Looking For Lily

Merry Christmas 2010

2011-01-13T07:57:00.000-08:00

Hello there! It's been a while.:o) I think facebook has officially taken over as my "go-to" place for posting pictures and information. My poor, sad little blog has been very lonely.:o) Well, we are finally settling back in to our routine now that Robert's 3 week Christmas break is over. We had a wonderful Christmas and loved that he got to be home with us for so long. This was a sad week for us...we miss daddy! But, we have been keeping very busy with pre-school! I have begun the homeschooling journey with Lily and we are having so much fun! There was a point in time when I wanted to be a teacher...and now I am! And to my own daughter no less. What a blessing! Here are some of our Christmas pictures as well as Lily's first week of school. Maybe I'll be back sooner next time.:o)

Our tree on Christmas morning. Santa was good to us.;o)

Lily got an art desk. This is actually the desk I was able to get a deal on last Christmas. Now it is finally out from hiding in the garage and full of markers, paints, paper, coloring books and all sorts of things for Lily to unleash her creativity!

Lily LOVES princesses and Toy Story. She says when she turns 5 she wants to make her room a princess room. Now we have some great pictures for her walls.

Daddy and Lily on Christmas morning...so sweet! Look at the haul she took in...sheesh!

Have I mentioned that she loves M&M's too??

The day after Christmas we got a surprise visit from the Ferns! They are dear friends who moved to Texas at the same time we were in China getting Lily. We miss them very much and are so happy they were able to stop by for a visit!

Lily and Reagan. Reagan was Lily's age (4) the last time we saw her when we went to visit them in Texas. Now she is 7. What a beautiful young lady she is becoming...it happens so fast! Lily also got a Cinderella dress-up set for Christmas from our friends Martin, Valerie and Hannah. Did I mention she LOVES princesses???

The Ferns!!

New Years weekend was pretty wet here...actually the whole Christmas season was pretty wet! But New Years weekend was wet and cold. It didn't snow here, but there was snow on the hills around us. It made for a gorgeous view. We decided to take an adventure and find some snow to go play in. Lily and I loved it! Robert...well, he is more of a warm weather kind of guy.:o) But he was a good sport!

Daddy with his camera...and Lily loving the snow.

Brrrrr! The wind that whips on your face when you are swinging makes you REALLY cold!

Following daddy's footsteps.

We have officially begun the journey into homeschooling! Well, it won't be "official" until we start kindergarten in September, but I found this great pre-k curriculum so we decided to start that now to help us get into the routine of school. Lily loves it and is having so much fun! She loves to do the craft projects and is so excited when she is able to figure something out on her own. She loves learning and I hope she stays that way.

Week 1...letter A. We'll be focusing on one letter of the alphabet each week.
"A" is for angel.:o)

Trying really hard to figure out "astronaut".

Her first mini lapbook completed. She'll have one for each letter of the alphabet which will be such a great resource later...and such a special keepsake.

This was day 3. We got to combine a fun project with the book "Ten Apples Up On Top". We've read that book many times before so she had a lot of fun with it.

Gluing apples on her "head".

I love how she drew her head! Great job baby girl!!

Simi Valley Days

2010-09-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

We took Lily to Simi Valley Days this weekend. We just went to check it out for a little while on Saturday and as it turns out, Lily loved it. This little girl is quite adventurous! The first thing she wanted to go on was the ferris wheel. She had no qualms about being up so high...she just enjoyed the ride...and the view. I of course was a nervous wreck and held on for dear life. Oh to be so young and innocent...to be able to just enjoy and not have everything that could go wrong continually flashing through my mind. Anyway, she had so much fun we ended up taking her back on Sunday evening for more. She went on the ferris wheel again...this time with daddy.;o)

The inflatable section was so much fun! She got to go down this big slide. She LOVES slides!

Ready...set...

...GO!!

Then she got to go through a really cool obstacle course...

Wheeeeeee!! She LOVES slides.;o)

She got to go on her first roller coaster ride.

Then she went on the ferris wheel with daddy. And it's a good thing too. I would have had a heart attack being stopped at the top like that. I just about had a stroke watching from below. Especially when I saw...

...this. Yikes!!!

I got to go in the spinning apple with Lily. That was fun! The little boy with us is Ryan. He went on the ferris wheel with Robert and Lily. They don't allow single riders and his mom didn't want to go...can't say I blame her.;o) He ended up going to this ride next also, where again they don't allow single riders. As we were spinning I asked him if he'd ever been to Disneyland (I had visions of spinning teacups running through my head.) He said, "Never in my life." He was so cute! Lily immediately told him, "I am going for my 5 birthday and you can come with us if you want!" Such a sweetie. He told her, "But I am 7 1/2...almost 8!"

Ryan went with Lily down the giant fun slide too.

I think they both loved it!

I think Lily is going to have an AMAZING time at Disneyland for her 5 birthday.:o)

Summer Fun

2010-07-29T23:49:00.000-07:00

We've been enjoying our summer! Robert has been off from work and Lily and I have enjoyed having him home. We've been doing a lot if fun summer activities like:

BBQ'ing.....yummy!

It's not BBQ if you don't look like this afterwards!

She LOVES corn on the cob.

Lily and Larry

We went along with Lily's best friend Rachel and her family to see Sesame Street Live. Boy was Lily excited! She had no idea where we were going. When we walked into the Nokia theater she said, "Are we going to see a show?" I wish I could have captured the expression on her face when Big Bird came onto the stage. She started jumping, laughing and clapping. What a wonderful memory!

Lily and Rachel with their Elmo balloons. They had so much fun playing together with them after the show.

We went to have breakfast with Aunt Paula and Robert took this picture of Lily afterwards. She looks like such a big girl. My baby is growing up...

Father's Day! Lily and I bought Daddy a new grill for his special day. He was very surprised and excited. We needed it...our old one was just trashed! Lily was so excited for him to see it...probably even more than he was to get it!

Sweet moment. She is truly becomming her daddy's girl.

Lily is growing up so fast. We are already preparing for her 4th birthday...it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating her 1st. She is so independent and LOVES learning! I think homeschooling is going to be a perfect fit for us. She loves working on her pre-K worksheets and practicing writing her letters. She is trying so hard to read. When I'm reading to her she will stop me if there is a word she doesn't understand and ask me what that means. She just continues to amaze us every day. She is such a sweet, caring and giving spirit.

And just to keep you up to date on her Nephrotic Syndrome, she has been prednisone free for 3 months. Both of her relapses happened right at this time so we are praying now that her urine will continue to be free from protein and there will be no relapse. So far all is well. We are so, so blessed.

Our Little Soccer Player

2010-05-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

Lily had her first soccer practice this last Saturday. She did pretty well at first...a little shy but she handled herself pretty well. At least until the soccer coach wanted the kids to each practice being goalie by stopping the ball with their hands and then dropping and rolling on the ground. Lily did not take too kindly to that...get herself dirty? Are you kidding me? After a few...ok, several...tears were shed, she ended up having a lot of fun. I suppose a night of not enough sleep didn't help either.:o} She still wants to go back next week, so that's the good news!

Lily's team.

Practicing her kick...

Look at that face! This was taken just after one of her crying fits.:o)

Robert asked her to wave...however he negleted to tell her to look at him as well! She can be such a stinker sometimes.;o)

Random Cuteness

2010-05-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

Practicing her numbers...

...and her letters.

This is the picture of a true California girl...cool shades and a Starbucks drink in her hand! (No, it's not coffee! This one loves chocolate milk.)

She took a look at herself in the mirror after we picked out this outfit and said, "I look stylish". I have to agree.:o) (And Shayna looks pretty cute too!)

Love that smile...

Easter 2010

2010-05-11T22:13:00.001-07:00

Lily dressed in her Easter best looking for those candy-filled eggs!

Counting her loot after the hunt...

I had to take a picture of our delicious raspberry lemon cake from Susina Bakery. Yum!

Matthew 28: 1-7
Jesus Is Risen!
Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. "He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. "Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you."

Lefty or Righty?

2010-04-14T23:02:00.001-07:00

Will she be a lefty?

Or a righty?

We aren't sure yet. So far she's still doing the ambidextrous thing. Either way, she loves writing and is so excited when she learns new letters. Her excitement for learning is really getting me even more excited about homeschooling her. What a joy it will be to teach her!

Our Little Cubbie

2010-03-26T08:05:00.001-07:00

Here is our sweet little Cubbie on her first day at AWANA. The smiles make it very clear, I think...she LOVES it! She loves reading in her book every week. She loves memorizing her bible verse each week. Last week her name was drawn to bring home Ern E. Elephant! (He is one of the characters in the book.) She so looks forward to going every week and asks all week long, "When is it going to be Wednesday Mommy?" I am so thankful that our church offers this incredible program and that Lily is already learning to love the Word of God and is hiding it in her heart. She will have no class for the next two weeks due to the Easter break...we are going to have one sad little girl on our hands.

Her new book bag. Of course I have since stamped her name in the little white box.:o)
Her vest which is now covered with the patches she has earned for memorizing her bible verses. She started class late and had some catching up to do, but she is now all caught up and is doing so well. We are so proud of you Lilybug!

Merry Christmas!

2010-02-05T23:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's a little late, but better late than never, right?;o) We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus and trying so hard to teach Lily the real reason for the season. It is so important to us, and because she knows how important it is to us, we hope it will become important to her. Now of course we did our fare share of "helping the economy" this year as well. How could we not when we get smiles like this??:o)

Mommy went a little overboard this year with the stockings...we needed 2 of them to hold all of her stuff!

She was so excited to see this feather boa! Every time we go to Michael's she wants to go see the "feathers". And to think she used to be afraid of them.

Her favorite show now is "Super Why". She absolutely loves it, and it's educational too!:o) Princess Presto is her favorite and daddy found this great dress up outfit for her.

Lily loves all things kitchen related. She got some new Kitchen Littles this year...many thanks to Mantha and Jenny.:o)

These "Fur Real" toys are amazing! They move and make noises and are just adorable! Lily named hers "Effie Flower Panda" and caries her around like a real baby. She is a very good Mommy to Effie.

And the "piece de resistance" (said with a perfect French accent of course)...

I only wish I had captured the actual look on her face when she saw this, but my little point and shoot camera was a little slow. Let's just say she was VERY excited...and that is a big understatement.

This face made it all worth it.:o)

We have had many delicious meals made by Lily in her kitchen. It is so nice, I told her it's even nicer than mommy's kitchen...to which she responded, "Yes but my kitchen doesn't have a dishwasher...or a toaster!".

We had a lovely Christmas celebrated with our family and a great friend (who makes amazing rolls by the way!) After the holidays were over, it came time to "clean up Christmas". When I mentioned this to Lily, she kept asking about her kitchen and if we could give it to her again next year. I didn't understand at first, but finally figured out what was going on in her head. She thought that by "cleaning up Christmas" it meant we were going to put all of her new presents away until next year! Poor sweet thing. She just loves that kitchen so much and even though she thought we were going to put it away, she didn't get upset, but simply asked if she could get it again next year. Boy...what a sweet and precious girl we have. To this day she still says, "Thank you for my kitchen mommy. ILOVE it!". We are so blessed.

Tap Tap Tap...

2010-01-31T21:07:00.000-08:00

...is this thing still on? Hello there! It's been a while. It seems I've got some catching up to do, and seeing as I have a few people curious about my whereabouts, I figure I'd better get on the ball. Lily is doing incredibly well and growing like a weed. I can't believe how big she is and how much she is talking...we have full-on converstaions now. The rate at which she is learning just blows me away and makes me all the more excited about homeschooling her...although a little nervous at the same time.:o)

She is now in the middle of her second relapse with her Nephrotic Syndrome. She relapsed back in October and the doctor recommended weaning her off of the prednisone at a much slower rate this time so as to avoid another relapse. She will probably be on it through the end of April, but we are praying that this will do the trick and no more relapses!

So of course I've got some pictures for you! These are from back in the fall, and I'll update with more recent pictures again soon...I promise!

On Halloween we took Lily to the "Pumpkin Park". It was a pumpkin patch here in town and she called it the Pumpkin Park because of all the fun things they had to do there. She had a blast! I wasn't sure how she would do on this big slide...it was sooooo high and I was sooooo nervous! She had no problem at all. She climbed right up and slid right back down...3 times!

Way up there ready for the big slide down!

