Moving the Blog

Hi guys! In my last post I said I was going to change this to a homeschooling blog. However, I decided to just start an entirely new one to dedicate to everything homeschooling. So, if you care to take a look... homeschoolingmymiracles.blogspot.com

Who knows, maybe one day we will adopt again and I will use this blog for that purpose...

Homeschooling

As many of you know we are a homeschooling family, and love it! It is the best decision we ever made with regards to the well-being of our children. The kids are thriving and learning so much. I can't believe I get to spend my days teaching and spending time with my children. If you have ever even thought about homeschooling I would say take the leap of faith and start doing it. Then, pray, pray and pray some more that God will help you--and He will.

With all that said, I am going to be changing the blog a little and trying to use it to chronicle the life of a homeschooling family! I hope to post a little about our curriculum choices--which are varied and change often--depending on the kids' needs. I also hope to post some pics of the kids doing some of the fun things we do, as well as some reviews of products we are going to be using. I am doing this partly so I will have a "scrapbook" of sorts for the kids and myself to look back on in years to come and fondly remember all the moments we spent together. Also, I enjoy following blogs and getting ideas from them, so I am hoping I can inspire others like I have been inspired by so many out there in the blog-world. So, here is my attempt at posting our lives.

Where have we been

I have had several requests lately to post some new pics. I have no idea why--it's only been a year since I last posted :-)

Just a quick update--we are all doing great. Molly has had 3 surgeries in the last year, and she is DONE with surgeries for a long while. The boys are growing up so fast. Molly is 2, and all of it! She is such a mess, we call her "Molly-Mess" and Steve tells her often "no messes" because that is all she does! She is really a sweet child, and we are so blessed to have her in our life! Paul will be 8 next week--where have the last 8 years gone. I keep thinking that in 8 more years he will be of driving age--that's a crazy thought! We are homeschooling him still, he is technically in the 2nd grade, but is doing mostly 3rd grade work. He is such a smart young man, and he truly is becoming a young man! Zach is 4 and is still my sweet, cuddly, lovable, CRAZY Zachary. He is such a sweet boy but sometimes the sweetness gets trapped inside and he can't get it out! He is going to preschool 1/2 days this year and LOVES it. He has the same teacher Paul had for preschool, and I love her. Zach is learning so much and continually amazes me. He has struggled with so many things in his short life, and is finally overcoming so many of these challenges! He has made such great strides in the last couple of months. I am so pleased with how much he has grown and what a great little boy he is becoming. Overall the three get along really well. Paul gets a little irritated with his younger siblings sometimes, but he really loves them and wouldn't have life any other way. Molly and Zach love their oldest brother and think he hung the moon (most of the time) They also truly love each other and love to play (and make messes) together. God has truly blessed us with 3 great kids! I am often tired in the middle of this "child-raising" era but I thank God on a daily basis for giving us such a wonderful family to raise! The pics are from a recent trip to Destin with some great friends, and one of Paul, with his cousin Samantha, building Legos--his FAVORITE thing to do. Check out the pic of Molly and Jenda (our friends little girl adopted from Guatamala) they were our "International SwimSuit Models"

God is so GOOD!!!

I apologize that it has been so long since I last updated. Between homeschooling, church, laundry, doctor's appointments, and plain out life with three little ones there is little time left for blogging. We have been home almost 7 months now, and things are starting to fall into a routine, and hopefully I can find some time to keep up with the blog. As a quick update things are going wonderfully. We could not have asked for a better transition for Molly. She is such a blessing to have in our life! Paul thinks she is the greatest thing in the world. Zach is not so sure. He still really enjoys being the baby, and is not certain about being kicked out of that position. His behavior regressed a little right after we got home, but for the most part he has gotten back to his pre-Molly self and is adjusting to life as a middle child. Fortunately, for him, Mommy is a middle child so I can sympathize with his plight!

