Stuff..

Board Games are the "In" thing at our house

As the summer is in full swing, lots of things are happening. We celebrated the 4th of July this past weekend and had a relaxing weekend with family.

Christopher's summer league basketball is over and he played like a rock star! We had been traveling with the team to several summer tournaments in cities around Louisiana. He is now preparing for his last year as a Senior Camper at Camp Champions in Marble Falls, Texas. He leaves on July 17th and will be gone until August 6th.

Lizzy decided not to go to summer camp at Camp Champions. The first time in 6 years. I think she just wanted to be home with me and needed some mommy time as she prepares for her big transition to high school. That was okay with me. She had a friend from New Jersey visit as well as her one of best friends from Austin come and visit. I have been having a great time shuttling the girls around doing fun stuff like Painting with a Twist, Movies, pedicures, etc. We will be taking the family and both of Lizzy's friends to Lake Conroe for a long weekend of fun in the sun.

Maddie finished a week of swimming lessons and she has improved so much from last year. Her swim instructor has high hopes for her future swimming ability - she has suggested as soon as she is of age to put her on the local swim team. Maddie has an orthodontist appointment at Texas Children's Hospital this Friday. She will follow up this appointment with a return evaluation with the Speech Therapist next month.

We finally finished all of our required Adoption Training and Home Study visits. We are now waiting on our FBI background checks (which is something new required by the State of Louisiana). It has been several weeks since we submitted our request - we are expecting this document any day now. Once we receive it, then our social worker can complete the Home Study and we can file our I-800A with US Immigration. This process is moving along - slowly - but moving.

My mom and dad have finally sold their home and will be building a new home right next door to me. They hope to have it completed and be in before we bring home a new child, so that they can help in any way possible. Having them next door will definitely help with Maddie's transition with being "Dethroned" as Queen bee.

I am loving this summer - even though it has been quite busy - the times with my children are priceless.

Summer Basketball

I must start this post by saying - I LOVE BASKETBALL!!! Christopher loves basketball too. This will be his Senior Year Basketball Season - it's now or never. The coach has named him Team Captain for this year and what an honor. The team graduated 7 seniors, so this is a rebuilding year. Christopher feels the pressure to step up and be a leader this year on the court. To prepare for the big season and a possible basketball scholarship he is playing on an AAU Tournament Basketball team this summer as well as playing with the school team in a summer league. Our lives surround Christopher's basketball schedule these days - but we love it.

Maddie goes to each and every game and cheers her brother on. She gets so excited when he scores. She has been around basketball so much, you can hear her say - "Rebound", "Defense", or even "That's a Foul". She is learning the lingo - its quite humorous.

Go Saints!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #25!!!!!

8th Grade Graduation

May has been quite busy, unusually so....

Lizzy has finished her 8th Grade year at EDS and is ready to close the Middle School Chapter of her young life and move on to bigger and better things in High School. EDS hosted a beautiful 8th Grade Graduation and Luncheon for the graduating class of 2011. The service was complete with a list of accomplishments and accolades, a reading of a prayer from her brother (a former Graduate of EDS) and a slide show of baby pictures of all of her classmates. It definitely brought tears to my eyes. I can't believe Lizzy is growing up and heading to high school. Wow how time flies.

Officially a Senior

Not sure what happened to my previous post.. but here goes again.

Earlier in May, the day after graduation, the Juniors of St.Louis High School officially became Seniors. To mark this monumental occasion, the school hosted a Senior Ring Ceremony. Each student chose a family member or friend to present them with their Senior Ring. Christopher chose Maddie. She was very excited and was "game" for the task, until the moment she was handed his ring to present to him and guided across the stage to present it. She had a bit of a meltdown and cried and cried. The audience of course thought she was cute... I quickly stepped in and presented him with his ring.

After the ring ceremony, she was happy to see him and gladly smiled for pictures.

I can't believe that Christopher is a Senior. I remember bringing him to Kindergarden and now he is on the verge of adulthood. I am so proud of him and his accomplishments. I look forward to great things from him and a fun and memorable senior year.

GOOOOOO Saints!

Most of my blog posts are about Maddie, however both Christopher and Elizabeth have some pretty monumental moments happening in their lives. I'll post about Christopher later.

Elizabeth will be going to high school next year (St. Louis Catholic High School) and is very excited to leave behind Middle School. She earned herself a spot on the Junior Varsity Cheerleading Team and this week we took group pictures.

Oh My - How beautiful and grown up she looks! I can't believe she is going to High School. Time passes so quickly. I treasure every moment I have with her and am enjoying all her activities as much as she is!

Amazing Connection

Keith and I have been attending classes for our upcoming adoption and one of the many things we have been discussing is Loss, as it relates to adoption. One of the things that we have come to realize is that adoptees do carry with them a sense of loss - a loss of their home country and culture, a loss of history (birth parents, extended family, etc.). There are questions surrounding Maddie and our future daughters history that we will never be able to answer. But sometimes where we put a period, GOD puts a comma. So here is our latest amazing news.

Recently I received an email from our adoption agency asking if we would be ok with disclosing our contact information to another family that adopted another child from her same orphanage, and of course we were. It turns out that this little boy was Maddie's best friend in the orphanage. A family from the Netherlands adopted him a few days before we adopted Maddie. Upon their adoption they had asked the orphanage if their son had any friends and was told that it was Qin Qiu Ying. They had made several attempts after arriving home to find where Qin Qiu Ying was. It was only recently, when the Orphanage received our post placement report, that the Orphanage responded to their request and long story short; we connected!


This little boy was at Hope Haven along with Maddie until his adoption. After exchanging photos with his family we discovered that he was the same little boy that was in the many photos that the orphanage provided us in her memory book. To the family's surprise Qin Qiu Ying (Maddie) was actually a GIRL. They had thought all this time she was a boy based on the pictures of the two of them they had. We both got a great laugh from this.


Although it is not a biological family member, it is a connection to Maddie's past, someone she actually spent time with during her first two years and something that I treasure (for her). It is amazing how she again has increased our territory. We hope to stay connected with this family and maybe one day connect in person.


What a blessing!!!

Vacation

After our family Easter celebration we were blessed enough to be able to get away for a week and enjoy some R&R as a family. We took a cruise to the Caribbean and visited Cozumel, Grand Caymen and Jamaica. What fun we all had....

We took advantage of the onboard photography and had some family pictures taken. Lizzy loved the formal dinner nights. Christopher not so much and Maddie just wanted to go eat, it didn't matter what she wore.

We ventured out at each port of call and swam with dolpins, snorkeled, played at the beach, ziplined and climbed the Dunn's River Falls. Maddie was a trooper, as most things she could not participate in. She waited patiently until it was her turn to have a little fun.

I really enjoyed having all 3 children with me for a week - no running errands, no household duties, just fun and togetherness. I savor those moments as I know one day very soon Christopher will be leaving my nest and flying solo at college. Until then I am making the most of our time together and hope to plan several more vacations before he leaves for college. I hope to have 4 children soon to travel with....

I hope you all had a great Easter Holiday and spring break.