Lily and her best friend Rachel had a play date and we took a walk to the park. They are so very cute together. Rachel even picked out this little panda and purse from the zoo for Lily. I hope they will be best friends forever!

The sweetest thing...

Cooking with Chef Lily. She LOVES to help me bake. Of course she needs to put on her apron and chef's hat also. She is such a good helper!

Carefully pouring...she is quite meticulous.

Lily's First Hair Cut

2009-12-05T21:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, it was her second really, but the first one was done by me and it was only her bangs.:o) She did really well. There was definate concern, but no tears...such a brave girl! (And these are not exactly recent...this was back in July!)

Hello There...

2009-10-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

...to anyone out there who may actually still be checking in from time to time.:o) We are still around, though our old computers are not. Note I say computers...plural. My laptop died quite a while back and Robert's computer finally took a dive a few weeks ago. But we are now up and running again and Robert is loving his new MAC! Several of his friends convinced him it was the way to go and he seems to be very happy with it...I love the 24" monitor.:o) Anyway, now that I also have a new computer (not a mac though), it has some features on it that make it very easy to get pictures uploaded and organized which in turn will make it much easier for me to get them up on my blog.:o) Here are a few and I hope to update with more very soon.

These were taken at a park while we were on vacation in Oregon. Robert was doing a photo shoot with my cousin Lisa so I took a few shots of Lily while she was being somewhat cooperative.:o)

That smile just lights up my world.

Back on August 12th Lily went from a crib to a big girl bed! We had been talking about it for weeks and she was so excited. She has done so well with it. She only fell out one time on the first night and not once since then. It took her a while to figure out that she could get up on her own in the morning...now she has no problem with that.:o)

Look Who's 3!

2009-08-16T19:41:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, August 15th, we celebrated Lily's 3rd birthday. I can't believe it. Didn't we just come home from China and celebrate her 1st birthday? I don't know what is going on with time, but it's just going by ridiculously fast. We had our friends and family over for the celebration and we all had a fun time. Lily got a little overwhelmed with all of the people and presents, but for the most part, she did pretty well.

This was her present from mommy and daddy...a ladybug car. How could we pass up a ladybug car?? During her party she was so sweet and showed her best friend Rachel how to use it too.

Great-Grandma, Grandma (Lao-Lao) and Auntie Jenny with baby Sara.

Lily wondering what to do with all of these presents!

Aunt Paula, Larry and Auntie Ellen watching the fun.

Mommy helping Lily open her presents. After the first one, she was so excited she ran right into the living room to play with it. I guess it is kind of mean to have a child open a present and then take it away from them to make them open the next one! Anyway, I ended up finishing the gift-opening for her.:o)

Kitchen Littles! She LOVES these. Every time we go over to our friend Mantha's house, she makes a bee-line right for these toys and plays with them for hours. She was so excited when she saw these!

A girl can never have too many clothes!

A brand new tea set from Lao-Lao. She loves to make us tea and coffee.

This is Kai-lan from the show Nihao Kai-lan. It's kind of like Dora the Explorer, except kids learn Mandarin, Chinese instead of Spanish. She is so cute!

3-D sidewalk chalk! I can't wait to try this. I'm not sure what my nervous expression is about...hmmmm.

Lily sharing her new toys with her friends.

I think someone is ready for cake!

As per Lily's request...a flower cake with M&M's.

She started trying to blow out her candles before we even finished singing!

Blowing out her 3 candles.

Mantha and Rachel.

Mike and Jenny.

Mmmm....I think she likes it!

Sean and Marley...Rachel's' daddy and baby sister.

Flowers, bugs and M&M's were the theme of the day. I had so much fun making these party favors for her friends.

These dirt cups were another special treat. They were so easy to make and came out so cute. Almost too cute to eat....almost.:o)

Mommy and daddy love you sooooooo big baby girl. You are a blessing to us each and every day and we are continuously thankful to God who in His infinite wisdom decided we were worthy to be your parents. I don't know what we did to deserve you, but we will cherish and treasure you always. Happy birthday to the sweetest girl I know.

A Lovely Surprise

2009-07-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

Waaaaay back on Sunday, May 3rd, we threw a surprise ??????th birthday party for my mother-in-law. Robert's sister and I had a lot of fun planning and preparing and not so much fun sweating it out hoping no one would spill the beans (especially Lily who was very much in on it). Lily didn't talk to Nai Nai very much before her party! After throwing something like this, I've grown a whole new respect for wedding and party planners. Anyway, she was surprised and I think she had a great time.:o)

One of the tables set up in our backyard.

A beautiful shot taken by a very special photographer we hired for the day.
(I hope he wasn't expecting to get paid though!)

It was a tea party theme so we had lots of sandwiches, salads, cheese trays and yummy snacks.

The coffee, tea and water table.

We did mini cupcakes for dessert and made a special cupcake holder for Jewell's.

Jewell's niece, Cheryl, flew in from Arizona. I think that surprised her more than anything!

After the initial surprise, we hit her again with another one...

...all of her friends surprising her as she walked into the kitchen.

Aunt Paula and Lily...I just love this picture.

Lily with my mom, Lao Lao. I think Lily was having a good time!

Jewell's good friend Edy reading a special poem she had written just for the occasion.

Robert's sister Ellen and her friend Jon-Marc who we hired to help for the party. Not only was he a great help, but he was also a very popular guest.;o)

Lily helping herself to some food.

Cheryl made Jewell a very special scrapbook for her birthday. They actually share the same birthday, although there are a few years between them.:o)

Jewell with her friend Dori...the Cuban firecracker!

The whole gang.

What better gift to give a grandma than pictures of her granddaughter? Gift giving sure has gotten easier since Lily came along.:o)

The Sweetest Thing

2009-07-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

Ain't she just?

I Wish...

2009-07-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

I wish I didn't feel so helpless
I wish I didn't act so selfish
I wish I didn't wring my hands night and day
My hair was a little bit smoother
My jeans fit a little bit looser
And I always knew the right things to say
And I wish I wouldn't hide what's been going on inside
And I wish you wouldn't get scared and run away

Chorus
I wish I was doing better
With all the things that matter,
I guess I got some learning to do
I wish everyone had someone
To hold em and to love em
The way I'm always gonna love you
I wish wishes came true

I was there was a cure for cancer
I wish somebody had an answer
And all God's children, never got hurt
I wish Eve never bit that apple
You men never went to battle
And I didn't get so mad at the world
I wish I was more like Jesus
And could pick up all the pieces
And make a better life for my baby girl

Chorus
I wish I was doing better
With all the things that matter,
I guess I got some learning to do
I wish everyone had someone
To hold em and to love em
The way I'm always gonna love you
I wish wishes came true

For everything I am wishing
I know someone up there is listening
So, I say my prayers when I go to bed
Ahh, ahh, ahh
Oh pray my wishes come true
Oh

Chorus
I wish I was doing better
With all the things that matter,
I guess I got some learning to do
I wish everyone had someone
To hold em and to love em
The way I'm always gonna love you
I wish wishes came true

I know wishes come true
I wish, I wish

More pictures coming soon!

She Colors My Day

2009-05-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

A beautiful song for a beautiful girl.

here and now i'm going to stay
in her world i'm going to play
rolling in her cartwheels,
feeling just like she feels
lost inside her curls and her sun rays

she colors my day
in red, pink, blue and shades of grey
whenever we play, she colors my day

in the night she's a flashlight
in her skin i end and begin

to a smile that's always dreaming
to a song that's always scheming
to hands that hold my own
like warm sun rays

she colors my day
in red, pink, blue and shades of grey
whenever we play, she colors my day
in a green and violet skirt
she magically plays
she colors my day

i need her light - she's warm, she's cold she feels just right

she's my best friend - she takes,
she gives, it just never ends

i feel so real - in like, in love
i'm head over heels

she's my best girl - she runs, she jumps she spins and she
twirls

— written by cristina carlino and stuart mathis, produced by stuart mathis

Time is Flying...

2009-05-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

...because we are having fun! I can't believe that two years ago on May 1st we received the news that we finally had a daughter. Two years! What happened? Where did it go? Our little girl is growing up right before our eyes. And she is just that... a little girl. My baby is nothing more than glimpses seen on rare moments now. I fully appreciate the statement heard so many times from my own mom..."You will always be my baby". No matter how old Lily is, she will always be just that...our baby.

Meet Jumpy Squirrel. He is a frequent visitor to our backyard as he loves feeding off the fallen seeds from our bird feeder. He got his name from Lily's favorite show, Curious George. Jumpy is fun to watch...especially when our cat (Stella) and dog (Shayna) are trying to chase him out of the yard! This is one brave fellow and Lily just loves him.

One of Lily's favorite things to do with a PB & J...smash it all over her face to make a "mustache" and then ask for a mirror to see her work.

Asking for the mirror...

Proudly displaying her work for the camera.

Yesterday Lily had a play date with her best friend Rachel (we just love that she calls Rachel her best friend!). We went to the mall fully expecting just a nice leisurely lunch and a stroll. Lily and I got there first...and then she saw it...a water fountain to run in on a very warm day, ever so gently calling her name. Lunch ended up not being what I expected...it was even better.

This is my absolute favorite picture of the day...the joy on the faces of two little girls having a great time together. Precious.

Can you believe this? This from a little girl who at one time would scream her head off when we rinsed her hair in the bath tub. Those days are definitely over!

There must be some perfect caption for this shot...I just can't think of anything right now!

Disappointing News

2009-04-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

Last week Lily had her first relapse with her Nephrotic Syndrome. I kind of saw the writing on the wall a few days before it became official. We still monitor her urine for protein fairly regularly. She usually reads negative or sometimes trace if I check it later in the day. About a week and a half ago she started fluctuating between trace and +1 (the scale runs from negative to +4). As soon as I saw the +1, I knew it was coming back, even though I was hoping it was a fluke. Then last Wednesday she came down with a 103 degree fever and I knew it was back. The next morning she was +4...full blown relapse. While this was disappointing, it was not surprising. 70% of kids will have relapses, so we expected it even though we prayed for the best. I called her Pediatric Nephrologist and told her what was going on. She told us to wait one more day and if she was still +4 to go ahead and start her back on the prednisone. Ugh. I do not like that stuff. The next morning she was still +4 so we started the medicine, remembering full well the complete meltdown she had the first time back in October...45 minutes of inconsolable meltdown. This time Lily has handled the medicine very well. The only side effects I'm noticing so far are a few moments during the day where she will just kind of stare off into space with a blank look on her face. She snaps out of it very quickly, but it can be little unnerving. She's also a bit moody as well...more so than usual.:o) She is only taking half the dosage she did the first time she was diagnosed (only once in the morning instead of twice a day), so that is probably keeping the side effects to a minimum. The good news is that the medicine started working very quickly. She started the prednisone Friday and by Tuesday she was down to a +2 and yesterday was +1. As soon as she reads negative for 3 days in a row, we can start weaning her off. The first time we still had to keep her on the full dose for a month after she was negative. She currently takes 10 ml's every morning (2 teaspoons). We will lower her dose by 2 ml's every 2 weeks as long as she stays negative. So while the weaning off process is long and slow, at least she won't be on it for as long as she was before. I can't tell you enough how blessed we are that the medicine works so well for her. I've read so many stories of children not responding to the prednisone and having to try so many other drugs, and then having to change the dosages on a daily basis to try to "fool' the kidneys. Sometimes the kidneys become "addicted" to the meds and the kids will go back to +4 the minute the dosage is lowered. Lily is a very "average statistic" when it comes to this and for that I am very grateful.

A Precious Moment

2009-04-23T22:15:00.001-07:00

We have been praying with Lily every night before she goes to sleep since the day we brought her home. We pray for various things, but always for her salvation...that she would come to know Jesus as her Savior. Recently we began asking her who she would like to pray for. Usually she says a family member or two, or some friends. Tonight the conversation went like this:

Robert: "Who do you want to pray for?"
Lily: "Mmmm...Lily...and mommy...and me...and for my salvation too."

After saying this she immediatly closed her eyes and bowed her head to pray. Robert and I just looked at each other with great big smiles on our faces...there were no words. There is no greater gift we could receive than the knowledge that our daughter's eternity is secure in heaven with Jesus. Lord let it be so.

