Lots to celebrate!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband, Ken! I love it when his birthday comes, because for the next 9 weeks, he is as old as I am. ;)



Phillip has been awarded the Track Maker Award from his school for scoring among the top in his class on the science portion of the Mapp Test. Way to go Phillip!

Last week was Parent-Teacher conferences, and all the boys are doing well in school. Isaac is enjoying Kindergarten, and doing great. Ian and Nathan both have straight A's. Ian's teacher even bragged about what a great leader he is in class, and how she can really trust him!

Eliza continues to amaze us. She had some bonding time with Daddy this past weekend, as Mommy went on a much needed women's retreat. She is not walking yet, but is instead focusing on climbing! The stair gates are in full force, and she is now trying to climb onto the couch, but I don't think she's quite tall enough yet. Boy, am I gonna have my hands full with this active little one. And that's fine with me. My hands are full, and so is my heart.

Yes, she hiked her leg up there all by herself! Ballet, perhaps?

Wordless Wednesday - Daddy's Little Girl

A Not So Small Victory

It's that time of the year...Parent Teacher Conferences. Yesterday I went to meet with one of my son's teacher's. Usually his teacher says something like, "He is such a sweet, smart boy, BUT he has a lot of trouble...listening, following directions, getting his work done, staying on task..."

Well, this past spring, He was diagnosed with Non-hyperactive Attention Deficit Disorder. It seemed to take forever to get a diagnosis because he is not hyper like most kids with ADHD. Also, I was looking for him to have anything but ADD, because I did not fully understand it, and therefor had some serious misconceptions about it. I was not about to put my kid on Ritalin to calm him down or make it easier for me to manage him. (Again me being seriously uneducated about the disorder and the medications to treat it). I basically thought ADD was something that teachers/parents made up to have an excuse to sedate out of control boys (well, mostly boys). Wow, how offensive am I?!

Anyway, after several doctors and lots of research, we finally got him the diagnosis he needed. His first medication worked somewhat, but it was not the results we hoped for. Last month we changed his meds, and WOW! what an amazing difference. It is like there has been a cloud hanging around him his whole life, and the cloud has been lifted. His brilliant personality is now shining through. He is starting to succeed, and you can just see the excitement and self pride in his eyes.

Back to the Parent-Teacher conference: This year, his teacher is beaming about him. And no BUT.. She raved that he has been able to fully participate and even lead in class. He went from doing 20-25 math problems in a minute to doing 50! He read a chapter book in 2 days! This is all huge! Then came the bomb. She shows me his report card, and not only does he have straight A's, but he has satisfactory behavior in every category (that has never happened!). I actually started to cry. I felt like an idiot, but who cares. My son is victorious. Finally! He is free from the obstacle that has been holding him back, frustrating him and us, and slowly tearing down his self esteem.

I have prayed for so long for God to take this burden from him, and my prayers have been answered. This reminded me of a verse I memorized this past year:

Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. Galatians 5:9

I cannot tell you how defeated I felt when I chose that verse. I felt like we'd never figure out how to help our son, like the daughter we longed for would never be ours, and so many other things. But I do believe the Lord is fulfilling his promise. The harvest is coming in, and it is a bountiful harvest this year! Praise God!

ps: sorry, no cute pics today. The flu is making it's way through our house, so I thought I'd spare you pics of our tired eyes and snotty noses.

My Amazing God

I am so completely amazed that this precious child, who I prayed for for so long; who was born half way around the world, in a amazing land I probably would have never visited; who was born to a mother who loved her very deeply, but knew she could not raise her; who weighed only 1.8 lbs. at birth, and struggled just to stay alive; this miracle child was without a doubt hand selected by God to be my daughter. I am, but shouldn't be, amazed by the perfection in His plan. Under normal circumstances, it is very unlikely that I would have ever crossed paths with her in my entire lifetime, but through the miracle of adoption, I now call her daughter. God is so, so good.

I want to share this popular adoption quote with you all today. It so beautifully describes my heart.

We witness a miracle each time a child enters into life. But those who make their journey across time and miles, growing in the hearts of those who wait to love them, are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us by God's own hands.

Big Brother "Up"

As I have probably said before, Eliza totally adores her big brother Phillip, and vise versa. Well, yesterday when I called for him, she chimed in right after my "Phillip!" with her own "Up!". She has been calling him "Up" all day. It's so cute. This morning before he was awake, she put her hands in the air and said "Up?", as if to ask "Where is Phillip?" It is so amazing to me how quickly she is picking up on our language, a language she had never heard just 6 weeks ago.

Isaac loves to read

Isaac read his first book all by himself! Yeah! He is so proud of himself, and of course, we are proud of him too.

Settling In

We seem to be settling into somewhat normalness (is that a word?). The newness of baby sister is wearing off for the boys. They still love and adore Eliza, but they aren't in her face all the time. It's back to runing around making more sound effects than actual words, and focusing on their own activities such as scouts and school work.

We had our first post-placement visit of 3 from our social worker this past Friday, and it went very well. She is quite impressed with how well Miss Eliza is adjusting to her forever family, and so are we.

She is also doing so great developmentally since she came home. She was basically just doing an army crawl when we brought her home, and now she is a super fast crawler. She can pull up on furniture, and is cruising. She loves to hold our hands and walk, and she smiles big and looks so proud of herself when she does. Yesterday she even stood unassisted for about 5 seconds. It is really amazing to see how quickly she is growing and getting stronger.

On November 3rd, we have our first of 2 court dates to finalize her adoption in the US. Approx. 6 months after the first court date, we will have finalization and she will officially be ours and a US citizen. Right now she has a green card, and will be a Korean citizen until her adoption is final and she gains US citizenship. We will for sure have a huge celebration on that day!

We had kind of a busy week, so not a lot of new pics, but I love this one of all my babies: