For the love of Claire

New blog!!

2009-02-18T07:46:00.002-06:00

It's done! I had a new blog designed by a travelmate's daugher and it is up and ready! I am so excited to reveal it to everyone. Alexis is so talented and she is doing blog designs to raise money for future mission trips or to sponsor orphans. Wow, to have a heart for orphans at the age of 15. Check out her blog. After you check out her blog jump over to my new blog. Make sure you bookmark it or become a follower because this will be our new blog that I will be posting to. I am retiring For the love of Claire. Our journey to Claire is over but our adventure as a family is just beginning. Thank you for following our journey to Claire. I now invite you to share in our blessings as a family of 6 on our new blog.

African Children's Choir

2009-02-15T20:52:00.003-06:00

On January 30, we had the awesome opportunity to have the African Children's Choir come to our church to perform. Oh my goodness, these kids are so impressive. They sing with such passion and joy. They were nonstop motion with the most infectious smiles! I could have listened to them all night. This particular group of kids were from Uganda. All of the kids are either orphans or are from very poor villages where their parents can't afford to take care of them. They range in ages 7 to 11. Thanks to the work of the African Children's Choir these kids are learning about Jesus and recieving an education that otherwise they would have no access to. These precious children now have a hope for their future. For more information about the choir check out their website. What an awesome night of worship it was!

See the girl on the end I could not take my eyes off of her. Her smile just didn't stop.

Friends, Claire and Teddi, shared a cookie after the performance!

One Word Wednesday!

2009-02-11T12:02:00.001-06:00

JOY!!!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Mario!!

2009-02-09T13:10:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, we celebrated the 12th birthday of Mr. Mario. I can't believe that he is 12 already. Wow, almost a teenager! We are so proud of the young man that he is becoming. Mr. Mario our prayer for you is that you will continue to seek God and His will for your life. Let God lead you and continue to work hard in all you do. We love you!

Mr. Mario at 3 months old..He was such a beautiful baby..

Mr. Mario celebrating his first birthday..

Mr. Mario today. Yes, he dreams of having a hummer someday!

Mr. Mario happy with his new webkinz.

Mr. Mario showing his presents from his siblings..

Special visitors..

2009-02-03T12:07:00.004-06:00

We have been blessed by a visit from our friends in Virginia. We became friends when we lived there from 2001-2004. We have been able to maintain that friendship despite the miles that separate us. It just does this mom's heart good to hear the kids together again laughing and sharing their lives once again. We just wish we could get together more often. This was the first time that they had met Claire. Claire enjoyed having extra people in the house to entertain! We taught Claire how to sign each of their names but for some reason the sign goodnight stuck to their mom. I think the first night Claire and her kept signing goodnight to each other so goodnight is the name she got. Claire still signs each of the kids and then goodnight and then signs bye-bye and airplane. So I think goodnight will be her name from now on (I kind of like it!). Here are some pictures from our visit.

Mr. Speedy and BD..

Miss NJ and CL..

Claire and Goodnight!

Claire, BD, and Goodnight!

Mr. Mario, Mr. Speedy, and BD

The kids,aren't they cute?

Best friends..

The boys..

The kids in front of a famous landmark; can you name it?

Claire is our "American Idol"

2009-01-27T17:41:00.005-06:00

OK, it's true our family watches American Idol. We enjoy watching the auditions and seeing who is going to Hollywood. Well, it looks like Claire likes American Idol as well. The kids have a microphone for one of their Wii games and this weekend they had it out to play with. Well, Claire picked it up and started singing but she had to have a tag on her chest first, just like the contestants on American Idol. She sang with such passion and conviction. She then wanted a "magic" paper that the contestants get when they are told that they are going to Hollywood. We laughed and laughed. In fact, it did my heart good to see her singing. No it isn't singing with words we recognize but she is singing with her heart. Watch the video I did with my camera and then tell me how she knows that singing is different than talking. She is definitely singing. Remember she is profoundly deaf in both ears.