United for Easter

2009-04-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

This post title has a double meaning:
1...Robert and I were blessed to be able to go see the Steven Curtis Chapman/Michael W. Smith "United" tour on Saturday in Long Beach. It was an amazing show, needless to say. It was the first time seeing Steven in concert since he lost his daughter, Maria, last May. I know I spent pretty much Steven's entire set list in tears. I won't speak for Robert, but let's just say I did hear a sniffle or two come from his direction.:o) Steven is one amazing man of God and I just can't put into words how moving it was to see him up there praising God after going through such a trial. He was so open and honest about how he and his family have been struggling and how they had to decide if they really believed what he had been singing about for so many years. Believe me...they do! It was a blessed night.
2...and even more importantly, Robert and I celebrated our 12th anniversary being "united" in marriage on Easter Sunday! It was kind of neat that our anniversary fell on Easter this year. We went to church in the morning and heard a great message about why we believe what we believe is true. The Christian faith means nothing without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We learned about the 3 witnesses, Mary, Peter and John, who saw that He was no longer in the tomb. We learned about the hundreds of witnesses who saw and touched Him after He rose from the dead. And we learned how blessed we are because we believe, even though we have not seen.

'I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come." Ephesians 1:18-21

After the service we came home to get ready for a luncheon with the family. (First though, Robert had a brief meeting with a couple who is getting married this Friday who's wedding he is shooting. Whoohoo!) We had a great time with them and some wonderful food too. Lily had a blast coloring eggs and searching for them later. Here are some pictures of our day.

Lily and Auntie Ellen coloring and decorating eggs.

The most beautiful eggs I've ever seen!

Lily hunting for eggs. We hid plastic ones though. I didn't want to risk a real one getting left out in the yard...peeeyew!

An adorable picture of Lily by our hydreangea bush.

Showing off her prize.

There were eggs hidden in the cala lillies too.

Another find...so proud!

After the hunting was over, of course she wanted to find out what was inside. So exciting!

Of course there was some candy...

And what good would it be if she didn't get to eat some!?!?

She also got some fun Curious George stamps. Her favortie cartoon and one of her favorite things to do...stamp with mommy!

The raspberry lemon cake I made for dessert. It was more raspberry than lemon, but it was very yummy!

Lily and Nai Nai.

Good Grief!

2009-04-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

What happened to March? Time flies when you are busy living life. Well, in case there is still anyone out there who checks in on us from time to time, here is a little something I hope will make up for the lack of posting last month!

Lily singing "A Your Adorable". Her favorite version is by Dean Martin. This one is my favorite!

And of course, some pictures. First, just a few cards, then on to bigger and better things.

This is the Valentine's Day card Lily and I gave to Robert. I had a ton of fun making this card. Once I got started with the hearts, I just couldn't stop. (Of course this is because our hearts are just overflowing with love for him!)

This is a card we sent to our dear friend who recently lost his mom. We are praying for you M and H...and Lily won't let us forget!

We made these cards at my Stamp-a-Stack class last weekend. So cute and super easy.

I went to get Lily up from her nap one day and look what I found...Snowflake and Panda all tucked in their bed. Too cute.

Snowflake and Panda's mommy very proud of herself for taking such good care of her babies.

I did a spur of the moment photo shoot with my little point and shoot camera. There was something about the way the sun was coming in through the window and lighting up the room that makes me just love these pictures (and not to mention the cutest photo subject ever!).

This picture is blurry, but I just love the laughter...real and genuine. These moments are precious moments.

Here she is once again, being a good mommy. This time to her "costume baby". (She isn't really into naming them yet.)

And last but not least...reading books with Lao Lao. She loves her books and constantly wants us to read to her anything she can find. One of her current favorites is the See's candy catalog. I have no idea where she got that!;o)

A Funny Thing Happened...

2009-02-23T15:21:00.001-08:00

...as I was preparing the previous post. Lily was playing in the living room and hollered back to me asking if she could have a piece of candy she had received from her "Auntie Kari" for Valentine's Day. They are in a little candy jar on an end table in the living room. Usually she is very good about not touching anything unless we tell her it's ok. I had already told her several times she could have one after lunch, so I hollered back to her that same statement. Things got quiet...never a good sign...so I made my way to the living room just in time to catch a little hand in the candy jar. She saw me and with eyes as big as saucers immediately pulled her hand out. I asked her very calmly, "What are you doing?" and she BURST into tears! Things like this just make me laugh, especially when I think of how so many people talk about how "innocent" children are. Ha! We are all born sinners in need of a Savior. She was guilty and she knew it. It is such a blessing and I am so thankful to see God working in her heart already.

Happy (be-lated) Valentine's Day (and new pictures!)

2009-02-23T11:07:00.001-08:00

Well, I finally have some new pictures to post! I have really got to get it together and learn how to upload and convert these things myself. I am just so not into that!

Anyway, first are just some cute, random pictures.:o)

I had Lily show off her tushy so I could get a picture of the reason we bought this dress.:o)
Plus it was only $6 at Costco. Gotta love it!

Another swing picture at the park, but I just love this one.

Look at that smile! When I see her smile like this, it just fills me with joy at the miracle we've been given.

On to Valentine's Day! I found these adorable little mailboxes in the $1 bin at Target (LOVE that $1 bin!). Naturally I had to get them to decorate for Valentine's Day gifts for our family. Of course the flags are up since Lily helped decorate the special valentines we put inside.

Some little 3 x 3 valentines and a cute little box made with the Stampin' Up scallop envelope die for the Big Shot. It's amazing the things you can do with that machine!

Of course Lily got a little spoiled for Valentine's Day.:o) I decorated a tin for her and filled it with toy jewelery (again from the $1 bin!). She also got a new placemat, a plate, a big girl cup, some silverware, a new Curious George DVD and a great big marshmallow heart.

I think she liked it all!

We went to Nai Nai's house the day after Valentine's Day for my birthday dinner. We forgot to put my memory card back in my camera and borrowed hers. I found this adorable picture on it of Nai Nai and Lily from Christmas. So precious!

Lily got spoiled again with Valentine gifts from Auntie Ellen and Nai Nai's friend Jacci. Jacci is also the one who gave Lily Snowflake. You may remember the story of Snowflake from last summer. I'd link directly to it, but I don't know how!

Lily and Larry. They have a lot of fun together...a very special relationship. He and Nai Nai took care of Lily while I was in Salt Lake City last July/August for 3 days. Larry casually mentioned that I should go on another one of my stamping getaways. I think he's trying to get rid of me! When I mentioned this, he affirmed my suspicion.:o)

On Monday, 2/16, my friend Michele called me in the morning saying she was in labor. Her whole family had been sick and she asked if we could watch their 2 year old, Rachel, for the day. No problem! Lily and Rachel had a great time playing together.

Rachel emptied one of Lily's baskets and promptly crawled inside with several toys. So cute!

Lily had fun dragging Rachel around by the hand showing her the house and all of her toys.

Here she is "helping" Rachel with her drink.

And, by the way, Michele and her husband Sean came to pick up Rachel later that afternoon...with no baby. False labor...darn! But happily, Rachel's baby sister, Marley, came a few days later...Saturday, February 21st, weighing in at a mere 5 lbs, 10 oz and 21 " long. A tall, skinny future basketball player!

Morning Conversations

2009-02-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

Lily to Mommy: "Are you a she?"

Mommy to Lily: "Yes I am. Are you a she"?

Lily to Mommy: "Yes!"

Mommy to Lily: Is Daddy a she?"

Lily to Mommy: "No! Daddy a Hero Man!"

Daddy will be so proud!

Last Nights Dinner Conversation

2009-02-10T20:22:00.001-08:00

Daddy to Lily (referring to her favorite TV shows): "Lily...what's your favorite? Curious George, Word World or Caillou?"

Lily to Daddy: "Amy Grant!"

That's my girl!

Sorry no pictures, but you'll understand why...

2009-02-02T11:11:00.002-08:00

It's a big big day in our house today! First of all, Lily was starting to show trace amounts of protein in her urine for the last couple of days, which obviously concerned me a bit...especially since she has had a cold for the last few days and relapses can be triggered by that. Thankfully today she is back to negative. Needless to say, I am very relieved. But the even bigger news...Lily went poo-poo in the potty today...hence the lack of pictures! I am so so very proud of her! She has been doing pretty well with going pee-pee in the potty, but every time she had to go #2, she would make the announcement of what she was doing and run to her corner to take care of business. At least she was telling us what she was up to...that's a big step. Anyway, each time she would make this announcement, we would ask if she wanted to go in her potty and she would very sternly answer, "No!". Well, today I am letting her run around "nekkie" to help with the potty training process. We were playing in the living room and all of a sudden she ran up and bolted. Then I hear her yelling from the bathroom, "Mommy! I'm going poopy in the potty!". I immediately ran into the bathroom to check it out, and sure enough, there it was in all its glory! She was a little concerned at first, but once I got excited and told her how proud I was of her, she started to get excited too. It's amazing how telling a child how proud you are of them can bring such joy to their faces. She was just so happy, and then she immediately reached for her M&M's. She's no dummy! So, another of many first milestones is accomplished today. There is still work to do in the training department, but today, I could not be more proud of my baby girl.

January 2009

2009-01-30T15:05:00.000-08:00

On January 11th, we took Lily to Snow Day. We don't see much of that around here, so the City of Calabasas brought some in for us to play in. Of course it was close to 80 degrees that day so it was a little difficult to get the full effect of a real snow day, but Lily had a great time anyway!

Checking out the snow.

"I made you a present daddy! Wanna see how cold it is?"

"Yup....that's cold!"

Lily got to see how cold it was too.

What kid doesn't eat snow!?

"Mommy and I made a snowman for you daddy!" Lily was a little disappointed that we didn't have a carrot for his nose though.

Lily reading her giant farm book to Nai Nai. Precious moments I don't want to miss.

Driving home one day Lily started crying because she was upset about something. I'm assuming it was partly because she was tired. She was so mad, she even fell asleep with her mad face still on!

Lily woke up from her nap the other day and she was a little cold. It was the perfect time to introduce her to the joy of "hot" chocolate with marshmallows!

This was her first time drinking from her "big girl" cup. She liked it, but we all decided it would be much less messy with a straw. She loves straws and hates messes, so it worked out perfectly!

Spelling Lily

2009-01-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

She's a genius!:o) (And that weird clicking sound you hear in the background is our dog Shayna walking around on the hard kitchen floor. I guess it's time to trim her nails!)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-14T10:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are still here! We were just having so much fun doing a lot of nothing during Roberts' 3 weeks off that blogging kind of took a major back seat. But we've got lots of catching up to do so grab a cup of coffee and sit a spell if you can.:o)

Christmas, as you can imagine, was a wonderful time. I actually got a bit of a head start so it didn't seem to get too overwhelming. Robert and I vowed to keep things simple this year, however, I think we forgot to pass that message on to the rest of the family! Christmas Day was, I think, a bit overwhelming for Lily. This is one.spoiled. girl (and I mean that in a good way!). I knew it was going to be interesting when she looked at the tree and said, "Too much stuff." Ha! I can't wait to see what she has to say next Christmas!

We had 12 people over to celebrate including: us, of course, Robert's mom and sister, my mom and grandma and our dear friend Martin and his sweet daughter. As a last minute surprise, we found out my cousin Teresa's husband was home early from Iraq. Since they are stationed in San Diego (not too terribly far) we invited them along with their 4 month old son Bryan, to join us. Our little house was quite full and I wouldn't have it any other way! Lily just loves "Baby Bryan" and I'm so glad they were able to join us. It made for a very full, perfect day.

New Year's was spent with our friends Mike and Kerry at their annual New Year's Eve party. Lily managed to stay up until midnight yet again this year while Robert and I were both doing the "head-bob" trying to make it to the ball drop. Another friend of ours was very smart...they watched the live east coast feed and were in bed by 9:05! I'm totally trying that next year.:o) Anyway, Lily had a great time playing and entertaining the other guests. She can be quite the ham when she wants to be.

