Months of the Year

Megan learned the months of the year at school. She has been singing it for months, but just recently decided it was okay to do it with us (and the camera) looking!

Being real

I'm going to be open and real for this post. Not that I'm not usually, but I am good at only writing/sharing/focusing on certain things. Typically, the good things. I don't often share the struggles/fears/concerns that cross my mind. Now, in general, I don't worry. And for the most part, I'm pretty good about putting my concerns at the feet of Jesus. After all, there is not much I can do about them until I turn them over to him. If he's going to resolve them, he has to have them. At any rate, I realized just moments ago that I needed to share this. All of this.

In the last few weeks, I've been experiencing a lot of anxiety. Anxiety surrounding Rachel. How is bringing a 13-yr old going to change our family? How is Megan going to respond? How is it going to change my marriage? How in the WORLD do you PARENT a teenager? And what about a teenager who's emotional age is probably more like 7 or 8? What is she going to be like? Is she going to click with us? Is she going to hate being in our family? How long will it take her to "be real"? And where is the remaining $8,000 going to come from? How am I going to travel to China by myself? What if I "need a break"? There will be only me. No walking away for a breather when I'm the only parent! Who will I talk to about my struggles or what to do? How will Megan handle me being gone for that long? How will Dad handle being full-time parent for that many days? My head spins with it all. Seriously. That's a lot of heavy stuff. I hadn't really shared any of it with anyone...I've just been letting swirl around in my head occasionally, afraid to say anything. I would be lying if I didn't say that I've even considered backing out of this...the demands on me feel like too much sometimes. But, I know this is God's plan, so I keep trudging forward. And trudging is EXACTLY what it feels like.

One day this week when I should have been doing something else more "productive" while Megan was napping, I was strolling around websites. This site is one I found more recently. In fact, I found it because the moderator contacted me to ask if we'd like to be profiled on the site. Seeing it as an opportunity to possibly sell more t-shirts and hairclips, I said YES! I haven't been on the site for a while, for many reasons. First, its not bookmarked on my laptop and most of my website strolling I do on the laptop while Megan is watching her few shows or she's playing with Dad. Second, I haven't been strolling websites much! It's just been so busy, I have not had the time to do it. At any rate, I read this article written by another adoptive mom. One who didn't plan on adopting at that time, but God had other plans. She spoke RIGHT TO ME. I swear. Was she reading my mind? Oh, no. It was a God thing. Hop over and read it, if you a minute or two. But if not, let me just say it opened my eyes to realize that adopting JiJie Rachel is not one bit about me. Not one bit about how I'm going to do it. Or if I can. Or where the money will come from. Its about the big things God is going to do. It's about the the position I get to play. Do I want to sit on the sidelines and watch? Or do I want to get in the game and play? Personally, I chose to play a position on the team and see what God's going to do.

I realize this is not going to be easy, but then there's little about my life that has been. It's about being willing to join the game. And I'm willing. I'm sure there will be days that the struggles will be significant and I will need to be reminded about the goodness that will come out of this. But I will play the game. I wouldn't miss it for the world! And I wouldn't miss giving Megan the opportunity to have a sister for whatever little (or big) inconveniences that lay ahead.

SNOW!

It seems like the last several years we've gotten snow in February. And if memory serves me right, we got snow on Christmas Eve last year. Anyways...we got a surprise snow storm today!

Bundled up and can't WAIT to go out!

"It's snowing, mom!"

She's SO IN LOVE with the snow.

"Just working" on the snowman...which led to...

Oops...the snowman fell over from all the "work" Megan did. The snowman did not make it longer than 30 minutes...Dad didn't even get to see it!

In the house for hot chocolate (her first time!). After much trepidation, she tried it and low and behold..she liked it...just like I told her she would!

The evidence that we had fun in the snow...

Needless to say, the wet clothes are in the dryer so she can go back out. She didn't want to come in and has been begging for the past hour to go back out!

January?!?! 2011???

Not only is it January already, but we are now SIX days into January? It just doesn't look to slow down anytime soon. I was recounting to my sister today all that is going on..and her head was spinning just from reading it. Yep, that's I feel living it!

