Lip Revision Surgery Today

Hi all -it's been a long time. 

Photo from last night - a pre-bedtime run to Baskin Robbins as Lily has lip revision surgery today at CHLA. Surgery not until 2:00pm, but no food since midnight!  

We stocked up on Popsicles and juice since she can drink clear liquids until 11;00am. Oh I hate the fasting part - I dread that it will be tough for Lily. 

Please keep her in your prayers. Her plastic surgeon feels this is a necessary procedure to even out her upper lip. I don't know what to expect - but have received many encouraging words and reminders of the Lord's care and faithfulness from scripture and friends and family. 

I will update when I can. You can also follow me on instagram which has kind of become a micro-blog of our family. The kids right now are eating Popsicles for breakfast in solidarity of Lily's clear liquid diet this morning!

A Sweet Reunion

On our east coast trip, we had the absolute blessing of being reunited with our "China friends," the Ramella family.  We met John and Judy in Hunan Province where we were both going to meet our new daughters for the first time.  At that time, they adopted their daughter, also named Lily, who is just about a year older than our Lily.  John and Judy were and have continued to be an amazing encouragement to both Dave and me.  They have 2 grown children who are out of the house, and then Gracie (now 5) also adopted from China years ago, and now Lily (who is now 3 1/2).  John and Judy just lift us up with their faith in our wonderful Lord, and how they truly want to live a life that pleases Him.  They love the orphan :-).  The Ramellas live on the East Coast, and we were thrilled to be able to go to their home and get the kids together again.

Jumping with Gracie on the backyard trampoline.

From left to right:  Lily and Grace Ramella, Lily, Matthew, Nathan, and Aaron

The two Lily's on their Daddies.

We were treated to an ITALIAN FEAST!!!  Homemade pizza!

Bread and olive oil.

The two Lily's.  Both from Hunan Province, China.  Our girls getting ready to eat.

Macaroni.  We heard so much about this macaroni while we were in China.  When we were in China, and familiar foods were slim pickins, Judy would say, "I can't wait to get home and have some macaroni!"  And I finally got to have some!  Yummmmmm.

The Ramella girls made cupcakes with sprinkles for the occasion.  Obviously, Aaron approves. 

Oh my!  Cannoli.  Yes, please!

Matthew reading a Pinkalicious book to Lily and Aarbear.

John, Judy, me, and Dave!

And I loved this so much that I took a photo of it.  It is hanging over Judy's kitchen sink.  Just in case you cannot read it.  It says:
God's main goal is not leisure, it's likeness.
Not feel better at times but follow better!
Holy Spirit knows what you are going to face next week, month, etc.  So he equips you for the future when he touches on an area of our life.  He touches on a fault.  Painful!  But He will walk with you to help you.
God will maximize your obedience and turn your weakness into a strength.  Romans 8:28

Everyone but Nathan (who is the camera man).

Their Lily is just thriving with her family!  She was also a special needs adoption - and her special need involves dermatology.  Dave is privileged to be dubbed her "angel doctor" by the Ramellas.  You can read about the details of the Lord's provision here in Judy's blog.

Oh man, I miss them already :-).

You never forget the friends you make when you go to adopt a child, that is for sure.

Lily's Gotcha Day!

One year ago today - we met our Lily Claire for the first time!

This is Lily's photo from when she was 9 months old.  It is the oldest photo that we have of her.  It is the photo that is on her file that came from China.  Look at those big brown eyes, and that rosebud mouth.  She has already healed from her lip repair that was down in China when she was 7 months old.  I don't like to think about her enduring that surgery all by herself.

Gotcha Day!  This is when she was first handed off to us in our room at the HuaTian Hotel in Changsha, Hunan.  

This is the two of us last week.  Look how happy she is!

So at home and right in the middle of everything - doing a science experiment with brothers.

Manning the remote for Sunday afternoon football with Daddy.

I cannot imagine our family without her dear scrappy adorable self.  She just warms out heart every day with how much she trusts and loves us all.  What an honor it is to be loved by this little child.  Her brothers all dote on her and have accepted her so completely even from the beginning.  I feel so blessed to get to be her mama.

I miss China.  Such fond fond memories of such a special special time!

The Big Catch Up Post

Sorry - we have just been so, so busy around here!  And not taking a lot of photos.  Which makes for less blogging!  But I will attempt to catch up a bit here.  

