What a gift!

Back in April I received an email from a woman in Canada who annually (and sometimes more often than that) visits Chongqing and knows well the foster family Chloe Grace lived with before we brought her home. She sent me dozens of pictures of Chloe Grace from the year and a half before we received her. It's such a gift to have these early pictures of our sweet girl. If you're on Facebook, you've likely already seen them, but here's one of my favorites. Also, I've posted another one from her first day in kindergarten. What an amazing little girl she is! I'm grateful to be her mommy!

November 2007 - she looks so little here!

August 2009 - Concentrating on her work at school

First day of school

The kids all had a great first day of school yesterday. I can't believe that our summer break is over! And while I miss them, I crave the routine the school year brings.

Jarod started middle school yesterday. I'm still completely in denial that I have a middle schooler! He had a great day...even if I did make him take this bus against his will. He refused to look at the camera for any of the pictures we tried to get of him!

Madison started 5th grade yesterday. She had a great day!

Jason started 3rd grade yesterday. He has the same teacher Jarod had for 3rd grade, whom we just love! He also had a great day.

And my dear Chloe Grace started kindergarten yesterday. It just doesn't seem possible. She has the same teacher Jason had for kindergarten, whom we also adore. As soon as she saw me after school yesterday the first thing she said was, "You forgot my nap mat!" Oops...otherwise she had a good day!

Where has the time gone??

It just doesn't seem possible that it's already the end of June. What happened to May?? And the whole beginning part of June?

Things have been crazy over the last two months. Chloe Grace graduated from preschool in May. She kept calling it her "gradulation". They had little caps & gowns and walked into the auditorium to "Pomp & Circumstance". Her teacher gave all the kids awards for their progress over the year. Chloe Grace didn't start attending until January, so she had only been there a few months. Her awards were "One of the Most Improved Students" and "First Student to Master Tying Shoes". She was so proud - and we are so proud of her! The kiddos had worked on a song they performed. Then they threw their caps in the air and were officially graduated from preschool. There was a lunch & cake afterward. The cake had a picture of the class on it with "Class of 2022" written below the picture. It was cute & tasted yummy!

She had just received her diploma

She really wasn't sure about the whole throw-your-cap-in-the-air thing. But everyone else made it seem like so much fun she just couldn't help herself.

Our preschool graduate :)

Jarod graduated from elementary school at the beginning of June. They didn't have an official ceremony, but the kids wore cardboard caps w/tassels and took a final walk of the building. Then each homeroom teacher presented diplomas in the classroom. After a brunch in the cafeteria, we let Jarod come home from school early - they were only scheduled for a half day anyway. I still haven't managed to download those pictures off my camera. I'll add them soon, I promise!

The day after school was out for the summer, Jarod turned 12. I can't believe it....how did that happen? He had a few friends over, along with some of his grandparents. We cooked out & visited. We filled over 200 water balloons for the kids to throw at each other. They also chased each other around the yard with silly string. It was a good day.

The kids have been outside a lot this summer, which I love! They've been swimming, riding their bikes, walking the dogs (much to Jarod's dismay), jumping on the trampoline...sleeping in - a plus for everyone involved :)

Riley is growing like a weed. I need to get a new picture of her, she's so much bigger now. She's finally getting the hang of house training...I think. We've had 2 days in a row with no accidents in the house. I hope we're finally getting somewhere!

Monday is the first anniversary of the day Steve and I met Chloe Grace in China. I can't believe it's been a year already. We've all come so far. She continues to just amaze me.

We'll celebrate her 6th birthday in a few weeks. She can't wait & has been talking about it non-stop. This weekend we'll have her family party while we're visiting my parents. Her actual birthday falls during the week that Jarod and Madison will be away at camp, so her party with her friends will be after her birthday.

If the beginning of our summer has been any indication, then it seems the rest of our summer will fly by!

Meet Riley

This is Riley. She's a 6 week old border collie. Jarod will turn 12 in June. For almost a year now he's asked for a dog. So, Riley is Jarod's early birthday present. I sooooo did not need another living thing to take care of! And I'm really not a dog person - I know absolutely nothing about training a puppy. Kittens are easy....litter box, food, water - done! This puppy thing is all new to me. She's incredibly sweet and everything I've read said border collies are extremely intelligent - for all our sakes I hope that's the case!