Our documents went to China on Dec 17th (yay!). Interestingly enough, we send out documents for Megan on Dec 6th in 2005 and we were officially logged in on Dec 20th, 2005. I believe we should get the approval to go to China in late March/early April. That's just THREE MONTHS AWAY! holy smoly...there's a LOT to do besides raise the last about $8,000.

Well, I have very little time to write anything...but here are some pics for Dec. I can say that I taught a class the last week of December and I swear Megan grew up SO MUCH in that one week! So crazy.

Graduation
It's official!! PhD!

Megan's new "perch" that she calls her "cliff". I think cliff comes from Cliff H@nger, a character/story line on Between the Li0ns, one of her favorite shows.

One of her favorite Christmas gifts: a microphone

Can you tell how much this girl loves shoes? This face says it all!

I wish I had more time to write. It seems like life is moving so quick and I want to document it all, but there is just so little time...and even less energy!

Shutterfly Free 50 Cards

Debbie alerted me to the fact that Shutterfly is rewarding bloggers with 50 free photo cards. While I have never used Shutterfly, my sister-in-law made a beautiful photo book for my brother to take to Kuwait with him earlier this year. We each had pages to complete with our family photos for the book. It was very easy to do, and the results were beautiful! I've received cards from others who used Shutterfly and I'm excited to use them for this year's Christmas card!

Their Christmas cards are awesome! There are so many amazing options!!! I am having a hard time picking the best one, but I do have several favorites. Here are a few that I love:

LINK This one is so cute! And I know the perfect picture of Megan for this one, but we wanted to include picture of Rachel on there as well. And it wouldn't work this year, but it's SO CUTE!

LINK This one is another favorite, but our picture won't work on here...unfortunately!

LINK I also really love this card. I love the colors and the options for so many pictures.

Some other products you can create are personalized thank you notes. They also have personalized calendar you can create to make a great gift for grandparents!!!

Oh man...

It seems like SO LONG ago that I posted something informative about Megan...yet, she seems to have grown up so much lately! A couple of things that come to mind...

• The C@t and the Hat (thanks to the PBS show) is extremely popular around our house. So much so that she is using a broken beaded necklace as a tail. She tucks in the top of her pants and walks around talking about her tail. It is so funny. Oh, and sings the song "here we go-go-go on an adventure". We're ALWAYS going on an adventure (to the store, outside, the park, etc.) And the car is always the thing-a-ma-jigger (the Cat's mode of transportation).
  
• She also loves Super Why (also PBS) and finds Sid the Science kid interesting as well. She loves to investigate new things. I'm not very good at science, so that show helps me to know what to talk to her about as well.
  
• She talks CONSTANTLY. And loves to say "watch this" or "watch me".
  
• She loves to just be silly. Whether it's hopping around like a frog, putting on my sunglasses or running around in a circle, she is hilarious!
• And when she's in a tired mood, she'll say "that's my choice today!"...can you tell we talk about choices at our house??? :-)
  
• She loves her mini trampoline. She had been jumping on the furniture, and we found one at a garage sale cheap...it's quite the hit!
• This should come as no surprise to those who are around Megan much, but she loves sticks. Shoot, she loves to take over anything that could be perceived as a stick. For instance, I was wrapping a book the other day and she wanted my wrapping paper roll b/c it was like a stick. Nothing is safe
• What does she do with the sticks? Well, she pretends she's Super Why and "zaps" in a new word. Or she's Princess Pea using it to spell words. All back to the same thing: words! They are her FAVORITE!
• She doesn't ask to spell words as often anymore...but she still loves words and letters.
• She loves school. We had tried putting her in a different school for this year, but she just didn't do well. So, after much prayer and some serious changes at the school, we decided to move her back to her "old school". She has the teacher she had the first semester she was in school and her class only has 4 students. The teacher is amazing at imagination play and is amazing with the kids. She is having tons of fun! She would go to school everyday if she could! She loves it THAT MUCH!
• Sleep has still been difficult. We had time where things were better, but the past couple of weeks she's been having bad dreams. She'll wake up and have a hard time going back to sleep. We've been in play therapy for 3 months now and we've seen some progress. She's bringing up being scared to go to sleep or being scared at night. We're on the right track, if she could just work through the scariness, we'd be good!
  
