This and that

I think it is an old wives tale or something about "Busy is as busy does." Well, we have been busy! December gives Mom a double whammy for birthdays. RaeAnne's is four days before Christmas and Daddy's is four days after! Trying not to roll Birthday's and Christmas into the same gifts is sometimes tough....and expensive! RaeAnne was pretty easy...she has been wanting and upgrade to a DSi for a l-o-n-g time. Daddy was harder. (Why is it the older we get sometimes the things that we want have so many zeros behind them?)

So the day before Daddy's birthday, the Geek Squad arrived bearing gifts and had work to do. We have had a projection TV for over 9 years now. It still works great, but the thing is a monstrosity! So Daddy has a new controller and a 46 inch flat screen LCD TV. Mom is the lucky one as it is mounted on the wall and takes up so much less space! And the girls...well they scored too, because their Bubby "loaned" them his Wii and their Aunt and Uncle gave them a Wii fit....wow! We have a real "play" room in the basement!



Jordis had an appointment in Kansas City at Children's Mercy Hospital today. All the girls went along for the ride and posed with the statue children in front of the hospital.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!!!

From our five lovely princesses!!

RaeAnne is 11 years old!!

Happy Birthday RaeAnne! Still not a teen, but with just enough attitude to get herself in trouble sometimes! As is our tradition, it was her choice for dinner tonight. Red Robin was the pick and afterwards we celebrated with cake and her present at home. I think she liked the present!



We love you all the way to the moon and back!! XOXO!!

School program X's two

On December 15th we headed out to eat an early supper in town so we could then go to Kendalan's school music program. Someone forgot to tell Mother Nature! We literally slid out of the restaurant! It then took us 45 minutes to drive home on the extremely icy roads. Half way home we decided that trying to drive to the school for a program was a risk that we didn't feel like taking! We arrived home, cautiously tip-toed into the house and found a message on the phone from the school that the program was postponed!

So last night they combined the Kindergarten and 1st grade programs into one night of entertainment. Kendalan's program was first. Our normally outgoing girl wasn't too excited about singing in the program, but she did a great job. The music teacher gave them an opportunity to wave and "smile" at family and friends. Our girl gave us the "grinch" look!?!



Next up was Tessa's program. She also had a case of "stage fright" and was hiding behind another classmate when walking in and on to the stage. She did a wonderful job singing and doing all the motions with the songs and she actually would sneak a peek at us from time to time to see if we were watching her!



Tessa is so excited for her hair to grow long that she will not let me trim her bangs right now. She will wet down her hair and and put clips or a headband on at times, but last night I guess she wanted to "hide" under her bangs!




Personally I think we had the two most beautiful girls there!!

Many Blessings & Christmas is in the air!!

We have been on the run this month! School projects, programs, tumbling, dancing, cold..you name it we have been doing it! Right after Thanksgiving we had a water leak in our basement. Poor Zora has been displaced from her bedroom ever since. Today we finally put the baseboards back on and tomorrow we will have the furniture moved back where it belongs! There is still a hold in the wall in Zora's room, but we want to make sure that the water issue is gone before we have the hole patched. Sounds kind of crazy, but since it is too cold to use the outside faucet where we think the water came from...we want to wait until we can test it out. Hopefully, this will prevent us from having to have the wall tore down for a third time!

Because of all the water in our basement, it was going to be an adventure to get our big Christmas tree out of storage. Plus, part of the lights on it had quit working last year. So I brought out our little fiber optic tree. The lights are so much prettier on it anyway!



Zora had a project for school to decorate a paper Christmas tree. We came up with a few objects to use and I think it turned out pretty cute!



Tessa will be having a sedated MRI of her heart in January. Once they have that report, her pediatric cardiologist and her team will decide if she needs open heart surgery to repair the aneurysm that was discovered. It is really hard to look at her and think that she has a potential time bomb in her chest that could be ruptured at any time. She has been doing absolutely Fantastic! She is learning so much English that it is hard to believe that she has only been with us since August! The only area she has problems in is reading and she is doing pretty good with that too. As for having another in the house, she has fit in so well, it is almost like she has always been here!

