Megan's Preschool Program

Megan's Thanksgiving Program was last night. Here is her class' performance of "Feather bed". They did an AWESOME job. And she LOVES her teacher, Ms. Debbie
Her classmates lined up are Abi, Megan, Mia, Ethan, Jaidyn, Saelah, Dylan

Her bestest friend in her class is Dylan (and he is a cutie!)

Happy Halloween

The church where Megan's school is had a Trunk or Treat so we took the girls up there last night...

our sweet innocent "witch"

Haha! Fool you...

Our sweet prom princess

who has sass...

And the two together!

Pumpkin Patch Pics

A local church has a pumpkin patch that we stopped at last weekend...

Oh my girls....

Dad & Rachel

Megan & Mom

The whole family

SD Trip

The trip to SD went well. The girls did FANTASTIC in the car--which is 100% a miracle considering the day after we got back they couldn't even make it the 5 minute drive home from Rachel's school without a tiff. Ah, back to "real life".

Glow sticks made the last hour of the trip just FLY by. It was the best $1 investment I made for the ENTIRE trip!

Rachel & Ashley had a fashion show for us

More fashions...
And "where was Megan while the "big" girls had the fashion show?" you may be asking.

Well, outside playing football with Uncle Keith & Brady, of course!!!
My little football player girl...

And the fashion show continues...

A cousin picture: Brady, Megan, Rachel, Ashley
We were unable to get ALL the SD cousins together on this trip with the short notice.

Papaw and Grandma drove to come see us at Nana's as well.

The "girls"
Megan, Rachel, Brooklyn & Baby Brea (the newest cousin)

The return trip went well. We did have a HUGE miracle (besides the girls not fighting the entire way home, that is). I ended up with a flat 2 days after we got back. Come to find out I needed all new tires. It was only by God's grace and protection it didn't happen on the trip. I thank and praise God it did not!!!

Quick trip

Well...I'm crazy. We decided to pull Rachel out of school for 2 days this week and drive up to South Dakota to introduce her to the family. I'm driving with the girls by myself (I am a glutton for punishment). If we come to mind on Thursday or on Monday, PLEASE say a prayer for us as we will be driving....and driving...and driving. Rachel is really not very good in the car (God help me!), but Megan is a trooper. I've got a HUGE pile of movies so I guess they will get to veg out on movies. I also got some different prizes for them to open at various points on the drive. But no matter how you cut it...this is NOT going to be fun. Prayers are VERY needed.

I'll post pics as soon as we get back!!!

Rachel is 14!!!

Rachel's birthday was Sunday. So she & I met her friend Hope (and her mom, Elissa) for an overnight birthday bash. Here are a few pictures...

My little model...we went into a little shop...she had to try on several masks. I see a trip to New Orleans in our future!

We surprised the girls with some "Qu-ah" dresses (as Rachel calls them). Both girls love to dress up, they were really excited and surprised with the dresses.

This one looks like they are waiting for their rides to pick them up.

What a princess.

Such precious BFFs

This was a favorite of both girls!

Rachel also got her ears pierced, something she's wanted to get done since shortly after she got home. In fact, the girls got them done together (although I think Hope wished she didn't because it hurt so badly!).

My little missy...

...has gotten glasses! The day she's been looking forward to for a very LONG time! She technically only needs to wear them when she is reading and only for about an hour a day at this point in the game, but she has them! They are purple (of course!)...and she LOVES THEM!

She's VERY INTO making funny faces for the camera..
like this...

And this...

and then this adorable one...
what a beauty!

Shaving Cream fun!

This morning Megan asked if she could play with shaving cream, so we got it out and Rachel decided she wanted to try it out, too. Needless to say, they BOTH made a huge mess...but had tons of fun that lasted about 30 minutes. I don't know why they felt it needed to paint it all over their faces, but thankfully they did NOT get it in their eyes.

