A year ago today.......

A year ago today we got our beautiful daughter.  

I can't believe how fast it has gone by!  

God has truly blessed us with this perfect little girl.  

Olivia has been nothing but a blessing 

and a gift to our family! 

The past year has been crazy with trips to Philly,

 work and school and 4 kids......

but worth every second of it.  

I won't lie it hasn't been exactly easy, 

there have been challenges, 

adoption is not like birthing a baby that only sleeps and eats.  She is 3.......with a tragic past, 

but at the end of the long, hard day,

 she is still our daughter that we love with all our heart!  

And really our long, hard days, aren't that bad.  

She is 3.....no matter adoption or biological, 

3 year olds can be difficult, 

she is independant, 

headstrong, 

and determined.  

These traits aren't bad traits to have, 

unless 

you're determined to hold the food in your mouth for hours, or not eat at all, 

or pout because someone told you "no", 

or refuse to poop for daaaaaayyyyysssss.  

(Yes I just said that.....). ;-)  

These are pretty manageable "issues" 

and they're already better!

God has taught me so much through out the past couple of years.  

Here I was wanting another child so badly, 

but knowing adoption was the only way it would happen.  

God showed me that He wasn't just giving me another child but He was showing me what breaks His heart, 

and asking me to break my heart as well.  

God adopted us in to His family, He has taken us in as His own children 

and loves us more than we could ever possibly imagine. 

We as Christians should want others to know and love God, so they can spend eternity with Him.  

We also should say the same for Orphans who live their lives ALONE.  

No child deserves to live this life alone, 

living it with others is hard enough, 

but alone, 

is just terrifying.  

God did not want children growing up without families, 

or love.  

Unfortunately, we as humans make choices, God graciously gave us this ability so we would choose Him.

But the choices we make aren't always the right ones, this has caused many sad and bad things in this messed up world we live in.  

Luckily, we have a God that loves us SO much he gives us Grace and forgives us for these bad choices, 

through His only Son.   

He also asks us to help Him,

to be His hands and feet 

to "love the least of these".  

He calls us to "care for orphans and widows".  

God gives us SO many blessings that we all take and use for our own pleasure, 

when we could be taking what He gives us 

and giving it to all of those listed above.......... 

Here is a slideshow of the past year.....

it's only about 12 minutes long....;-)

http://youtu.be/v9Ri3Sihohw

Halloween and Thanksgiving......

So much fun celebrating "firsts" with a 3 year old.  So much more fun than when they're a baby and don't have any clue as to what's going on........

Halloween we spent with our good friends, the kids had a blast running around and getting WAY TOO much candy.  Olivia fell asleep before we were done trick-or-treating, obviously she had lots of fun!

Thanksgiving day I took some pictures for our Christmas cards, which I had made but never mailed out........:-( If I saw you in person I TRIED to rememember to give one to you, if I didn't, I'm sorry, and to those I said I would mail one to, again I'm sorry!!

 We had Thanksgiving dinner at my moms and Olivia saw a Christmas tree for the first time.  As you can see from the pictures, she was quite enthralled.......

Catching up on the past few months.......(The end of the week-long Philly trip)

The week of PT in Philadelphia was well worth it.  Olivia did great and has continued to improve in her walking and she is constantly asking to walk!  She wants so badly to be just like everyone else and do what everyone else is doing.  Next summer she will have the knee surgery and we are very eager to see how that helps her with walking.

I MUST post the AMAZING surprise I had from some AMAZING girls while we were in Philly that week.

Olivia and I had just finished dinner and were just hanging out when I was COMPLETELY surprised by these 3 wonderful friends! They felt bad I was spending my birthday alone in Philly, so they flew up to be with us. I will FOREVER be grateful for their friendships, this was one of the BEST birthday presents I have ever gotten (a close second to Mike proposing :-)). I can't say enough about how much I love these girls and how thankful I am for them!

After they left, Olivia and I went to visit my aunt who lives in Annapolis.  I was born in Annapolis and haven't been back (we moved to GA when I was a baby), so it was fun walking around and seeing some of the sights and spending time with Kim.  

After we left Annapolis we drove about an hour to see our friends we met in China.  We enjoyed spending the week in China with them and were so excited to see each other again.  The girls had a lot of fun playing together and us Mom's enjoyed catching up!

My birthday...

So today is my birthday.  After Olivia's therapy, which again her therapist was pretty impressed with how well she does walking(!), we went to get some yummy Chinese food in Chinatown. :-). We were going to get some cake and try a moon pie at the pastry shop after lunch, but I didn't have any cash (many places here don't take cards, which I never can remember), so we went to Target instead.:-). I must admit I have felt a little lonely today not being surrounded by the rest of my favorite people.  I did talk with them numerous times today, so that was nice and it warmed my heart when the kids sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone.:-) Don't get me wrong this is a special time for Olivia and I, and I am very thankful to have this time with her, but I can still miss the others.  

As I was feeling a little homesick this evening I saw this video on Facebook....

