Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Fundraising for Give1Save1

We love fundraising! It's what we do best. We advocate for families that are adopting and try to get the word out there and help all those families fund a portion of their adoption. 

This time we are asking for your help. We need to fundraise to cover upcoming costs that we have.
We want to stay around for a long, long time and help lots and lots of families!

Can you help us out? 

We have a book fundraiser going on right now where all the proceeds go to us to help us spread the word and get our name out there to more families.

There are tons of amazing books for children through Usborne Books. 

We have a facebook event going on so check it out!
The first 25 people to join the event will be entered into a drawing for a 
FREE book. Free. For joining.
Is this thing on? GO. scat. Join the event.

There will also be a scavenger hunt to be entered to win another FREE book.
That's two absolutely free giveaways!

Here are a few great books to check out.
If you adopted from China this is an awesome book to have!


Anyone else still find coloring therapeutic?


Journaling? Yes, please.


Downton Abbey. Enough said.



Incredible book talking through childhood fears.


Perfect for back to school!




Sunday, July 28, 2013

Ledbetter Family

The Ledbetters are our family of the week! If you go read their blog, you know this has been a tough few weeks for them in the adoption world. Nobody likes this torturous waiting, nobody. Yet, the Ledbetters are handling this with grace and faith and honesty. I love their honesty. It's refreshing to those of us that have been there or are there. I remember those moments of talking to God and watching my friends that I had so hoped to travel with flying to China without me. It was tough, ugly tough. Reading through their blog reminded me of those days.

That's where we come in. Give1Save1 is a community of people committed to reminding our families of hope, reminding them through our $1 that they are not alone. It may be only $1 to you, but I remember being on the receiving end and that $1 meant people cared, that God had not forsaken us, that we were moving forward even if the pace was painfully slow.

Get your paypals open and ready to add $1 to their fund to bring their daughter home from Thailand.

They made her a birthday party even though she wasn't home to celebrate.
And they had paper lanterns in the shape of pink hearts.
It's perfectly acceptable to cry at this point. I did.
Oh.my.word.

Moving onward.
Head over to their blog, find the donate button on the right hand side and click it.
Watch the video.
Oh help, what is it about this family that makes me cry like I'm watching
 Anne of Green Gables again??
Mercy.
Donate.




Thursday, July 25, 2013

Just Love



And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.



There is this store on etsy that I love. LOVE.
Not only does the owner make and sell some of the most
amazing things, but she does it for the sake of the orphans!

Just love 127


Love makes a Family


             

      Just love 127 is a shop owned and operated by an adoptive momma. 
She is in the process of speeding back for their third adoption.
Third. 
3.
Did you catch that?
Go read their amazing journey on their blog!

Faith, hope and love flow freely from the lips of this lady.
She is walking this path with faith and praying with fervent hope
and she is full of love for a little boy that this world left behind.

LARGE Hope Anchor BLUE Marble V- Neck T

Her little boy, Myles, came to her by way of a list of special needs children.
My heart soared when I read that. Children with significant special needs
hold an oh-so-dear place in my heart.

She is defying this world and claiming this boy as royalty.
Because he is. He will fill her life with glimpses of the King of Kings,
this King that calls him son.
He is royalty.

Royalty Dog Tag Necklace

Since they found him so early this process is speeding by SO quickly.
They need to raise their funds fast ya'll. Super fast.
Hallelujah for an adoption process that gets these kids home quickly. 

I promise you if you go visit her shop you will not make it out without something in your cart.


See what I mean?

Hebrews Anchor 5x7 printLARGE Love the Lost Red Marble Round Neck T                                                      
Skeleton Key dangling necklace 'The Journey Awakens the Soul'


Africa Necklace

Yellow "enjoy the journey' Cuff                                                       

Let's remind this sweet lady and her family that they are not alone.
We are filled with love.


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Sevenly/Destiny Rescue

Thank you for donating to the Harmons this week--keep it up, friends! Every dollar counts.

Have you seen Sevenly's featured organization this week?  Destiny Rescue. They rescue children (girls and boys) who have been trafficked.  Take a look and buy something while you're there.  Also, you can click to the actual organization and donate on their website.  Your donation can help fund a rescue operation, after care programs, etc.  So, so important.

Destiny Rescue is dedicated to rescuing, restoring and empowering children who have been afflicted by sexual exploitation.

Don't you love Sevenly? I do. Who else do you love? If you have favorite organizations that are doing great things and you want people to know about them, leave us a comment.




