Real mom

So yesterday Josh and I are walking from his speech therapy appointment to his ENT appointment. In the parking lot he reaches up and doesn't just grab my hand but slides his arm into mine. I hear him say to himself "my mother" as he continues to skip along with my arm locked into his. Then I say "Yes I am, I love you Josh".

 

So here comes the hard part... he goes from gleeful to just plain old grief stricken in about 2.2 seconds. He then says "Well not my real mom, like we don't look alot and stuff like that". His face still horribly sad. (We don't use the term real mom around here.... we use mom, China mom, birth mom... since both of his mom's are very much real.) Nonetheless in this instance he used it.

It was such a visual for me at his struggle. In order to have me he has to have a loss. For all of his struggles articulating he has such a way of verbalizing his grief. This time it was his face. I'll never forget the switch from happy go lucky to grief that showed on his face.

It's so hard being a parent and not being able to "fix" this grief that our adopted children carry. He is such an amazing kid, we love him so dearly. I can't imagine life without him yet I wish he didn't have to face this kind of grief. Hard stuff.

 

Stinkin cute

Little Micah is doing so well. We are hitting the 6 months home mark and I'm starting to be able to tell it. For us, that is when everyone kinda sits back and breathes again. Micah is not meddling near as much. He's more trustworthy to be left out of sight at our house for a few more than 3 seconds. He comes up with the funniest, cutest things to say. We call him the icing on the cake of our family :)

This is the massive grasshopper that I got called downstairs for yesterday. The way Isaac was going on and on about needing me to see this thing I was concerned there was a snake in the house. It was probably 4 inches long AND thankfully we could study it on the other side of the glass door.

 The adorable little kittens being a cute distraction during the school day....

Happy Birthday Micah

Our little guy celebrated his birthday and here are the pictures to prove it. ;)

Grace helped me make the cake. It was a combo of Curious George and Cars. He reminds us all of Curious George and loves Cars!

Obviously he had an awesome time!!

We've started talking to Nai Nai more now that Yi is a Christian. Joy really wants to share about Jesus with her and now she is able to with Yi's help. We all pray that she will see her need for Him and see that Jesus is the truth.

Here are pictures of when Yi was baptized. She continues to grow in her relationship with the Lord and it is so fun to study the Bible with her and talk with her about what she is learning.

We continue to balance school, dr. appts, and kids activities. I only have 2 pictures from our start to school. I need to do better since one of them I think Grace took of one of her science projects. I guess I'm too busy living life to take pictures of it. I need to just keep a camera in my pocket but since I can't seem to keep up with my keys or phone I'm sure that won't work out too well either.

We are also planning an amazing trip in the spring. What started as a homeland trip for Joshua, Clayton, and I has turned into the WHOLE family going to China for a month. The plan at this point is that Yi will go with us for spring break and then the 8 of us will stay for another 3 weeks. We are so excited, nervous, etc. We are loving watching God put all the details together.

Headed Home

We are on our way south. The trip up and then spending time there was definitely more fun. The girls and me too would love to make it all the way home today but the driver isn't so sure we can make it so we'll have to wait and see how he feels when we get to Nashville.

Here are the last of the pictures of our time in IL. We all thoroughly enjoyed our time. Fishing, riding in a paddle boat, row boak, riding the 4 wheeler, seeing all the big tractors, visiting with family, eating, swimming, playing with the kitten were what we enjoyed the most.

 My favorite pizza and salad place... Monical's!

 My cousin Katelyn is due in October!

 They are fixing up my grandpa and grandma's old house for one of my cousins to live in. When this cabinet was taken out of the wall this was found on the back of it. It's written by my great grandmother about when the house was built.

 Out to eat with my Grandma Wilson

 Famous, at least in our family, pork sandwich.

 Old Schoolhouse

My grandma and grandpa's house. All the kids helped Clayton put down some flooring and my aunt and uncle wanted to pay Clayton. Instead they gave toward a mission trip Grace is going on in October to Costa Rica. She is so excited. She has been praying God would give her an opportunity to go for at least 6 months and this will provide her with a lot of training in sharing her faith. Once again God always provides.

The kids in the paddle and row boat in one of the ponds.

 

 Us with my grandma

 They had a birthday party for me the night before we left.

Very sweet!