BIG adoption mistake!

OK, let me warn those in the adoption process.  

You know when you are in the midst of the process and your hmmm, I think your LOA is delayed, and in a moment of insanity you go and get 2 kittens.

Well, if one of the said kittens actually survives the elements around your house (coyotes) AND makes it to adult hood - I dunno sometime during the fog of bringing home TWO children from CHINA - you might want to actually put spaying and neutering on the TOP of your list -

OTHERWISE

The fabulous subject from yesterday

will deliver these on the pottery barn mattress under your daughters bed

AND you will be presented with this note at the top of the stairs

AND you will find said cat and 4 kittens under daughters bed watching movies on an iPAD ALL before church!

Welcome to our house!!

And although I already did my Sunday Snapshot from yesterday I jsut had to add the culmination of the  story!

Canon and 50mm lens in very low light so not to disturb momma!

Empowered?

I feel so fortunate to be close to Denver.  My dear hubby was able to rearrange his schedule and stay home wiht the kids today.  So I got up early and left at 6:30 and made the trek to Denver in hopes they were still selling tickets at the door for the Empowered to Connect conference. 

I was thrilled to get a seat, and then settled in, in hopes of learning a little morsel of information.  Little did I know it would cut to the core and make me rethink everything I thought I knew. 

You know when you have your first born and you suddenly wake up one day realizing that something you were sure was right was completely WRONG!

Yeah that was today.

One example, we have been cutting back on the snacks and amount of food for FeiFei.  It has become almost a constant battle.  She is perpetually hungry.  We are only trying to preserve her joints etc.  Yeah wanna guess a possible reason for the issues I described yesterday.  Dr Purvis recommends feeding them every 2 yes TWO hours! 

Another nice litle tidbit - we are NOT ever going to be a "normal" family.  I don't know why this took me by such surprise BUT frankly it was a bit freeing.  I mean really, we have two children with dwarfism, two children with brown skin, and a double amputee.  We are conspicious because of my husbands business, where we live, not sure why I thought adding our little ones would make us less conspicious.

So much to think about.  I believe the information is crusical for all adoptive parents.  BUT I also saw a huge need for all of our parents who had NICU graduates.  So much those sweet babies had to go through jsut to save their lives, but at what cost.  I can tell you that we as nurses do everything possible to try and eliminate adverse effects.  Nesting, soft touch, consolidating procedures, - so many things we can do but I fear that after todays conference we are missing a huge part of sending them home.

I also realized for the first time that this may explain a lot about our oldest daughter.  She was born to us, and my pregnancy with her was beyond a disaster.  I was so sick with severe hyperemesis, that Dr's feared for my eyesight and organs.  I was fed through a PICC line for the majority of the pregnancy.  In addition, she had sever colic FOR NINE MONTHS ugh.  They were rough days. 

Now I wonder if her delay in reading, school etc were all based on the cycle Dr Purvis spoke about.  I sure wish I had known about this information long ago.

I will say though - it scared me.  If my kiddos weren't home, I know for a fact I would not have brought two home at once.  I would have been entirely to scared.

So much more to think about.  I did buy the DVD's since I don't think I will be able to attend tomorrow.

SUnday snapshot - trampoline fun

 I mentioned last week how much my kids LOVE water LOL!

Today they put the sprinkler under the tramp and went to town!!

Pure JOY from this toothless pirate!

The water sprays from below!

And the motion!

And the best part of all - LANDING!!

I could jsut cry with this pic of Cav - sharing, thinking of helping someone else,

BEING a part of our family!

Handsome boy! (BTW LOVE these new shirts from Wally world!)

Pushing is hard work!

That kid has the BEST lips and all he does is chew on them!

And this one - lost in his teen hormones but I was able to snag a pic!

A FABULOUS Sunday with the family plus 1 extra!

Love this girl!

 Morgan is only the second girl in FIVE generations on my husbands side. 

Needless to say we were very surprised when she showed up LOL!! 

Our road with her has not always been easy.

 She was so far behind K-2nd grade.  Extremely slow to learn to read, her letters, her colors.  

So many years of endless worry.

I see her today and truly I stand in AWE.

She has found herself through our adoption

and most especially FeiFei.

Like someone said "Everyone should have such a cheering committee as those two!"

Today we got to cheer her again!

She is incredibly aggressive but her beautiful long hair always in place!

THe littles use her shoes to find her on the field.

Go, LALA, GO!!!

Ugh, not a goal yet!!

She has turned in to a very smart (yes smart LOL)

Beautiful

Competitive

Determined

Girl

Although she isn't our oldest, she soooo acts like to oldest.

We laugh because this girl of ours is big - we think she will be closer to six feet than not.  But she carries herself with such grace - I only wish I had a little of her confidence when I was 10!

Water Slide!

It is the beginning of Spring Break, it is BEAUTIFUL out and my kids LOVE water.  

Nothing involving water opens until labor day -

 soooo, they begged this momma into turning on the water.

Go Fei Go!!

Oops a little fast and a little top heavy!

Let's go again, Lala!!

A little lost with a change in schedule, 

and we have to figure out something for his legs.

Oh and we HATE being cold.

BUT, he likes the water table!

Did I mention I have to figure out something for his legs!

Feel the love!

Valentine's Day is always big around here since it is also Princess's birthday!!

Yesterday FeiFei had her preschool party which she LOVED!!

And these are the darling bubble Valentine's I made for her!

We found these great bubble bottles at Target 

and then I had a hard time coming up with a saying to go with it.

THen today was the parties for the little boys

These were the Valentine's that little man decided on.  

He colored them all and then I sewed them after filling them with m&m's

His party was a TEA PARTY for the mom's - it was SO CUTE!! and they all dressed nice too!

I actually bought Cav's Valentine's (I know HORRORS!) and then stamped them with his Name Chop from China.  It was perfect for a kiddo who doesn't really have an opinion, nor can write his name!

Of course the task of giving away his valentine's was hard ~ I am so thankful for his special needs teachers who are so patient with him!

Lastly, princess had to have 52 Valentine's all non-candy.  Luckily she is super creative and once we found these awesome puffy heart necklaces online she went to task on our snow day.  Then momma made up some cards to put them on (Stampin Up's MDS made that easy).

We decided to make jsut the footballs for the boys.

 Now some dinner out as a family (please pray that goes well LOL!) and cake.  Pictures of my birthday girl probably won't come until the weekend.  Sending love to all!

Snow much fun!

Pics from our snowstorm over the weekend.

Daddy got to use his favorite toy - 

of course with this long driveway we would have been shoveling for days!

This is where princess was shoveling while entertaining FeiFEi and Cav from my last post!

Big kids working hard for their money! 

 Ok all I have to say we are hillbillies LOL!

Yes, we have a giant (as in ride on) triceratops in our front yard by the gate.

Daddy LOVES dinosaurs.

The kids spent all afternoon making this huge igloo!

Of course our absent minded professor put on tennies eventhough daddy placed his boots next to the front door!

Hot cocoa in their igloo

Aspen - or as our newest additions call her - Asy-pan!!  She loves the snow!

Of course Gracie only stays to the sidewalks - she is FeiFei's favorite! 

Little man came out to play once it warmed up!