Sunday, July 21, 2013

Welcome The Harmon Family


Look at this cuteness. 
Don't you love them already?
I do.



Did you see the curls, the argyle, the polka dots, the stripes, the smirk of Mr. Handsome?
Adorableness.

Matt and Lisa have three beautiful children, two girls and one boy and they are bringing home their second son from China!

He is a sweetheart. 
Anyone want to pinch those cheeks?
Me, me, me!


Enough.
Let's get this party started. Open three browser windows.

1. You are already here at http://www.give1save1asia.blogspot.com/  
And you are anxiously awaiting my instructions on how to help unite this family!
You rock.

2. The Harmon Family blog, which for the record is awesomehttp://www.harmonadoption.com/

Hover your arrow over the right hand side and find the donate button
Click the donate button.
Boom! Magically paypal appears with a ready made slot for you to type in your donation.
How easy was that?

3. Facebook. Spread the word. Link back to this page so that others can read about this super family and help unite them with their son.

Don't skip this video. It's sweet as can be and you'll want to see it from start to finish.
I'm heading over to watch it again. Who's with me?




Harmon Adoption from Josh Sliffe on Vimeo.




Thursday, July 18, 2013

Pages of Inspiration

I love books. No, I really love books. I love how you can learn from a book or just drift away from the world by opening one. I own a kindle but I still prefer my solid, hold it in your hand, flip the pages and smell the ink book. I realize I just confessed my craziness on the world wide web for everyone to see. That's okay. I love them that much! 
 There were definitely a few books that were instrumental in my choice to adopt. 

 When I was nine years old I read this book,

Loved it. Still do. Still read it occasionally. It was the book that ignited a fire in me for orphans in China.

This was a book I read while we were waiting for a match in the foster/adoption world.

Heaven help me I love this book. I devoured this book. It's amazing. Have you read it?

What outside sources inspired you on your journey of adoption? Did you have any books that pushed you into the adoption world like these?

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Adopting Older Kids--From a Mama Who's Been There!

I am happy to introduce you to Camille, a fellow mom whose "story" is one you want to hear. Family, love, Jesus....all of the important stuff.  Thanks, Camille, for being so open with us and sharing from your heart. 


Adopting Older Kids With Younger Kids at Home: the Lessons We Hope to Learn


Two years ago, if you had told my husband, Charlie, or me that we were about to add three teenagers/young adults to our family, we’d likely have shared a giggle and shuffled you off to a white-padded cell. I mean….adding unkempt rooms with piles of reeking laundry, angst-filled relationship drama, missed curfews, and locust-like eating habits? Who does that?

We do, apparently. Because when God says, “Hey, I have some people for you to love,” you don’t respond with “But dude, I really need my junk room!” 

So now we have Ian, 20, and Herdest, 19—our “unofficially adopted” guys and Ellie, our two-year-old, adopted domestically as an infant. And as of about two months ago, we’ve proudly welcomed G., our 17-year-old daughter, who we’re adopting from foster care.

There’s so much I’d like to share with you about adding older kids to your family. How there are concerns about adopting out of birth order, but it’s not as scary as it might seem. How yes, it’s challenging, but also filled with wonderful blessings. How all kids deserve families, and there are thousands right now alone and waiting.  

But alas, neither of us has all day, so I’m going to attempt to stick to one thought-process.

So, some of the questions we often get from people who find out we have three older kids living in the house with our toddler-aged daughter fall along the lines of:

Aren’t you worried about her? How does that work? Is that safe? What will she learn from the older kids?

(Actually, we get much more invasive, ridiculous, and ignorant questions, but they make me want to say not-nice words, and since I’m guest blogging, we’ll keep it polite, mmmkay?)

I understand that these concerns come from a well-meaning place, but first off, let me point out that such questions can come across as rather offensive.

Have we considered the emotional well-being and adjustment needs of our daughter?
Heck no. We just thought we’d completely change her family structure with absolutely no preparation and see what happens.

Gah! Of course, we worry about our daughter. We worry probably in the same way you worried when you got pregnant with child #2, #3, etc. We prepared in the same way you would if you planned to move in an ailing grandparent, a stepchild, etc. Family structures change all the time, folks. We prepare as best we can, show some extra love and grace, and move on with life.

Logistics and Safety

Probably the most irritating insinuation from others is that we would build our family in a way that risks the safety of its other members. We understand that there are many stereotypes about foster kids (especially older kids) out there, but if you’ve spent any time around them, you realize that many fears are unfounded.