Saying Goodbye

We had to say Goodbye to our precious Dakota this weekend. She had a couple of seizures at the beginning of August that led us to believe she probably had a brain tumor. While (thankfully) she never had another one, she continued to decline in other areas and we felt like we wanted to put her down while she still had dignity and before the girls saw her at her worst. And believe me, we wanted to spare the girls the experience of seeing her in the confused state she was in after the seizure. It was very traumatic for her and for us. It was a very difficult decision for us and has been difficult for us and especially for Irish as he is missing Dakota. We've had Dakota since she was just 8 weeks old. She was over 13 years old and lived a long life.

This is Megan's attempt to take a picture of us with Dakota.

Dakota & Megan

Best buds...Dakota & Irish
taken just before we left with Dakota

God in his amazingness assured me that Dakota is in heaven when I was reading the Walking with God by John Eldredge. If you have not read his book, I HIGHLY encourage you do to so. It will literally CHANGE your life! His Golden was also very sick. I read that particular part of the book just days after her seizures. It was confirmation that we were very close to the end for Dakota and that it was going to be okay. It has been a hard few days and I find myself at various times thinking "where's Kota?" to only catch myself. And Irish is a bit depressed, but he has had moments where is more lively. She has a great dog and she was my baby (even though she was supposed to be DH's dog!).

Rachel's First Day of School

Here is Rachel on her first day of American school. I had her dress in a little warmer clothes because she tends to always be cold and I was afraid she'd have enough distraction that I didn't want her to be cold, too. She came home telling me that her arms were hot, but her legs were cold. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but that's what she said. She's been wearing jeans but with short sleeved shirts. Overall, school is going well. The teachers have been fantastic. I've met with most of her teachers and all have worked with her (and me) to help us with her assignments and know what's going on. She doesn't know enough English to write down what the teachers say, but she will copy the assignments that the teachers write on the board. We spend anywhere from 2-3 hours a night on homework (UGH!), but we're managing. I'm hoping to meet with the ESL teacher this week to get some idea on what kind of modifications are supposed to be completed for her since she does not understand what she reads. Overall, though school is going well. We do have major hurdles let to overcome, however. And she's figuring out how to use the handheld translator in class with her assignments/tests. We're all navigating new territory and the learning curve is HUGE!

mid-August

Dang, I've been wanting to a better job of blogging...and again, the month is half over and I've not blogged. Shoot. Okay. Looking forward to the girls being in school so that I will have time to work on things like blogging! Geez. The days just FLY by!

I've been thinking about blogging...and all the things I've wanted to include. So let me post a few things that come to mind tonight. I teach a class next week, then Rachel & I start classes on the 22nd. Megan starts on the 29th. I'm not sure where the summer went. Sigh. But back to my list:

Megan

• She is reading at probably 1st or possibly 2nd grade level. She is instigating more and more reading opportunities. I'm not sure how much further she's going to be by the time she starts kindergarten. I'm scared to think about it.
  
• She's starting to express interest in math (Lord help me!). I've been dragging my feet so she has some sort of challenge in the future!!! Geez.
• She LOVES to build towers with blocks. As in she can literally spend an hour or more multiple times a day in her room building towers and pyramids with her alphabet blocks. I'm sure glad I didn't get rid of all of them!
• She's recently gotten into "decorating" her room (aka taking the bow hair clips and clipping them on her curtains, drawer pulls, picture frames, etc.) during naptime and/or in the morning after she wakes up, but before she's allowed to get up (before 6am)
• She's started asking for a clock in her room with hands so she can tell what time it is to get up (which she says is when "the hand is on the 6"...she determined that time...not us, but I'm good with that!!!).

Rachel

• Rachel's English is coming along. She's doing awesome! Its incredible how far she has come!!! She's doing amazing.
• She loves beautiful dresses (as in formal dress up clothes)
• She enjoys going to church and is making friends there.
• She loves crafts and drawing. She loves making bracelets with beads, especially.
• She hates to wear her glasses (Megan loves to wears her "just glasses"...still)
• She loves Americ@n foods especially pizza! She loves my homemade pizza--well, not MY truly homemade pizza as she's not had that yet--but there are various types of pizzas that we make at home that she likes.
• She's very excited about school...she'll be in 8th grade.

Okay, that's the best I can come up with at the moment...so I'm calling it good for the time being...I hope to update once classes start next week!

