FIrst day of summer..

Well our first day of official summer was spent at the DR. for Morgan to have a baby tooth removed & an impacted tooth exposed...fun, right? Ha

She did great! Her mama was way more nervous than she was:) And as of right now she still isn't having any pain...YAY!

We had a great Memorial day yesterday, grilled out & had one of the pastors at church & his family over . The kids had a great time playing volley ball in the pool & throwing eachother in. I did not take one single picture..Gasp, I know! Hope you all had a great weekend as well.

MELISSA

MY GIRLS

I am one BLESSED Mama! ( Thanks Yanira, for the great pictures!)

Melissa

JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE :)

This is the last week of school for my girls and I have spent the better part of my week just trying to keep them FOCUSED! I mean, I too am having a hard time with it...I checked out about a week ago & I think they did too. Morgan had final exams Mon, Tue, & Wed and she gets out at noon everyday this week which is great.  I love having her home early However, It has totally messed up my schedule. Madison still has VPK til June 7th so picking Morgan up at noon and by the time i get through the Carline its time to drop Madison off, then go back & get McKinley at 2:30 then pick Madison up at 4 whew... Yes its ever bit as relaxing as it sounds!

So let me share with you my day today. This is how it all went down:

6:30 get up & get everyone ready
8:00 off to school
8:20 Madison & I take a car load of 7th graders on their year end party, bowling (20 minutes away)
Then I have to be back at the bowling alley at 11:30 to pick the girls back up to get them back to school for car line at noon.
After I dropped off the girls we had exactly 45 minutes to grab some lunch & get Madison to her school at 1.
At 1:15 I headed back to the girls school to work the math & spelling carnival for McKinley's class and that lasted till 2:30.

So as you can see I had a very peaceful & stress free day:)

Summer will officially begin at our house tomorrow! I have been looking forward to no schedules or school routines, no homework to check or reading to do. Oh, wait did I say no reading? Sorry about that, I am  not one of those moms who let their children go all summer without picking up a book or staying up to date on their math & spelling skills:) whoops that was just a typo!

Now as excited as I have been about no schedule and sleeping in...wait there is never sleeping in around here because my 4 year old is up at 6:30 every morning, anyway as I was saying I have been waiting for the summertime, no routine days to get here but after about 1 month my "not-so-laid-back" personality comes back & I crave the mundane routine of life.

And for good measure, just in case some of you may be thinking that I was a bit dramatic about my busy day I have pictures to prove it!  Enjoy & happy summer!

In the above picture Morgan started jump roping at McKinleys party and within a few minutes

she was surrounded by a bunch of 1st graders.

Little things I take for granted

Madison's teacher sent home a letter on Friday saying they needed some baby pictures of Madison for a project they are doing. My heart sunk and immediately my eyes filled up with tears because those are photos that, best to my knowledge, do not exist.  When we adopted Madison we were given only 1 baby picture of her from when she was 3 months old. It's a picture the Orphanage took of Madison the day they found her in that alley (see below).

I am SO thankful for that one picture because I know that many orphaned children do not even get that. However, it makes me sad that we only have that one picture and then nothing until she was 2. There are going to be so many times throughout the years when teachers are going to ask for baby pictures or Madison is going to ask questions that we will not know how to answer and that makes my heart sad for Madison.

Here it is, the one and only baby picture we have of our little firecracker:

Again, we are thankful to have that one baby photo and even more thankful that God put it on our hearts to adopt. Our prayer is that as Madison gets older she will see and understand how much she is loved both by God and us because out of all the millions of orphans in China and around the world, God put us all together for a reason. 

Blessings--Melissa

How I spent my Mother's day...

HERE-

WITH THESE THREE-

HAVING FUN ALL DAY LONG-

 MORGAN & I DID A LOT OF THIS-(There will be no bathing suit pictures of me EVER!)

'

AND IN CASE YOU ARE WONDERING HOW MADISON FELT ABOUT HER FIRST OFFICIAL TRIP TO THE BEACH? I WILL LET THESE PICTURES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

The picture above is McKinley doing trying to paddle board!

Hope you all had a relaxing Mother's day!

Mother's day tea.

McKinley's first grade class had their annual Mother's day tea yesterday morning. I love going to this each year. They make special things for their mom's and sing s few songs and have some refreshments.

They also made a little book for us with different questions in it. Here are a few of the questions and McKinley's answers:

Why did God make Mother's?  McKinley's answer " so she could rasie me"

How did God make mother's? "God took a bone out & made her"

How is your mom different from any other mom? " because she is asume" (awesome:)

What kind of little girl was your mom? "respectful"  ....how did you like that answer mom & dad? ha!

Who is the boss of your house? " my dad because he's the biggest"

What advice would you give your mom? " to go get a mashoge"  aka~ massage! ( think i might take her advice on that one)

What does your mom always say? " no and yes'


I love getting these kind of things and seeing how my kids answer them.

Being a mother is the best gift ever!


Happy Mother's day !

Melissa

A LONG WEEK OF TRAVELING

We arrived back home from a whirlwind trip to Alabama for my Grandmothers funeral. While it was a very emotional few days, I think the service was very nice and my Granny would have been very proud.

As I listened to my cousin and my parents pastor speak, I felt  overwhelmed and so very thankful for the spiritual legacy my Grandma left all of us. She was a wonderful lady who lived a long and happy life.  I can only imagine how happy she is right now in heaven with Jesus and her husband that she hasn't seen in 42 years. What a wonderful surprise my grandpa got on Sunday :).

I am truly blessed!

Melissa

PS. For those who knew we were traveling, thank you for all the prayers. The trip up and back was uneventful and for the most part all the kids did well.

IN LOVING MEMORY

1921-2013

I cannot imagine the reunion she has had seeing her husband that passed away over 40 years ago.
My Granny loved the Lord( she was also a pastors wife) and I know she was ready to go home.


Please pray for my family as we say gooodbye .

Melissa

Favorite photo Friday

Melissa

Wednesday update

We have had a busy schedule for the whole month of April and May is looking like it is going to be just as busy. So that is why I haven't posted much. But I wanted to share a few things while they are still fresh on my mind.

I have reconnected with a mom who adopted her daughter in 2010 and after she saw pictures of Madison she realized that her daughter was in the same foster home (at the same time as Madison...what a small world). She has sent me several pictures that have Madison in them from when she was about 2 yrs old. These pictures mean the world to me and are something that I know Madison will treasure as she gets older. Her daughter is 8 yrs old now and has shared with her a lot about her life with her foster parents so this information is priceless for us as well. It is going to be a very long time before Madison's language is good enough to share with us about her life in China. I have SO many questions I want to ask her.

On a different note, the other night I went into Madison's room to get her pajamas for bath time & when I walked in I found this:  my OCD went into overdrive!

She had taken all her toys & shoes and lined them up in a nice and neat row all over her floor! UGH Needless to say she didn't get in bed at her normal bedtime that night:)

And lastly, I just would like to ask for your prayers for my sweet Granny. She is not doing well at all. She is in kidney failure and hospice has now been called in. We are expecting to get the call to go back home at anytime. My Granny loves the Lord and I know she is ready to go home to be with Him and to see her husband who has been on Heaven for over 40 yrs now. So if you can say a prayer for her and my family I would really appreciate it, It is hard living 600 miles away at times like these.

Thank you!