Caden said

"I have lots of joyness and Lissa doesn't.
I have lots of fun things happening in my mind and Lissa doesn't."

Sports Jamboree

Here we are at the sports jamboree for sight impaired kids and kids in wheelchairs.

I present to you, Gabriel. He is sight impaired, and the sweetest 15 year old I have ever met. Basically, Amy and I were there to cheer him on. Pretty easy. After each event, he couldn't wait to ask his mom if she had seen him compete. "Did you see me, mom? Did you see how good I did, mom?" So cute. Jay and Shann, the clowns. Loved by every kid (well, maybe except for 1, who was a bit afraid). And appreciated by most adults. :) John and Michelle hosted a very excitable child, Colin. He kept them hopping!
Here are a few of the events...Gabe playing basketball. They have a beeper in the basket, so the kids can sense where it is. He made 3 out of 5 shots. Awesome.

Baseball. Beeper in the ball and a beeper at first base.
40 yard dash. This is one of my favorites. You can see he is harnessed. So cool that they can run! These kids are incredibly excited to do these things that they cannot do normally.
One of Gabriel's favorite events, however, was Juline. Here he is playing peekaboo.
She loved to grab his hat! He played with her, sang to her, held her. "Did you see me helping with the baby, Mom?" One of the songs he sang to her in its entirety, was "Ooh, child, things are gonna get easier." Coming from him, with all the obstacles he has been through, with his not quite on key, but completely sincere, sweet voice brought a few tears.
This weekend always leaves us completely exhausted, encouraged, emotional, and thankful.

Mom

I love this picture of my mom. Isn't she pretty?

My sister-in-law, Mindy, went to a fashion show that my mom was in, and took a few pictures. To see the rest, go to Mindy's blog. Link at the side.

Now this might be a nightmare...

Some of you may know of my past aversion and or fright of clowns. You just never know
1)who is under there (if they have make-up on),
2)what embarrassing thing they'll do to you, and
3)what sort of person would want to be a clown? Honestly.

Well, now, as you can see, my whole family is turning into my worst nightmare...
This weekend, we're going to a special Olympics, where Shann does clowning every year. So I have to endure my aversion / fright being aimed at the love of my life. Its a bit of a challenge. :)
Only Juline was a clown under duress. She was just trying to figure out what was going on, poor thing. Everyone else was happy to be 'in clown' as the people in the business say. Help!

Nightmare

Early this morning, Shann ran to Caden's room, having heard crying. After Caden calmed down, he told Shann that he'd had a bad dream. Shann asked him what it was about. He said,
"Alyssa drank my orange juice!"

Oh the horror.

Miscellaneous ways to stay patient

Yesterday, Caden and Alyssa changed and went in and out of our baby pool several times. We had clothes strewn about the house in varying stages of wetness from playing near the pool or drying swimming suits. I think they both fell into the pool in clothes sometime during the day.Then Alyssa 'did the dishes' for me for awhile, soaking her fresh dry outfit (and the floor).

Food and drink were spilled as well, although this is nothing exceptional.

While putting away the silverware, they had a fight about who should be saying 'I forgive you'.
"Me say 'I forgive you'"
"No, I say 'I forgive you'"
"No, me say 'I forgive you'"
etc., etc.

Then Alyssa got out of her bed during her nap and I found her diaperless, and trying on clothes from her dresser. A double spanking offense, one for getting out of her bed during nap, and one for removing her diaper. (A few days ago, I found her out of bed during nap time, and she was naked, except for pink patent leather shoes, And she had completely emptied the wipes one by one into the trash).
Well, when I came out of her room having dealt with her, Caden said to me,
"Little people are hard to work on, huh, mom."

You have no idea. :)

Getting to know each other

Early morning kisses...

She loves bath time! Shrieking happy noises!
Bouncy seat - this is where I feed her all sorts of things that she despises. :) We're working on that! You can see she is a bit worried about what is coming!

On the pier

a few more pics from our Ohio weekend

Grandpa and Alyssa finding things on the beach. My mom and I
Trying to reach a leaf
The wonders of an Aunt
Woodland Lissy

It Begins...

Several times recently, when being corrected by Shann, Alyssa has cocked her head and looked up at him with a pout and said, "I love you, Daddy." And while she still gets corrected, it does diffuse his irritation, so I guess she knows it works on some level.

Interesting she hasn't tried this with me.

She's Here!

Juline is finally here with us! Her other host parents, John and Kim, and brother, Lubens, brought her over this morning. Lubens is in the photo with us.

Juline seems to be a very content little girl! Hopefully she'll stay that way!

I'm certainly not thinking everything will be super easy. Please be in prayer for us over the next few months, as our life will be a bit different for awhile. And please pray for Juline, that she'll be happy with us, that the surgery will work, and that she'll grow up to love the Lord!

Unprompted

"Mom, its ok that your hair looks bad."

How fun is it to be a kid?

photo compliments of Lynne

Post Script

For all of you moms who were concerned that I said in a recent post that we let our kids watch The Little Mermaid, I just wanted to say that we fastforwarded through much of the movie! Including when the chef was trying to catch Sabastian, the little crab. That was "too scary". I think Alyssa took to saying a scene was too scary when she got bored with it, so we'd get to the next part. :)

Toes

Yesterday morning, Caden said to me, "I love you mom, you're the best mom in the whole wide world." I thought this was so sweet. So when he cuddled up to me yesterday afternoon, I figured this might be coming again...he said "I love you mom, you're the best....OH MY! Why do you have the biggest toe in the world?"
He was looking at my big toe from the bottom as my feet were curled under me. And apparently he thought it looked giant.
Well isn't that nice. I feel so beloved. :)

Family

Last weekend, we went home to my parent's house in Cleveland to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday with a surprise party! My sister, Lynne, surprised us all by flying home from China for the weekend! Here are my parents, my brother Mark, and my sister Lynne.

Thanks, Lynne, I lifted this picture off of your blog! :)

SuperCaden

We awoke this morning to Caden dressed in this recent yard sale find.
He is super pleased about it, you can tell.