If you stopped by today you would find:

1. Food on the floor…in addition to cheerios strewn about!
2. A layer of dust on most of our furniture.
3. A pile of clothes that either needed to be washed or folded & put away.
4. A pile of c.r.a.p. (McKayla we don’t say that word!) in my bedroom that still needs to be unpacked from our trip to China, South Texas and Michigan.
5. Dirty dishes in the sink.
6. That our Christmas trees are still up, because when you don’t put your Christmas stuff out until Dec 22nd, you don’t feel like putting it away at the first of the year.
7. A kleenex trail throughout the house from the strep throat and viruses that have been running through our family!
8. That the bags under my eyes now have bags of their own!
9. One tired mama, one tired dada and one slightly irritated big sis.
10. That despite 1-9….we are all as happy as can be!

Sorry it has been so long…we’ve been a little busy!  I also apologize for length of this post and the fact that it is mostly lists!

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow will mark 7 weeks that Amelia Joy has been in our arms.  7 weeks!  And that we have been home for 5 weeks!!  Much of the last month seems like a blur.  I am so behind in returning emails, phone calls and texts…I promise to get back to each of you at some point!

Amelia continues to amaze us with her confidence and independence, she is such a joy!   We had our Social Worker here two weeks ago for our first Post Adoption Report – she was amazed at how well Amelia was doing…she said “Amelia acts like she has been with y’all since birth”, which brought me to tears instantly, because she does!

In the last 5 weeks she has:

• Gained a pound
• Had 5 teeth come in (2 in the roof of her mouth poor baby!)
• Got 5 vaccinations
• Learned to say – My Dada, Kayla, Papa, Night Night, Hi, Bye bye, Up, Down, Pleee (please), Tata (thank you), No, Shoes, Uh oh
• Reduced her nap from 3 hours to 1!  (thats partly why mama’s productivity has decreased significantly!)
• Continued to sleep 12 hours a night (although she still wakes up at 3am, fusses for a few minutes and then goes back to sleep)
• Mastered irritating her big sister by being her shadow.
• Learned to hop…which she loves to do!

We went to see Santa at Katy Mills Mall, when we were next in line but still waiting for our turn, Santa turned to us and said “If I say Big Blue House would you know what I am talking about?”  I smiled and said “Yes sir…Show Hope” and he chuckled and said “Your daughter is beautiful!”  With tears in my eyes I went on to tell him how we had only been home from China 2.5 weeks.  He then asked if he could print a copy of our picture for his scrapbook at home.  When we finally got a picture with all of us looking, Santa asked to pray over us and our family.  As he prayed, I sat there with tears streaming down my face and snot running out of my nose, we are so blessed by the people God has put on our path!

McKayla…there is no one in this world that makes a better big sister than McMot.  She is SO good with Amelia!  They are really two peas in a pod.  Don’t get me wrong, its not all bliss, they both do their part to irritate one another, but thats what siblings are supposed to do…right?  She truly loves her sister and looks after her and loves playing with her.  She has done incredibly well with the adjustment, Jay and I have done our best to give M one on one time so she doesn’t feel neglected.  Although we don’t always get it right, McKayla knows that we are doing the best that we can, that we are all trying to find a balance and establish a new normal for our family of four.

PRAISE REPORT:

As you might recall, we had a rather lengthy list of prayer requests, when I look back over them, I am blown away to see how each of them was answered.  Thank you really isn’t enough to each of you that prayed over us!

• Sleep – We are a family of sleepers…we LOVE our sleep and we NEED our sleep.  Pray that we get over jet lag quickly, so that we will be alert and coherent when we get Amelia…we don’t want to miss anything on her Gotcha Day.  Also pray that Amelia is comfortable enough to sleep soundly from the time we get her – CHECK
• Food – Being married to the worlds pickiest eater can make trips like this one stressful, pray that we find foods that Jay (and my mom) will be comfortable  eating…otherwise pray that the oatmeal and peanut butter crackers I packed will sustain them!  Pray that I don’t eat too many daring things…things I might regret later in the day.  😉  Also, pray for Amelia’s wee tummy, we won’t know exactly what she ate on a daily basis, so pray that her tummy won’t get too messed up – CHECK
• Patience – As I explained to McMot, “Mommy and Daddy are going to be emotional over the next couple of weeks, and with lots of emotion comes lots of stress, and with lots of stress comes lack of patience, I just need you to show us a little grace and just know that we are doing the best we can”.  Pray that we have patience for each other and patience with the process of finalizing everything – CHECK
• Health – We will be exposed to SO many new germs, pray that our immune systems stay strong and are able to fight off any sickness.  (especially with M feeling like she needs to touch everything and crawl on the hotel floor…pretty sure Jay just bathed her in antibacterial gel…geesh!) – CHECK
• Connie – My Mom joined us on this trip to help us look after and love on McKayla…not many mama’s could do this, but she is.  Pray for her health, patience and energy – CHECK
• McKayla – We are SO blessed that we could bring McKayla with us…a trip she will never forget!  Pray that God will use this time to draw us together as a family of four – CHECK
• Jay – What a mighty man I married!  Pray that this man will continue to be so strong for his crazy girls…all three of us – CHECK
• Amelia – Oh sweet angel…I have dreamed of you for 10 years, and now you will soon be in my arms!  Pray for my littlest daughter, that God would heal her heart of the grief and pain she is about to go through as she loses everyone and everything she has ever known.  Pray that she is able to begin attaching to Jay and I, and also to her sweet sister that is not going to be able to help but smother her in smooches!  Pray that she is patient with us as we try to feed her, change her and love her – CHECK

A few pics since we have been home!

Amelia is content with always riding shotgun, she will just sit in the jeep waiting for Big Sis to take her for a ride.

We have been blessed by all of our visits with family and friends in the last 5 weeks!

Be sure to ask Jay about the incident with Amelia’s face and his helicopter.

Baby girl has been showered with gifts since we got home…apparently this was the first dressy dress I had put Amelia in because she wouldn’t stop twirling with this one on!

Until this picture, McKayla honestly believed that if you wanted to see snow you just went to the mall…thanks to Ski Dubai! We got to go see our Dubai Family in Michigan for New Years!

Sledding with Daddy!

After the emotional roller coaster of the last 2 months it was good to hug Denise’s neck!

They LOVE riding around the yard in this jeep!

Our little Aggie helped to cheer the team on Friday night! (and yes I chopped my hair off…11 inches for Wigs for Kids!)

I still have bracelets for sale…let me know if you want one, although we already made our donation to Amelia’s orphanage, JMot opened a savings account for us today to put the bracelet money in…it seems he feels like we aren’t quite done with China either!  (Pray for us!)

Much love,

H