Sorry that it is turned sideways. I couldn't figure out how to fix it.

It is the year of the Ox!

2009-01-26T18:22:00.002-06:00

Claire says "Happy Chinese New Year!" We celebrated yesterday with a trip to HuHot, yummy!

Giveaway..

2009-01-23T11:05:00.004-06:00

Do you want to help build a house for the Saunders family? Check out this blog giveaway at Heart Smiles. The Saunders are a truly inspirational family and we are trying to get Extreme Home Makeover to build them a house. Check out the website and see how you can help! Also check out The Saunder's blog. You will be blessed by stopping by and seeing how they are seeing beauty among the ashes.

Six months as a family of six!!!

2009-01-21T07:30:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that six months have gone by already. It seems like we were just in China meeting our precious girl for the first time. I continue to marvel at this entire journey. Mr. Steady and I knew that this was something we were supposed to do but our kids didn't really have a choice to add a sister. Yes, they were excited about the idea and yes they helped choose a name and yes they prayed for her everyday but we didn't know how she would fit in our lives and how she would impact their lives. Well, the kids have done great and have embraced Claire and they just love her to pieces. I am so proud of them because they gave up a lot; Miss NJ gave up being the only daughter, Mr. Mario gave up the title of middle child, and Mr. Speedy gave up being the baby of the family. Amazingly, just six months later they are ready to add another sibling. Mr. Mario said just last night that "who knows maybe our new brother or sister is being born right now". Mr. Speedy has started praying for his new sibling in whatever country they may be in! He wants to start picking out names! Miss NJ says we need to go back to China and get a little boy. I say all this because I am seeing how Claire is impacting their lives. They are developing a heart for orphans and who knows where that will take them in their lives. Mr. Steady and I know there will be more children in our lives whether they are foster children or are adopted. We are waiting on God to reveal His plan to us. I would go back to China in a heartbeat but if God wants us to go somewhere else then we will be obedient. I know having a big family is not normal in today's society but we never claimed to be normal!!

Anyway, happy six month gotchaversary Claire! We thank God everyday for choosing us to be your family. It has been pure joy watching you blossom into the child God created you to be. You have brought us joy and laughter and we are better people because of you.

I've chosen a picture of the kids with Claire from each month we have had her.
Miss NJ and Claire in China..

Mr. Speedy and Claire

Mr. Mario and Claire bike riding

All of the kids

My favorite picture of the kids

Claire posing at the band concert

Claire sleeping with her necklace made by her friend that came home from China 3 years ago!! Thank you Gracia!!

Pray for Linn..(Updated)

2009-01-15T13:18:00.005-06:00

I didn't know how strong and supportive the adoption/blog community was until I started blogging myself and we adopted Claire. Well, I have made some new friends via blogging because we share 2 passions - taking care of orphans and our love for our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, one of my blogging friends, who I hope I get the privilege of meeting in person some day, needs your prayers. Yesterday, her little log cabin burned. Thankfully, she was able to get all of the kids out of the house safely but they lost everything within the house. I've been following Linn's blog for several months and I can tell you that Linn and her husband are true servants of Christ. They are the real deal and my faith has grown by witnessing their life and love for Christ, family, and others. You can clink on the link to visit her blog. She talks about the events of the fire. Please pray for this family during this time.

Updated: I just found out that Dwight and Linn's son, Graham, is currently in surgery. He is having his appendix taken out. Please pray, the fire alone is overwhelming and now their son is having emergency surgery.

Friend Sweetness...

2009-01-13T11:22:00.001-06:00

Last week, Claire spent several days playing outside with friends. Claire loves playing with her friends (and us mommy's love the midday adult conversation!). It is so nice being able to play outside in January. One of the benefits of living in South Texas!

Teddi and Brogan going cross country..

Brogan is a great chauffeur..

Claire's turn to ride..

Grinner 1 and Grinner 2 having fun together..