During the last week of Robert's break, we had our appointment to take Lily in to the specialist regarding her Nephrotic Syndrome. We had to make the trek out to Ventura by 8:45am. It's about a 45 minute drive for us. (Never mind the fact there happens to be a Nephrotic Specialist across the hall from Lily's pediatrician...10 minutes away. But they are not on our insurance plan....grrrrr.) But the appointment went great. She said our pediatrician had done everything right and even though protocol said to keep her on her current dose of prednisone until the end of January and then reduce from there, she thought Lily had responded incredibly well and that we could go ahead and lower her dosage by 2 ml's every other day. I am very happy and relieved to say, yesterday was her last dose of prednisone! While that is good news, we are also very aware that only 30% of kids have only one bout with this. That means 70% of kids will have at least one and maybe several relapses. We will still need to check her urine once a week to see if she starts leaking any more protein. Often times relapses can occur when a child gets a cold, flu or even an ear infection, so we will especially be on the lookout should she get sick. The good news is that if she does relapse, we can catch it quickly and start treating it before she blows up like she did the first time. The specialist also said that the kids aren't on prednisone for nearly as long as the first time, so they usually are weaned off much more quickly. Obviously we pray that she won't relapse, but at least now we know how to handle it. It's hard to believe this has been a 3 month process. I also know how blessed we are that Lily responded so well and so quickly to the prednisone. I've read many stories of families who have had so many problems with their kids not responding to the prednisone, or even relapsing the minute they start weaning off of it, making the process many months longer and a difficult struggle. We are thankful God answered our prayers and got Lily through this relatively quickly.

Now Robert is back to work and we are back to our regular schedule. We sure did love having him home for so long. Lily has asked every morning if daddy is home. I'm sure she'll be happy come Saturday! I am so grateful for the bond they have formed, especially over the last few months. She is finally and truly becoming a daddy's girl, just like I knew she would. She's not quite ready to push me away just yet, but she loves.her.daddy. We will be making him some extra special Valentine's this year.:o)

Well, I think that's about it for now. I hope your New Year is off to a great start so far. I can't tell you how excited I am to have "American Idol" and finally "24" back! I'll try to keep you updated more frequently now that the holidays are over. Robert and I are both on facebook now too, so you can catch us there from time to time if you want to say hello!

Lily and panda in front of our Christmas tree. She just LOVED Christmas trees this year. Everywhere we went, all she wanted to see were Christmas trees.

She had a blast putting panda in the empty train car and watching him go for a ride. This was not so last year. We tried it then and she just cried as she watched her precious panda disappear around the corner!

Lily and her daddy with Mantha and her daddy. Mantha and Lily just adore each other. This family is one of the best things that happened to us at Lanai. We love you guys!

Look who got a new tricycle for Christmas! She was so excited...when we went into the living room Christmas morning, she saw it and just ran right to it and tried to get on! It's still a little bit big for her, so for now Robert and I help her by pushing her around on it.

Later on Christmas Day. She is looking a little tired here. Actually, I think daddy is looking a little tired here too! We had a great, but exhausting, day.

Lily trying her new bike at the park.

I just had to get a picture of this. Lily loves books and loves to "read" them to her friends. She is just way too cute.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T07:55:00.000-08:00

Luke 2:1-20

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. " This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child.
And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas...from our home to yours.

'Tis the Season!

2008-12-07T23:47:00.000-08:00

It wouldn't be Christmas without these elves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

2008-12-06T15:41:00.001-08:00

I can't believe Christmas is already less than 3 weeks away. Yikes! I've still got lots to do, but it is all fun stuff and I just love this time of year! The Christmas cards are coming along, I've gotten a little shopping done, but we are keeping things pretty simple here this year. Of course now it's all about Lily anyway. She gets just a little spoiled.:o) I am so excited to see how she reacts to everything this year. It will be a lot of fun. I'm sure. Here are some pictures to show what things are like around here this month.

The choo-choo train under our tree. This was my dad's and we sort of inherited it after he passed away. Lily LOVES it. It has one open car you can put things in. Last year we put one of her toys in it and turned the train on. Big mistake. HUGE tears as she watched her precious toy disappear around the corner. This year, she puts her panda in the car and squeals with glee as he goes for a ride.

Lily is truly developing a great love for pretending (or "petemper" as she calls it). She is a great mommy to her baby dolls and loves to push them around in the stroller. They spend a lot of time going to the park and to the doctor's office. I guess that tells you where we have spent a lot of our time.

Here is Lily all ready to go out and about. Sunglasses...check. Keys...check. Phone...check. Purse...check. What else does a girl need?

Robert took our family Christmas picture last weekend. It was a rough session. It was getting late in the afternoon and Lily was getting a little grumpy and very uncooperative. So unnatural for a 2 year old, I know.;o) Anyway, we ended up getting a few good shots. This isn't the one we'll be using on our Christmas card, but it is pretty cute.

Giving Thanks

2008-11-26T22:09:00.000-08:00

We should be thankful every day for all we have been given. Our family is blessed to live in a country where we are free...free to give thanks to the One who has blessed us far beyond what we deserve. I hope we can all remember to give thanks today...for our families, our friends, our freedom, our faith. There are so many scriptures on thankfulness. I've included a few that touch me. Thank you Lord for choosing me, for loving me, for forgiving me, for blessing me even though I deserve none of it. To You be the glory.

"Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe." Hebrews 12:28

"I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High." Psalm 9:1-2

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name." Psalm 100:4

"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting." Psalm 118:1

"Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving." Colossians 4:2

New Projects

2008-11-25T22:03:00.000-08:00

With the rapidly approaching Christmas season, I've been busy working on all kinds of stamping projects. I've made Christmas cards, gift tags, gift bags, gift card holders, ornaments, all kinds of fun things! My favorite part about being a Stampin' Up demonstrator is having a class and watching peoples faces light up when they see how easy it is to make such fun, cute things! I've always thought it makes a gift so much more meaningful when it's made with your own hands. Here are a few things we did at my class this last weekend.

The larger card is a pocket card...the white card with the tab pulls out.

Two little gift bags. These are really cute and so easy...a lot of fun to make.

Gift card holders...you pull the tab and the gift card is attached to it. Again, super easy and so cute!

A cute set of gift tags. I think I'll be using these on my Christmas gifts this year.

Today I got out of Christmas mode to work on some birthday, thank you and baby cards I need to get sent out.

This one is so cute! I copied part of the idea from another card I saw. If you click on the picture, you might be able to notice the detailing on the bottom. I scored on the white every 1/4" so it looks like wainscoating (sp?).

These are the same...only one is a birthday card and one is a thank you card.

And I couldn't very well post without putting a picture of our sweet Lily. Here she is after her bath tonight. She is just the cutest thing ever!

Lily Update

2008-11-24T15:48:00.001-08:00

Lily is still doing incredibly well, all things considered. We had another follow up with her doctor today. She wasn't too excited about seeing him, but she was "a bwave guhl". She is still on the full prescribed dose of predisone until the 30th. Starting in December we get to start lowering the doseage to every even day. We have an appointment with the specialist in January, so I'm sure we'll get more detailed information then as far as weaning her off.

I took some cute pictures of Lily at the park the other day. They are pretty good, by my standards.;o) Of course Lily is an easy subject and extrememly photogenic. The first picture is Lily in her ladybug costume at Halloween. At this point she had not been on the predisone very long. It was just long enough for her kidneys to start functioning properly and help her lose all of that water weight, but just before the prednisone started puffing her up. You'll notice quite a big difference here. Either way, she is perfectly beautiful, inside and out.

By the way, we had a very beautiful melt-your-heart moment this morning. I was getting ready for the day as Lily was watching "Bob" (also known as "Veggie Tales"). Out of the blue she said to me, "I keep mommy forever!" She just kills me. I know I've said this before, but I can't say it enough...we are so blessed.

What a sweet smile.

I love this picture...she looks so deep in thought.

Airplane arms...she learned that at gymnastics class.

Pointing at the clouds in the sky. She is so fascinated by everything...I love it.

Weekend Getaway

2008-11-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we took our annual trip to Palm Springs. The three of us along with my mom headed out late Wednesday night and got into town around 10:00pm. After getting settled into our rooms, we got Lily ready for bed. She was sitting on my lap with a very concerned look on her face, and then her lower lip started trembling. I asked her what was wrong. She looked right into my eyes and said, "Go home?" Uh-oh. I had been explaining to her about us going on vacation, and this wasn't her first time going away with us, so I wasn't worried...until now. I told her again that we were on vacation and told her about how much fun we were going to have. We turned her music on, prayed with her and put her down. As we walked out of her room we feared the worst. But she was out like a light. She was one tired little girl! She did great the entire trip with only a couple of major meltdowns. One was as we were leaving the Living Desert. She did not get her way so she screamed her head off the entire way to the car. Boy was that a long walk! As we hit the road to grab a bite to eat, she was out. Her other meltdown was on our last night. She disobeyed mommy and had to stand in the corner. Once she calmed down, she apologized and was fine. Thankfully she usually recovers quickly...and I have noticed that they mostly seem to happen when she is tired.

Then there was yesterday. We always have great mornings together...it's my favorite part of the day. We watched a little Curious George and then had some breakfast. After breakfast we headed out to her gymnastics class. The kids play around for a few minutes until the teacher is ready and we have circle time. Lily usually likes this part, but this morning, she did not want to do circle time. She wanted to play. When I told her no, the tears started flowing. The teacher looked over at me and said, "Oh! She does cry!" It's not a usual occurrence. Once her teacher started singing, Lily forgot she was upset and had a great time for the rest of class. After class, we headed over to Target. We needed to get a refill of her prescription and I had to pick up a few other things. Lily's favorite thing to do now is to look at Christmas trees. Anytime we go to any store she wants to look at the Christmas trees. I told her as soon as I was done at the pharmacy, we would go look at the trees. As I was talking to the pharmacist, Lily kept grabbing at my wallet. I looked over and told her no. She kept grabbing it. I took it away from her and told her no again. I told her she needed to apologize to mommy for not obeying or we would not look at the Christmas trees (I know...I am so mean!). Then it happened. Our first temper tantrum in the middle of a store. Why is it that a toddlers screams never seem so loud as when one is in a store full of people? I pushed her around in the cart as she kept screaming. When she is like this, there is nothing anyone can do to calm her down...she just needs to work it out for herself. As I was debating whether or not to leave, I picked her up from the cart and she started calming down. She looked at me and said, "Sorry mommy". She just kills me! Someone had commented on Robert's blog about how we will have our hearts broken and melted many times by this little girl. Boy was she right! Anyway, we of course went over to the Christmas section and looked at every single tree.:o)

Here are a few shots Robert took on our trip.

In her footie jammies and ready for bed.

Running around the resort and having fun!

Lily playing with daddy's new magic trick.

What a beautiful smile.

The cutest butterfly in the Living Desert!

Some great shots by Robert.

We love this place for breakfast. We stop there every year on our way home.

Enjoying a BIG bowl of oatmeal. No, she didn't eat the whole thing.:o)

I Voted...Did You?

2008-11-04T14:53:00.000-08:00

Big Steps for our Baby Girl

2008-11-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

First of all, we have very good news to report from the doctors office. We went to see him on Friday with a urine sample from Lily. The three of us were in the office when the nurse came in with the results. The doctor looked shocked and took off his glasses like he wanted to be sure he was reading it correctly. He very excitedly told me that her urine had negative traces of protein. YEAH!!! This means she will still need to be on the full dose of prednisone for 30 days and then we can start weaning her off of it. I will be so glad. While part of me knows this medicine is obviously helping her, there is another part of me that feels like I'm giving her poison, knowing all of the possible side effects. The only ones the doctor is really worried about is weight gain as her appetite will continue to increase, so we will need to continue to monitor her diet closely. There is also a possibility that she may get diabetes as a side effect. While this would go away once she is off of the prednisone, we would have to treat her as a diabetic until then. We pray all will go smoothly and she won't experience that.

And then there is today...a VERY big day. For many weeks, months even, Lily has been practicing sitting on the potty. I have been telling her that if she goes pee-pee in the potty, she will get M&M's. She repeats it to me all.the.time but has never gone. Today, she came up to me and said, "Mommy...go pee-pee in the potty RIGHT NOW!". I said ok, thinking she was just going to get in another "practice" session. I took her clothes off (yes, all of them. For whatever reason, she likes to be naked on the potty) and set her down. I started cleaning in the bathroom and as I looked over to check on her, she was standing over the potty looking down into it. I looked in and could not believe my eyes. My big girl went pee-pee in the potty! I got so excited. Robert heard and came down the hall to check it out. We both started cheering and clapping. Lily just kept looking at us saying, "Go pee-pee in the potty, get M&M's." So she got her special treat and enjoyed every last one. She was still running around "nekkie" as I was shaking the kithen rugs out back. She came out with me and proceeded to pee on the patio. I explained to her that we only go pee-pee on the potty, not outside! She looked at me and said, "Shayna (our dog) go pee-pee outside!" Aye. We still have some work to do, but what a big day/week for baby Lily!

