As if our life is not CRAZY enough!

We feel the Lord leading us to go back to China to adopt! Its not at all what I expected...or anticipated! I completely believed we were done adopting from China, but apparently we are not.

Sunday night as I was rocking Megan to sleep, I began praying for our "missing" daughter. I was reminded of all the reasons DH has said we need to wait (M's sleeping problems is the biggest one! But him feeling too old to do this again being another). Then I know it was the Lord that asked why not an older child from China? I have always said if we went back to China it would be for an older child (10-13 yrs old). In China, once an orphan turns 14, they become ineligible to be adopted into a family. This option "overcame" all of DH's concerns as she'd be older so we would not likely have the sleep problems...although we'd have a whole host of other potential problems (like her extremely limited English and our almost non-existent Chinese skills)...and it addresses his concern of having a younger child in his "old age". I knew EXACTLY the agency we wanted to use and emailed them that night. I did more research on their website and saw some of their waiting children. There are 5 little girls on there...but one of them COMPLETELY caught my eye...not only is she beautiful, but she's 12 and needs to be adopted before Sept 2011 (A little faster than DH was thinking!!!). One of my "musts" was that she has to love younger children...knowing how needy my Megan is with older girls!!! Well, there was very little information on the "description", but it did say something along the lines of loves to play with younger children. We both feel this is our daughter. We've contacted the agency saying we want to adopt this little girl and have begun the paperwork to bring her home. She will be home in about a year. My hope is that we will travel in April...then all my children will have joined our family in April!

I ask that you begin praying for our new daughter (who we are calling Sister at this point, because we want her to have a say in what her forever name will be). I also ask that you pray for God to open the storehouses and bring the funding to bring her home. If you remember, God brought incredible miracles when we began the journey to bring Megan home. He brought us $22,000 in a span of about 6 weeks. While I certainly don't expect to have the funding in 6 weeks, I do believe that God can bring the money we need to bring this precious little girl home, too.

Megan has been asking for a sister for several months. I asked her Monday if she wanted a big sister or a little sister and she said "big sister". Of course, since then she's saying "little sister"! So, I asked her if she wanted 2 sisters and her response? "No, just 1." (and she will frequently remind us she "just wants one")! This kid cracks me up!

Pics

A few of my favorites from the past week or so..

Such a little lady...and big girl. Her new favorite way to sit (modeled after mommy, of course!) And notice the flip-fl0p tan lines on her feet! She's SO TAN already!

My little fashion-esta! She is completely in love with these boots lately! We've worn them to the post office (but didn't get out of the car) and the mailbox a couple of times. I don't know how she can stand it! It's been SOOOO HOT down here!

Kota's turn with the crown...

Irish's turn (it's a "new" one)

In case you think only the dogs wear it...here's Megan's way of wearing her crown!

And now it's June

Oh man, I can't believe it's June and I have not even posted one time yet this month! And it's half over. That's bad, especially considering that I am using this as her "baby book" to keep track of things she's doing. I've been so busy working on my dissertation, I have time for little else. My goal is to have stage 1 done by July 1st; propose by the end of July; then I need to have everything written by October 1st in order to graduate in December. As you can see, this is major undertaking and to complete it in 3.5 months...well, may be just crazy. I honestly don't know. I just know I can and I must be done with everything by December. If I don't officially get to graduate until May, that's fine, but I simply CANNOT pay tuition for a semester past fall! I just can't bring myself to do it!!!

So, back to Megan...here's a quick list of some of the cutest things happening right now.

• Sleep is still an issue. Some days are better than others, but overall, its still not good. We've been using melat0nin, which has helped, but the little stinker has figured out to push past the exhaustion it creates (like she always has). And I'll just leave it at that.
  
• She Loves, Loves, Loves Punchinello (a character of Max Lucado's). I found a movie at a garage sale and she repeatedly asks to watch it. It seems to have replaced Elm0 (my heart is not broken). At any rate, she loves to "act out" and "repeat" so many things from the movie.
  
• One of her favorite 'repeats' is: "can I come, too?" I mean for everything! If I'm going in the bedroom, she says "can I come, too?" It's so funny. And the way she says "too"...it's more like "TUuuuu".
• She has gotten into movies. Kind of. I mean she'll watch Punchinello, as well as another of Max Lucado's story lines, Hermie the Caterpillar. In the last week or so, she's started watching Clifford, the big red dog. But, no telling if that will last! She still loves Super Why.
  
• It seems like there's always something I'm laughing about that she says every day! She's so fun.
• She started sitting on the floor and opening a book and "reading". She looks at the book, turns the pages, holds it with the book balancing on her hands, then she puts it away.
• She's still sitting in a booster seat with a belt at home. At some point during the meal, she typically asks to sit next to dad. At which point she repeats the rules "if you stand up, you have to sit in the buckle chair". Of course, all you can really understand because she talks so quickly and softly is "stand" and "buckle chair".
• She likes to tell the dogs to go into the bedroom (they, of course, don't listen) and she likes to put them in the bedroom. So, we have to tell them (and sometimes have to herd them as well) with her closing the door. Sometimes she likes to go in there with them and shut the door despite the fact that we're getting ready to eat and need her out with us.
• She tends to order the dogs around. A lot. She likes to tell them to "Stop barking, Irish. Stop barking, Kota." First she says it loud, then she repeats it softer as she gets close to their face.
• She loves to "walk with them" (aka the dogs). Irish tolerates her standing next to him a lot more than Kota. Kota has figured out that if she just lays down, then Megan will tell us what she wants to do requesting we make Kota stand up. Then we have to explain that Kota doesn't want to walk right now.
  
• She likes to play with the dogs with their toys. Sometimes throwing the toys and trying to get Kota to fetch (which is only does when SHE wants to!).
• She likes to put things on the dogs heads. For example, she's gotten into this princess crown. She loves to wear it on her head and put it on the dogs head. Her favorite is to put it on Kota's head. I took a picture of it on Kota's head. I'll have to upload it. One day. Sigh.
• She loves to spell words. Nothing new there.
• She's sleeping with bring one of her stuffed dogs when we go to the store. She's named two of them "doggie Chris".
• She loves to roll the ball.
• She loves to wear dresses.
• She loves to open the doors...and lock them. If you know where we live, you could easily into our back door (we've hidden a key outside b/c she's always locking us out!).
  

That's about all I can think of right now.