Thanks Brogan for being the designated driver and taking the girls for a ride. Fun memories indeed!

CT scan yesterday..

2009-01-07T12:06:00.002-06:00

Thank you for all of your prayers yesterday, Claire did fantastic. We arrived at 8:00 and her CT was supposed to start at 9:00. Well, we waited and waited, 9:00 came and went. Claire did pretty good with the wait but she was hungry since she couldn't eat or drink anything until after the scan. Finally, at 10:00 the nurse came out and said we are still waiting on the doctor and there is another family before you. I guess the doctor had to be there because of the sedation. She then asked if we wanted to try without sedation and if so we could go right now. After waiting for 2 hours with a hungry girl we said let's try it. It took 2 trys but on the 2nd try Claire layed perfectly still and they were able to complete the scan. Woohoo she did it and we didn't have to mess with sedation! We currently have the films (not that we can read them) and we are waiting to meet with the surgeon so we can find out what the scan showed. However, I think her anatomy is fine. She has started to respond to noise and is starting to repeat sounds with her hearing aids in. We still have a long way to go as far as speech is concerned but she is hearing something and that is a start! Thanks again for your prayers!

Random cuteness and a prayer request..

2009-01-05T10:06:00.002-06:00

This post comes with a random cuteness warning. These are some of my favorite pictures of Claire from our Christmas trip to Nebraska.

This is Claire on Christmas eve trying on her new gloves..

Claire is reading her new sign language book given to her by Miss Tina Thanks so much!

I just love how her big brown eye is peeking out at us!

Claire loves her train hat from Grandpa and Grandma! She even wore it to AWANA last night!

Could you remember us in your prayers for tomorrow? Claire has a CT scan scheduled for tomorrow that requires sedation. We have to be there at 7:30 and then it is to start at 9:00. Which means nothing to eat or drink in the morning. Also, last time she was sedated we wrestled (literally) with her for an hour before the medicine finally made her sleep. It may be a long morning for all of us. The CT scan will tell us if she has the correct anatomy for hearing and if she will be a candidate for a cochlear implant. Thanks!

We're back..

2009-01-01T21:14:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year! It is good to be home. We had a wonderful time in Nebraska and it was fun introducing Claire to more of the family. Claire did wonderful on the trip and did great meeting everyone. Here are some of our trip highlights.

My sister made homemade play dough for the girls to play with. She made peanut butter play dough and regular play dough. The peanut butter play dough was yummy. It was Claire's favorite to play with and to eat! I love the look of concentration on her face while she is doing play dough!

Christmas eve is always spent at my parent's house. We all go to church together and then return to their house for homemade soup. After eating, the kids get to open presents. This year, my parents gave all of the kids walnuts. They spent many hours opening up walnuts placing money inside and then gluing the shells shut. What fun the kids had opening their walnuts and finding money inside. Claire was slightly confused, she had been eating nuts the night before with Daddy so she was expecting more nuts to eat. In fact, when she opened the first box and found a nut she grabbed it and ran to the kitchen and threw it in with the other nuts she had been eating. She still doesn't understand this whole money thing.

Claire quickly became a Grandpa's girl. It started when my parents visited us in September and they picked up right where they left off. She would snuggle with Grandpa and wrestle with him while the rest of us played cards. It is very tiring wrestling with Grandpa. I think it wore them both out because they both fell asleep on the couch.

On Christmas Day, we headed to Mr. Steady's hometown to spend the rest of our time with his parents. Grandpa is a big train buff, Claire got her very own train hat and they spent time together in the basement in Grandpa's train room.

We usually go to The Big Apple sometime when we are in Nebraska. The kids begged until we went again this time. The boys kept saying we have to take Claire she will love it. They were right she did love it. In fact, they all had fun running around. With the cold outside, it was a great place to burn off some energy!