Please understand, I’m not saying that every day is roses and kittens. There are hard moments every day, and times that require extra vigilance. I would never advocate anyone jumping into foster care or older-child adoption without some serious preparation and a strong support system. Kids need supervision. Period. Know how much is required for your family to stay safe. Biological or adopted, it’s up to you as parents to know your kids, their maturity, their needs, and their capabilities, but it can work. 

Yes, our older kids and our toddler have vastly different needs and interests, but as it turns out, they complement one another better than expected. The mall? The bookstore? The park? We can generally find something of interest for everyone. And after Ellie goes to bed, we have time for homework, games, or movie night with the older kids. Also, I’ve generally found that as long as a destination has working wi-fi and food, teenagers stay moderately happy.

Also, the older kids generally prove to be an amazing help with the toddler. To clarify, I didn’t welcome older kids with expectations they’d become live-in nannies to my daughter. Just as I wouldn’t leave my two-year-old with any random sitter, I’m not leaving her with someone simply because they’ve been in our house a few weeks. However, as it turns out, Ellie has wrapped all her older siblings around her finger, and they’re wonderful with her. While I cook dinner, G. might play dolls with her or take her outside to swing. Herdest might watch cartoons with her while I run to the store. Just having someone who can fix a sippy cup or a snack is an immense help.

Lessons Learned

But for some, the concern remains about what the younger child might learn from her older siblings.

Hmmm. I was an older child, and I taught my sister to bungee jump Barbies off the balcony onto my grandmother’s head. I taught her to make “magic potions” from all the spices and sauces in the refrigerator and pantry and dared her to drink them. My cousin convinced his little brother to climb into the creepy creature-infested crawl space under our kitchen (totally freakin’ out my mother).

All over the world, older siblings teach colorful words, messy pranks, and perhaps less than favorable lessons about the opposite sex. And all over the world, engaged and attentive parents intervene to control these “lessons” and nudge all children back onto the correct path.

Is Ellie going to learn some “interesting” things from her much-older siblings? Definitely. I’m having to remind myself that the word “bruh” doesn’t need to end every sentence. Legit, y’all. I’m also a bit concerned that Ellie now thinks potato chips are suitable for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Just tonight, my little dear (and some furniture) ended up covered in blue Sharpie, and yeah, I had to take some deep breaths not to yell at the person who apparently didn’t see a problem with her having it.

But I’m actually excited about the majority of lessons Ellie will learn from our family and the lessons we will all learn from one another. And while I know there will be bumps in the road, my constant prayer for our learning is that we remember these things each day:  

-          Diversity is a strength to be embraced. We don’t judge others based on hair color/styles, tattoos, clothing, piercings, sexual orientation, etc. We just love people.  

-          When we share our struggles, their power over us weakens. When we share love, it grows and makes us stronger.

-          Family is flexible. Boundaries will change to include, embrace, and love new people.

-          Family sometimes has little to do with whom you look like or where you come from. Family is formed when people choose to love one another, no matter what.

-          Love isn’t always reciprocated. We love anyway.

-          The greatest commandments of Jesus were to love Him and love others. Sometimes, loving others means leaving our comfort zones; we take leaps of faith, knowing the One directing our path.


And no, we’re not done, and as we add more children, it’s likely Ellie (and the older kids) will have tough days when there’s simply not enough of us to go around. We’ll get tired and lose our temper or forget to pick one of them up or fail to check homework folders. There will be days where all of us want to escape the craziness for a good cry and some blessed quiet.

And that’s okay. Because I want my kids to know that we’re not called to an easy life. We’re called to be brave, bold, faithful, and daring in our love of others. We’re called to say “Yes” with our hearts and hands when God says to care for His children. We’re called to find joy in the endless laundry, dust, dishes, dog hair, crushed goldfish crackers, too loud rap music, smelly socks, overflowing diaper pail, toddler tantrums, and surly teenage mood swings.

And when I fail miserably, I guess I want them to see that too, for God has never required perfection from his servants, just a willing spirit.  I want my kids to have big hearts and open spirits, and I pray the lessons they learn in this family will lead them to a life of more. More patience, more bravery, more faith, and more love.  



Camille, mama through open adoption, foster adoption, and older-child adoption, blogs about kids, marriage, God, and life at www.embracingtheodyssey.com
    

    The beautiful Lebel family, minus their daughter,G,
 whose picture can't 
be posted yet in accordance to foster care policy. 

