Jenna Turns Six!!! Part Two

Friday night we celebrated Jenna's birth with one of her favorite foods-- Pizza! Trace works for a local pizzeria and he specially made her favorite pizza, sausage pizza, into the shape of a heart.

We had other kinds too, especially my sister-in-law Janne's new favorite a white pizza with chicken and spinach, which Trace introduced her to a couple of weeks ago. Janne and I went to Trace's pizza place on one of our Field Trip Tuesday's and Trace treated us to pizzas and dessert pizzas of our choice.

After pizza it was time for cake, a 4 layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Cake you say death by chocolate??? Cake and ice cream were served on fine Barbie plates.

Next was presents, which Jenna could hardly wait for. Emma was eager to help and a restraining order was issued.

The Loot.

The happy birthday girl going to bed in Mommy's bed after tucking Sleepy Dreams Dora in at the foot of the bed. She's snuggled up with Bailey and Bella wearing her new Dora nightgown.

You can't see outside, but there's about 4 inches of snow. What's a girl to do with her new scooter when there's snow outside? Ride around the hard wood floors while carrying her new purse. Of course.

Tagged and Thankful

I was tagged by Tiffany at The Shaw Family with a tag called 4th Folder, 4th Photo. I'd seen this on a couple of other blogs lately and thought it was a unique idea. Part of the game is I now have to tag 3 other people. I tag Teresa at Continuing the Journey, Issy at Swimming on Dry Land , and Lorie at The Princess and The Lady Bug.

I had no idea what my fourth folder was let alone my fourth photo in that folder. I looked it up and found this.


When I saw this photo I was surprised that this was "The One" and was somewhat overwhelmed with the emotion. This a photo of Emma and I in the van after our G&R last October. Jenna took this picture as we waited outside the orphanage while our facilitator went back in to get something. No special pictures of us in front the province office wall. Just a quick photo in the car. I was sitting there in disbelief that I actually had her in my arms and she was legally mine and praying a constant prayer that I would be able to bring her home. I was a woman living in fear but also living in hope.

I find it appropriate to post this on Thanksgiving Day. It was a miracle that I got this baby girl and a miracle that I was allowed to bring her home on November 9. But our Thanksgiving last year found my children and I separated again after our just recently ended 7 week separation. Emma and I were at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and my other kids went to Kentucky to be with my brother Dave and his family. It was the day I watched the baby I had fought for for so long and hard, crash in front of my eyes and then be rushed to ICU where she was placed on a ventilator for the next 6 days. That was only one year ago. It seems like a lifetime.

I have found that our lives can profoundly change in a mere instant. Three years ago I was married and had four children. Now I am a widow. One year ago I was living in Tennessee and only had 5 children. Now I live in Kansas City and have 6 children.

I have lived through much hardship but the rewards are worth every bit of the pain. Does that mean that I want the hardship? No, but I have no say in the trails that God has handed me. I can only accept them and deal with them the best that I can. While part of me died when Darrell died the rest of me lived. Life is an incredible gift that shouldn't be squandered.

This Thanksgiving finds me very blessed. I have 6 beautiful. loving children who are the light of my life. I am a very thankful woman.

Confessions of a busy mom

Thursday Emma Linh turned 9 months old. To celebrate she decided it was time to cut some teeth. This girl is my kind of girl now. She is cutting two at once. Why cut one when you can cut two? My fellow over achiever in the making.

I realize that this is a bad picture. You're going to have to click on it and make it bigger to actually see the fuzzy suggestion of two tiny teeth starting to poke through. But Emma is very private about her teeth. The paparazzi had to stake her out all day to get this photo and even then it was taken against her will. (I hear she might press charges.)

I confess, I have never taken a picture of my babies first teeth. But perhaps this will make up for all of the other injustices that I have perpetrated.

Trace was my first baby and my whole world revolved around that little butterball. Trace had not only a baby book (with practically every line filled out) but also a cute little wall calendar with stickers. Every day of at least the first six months of that calendar has something written on it. And let's not forget the professional photos taken every 3 months.

Ross had a baby book but not as filled out as Trace's. There was no calendar. Photos every 6 months.

Julia: baby book, forgotten after 3-4 months. Photos every 6 months.

Jenna: When we received Jenna in China she came with a kind of baby book. It didn't have all the little details you would like but we cherish the few photos that came with it. There was really no point in creating a baby book for a 16 month old once she came home. Photos, once a year until preschool and then twice a year school pictures.

Emma: Bless her heart, she is child #5. I shamefully admit she has no baby book. I also, even more shamefully, admit that she has yet to have a professional photo taken.

Unless I can count this one:

This is a photo of Emma's visa photo that was taken on Halloween day. We went to a professional photo studio in Hanoi and had this taken. Emma had to sit up for the photo but she had NO muscle tone. Emy and I are propping her up in the back and in the front underneath her shirt. Both of her ears had to show in the photo. It took several tries to get this.

Poor baby wasn't feeling well anyway. We left the photo studio and walked to the SOS clinic where she was diagnosed with bronchiolitis, the beginning of our RSV adventure. But there's a story for another day.

So maybe the photo of her teeth was an attempt to make up for my other inadequacies. I like to think that this blog is a sort of baby book. Its way to record the lives of my children and what's going on in our lives and maybe months of years from now we'll actually look back and see what we were doing.