Our "Elf on a Shelf" came to live with us on December 5th. Everyone had a suggestion for his name, we decided to put all the names in a bowl and then His name was drawn randomly. So Dasher has been taking information back to the North Pole and Santa Claus each evening and then reappearing in our house. The girls actually look forward to getting up to see where Dasher is sitting each day. The count down to Christmas is coming soon. Everyone is excited to see what Santa brings.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

What happened to November???

I had to put the Thanksgiving crafts up that the girls had brought home from school. Aren't they cute? They did such a great job and they really look good on my kitchen walls!!

The last four weeks have just flown by. RaeAnne had her best friend from Lindsborg down over the Thanksgiving vacation. They have been BFF's since starting Kindergarten together. We try to get them together at least a couple of times a year. However with our trip to China this year, it kind of threw us off track. So Hollie was here Friday and Saturday of Thanksgiving week. As it was a spur of the moment decision, we really didn't have anything planned other than she would be here. Next time we will have to plan things better so that the girls can do something fun together besides just having a sleep-over.

The girls put on a "show" for us one evening. There was a $0.25 fee to watch the program :) Mom, Dad and the little sisters had to pay to see the performance! The girls did a couple of skits that they had planned themselves. Used the drum set to do drum rolls and we even had a flashlight spotlight! I don't think that they will be taking this show on the road soon until they have streamlined it a bit. But they had a great time performing for us!


I emailed Tessa's orphanage about a week ago. Another family had emailed after the returned home and asked for any baby photos of their child. They were surprised to receive back photos! So I decided to try too. Imagine our surprised to receive two photos of Tessa on the day that she was admitted to the orphanage!! These photos are priceless to us. She looks so frightened and almost shell shocked. I can't imagine what was going on in her little head.

This week Tessa had her appointment with a pediatric cardiologist. We were really impressed by the doctor and she ordered an echo cardiogram of Tessa's heart. After the echo we went back to speak to the physician. We were really not sure what kind of heart defect that Tessa had repaired in China. We thought it was some kind of fistula, but everyone here who has listened to her heart assured us that it did not sound like she has a murmur. We were shocked to find that she has an aneurysm of the valve that the blood travels through into the aorta. The doctor thinks that Tessa may have had two holes in her heart. One looks to have been patched during the surgery she had when she was four. However, they said it was hard to tell, but it looked like she had another hole that either they fixed or it healed on it's own. But because of the hole it looks like the valve in the aorta has ballooned out possibly from the pressure of blood moving through the hole. What ever the reason, she will have to have this aneurysm corrected soon before it bursts. The Dr. told us to make sure that Tessa does not wrestle with her sisters or play any kind of contact sports where she could get hit hard in the chest as that could also rupture the aneurysm. She plans to do the surgery late in December. We are just doing a wait and see right now until she can visit with her surgery staff.


And, last but not least, the girls visited with Santa tonight! RaeAnne and ZoraLin each had their list to give to Santa. The Santa is very good with the kids about making sure to find out that they want! I just hope that Santa has a very big sled to haul all the things on their lists!

Thanksgiving.....

Thanksgiving has always just been a regularly scheduled holiday for me. When I was real young, it was held at my maternal Grandpa and Grandma's house which was right across the street from our house. My Mom and I would go over early to help cook. Actually I went to keep Grandpa occupied playing checkers, my Dad would come in later after doing his chores and catch up on his TV time and my Mom would help her mother in the kitchen. Every few years my Mother's sister, her husband and their son would travel to Kansas from California for Thanksgiving. My half brother and his wife would come, always showing up late. We would gather around the table, eat until we were stuffed, then the women would clean up the kitchen and dining room while the rest of us plopped into chairs to watch TV and maybe catch a few zzzzz's. Then around 7 pm we would heat everything back up and stuff ourselves again. Eat, rest and repeat!

Most of those folks are gone now. Thanksgiving is now my responsibility to cook. It has just been a given that I would cook turkey with all the trimmings if I didn't have to work that day. I really never gave it a second thought about the meaning of Thanksgiving. It's a holiday....right?