Book Review

In the spring I was contacted by author, Sheila Kelly Welch, about a new fiction book she had coming out for pre-teens and teens. She wanted to know if I was interested in reading the book and reviewing it for her. Seeing as how we getting ready to bring Rachel home and we wanted to begin finding books that she could read (when we got that far!), I said absolutely! So, last week, the book Waiting to Forget arrived in the mail. The book looked interesting and I looked forward to being able to read it.

Once I had the chance to open it and begin reading, I was hooked! Its well written and holds your attention. Its written in a now/then format with the entire book essentially taking place in one day, but the reflection pieces cover a number of years. The main character, T.J., and his younger sister have recently been adopted through foster care. The reflection pieces tell how they came into foster care, talking about different painful times of their life with their biological mother. Welch uses T.J.'s life book to help him process his past and tell the story.

I will be blunt. While this is fiction, the things Welch includes as what T.J. (and his sister) experience while living with their biological mother are things that kids who have been placed in foster have (and unfortunately often do) experience. They are painful. They will cause you to be angry. They will bring up tears. They will not be easy to remove from your thoughts. These characters will stay with you. I am still thinking about them--and its been several days since I finished reading it.

So, who should read this book? Well, I don't think that all pre-teens or teens should, however, if you have a child who has experienced foster care or a foster care placement, this might be a good book for them to read. If you work with children, it might be a good book for you to read simply for awareness. If you are looking for a book that will move you, it would be a great book to read. The writing/word choice is exceptional. You do not feel like you are reading a "kids" book. Its good. I don't get much time to read, but I was done in about 2 days. Its definitely worth the effort. You won't be disappointed, but you certainly will be changed. THAT I can guarantee.

Balloon Festival

Here are some of the photos from the balloon festival we went to when Nana was here visiting

This balloon is AMAZING! Its the world taken from photos from NASA. So cool.

It was a lot of fun! I hope the weather cooperates next year, too!!!

Recognition

When you adopt internationally, it is advisable that you readopt or have your international adoption recognized domestically. There are some states that do not give the same rights and priviledges to internationally adopted children as they do domestically adopted or biological children. We held Rachel's on Friday.

We were are after the very sohrt ceremony

The entire clan of support plus the judge in the background

A Nana Visit

Nana came for a visit this past week and the girls had TONS of fun! Rachel especially LOVED spending time with Nana.

Rachel & Nana working on bracelets & beads

(Something they did a LOT of)

It happened to be the balloon festival at the local regional airport, so we went out there for a little while. This was keeping the girls busy before the balloons flew in.

Enjoying a game of Candy!and before bedtime

Family Pictures

Here are a few of my favorites from our family picture photo session last week. We got some really great ones for just 20 minutes! Especially considering the girls were "toast"!

My crazy girl

Megan went for her 4 yr check up. Before we went, we were talking about what she was going to show the doctor what she can do. She tells me "I can say the alphabet backwards." It was the first I had heard of this...so I asked her to tell me. And I'll darned if she did it (best as I could tell since I don't really know it backwards!) I'm guessing this is what she thinks about when she's SUPPOSED to be going to sleep! :-)



So, the star of the show...doing the alphabet backwards.
Crazy, wicked smart.
I have 2 very smart girls. I am scared. Seriously.

Pics

Things never go exactly as planned. I swear. It is July which means its hot. We figured we'd go out to DBU early to get pictures before it got hot and the sun got too bright. Well, Megan decided 3:30am was a good time to wake up. I finally got her back to sleep about 5:30, but it messed up us getting out for pictures by 7:30. So, we got out there about 8:30ish. Then we had a little snafu with my friend who was taking the family part of the pictures. Anyways, we did get some and although I've seen them, I do not have them yet. We spent 2 hours outside in the heat rather than the 45 minutes that I was expecting. And when we left, Megan was sweaty, very flushed and said she wasn't feeling good. Dad quickly took her to the car for air conditioning and more water. Needless to say, Dad, Megan & I all took naps this afternoon!

Here are some of the pictures we took while waiting for my friend to get there.