We took these pictures on our last day right before we hit the road for the long drive home. Mr. Steady's parents and Mr. Steady's sister and husband we there to see us off. On our way through Kansas, we stopped to see my grandma. She was in the hospital with high blood pressure. She was so happy we stopped to see her and that she got to meet her newest great granddaughter. As usual our time went by way too fast. Since we don't get to see family very often we treasure the time we do have with them.

In my last post, I mentioned that there was something special about this picture. Well, what makes this picture special is that all of these girls are adopted! Our family has been blessed 4 times over by adoption. This was the first time they were all together and it did my heart good to see them play together!

5 months of joy..

2008-12-21T23:00:00.001-06:00

Five months ago, we received the greatest gift. We had been praying for Claire by name for almost 2 years and finally we had her in our arms! She has come so far since then. She now seems totally comfortable with us and has learned to trust us. We are now at my parent's house where she is meeting a lot of new people and she has done amazingly well. She explores the house like she owns it, she meets everyone with a smile, and she joins in with all of her new cousins. She would not have done this a few months ago, she would have been clingy and very shy. This child of mine continues to amaze me. God is good, indeed.

Playing dress up with cousins..

(Can you guess what makes this picture so sweet besides the cute girls? Put your guess in a comment and I will tell the answer later)

All of my kids have made Christmas cookies with grandma. It was so special to see Claire continuing this tradition. It has been a long time coming..

Hope you like sprinkles..

Making Christmas cookies with Grandma..

Claire today..We love you baby girl and are so proud of you..

Just a note.. we are now in Nebraska after a 17 hour car ride on Saturday. When we left Saturday morning it was 70 degress, when we pulled in my parent's driveway Saturday night it was -5 degrees. Yes that is negative! Can you say cold!? Yes, we let the boys play outside on Sunday with -40 wind chill. They are young and they wanted to play in the snow!

Main Street Bethlehem, Band Concert, and Hearing aids!!

2008-12-20T00:12:00.005-06:00

Tomorrow we leave for our Christmas trip to Nebraska. Well, I just looked at the clock and actually later today (actually in a few hours) we are leaving. Yes, I should be sleeping or packing but I wanted to post an update first.

Last Friday, we went to Burnet, Texas to see Main Street Bethlehem. It is awesome. It is an entire city block that is completely transformed into the streets of Bethlehem. It is put on by a local church and they do a fantastic job. The kids love the Bethlehem bread that they hand out. It is cooked in a stone oven right in the middle of the town. It is yummy. The kids also like to watch the activity by the tax collector. There is usually a lot of good dialogue as people come to pay their taxes, some even get carried off by the soldiers. They also have blacksmiths that are making little fish emblems. Last time we went they handed one to Mr. Speedy. He was hoping for another one but not this time. At the end, you find Joseph, Mary and Jesus in the stables. We did the sign to Claire for baby Jesus and she signed back to us Jesus and friend. I told her yes, Jesus is your friend.

Last night, Miss NJ and Mr. Mario had their band concert. Miss NJ played with the middle school and high school bands. All of the 8th graders who did marching band also play with the high school for concert band. It is good for her, it keeps her from getting bored! This was Mr. Mario's first concert. He did awesome on percussion and even had a little solo during one of the songs.

Guess what? Claire got her hearing aids today (actually yesterday now). We were hoping she would get them before we left on our trip and she did! She was so excited. After they put them on she smiled really big and then she become very still like she was concentrating really hard. The audiologist said this was her birthday for her ears and now we need to teach her to listen and associate sounds to things in her environment. It will be interesting to see how she responds after wearing them for a few days. She doesn't mind wearing them and she leaves them alone. You can see from the picture that they are pink with sparkly ear molds. Can you say bling!? I told Mr. Steady we need to learn the sign for bling! I think every 3 year old girl likes bling! We are playing listening games with her. If we make it a game then she may not mind working on listening. I will try to upload a video from today but if it takes too long then I will do it later. I need to go to bed! The second video isn't the one that I wanted to put on but I am tired and need to go to bed. I'll save the other video for another time.

