handsful

My post titles seem to revolve around numbers lately!

Lainey has been with us for 7 years, as of 2/18!

I’m not gonna say life with her is always easy.  It’s not.  She’s got a strong personality.

She’s constantly “on”, if you know what I mean.

She needs to know, be involved in, and in control of EVERYTHING.

I’m just assuming that the hard days now mean easy days when she’s a teenager.

Don’t laugh at me.

Despite challenges, she’s our girl and I’ll never doubt her place in our family.

Because of the kids work schedules, and Randy’s travel schedule, we weren’t able to go out to dinner.  Yet.

We’ll pull that together asap.

She’s in love with all things American Girl right now, so the books choice was easy.  She’s working hard on reading these days, and I suspect she’ll have her head in these chapter books as soon as she can.

Love you, Lainey Q.  Happy 7th Family Day :)

Almost forgot to post pics of Dylan’s 4th Gotcha Day with us!

As is our tradition, the special kid gets to choose where we eat out…he chose a nice Italian place that we’d not yet tried yet.

It was a very good decision!

We also choose a book to give each year, one that “fits” for the previous year.  And, this year, Dylan’s favorite movie was The Lego Movie.  I found a DK book that tells you everything-you’d-ever-wanna-know about it.  He loved it.

When I look back at pictures of when we first adopted Dylan, he looks SO small.  Lately, he’s been busy turning into a big kid, more specifically a big BOY.  Loves to wrestle with his older brothers, box with his dad…anything rough and tumble and he just asks for more.  However, he’s also my kid who can sit focused on a coloring sheet, staying completely in the lines, loves to build with our magnet pieces and blocks, and can also sit for hours watching TV.  Ahem, that last one we need to work on ;)

Dylan is a joy, no doubt.

Happy Forever Family day, big guy!

Three years?  Since this frightened boy was told that we were his Mama and Baba…since his nanny told him to give me a kiss on my cheek, and he obeyed….since our world was changed for the better, forever.

If you want to read about his Gotcha Day, go here

As is our Gotcha Day custom with both Lainey and Dylan, we let them choose where to go out to eat.  Dylan’s been telling us for a long time that he wanted to go back to the same place he had his first gotcha day, so that’s where we headed!

He enjoyed his meal of shrimp, fried clams, fish, hushpuppies, and fries.  And, raw oysters (yuck).

After dinner, we gave him his gotcha day present.  Each year, we give a book that fits for that year…maybe it’s about adoption, maybe it’s just something he/she is really into that year.

Last year, his book was a pop-up book about all the DC characters.  This year, he’s become a HUGE Batman fan (I give credit to his big bro, Payton, for that), so I found an early reader with 5 short stories, all about the Dark Knight.

I expect Payton will be reading some of these to Dylan :)

We lost him for the rest of the night.

In fact, he didn’t even notice we were leaving…

On the way to the van, he told me “Mom, I love, love, love, love my new book”…and, then he proceeded to kiss the front cover, over and over.

I think we nailed it on the book.

Happy 3 Year Forever Family Day, sweet boy!  We love you to the moon…

Can it be?

FIVE years?  When I look back at the baby pics, I can believe it.

Now, she’s 6, but wishing she was 16.  Must be the influence of all the teenagers at our house.

“Now, a silly one, mama!”

“Can Dylan be in the picture with me?” Of course, babe.

“And Jack?”  Sure…

Jack is such a lick-headed dog!

Showing off her headstand skills….she can stand there forever.

Our tradition is to give each child a book on their Gotcha Day anniversary…one that shows what that child loves or is “into” at that age. Or, maybe an adoption-themed book appropriate for them.  This year, Lainey is ga-ga for Sofia the First and she was SO hoping that would be her book.

We didn’t disappoint.

Love you, girl!  Happy Forever Family Day…we’re so thankful that God meant you for us.

It’s been TWO years since Dylan YuHai Clark joined our crazy family…and, we celebrated him last Thursday night.

As is our custom for both birthday and forever family days, the special kid chooses where we go out to eat.  We KNEW that Dylan would choose the same place we went to last year.  He brings it up all the time, always asking us WHEN are we going back there?!

But, no.  He decided to confuse us and picked one of our favorite Asian restaurants from when we lived in Florida.  Problem is the closest one to us now is a 45 minute drive.  So, we drove.

While we’re driving, enjoy some of the shots I got of our little guy earlier that day…

Mom, the sun is in my eyes!  (moving to another outside spot…)

I had nothing to do with it, so I don’t feel bad saying….he’s just so dang cute.

There’s the silliness.

Time to eat…

And, because an ice cream place was right next door…why not?

Giving the special kid a book is also a tradition with forever family days.  I’d been sick, and ordered the book a little late.  And, it hadn’t arrived in time.  It showed up the next day, though.

He’s big-time into all things super hero, so a huge pop-up book with all of them was just the right choice.

Dylan has come a long way in two years.  As with any adoption, there are bumps in the road as the child learns to be part of a family.  And, more bumps as the existing family members make room for another.  We are fortunate, in that Dylan’s adjustment-pains have been relatively easy.  Bedtime used to be a bear…we believe due in part to losing his crib-mate(s).  Now, he loves his room and his bed.  He also used to zone out when things just got to be too much for him to handle….no more.  His biggest struggle is self-control over his emotions.  He becomes upset/cries very easily, especially if he feels like you’re mad or disappointed in him.

But, most of the time he’s a very laid-back, low-maintenance kid who loves bursting into ninja-like moves when you least expect it.  How can you not smile at that?

We love you Dyl-pickle!

We glanced up, while waiting for the elevator, when our guide casually said “and, here’s the baby from Bengbu”.

You were so brave, holding in your emotions, until we laid you down to change your diaper…and, you whimpered softly.

I looked at you on the way back to the hotel, and you looked at me. Both of us with looks of “okay, now what” on our faces.

Fast forward…

It’s been 4 years since that day we “met” you at the elevators. Since that day you were brave, and we were both unsure of the future.

Today, you’re very self-assured, very brave and VERY spunky. Back then, your “language” was 2 vowel-like utterances. Today, you’re a speech therapy rock star, working so hard and making HUGE progress. We understand you most of the time…amazing.

You have a very strong personality…most of the time, that’s great. Sometimes, it’s a challenge. But, we’re up for it. And, you’re worth it.

There are many things you love at age 5. Your bike, your gummy bear vitamins, Curious George, skinny jeans, the swingset, food (too many to narrow down…), running, and staying no more than 12 inches away from mom.

You know that mom and dad made a long trip to China to get you. You know that the big kids grew in my tummy. You know that you did not. One connection you’ve not quite made yet…so, where did you grow? How did you come to be?

This book should help her make that connection, and in a very beautiful and loving way. I’m looking forward to / nervous about – reading it. We’ll be reading it today.

Last night at her celebration dinner (she wanted Taco Bell, we convinced her to upgrade to a Mexican restaurant…), she flipped through the pages and pointed to the cast of characters. I told her “that’s you”, “that’s mommy”, and “that’s China mommy”. She asked no questions, just smiled at each page.

Her China mommy gave her her beauty, her laugh, her stinky feet. I’ll give her comfort when she’s sad, high-fives when she’s happy, love forever.

Happy 4 years, Lainey-girl. We love you. Always.

I promised more info on our Celebrate Dylan night, so here goes…

Our normal routine for Gotcha Day is to take the special child out to eat, so we headed out. We had no clue where we were going…we asked Dylan what he wanted to eat and he said “a potato”. Okay, then.

We were headed to a casual steak place, but ended up here.

A long-time Lake Norman restaurant (37 years, we found out), we’d not tried it yet. And, given how much Dylan LOVES “Cars” these days, it seemed like a perfect fit.

Dylan prayed for our meal…he takes “close your eyes” very seriously.

Appetizers. Dylan tries his first oyster with cocktail sauce. He gave it a thumbs up.

No pictures during dinner because we were all stuffing our faces…catfish, flounder, shrimp, chopped steak, potatoes, and lots of sweet tea. Oh my, it was good. Dylan cleaned his plate.

Did we save room for dessert? Nah, but bring it anyway.

Cutting his 8-layer cake.

Yes, he did shovel it in one bite.

Our other Gotcha Day tradition is giving the child a book…maybe an adoption related book, maybe just something that the child is “into” at the time. We sign the inside of each, with some words of love and the date.

His eyes lit up when he saw this, he absolutely adores anything “Cars” these days. He spent some good reading time on his belly today, “reading” his new book.

We had such a fun night, eating some great southern food and honoring our little guy. How blessed we are to be Dylan’s mommy and daddy!