Just Say When....Now?

I can distinctly remember thinking to myself on the eternal ride home from China, “This baby girl is precious and I love her, but I am so glad that I am only doing this once. You couldn’t pay me enough to endure another plane ride like this.” It was very similar to the thoughts I had when I was in hard labor with our first child. (Thank goodness, you tend to forget how bad it really is.)

After only a few months home with DD, we began to feel led to go back and adopt another little girl from China. Again, we prayed for God’s direction. After much prayer and thought, we decided to do it again. A family is required to wait at least 1 yr. before sending their dossier (paperwork requesting to adopt) to China for a second adoption. The CCAA received ours on Nov. 4, 2005 and we were logged in to their system (LID) on Nov. 7, 2005. At the time that we sent our dossier, we were expecting to wait approximately 7 months before traveling back to China. We were expecting to have a little sister no later than July 2006.

Obviously, we don’t always get what we expect.

I haven’t blogged about our second adoption because the wait has been soooo long. There have been times that I questioned whether or not it would ever happen. I have gotten excited only to be disappointed about the cutoff date of referrals. China has definitely changed the predictable way they previously handled international adoptions. We have been fingerprinted numerous times and completed our paperwork twice! For the past 3 months we have thought that we would be NEXT, but our time just hasn’t come yet. We thought for sure that we would get our referral last month, but the CCAA only matched babies with families with LIDs up to Nov.1, 2005.

Here we are 19 months post LID waiting for word from our agency about DD’s mei mei (little sister). We have been reading Rumor Queen http://www.chinaadopttalk.com/ constantly hoping to get an idea of whether or not we made it this time. Maybe we will know something tomorrow…

Although, we are discouraged by the wait, we know that everything is in God’s hands and that His timing is best. So while we wait, we will just continue to enjoy the wonderful children we have and continue to search desperately for the “Fountain of Youth” or at least some very good anti-aging cream.

Good Cheap Entertainment

We have really been blessed with RAIN! The weeds, trees and grass love it, but DD has been climbing the walls. She is a very active little girl and staying inside with her for several days in a row has had me climbing the walls!!! Not a pretty sight.
The solution was quite simple…Just let her play in the rain! She had so much fun. What is it about splashing in puddles that is so thrilling for kids? It’s good, cheap, entertainment!
This cute umbrella was a gift from our very special friends, Pat and Jen. It works great but…

She still managed to get totally soaked! What fun!!!

It's a God Thing

Please understand that this post is not intended to offend anyone. Hopefully you’ll see the humor.

Lately, DD has had a lot to say about God. She often tells Brother Darling that he is special because God made him that way and that God loves him very much. She tells me that she is so glad that God gave me to her. Of course, that melts my heart.

Sometimes she is just inquisitive, like today when she asked me if we would ever be able to see God and MeeMee? (They're a team, you know.)

Some of her other questions include:
If that is God’s church, does he live there?
Just how big is God? Is he bigger than these trees?
Where does he live? Does he live here on earth? Does he live in the clouds?
One of my favorites: Does God have enough money to buy it?

If you know DD very well, then you know that it is impossible to predict what she might say at any given moment.
Example: Late yesterday afternoon we were all sitting on the patio visiting when someone obviously “pooted”. I asked DD, “Honey, was that you?” Her response was, “No ma’am. I didn’t poot. It wasn’t me.” Brother Darling eagerly stated, “Well, it sure wasn’t me.” Daddy Darling added, “I didn’t do it.” Then DD solved the mystery when she said, “Well, maybe it was God.” Ya gotta love her!

I sure hope God has a sense of humor...

FRIENDS COME IN MANY SHAPES AND SIZES

Desheng Darling spent Monday morning with her play group friends. After a busy Mother’s Day weekend and with the threat of storms in our forecast, we decided to just meet at a local restaurant with an indoor play area. The girls don’t really care where they meet as long as they get to play! Things were going well…They had the play area all to themselves.
Then, a group of 4 boys showed up. Their mother wasn’t with them at the time. Two of them were too old to play (around 11 yrs. old), so they dared the younger ones to go and KISS the girls--OUR GIRLS! I just happened to overhear their conversation…(You know mothers have special hearing when it concerns their children.) The younger boys accepted the challenge and approached the girls in the play area. I watched for a minute and then went out to monitor. I strongly hinted to the little boy, as only a former principal can do, that he had better keep his LIPS TO HIMSELF! His eyes got big and he gave me a strange look. He then went back to get better advice from the older boy because his previous suggestion was going to get him into trouble.
I thought of you, PandaMom. I sure wish you had been there to handle this one!

Part of the afternoon was spent playing with another friend…Napoleon…the roly-poly bug. I think I would have almost preferred the kissing boy! Lol Those bugs are so gross. Thank goodness, she dropped him in the flowerbed outside and was unable to find him.

On Tuesday, after many attempts, DD caught another friend…a butterfly. Yes, we were finally able to catch something besides snowflakes in her net. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to talk her into letting him go yet. I think we will name him Houdini and allow him to mysteriously escape tonight.
Tuesday night, DD spent some time with her friend SpicyGirl. They were having so much fun when we went to pick her up that she didn’t want to come home. She didn’t seem to miss us at all. MommySpice blogged their activities on her blog http://www.hunanspice.blogspot.com/ I am so glad they had a good time.