Sunday, July 14, 2013

New Family! Meet the Hutsons!

Happy Sunday! I'm happy to introduce you to Necia and Mat Hutson. The Hutsons are adopting from Korea and hope to travel within the next couple of months to bring home their sweet son, Isaac.   I was able to meet Necia at Created For Care this year and am happy to say that there's a good chance we will be traveling to Korea together!  {Fingers and toes crossed that it's soon!}
Get your paypal buttons ready and watch the Hutsons video.  They are ready to add another member to their family of 4!   Isaac's brother and sister, Andrew and Olivia, are ready for him to be home, too!
Want to know more about them? Visit their blog at Pray For All Things and watch their video below.
                                 


Aren't they a sweet family??  I'm so glad I got to meet Necia this year.  Let's help them have a great week on our blog!  You will be donating via paypal on their Reece's Rainbow page. Start giving and sharing this page, friends!


Saturday, July 13, 2013

We Need YOU!

Quick post to thank you for being so generous! Could you also tell your friends about Give1Save1? We'll be consolidating our blog pages soon to make it easier for everyone to stay connected.  {<teaser. more info on that later}
Will you help us spread the word? And, while you're at it, can you come back every week and donate $1? I know that most of us have never met in real life, but that's okay.  Your support means so much and your dollars add up.  If you gave every week for a year, that would be $52. Totally doable.  Can we count on you?  (I heard all of those heads nodding yes!)  I knew we could.
Enter your email to follow along so you don't forget! (on the right side of the page)
So, when you come to give your dollar every week, you can donate, then share the page on your own Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blog, etc.  And we will appreciate it so much! Just ask any family who's been on the blog.  We love seeing everyone come together.
Thanks!! See ya tomorrow!

Friday, July 12, 2013

Grant List

Hey, I wanted to share a list that a fellow adoptive mama, Natalie Keller, compiled.  She has a lot of info about potential grants that you may be interested in, including Show Hope, Gift of Adoption and MANY more.   Natalie adopted a little girl from Latin America this year, so she has really done her research.  You can find the list HERE, on her blog,  Life's Amazing Journey. {<<links to grant websites included}
Hope that helps!  Never, ever, ever let money keep you from adopting if God has put it on your heart.  Grants, savings, fundraisers....it is possible!


Thanks for helping the Adlers reach the $600 mark! They will be on the blog until Sunday:)



 Mama and daughter


AND, remember Jennifer Cameron?? She's HOME with her beautiful little girl!





Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Collective Grief

I wanted to post something snazzy today. I wanted to come up with something
that would fit well with our blog. I wanted to be upbeat.
But instead I found myself grieving today, and the only thing I can think to write about is aching of my community of adoptive mothers.

The China Adoptive world has been struck hard recently with the passing of two of our sweet, precious ones. 

I sat in the hospital today with my own son and began watching the tribute to Teresa Bartlinski on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=TTeRWSzotYA and I started crying so hard I put it away until later when I could view it and grieve properly. And I wasn't alone. All over our community there is the spirit of grief. Every group I'm in has posts and is working on sending cards, flowers, anything to let them know we are weeping with them.

When John Thomas passed away a few weeks ago it was the same. We wept collectively. 

There is something special about being in the community of adoptive moms.
There is a bond.
We know the lengths each of us walked to bring our children home.
We know the sacrifice.
We know the undying love, the fierce loyalty that we hold for our children.

Perhaps it is that commonality that binds us to this grief. Perhaps it is seeing our children
reflected in the eyes of those that we have lost. Whatever the reason it binds us to this grief.
We rejoice with those who rejoice and we weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)

We are unique. We understand each other in ways that others cannot. We audibly groan when we hear of each other struggling through paperwork, or fighting to get to our babies faster. There is a shout heard round the world every time one of us gets on a plane to go get our child! 

So, where does that leave us when we hear that one of our own didn't survive a surgery and another didn't live long enough to have one. 

It leaves us wondering how the world keeps on turning.
It leaves us crying at every mention of the name John Thomas, or Teresa.
It leaves us wishing our family and friends understood how we could be grieving over children we have never met in person. 
It leaves us wearing silly plastic crowns in memory of a sweet princess who charmed the world over.
It leaves us scraping pennies together out of our post adoption-depleted bank accounts to help cover our dear friend's expenses.
It leaves us holding our children closer and dropping tears on their heads as we kiss them goodnight.
And it leaves us sinking to our knees and begging God to keep them safe.
It leaves us with a little fear in our own hearts.
It reminds us of those "what-ifs."
It leaves us wishing that every child left behind will know the love of a family even if it's only for a few weeks.