Now a more specific update on Molly, and her hand. First, a short recap -- One year ago next month we were given Molly's file to review. We prayed about it talked to our pediatrician and one week later we knew that this was to be our daughter. After we accepted the referral we waited for China to tell us we could come get her. In our research as we waited we knew that we might get to China and find a baby that was sicker then the paperwork said. There were many syndromes associated with radial club hand (what we now know is the term commonly used for Molly's condition) Fast forward 4 months. We met Molly, a very healthy and happy 11 month old for the first time in March of this year. We were and are continually amazed by her. Fast forward again to June. We went to a hand surgeon to get an opinion on Molly's hand, and what type of corrective surgery we should pursue. We discussed our options as far as that was concerned but he also told us that we would need to see a geneticist to make sure Molly did not have any syndromes commonly associated with radial club hand. I had researched some of the syndromes and felt pretty comfortable that she was not in danger of having many of the more complex syndromes. She is a healthy child, and most of the problems would have shown up by now. Fast forward again to today--finally our appointment with the geneticist (by the way this is apparently the field to get in to, because they are drastically short of genetics docs and we had to wait 4 months to get an appointment). The geneticist did a physical exam of Molly and gave us a list of things that our pediatrician will need to get done. We talked with the geneticist for quite some time. She looked Molly over pretty good. She told us that in her 25 years of experience she has only seen 1 or 2 patients with radial club hand that don't have much more severe things to worry about that would have been very evident by now. We left there feeling so blessed that Molly is so healthy. We took a leap of faith in knowing that she was our daughter, and God protected her! Yes, we do have to have a few things tested to make sure there aren't any underlying issues, but overall she is healthy. We jumped in to this adoption knowing that God would give us the child that we were supposed to have (He did with Paul and Zach and we knew He would take care of us on this adoption as well). We had no idea when we accepted Molly's referral that there could be a plethora of other problems very commonly associated with her wrist and hand abnormalities. We are so blessed to have a healthy baby girl! For that matter, we are so blessed to have three wonderful, amazing, healthy children! God is so GOOD!!!

We do need to have one test completed before Molly can have surgery, so please pray that we can get that test done quickly, her surgery is currently scheduled for November 7.

I will try and post some updated pics in the next couple of days.

Michelle

Update!

Sorry it has been so long since I posted. We are adjusting well to being a family of five. Molly loves the boys and they love her. We are enjoying a lot of time at home as a family. Steve has been able to work from home a good bit which has been a real blessing. He does have to work, but it's nice to have him around for lunch and if I need to run an errand while the little guys are asleep! Molly has seen our pediatrician and he says she looks very healthy. She goes back in May to run a few tests to make sure all her vitamin levels and such are ok, it is very common to do this with a child adopted internationally. They will also want to check her lead level as well as check her immunizations. She sees the orthopedic doctor next week and we are also scheduled to go to the Shriner's Hospital in July. We will see what each doctor says and go from their with a course of action for her wrist/arm.

On another note... When we were in Nanjing meeting our adorable, precious baby girl for the first time there was another family with us that was there to adopt a four year old. After meeting the child they chose not to continue with the adoption. My heart went out to this little girl who had no doubt been told that she was going to have a family, and had made the long 4 hour trip from her orphanage that morning, just to find out she was not getting a family. She was labeled "intellectually delayed" in her paperwork that the family had seen prior to accepting the referral months before. When the "Mom" met her she felt she was more intellectually delayed then the paperwork had lead her to believe and she did not feel comfortable with parenting her. I struggled with this and if Steve had given me the go ahead I would have tried to bring this sweet girl into our family. However, Steve keeps me sane and reminded me that we just couldn't do it right now. Anyway, when we returned home I checked with our agency about this sweet little girl. I wanted to try and do something for her. Our agency is diligently working to get her put back on their "special needs" list so she can be adopted again. This is very difficult to do; once a child is "rejected" it is rare that the orphanage will take the time to place her for adoption again, because they feel it would be a waste of time. However, if anyone can make it happen it is the director at our agency, she is wonderful and really cares for these kids! In the meantime this little one is still in an orphanage. When speaking with our agency I asked if we could possibly help with this child's education, so she might have a chance in life. China's standards are very high when it comes to education, and if a child is the least bit slow they are typically cast out and not educated and even more so if the child is in an orphanage. She would probably not get much education, unless we send money earmarked for her education. So, that is what we are trying to do. I am setting up a "chip-in" account for anyone that wants to donate. There is no way I can set up a fund that makes the donations tax-deductible. If you would like to make a large donation that you would like to be tax-deductible please contact me and I can give you our agencies information and they might be able to do this for you. I have not inquired about the tax deductible status of this type of donation. You will find the Chip-In box on the left hand side of the blog. Just click on it and you can make a payment through paypal. Thank you for any help you may be able to give.