Freedom is Worth the Price

2008-10-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

I don't usually get political here, but in case you haven't heard, there is a very important Election Day coming up next week. Please. Go. Vote.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2008-10-28T12:23:00.000-07:00

I love you soooooooooo big!

More Dr. Visits and My First Adoption "Run-In"

2008-10-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

So I think poor Lily believes that every time we get in the car we are going to the doctors office. Poor thing. I don't blame her. Every time we have gotten in the car this week it has been to go to the doctor. I think we need to take her out to do something fun...very soon!

Anyway, we had to go back to the doctor this morning to have her TB test read and take another urine sample. The TB is negative and the urine is still chock full of protein. Her weight has gone down a little which is good. He sent us home and said he would call later with prescription info. When he called us, he said he wanted Lily to go to the lab for a couple more blood tests just to be on the safe side and rule out any other possibilities. I was not excited about that! But Lily was such a trooper today. She didn't cry at the office at all. In fact she was talking to the nurse and the doctor and running around like she lived there (which she practically has this week!). So after our morning visit, we went back to the office to pick up the prescription paper and the form for the additional blood work. We headed up to the lab, gave the nurse our paperwork and waited our turn. There was one other lady in the waiting room who was having fun watching Lily. She asked me if I was her mom or if I took care of her. I said, "She is my daughter.". She looked kind of shocked and said, "Oh. But she is Chinese." I said, "Yes. We adopted her." She said, "Oh. Ok." I thought that was the end of it until this brilliant statement came out of her mouth. "She acts like she thinks you are her real mom." ??????? After picking my jaw up off the floor I said, "I AM her real mom." She started to say something, but was saved by the nurse calling her in for her turn. I'm sure she didn't really understand what she was saying, at least I hope not! But after being home for a year and 3 months, this was the first dumb thing I've had said to me. Not too bad!:o)

My Poor Baby

2008-10-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of confirming her diagnosis, but it looks like Lily has Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome. I'll start from the beginning...

About a week or two ago, I started noticing Lily was feeling heavier. I figured she must be experiencing a growth spurt, but deep down I had a feeling that something just wasn't right. It wasn't until this last Saturday that Robert and I both noticed something wrong. She woke up that morning with very puffy eyes and a runny nose. Maybe the puffy eyes were caused by the cold she apparently had? We went about our usual routine. Lily was of course her happy funloving self. We took her to the park in the afternoon. At one point she was going down the slide and I noticed her legs seemed to be larger than normal. My first thought was, we have GOT to cut back on the snacks! Sunday morning she woke up still very puffy. We opted not to go to church as she was still dealing with her cold and I didn't want her to be around the other kids. We did, however, decide to keep our lunch date with Robert's mom. When I got her dressed, I noticed the outfit I was putting on her that was a little too big just 1 week before was now fitting her very snug. As I was carrying Lily in the parking lot I couldn't help but think she was just feeling too heavy. I weighed her when we got home and according to the scale, she had put on 4-5 pounds within the last 2-3 weeks. Now Lily is a good eater, but she certainly hasn't eaten enough to warrant that much weight gain. First thing Monday morning I called her pediatrician and made an appointment. The doctor looked at her and confirmed she was definately puffy and bloated. He asked a few questions and mentioned the Nephrotic Syndrome, but needed a urine sample and blood work to confirm it. (Of course all I heard was, "Syndrome blah blah blah kidney blah blah protein blah blah steroids blah blah blah don't worry". Ha!) He attached a little bag to her and I put her diaper back on (the things they have in the medical field never cease to amaze me!). I took her to the park as she was pretty upset about having been to the doctor, and then went back to the office to return the sample. He came back within minutes and said her urine was "loaded with protein" and he was pretty sure of the diagnosis. Basically her kidneys are losing protein so water is moving into the body tissues which is what is causing the swelling. So we left the office and headed to the lab for her blood work. She'd never had her blood drawn like this before and needless to say, I was pretty nervous about it. While the phlebotomist was very nice, she had to poke and dig around in both of Lily's arms and came up with nothing. Lily was screaming her head off...louder than I'd ever heard her scream, and I was going back and forth between wanting to punch that lady in the face and feeling sorry for her because I knew she was doing her best. Lily was just so dehydrated that is was difficult to find her veins. She advised me to take Lily home and give her water, water and more water, and bring her back in the morning. Yes....that's what I want to do...put my daughter through more torture. The nurse felt so badly, she kept handing Lily more and more stickers to try to make her feel better, which actually did work! Anyway, I took her home and tried to keep myself calm about the whole thing. I looked up the syndrome on a website the doctor recommended and felt much better about the prognosis. This morning I got Lily up and when I got her dressed, her feet were so swollen I couldn't even get her shoes on, so she wore her kitty slippers, which she loved! We had a much better experience today. The phlebotomist got Lily's vein on the first try. Lily still screamed the whole time, but at least it's done now. She stopped screaming and was happy again as soon as the needle came out...and let's just say Lily has quite the sticker collection going! So now we go back to the doctor tomorrow to read Lily's TB test. I guess she had to have it again because the treatment for this syndrome is steroids and she has to have a negative TB. We also have to wait for the bloood tests to come back to confirm everything and then the doctor will talk more about her treatment. She will need to be on a low sodium diet, which is just as well anyway...for all of us. The good news is she will outgrow it. She may never even have another bout with this, or she could have them occasionally through her teens. At least it is minor and there will be no permanant damage. I keep wanting to feel sorry for her, but she has no clue there is even anything wrong with her! She is such an amazing little girl...a little trooper. She is so full of joy and laughter. We are so blessed. The doctor told me I should take pictures of her...not sure why. Maybe for the specialist he will refer us to after the blood work comes back? Anyway, here is my poor puffy baby.

Lily having lunch after her horrible no good day at the doctor's office. She would look at the bandages on her arms, then look at me with a very serious face and say, "All done doctor's office." She is so stinkin' cute!

Her legs look really puffy in this picture.
And here she is, cracking herself up, with no clue as to what's going on. Just a happy, sweet little girl.

Ring Around the Rosie...

2008-10-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you know this hit song, but I'm sure you've never heard this version:

Betcha didn't know you could carry pee-pees around in your pocket!

Fireproof

2008-10-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

You must go see this movie. If you are considering marriage, are engaged or ever plan to get married, you need to see this movie. If you are a newlywed or have been married 50 years, you need to see this movie. If you are happily married or on the brink of divorce, you need to see this movie. Robert and I saw it tonight and I am so excited about what this movie can do for marriages all across this country and around the world. Please go see it, and I'd love to hear what you thought about it!

Daddy's Day Off

2008-10-10T20:21:00.000-07:00

We were blessed to have Daddy home for a week day again. Thursday was Yom Kippur which for us means...no school! Robert got to come with us to gymnastics class (or as Lily says, "nastics cass")...

Lily walking on the balance beam. She still won't do this without holding my hand. One day...

Looking so cute playing around on the mats.

Swinging all by herself. It took her a while before she could do this on her own...now she won't stop!

One of her favorite games at class...the parachute. This is the part where she has to wait her turn. Ms. Darcy calls two kids at a time to run under and touch the middle. It was a little tough in the beginning, but she does so well with this now.

Everyone lined up for their stamps afterwards...

This time she got a "pumpin" stamp. Ms. Darcy gives one stamp on a hand and one on a foot. Lily loves to show off her stamps during the week...until they wash off.

After gymnastics we went to the park (with a brief trip to the library in between). Lily had so much fun. I remember when she used to be scared of everything there. (I have a feeling there will be lots of "I remember when's" in our future!) Now she loves it all.

Getting ready to go down the slide and looking cool in her shades.

Riding on the seesaw with mommy and daddy. I think the swings are Lily's favorite, but this was mine!

Robert captured some beautiful shots while Lily was on the swing. I love the fall leaves in the background. If I'm not careful, every wall in our house is going to be full of Lily pictures...not that that's a bad thing!

"Mommy found Jesus!"

2008-10-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

Out of the mouths of babes. Let's start with yesterday. I left Robert at home with Lily so I could go with my mom to see Neil Diamond at the Hollywood Bowl (fantastic show!). At one point (ok...twice!) I called home to check in. Lily was having her daddy read to her...so sweet! Robert told me she was asking for her "Jesus" book. Well, she has several and neither of us knew which one she was talking about. I ended the conversation with no idea what happened or if they found it. Fast forward to this afternoon. My mom, Robert, Lily and I are getting into the car to head over to the mall...mostly just to get out of the house for a while. As we're loading Lily into her car seat, I happened to glance at the box of books we keep for her in the car. I saw one of her bible books, picked it up and handed it to her. Lily took it and very excitedly shouted, "Mommy found Jesus!". Robert and I just cracked up! Yes baby...mommy sure did find Jesus.

Here are some of the pictures Robert took on his day off.

Lily playing with her shaker eggs in her music class.

Lily and I got to beat a drum together.

Lily in the pumpkin patch.

This sheep sure looks a lot like Lily!

I just love this sunflower photo. Beautiful color.

Look who loves spaghetti...and her mommy!

2008-09-30T22:40:00.001-07:00

Lily is not typically a messy eater...except when it comes to spaghetti. For some reason it's just more fun for her to eat it with her fingers rather than with her fork!

We finally (!!) got Lily into the big bathtub. We have been usuing the little tub that goes in the sink for over a year. We have only 1 bathroom with an actual bathtub, and it had sliding shower doors. It was such a pain to get to with the way the bathroom is designed. The couple of times we tried it, I'd have Robert take the shower doors out of the tracks so I'd at least have full access. It was such a hassle and so much easier to just pull out the little blue tub and put it in the kitchen sink. We kept doing it even though her knees were practically in her face! Anyway, Robert finally ripped out the whole shower door and frame and we got a shower curtain. So. Much. Better. Lily loves the big tub, and her new Veggie Tales bath toy.:o)

So we are officially at our new church as of this last Sunday. Ever since our first visit Lily would randomly say, "Cry new church". Then I'd talk to her about how much fun she had and she would tell me about all of the toys she got to play with. This went on for 2 weeks! So we kept prepping her for the new church and reminding her how much fun she had. We took her to her new room (turns out she was in the wrong room the first time...since she is now 2 (!) she should no longer be in the nursery) and of course she screamed her head off. Ugh! I hated leaving her there like that, but I knew she would be okay once she was preoccupied. After the service we made the mad dash to get her. We saw her before she saw us. She was playing with something, then looked up , saw us there and started crying again! Apparently she cried a little bit off and on and became best friends with Ms. Beth who did her best to try to comfort her and keep her entertained. I am grateful to Ms. Beth! Anyway, Lily still says, "Cry new church.", but then she tells us about the microwave and oven she got to play with (a toy kithcen of course!) and how they played music...she said, "guitar" so I guess someone was playing one in her class, and she talks about the kids as well. I know she will be fine once she adjusts, I just hate putting her through such a big change. She is a tough cookie though and I know she'll be fine.

Robert had the day off today, so he got to go with Lily and I to her music class and then we went to the pumpkin patch. I'll have more pictures soon!

More Stamping Fun!

2008-09-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

This first project I made for a woman at church who has been sick for over a year with no real diagnosis. She is a wonderful, Godly woman and I pray it's God's will that she be healed soon. I used a Stampin' Up tin, decorated it and placed a card and bookmark inside. The pictures came out a little bright...again, not the professional photographer in the family!

(Don't pay any attention to all of Lily's stuff in the background on this one!)

The following cards we made at my Stamp-a-Stack class on Friday night. Everyone got to make 10 cards for $10. We did two of each design...one birthday card and one thank you card. I love doing these classes. They are a ton of fun, and everyone walks away with a "stack" of cards to have on hand for a lot less than what they'd pay at the stores. These pictures came out a little better. It dawned on me that my husband has this great light tent out in the garage that's perfect for taking pictures!

Say Cheese!

2008-09-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

I love how Lily smiles when we ask her to say cheese. Talk about a "cheesy" grin! One of her favorite games is to hold any inanimate object up to her eye and walk around saying, "Smile! Cheese! Good one!". She must be the daughter of a photographer or something.;o)

Cheesy smile at home.

We got to our gymnastics class a little early last week, so we played on the playground for a little while.

I'm Still Here...(and more projects!)