• She talks about giants CONSTANTLY! She does NOT like giants. I'm not even sure where this started (maybe a bad dream? I don't know), but she will often bring up how she does NOT like giants. We talk about how they are all pretend, except one. There was only 1 real giant: Goliath. And what happened to Goliath? David won, because God was on his side! (Her favorite bible story...or rather...one of them)
• Oh, and how could I forget...she LOVES OUR CHRISTMAS TREE! She talks about it the MOMENT she wakes up "We have a Christmas tree!" It may come from one of her favorite books, as it talks about a Christmas tree. I don't know...but she's obsessed with the Christmas tree!
• Books...she is such a book junkie. She has several that she has memorized. She really can read, but she hasn't figured out the whole the word I just spelled (and she likely saw in her head as she figured it out) is the same as reading it out of the book. I had gotten a few beginning reading books at a garage sale, but she's memorized them after having us read them, so having her read them is pointless. She already knows what they say! She typically refused to read them to us...she wanted us to read them to her. Oh well. She'll do it when she's ready. After all, she's only 3!

She's really grown up...she's taller, leaner and is losing her toddler look. sniff, sniff. In fact, we measured her the other day and she's 39.5 inches tall. She weighs about 36lbs...she's one solid girl! Several of my friends comment on how her weight is deceiving as they've tried to pick her up to put in the swing or whatever. And its the truth (especially when their girls--about the same age as Meg--weigh less than 30lbs)!

Update on Rachel...we had our fingerprints taken as part of the immigration process the beginning of the month. We're hoping they will be back within the next few days. The rest of the documents are on their way back from getting all the appropriate approvals on them. They should be at the agency next week. Then we just wait for our fingerprint approval, get it the appropriate approvals then it will off to China! I am hoping and praying that it will be sent off by mid-Dec. It would be an amazing graduation gift for me if we could get it sent off that week! No matter how you look at it, it's interesting that we sent out dossier for Megan to China in December 2005. I'm hoping we'll travel in March/April (just like with Megan) again. But, it would be miraculous for that kind of timing. I've always felt like April is when we would travel...so I'm praying it works that way! That would mean all my kids joined our family in April (Ian was born on 4/11 and Megan's official adopted date is 4/1). How cool would THAT be???

T-Shirts

We designed these tees with all proceeds going to the Bring Rachel Home fund!

They come in light pink with brown writing or black with white writing.

Sizes (in BOTH colors) available:

Regular tee shirts $15
(they seem to run a bit big)
Small
Medium
Large
X Large
XX Large

Women's fitted tees: $17
(they seem to run a bit small)
Small
Medium
Large
X Large

Kids's tees: $10
Small (6/8)
Medium (10/12)

You can make your selection on the drop down menu on the right hand side of the page. PLEASE NOTE in paypal what color you want! Shipping is included in the price.

Photos

We're trying a new deep conditioner because her hair is SO DRY. And it requires her to wear a shower cap...this was our first try at it. She's so cute!!!

She's really enjoying her chalk board lately. Here she said she drew me a rainbow. So, we're both taking pictures of the rainbow!

A new trick lately...she found this slinky reminds her of Snuffy's trunk on Ses@me Street. So, she's got a trunk, only she calls it a snuffle-opogus (which is a dance she saw on the show).

My beauty

Megan's school had a fall festival, but she REFUSED to wear the princess costume we got for her last year. So, we had to go with the back up plan. She went as a Chinese Princess wearing her traditional outfit...(the dress got ruined in the wash...but the pants outfit didn't).
Does she look amazing in red or is it just me?

I love this pic..

She is so precious...

This is her most recent favorite hair style. She ALWAYS asks for pony tails, and I always want to put a flower in her hair...so this is our compromise...and I think it's so adorable!