We have started our school year.  All of the kids are home this year, and they are not attending the Chinese school at all.  It was just taking too much time - even though they only went until lunch time.  By the time they came home and had lunch, it was hard to switch gears in order to complete all of the other subjects.  It has been soooo nice to have a change of pace.  No more rushing out the door with half eaten cereal and spilt milk all over the kitchen table in the mornings.  We are still easing into getting a good routine going, but I am optimistic.

"Roamschooling" at the car wash.  Doesn't Nathan look cute with the pencil behind his ear?

Yes, my little Aarbear is in kindergarten this year!  Yikes!  He is doing so well.  He is very apprehensive of learning new things.  In fact, when I told him we would learn to read this year, he started crying :-(.  I think it is hard for him having two older brothers who seem to be able to do so much more than him.  In actuality, he can hold his own with the "big boys," and he certainly has more experience than many kids his age dealing with older kids.

I love my new beach chair from Costco!  And so do Nathan, Aaron, Lily, and her babies.

We are studying ancient history this year.  We read together about the Egyptians and papyrus.  We decided to make paper out of paper pulp from scrap paper.  You can see everyone is getting into it - even Lil.

We put radish seeds in the purple paper so that the recipient of a letter written on it can plant the paper afterwards and have radishes!

Matthew's (top shelf) and Nathan's (second shelf) school books for this year.  That is not even all of them.

The daily report, dictated every day by Aaron.

Nathan doing a front kick.

Jumping front kick combination.

Woohoo - and Matt and Nene tested for purple belts!!!

They are high fiving their class mates after receiving their purple belts.

I am also going to list here the curriculum choices for the year, even though I know that this will be pretty boring for everyone who is not homeschooling.  This is for posterity, so bear with me :-).  Also, I am including (totally non-affiliated) links - just in case you want to check out what they are studying this year and where to find the materials.

Matthew (6th grade):
Math - Singapore Math 5B, 6A and hopefully we can get to 6B later in the year.
Sonlight Core G reading list
Social Studies - Story of the World Volumes 1 and 2, Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
Language Arts - Matt is participating in the Classical Conversations Essentials program which covers
     grammar, spelling, and uses the Institute for Excellence in Writing for writing.
Science - Matt is participating in the Virtual Homeschooling Group which will be using Apologia's Exploring Creation with General Science for the textbook.  By the way, this is an AMAZING resource if you have older kids (middle to high school).  It is completely free.
Mandarin Chinese - Rosetta Stone online

Nathan (2nd grade):
Math - Singapore Math 3B, and then I think we will do Teaching Textbooks 4
Social Studies - Story of the World Volumes 1 and 2
Language Arts - Rod and Staff 2 Phonics, Rod and Staff Spelling 2, Writing With Ease Level 2
Science - Studies Weekly and Hands-On Science Fun! Microscopic Explorations, Insects, and Light
Mandarin Chinese - Rosetta Stone online

Aaron (K):
Math - Houghton Mifflin California Math workbook, and then we will move to Singapore Earlybird
Reading - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Language Arts - Daily report (see above), lots of being read to, Rod and Staff Preschool Curriculum
Science - Studies Weekly and tagging along with Nathan with the science kit

Lily (toddler):
Be cute
Bother brothers
Get into everything
Hang on Mama's legs

I am also including this scripture memory system (which is ingenious by the way) with the kids (and myself) in addition to our usual morning devotion times.

Wow - if you made it through this far - thank you!

I am trying hard to be more critical of where to spend our time and energy and have more margin in our lives.  It seems like we are always rushing around, and I do NOT like that.

Man Shall Not Live By Bread (Donuts) Alone

This week we had a trip to Krispy Kreme.  All the kids had a blast picking out their donut, and watching the conveyor belt carry the donuts under the glaze waterfall and onto the racks to set.  Even though Lily undoubtedly never had a donut in China - she loves them!  Matthew loves them, too.  They are probably his most favorite treat.  Last year for his birthday, that was his request - and we actually found a mom and pop donut shop that makes a giant donut that can be served as a cake.  It was about 1 foot in diameter, and we put candles on it and served it up as his birthday cake when he turned 10.