Goin' Gluten-Free...

...well, at least my Jason is. While we haven't had an official diagnosis of a behavioral disorder, we're seeing some things going on at school that are beginning to affect his grades and need to change. I would love to make that happen by altering his diet. I went to the store today and loaded up on all kinds of gluten-free things for him. I think the key to making this work is going to be planning ahead on my part. If we're having pizza, I need to have a gluten-free crust ready for him so he can have pizza too. We already eat lots of fruits, veggies and lean meats, so as a general rule dinner time will stay pretty much the same. It's breakfast and lunch that I'm more concerned about. He loves to have cereal or waffles for breakfast. I found some gluten-free pancake/waffle mix that I plan to fix and have pancakes waiting in the freezer for him. I also found some frozen gluten-free waffles he can have in a pinch. He usually takes a sandwich in his lunch at school, so I'll have to modify that a little. I found white rice bread that he can take. I also bought some apple cinnamon rice cakes & I plan to pack those in his lunch with peanut butter on them. There were more gluten-free products available at our local store than I expected, so that was a relief. There are lots of things I normally buy anyway that he can still have, thankfully. I've spent hours over the last few days scouring websites looking for information about switching to a gluten-free diet. Some parents notice a change in behavior right away, others really don't notice a difference at all. Please pray that Jason will accept this new way of life well and that it will help him at school. He has trouble staying on task, he doesn't pay attention to details and he's a distraction to others in his class. I've put it off in the past by saying oh, he's just an active, ants-in-his-pants little boy. But now I'm becoming concerned that it could be more than that. I love that little boy more than words can say! A change in his diet requires a little more planning on my part, but if it helps, it is such a small price to pay!!

She takes my breath away...

It's hard to believe we've been home from China over nine months now. I know I've said this before, but in many ways it seems like Chloe Grace has always been here. She continues to amaze me.

This morning I put her Easter dress on her & took her picture in the bluebonnets. They turned out great! It is an overcast morning, which was perfect! On Thursday she had her first Easter egg hunt at preschool. She just couldn't get enough! When she got home that afternoon she and I took turns hiding her plastic eggs for each other to find. This evening we'll dye eggs...I think she'll love it!

These past nine months have been among the best of my life. I've learned so much and we've all come so far. It's just the beginning of our journey with our sweet girl!

I think she's got it!

Chloe Grace and her baby, Lucy Two

My muddy babies, Jason and Chloe Grace

Out to dinner with my family over Spring Break. My mom hates lemons, but she just couldn't say no when the grandbabies asked her to join their fun ;)

This time of year is always crazy busy. Our rule with the kids for now is they are only allowed to do 1 activity at a time. Jarod has played soccer since he was 5 & loves it. Madison has tried several things. She's taken gymnastics, horseback riding, soccer & t-ball. Now she's taking piano lessons. Jason has also tried several things. He's played soccer, t-ball and tennis. Now he's taking a karate class. Chloe Grace wants to play soccer, so we'll sign her up for that when school starts in the fall.

Since we've been home from China with Chloe Grace, I've wondered if she really understood that this was the last stop in the road - that we are her family forever. I tell her all the time that I love her always and that I'm her mommy always, but I didn't know if she really got it. At bedtime, I spend a few minutes in bed with Chloe Grace snuggling and talking to her. Lately she talks a lot about when we first met her at the hotel in Chongqing. She also talks a lot about her foster mom, Mama Wang. So last night we're talking before she goes to sleep and she says "I missed you when I was at Mama Wang's house." I told her I missed her too and we got there to see her just as fast as we could. Then she says "I'm not going back there anymore." So I ask back where? She said "Back to Mama Wang's house. I'm not going there anymore. I'm here now." I hugged her really big and told her she wasn't going anywhere! I think she gets it after all!

Finally, some bedtime successes! And an amazing girl turns 10!