I love this picture of Dad & Rachel

The girls

Dad and the girls

(Megan was not really interested in taking pictures)

me & the girls

July???

Oh boy, again, I am horribly behind on postings. We have been so busy. There were a couple of weeks in the past few that we had one or more appointment a day. Most were doctor/dentist appointments. We have Rachel going to youth group on Wednesday night (which means I go as well). We try to squeeze in a few water play dates with some of Megan's friends in there, too. We've been spending a lot of time working with Rachel on school work. We primarily work on English and math. You would not believe that she's only been home for 2 months when you realize how much she understands. Seriously. Everyone comments on it. She has a much more difficult time speaking English, but she understands a lot. When there are words she is trying to say, she often will spell it...yes, she can spell A LOT of basic English words. She really is SO SMART (2 smart girls...this could mean double trouble for us!!!!). We've worked really hard on pronunciation as well and many words she says are really clear. We had to have a "discussion" earlier this week about working on school-work. She really did not want to, and hasn't really wanted to much lately. But when she was reminded that she'll have 7 different subjects plus working on ESL and how many math topics she's not covered yet, she decided she was ready to work hard again. So, she's done really well this week. I've found some ESL games to help us that she likes. She does pretty good, but we've got a long way to go (of course).

Megan is in school 2 mornings a week during July. So we'll have a few more hours a week to seriously focus somewhat uninterruptedly. Hopefully we can make great progress in both ESL and math. That doesn't count the history and US geography things we need to learn (states & capitals, for example) to simply catch up. I know we cannot do it all...and it will just take time, but I want to be able to give her as much as I can before she is completely overwhelmed by just how much she does NOT know (that her classmates do).

The month went by so quickly...I swear I blinked and now its July. We're taking family pictures tomorrow...hopefully I can get some posted tomorrow.

Witnessing Trust

We've taken Rachel to our (fairly new) church the last several weeks. I wanted to get her plugged into the youth group, but really did not know what they did and when. I talked to the youth minister a couple of weeks after we got home about getting Rachel involved. So, about two weeks ago, we took her to the middle school youth service. The church has a "mini" service for the youth where they have a "get to know you" game, sing some songs, then someone leads a lesson or sermon on a topic similar to what the pastor is teaching on then they break into small groups to discuss further. This "service" (called Cultivate) is during the service we typically go to. I've gone with her and will continue to do so until she feels comfortable going by herself. With summer starting, however, they will only have Cultivate every other week. However, they are doing a study on the Proverbs on Wednesday nights. Since she cannot read the questions (yet), we've done the homework together (I as well as her). They do the homework before they come (works in OUR favor!), then we discuss it in age and gender specific small groups (brilliant!). So this week's lesson was on Prov. 1-4. The questions are hard. They are hard for adults, but they are about growing in the Lord and the knowledge of His Word. Its a great study for me, in fact. The group was only 3 middle school girls, 1 newly graduated high school senior and an adult facilitator (well, and me).

Anyways, so we're looking at Proverbs 3:5-6 which are my favorite verses. The Message translation says them best "Trust God from the bottom of your heart, don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track." Awesome, uh? So, the question was asked about what areas do you struggle with fully trusting in God. In my attempt to have her answer the question, she simply said you just do it. Easy. I spent some time thinking about the verses and her answer. It made me realize that whenever it was that she came to know the Lord (I have get to find out when that was), she has had Him to trust in. She trusted He would bring her a family. That her family would love her for her and love the Lord as well. She's had few (if any) adults she could trust in her life since she's never had parents (that she remembers). It made me realize just how amazing she is and even with the incredible losses she's had in her life, how innocent and complete her trust in God truly is. And how amazing our God is. He cares for an orphan, watches over them and keeps them safe then answers her prayers for a family that loves God.

I think of those times while we were waiting to bring Rachel home where I would call or text my friend, Stacey, asking if we were on the right track. I felt like this was just too much. The obstacles kept popping up. The fear of what we were doing to our family, our Megan, our marriage. And she would always encourage me to keep going. That this was an opportunity to share the gospel to special girl. I always knew she would assure me that we were on God's path and to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. And to think she would be such a witness of God's faithful and trust in God. It blows my mind.

