Two years ago eight families traveled over the moon and through the night to meet eight beautiful babies from Beihai, China. They became “officially” our daughters the morning of October 17, 2006. The were beautiful, they were strong, they were wanted and very much loved. They made many a parents dreams come true.
We made a pledge to one another to keep the girls in touch as we recognized the link that each held to their first year of life in China. We call them the “Beihai Babies”, even though most are celebrating their 3rd birthday this month and mine is always ready to correct me that she is, in fact, a big girl now.
Six families are traveling to St. Louis this weekend to join our family for a reunion. I can’t wait to see these precious families. We had a strong, unusual bond with these families almost immediately as we all became parents to these wonderful girls in the same moment in the same stuffy, humid room in a civil affair building in Nanning, China.
So, have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the beautiful colors of this lovely fall weekend. I know I will be.
Hannah was snuggled up on my lap this evening while we were watching our standard Daddy’s-out-of-town show, Wheel of Fortune. Ellie was playing nearby and scampered up on my lap, too. She likes to find the “E”‘s. Now, this is a one person chair and my Hannah has loooong legs. We were crowded, very crowded. So here we were three girls in the chair and out of the blue Ellie scooted over and made an empty space saying, “This spot is for my new baby. See, Mom, there will be room too!
Today, Ellie told me that she is a big sister now. I want to record this date because there were some very powerful, very supernatural things that happened while we were waiting for Ellie that later made complete sense when we compared her waiting time line with ours.
I am thankful for the peaceful waiting for this child. Now, I am going to go fix a cup of tea and snuggle up with my blankie.
Selah
“Ellie, we never put toilet paper in our mouth!”
Our dear friend, Mr. Tony, loves to do magic tricks for our kids. He’s silly, and my kids love him. Most adults don’t take time to talk with kids and he is an expert at drawing them into his tricks. He’s actually an expert at drawing anybody in period. Good thing his number one purpose in life is drawing people in and directing them toward the Lord.
Mr. Tony’s most recent trick is to “eat” something and then “pull” it out of someone’s ear. Ellie was thinking of her friend today and was trying to do his trick. Gee, I hope she doesn’t stick something in her ear…
Will Hannah have her very loose front tooth by her 8th birthday in less than a month or will she have one of those terribly cute gaping holes in her smile?
Her mouth is full of gaping, loose, crowding, adorable teeth. I think it is amazing that she has learned how to whistle recently. I’m afraid though, baby, that once that tooth comes out, the whistling won’t work for awhile.
I guess I should mention, there are actually *five* folks who live in our house. Daddy, Mama, Hannah, Ellie, and Somebody.
You know, Somebody left their snack mess on the counter after Mom just cleaned up and walked downstairs for two minutes. Somebody left their shoes right by the garage door where everyone can trip over them – well, actually several Somebodies do this. Somebody didn’t turn out the bathroom light – Dad’s particular aggravation.
Ellie picked up on this particular phenomenon and has been talking about Somebody for months. The other day in the while using the bathroom she muttered, “Oops! Somebody tooted.”
Hope this isn’t TMI, I wanted to write it down before I forgot how darling my two year old is. She will be 3 soon and while this Mom is eager to move on to the three year old stage I want to remember the 2′s…she is pretty cute.
During the busy school year we try to have a “Friday night pizza and movie night” as often as we can. Last night was the first one we’ve had in awhile. We all pitched in and made homemade pizza and a yummy salad. Ryan had rented the older version of “101 Dalmations”, for which I was glad since Glenn Close was a little too convincing as Cruella deVille in the more recent version.
The pizza was yummy topped with lots of veggies and my husband’s required italian sausage. Hannah was excited to see this flick since her drama class will be performing the story for their spring production. Ellie was transfixed. I don’t think she took her eyes off the screen the entire movie. She didn’t even finish her pizza until the movie was over, rather opting to scamper to my lap to snuggle with Mama when Cruella appeared on screen.
It was a good night to hold our children. One girl in each lap, all together on one sofa. It was a good night to be a family.
I am praying for a sweet family who received a referral about a month ago for an infant son from Ethiopia. They received word today that he passed away yesterday due to an illness. My heart is so heavy for them. I can’t imagine how devastated they are. I admire their courage to still look to the Lord and glorify him in this and in all situations. I pray God’s peace and grace will be abundant for them.
My heart is also so heavy for Milkiyas our representative in Ethiopia whom I have never met but think the world of. I can only imagine the hard work and dedication it requires to pioneer this program for Bethany. I believe he is a true servant of God and I am sure it is devastating for him to endure one more death, especially when the little one was so close at a chance for a healthier future.
I found an opened bag of milk chocolate chips in the pantry while I was putting away groceries last night. I wondered aloud where the clothespin was that I usually put on opened bags when I store them. Ellie was wandering by and said, “MMMM, Papa give me those candies, MMMM!”
Here are the facts:
My Dad is has a BIG sweet tooth.
While they were visiting earlier in the week, he kept Ellie for a couple of hours while I had took Hannah to dance class.
My Dad loves to share his goodies with his grandkids.
…is on its way! It arrived in Grand Rapids today. We also received our Ethiopia travel packet. This is a very exciting item as it outlines the trip to Ethiopia to adopt our new child. There is information about the culture, its history, what to pack, when we will visit with the child, when we will receive custody, hotel information, language translations, etc. I think of it as the Fodor’s of Bethany’s adoptions. I think I had the thing memorized when we were waiting for Ellie. I might have quoted it a few times while we were in China. I might have made my husband a little crazy with it. I probably will again.