I think we've turned the corner with Chloe Grace at bedtime. I still go in to her bed to read her a bedtime story. Then, I stay and snuggle her for about 5 minutes. Before I leave her to go to sleep I tell her I'll be back to check on her in a little while. Most of the time she stays in bed and goes to sleep. Occasionally we'll have a night where she's up a few time before she can settle in, but over all I think we've made HUGE strides at bedtime. She rarely gets up in the middle of the night anymore. If she does, I take her to the bathroom and then put her back to bed. She stays and goes right back to sleep.

We had her 6 month follow up at the cardiologist Friday morning. The doctor was very pleased and said she'd see us back in 6 months to wear a halter monitor for 24 hours to further evaluate Chloe Grace's heart function. If all goes well then, she expects we'll go to annual checkups.

Madison turned 10 on Monday. I can hardly believe it. She's become such an amazing young lady. She got some money for her birthday that she wanted to spend, so she and I spent the day shopping yesterday - just the two of us. We had so much fun together. We shopped, we ate breakfast, shopped a little more, ate lunch and we shopped some more!

I don't know where the time has gone. Chloe Grace has been with us for 8 months - I can't believe it! Jarod will start middle school next year - not possible! I'll have everyone at school again in the fall. Before we came home from China, I'd had 2 years of the kids all in school full time. It was harder than I expected to get used to having a little one at home again. But we've really settled in and I so enjoy Chloe Grace. I'll be sad for them all to go off to school each morning when August rolls around. Maybe we'll have to start paper chasing again :)

I'll leave you with a picture of the girls from Madison's birthday party. We had a girls only slumber party at the Comfort Inn. One of Madison's dear friends is very allergic to cats & just wasn't able to spend the night at our house. So her mom and I got together and decided to take the girls and spend the night at the hotel doing makeovers. We curled their hair, painted their toe nails, did their make up and finger nails. I brought Madison's karaoke machine and the girls belted it out to the Cheetah Girls, Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers. They had so much fun!

Madison & Chloe Grace - M had just opened her gift from CG.

Huntington Beach, California

Disneyland Pictures

Slideshow help required....

Well, I've sat here almost all day (at the expense of my laundry and other chores) trying to figure out how to post a slideshow using the pictures from our trip. I've got them saved on my computer. I chose the "Create Movie" option in Picasa & I can view the slideshow I put together, but I can't figure out how to post it to my blog....Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Until I can get the slideshow figured out, I'll post just a couple. We had an amazing time!

Saturday, our first day at the park.

Sunday afternoon, at Huntington Beach.

An Amazing Time So Far!

We arrived in Los Angeles Friday evening. We spent all day Saturday at Disneyland. Sunday night after church we spent several hours at the park. The lines were almost non-existant. We walked on to quite a few rides with no wait at all. Today we were there again, bright and early. Madison and I were in line to ride Space Mountain when we spotted a family from our neighborhood in line in front of us. We ended up riding in the same car as them! It was so fun to run into them! We've taken a ton of pictures, but I'm too tired to post them tonight. I'll add pictures tomorrow or Wednesday. We're having a wonderful trip so far!! I'll leave you with a cute quote of the day, by Jason as we were riding Pirates of the Caribbean....."That sure is a lot of booty!"

Kittens, kittens, and more kittens!

Rosie - 10 weeks old

Madison and her baby

Chip and Lucy 2

Some of you that have followed our blog for a while may remember back in October we lost our kitten, Lucy. The sweet lady we got her from offered to get her momma and daddy back together if we decided we wanted another kitten. After a bit, we decided we did want another kitten. Actually, I came up with the hair-brained idea that if there were enough kittens in this litter, I wanted to let all the kids pick one. The babies were due around Christmas time...what could be better than Christmas kittens??


Momma cat had the babies on December 28th. They were precious! There were only 2, so the boys decided to share the girl, which they named Lucy 2, in honor of our first Lucy. The girls decided to share the boy and named him Chip.


Chip struggled from the very beginning. I wasn't even sure he was alive at first. The momma cat's owner, V., has become a sweet friend of mine. She let us bring momma to our house before the kittens were born so we could be with them from the very beginning. Anyway, like I said, Chip took a little longer to perk up after birth than Lucy did. Momma cat didn't really start licking him so I picked him up and wiped him off with a towel. He stared meowing and I put him back in front of momma and she did start to lick him and clean him up then. The babies were born a little after midnight. I finally went to bed around 4. Every so often I heard the babies meowing really loud. I would go in and momma had moved Lucy and left Chip behind. Not a good sign.