The past week...

Honestly, I'm not even sure what to write. Crazy. The last 2 weeks have gone so fast. I guess that happens when you have 2 appointments a day! Rachel has been to the pediatrician, dentist, eye doctor, and pediatric cardiologist in the last 2 weeks. Then Megan had an appointment with the pediatrician, the dentist and the play therapist. I went to the dentist. Rachel, Keith & I all got haircuts. Then Megan's birthday party last weekend (why in the WORLD did I think it would be a good idea to have it the week after we got back? Stupid. But at least it was not at our house, I did have some sense at the time). Oh, and we had our first post-placement home visit. See why I've gotten no blogging done? Yeah. Crazy.

Rachel is healthy, the cardiologist was just to ensure everything is well (and it is). She & Megan are having so much fun together. It seems like they've kind of gotten into a "groove" with each other. They really do get along well and are getting to know each other. Rachel is so social. She does spend some time in her room, but she's spending more and more time with all of us in the living room. DH mentioned yesterday he thought her English had improved and it has. In one week. She is saying things more clearly. She is also attempting more words. It seems like she is doing better at understanding as well (as long as we don't talk TOO fast). She seems to enjoy most of the "normal" foods we prepare, although we are making a lot of rice (we went through 5lbs in one week!). I finally got the congee recipe the way she likes it. Congee is basically over cooked rice (Megan would never eat it). She does not like it with just water, she likes it with very salty chicken broth. I tried it 3 different ways before I finally got it right. And she happily stated "I very, very, very, very like" after the first bite. I didn't think I would EVER get it right (she probably didn't either)! There a few chinese type dishes that we have always made that are very popular with her as well. But, overall, she eats most everything (wait, she did not like my fried rice!). And she's asked for pizza at least 3 times this weekend! I guess she likes pizza (she fits in well!).

DH goes back to work tomorrow. Its Megan's last week of school. I thought she was done last week, so I scheduled yet another appointment for tomorrow afternoon. So, that could be very fun (not!). I guess I should update on sleep. Megan continues to fall asleep by herself at night and sleep all night by herself. (YAY!) Naptime is a little more tricky, though. If we think she can make it until bedtime without a nap, we let her "rest". However, more times than not since I've been home, she's really needed a nap. So, we tell her that we are going to rock her to sleep (takes about 10 minutes), then she can "rest". (She has slept anywhere from 2 to 3 hrs and us waking her up.) Resting really means that she stays on the bed, but has a whole list of rules (that are repeated at bedtime). The rules are: no making a tower, nest or fort with the pillows & blankets on the bed; no getting off the bed; no taking things off the dresser; no taking off your shirt (that typically happens within the first 5 minutes no matter what); and no taking off your socks (we actually have stopped putting them on her b/c they are usually starting to come off before we leave the room!). The rules have continued to evolve as she attempts different things. For example, it used to only be "no tower" on the bed, but then one day she made a "nest" so that was added. Then a few days later she said she made a "fort", so that one needed to be added as well. She is so funny. She can recite the rules, but always wants us to repeat them again before we put her in bed.

That's the best I can do tonight...I'm sure there's tons more that I should be mentioning, but its completely escaping me right now.

Megan's Birthday

Megan turned 4 yrs old this week. How in the world can that be correct? I have no earthly idea! We had a "Flower" party last Saturday at a park close to our house in celebration. (Yes, I made the same cupcakes as last year...but they are SO CUTE!)

We started the party with everyone making their own pinwheel

Busily perfecting their creation

The birthday girl

Her hair is getting so long (again)!

The cute cupcakes

They are so easy to make, albeit time consuming!

Several of her friends from school came and other friends of ours. We played pin the pedal on the flower (aren't I creative? lol) One of the other mom's got a soccer ball from their car so there was an adhoc soccer "game" going as well. Everyone had a good time. Megan crashed at bedtime very quickly. In fact, she was zoned out for most of supper. Good thing she took a nearly 3 hr nap beforehand!