There's no place like Home!

Well, three flights and 30 hours later we arrived home minus two suitcases. One suitcase had all dirty clothes in it, so we aren't that worried about it, but the other one contained just about all of our souvenirs! It has been over 24 hours now and they still haven't found them, so we are praying for a miracle.

Molly and the boys made the trip just fine and we even got several hours of sleep while on the 14 hour flight from Hong Kong to Chicago. We were greeted by a huge group of our family when we finally arrived in Atlanta and it sure picked up our spirits after the long journey.

We didn't post sooner because we basically spent Thursday trying to sleep and eat in some sort of order that would help us to adjust back to Georgia time. Molly did not sleep much Wednesday night, but she got some good sleep in the afternoon and appears to be pretty tired tonight. We hope that she (and Michelle) will get several hours of solid sleep. Molly is still very attached to Mommy and when she is awake she doesn't like her to be out of sight. She will relax and play with Daddy some, but it takes a few minutes for her to calm down and Mommy cannot be anywhere nearby. This will all get better in time and Daddy is just going to have to be patient! We were very scared about how she would react to the car seat since this was entirely new to her and because it meant she would not be in Mommy's lap. The ride home from the airport was awful and Michelle had to ride in the floorboard in front of her seat and basically climb into the car seat with Molly. But, when Michelle drove to the Doctor's office with Molly this morning, she only cried for a few minutes and then calmed down and relaxed. On the way back home Michelle says that she didn't cry at all. Speaking of the Doctor, Molly had her first visit today and Dr. K. says that she looks very healthy. He gave her some medicine for her cough, but said that it wasn't any thing more than a cold. We are so glad to finally have Molly home. We have been talking about "getting Molly" for years now and it is amazing to have her here and sleeping in her crib. We may have lost a few suitcases, but God delivered us safely home with the best souvenir of all.

Steve

Molly video

Hopefully you can see the video below:

More pictures

Orphanage pictures

I forgot to include what Michelle had said in the post that failed. On Thursday we were able to visit the orphanage where Molly had lived. This is the Jiangyin Childrens Welfare Institution. This facility is only a few years old and the place is very nice and clean. We got to see the different places where Molly slept and played. We also got to see the other babies and the children who have special needs that prevent them from going to normal schools. The rest of the childred were at their schools as it was a normal Thursday morning for them. To our suprise the Director asked us to lunch and we gladly accepted. The restaurant that we went to was very nice and the food was excellent! We were pretty weary of trying new things, but the director ordered several things that he knew would fit our tastes and he was right. The kids even got to eat a fried chicken dish that tasted much like chicken nuggets. After eating we took a quick tour of the city and were able to see the intersection where Molly was originally found. It is humbling to know that she was left on a street corner at four days old and that God has allowed her to be taken care of so well. It truly is miraculous to have her healthy and happy and in our arms! Oh how we are blessed!