2008-09-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

So apparently I took an unintentional (or maybe it was intentional) hiatus from blogging. The challenging thing for me about blogging is all of the pictures get uploaded onto our main computer. I rarely use this computer because during the day, I am a little preoccupied.;o) And if I even think about attempting to use it, Lily will quickly find me and proclaim, "Mommy check da email...no!" So my options are to do it during the very valuable nap time when there are many other things that need to get done, or in the evening. Fat chance there due to my husband being on it most of the time! So I am usually on my laptop, which has no pictures. I suppose another alternative would be for me to learn how to upload the pictures onto my laptop myself, I just have no interest in learning that. I suppose I should know, but I am a pretty simple person who really couldn't care less about these things, especially when I have Robert around to do it for me!;o) The fact that I have even managed to keep up a blog is pretty mind-boggling to me.

So over the past few weeks in my absence from the bloggoshpere, we have been getting back into our regular routine since summer has ended. Lily is back in her music and gymnastics classes. She is doing so well and is getting much more involved and participating a lot more on her own rather than with my prompting. I'm going to put on my proud mommy hat for a second: Lily's music teacher told me today that she wants to put her in the next age group level as she is more mature than the other kids in her class and she doesn't want Lily to get behind. Wow. Now I can't really take much credit for that as I think a lot of it is just her personality. However I do take credit for the fact that I do discipline her and correct her when she is not doing what she is supposed to be doing. A lot of other parents let their kids run around and make no attempt to keep them on task. Anyway, enough ranting about that. We've also been keeping up with the political season and are very excited about the turn of events with John McCain choosing Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. I like her, and not just because she is from my home state!

In other news, we are in the process of switching churches. We love, love, love our current church and are very sad to leave. But the distance is getting to be a bit much for us...40 minutes is a long way to go for church, especially when I am there 3 days a week for various things. We are one of the last families from our town to finally leave due to the distance. Our new church is only 5 minutes away and we already know several families there. We went to the service there this last Sunday. We were warmly greeted by many people as we walked in the door...refreshing. The nursery director saw me walking in with Lily. She came over to introduce herself and show me where to go and got us all settled in. We loved the pastor who preached that day...they are currently studying the book of Ephesians, which is one of my favorites and has one of my all-time favorite verses: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, that no man should boast." Eph 2: 8-9. What an amazing gift God has given us. Yes....salvation is free! There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn our way in to Heaven...we will never be good enough, and we don't have to be! God sent His Son to pay the price for our sins. All we have to do is completely turn our lives over to Him and give Him control...therein lies the hard part. But once you do, you will know no freedom like the freedom in Christ. Praise the Lord!

As promised, here are some more pictures of projects I've done over the summer. I hope you enjoy. I promise I'll get back to more Lily stories and pictures next time!

This is the birthday invitation and banner I made for Lily's party.
I just love the panda stamp I found.

The following projects I made at the Stampin' Up convention in Utah.
An adorable little box for cards.

A cute little scrapbook page. I added the picture of Lily after we got home. The original sample had the word "you" instead of Lily, but since they gave us a whole set of chipboard letters, I put her name instead.

I am not an "orange" person. I normally don't care much for the color except at sunset, but this bag we made is beautiful. It made me like the color a little more.

The following are bookmarks. The one on the right is the one we made at convention.
The other two I made after I got home.

I am really loving altering items. (See the info on the box I used for my sister-in-laws birthday gift in my previous post!). This was just a plain white tin. I would still like to add a little something to the top, but I'm not sure what yet...some sort of saying or scripture maybe.

This little box is perfect for 3x3 sized gift cards. I am loving this new Bella Rose designer paper.

This is another altered tin...a band-aid tin! I decorated it and filled it with little gift tags.

A birthday card we did at a class at my house several weeks ago. Cute and very simple.

A pocket card...another of my favorites. I may use this style for our Christmas cards this year. I'm still working on some ideas. It's never to early to start planning!

I love this new stamp set as well. It's called Eastern Blooms and was one of the sets
we got for "free" at convention.

I love the popped up butterfly on this card. This card uses 3 new stamp sets from the new catalog. The butterfly and the flowers in the grass are from the Flight of the Butterfly set. The grass is from the Inspired by Nature set and the saying is from the Upsy Daisy set.

This is the Inspired by Nature set. I didn't like it at first, but now that I have used it and have
seen several other ideas, I love it!

See...I can't stop using it! On this one, I embossed the flower in white on designer paper. So pretty.

Another popped up butterfly, I wasn't crazy about the way this card came out, but it's still cute.

This card I actually made a long time ago with a set that is now retired called By Ones and by Twos. I was trying to get myself out of the box of my usual color combos. I don't love this combo, but I don't hate it either, although I do love the actual design of it. This would be a good gender-neutral card I think. I actually got this stamp set as a gift from my friend Jenny before I signed up as a demonstrator. She bought it for me because it has a stamp that says, " adoption is when a child grows in its mommy's heart instead of her tummy". How sweet is that?! It's a great set for someone having twins as well.

That's it for now. I am working on a little scrapbook gift for Lily's friend (though I won't mention who as she may read about it here!). I will post pictures of it when I'm done. I saw the idea and thought it would be a great gift for said friend.;o)

More Projects

2008-08-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted any projects. I just haven't been able to get my wonderfully busy husband to get any pictures lately. I plan on giving him his "honey-do" list this weekend.;o) Anyway, these pictures are of Ellen's birthday gift. Her birthday was on August 1st but I was at the Stampin' Up convention (woohoo!) so we celebrated the following weekend. I forgot to have Robert take pictures until after she had already opened her gift. Surprisingly, Robert happened to have his camera with him.;o) You won't believe this, but the box I wrapped her gift in was actually one of the boxes our lunches came in at convention! You know you're addicted to stamping when you look at your lunch container and think, "I can decorate that!". And you are even more addicted when you can say that out loud to your best friend. The pictures aren't the greatest since he was on such short notice and didn't have access to all of his equipment, but I think you can get a pretty good idea.

I'll post more projects this weekend.

Feeling Moved...

2008-08-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

I heard both of these songs back to back this morning. They each move me every time I hear them. Apparently I needed to be moved for God to play them both for me today.

AMAZING LOVE...Billy James Foote

I’m forgiven because You were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I’m alive and well, Your Spirit is within me
Because You died and rose again

Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, to honor You

You are my King
You are my King
Jesus, You are my King
You are my King

INSIDE OUT...April McLean

Fool that I am, thinking no one understands
The tears I've cried, the pain I choose to hide,
No one sees, lookin' at me.
All except for One,
Tenderly looking on with those eyes of love.

It's from the inside out, it's from the outside in,
He's lookin' through my lies, lookin' through my sin.
He who knew me from the start sees my heart
From the inside, inside out.

Fools that we are, covering each and every scar.
The broken dreams, the bitter fights and schemes,
No one knows, with doors discreetly closed.
All except for One,
Tenderly looking on with those eyes of love.

It's from the inside out, it's from the outside in,
He's lookin' through your lies, lookin' through your sin.
He who knew you from the start sees your heart
From the inside, inside out.

Panda Party!

2008-08-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

We finally had Lily's Panda Party today! She had so much fun and loved playing with all of her friends. She was having so much fun playing, she had absolutely no interest in opening her presents, so I opened them on her behalf. She did, however, thoroughly enjoy her cake. It was hard cutting into such an adorable cake, but it sure was yummy! Robert's sister, Ellen, came over last night to help me decorate it. It took us about 3 hours to finish, but she sure came out looking as cute as can be! One of Lily's friends was so funny. He is almost 10 and as I was getting ready to take the cake out to sing "Happy Birthday" he said, "I can't eat the panda cake. I'm a vegetarian!". (Trust me...he enjoyed every bite of the black ear he and his brother shared!) As I was cutting the cake, another one of Lily's friends, Jocelyn, (who just turned 5) kept telling me she wanted the pink heart. Lily grabbed her fork and picked the little pink mouth from the cake with a very determined look on her face. Several of us watched with no idea what she was going to do, and would you believe it? She handed it right to Jocelyn. Now is that the sweetest thing ever?!? We are truly blessed with a very giving and caring little girl. The more I know her, the more she just melts my heart. Here are a few pictures for now. I hope to have more up tomorrow.

Blowing out Lily's birthday candle.

She enjoyed her cake, but I think she liked the chocolate chip ice cream the best!

One happy birthday girl.

Opening Lily's presents (notice she is nowhere in sight!).

I'm Still Here!

2008-08-23T00:48:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since my last post. As usual (ugh) things have been busy lately. We just got back from our vacation to Medford, OR on Wednesday and have been busily preparing for Lily's birthday party tomorrow. She turned 2 while we were in Oregon so we had a little party for her there, but tomorrow is the big Panda Party. My sister-in-law came over tonight to help me decorate the cake. It came out soooo cute! I made a couple of birthday banners for decorations and we'll have lots of balloons and streamers up. I'll be sure to post pictures after the shin-dig. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Robert's still been updating his blog, so you can read all about our traveling adventures, including a second surgical procedure for him at one of Medford's finest hospitals! He has lots of pictures up from our trip and the first of Lily's birthday celebrations. I'll have more birthday pictures up soon!

Our Daughter is a Genius!

2008-08-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

The day before his surgery, Robert went out front to water the lawn. Lily insisted on going outside with him, so we all went to play in the yard. As Robert was watering, Lily of course wanted to help. (She loves to help with EVERYTHING!). He let her help for a while, and then very bravely turned the reigns over to her, so to speak. She was doing great spraying the water all over the front lawn. All of a sudden she looked a little concerned and said, "Hep pease!" Robert walked over to help her and as soon as he was within reach, she lifted up that nozzle and sprayed the heck out of him, laughing hysterically. How did she have the presence of mind to pretend she was having trouble so she could get him to come over to spray him?!? I didn't catch the initial event (you never have a camera with you at those moments), but we did manage to get a little of the fun on video as well as a few pictures.

Robert's Doing Fine

2008-08-05T16:47:00.000-07:00

Well, he's doing as well as can be expected. We picked him up this afternoon at the surgery center. We went to the little room where he was and I tried as best I could to explain to Lily what was happening. I told her "Daddy has a big owie and we need to take care of daddy". She looked at him in the hospital bed and said, very sadly, "Daddy owie. Poor poor daddy". She wanted to climb on him right away and when she couldn't, she insisted on giving him a kiss. She wanted to help him with everything. She helped him put his shoes on and she helped the nurse push him in the wheelchair. The whole way home she repeated over and over and over again, "Daddy owie. Poor poor daddy". This little girl is very empathetic and very concerned about her daddy. Have I ever mentioned that she is just the sweetest thing? I think her spiritual gifts may be mercy and service, but I'm sure it's too soon to really tell. Anyway, we are thankful God has answered our prayers and that Robert is safely home here with us. We love you daddy. Get well soon!

Home Again and All is Well

2008-08-04T22:56:00.001-07:00

First of all, I had an amazing time in Salt Lake City! I didn't get to see much of it...the convention kept us pretty busy. The lake looked really nice from the airplane though! We had so much fun and got lots of new stuff. We got to make several projects (I'll post pictures soon), buy lots of stuff at the Momento Mall (that's where they sell convention memorabilia) and got tons of new ideas. I'm having my New Catalog Open House this Saturday and can hardly wait! But more importantly, Lily did incredibly well while I was gone. God must have really prepared her heart for my being gone. Almost always she cries in the morning if I'm not the one to get her up...even daddy won't do. But she didn't do that while I was gone. She was happy to see her Nai Nai and from what I've heard, they had a pretty great time together. I am so thankful for that. Thank you Nai Nai! It made the trip so much more enjoyable knowing that she was doing so well.

On another note, Robert is having his gallbladder surgery tomorrow at noon. If it comes to mind, please pray for everything to go smoothly and for a quick recovery. We leave for Oregon a week from tomorrow, and I just want him to be comfortable so he can enjoy the trip. The doctor said he should be fine to go...a little uncomfortable and it probably won't be a good idea for him to drive. That's fine as my mom is going too, so she and I can take turns driving. I just pray the surgery and recovery go smoothly and that he won't be in a lot of pain.

And on one more note, for those of you who may be interested in following up with Steven Curtis Chapman and his family after the loss of Maria, they are scheduled to be on Good Morning America this Wednesday, 8/6, on Larry King Live Thursday, 8/7 and they have an "extensive feature" in People Magazine scheduled to be on shelves 8/15. I pray God will be glorified as they proclaim their faith in and love for Him, even as they walk through this valley. They know Gods' promises are true and He has promised never to leave or forsake us, and that all things work together for good...for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I pray many will seek Him after hearing what the Chapmans have to say.

