Announcement!

Announcing our newest little guy has weighed very heavily on us.  Last year we did not receive the best reactions.  We have learned that most people don't always know what to say on the spot.  Tao has become such a normal part of our children's speech that we also knew keeping him a secret until travel jsut wasn't going to work.

Although we still thought showing up at Christmas dinner with him would be hysterical we decided we should probably send the announcement now, before we saw most of our family over the summer.

Heehee it was a surprise but the title page gave everything away and I didn't realize it until I hit send LOL!

God has been so good to us, AND in this particular need He also has shown us His Grace.  

Funny, this is the sermon series we are going through right now, and I'm not sure if I am starting to look for His grace in more areas or truly He is showering us with an extraordinary amount of His grace - but it feels like sunshine and a giant hug!

Moving Mountains

 I am beyond shocked - the prayers are being heard and He is so incredible.  I can see the mountains being moved right in front of us.  And on days like yesterday (waahaa) it so helps me to see His hand in the midst of this adoption.

To catch you up - our homestudy agency is NOT renewing their Hague when it expires in June.  We have to be DTC by June.  The I-800A process was our biggest hurdle in meeting this timeline.  Last year when we did this process it took 65 days for I-800A approval.

Our paperwork was supposedly sent April 16th - we finally got notice that it was received April 23rd and notice given April 25th.

Friday I opened the mail and what did I see?

Our fingerprint appointments!!

This means we can try and walk in this week.  Unfortunately we can't go in until Friday but still I could jsut cry when I see Him move mountains for one little guy!

At the latest our fingerprint appointment is for May 22, so even then we should be able to be DTC within our timeline.

Sunday Snapshot - Focus

 This girl of mine is finding her way, 

she is incredibly aggressive (which can cause problems with the cliches in school)
but is awesome for sports.

She would prefer to play with the boys - so she could wear pads and check LOL!

Until then, she will dominate - as long as she gets ice cream for goals!!

Oh and she is a big girl LOL!
We think she will be close to 6 feet which jsut makes our family dynamics just all that funnier!

Three goals today = ice cream and a movie!  Now she is also the favorite sibling!

Shot with my Canon 5D and 70-300 mm lens

edited in lightroom using Sarah Ji presets (top photo with texture added in photoshop)

A must see show!

If you have contemplated adopting a little person but wonder what it is like - there will be a phenomenal family featured tonight on 20/20

Amber and her husband are both little people and have 2 bio children, and 3 adopted little people.
I hope when you watch you will see that besides being little spitfires, they just are like you and I.

Here is a preview on GMA this morning http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/real-life-dwarfs-extreme-parenting-challenge-16277086

Tonight (Friday) on 20/20 with Barbara Walters will air the entire interview.

Available children can be seen http://lpaadoption.blogspot.com

Come on folks, everyone needs a princess!

Cuz, "little's are superior race!" 

(yeah mom did a good job with my self-esteem!)

cuz, sometimes, the unknowns are scary

 but everyone deserves someone to call their own. 

Yes

So many people ask

"How do you know this is your child"

this time around I asked "How do I know that it is God who wants us to bring home this baby."

I mean really, at the time we had jsut brough Cav and FeiFei home.  To say it bluntly, Cav was plain old hard.  He was terrified of everything at this time, beating constantly on Brahm, still portraying autistic type behaviors and we had no idea medically what our future would look like with him.

But the signs started coming, and once I took the first step to see if reusing our dossier was even a possibility I learned we would have a June deadline to be DTC.

Still, I fought God.  I made every single excuse why this was NOT something we needed to do.  However, we desperately wanted to die to self and follow Him.  Finally, with the tock clicking and frankly after making myself crazy with doubt - this incident occured.

Let me preface this with the fact that everytime I asked for a sign that reusing our dossier was the direction He wanted for us - He gave me a sign, but sometimes I was to blind to see them.

Finally, I prayed for a simple YES!  "God please jsut give me a YES if this is what you want us to do!"

Later that day I was driving in the car with Brahm and I asked him to please pray for direction if we were supposed to adopt the baby.

He bowed his little head and folded his little hands.

In the rearview mirror I got the mommy love feeling seeing my angel pray for his momma.

THen he looked up and simply said "YES!"

What do you mean Yes?  (did I mention I was dense LOL!)

"I don't know mom just Yes."  Ok little man

THis decision to double the number of children in our home, especially in less than a year, has not been the easiest.  But I finally understand what dieing to self really means.  I no longer have time to get my nails done, my hair is a mess, laundry is a disaster and we have never been happier.

Eternity

We started our journey to adoption jsut over a year ago.  WE (my husband and I ) have grown far more through this process than I had thought humanly possible.  We began the process to provide a home for a child with dwarfism - BUT through the process we realized that the greatest gift we could give our children is that of eternal life.  Today we accomplished that - through Baptism.

We purchased their Baptismal outfits in China especially for this occasion.

I love this one of Brahm giving them their new crosses.

How did it go you might ask!

Well, FeiFei of course was a jewel.  Cavanaugh however, tipped the entire Baptismal Fount (ugh!)  Then he started screaming UH-OH! Don't we all come to the cross kicking and screaming LOL!

On the serious side these little ones have been home 4 months (almost to the day) - they know Jesus, they know how to clasp their hands in prayer, they know Amen, and most importantly they couldn't have been more than thrilled to receive crosses of their own!

And for those playing along I actually shot these with my Nikon point and shoot coolpix, cuz sometimes you can get great shots without the fancy cameras.  You have to keep moving the camera to select focus BUT it can be done.

Lightroom, and one willow or sarah J presets.

And THIS is why!

I stand in amazement
Astonishment
AND
Glory!

The little boy who screamed was absolutely terrified at the plants, statues and anything with 4 legs.
JUST FOUR months ago ~
Did the most amazing thing ever today!!

I can NOT tell you how in awe I am of this child!
Of how far he has come!

The road has been HARD - truthfully it has been the hardest thing I have ever done.
Bringing home 2 at once gets a LOT of bad press.
We still have hard days.

BUT let me remind you of one very important little fact - Cav was our second child.  We could have been afraid and said we would return for him (heehee knowing our newest secret that wouldn't work well LOL!)  But that would mean he would STILL be sitting in his orphanage for a couple more months atleast.

INSTEAD, he came home when he was meant to.
We sucked it up and tried our best,
we are far from perfect parents (I dare to say the pendulum swings farther to the left then the right.)
BUT the love of a family makes such a difference ~ like NOTHING I have ever seen!

Brahm went first of course, then FeiFei had to try.  I thought we were doing pretty good that Cav was calm and not trying to crawl out of his skin, BUT I asked if he wanted to try.  He vigorously nodded YES!

We put him on the horse and he did great - UNTIl I stepped back to take a picture.  Even this trust that if I was their it would be OK is a huge step.

Next my friend allowed them to ride one of the horses - again they all were excited to try.

Four months BUT a lifetime of growth!

His infamous MAN-EATING Cat picture taken 12/24/2011