Steve

Guangzhou

It has been a while since our last post. Actually Michelle did type a post out, but it never made it to the blog. We are in Guongzhou now which is the last leg of our journey. We arrived here from Nanjing late on Friday night and got into bed around midnight that night. This morning we had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel with bacon cooked almost all the way, and French toast, and waffles! After the five days in Nanjing, this was heaven. After eating, we took Molly to get some pictures made for her visa and then she went through the visa medical exam as well. Everything checked out fine and we are very glad to get that over with. We then got to play down at the beautiful pool here at the White Swan hotel. It is almost 80 here, but the pool was very cold. I didn't know if we would get in or not, but of course Paul jumped right in without a second thought. I had to slowly get in to play with him, and Zachary got in on the steps up to his waist. Amber got in almost up to her knees! Chelle and Molly only dipped their feet in. The kids took late afternoon naps while Chelle and I took care of the final round of paperwork and then we went to Lucy's for an early dinner. Lucy's offers American staples like cheesburgers and chicken fingers with french fries! We all pigged out. We then went shopping at some of the local markets and Chelle had fun "dealing" with the shop owners for the best price. In China, everything is negotiable! Everyone is asleep now, and we are not sure about our plans for tomorrow. We will have to see what happens when we wake up. I am going to post some pictures to go along with this update.

Good night,

Steve

Nanjing pictures 2

Nanjing pictures

Life in Nanjing

Well, there is not a lot new to say, but we are hearing that everyone wants more pictures. I am going to post several here of Molly, and all of us. I have a few good ones of "the kids". I can't say "the boys" anymore! A few here were taken when we visited a nearby city park. There were some rides and a big inflatable ball that Paul was able to "walk on water" in. We are trying hard to have fun while waiting on paperwork to be processed.

At 0800 on Thursday morning we are going to head to the orphanage in Jiangyin which is about 2 hours from here by car. We will be gone most of the day and will try to post some pictures of the orphanage that evening. We were able to eat at Pizza Hut today and it was awesome! It was also a very fancy Pizza Hut with marble floors and an upscale setting.

Molly is doing so well, we know that all of the prayers have certainly been heard as God has made this a very easy transition for her. The only time she cries is when she is hungry or tired. She wants to eat all the time and can eat just about anything we have tried. She took a 4 hour nap yesterday and then slept through the night again! She has already become very attached to Mommy and always fusses when someone else has to hold her. She quickly calms down, but she definately prefers her Mommy to anyone else already. This is great progress and exciting for Michelle of course! She smiles easily, tickles and laughes easily, and knows how to play peek-a-boo! She is a very fun baby. Anyway, enough talk, here are some pictures.

Steve

A family of FIVE!

The day we have prayed for and dreamed of for so long has finally come! About 10:00 this morning we went to the Civil Affairs Office and waited for the orphanage to bring Molly. Several other families were there as well. About 10:20 the director of the orphanage walked in with her. Steve saw her first and squeezed my arm. I turned and saw her, and I was overcome with joy! She was dressed so cutely in a pink snow suit type outfit, with three layers of clothing underneath. She came right to us. She loved the boys and smiled several times right there in the office. Other babies came in and were screaming, but Molly was happy the whole time. Paul is currently singing and dancing for her, and she is laughing at him. She is wonderful and we are so totally in love. She is very active, and alot like Zachary at that age, which is actually a little scary! If you know our Zach you know what I mean! Paul is totally enamored with her. Zach is not so sure about this baby that is taking Mommy's time! Amber took pictures for us, but her camera's card does not work in the laptop that we have! So, we captured one picture from the video that we took, so that is the only picture we can post right now! We will take some more pics with our camera later and post them. Hope the one picture will hold you guys over!