We usually do our morning devotions together over breakfast, so we brought our stuff to Krispy Kreme to do it there.  You can see how Lily has scribbled all over  decorated our record of Bible readings.  We are going through the Psalms now - one a day.  We are also reading Egermeier's Bible Story Book.  Do you have any resources or routines you have used for devotions for family or kids?  Another one we absolutely LOVED and have gone through many, many, many times is The Jesus Storybook Bible.  It is wonderful!  I would love to know how you do family devotions.  Always looking for more inspiration!  We have done other things in the past, too, like Keys For Kids, Discovering Jesus in Genesis, Leading Little Ones to God, The Picture Bible, Read-n-Grow Picture Bible through the years.  

To keep it real, it is a struggle to get through our devotions most days.  Lest you think that my kids sit quietly while I read to them - a typical morning involves me corralling them back to the kitchen table (my kids love to eat and run, even when they are eating, they are only sitting on their chairs halfway), and then we are interrupted by Lily flipping the pages of the Bible or book to another place, or Aaron asking me if he can have another egg, and then finally by me giving them a lecture about how we should only interrupt if it is an emergency and defining what constitutes an emergency (blood or fire).  But we get through it - and they are improving.  Every time we have added a new baby though - things definitely are very hairy for a while.  Anyway, I would LOVE to hear any tips, resources, books, etc. that have worked for your family!  Have a blessed day :-).

Psalm 17:8 (another video)

"Keep me as the apple* of the eye;  Hide me in the shadow of Thy wings."

* - or, the daughter

Lily's Voice Part II

I took a couple of quick videos of Lily's speech therapy session yesterday at Lucile Packard.  You can watch the video to get a better idea of how Lily speaks :-).  Her speech pathologist is April, and she rocks!  We all like her very much, including the boys who come along almost every time. 

And one last one - a video I took this morning of Nene and Lily jumping around on the bed.  You can see what a loving brother Nathan is, and how Lily loves to imitate him and play with him.

Lily's Voice

I am going to update you all on how Lily's speech is coming along.  Before we adopted Lily, we knew she had a cleft palate and a repaired cleft lip, but we did not know how profoundly that impacts one's speech development.  Even after her palate was repaired in December, she did not seem to be making that many new sounds.

In February, she began early intervention therapy with the county's Infants and Toddlers Program (Early Start).  Once a week, a teacher comes to our home for an hour, and engages Lily with games to help her learn to attend to a task (girlfriend is SUPER active and is almost never still - but has come  long LONG way in the last few months), while all the while working on having her produce sounds.

As you can see, Lily has a lot of fun during these sessions, and big brothers can join in, too.

The parachute is a favorite activity that they get to do.  Aaron and Lily are singing "Twinkle Twinkle" while Lorraine (our teacher), and Nathan are holding it over them.  This is the only time that I have taken pictures instead of participating.  The program is actually for the parents - and it is necessary for a parent or adult to be present at all of the sessions.

Lily helping to put the parachute away.

Lily also began speech therapy in April with a speech pathologist who specializes in velopharyngeal inadequacy at Lucile Packard (Stanford's children's hospital).  30 minutes once a week.   She has made a lot of progress in the past few months.  Some of it, I am sure, is because she is settling in more and probably over the shock of transition and now able to learn and grow freely.  Some of it, though, is definitely because of the implementation of these two programs that are a regular part of our weekly routine.

This will probably be boring to everyone else - but I will record it here so that we can keep track of her progress. . .

Now, Lily can make these consonant sounds in isolation:
B, D, G, K, L, M, N, P, R, S (distorted), W
CH (distorted)

She has a lot of trouble if they occur at the beginning of the word.  She is unable, still, to blend them into the rest of the word.  So, she can say, "D" (like duh) in isolation, but then if I ask her to say "duck," she will drop the "d" sound and say "uck."  At the end of the word is better.  April (her speech pathologist) explained that it is harder to blend the beginning consonant because you need to sustain air flow (and she is still learning how to stretch her soft palate to block off the air that would escape through your nose when speaking).  Haha - take all this with a grain of salt.  This is what I understand - but I could have many mistakes in my explanation.  This quote by Einstein is SO TRUE.

And that's how I feel about this cranio/cleft/speech stuff.  But praise the LORD - He understands everything that's going on with Lily's body and with her development.