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wEyO-tpnJfI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DwEyO-tpnJfI

And then this one.....

http://vimeo.com/m/74329306

Oh how my heart breaks for these kids, for all of the children in this world who have no family.  God was reminding me of what I have and miss, yes.  But He also is reminding me that His heart breaks for them as well.  He loves these children more than I could ever imagine and he wants us, ALL of us, to do something to help these kids.  In his name we have to fight for them.  I just can't imagine the feeling of complete despair that so many children live with every day. 

I pray....God, PLEASE help me help them.

Physical therapy......

Olivia and I came up to Philly yesterday for a week of physical therapy.  Originally, the plan was to see the dr yesterday (Monday) and have PT all week then go home Friday.  Well, the dr ended up being out of town this week so they said I could still come up and do PT all week, stay through the weekend, and see the dr on the following Monday, or we could reschedule for October.  Since I had already gotten off work and planned for this week, not to mention the fact that I had already pushed this week back about a month more than when the dr wanted us to come, I decided it probably wouldn't be best to wait any longer.  So we're here, and I must admit I have somewhat dreaded this trip, Philly is not my favorite city.  However, we got into the Ronald McDonald House that I prefer, only because its closest to Shriners and has a tv in the rooms.  There's something about being in a strange place and no tv that makes me on edge, I like the noise at night.  What can I say, I'm use to a lot of noise....LOL.  Olivia has met another little girl with AMC here who is also 3, adopted, and just adorable.  They have had so much fun playing together. tonight after dinner Olivia said "Mommy, my friend" and pointed to the little girl as they were playing together.  So sweet!!! 

We had her first PT session today, they really just assessed her and got a baseline for her ROM, they seemed pretty pleased with most, she isn't able to flex her feet so that will be something we will have to work on, or she will have a hard time walking one day without braces.  Olivia did great, much better than I expected.  When we drove into the parking garage she turned her lip down and started whining.  I said "we're not getting casts, you're going to walk" and she said "Walk? No casts?" With a big smile......after that she was happy as can be.  Talking and singing during therapy, being cute, like always! 

Speaking of happy, over the past few days she will say "Mommy, I happy". It just melts my heart, I'll say "I'm so happy you're happy" and she just smiles the biggest smile!  

Tonight she was laying in bed and I leaned in to kiss her forehead and laid my hand on her chest, hugging my hand she said "My mommy." I know I've told many of you how she says "mine" for everything lately.  However most of the time when she says "my mommy" it's more of a question or a game she's playing with others (including her siblings) rather than a statement.  Tonight it was nothing but an assuring, absolute, this is "my Mommy."  Oh how thankful I am to have another daughter.  I get to love on her the rest of my life and will always be HER mommy! 

The beach!

We took the kids on a surprise trip to Florida over Labor Day weekend.  We stayed in Orlando and drove to Cocoa Beach and treasure island every day.  It was so nice to have a week of just the 6 of us.  We had a great time!  This was Olivia's first time at the beach.  She was not too sure of the waves. She liked sitting at the edge of the water and letting the water come to her, but didn't like it if Mike or I held her and took her out where the waves were big and crashing.  She also wasn't too crazy about the sand on her hands, she would play with the toys on the beach, being very careful not to get her hands dirty.:-) 

We had a great surprise while we were there, friends that we traveled with in China, who adopted a little boy were at Disney World.  They live in OK, so we have not seen them since China.  We met for lunch our last day at Downtown Disney, it was so nice seeing hem again. Olivia was a little hesitant at first, but soon warmed up to Jayden and they were soon playing together.  I hope we will be able to meet up with them again one day!

             Swimming with sea rays!

              Diving into the sand....

6 months.......

It's hard to believe Olivia has been our daughter and sister for just 6 months.  It feels like she has always been here.  We are constantly asked, how is she doing, how is she adjusting? And honestly, she has fit in perfectly.  She acts as though any 3 year old would act, the kids still adore her, and she has attached to both Mike and I. We couldn't be more thankful for how well she has done.  Yes, she is stubborn, and VERY persistent, and maybe even a little spoiled........but that makes for a very strong woman one day! :-)  Her English is coming a long, we are understanding more and more, there are still many sounds she can't say, like "k", or "th", or "f".  But I am sure with time and help, she will get it! Unfortunately she has not gained any weight......but I have stopped worrying so much about it.  She eats well, still not a lot but a decent amount, and she is constantly moving and pulling herself along, so I'm sure she is burning all the calories she eats.  Someone once told me that kids with Arthrogryposis are commonly smaller than their peers, so that may be part of it as well.  

The smelly casts are gone and she is in cute zebra print braces.  She is walking short distances with the help of a walker, and some whip cream.......(We have been bribing her to walk to a certain point with whip cream, no judgement please, she deserves it!)  Times have been a bit crazier than we had expected but so very worth it! Our weekly trips to Philly are done.....for now.  I'm sure we will be doing it again, her feet are already turning back in, which means she will need more casts, but for now we are enjoying the end of summer in the pool, and she LOVES it!  We do have another Philly trip planned for September, the week of my birthday.  She will have a week of "intense" physical therapy. 

On our last trip to Philly we stopped in DC...

These boys were adopted from China also, with Arthrogryposis.

Her new braces!

She LOVES the water!

  

Before and After!