Sightseeing for the Day

Yesterday, Saturday, was quite a day. We woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel. There were many things we didn't even want to try, but also many western-style foods. Amber was excited to find the fried potatos, and Steve and I were happy to get some eggs scrambled to your liking. We had them add a little cheese, and they were perfect! They also had toast and bacon and the boys both filled up on that. After breakfast we met up with the group at 8 am, and for us to be up, ready, and fed by 8 am is quite the feat for our family. We headed off for Tianneman Square and the Forbidden City. It was quite beautiful, and very large! On the walk there we were bombarded by people trying to sell us things, and not wanting to take no for an answer. We did let Paul buy a paper Chinese flag, for 1 rmb, which is about .15 cents USD. The boys were again very well behaved, though they got a little bored walking through the Forbidden City. The most exciting part for them was all the Chinese people wanting to take pictures with them. Paul, Zach, and Amber, all had their picture taken more then once with Chinese people. A couple of people would ask, others just took the pictures. We told Amber they thought she must have been an American celebrity, maybe one of the Olsen twins! She didn't agree! A couple of people would touch Paul's red hair, which he thought was strange, and didn't stray too far from us for a while after that happened. We also had our first experience with "squattie potties", something I would have gladly lived without. They were nice bathrooms, but no one waited in line, you just jumped in a bathroom whenever you could, there were no locks on the doors, so anyone could open to see if it was empty, there was basically a toilet type thing on the ground and no paper. There was also no soap at the sinks. It was quite an experience!After that we went to a Jade Factory, Paul thought it was interesting to watch them cut the Jade. The jade was I guess great prices, but I am not an expert! We bought a small jade pig for Molly, since she was born in the Year of the Pig. We were going to buy a pig pendant, but those were a little pricier then we wanted to pay. We were also able to get a snowglobe of the Great Wall for Morgan! We ate lunch at the factory, it was again a family-style meal. The food was actually pretty good and they even had french fries, the boys were so excited. They have been so good about trying the different foods. I can't even tell you what we have eaten! I know I had something that tasted like chicken and it was really good. There was another food that I think was chicken as well, and it was excellent with the rice! Steve has been the most adventurous of us all and tried just about everything.

After lunch we finally made it to the Great Wall. Paul was so excited! He has really been looking forward to this! We didn't realize how many steps we were going to have to climb. Zach was so tired, and wouldn't have been able to make it up many of the steps. The steps ranged it height from about 2 inches, to well over 20 inches. So, it was rough going. Steve carried Zach much of the way. Paul loved climbing up. Amber made it much quicker then the rest of us! We got to one tower and Steve, Zach, and I stopped while Paul and Amber continued on. Zach was very tired so we have pictures of him almost asleep on the Great Wall sitting in my lap, eating a banana someone had given him. Going down the wall was quite challenging as well, but we had a good time! On the way back to the hotel we drove through the area where the Olympics will be held. It was neat to see all the architecture. We got back to the hotel and had another family style dinner, this time there was not much of anything that I was willing to try. The boys ate a few bites when I fed them with chopsticks. Steve and Amber tried a few things. We are all so tired that we don't really feel much like eating! We all slept fairly well last night. The boys woke around 4:00 am and were hungry, so they had pop-tarts and went back to sleep until about 6:30.

Today we will head to Nanjing where Molly is. The plane leaves at 12:00 noon and it's about a two hour flight. We don't have anything planned for the evening. Hopefully relax. There is a possibility that they will bring Molly to the hotel this evening, but more likely we will meet her at the Civil Affairs Office in the morning.

We Made It!!