Logan, the Sky Angel Cowboy

2008-12-15T20:36:00.001-06:00

Wow, this video is powerful. This 13 year old boy gets "it" better than most adults. I just had to share it with you.

I also wanted to let you know that our beloved Mr. Tony passed away. I talked about Mr. Tony a couple of posts ago. He will be greatly missed but I take joy in the fact that he will be spending Christmas with Jesus. We will miss you Tony.

Urgent prayer request - Updated

2008-12-12T12:08:00.004-06:00

Please pray for my new friend, Linn. She is currently in Uganda with her 2 new babies! This makes 10 children for her. God has moved many mountains already on their behalf but they need more prayer now. You can go to her site, A Place Called Simplicity, to get caught up on their journey. If you have time, read her posts on the sidebar titled Our Wild Adventure. Believe me, you won't regret reading their story and your faith will increase and you may even feel called to action yourself. Thanks.

Updated (Monday morning) - Linn's husband is in Uganda right now and they are going to the US Consulate today. Again, God came through in a big way to get him there. If you like miracles then this is a Christmas miracle unfolding right before our eyes.

Month of appointments..

2008-12-10T11:33:00.001-06:00

Wow, December has been a busy month full of appointments. This is a good thing, these are the appointments that we have been fighting to get for Claire. It feels good to finally be making progress for her. Before I share about her appointments I want to share about our Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends from church. This couple calls us "their kids" so it was just like being at home for Thanksgiving or at least the next best thing. We are so thankful for our church family. We have always lived away from our families so it is nice to have a church that becomes our family. We have so many adopted "grandparents" all over the country. We are truly blessed.

Everyone ready to eat..

Claire helping clean out the bowl after making chocolate pie -yum!

Okay an update on the appointments. Claire had her first dentist visit. She did fantastic. She let them do whatever they wanted. Happy to report her teeth looked great; no signs of cavities. Next we visited the audiologist for hearing aid fittings. We have her aids ordered and are hoping to get them before Christmas. We will post a picture once she has them. We then had more testing with the speech pathologist at the school. We are trying to finish up her testing to see what services she qualifies for. Next, another visit with the pediatrician. Claire hasn't been sleeping well for the last week (getting up several times a night) and started digging at her ears. Guess what, another ear infection in her left ear and fluid in her right. If you are keeping track, that is her 3rd infection since being home. Uugghh! We will address this again next time we meet with the cochlear implant team. Today, we met with the school psychologist for further testing. This should be the last of the testing and then we will meet to decide on a plan of action for treating Claire. Tomorrow, we are visiting a local school that has a preschool program that offers total communication. Which means the children are given access to visual, oral, and auditory elements of language in order to help them develop language. She would be with other kids like her using sign language and learning to be verbal. We know this is what she needs but we still need to decide how often she will go and for how long. I just got my little girl and I'm not ready to share her but I will for her sake. On Friday, we have an appointment with the genetics doctor. They may do some genetic testing to see if they can determine the cause of her hearing loss.

That is a portion of our busy schedule for this month. I left out the school open house, the band concerts, and the Christmas parties. :)

Claire's first dental visit..

The tree lighting ceremony where we live..

Oh, we have a famous artist at our house. Mr. Speedy's artwork was selected to be displayed at a local restaurant. It will be there this entire month. He was so excited to be selected and we are very proud of him. Here is his artwork..

New Family pictures..

2008-12-05T07:47:00.003-06:00

We had a friend from church offer to take family pictures for us. It was her gift to us. Thank you Annie, we love them.

Here are some of my favorites. Yes, you may see them again in a Christmas card!

Proud mama..

2008-12-04T12:17:00.001-06:00

As Mr. Steady and I were going through some of Mr. Speedy's class work we came across this letter.

It says:

Dear Mr. Tony,

I want to help you stay clean and healthy. I will get you a jacket. I will take your clothes to my house and clean them. I will clean your house. I will turn on the TV for you.

I guess his assignment was to write a letter to someone you want to help and he chose Mr. Tony. Mr. Tony is a 91 year old gentleman at our church. I'm not sure how it started but for quite awhile now we have been taking Tony to lunch after church and then taking him home. Sometimes we stop at the store for him and pick up his medicine or groceries he needs. At times, the kids just want to go eat alone as a family and if I am honest sometimes I do to. We always remind them (and myself) that we have to look beyond ouselves and our wants and reach out to others. We are really trying to live out James 1:27 as a family. James 1:27 goes like this Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. When I see Tony smile then I know we must continue on being a part of this sweet man's life. On a side note, sweet Tony brings me coupons from the Sunday paper each week. He knows we don't get the paper and he knows we like using coupons to feed our family of 6!

When I saw Mr. Speedy's letter, it was a reminder that we need to keep on keeping on. Our little boy is getting it; he is getting what it means to love as Christ loves us. Each crazy Sunday without our afternoon nap has been well worth it!

Check out my elves...

2008-12-03T22:27:00.002-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I just have to say that I love being silly with my kids. I love to create things like this and then listen to them laugh as they watch it. Life is too serious sometimes and it just feels good to be silly and laugh. My kids loved this and they asked me to email it to their friends and to put it on the blog. So here it is for all to enjoy and to get a giggle from.

Tagged again but the rules are different..

2008-11-30T14:32:00.002-06:00

My friend and travel mate, Sharla, tagged me with a fun activity.

The Rules:
1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open it to page 56
3. Find the 5th sentence
4.Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with instructions
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book or the most intellectual - Pick the CLOSEST

Ok, here is the book that was sitting next to my living room chair; Fields of the Fatherless by Tom Davis. The 5th sentence on page 56 is Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. The author was quoting from James 2:14-17.

I am almost finished with this book and then I am going to read, Red Letters - Living a faith that bleeds. Thanks for tagging me Sharla, this one was easy! I am going to tag Tina and Melissa(private blog). Come on girls, this is an easy one!

A lot to be thankful for..

2008-11-27T08:43:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving from our house to yours!

Orphans Ticket Home Gala..

2008-11-24T09:18:00.005-06:00

On Friday night, Mr. Steady and I went to a Gala! We went with our friends and neighbors, Bryan and Tina. They adopted little Teddi 2 months before us. Claire and Teddi are so cute together. Thank God, they are orphans no longer!

Back to the Gala..
Wow, what a night! Did you know that there are 143 million orphans in the world today? 143 million orphans that just want the love a family. The Orphans Ticket Home Gala was raising money to help pay for the paperwork to be completed for these orphans so that they would be paper ready to be adopted and have a chance of a forever family. For those of you not familiar with adoption (especially international adoption), the government has to investigate each case to verify that the child is truly an orphan and they have to get a birth certificate for the child. Sometimes it just takes a group to come along and assist the different governments to get this done. Well, the Gala was a huge success with over $25,000 raised!

As an adoptive parent, I just want to do more to help orphans. When you start looking at orphans as children that matter to God then you can't sit by and ignore their plight. The Bible is full of scriptures that instruct us to care for the widows and the orphans. James 1:27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. I think as a church and as believers we have forgotten that it is our responsibility to care for them. Mr. Steady and I left the Gala knowing that we had to do more. We are not sure what that entails but God does. Pray for us to listen for His will for us and to be obedient when He does reveal it.

These centerpieces graced the center of each table. They each had precious pictures of children who are orphans no more..

Billy and Cindy Foote lead worship..(wrote songs such as "You are My King","Not a God", "Sing to the King")

Tom Davis was the Keynote speaker (Author of Fields of the Fatherless and Red Letters)

Mr. Steady and I with our friends..

Tina and I..

Tina and I also had the pleasure of meeting a bloggy friend at the Gala. Jenn will be leaving on Dec 4 to go get her precious daughter Karleigh Mei. We "met" through our blogs and tonight we got to meet in person!