Holidays!

Whew!  Will and Lena have been home for about 11 months and celebrating Easter this past weekend marked a complete round of the holidays.  While Lena took them in stride and enjoyed everything about them, Will had to know all the whys, whens, hows, and wheres.  While that is not a bad thing, it is just challenging to explain the details and concepts.  Will remembered getting an orange and candy at Christmas one year but that was the extent of his experience with holidays.  When I think about all they learned this past year about the birth of Jesus and His death and resurrection, I am in awe!

Will told me the other day that if he went to heaven before us that he would stay around Jesus, so we could find him when we got there!

Lena at her first Easter egg hunt

Lena enjoying the sack race

Beth and Will dying eggs

Hope hunting eggs

Will hunting eggs

Hope - 7 and 3/4

Will - age 7.5

Lena - age 4.5

All five - Lena, Beth, Dow
Will and Hope

Catching Up!

I have intended to update before now, but life sure gets in the way of blogging!  A lot has happened since my last post.  Will broke his arm playing in the play room.  He actually dislocated his radial head at the elbow.  As soon as I heard the cry, I just knew what had happened.  We arrived at the Urgent Care office at 3pm where they confirmed it was broken but they would not set it.  Then it was on to Southern Orthopedics where they already had five emergency surgeries.  Then it was on to the ER at Childrens where they had to sedate him to put it back in place.  We finally left at 11:30 pm.  A big thank you to Chip and Christy Colee.  Christy drove me to Childrens while Chip drove to visit good friends in Bham and then picked her up.  Andy was flying home from NY and arrived at Childrens around 10:30.  What a crazy day.  Did I mention Will screamed the first two hours?  Not that I blamed him, I know he was in pain.  It was very frustrating when I was constantly asked to complete paperwork at three different places while he was clearly in agony!  However, at the posting of this blog, he has had the cast off for one week and we are so thankful.  He is learning to use his arm again.

Also, since my last update, Will's new eardrum ruptured due to a full blown ear infection.  Thankfully, it repaired itself but Will's eustachian tubes are not working.  We had scheduled a fitting for a hearing aid but had to cancel due to the infection.  Even after both tympanoplasties, Will's hearing has not improved which points to nerve damage.  He also had circumcision surgery the week of spring break.  Yes, he has been through it and we are praying that this will be his last surgery for a long time!!!

Below is a picture of Will dressed up for the wedding of Q and U that is held in Kindergarten at his school every year.  It is like a real wedding with a singer, preacher and cake and punch afterwards.  The kids even blow bubbles as the happy couple drive off for their honeymoon.  It is really cute.  However, explaining to Will what a wedding was proved to be quite challenging.  He has no experience from which to draw.  He was clueless on what a wedding was and what it meant to be married.  He just knew Andy and I are his mother and daddy but didn't understand the concept of being married.  There have been so many incidents like this.  He wants to know everything but explaining concepts to him can be difficult because he was not exposed to anything outside of his small world in the orphanage for the first seven years of his life.

Lena is doing great at school and is learning rapidly.  Since English is basically her first language (basically non-verbal when she came home), she has no accent.  She loves to play with baby dolls and all of their accessories.  One of her favorite things to do is to pack items in a bag, carry them around, unpack them, play with them, and pack them up again.  I am constantly finding things in bags, purses, etc.  Taking gymnastics has seemed to help her balance.  She is not falling as much and seems more sure footed.  Lena looooves to eat and is talking about snack 10 minutes after breakfast.  She is pretty relentless about asking for food.  However, if she discovers we are having a vegetable for dinner , she immediately starts crying even if it is hours before we will eat.  Then you can just picture the battle we have at dinner!!!

Lena at Chuck E. Cheese

Hope continues to take art class every week and loves it.  She loves school, her teacher and friends.  She also gets excited about going to SS where she sees Mrs. Shan and Mr Rush and Mrs. Twinkle (her SS teachers).  She is also good in helping Will to understand some things, because he is always asking questions!  I love it when she is the one answering instead of me!  Her favorite thing to do is still acting like some kind of animal.  Sometimes, she can get Will or Lena to play animals with her.  We are really having to push her to work on math facts.  She doesn't like to do them because she doesn't know them but doesn't understand that it takes practice, practice.  Hope is also going to tennis clinic at Wynlakes where Beth is helping to teach the younger kids.  Hope has stayed so healthy this year and hasn't missed a day of school!  I am so thankful for this considering how much we have been through with Will.  Hope was sick so much during the first year she was home.  I know I am probably exaggerating but she seemed to be sick more often than well.  We are so thankful that God has given her good health and she has out grown asthma!

Hope at Let's Pretend Hospital

Hope reading to Will and Lena

January Happenings!

Well, January got off to a busy start but it seems that every month does!  I keep expecting things to slow down but I don't know why!  Lena started K3 at St. James UMC and is going three days a week.  This has been very good for her but even better for me.  She also started Leap Gymnastics at St. James one day a week and loves it.  She listens to her teacher, follows instructions, and stays where assigned.  Now if I could just get her to do that at home, because she can really be very difficult to manage at times.  However, she can be extremely loving and thoughtful, and she says the sweetest prayers!

Lena all ready for her first PJ and Teddy Bear day at Preschool!

Will was finally able to have his second tympanoplasty done on Jan. 15.  A big thank you to our pediatrician who helped to get his ear ready.  Even after weeks of ear drops, a round of antibiotics and a shot prior to the surgery date, Will still had some infection.  The surgeon decided to go ahead with it assuming that Will's ear may be as good as it was going to get re. infection.  During the surgery, the ENT discovered Will only had 5% of an eardrum, so he constructed a completely new one.  He also discovered that Will had a yeast infection due to all of the dampness from infections and he was able to treat that.  Will has been a trooper!  We will know in a couple of months if the surgery restores his hearing.

Will right after surgery - always smiling!

Hope is busy learning math facts and reading.  I continue to be blown away at the curriculum at Eastwood and all that Hope is learning.  Hope's favorite thing in all the world right now is that she is taking art lessons every Tuesday.  She counts down the days until she can go.  Since Hope is all about animals, her teacher lets her paint her favorites which is usually some kind of large cat.  We love seeing what she brings home every Tuesday.  Below are her first two projects using watercolor.

Christmas Eve and Day 2014

Christmas Eve was spent at a beautiful candlelight service at First Baptist.  It is always one of our family's most meaning Christmas experiences.  This year was especially special having all seven of us together each holding a candle at the end as we sang Silent Night.   Then it was over to the Colee's for a Christmas Eve feast and a fun sing along time.

When we arrived home, we got the kids in the pajamas as quickly as possible despite their excitement!  Beth had arranged an amazing fort in the playroom for all of the kids to sleep in with her.

On Christmas morning, it was so fun watching them open presents.  Will kept saying Santa did "gude."  He was really pumped about a bow and arrow set that he got.  He couldn't wait to shoot his bow with Dow at the farm!  Hope was excited about her dinosaur excavation kit and Lena loved her girly accessories.

After the Christmas story, a few books about Jesus Birthday, and a Happy Birthday Jesus cookie cake, the kids played most of the morning.  After lunch, it was off to the lake for Christmas dinner and time with family.

This was a bittersweet Christmas for me.  My Daddy died on May 10 which was the same day that Lena and Will arrived home.  I had not had time to grieve but this Christmas brought a flood of tears and memories.  For those of you missing loved ones, my heart goes out to you - it is hard!

Hope loves her big brother!

Lena loved sitting by Chip during the Christmas Eve sing along

Watching Chris play the guitar up close!

Reading to the kids in the fort

Coming down the stairs Christmas morning

Hope and Will 

Loving her accessories

Dow at the lake on Christmas night

Beth getting her "money" stocking from grandparents

Birchfield cousins

Fun Times in December, 2014!

We are so blessed for all of the people who have loved on, accepted, and given in many ways to Lena and Will over these past seven months.  All during Christmas, I was made even more aware of this through parties at school, knowledge gained from their Sunday School teachers about the Christmas story, and neighbors and friends who had fun events planned for them.  It was fun listening to Hope tell Will and Lena all about Santa Clause and Will ask her a 100 questions!  Sharing our family traditions with them reminded me how blessed we are as a family.  Will's face when the Living Christmas Tree at church lit up was priceless.  Lena loved wearing her special Christmas outfits.  We had about six countdown to Christmas items going on like Advent calendars, putting pieces of nativity together, etc.  Will kept asking when was the snow coming - I kept saying it wasn't but he still kept asking!  In fact on Christmas Eve day, he said I can't wait until tomorrow.  Out of curiosity I asked him what was going to happen and he said, "It is going to snow!"

December 1st of last year, Andy made a trip to Moldova and first met Will and Lena.  The Ministry of Social Protection in Moldova would not release paperwork on Lena.  This trip was vital in getting the paperwork.  For those of you who walked the adoption journey with us, you know it was very challenging.  In fact, our agency who was able to complete adoptions for three families during this window of Moldova reopening adoptions announced recently they were closing their program with Moldova.  As far as I know, they are the only agency in the US or any other country who was able to complete any adoptions during this time.  I can only guess that our agency made this decision due to the difficulty that they encountered in working with the Moldovan govt.  Dossiers were returned to families  in the program leaving them with hard decisions to make.  Given this, I am even more amazed at how God orchestrated the adoption of Will and Lena and the perseverance of Andy to see it happen!  This month more than ever, I think about where they were last year and what their future would have been like without God's intervention.  And I am humbled to be a part of His work.  This is not to say that the journey is easy; my nerves get frayed, I lose patience, and I constantly fail to surrender but God uses ordinary people with weaknesses and faults.  For this, I am grateful!  Praise the Lord for His mercies!

Will's class at Wesley Gardens singing carols.  Will's music teacher in Moldova had an accordion that was duct taped together.

Our neighbor, Hope Mardre helped the kids make wooden tree ornaments and gingerbread houses!

Our friends, the Rowells, invited the kids over to make cookies.  This is Katherine and Lena!

The kids giving Santa ornaments that they made - Lena's idea!

Kids with Santa.  We had to hurry Will along because of all of the questions he was asking Santa!

Making cookies at our house

Having our traditional Christmas Eve Day brunch at Cracker Barrel

Hope is pumped about meeting the camel at the live nativity scene.

Will working diligently at the Rowell's house on his cookies.

Will giving his card to a resident at Wesley Gardens

Christmas party at Looney's

Hope's 1st grade party at Eastwood

Hope's class playing a fun Christmas game!

The Little Piggy Opera 2014!

Every year, the kindergarten classes at Eastwood School puts on the cutest play called The Little Piggy Opera.  It ties in Colossians 3:23 which says "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men."  This year, we had the privilege of watching Will make his acting debut as the little pig who built his house out of sticks.  What a thrill to watch him and think about God's grace that brought him from where he was last Christmas to where he is this year.  Thanks to everyone who continues to love Will!

Waiting patiently for his part

Finally, it is his turn!

Will and first little pig meeting the big bad wolf

Telling big bad wolf "NO WAY"

Beth and Will

Even Mrs. Dora got to come!

A Little Bit of Everything!

First of all, I want to update everyone on Will's ear situation.  We went back to the ENT at Children's on Tuesday, and the fluid behind his surgery ear was gone so his eustachian tubes are working!  Also, the non surgery ear was not infected (I think this may be the first time since he has been home!).  Soooo, we have the tympanoplasty scheduled on his second ear Dec. 18th.  We are so grateful for this and are praying that this surgery is successful.  This ear basically has no ear drum do to the hole being so big and will be more detailed than the other.  Prayers appreciated.  His hearing in the surgery ear was in the normal range with some room for improvement.

Will and Lena are experiencing so many new things - it is fun to watch.  Of course, Will has to know every single detail about everything!  I am sure this will serve him well at some point!!!  But there is a lot of explaining going on constantly at our home.  While his English is phenomenal for 7 mos in the US, it is still challenging to explain to him things he has no idea about.  Lena, on the other hand, just goes with the flow mostly.  I have to give a pat on the back to Hope.  She has done so well adjusting to siblings for which we are so thankful.

Will is doing so well in school and so is Hope!  Lena is doing well at home in learning letters, numbers, counting, colors, shapes.  We are working on writing letters and the sound they make.

Thanks to all of you who continue to keep us in your prayers.  Everyday, I benefit from your intercession, because adoption is so much more than just expanding your family.  It is about relationships, adjustments, likes and dislikes, losses and gains, fears, personalities, new traditions, and lots and lots of medical appts!  It is also about seeing your children experience so many things for the first time and watching them become part of a family and society!  Praising God for my adoption and the promise of eternal security as we pray for all of our children to become part of God's family.

Will's first school program

Hope's first grade Pilgrim Feast

Will and Lena's first wedding (my niece Kayla)

Lena and Will's first Thanksgiving - with all the Birchfield cousins

Searching for just the right tree and yes, they are in their PJs and Crocs!

Couldn't resist a pic with the blow up Santa

Lena loves Sunday School, especially snack time!