After a very LONG plane ride we made it! We can't believe we are actually in China. It has been a dream for son long, and we are finally here!!!! God is so good! We left home about 6:45 Thursday morning. After checking our bags and trying to get all of us through security we boarded the plane for Chicago with no major catastrophes, except for spilling a full Chai Latte--I was heartbroken! Anyway, the flight to Chicago was uneventful. We got to Chicago about 1 hour before our plane took off for Beijing. The gate for the plane to Beijing was PACKED. We somehow met up with three other adoptive families, 2 of which are with our agency, and we will be travelling with. We are the only once who brought our children along. After a couple of long lines for Visa stamps we made it to the plane. The flight was totally uneventful, and the boys were WONDERFUL. Zach slept for the first hour or so, and then we played cars, colored, walked around, and sat and talked. They played 4 movies and several hours of tv on the overhead tv screen. Paul watched part of one of the movies, but for the most part he played GameBoy, talked with us, colored, read, and played with cars. We had an interesting snack of Chinese noodles at one point. Zach loved them, Steve and I tolerated them, and Paul wouldn't try them. The other two meals were typical airplane food. We did get both boys to sleep aroud 9 est and they slept until about 1:30 est. We landed in Beijing on time at about 3 pm local time on Friday afternoon, which was 3 am est, Friday morning. We were worn slap out, but made it through customs and got all of our luggage with out ane problems. We met up with our guide and the rest of our travel group without trouble, and made the one hour bus ride to the hotel. The hotel is very nice, and the beds, though not huge, are larger then I expected. They are hard as rocks, but we were so tired it didn't really matter. After getting our room keys we went to dinner at the hotel. It was good, but Steve was the only one who ventured out. It was several different foods served family style. Zach, Paul, and I stuck with the lemon chicken and the rice. I am not sure what all Steve ate, but he said it was good. Amber picked a little here and there, but said she was too tired to eat. We walked around the hotel a bit and there was a seal in one of the aquariums that the boys really enjoyed. They also enjoyed all the other types of fish in the various aquariums. We finally crashed about 9:30pm local time, 9:30 am est. The boys were tired so they went to sleep no problem. They did wake up about 2 am, and they were HUNGRY. I gave them some dry cheerios and they ate them up and went back to sleep in about 1 hour. We all woke up between 5:30 and 6:00 this morning. Steve and Paul are now out exploring and getting Amber and I some Starbucks! We will them head to breakfast at the hotel buffet and then off to do some sightseeing. Because our flight to Molly's province leaves early Sunday morning we will not be able to do any sightseeing Sunday, so we are going to see The Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Tianneman Square today. It should be a pretty long day, but we are excited about seeing soe of the culture. I will try to post tonight or in the morning about our adventures in sightseeing, but we are having a difficult time with connectivity. We thought we would hae WIFI, but we don't and the connection we do have is a bit iffy. We also don't have any phones that work. We are remedying that this afternoon when PandaPhone delivers a couple of new phones, since the SIM cards we ordered don't work in our phones. So, hopefully we will be able to call a couple of people this evening. So, I have probably written way more detail then many of you care to know, but I wanted to get it all written down. Have a great evening their in the states.

Leaving for China!!!

We are leaving for China in less than 24 hours! We are all packed and ready to go! I wanted to say Thank You to everyone who has kept us in their prayers. God is so amazing! He has shown us His hand every step of the way in this amazing process. We are so blessed by His power! We will be attempting to keep the blog updated during our stay in China, so check back in to see what's going on! I will try to post our itinerary a little later today. Please continue to pray for our trip, pray that the plane ride won't be as bad as everyone is saying, and that the boys will sleep a good part of it. Pray that Molly blends in with our family seemlessly, and even though she is going through quite a traumatic experience in her young life, pray that she adjusts well to having a family that loves and adores her! We have to remember that although we have been looking forward to meeting her for months now, she does not know us from Adam! Pray that everything goes smoothly in all aspects!

New pics of our BABY GIRL!

Someone I met on a Yahoo Group of Molly's orphanage took these pictures last week when she went to pick up her child. It was such a blessing to us for her to take these pictures and send them to us. She said Molly is being well taken care of and loved. It is good to know that she is doing well. I just want to go get her NOW!

Travel Approval

We recieved our travel approval from China yesterday. This means that our agency can make all the final arrangements. First they must schedule our Consulate Appointment, which they are scheduling for March 31. We will be leaving on March 20 and returning on April 2. We will most likely meet Molly on March 23rd, Easter Sunday. We are so excited to finally have a definite date that we will meet our baby girl. We can't believe that we are going to be a family of 5!!!!

New Measurements!

Our agency emailed us yesterday with updated measurements for Molly. She currently weighs 18 lbs and is 27 inches tall. Keep in mind that the 18 pounds is with 4-5 layers of clothing on and probably a heavy coat. So, I am assuming she is between 16-17 pounds. She is a healthy size! We were predicting she would be in 6-9 month clothes when we get her, and it looks like we are about right. I also emailed with a online friend who was picking up her son from Molly's orphanage. She was able to meet Molly and says she is absolutely beautiful and a very happy baby. She took a couple of pictures but is having a hard time getting them off of her camera and onto the computer. So, we are hopeful that she will have success with that soon, and can send us a couple of updated pics of our baby girl! Our agency also requested pictures, so hopefully that will come through as well. Either way we will be meeting our little girl soon! Hopefully we will be leaving 3 weeks from today! I have so much to do, and I can't think straight to get it all done!