  Sweet K was not at all sure this was going to go well.

Finally, she was finished and K got to see it.

At first she was happy, but I think that was mostly relief that it was finished.  Luckily I got this one picture, because she was not willing to let me take many “after” pictures.

By the time we got to the car, we had a lot of this.  She has also been asking repeatedly when it is going to grow back.  Poor girl.  I thought it was going to be me shedding tears watching her baby hair be cut away, but turns out it was K herself.  Awww.

Last weekend was the weekend that I had been waiting for since Christmas.  It was my photography weekend with one of my photography role models, Lisa, and 11 other wonderful women.

I was incredibly motivated to go on this trip.  I flew by myself to PA.  The flight was on a teeny tiny plane.  It was raining.  Those of you who know me know right there that that was HUGE.  We also stayed in a haunted hotel.  It was a 9 story hotel, and I figured there wasn’t much of a chance that I would be near the haunted room.  Yep, the haunted room was 932, and I got room 930!!  I had an adjoining room to the haunted room!  Luckily all went smoothly in the hotel.

We spent the weekend together doing multiple photo shoots of adorable children in absolutely gorgeous settings.

To say that I learned some things would be an understatement.  I feel like I definitely took some steps forward as a photographer, which I am thrilled about.  I also met some incredible women, most of whom are also adoptive moms.

It was just an absolutely wonderful experience.  Thank you, Lisa!  And thank you again to my wonderful husband for making this happen for me.

You might not be able to tell from this picture, but K had a rough night last night.  She cried for over half an hour before bedtime because she was scared of the Easter bunny. She got so upset at one point that she asked me to leave a note asking the Easter bunny not to come to our house.  That put D in tears.  Well, K didn’t want her big brother upset, so she said, “D, if the Easter Bunny comes upstairs to my room, will you fight him for me?”. D was thrilled with this compromise. I guess I should just be glad that he was looking out for his little sister?

This morning everyone was all smiles though. We had a wonderful early morning together, enjoying family time.  We made it to church (only slightly late), and we had a fantastic lunch with two sets of grandparents, aunts, and our sweet cousin.

And after all, it isn’t about the Easter bunny anyway.  Happy Easter everyone!            Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

I’m a little late on this, but exactly a week after Hannah’s birthday, sweet K turned four.

Dressing up is her favorite thing, so we had a royal party for her, complete with kings, queens, knights, princesses, and a jester.  It is a true testament to how much this girl is loved that all of her grandparents and aunts and uncles happily dressed up for her, and willingly participated in princess games.  I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t do that for just anyone.

The night before her birthday, K was in tears saying, “But I don’t want to turn four.  I LOVE being three (fwee)!”  By the end of her party, I think she was pretty sure that four was going to be fun too.

Happy birthday, dear K.  We love you so much!

Yesterday our sweet Hannah turned three.  She was been so excited about her special day. For the last two weeks the first thing that she asked as I got her out of bed each morning was, “My birthday today??”. It was so nice to be able to say, “yes!”.

A year ago, I felt very aware of it being her first birthday with us.  I was thinking a lot about Hannah’s birth parents, and what emotions that this time of year brings for them.

This year felt different.  We again lit a candle in honor of Hannah’s birth parents, and I hope to always have that tradition. At the same time, she feels so completely “ours”. 

I had just one passing moment of sadness when Z asked me what time Hannah was born. Of course we have no idea, and in reality have no idea what day she was actually born.  It makes me sad that I don’t have all the answers.

I’m happy that I have some of the answers though.  We were thrilled to make her morning with a bowl of “Dora” cereal.

We had all of our family over for Mexican food and cake, and watched her dance and prance around with all of her favorite people on “her” day.

We hugged her and sang to her as many times as she asked us to (it was a lot ).  Most importantly we had a day of joy, celebrating the day that Hannah was born into the world.

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet girl, we love you so much!!!!!

I was just working on packing up everyone’s backpacks, when I happened to look at Z’s homework.  Usually I oversee his homework a little bit, but he did this one without me. At first glace it looks like a standard list of (slightly messy) second grade definitions.

I’m glad I actually read them, however.  Although he did a decent job, I’m pretty positive these definitions didn’t come from a dictionary.

Why did he have to go and define “mother” like that?  Now I feel bad that I have to go wake him up to re-do his homework…

Okay, you are probably looking at this post and thinking that I meant to send this out a long time ago, right?  I wish.  Instead, I am writing this post about my almost FOUR year old. Yikes.  I am hanging my head in shame that this is so overdue, but at the same time I am celebrating that at least we are here now!

Anyway, my first 3 kids all loved their pacifiers.  REALLY loved them.  Still, getting rid of them for the boys was not too traumatic.  For both of them, it happened when they were about 2 1/2.  Following some advice from a friend, we put some “Thum” on their pacis, which made them tingle/ burn in their mouths.  For a while we had been telling them that they were turning “big” now, and that meant that soon their pacis would turn hot.  Well, when the day came that their pacis turned hot, we basically turned it into a celebration day for our little guys turning into big boys. We had a fun dinner complete with a new toy. They pretty much never looked back.

Of course after 2 successes I thought I had this whole situation under control when child #3 turned 2 1/2.  Ha ha. We went through the same exact process, with entirely different results. We held out for 2 weeks before we bought her a whole new bundle of pacis and begged her to use them.  That girl would NOT sleep without one.

I didn’t know what we were going to do. Miss K is pretty strong willed.  I thought she might still be sleeping with one when she got to middle school.

Anyway, the dentist said that it was fine as long as she got rid of it by the time she turned four. For some reason, K thought that the dentist said that if she had the paci when she turned four that her teeth would fall out.  One evening her dear big brother felt in her mouth and said, “yep, I think I feel them already getting loose”.  That was it.  That girl never touched her paci again!!!!!  It has been over a month now, so I feel like I can finally actually accept that we are in the clear.

It is crazy.  For months I have been dreading taking away this paci, and thinking about how upset she would be since she loved it so much, and all I needed was some intervention from her big brother.

These were some celebration m&ms that she picked out.  My favorite m&ms of my whole life.

My husband and I just got home from a trip.  With no, I repeat NO children.

I’m not the kind of parent that has an easy time leaving my kids.  I stressed about it for days leading up to it, and I was wiping away tears halfway to the airport.  As soon as we got there though, I was good to go.  In fact, I might have had to wipe away a few tears on our way to the airport back home.

People love to tell moms of young children to, “treasure every minute”, because “it will be over before you know it”.  I assume that these people mean well, and are trying to pass on sentimental heart-felt advice.  The problem with that for me, however, is that I already feel acutely aware of how quickly time flies.  I think all the time about how little time we get with our “little” kids.  I worry about a future where I will feel all to aware of my empty arms and quiet house.  These heart-felt words then fill me with sadness and dread.

This trip helped me with those feelings.  It reminded me of the person that was enjoying this life with me before these kids came along.  It reminded me that(God willing), I will have this person there beside me as we one by one send our children out of our house and out into the world.  It reminded me that our time just together is also precious.  It reminded me that I will still have a lot to look forward to.  Next time someone tells me to treasure every moment, I’m just going to smile.

Last year during Lent, our family collected money for “Love Without Boundaries“, in order to contribute to their formula campaign. You can read about it here.

Love Without Boundaries is just one of those organizations that I am thankful is here in the world,  supporting these sweet babies.

This is Eileen, who we sponsor.  This sweet girl has not found her forever family since last year’s post.  I pray that I will not be able to say that again.

So, our family will again have a jar on our counter.  A jar that will remind us that although we have our sweet Hannah here, there are so so many more babies in need.  Babies who need formula, medical care, and most importantly, love.  A jar that will remind us not to forget.