Movin' and Shakin'

2008-07-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

You may have heard we experienced a little earthquake out here today. First of all, we are fine! Lily and I were actually in Target picking up a few last minute items for my trip. We were looking for quart sized ziploc bags (since I will not be checking a bag...no need to add that stress!) when, I felt the ground start to move. Lily had no idea anything was really going on, and the lady next to me with her 7 or 8 year old daughter went into total panic mode. She clung to me for dear life as her daughter looked around a bit confused about what was happening. This poor lady was most definately not from California! As far as earthquakes go, this was actually a nice one. It was what we call a "roller" as opposed to a "shaker". The "rollers" feel kind of like you are on a wave and you just go with the flow. These are nice because they usually don't cause too much damage. The "shakers" you hear coming. You usually hear a loud "bang" and then you'd better take cover. Those are generally not so good! Anyway, once it was over and I helped the poor lady next to me calm down, we got our ziploc bags, picked up a few items that had fallen, and went about our merry way. Everything is just fine...as long as this doesn't mess up my trip tomorrow!

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-07-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

This month has been a little crazy for us. We've had a lot going on. It's all been good stuff, but I hate looking at my calendar and seeing too many things happening. I get a little stressed out when things just look so overwhelming...even though they are good things! As you know, we celebrated Lily's one year anniversary with us along with my mom's birthday. We also went to a Mercy Me concert with our friends Sean and Michele which was a fantastic night of worship! Last week was VBS at our church. The theme this year was "Go for the Gold", chosen as the Olympics are being held this year. The mission country was China, for obvious reasons. Our pastor's wife contacted me several weeks ago and asked if I would do a short presentation about our adoption experience. I was honored to be asked and while my presentation was only a few short minutes, a lot of time and thought went into it. Sometimes it's harder to prepare a shorter speech as you have to try to squeeze a lot of information into a little bit of time. Anyway, it went very well and I pray that we were able to be an encouragement for others to adopt. Let's see...Saturday Lily was invited to 3, count them, 3(!) birthday parties. We RSVP'd with a maybe to the 3rd party as we wanted to see how Lily was holding up. Well, we ended up making it to all 3 and she had a fantastic time! She is quite a trooper. Robert and I were exhausted, but Lily held up just fine! Tomorrow we are going to see James Taylor with our friends, James and Allison. We've been looking forward to that for a long time. We'll be getting home quite late, no earlier than midnight I'm sure, and then 4 hours later my best friend Jenny and her dad will be picking me up to go to the airport. Jenny and I will be heading out to Salt Lake City, Utah for the Stampin' Up convention. We are very excited and can't wait to see the new catalog! We'll be there for 4 days. 4 days away from Lily. I know she will be in good hands while I'm gone, but a mom can't help but worry! If you think about it, please pray for both Lily and I...that we will get through this long separation unscathed. I've had some Stampin' Up events and have been working on planning Lily's 2nd birthday party as well. We'll be having her party a little late this year. A week and a half after I come back from Utah, we will drive up to Oregon to visit family and we'll be there over her birthday. During that week and a half between trips I'll be doing all of the last minute planning as we will have her party 2 days after we get home from Oregon. We also had our final home study for Lily's post-placement this month. Mixed in with playdates, many visits with friends and family and the usual busyness of keeping a home, this month has been quite the marathon! I don't know how working moms manage. Mind you, I'm not complaining. Believe me, I've got nothing to complain about, but being this busy really helps me appreciate the down time and long for it even more. I don't want to be one of those people who is so busy there is no time to accept a spontaneous invitation, or to just rest and "be" with my family. Right now I feel like I am trying to learn to juggle, when all I really want to do is just roll one little ball around. Balance is something I am still working on and I'm sure I will find it eventually. Today was yet another reminder of how fast time flies as I went through Lily's clothes and got rid of many things Lily has already outgrown. Note to self: Slow down, relax and enjoy every precious moment.

Another Anniversary

2008-07-20T17:11:00.001-07:00

One year ago today we welcomed our newest American citizen into this amazing country. I hope we can instill in her the pride, appreciation and gratitude we have for living in the greatest country on this earth. I have found myself pondering over the last several days what her life would have been like if we hadn't come to get her, if she hadn't been adopted, if...

But then I remind myself how silly it is to wonder "what if". It doesn't matter because "it wasn't". God has blessed us. Lily has been blessed with a home, a forever family and people who love her more than she may ever understand. And I know we have all been blessed even more by her. Welcome home baby girl!

A Streetcar Named Desire...

2008-07-11T10:27:00.000-07:00

...a rendition by Lily Grace. Boy is this girl a ham!

One Year Ago Today...

2008-07-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

Nanchang, Jiangxi, China

July 9th, 2007

Home at Last

July 26th, 2007

August 20th, 2007

September 15th, 2007

October 6th, 2007

November 15th, 2007

December 20th, 2007

January 14th, 2008

February 22nd, 2008

March 17th, 2008

April 17th, 2008

May 11th, 2008

June 10th, 2008

July 5th, 2008

How blessed are we?

Fun With Friends

2008-07-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

On Friday, June 27th, Lily and I went for a "playdate" with our friends Jenny and Samantha. Samantha just adores Lily and vice versa. Samantha keeps threatening to keep Lily, and I can't say I blame her for wanting to do so! They had so much fun together playing in the pool and playing "chase", Lily's new favorite game. Lily still keeps talking about how we went to "Mantha's" house and played in her pool and with her puppy and had ice cream. I can't believe she remembers it, but she mentions it at least once every day.

Lily's new "ladybug boat". She had fun in this for a while, until she wanted to come o ut and play with the rest of us. It looks likes she's giving the "peace" sign here.

Lily freed from the confines of her boat. She did so well in the water and I am so glad she liked it. She even dunked her head under the water all by herself. I guess the time is coming for some swimming lessons.

On Sunday, July 6th, we went to lunch with our friends Sean and Michele and their girls, Tess and Rachel. Robert put pictures of them on his blog, so I am showing off more pictures of Lily. Have I ever mentioned how grateful I am to be married to such a great photographer?!

They were giving away these hats and balls at the play area. Lily loved them both! She had so much fun running around and Tess seemed to have a lot of fun playing with her. Lily seems to have a special affection for older children and is not so much interested in those her own age.

A Very Happy 4th!

2008-07-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

This day a year ago, we were on a plane headed to China. Our lives were going to change forever. I had no idea what to expect, but I know I didn't expect it to be this good. There are so many nay-sayers out there, and sadly, many of them are parents. I wonder if many people go into this with their eyes wide shut, not realizing the enormity of the responsibility they were undertaking. During the wait for Lily, so many people would tell me what they saw as the negatives of parenting. "You'll have to sacrifice so much." "You'll never sleep again." You won't be able to do anything you want to do." "You won't be able to travel any more." One of the comments I heard the most were when parents came in to the school office where I worked with their unruly children saying, "Are you sure you want to do this?" If anyone was going to turn me off from being a parent, it was surely going to be these people. But I knew I had a higher calling, and that this was not only my dream, but this was God's will. God put this desire on our hearts and no amount of negativity was going to keep the will of God from happening. So far, we have proven every single one of those nay-sayers wrong. Sure, I have to scarifice some, but not nearly what I expected and it is my joy to sacrifice what little I need to for my daughter. Sleep? I am blessed to have a daughter who sleeps 10-11 hours a night, and sometimes even a nap during the afternoon. I am able to do plenty of things I want to do. Not always at the very moment I want to do them, but I am able to still do the things I did before. Lily travels very well. We have been to Palm Springs, Austin, TX and in August we will all go to Medford, OR. And am I sure I want to do this? A thousand times yes. Not once since Lily was put in my arms have I ever questioned if this was the right thing to do...even during the tough moments. I am not denying that parenting is sometimes tough, but nothing worth doing is easy all the time. As we celebrate our independence today, may you cherish every moment with your child(ren) and may we all remember the true sacrifices that are the reason we celebrate today. God Bless!

A Gift For a Friend

2008-06-28T18:19:00.001-07:00

I recently saw this idea and just had to copy it. It's a stationary box filled with cards, envelopes, gift tags, a note pad, stamps and a pen. It is sooooo cute and not nearly as difficult to make as I thought it would be. A little time consuming and careful following of directions, but not difficult. I love that Robert has his light tent now and can get some really great shots of my projects! Anyway, I sent this to my friend Karly in Arizona (hence the "k" in the center). From the message she left, I think she liked it.;o)

We went blueberry picking again today, and this time we filled 3 containers whereas last time we only filled one. There were just tons of them! Lily ended up eating pretty much all of the ones she picked. It reminded me very much of the book Blueberries for Sal, one of my favorites as a kid. Afterwards we came home and made blueberry pancakes for lunch. Yummy! I'll post pictures of that soon. In the meantime, here are the pictures of the stationary box.

Baby and Bear Reunion - The Video

2008-06-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the video of the much anticipated Lily and Snowflake reunion!

Just as the first video ended, my camera battery died,

so this is a 2-parter.

Baby and Bear Reunion

2008-06-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

SNOWFLAKE IS HOME! I am positive I was more excited about it than Lily was, although she was pretty happy to see her friend again. After tracking the package, I was expecting him to arrive yesterday. Our mail usually comes by 11:00am and at about 10:30 I heard the mail truck across the street. That meant about 10 more minutes until she came back down our side. I heard the truck pull up, looked out the front window and I could not believe what I saw. The mail carrier was sitting in her truck with a box in her lap...filling out one of those "Sorry we missed you. Please come pick up your package tomorrow" notes! WHAT? She was not even going to make an attempt to bring it to the front door!?! How lazy are people today, I mean really? My car was even in the driveway and everything. Let me just say she is lucky I caught her because I would be down at that post office today having a lovely chat with her manager. Anyway, when I saw what she was doing, I quickly scooped up Lily (she loves to check the mail anyway) and went outside and got the package from the lady. I took the box inside and opened it out of Lily's view (I didn't want her to see there were 2 Snowflakes. Who knows how confusing that would be!) They were individually wrapped in bags inside the box, so I took one bag to the living room, grabbed my camera and gave Lily the bag. Following are the pictures, however I am having trouble uploading the video. (I knew I should have done it last night while Robert was home!) Hopefully that will be up tonight. In the meantime, these pictures still tell a pretty good story:

Happy Lily with her Snowflake. When she finally realized who was in the bag, she actually started getting upset and couldn't get him out of there fast enough!

Hugging her old friend.

So sweet!

Of course Snowflake was hungry after having been gone so long!

The world is right again...Bob and Larry on the TV, a sippy cup of water in her hand and her best friend under her arm. All is well.

A Mother's Heartache

2008-06-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderfully busy weekend. On Saturday we were invited to the LA Zoo by my best friend Jenny and her family. You may remember we took Lily to the Santa Barbara zoo a few months ago. She didn't seem too interested then in much of anything we saw there, so we weren't sure how she would like it this go around, but it was a good time to hang out with some good friends. As it turns out, Lily had a great time! She was much more animated and had a lot of fun looking at the animals. For whatever reason, she was fascinated with the alligators and tried very hard to say "alligator". I will post pictures of our trip later, but this post is not actually about our trip to the zoo. This post is about who we lost at the zoo:

This is Lily's precious Snowflake. He was given to Lily by a good friend of my mother-in-law's shortly after we got home from China. This is the friend, along with Panda, she takes with her everywhere. He eats breakfast with her every morning. He goes with us to the grocery store. When we went to Lily's music and gymnastics classes, I had to convince Lily that Snowflake needed to stay in the car to take a "nap" while we went to class. So of course there was no question that he would accompany us on our trip to the zoo. He had a great time too and got to see all kinds of fun animals along with us. At some point during the end of our day, I noticed Snowflake was not in his spot in the bottom of Lily's stroller. I desperately searched everywhere...throughout the stroller, in the diaper bag, in my purse, I asked Jenny if perhaps she had gotten a hold of him somewhere along the way. No. Robert, being the best dad ever, volunteered to retrace our steps back to the last place we all remembered seeing him. Lily and I poked around the gift shops while we waited. By the time he came back, Lily was asleep in her stroller, and Robert was empty handed. My heart broke. We headed back to the car, hoping some kind person would find him and return him to the lost and found. In the meantime, we called Robert's mom to ask her where her friend had gotten Snowflake so we could try to replace him. We got home and I immediately got on ebay to look for another one (2 of them will be on their way here this week!). But it won't be the same. Lily seemed to do just fine through the evening. We thought, maybe she'll be ok...no big deal...until it was time for bed. We were saying our prayers with her and as we finished, she looked down into her bed, and it happened. She asked for him...several times. We didn't know what to say. We put her down, turned out the lights and prayed for the best. She was exhausted so she was out pretty quickly without much fuss. The next morning, Robert went to get her up. As he got her out of bed, she started looking around for Snowflake. Thankfully she was distracted by her Pooh bear, so he sufficed for the time being. For whatever reason, I seem to be having a harder time with this than Lily is. I thought my heart was breaking for her, but maybe it's more for me. Is that normal? I'm sitting here in tears as I type this. Why am I so emotional over a stuffed bear? Maybe it's the association I have of Lily and Snowflake...together...all.the.time. I'm anxious to see how she reacts when "Snowflake" comes home later this week. I have a feeling I may be rejoicing more than she will! We'll see. In the meantime, we will keep checking in with the zoo's lost and found (obviuosly no luck yet). We figure someone must have found him. Genereally speaking, when you find something, you either turn it in or you keep it. If whoever found our precious Snowflake kept him, I hope he will be loved in his new home as much as he was here.