Lily has really found her "voice" in many ways.  In the last couple of weeks, she has started yelling for me from across the house.  "Mamaaaaaaaaa!"  Although it is not the best habit to get into, I love the fact that she has now realized the power of words.  You can communicate and make things happen by using your words.

Even without being able to say much, Lily says SO much in other ways.  She knows many signs in ASL, but besides that - she expresses her opinions with body language, pointing, bringing me to see what she wants to show me, and by her expressions.

Thank you always, for praying.

A couple of weeks ago, our pilot light went out in our hot water heater.  The PGand E man came to relight it.  When he saw Lily (who was on my hip), he immediately asked, "Does she have a cleft lip?" The reason he asked, I found out, was because his 15 month old daughter has a cleft palate (repaired).  We shared our experiences and talked about speech stuff.  He said to me, "They will talk when they are ready."

We will wait, dear girl, for you to be ready.  In the meantime, we rejoice with every new sound, every new word, and every step you take.

Makin' Pizza and the Scale of the Universe

This is a little video I shot a couple of weeks ago when we took a field trip to Pizza My Heart.  The kids got to make their own pizza.  Even Lily was able to do it with minimal help from me.  They had loads of fun, got a free tee shirt, and the experience of eating their own yummy pizza that they designed.  Sorry, didn't get any footage of Matt.  He was there, I promise, just sitting a bit further away.

I *LOVE* Nathan's pizza.  It is very *him.*  Still waiting for the pineapple here to make the teeth.

There's Matthew!  I love how they had all the toppings within reach of the kids.

Aaron, very slowly and deliberately putting his pizza sauce on just the right spot.

And something that a friend sent to me that is SO COOL.  It's about the scale of the universe.  Click HERE to visit this amazing and thought-provoking site.  You will want more than a few minutes to look at it.  My boys spent a good 20 minutes there, and then had to get off in order to go to bed =).

I was going to post this link as a separate post, but I realized that they are related so I am going to keep it here next to the pizza post.  

You can certainly see the mind of my children in their very individual pizza creations.  Their preferences and their personalities are evident in even something as small as a pizza they made.  There is also pride of ownership and artistry.  

The awesome site I mentioned above makes me think of this verse:

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities -- his eternal power and divine nature -- have been clearly seen and understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

Romans 1:20

Makes me think of the mind of God as He created things - from the most infinitesimal to the most grand.  How we can "see" who God is through His universe.

Wow.  Very cool!

"For from him and through him and for him are all things.   To him be the glory forever!  Amen."
Romans 11:36

Lily's Adoption Hearing

We had our court hearing this morning for Lily's readoption.
I know, it's a bit confusing.  She's already adopted.  However, being REadopted in the States means that she will have a U.S. issued birth certificate.  It also means it will be easier for her to access her benefits, etc. as she grows up.

It was such a cool experience!  We had never been in a courtroom before!  Cameras are actually not usually allowed inside the Superior Court buidling, but they allow the exception for adoptions :-).

Our family!

Waiting our turn to be called back to the judge's anteroom to sign the papers.  You can't see them, but there was a whole room of families with their adopted children.  It was awesome to think about how all of these families were being put together.  So beautiful!

Our turn to meet the judge and sign papers.  This is the Honorable Thomas Cain.  He is such a nice man.  I would imagine that this is one of the nicest parts of his job - finalizing adoptions.  He was smiling the whole time :-).  Dave and I had to raise our right hands and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  We promised that we would treat Lily as our natural daughter, with all the rights and privileges and benefits thereof.

The court even gives each child a chance to choose a toy or book.  Lily chose the the little teddy bear that is on the right side of this picture.  She discovered also that the sash on her dress would allow her to babywear her two "babies."  The bulldog, who she calls "Wowo" is from home and her usual travel companion.

Our dear friends came to celebrate and witness the event with us.  The K family is the closest thing to family that we have up here.  So happy they could make it :-).  Afterwards, we walked to downtown San Jose for lunch at the Sonoma Chicken Coop.

Lily is poking her eye here because she is asking if she can try on Nicky's sunglasses.

You can see that he obliged :-).  What a happy day!

We are just so delighted to be Lily's family.  She is truly such a great gift that has been given to us.  It is hard to imagine how life was without her here.  Hoping to update you all in more detail about how her speech is progressing in the coming days.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."

Romans 8:14-16

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Galatians 4:4-6

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows — this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families.

Psalms 68:5-6