BBQ Bash Fundraiser

I've decided to create a website 100% dedicated to the BBQ Bash fundraiser. You can find all the delightful details (time, date, location, tickets, etc.) as well!

Check it out!!! TX BBQ BASH

We've got LOTS of great things planned!! Please come join us!!! Tickets are SUPER cheap!!!

Christmas Shopping

Are you wanting to do some Christmas shopping without heading to the crowded stores?
Or maybe you have some hard-to-shop for people on your list?

We have been blessed with an excellent opportunity to receive 25% of Scentsy product sales!

You can join the journey to bring Rachel home while shopping for some excellent products! If you are not familiar with Scentsy, it's a flameless wax warmer. The wax does NOT get very hot, but it does NOT take long to make your house smell absolutely delightful! Believe me, we've been enjoying the fragrance Pumpkin Roll for the past month or so. Each square of the bar lasts a long time (I think each Scentsy bar lasts about 30 hrs). If you are local to me, I have a sampler of all fragrances so you can try and decide which one is the one you want!

Jennifer has also offered to host a couple of giveaways as well!

1. First, the person who collects the highest dollar in sales will receive a plug-in warmer of their choice (if you want catalogs and order blanks to sell from, let me know)!
2. Then ANY PERSON who purchases $40 or more of product will be entered into a drawing for a plug-in warmer as well!

Which one do you want to be entered for?

Click HERE for more details! I hope you chose to purchase these great products! If you want to place the order with me for personal local delivery rather than online with shipping costs, email me at iluvgoldens [at] hotmail [dot] com with your order and I can submit the order for you.

The sale closes on November 15th for everyone to get their products before the holidays!

Could she get ANY cuter???

Little Miss Hollywood!

Dissertation is completed! I am official a Ph.D.! YAY!
I'm busy working on this weekend's garage sale and next week's Scentsy fundraiser.
More info to come!!!

BBQ Bash Fundraiser

If you live in the Dallas area and would like to come to a BBQ Bash hosted by our good friends the Doss family, please click on the "buy now" button on the right hand side of the page. The Doss' have arranged for live entertainment, great BBQ and fun activities for the whole family at an awesome outdoor venue! We feel privileged and honored that they have decided to help us on the Journey to bring Rachel home in this way!

The ticket prices are very reasonable...so PLEASE consider joining us!!!

Nov 20th at 5pm
$12 per person
$25 for a family with kids under age 12

What a GREAT deal for GREAT evening of food and fun! And you can help us bring Rachel home!!!

BBQ Bash Tickets

1 Ticket $12.00 2 Tickets $24.00 3 Tickets $36.00 Family Ticket $25.00

I'm so far behind in postings!

Oh man...we've been so busy!!! But, the good news is that the dissertation defense (aka final presentation) is Oct 25th. Once that is done...and I incorporate the committee's changes and submit it to the graduation office by the 29th. I WILL BE FINISHED! Whew. That will feel good! But for now, a few pics from the last few weeks. More once I'm through next week. We took lots on our recent trip to visit family...

Megan & cousin Ashley dressing up

She asked to play with shaving cream one morning...and this is what she does with it. silly girl!

Well, who doesn't end up with sand EVERYWHERE when they play it? I especially like it on the bridge of her sunglasses.

Her new passion: climbing trees.
Or rather, sitting in trees since she asks one of us to put her IN the tree!

Christmas Frenzy!

Stacy at My Cup Overfloweth just returned from China with their son, Solomon. She knows the struggles to raise funds when you are adopting and has created a Christmas Frenzy. She is providing an opportunity for families who are in the process of adopting and are fundraising to post their items in one place. It also provides families who are looking for Christmas gifts and want to help others an opportunity to purchase items. Head over there and see what she and others are selling. I think people have just begun adding their items, so check back frequently!

OH, and she's doing a giveaway for those who are purchasing! Don't forget to check that out, too! And maybe you can win a Christmas gift...or a special gift for you!

Drum roll, please...

The winner of the ipad is Kim T! Congrats, Kim!!! I will ship the ipad this week!!!