We kept momma and the babies at our house for 4 days. On the evening of day 3 I noticed Chip was pretty lethargic. V.'s husband came over and looked at him. We decided at that point to start dropper feeding him. He was a very lazy nurser and just wasn't getting enough to eat. Lucy was growing and Chip wasn't. So, every hour that night and the next day I dropper fed Chip. In the mean time, momma cat quit eating. Finally I called V. and talked to her about momma not eating. We agreed that she probably needed to go home. V.'s husband came over and took momma cat and the babies to their house. Then V. started bottle feeding Chip every hour.


This went on for a week and a half. I went over to visit the babies a couple times. Chip never did gain any weight. The last time they weighed the babies, Chip was still holding at 2 ounces, while Lucy was thriving at over 6 ounces. We knew this wasn't good.


Thursday evening V. called and said Chip was starting to go downhill. They weren't sure he would make it through the night. Madison was devastated. She just cried and cried. She gets so attached to our pets and takes it so much harder than the other kids when we lose one. Steve and I got 2 kittens just after we were married. We lost Sasi, our Siamese in December 2007 to kidney failure. She was 14 years old. It was so hard...she was my baby before I had my babies! Madison took it much harder than the boys did. We finally decided to get another kitten last fall & found our first Lucy. We only had her a few weeks before we lost her. Chloe Grace still thinks Lucy 1 lives at the vet's office :) Before Christmas the old cat we still have, Meca, was diagnosed with cancer. The vet removed the tumor - it was on her chin. The lab reports indicated that the entire tumor was removed, but I found another spot in her ear that looks like the first tumor did when it started. She's 15 years old, I'm not about to put her through radiation or chemo. Madison is really attached to her and was pretty upset with the cancer diagnosis. For now Meca seems to be doing ok. She's eating well, breathing well, doesn't seem to be in any discomfort. Then, we lost Chip last Friday. I just didn't know how much more disappointment one child could handle!


So, before Madison got home from school on Friday and learned about Chip's passing, I scoured ads on line and found Rosie. She is Madison's early birthday present from Steve and I. Rosie is a Snowshoe Siamese and is just as sweet as can be! She loves to play, but also loves to be held and cuddled. She is snuggling in my lap, sleeping as I type this! I think Rosie has helped start to mend Madison's heart a bit.


Lucy 2 will come home in a little over a month. She's almost 3 weeks old now. I took the kids over to V.'s house to visit her on Tuesday. Lucy has opened her eyes and is starting to walk around and play. She's getting so big! It was good for the kids to see her and to know that she's doing well. V.'s kids love her too, and are playing with her lots while she's at their house.


Hopefully our pet drama is over for a while. Jarod wants a puppy for his birthday....we'll see. There's just no part of me that wants to house train a puppy! I've always been a cat person. I tried to talk him into a kitten instead, but so far he's not wavering!

First day of preschool

Chloe Grace started preschool last Thursday. She absolutely loves it! We went to visit the class after Thanksgiving, mostly so I could get a feel for how she may do there. She loved it even then and wanted to stay for the day.

Her first day was great! She loved getting to choose the food I packed in her lunch. I wasn't sure how she'd do during rest time. She's not been a napper since she's been with us, so I was afraid it would upset her to be made to lay down after lunch. The evening before her first day we were talking about the schedule at preschool and what she should expect. She said, "I want you to pack me the phone." I asked her to repeat it because I just knew I had to have misunderstood. Nope, she wanted to take the phone to school. When I asked why she said, "Because I want to call you at school." I told her she couldn't call me from school, but she could put a picture of me in her pocket so that if she needed to hug me, she could hug my picture. The next morning I told her teacher, Mrs. Linda, about our conversation. She quickly laminated the little picture for Chloe Grace so nothing would happen to it. When I picked CG up after school, she said she kissed my picture at rest time. So sweet!