And that's okay. It's okay to grieve as a community. It's okay to hold your children closer tonight. It's okay to weep with our friends. It's okay and it's right.
It's the right thing to do today.

As we grieve for these children let's remember to lift their families to our Heavenly Father who heals all wounds. He is sufficient to walk them through this valley of the shadowlands. 

Please remember to keep these families in your prayers. Hold your babies a little closer tonight and remember to thank the Lord for the memories you made today. 

All Girls Allowed/Sevenly!

DID YOU KNOW.......

Since China started enforcing its One Child Policy in 1980, over 37 million girls have disappeared in the world's largest gendercide and over 336 million forced and coerced abortions have occurred under the policy's reign? But there is hope! Check out the All Girls Allowed movement and find out how you can join what God is doing to bring an end to these injustices.  

This was taken off of the All Girls Allowed website.  Did you know this still went on? Some think that it's not a real problem, actually happening today, in 2013.  It is.  Women are forced to have abortions, often late term. Women are forced to go into hiding.  Babies are abandoned.

This week, Sevenly is featuring All Girls Allowed. When you buy their shirts, they will support this wonderful organization and their rescue operations in China.  Read more on their blog.

Buy a shirt, support mothers and babies.


Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Shopping/Pure Charity/Adler Family

Hey there! Did you know you can SHOP through Pure Charity and benefit the Adlers? Well, you can. I asked Janell to fill me in on how and this is what she said...

When they sign up through our links, they will become a part of our advocate network and will then be able to see who all the partner websites are to shop through. When they click on the shopping cart icon they can look through a TON of shopping sites like groupon, Expedia, toys r us, disney store, best buy and lots more! Each one donates a certain percentage of their purchase into their pure charity donation account. They can either download the tool bar thing (pretty fancy term, eh? Lol) and that will pop up whenever they are On a site that donates, or they can browse through the shopping cart tab in pure charity. So long as they click through the website to shop or on the toolbar button when it pops up, it will automatically work after they check out. 

I did it with a groupon I bought recently to see how it would work. A couple days after I checked out (I honestly think it was as long it takes to process a credit card payment) they had placed the money in our donation account. I did get an email letting me know the money was available too! All I had to do was go onto our fundraiser page and clicked on the "back this fundraiser" button. I only donated what was placed in my account, but you can opt to do more as well! 

Go to Pure Charity  to create your giving fund.

Thank you for your awesomeness!



Sunday, July 7, 2013

New Week--Meet The Adler Family!

We've had a busy summer on Give1Save1Asia! We are excited to introduce you to the Adler family, a sweet family of 5, ready to be 6! They are adopting a little 4 year old girl from Hong Kong and we are excited to have them on the blog.
Don't you want to hang out with them??
Are you ready to meet them? Go ahead and watch their video on Pure Charity and give your dollars there. Thank you for supporting our families.  Will you commit to coming back every week and donating $1? Believe me, it's appreciated and when we all give, it all goes a long way.
Learn more about the Adlers on their blog, Finding God's Providence. Great blog, great family. I think you'll enjoy getting to know them.

                                                       

     

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Guest Post from a Mom Who Adopted 2 + Pics!

Remember the Cheathams? Hear from Jessica today......


The Adventures of Adopting Two Children at Once - IMO

My husband and I adopted two beautiful children on March 18th of this year. Our son, J, is almost 2; our daughter, V, is almost 3. They are our first and only children. Ergo, we are complete and total parenting buffoons. We know next to nothing. We are making it all up as we go, every single day - which is to say we’re creatively failing, a lot. The following are the areas of parenting wherein I currently feel comfortable giving advice:

*Changing Diapers: oh, friend, we have this down to an art now. With two in diapers, both experiencing solid foods for the first time, both ravenous wolves bent on eating us out of house and home, we have figured this out, and quick. I can change a diaper in a chair, I can change a diaper at the fair, I can change a diaper here or there, I can change a diaper anywhere! Best piece of advice (and note to self), potty train ASAP.