This afternoon, however, she got to play with her best friend, Daddy Darling. I don’t think she’ll be losing him in the flower bed or letting him mysteriously escape tonight. Sorry, boys, he gets most of her kisses, too! LOL

Mother's Day-A Miracle

Oh, I had the best Mother’s Day! We celebrated it early since we're going to be out of town on Mother’s Day. Things went so well; I didn’t even feel like a real mother…if you know what I mean. You know…everyone was on time; no one was in a bad mood; no fussing; no crying and no shocking news…..like new piercings, etc. (inside joke). It was wonderful! We ate at our favorite Mexican food restaurant and just enjoyed being together.
DD loves to be with Sister and Brother Darling! I think she feels like they are in her fan club. She loves them so much and she provides entertainment for them. She keeps us laughing. We are really blessed, and I am so thankful for my family.
Our children aren’t perfect, nor have I been the perfect mother. We’re just human. That’s what forgiveness is all about. I love my children very much, and I am so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to experience motherhood. As stated in my blog heading “However motherhood comes to you, it's a miracle.” Cherish every moment.

INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW…

For what seems like an eternity, we have been answering the questions “Why?” and “Why Not?” Of course, the answers we provide only lead to more questions...Go figure.

Some of her questions have obvious answers while others have no answers at all!
(As usual, DD found her way into our bed during the night.) Her first question to me in the morning before I ever opened my eyes was, “Mama, what are you doing?” What did she think I was doing????? I was trying to sleep! It was before 7:30 on Saturday morning.

Her next question to Daddy Darling was, “Daddy, why are you bald?” Another very important question, I’m sure.

Then she asked, “What’s this?” as she pointed to my elbow. I know she is intelligent enough to know what an elbow is, so I am assuming she was inquiring about the less than flattering skin that now covers mine. What a boost to my self-esteem!

Then she asked….
Why is today Saturday?

Where does God live? Why?

Isn’t it amazing how the minds of children work? Yesterday, just out of the blue she said, “John Denver”. I asked, “Why did you say John Denver?” She replied, “Because I love him.” Who knows?

Since Brother Darling’s car is in the shop, I had to pick him up from work. On the way home I heard her say, “This is not good for my image!” Too funny. I’m not sure what image she was referring to. Could it be because she has to sit in the back seat of a VW Beetle?

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY…
Last Wednesday night a storm came through our area causing us to be without electricity for 3 DAYS! For one of our meals we went to a local Subway for sandwiches. DD immediately started a conversation with the man behind us. She had the attention of everyone in the restaurant. To the man behind us she said, “What are you doing? Are you hungry? I’m going to get a turkey sandwich.”
The man replied, "Are you going to get a footlong turkey sandwich?" For some reason DD thought this was the funniest thing she had ever heard. She got so tickled. The more she laughed, the more people laughed with her. Then somewhat unexpectedly she said, “I’m Chinese…The little one is Chinese, but the big ones… are not (pointing to Daddy D and me.) Then she started laughing again. It was so funny! We just can’t take this girl anywhere!

Last Friday SpicyGirl came over to play.

It was our third day without electricity—(NO TV, limited computer, etc.) so I was glad to have someone to help entertain DD. I can always count on SpicyGirl to be entertaining! For lunch, we went to McDonald’s . There were at least 17 children in the play area because the local charter school had no electricity, thus no school for the day. Talk about wild!!! The noise level in the play area was unreal. I thought about you, PandaMom. It was almost too much for me, and my tolerance is pretty high. I was a little concerned about letting the girls play because most of the children were older and bigger, but they stuck together like glue and prevailed. No electricity also meant more board games…..Care to guess who was playing by her own rules and winning???
With the threat of more rain and storms, DD’s play group met at McDonald’s again on Monday. They practically had the place to themselves, along with Cheerleader’s two brothers. They had a great time and managed to achieve a noise level comparatively close to that of the 17 children previously mentioned! lol

We missed you PandaGirl and SpicyGirl!

Royal Tooth

When Desheng Darling visited the dentist a couple of weeks ago, her x-rays showed that she had one cavity that needed attention. She went back to Dr. Clark today to take care of that little problem. Not having a clue what she was in for, the little princess happily got ready to go. As usual, she grabbed some toys to play with in the car. I snapped a picture of her before leaving. The dentist referred to the procedure as a mini-root canal followed with a princess crown for the tooth. I don’t know if you have ever had a “root canal” but I have, and I didn’t enjoy it one bit. I couldn’t really get excited about a“mini” one either, but DD did fine. It must have been the giggle nose they put on her with laughing gas.

After a few minutes of nitrous oxide, she actually laughed out loud a few times and chattered non-stop about Tow-Mater and Lightning McQueen (from the movie CARS). I had to ask her to quit talking, so the dentist could complete her work. Dr. Clark couldn’t really understand what she was saying, and she couldn’t work in DD’s mouth with her tongue flapping!
She looks a little spaced-out in this picture with her giggle nose. I think she was just in a “happy place.” This might be a nice thing to have on our next trip to China. (For Me!) lol! Here’s a picture of the princess crown that Dr. Clark promised DD. She has admired it quite a bit throughout the day. I don’t want her to become so fond of it that she tries to get a whole royal family in there. One crown is enough!
No tears, no fuss. Great patient! I wonder if she will still be smiling once the feeling comes back.