Thank you to EVERYONE who donated to help us bring Rachel home! We are so blessed by those who chose to donate to help us!

Ipad drawing Sunday

Just wanted everyone to know that we will draw the winner for the ipad tomorrow!!! Sunday morning I will post the winner.

You can still purchase your tickets! Click on "chip in" on the right hand side of the page.

Donate $10 for one chance to win
Donate $20 for THREE chances to win

Thank you to all of you who have joined our journey to bring Rachel home!!!

Ipad Giveaway

Only a few more days for the IPAD giveaway! Please be sure to donate for your chance to win!!!

Click on "Chip In" on the right hand side of the blog to go to paypal to securely donate to help bring Rachel home!

$10 donation gives you 1 chance to win!
$20 donation give you 3 chances to win!

Being Real...

Maybe some are wondering why we have opted to adopt from China again. And maybe even more some are wondering why we have chosen to adopt a teenager from China. I have had people ask me “why not adopt a teenager from here?” And maybe others are wondering the same question.

There are many reasons why we feel this child—YangLan (soon to be Rachel)—is the child we want to bring into our family. First, we do not want Megan to be the only Chinese person in our family. Why does this matter to us? Well, sometimes adopted children feel like they are “different” because they are the only one in their family who does “fit” or doesn’t look like someone else. Does that mean Megan will feel this way? No, but she might. And we want her to have someone who has a similar heritage as her in our family.

Second—and potentially most importantly—is Rachel’s age. See in China, on an orphan’s 14^th birthday, they “age out”. They are no longer eligible for services and can no longer live in the orphanage. For a child—age 14—who has lived in an environment where everything was done for them (cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.), they have little to no survival skills. There are several different non-profits that offer programs at some orphanages to help children have a trade skill for when they age out. These trades may be ironing, laundry, computers, etc. And I would venture to guess that with the American child labor laws, few—if any—are able to work in factories. This leaves few other options for them to survive, prostitution being one of them.

We never expected to adopt from China again. In fact, back in 1998 or 1999 when I first felt called to adopt from China (and began praying for our daughter in China), I believed we only had one daughter in China. When we began the process to bring Megan home, I firmly believed we would only go back to China to visit—one day. However, since we got home with Megan, I’ve wanted her to have a sibling. With her continuing sleep problems, we really felt adding a child younger than Megan may not be the best solution for us. Besides, we are not getting any younger! I’m not sure if at my age I want to do the baby-thing again. I’m not saying starting to parent a child who has 13 years of history before us is going to be easy, but I’m going to venture to guess she’s sleeping through the night! LOL. However, once we truly discussed and decided to pursue an adoption of an older child, I realized all these years I have been praying for both Megan and Rachel. How amazing is God?!

I’ve also recently realized that most don’t know the story of Megan—well, the part I can share! When we shared with our friends and family that we were beginning the process to adopt from China, it was a little more than a year after Ian had died. Within about six weeks, God brought us over $21,000 to completely fund the adoption having done virtually nothing! Now, we had to wait for over two years to bring her home, but we never questioned whether we were on the right path because we knew this was God’s plan for at that time. This time, we are not questioning God’s timing because we know Rachel can’t wait much longer—she turns 14 in September! We are trusting He will handle the finances this time around, too! So, we are doing things like the ipad giveaway, selling hair clips, garage sale, consignment sales, selling t-shirts, applying for grants, working overtime, etc. to obtain the funds to bring Rachel home.

Ipad giveaway

Donate to win a BRAND NEW ipad
TODAY

Help us bring Rachel home!

Donate $10 and you get ONE (1) chance to win

Donate $20 and you get THREE (3) chances to win

ALSO:
If you donate and link this on your blog, post a comment with the link to your blog and you will get an extra entry.
OR
If you are my friend on facebook, donate and post it on your status, post a comment to this posting and you will get an extra entry!

Click on the "CHIP IN" link on the right side of the page to donate securely through paypal.

The giveaway will end on October 15th. Get your tickets NOW!

All proceeds will help us bring JiJie home.