*Everything Else:

Yeah… that about sums it up. Still, it wasn’t so long ago I was scouring all media outlets to follow any and all journeys even remotely similar to ours while we waited to meet our children, right up to the last moment. (I started reading Ms. Davis’ “Kisses from Katie” on the flight from Detroit to Beijing and it was kind enough to put quite a few things into perspective for me.) So I am more than happy to return the favor and share some of the reasons behind our decision to adopt two children at once from my own unique, buffoon point of view.

PROS OF ADOPTING TWO AT ONCE (the Dream and the Reality):

*We wanted a girl and a boy — simple as that really. Once we read the file for each of our children, we felt we were meant to bring them home. We still feel this way.

*We both ardently believed that siblings are one of life’s greatest gifts - and yes, we still do. Having someone to share your life with, to tell you the truth when no one else will, to have your back no matter what, is priceless. We wanted our children to be in this together from the very beginning of their time with us. J and V are from the same province; they have the same “Gotcha Day;” they haven’t been apart from one another for more than a few hours since they first met. Neither one of them lets the other get too far out of their sight. They will not sleep if they cannot see each other. The first thing they do every single morning is check to be sure the other is still there, babbling loudly to one another until one of their parents arrives to start the day. They may not ever always get along, but they know that they need each other.

*We believed they would ‘play together.’ We’ve witnessed this beautiful phenomenon with our nieces and the children of close friends on occasion and of course, we only ever remember getting along swimmingly with our own siblings (ahem), so we were happily looking forward to this perk. So far, we’ve experienced ‘fighting together’ and ‘whining together,’ ‘tattling together,’ ‘jealous, together’ and my personal favorite, ‘getting into trouble together.’ Haven’t seen them willingly share anything yet, but I’m still holding out hope. Maybe after college.

*We did not want to travel twice. In the grand scheme of things, this is a pretty lame reason to go from 0 to 2 children at once and while it certainly wasn’t at the top of our list, in the interest of full disclosure, it was on the list. We were allowed by our chosen country’s program to adopt two children (if our state, both of our adoption agencies and our social worker also agreed) using the same mountain of paperwork either at one time or within a few months of arriving home with our first child. Reusing said paperwork saves a family both time and money and allows them, if called to do so, to adopt two children in need. In our case, we felt it would be most difficult on our newly adopted daughter, (we knew of V months before J), to be away from even one of her parents for nearly three weeks and then have to readjust to the family dynamic with a new, grieving sibling so soon after coming home. Traveling with her back to the place of her birth so soon also seemed unnecessarily confusing, and exhausting. So after much discussion, we decided if we did not find our son in time to travel only once, then it was not meant to be — at least not within the reuse-of-paperwork time frame.
CONS OF ADOPTING TWO AT ONCE:

*We knew we had no idea what we were doing. We still have no idea what we’re doing (please see all of the above).

*We knew that going from 0 to 2 would be daunting. In point of fact, it was terrifying. And crazy. And terrifying. Again, I can only speak for myself but I swear on all that is good and green on this beautiful Earth, I could feel my heart hammering my ribs for two solid days. Literally. Hours after meeting our children I escaped to volunteered to attend our first group paperwork meeting, leaving my husband of sixteen years alone with our two equally terrified toddlers (oh yes, I did), and all I remember about that entire 90 minute session is the absolute certainty that I was going to fall over dead at any moment. I held my fingers to the pulse in my wrist under the table and wondered how much trouble my husband would have completing the rest of the paperwork necessary to leave the country with our children after my untimely demise. Not good times.

Don’t get me wrong, though - those first few days were amazing. Our children were beautiful and they did so much better with the transition than we thought they would. I know that I would have felt the exact same fear with any child I had given birth to, and maybe that has been my biggest lesson so far: in the midst of preparing to handle the specific challenges of parenting two small children who had already been through so much in their short lives, I lost focus on all of the everyday challenges any parent faces in a typical 24 hours. We were handed two active, energetic and voracious toddlers and then confined to a small cell hotel room and the first time our daughter said ‘Ma-MUH,’ my husband had to quietly remind me that she was talking to me. I was in shock, to put it bluntly, and it took my husband and I every bit as long to find our new rhythm as it has taken our little ones to find theirs. I imagine that’s how it’s supposed to be, and every day it’s a little better. Even on the hard days, there’s always those moments, however fleeting, when I realize we’re a family and even if I could, I wouldn't go back and change that. Not for all the world.

Oh my, how I love them.


Gotcha Day!



Fist Bump!

The cuteness is too much....thanks for reading!