No this year I look around and see all the people I am thankful for. I think of the family members who are no longer gracing our table and I am sad that my children do not get the chance to meet them. But I am thankful that our beautiful children ARE sitting here at home at our table. I can't imagine our lives without each and everyone of them here with us. I have so much to be thankful for. I will cook, clean, eat and be merry....but most of all, I will be Thankful for the very special life we have.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!!

Don't forget!!!

We are a Hip Mom Jewelry family for the month of November!! Please check out the Hip Mom Jewelry and click on Adoption. This link will take you to the page of beautiful necklaces that any Mom would treasure. Remember that we will get 30% of each necklace's sale for the month of November if you add VAN1110 when you check out.

Just follow this link: Hip Mom Jewelry and don't forget to put in VAN1110 when you check out. It's a win-win situation for all of us!

The holidays are coming up. These necklaces would be wonderful gifts for those who have adopted or who are waiting to adopt! This is the perfect time of year to purchase these!! Also tell your husband, boyfriend, and or your significant others about these cool necklaces!! Put them on your wish list for Valentine's Day or any upcoming celebration. Don't forget that November is National Adoption Awareness Month!! Proudly wear your Hip Mom Jewelry to show that you care about orphans!

And after you place your order for Hip Mom Jewelry...check out this link for 30 Days of Giveaways!!

Ni Hao Y'all

November weather

We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is November in Kansas and we have yet to have freezing temperatures for more than a few hours over night! It is not supposed to be in the 70's in November! I just drug the winter coats out of the closet a few days ago. The girls wore them to school and then drug them on the ground to the house from the bus!






So Sunday to enjoy the weather we drove around Shawnee Lake and stopped for the girls to run some energy off on the playground. It was a little windy, but we can handle a little wind. The girls discovered an Acorn tree and were very busy breaking open the acorns for the squirrels...until I told them that the squirrels probably prefer their acorns uncracked! So then they started lining up the acorns in a row. Seems they thought that maybe they could lure the squirrels to "follow" their trail. For what I don't know, but they thought it was a wonderful idea.
I wanted them to swing, climb, slide and run some energy off.





Hope the squirrels appreciated all their hard work!!

We have been Selected!!!!

For those of you who have adopted before, you know how expensive it is! We look for any way that we can cut corners to save money that can be put aside for our adoption fund. Many families are forced to take out second, or third, mortgage's to pay for fees or travel related to their adoption.

It is very hard to step out of my box and ask for help. But this is a win-win situation for all involved. Our family has been chosen as a family for the month of November to work with Hip Mom Adoption jewelry.

Start your Christmas shopping early this year! It always feels great to be on top of the holiday shopping. And every item that you purchase from the Adoption Page of the site earns us 30% of that sale!!

So share this with family and friends, send the link to your boyfriend or husband telling him which necklace you would like to have. Direct him to this link Adoption necklaces and don't forget to add our family code when you check out. Our family code is VAN1110

Thanks for helping us. Every little bit helps!

Harvest/Halloween time party

The girls had Halloween parties at school on Thursday. Each came home with a huge bag of candy and goodies and of course, big smiles on their faces! We had a Harvest Party to go to on Saturday. The girls were full of questions. "What is a Harvest Party?" "What are we going to do there?" "When are we going?" "Is it time to go yet?"






Once we arrived at our friend's house all they could think of doing was playing with their friend! I needed a few photos of our whole family together for our post-placement reports coming up. Sophie was great in helping us get that task accomplished. Once the rest of the guests arrived we were off on a hay rack ride! What a beautiful day for one!









After the hayrack ride we arrived back at our friend's house and we had a bonfire! We roasted hot dogs over the fire and enjoyed hot cocoa that was warmed by the fire and for the crowning touch, we made smores! The girls really enjoyed the campfire, roasting their own hot dogs and especially making smores!






The girls also each picked out a Halloween tattoo to have on their faces. It couldn't have been a nicer day for a campfire and party and we all enjoyed it very much!!