Creative Weekend

2008-06-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

In preparation for Father's Day, I had a "masculine cards" class this weekend so I have a couple of those cards to show you. I was also able to sit down and do a little card-making yesterday while Lily played all by herself in the living room, with the occasional visit from her, I'm assuming to check on me and make sure I was doing alright playing by myself.:o) It is such a blessing that she finally feels comfortable playing on her own for periods of time rather than clinging to me every second. Another phase I approach with joy and yet a little bit of sadness. Anyway, here are some pictures for you...

I am sending this one to my cousin up in Oregon.

I made this sympathy card to send to the Chapman family.

I saw a sample of this card online and just had to copy it, with only a couple of small changes. I love the colors...even Robert commented on how pretty it was. He said it looks "Christmas-y". Hmmm...I may have to keep that in mind for when the time comes to start my Christmas cards.:o)

I made this card to send to my friend Jill in Seattle for her birthday this week. She also happens to check this blog every once in a while, so if you see this my friend, here is your card and Happy Birthday!

This is a "double pocket" card. Can you believe you can make this card with only one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper? So pretty and so much easier than it looks.

And here are two samples of the masculine cards from my class on Saturday. Robert will be getting the one with the star...a bit of an homage to his love for the Dallas Cowboys. Shhhh...don't tell him!;o)

A more masculine version of the "double pocket" card.

And for your final viewing pleasure...miss Lily showing you her faces once more.

A toned down version of "Psycho Face".

"Turtle Face"

"Kissy Lips"

And the most beautiful smile ever. Isn't she just the best?!?!

Life Goes On...

2008-06-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when Lily doesn't take a nap during the day...

And this is what happens when Lily has too much sugar before bed!

Saying Goodbye to Maria

2008-05-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

I've been in kind of a funk for the last week...haven't felt much like blogging. I know all too well the pain the Chapmans are going through. No, I have never lost a child, but I know what it's like to feel like your world has ended as the bigger world out there continues on. You wonder how...don't they know what has happened? How can they keep going when everything you know has stopped? We are so small, but God is so big. Thank you Lord. I found this video someone put together on YouTube...a wonderful tribute to a precious little girl.

"Each gift from God is only yours and mine...for a time.
So we laugh, and we cry,
And the hardest part of life is letting go
To trust the One we know for sure.
We'll place you in the Father's hands,
The only One who'll ever love you more.
He'll hold us safely in His hands
'Cause no one else will ever love us more."
From the song "Heartstrings" on the CD titled "The Mercy Project"
Written by Jeff Borders, Gayla Borders, Grant Cunningham and Wendy Williams

With Hope

2008-05-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

This song was written by Steven Curtis Chapman after a very good friend of their family lost their daughter in a tragic car accident. It's a beautiful song and goes along with the scripture I quoted in my previous post. As believers in Christ, we do have the hope that we will see the faces of the ones we've lost again one day.

This is not at all

How we thought it was supposed to be

We had so many plans for you

We had so many dreams

And now you've gone away

And left us with the memories of your smile

And nothing we can say

And nothing we can do

Can take away the pain

The pain of losing you

We can cry with hope

We can say goodbye with hope

'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end

We can grieve with hope

'Cause we believe with hope

There's a place where we'll see your face again

Never have I known

Anything so hard to understand

Never have I questioned more

The wisdom of God's plan

But through the cloud of tears

I see the Father smile and say "well done"

And I imagine you

Where you wanted most to be

Seeing all your dreams come true

'Cause now you're home and now you're free

We can cry with hope

We can say goodbye with hope

'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end

We can grieve with hope

'Cause we believe with hope

There's a place where we'll see your face again

We have this hope as an anchor

'Cause we believe that everything

God promised us is true

So we can cry with hope

We can say goodbye with hope

'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end

We can grieve with hope

'Cause we believe with hope

There's a place

By God's grace

There's a place where we'll see your face again

Our Hearts are Broken

2008-05-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

(Left to right Will Franklin, Maria, Steven, Shaoey, Mary Beth, Stevey Joy, Caleb and Emily)

It is because of God's work through Steven Curtis Chapman, and even more so, his oldest daughter Emily, that we have Lily home with us today. Please join us in lifting this family up to the God of all comfort.

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

NASHVILLE - The 5-year-old daughter of contemporary Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman was struck and killed Wednesday by a sport utility vehicle driven by her brother, authorities said. The girl, Maria, was hit in a driveway on the family residence Wednesday afternoon by a Toyota Land Cruiser driven by her teenage brother, said Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. McPherson said no charges are expected.
"It looks like a tragic accident," she said. She said several members of the Chapman family witnessed the accident, which happened in Williamson County just south of Nashville. The brother apparently did not see the little girl, McPherson said. She did not have the name or exact age of the brother, only that he is an older teenager. The girl died later at Vanderbilt Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Laurie Holloway said. Chapman, originally from Paducah, Ky., and his wife have promoted international adoption and have three daughters from China, including Maria. Chapman has won five Grammy awards and 51 Dove awards from the Gospel Music Association. The singer's Web site said that Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, were persuaded by their oldest daughter to adopt a girl from China. The experience led the family to adopt two more children and create Shaohannah's Hope, a foundation and ministry to financially assist thousands of couples in adoption. The Chapmans did missionary work at Chinese orphanages in 2006 and 2007, according to the Web site. "After our first trip to China, my wife and I knew our lives were changing - our eyes and hearts were opening to how big God really is, and we have wanted to experience more of that," Chapman says on the Web site. "We've really wondered whether or not we should just go to China and stay there. But I don't think so. I believe God is saying, 'I want you to go, get your heart broken, your eyes opened, and then take this story back to the church in America and around the world." ' Chapman also has released a book about being a father entitled "Cinderella: The Love of Daddy and his Princess."

For Those of You...

2008-05-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

...who may not venture over to Robert's blog (Thoughts of a Father), here are some of my favorite pictures he has taken recently (and a few more pictures of my recent Stampin' Up creations).

These were taken on Mother's day...

Lily's sweet little toes, taken Monday night.

And some more of my creations. I'm giving this little box to a friend of mine who is hosting a workshop for me next weekend. Included in the box are the little tags you see below.

Another fun little box.

Lovely Lily Moments

2008-05-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

Monday night I was getting ready to warm Lily's milk for dinner. I just so happened to pull out a purple bottle from the cupboard and showed it to her...she loves to tell us what color her bottle is. When she saw it, she surprised me by saying she wanted yellow. Huh? First, how could the daughter of a purple-loving mommy ask for yellow? Second, she had never asked for a specific color before. I figured I could honor her request in this instance so I returned to get the yellow bottle. Lo and behold, her sole yellow bottle was dirty and in the dishwasher. I looked at her and said, "I'm sorry baby. The yellow one is dirty. We have to use purple." She looked up at me and said, "It's aw-wight." Talk about melting your heart!

As we were eating dinner and talking, Robert turned to her at one point and asked her to say her name. She has never once even attempted to say her name. Of course she knows her name...when we ask her, "Where's Lily?" she points to herself. But if you point to her in a picture or ask her her name, she always says, "Baby!" So we fully expected the typical "Baby" in response to his question. Boy were we surprised when she blurted out, "Yi-yee!". Ha! She said her name! She only did it one more time during dinner, and not once since then. I guess she figured she'd appease us by letting us know she could in fact say her name, she just doesn't want to!

And on a funny note...Lily seems to have developed quite an aversion to fur. In this house, with a dog and a cat that never. stop. shedding, this has been quite challenging. As I heard her rousing yesterday morning and playing with her stuffed "friends" in her bed, I heard a very sudden and loud cry. It became very persistent which is pretty unusual in the morning. I had just started getting her breakfast ready so I went in to see what was wrong. She was just sitting in her bed staring. As soon as she saw me she pointed at her sheet and cried out, "Fuuuuuuuh!!". I looked in her bed and saw a little black tuft of "fur" that had fallen out of one of her stuffed animals. As soon as I took it out and threw it away, she stopped crying and all was well again. Boy oh boy...this is going to be fun!

Do I Really Trust You, Lord?

2008-05-15T21:24:00.001-07:00

It's easy to say we trust Him when all is well, but...

I had a very interesting experience yesterday. Every Wednesday morning for the last 4 months or so, I have been attending a women's bible study group at our church. Every week I drop Lily off at the nursery where she plays with about 3 or 4 other kids her age. I then leave the nursery and walk across the parking lot to the building where our study is held. Each morning begins with the usual chit-chat amongst the ladies as we load up our plates with whatever food has been brought and fill up our coffee mugs and prepare for what God has in store for us that day. This day started just like every other, except it was the last meeting before the summer break. We had our morning announcements, then sang some wonderful hymns to prepare our hearts for worship. As the music ended and we took our seats, the speaker for the morning walked up to the microphone and asked in a very calm and sure voice, "Who is in control?" Of course we all answered with a resounding, "God!". She asked again, "Do you really believe that?". We answered again, even louder, "YES!" Then she announced that she had just been informed there was criminal activity outside of the church and we were under lock down. My heart stopped. I had been under lock down before at the school where I worked, but I never really thought much of it then. It usually never lasted long and nothing ever came of it. However, I was not a mother at the time with my child in another building across the parking lot from where I was. I had never felt so far away from my baby. My mind raced to the moment I dropped Lily off. She was crying. How could I have left her there crying and now this? (Like I could have known!) What if something happens to her, or to me? I could hear the helicopter circling overhead, and the clanging sounds of the gates to the campus being closed. Then I took a breath. "Lord, do I really trust in You? You have brought me through so much to this exact moment. You have answered so many prayers and been so faithful to me. How could I not trust You now? Of course I trust You. Whatever happens, it will be okay because you are a holy God who has promised to never leave me or forsake me. I do trust You." I was suddenly filled with perfect peace. I rested in the knowledge that God is so much bigger than whatever was happening outside. Several minutes later, someone came in and gave the all clear. We thanked God and went on with our study. Afterwards I stayed to help clean up, said my good-byes to the ladies, loaded up my stuff in the car and went to get my daughter. I walked in to the nursery and saw her running around, laughing and happy. I picked her up and hugged her a little tighter that day.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4: 6-7

A Different Mother's Day

2008-05-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

This day last year, I was a mother, however, I had not yet held my precious baby girl in my arms. All I had was a picture of a cherubic face with beautiful deep brown eyes. I stared at that picture constantly...longing to hold her and see her smile. This year was much different. We went to church this morning, and when we picked Lily up from the nursery, I received my first Mother's Day gift from her. She "made" me an adorable mug that says "I Love Mommy" and has her sweet little hand prints on it. I will treasure it forever! Our pastor asked all of the moms to stand up today. It took me a second to realize, that was me! I started to cry. I am blessed.

I am reminded on this day of everything I want to be for my family...for my husband and my daughter. I want to be the best for them. I am certainly not perfect, nor will I ever be. But I can aspire to be the kind of wife and mother that God wants me to be for them, and if I put Him first, I know I will be.

Proverbs 31:10-12
"An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. "

Proverbs 31:25-31
"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: "Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all." Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates."