handsful

We were thrilled when Bruce, Karen, and their son Micah were able to stop by for a visit, on their way to Orlando last week!  We met them in Beijing, they were part of our travel group.  They received their son in a different province than us, and then we met up again in Guangzhou.  You know how you just “click” with some people?  It was like that with Bruce and Karen, like we’ve known each other for years.  Their son Micah recently turned 3, and was also born with a cleft lip and palate, like Lainey.  Here are some other photos from our time together…

Sharing is still being learned by both…

Karen shared her camera with Lainey, and she LOVED it.  I’ve always wanted to capture a picture of Lainey looking at a just-taken picture!  When we take her picture, and she hears the “snap”, she immediately runs over to see and just smiles and giggles. 

Micah loved all the kids (and they loved playing with him…Ethan’s comment was “he’s fun, he can actually talk”….I guess Lainey needs to step up the speech progress!).  But it was obvious that his favorite was Marley.  Guys always go for the blond. 

About a zillion tries, and this is our best shot of them together.  They were climbing all over those stairs!

Good group shot!  Is Micah blowing raspberries?  Boys…

Bruce, Karen, Donna, and Randy

Thanks for a great visit, guys! 

 

If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll remembering reading how we were led on the path to our Lainey.  In a nutshell, we had difficulties having our children, going through fertility treatments that were eventually successful.  We had our oldest daughter in 96 and added 3 more blessings 2 years later.  At that point we were “done” and proclaimed it loudly that we were. 

Years went by, and we started considering the possibility of adoption, slowly and in the backs of our minds.  In 2005, Randy forwarded me the website of a friend of his who had recently adopted from China.  I don’t remember the exact wording, but Randy’s email to me made me think he might be considering this for us…he didn’t really SAY that, but I felt it.  I ended up spending hours reading, sometimes through tears, about their journey to Lily.  I was hooked, and this thing called international adoption was starting to feel personal, like something we were meant to do.  Lots of thoughts, talking and prayers later, we turned in our paperwork to CCAI, the same adoption agency used by Sean and his wife Melissa. 

All that to say…this family that started us on our path to Lainey, changing our lives forever in the most amazing way, is RIGHT NOW in China, adopting their little Emma Faith!  I’d love for you to stop by their blog, and follow their journey along with me!  I’m sure they would love to know that others are watching and praying for them. 

www.seanjohns.blogspot.com 

…than to be in Carolina.  Cousin’s Day came around once again, and this one was Lainey’s first.  She did a lot better on this long trip than the last one in April, thankfully! 

Nana arranged for a photographer to come this year, and that lady’s camera was smoking (literally…it actually overheated at one point). 

Randy took this one of the group shot…hopefully the photographer was a little more lucky.  Tough to get this many people looking at the same time! 

Love this shot of Nana

Yes, it was THAT hot.

Abbey says hello!

Lainey took an immediate liking to Nana and Paw Paw’s dog, Casey.  Could she stick that hip out any farther?

With pictures and devotion time done, Nana knew just how to make the kiddos happy…water slide!  We got Lainey changed and took her to the slide.  We told her goodbye and that mama and dada would be back.  She was so distracted by the fun, that she didn’t fuss at all.  We’re told that she did great all day, playing, napping, eating, running around, chasing the dog, eating, etc.  She slept all night, even through the crazy thunderstorm that night.  We were relieved, though I’m not sure why we were ever worried….Lainey always surprises us by handling everything well. 

The rest of our weekend was full of seeing people.  On Friday, we took the kids to my mom’s “office” (she works at a daycare) for a visit.  I’ll be adding some pics of that on a later post.  After that, we picked up lunch and took it to my grandmom’s house.  My aunt Gail and cousin Michael joined us and we had a great time, catching up and laughing at Lainey as she wore grandmom’s glasses, shouldered her purse, and held onto her cane.  I have no pics of this, unfortunately…forgot the camera.  I know, I’m still mad at myself. 

Lainey was then treated to an eye exam by her own Uncle Tony.  He told us that she has a little bit of a prescription, but nothing that needs attention right now.  He also confirmed what we suspected…her left eye occasionally (about 1/4 of the time) turns inward.  Again, he said there’s no need for treatment right now, given how intermittently it occurs.  It could go away on it’s own.  He’ll check her again in a year. 

Skip ahead to Saturday night (when the kids were at Cousin’s Day), and we had our annual triple date with Tony and Dee Dee (R’s brother and sis-in-law) and John and Kim (R’s step-sister and bro-in-law).  Beautiful restaurant, great food, and not a kid’s menu in sight.  Ahhh…

Church and then a very lazy Sunday afternoon with Randy’s mom Ann visiting us at Tony and Dee Dee’s house.  Then, it was time to get on the road. 

Lainey and her favorite optometrist, uncle Tony

Kissing cousins, Samara and Lainey

All of Lainey’s cousins enjoyed getting to know her better (the little ones high-fived her all weekend!), but Caleb took a special interest in her.  Once he found out that Lainey would eat anything, he set out to find something that she would refuse.  He never found it, but not for lack of trying. 

The NC family and the FL family…all 15 of us. 

We stopped by my mom and dad’s house on our way home…she wanted a new picture to add to her “grandmom” frame. 

An uneventful ride home (love those kind) and a great meal at Cracker Barrel (thanks, mom and dad!) and we were home.