URGENT ~ Please Read

UPDATE: Praise God, this little girl's family has found her and they sent in their LOI as of Saturday. God is SO good!

As for all the Anonymous comments, I apologize if I hit a nerve with all of you, all I was trying to do was advocate for a little girl who's time for a family was running out. I was not in any way trying to be negative towards the previous family. My only intention was to help a little girl find the family that she deserves.

As I posted previously, I do not understand disruption and I pray for those who have been down that road. At the end of the day the most important thing is that there will be one less child without a family and because of that, I am overjoyed.



Today was the day I was going to finally post an update on Drew and Jaxon but there is a more important matter at hand that needs addressed.

Like most adoptive parents I belong to several Yahoo groups. I will admit sometimes I just scan through the posts and delete, but last night, last night there was No deleting.

I am positive some of you (if not most of you) have already seen and heard about this little girl. She is being advocating for on RQ, blogs, and several Yahoo groups. She is a 7 year old girl that is literally on her very last chance at a family. She had a family, in fact, they were just in China to get her when within 24 hours they disrupted. Disruption is something I just don't understand, but that is a topic for another day.

Anyway, this beautiful little girl is 7 and has a smile that goes from ear to ear. Her only Sn is Microtia (an ear deformity). It has been confirmed that this is her ONLY issue. She is perfectly healthy in every other way. If a family does not come forward before SUNDAY, her file will be sent back and she will more than likely never have the chance to have a family of her own again.



I cannot look at this little girl's picture without crying and literally feeling sick to my stomach. She deserves a chance. She deserves more than living the next several years in an orphanage. She deserves more. She deserves hope, love, security. She DESERVES a family.

I SO wish we were in a position to step up and say "YES." Unfortunately, we just can't right now. This little girl's face kept me awake for most of the night. I awakened this morning with a ball in my stomach the size of a basketball. I just can't help thinking about her and the hand she has been dealt at only 7 years old.

PLEASE, PLEASE will you look deep inside your heart and soul to see if this is your daughter? She DESERVES more.

Fit For A King

A couple of weeks ago I posted about Jaxon cooking a traditional Chinese dinner for us and how fabulous it was. That next weekend we had Adam and his family (we met them in Guangzhou) up to the lake for the weekend and Jaxon and Adam cooked for everybody. It. Was. FANTASTIC! They chopped, sliced, diced, stirred, marinated, rolled, simmered, etc for almost 3 hours. Karen (Adam's mom) and I tried to help but were shooed out of the kitchen every time we entered. We were told "we cook, you watch." So, we sat and did just that, watched. We watched as our boys prepared several Chinese dishes for 15 people. We had beef dishes, pork dishes, chicken dishes, rice, noodles, potatoes, and even dumplings.









There was SO much food. We ate until we couldn't eat anymore and there was still leftovers (which we were more than happy to take home). It was the best Chinese food I have ever had.













I know many of you have e-mailed me asking for recipes and I would love to share, but the thing is, I have no idea what or if he even uses a recipe. He doesn't measure a thing. He keeps adding ingredients until he gets the taste he likes. Honestly, I don't even know what half the stuff he uses is, all I know is that it is good.

I'm Back!

Wow! I cannot believe it has been almost two weeks since my last post. Out of nowhere my laptop went kurplunk. Seriously, all of a sudden the mouse stopped working. I thought I was going to cry. I love my laptop. It is nothing fancy. It allows me to do schoolwork and of course blog, but more than anything, I love that I can get on it while the kids are watching a movie or playing outside. So, you can imagine how lost I was while it was in the shop.

I just got it back today and whatever was wrong is fixed now thanks to our computer guy who obviously is my new BFF!

Anyway, I have tons of pictures of Jaxon and Adam cooking at the lake and will get those up tomorrow as well as that update I keep promising. But for now, I will leave you with this, the food was fabulous!

Move Over Emeril

When we first came home with Drew and Jaxon other than the language barrier being my biggest concern, it was the food. I wasn't worried so much with Drew as he pretty much eats anything and everything. Jaxon on the other hand was not a big fan of western food. At. All!

I will have to say that he is really good about trying almost anything. Ramen Noodles have become a staple at our house as well as rice. Anyway, in an effort make him more comfortable, we took him to an Asian market to let him get a few things. Unfortunately, our Asian Market didn't have much that he was familiar with.

So, I asked him if he knew how to cook and he quickly and firmly told me "no." We had actually had this conversation in China with Jaxon and our guide and Jaxon told him that he didn't cook because cooking was for women. I had to laugh at that because it made me realize just how different America was going to be for him.

Well, it is amazing how the more comfortable he becomes with us, the more we are finding out about him. The other day, out of the blue he came to me with the translator and all it said was "I want to cook." Seriously, I thought I was reading it wrong or that what he was trying to tell me had been mistranslated. So, I made sure that wanting to cook is what he actually meant to say and he said "yes." I asked him if her knew how to cook and he said he did. I then went on to say that he told us he could not cook and he got a big smile on his face.

We spent the next couple of hours looking up recipes on the Internet. I told him to make a list of what he needed and we would go get it. I asked him if he would cook for the whole family and he said yes. Actually my BFF of over 25 years was in town visiting with her two girls so he cooked for them as well.

He pretty much did everything. I did help him cut up the meat because originally he didn't have enough. He has a small cereal bowl of meat that was supposed to feed 11 people. He looked at me with a surprised look on his face when I told him he needed more chicken and pork but agreed that more needed to be cut.







I will admit that I am NOT an adventurous eater so I was a bit nervous. I also knew that the other kids (mainly Emma and Gabe) were not going to be too excited at the dinner menu so I made mac n cheese and chicken nuggets. (I did tell them that they had to at least try it, which they did).



As we sat down to eat I asked everyone to thank Jaxon for cooking for us and of course he became very embarrassed. The food was SO good, and I am not just saying that. We ate until we couldn't eat anymore. I honestly don't think I have ever had Chinese food that was so good. We usually have leftovers, but not that night. There was nothing left, and I mean nothin, nada, nuttin.









We are having a family we met in China to the lake this weekend and I asked Jaxon if he and Adam would cook for us. He said he would, but he wanted to asked Adam first. Adam agreed, so Jaxon and Adam are going to cook for 18 people Saturday night! I am SO excited. Jaxon asked me what I wanted so I gave him a couple of ideas. He and Adam are going to make some of the same dishes from the other night as well as dumplings, Cashew Chicken, and Beef and Broccoli. We had to go to Indianapolis yesterday for Drew's doctor's appointment so we found and Asian grocery store there that was awesome. Luckily they spoke Chinese so he was able to tell them what he needed.

We also got a Chinese cook book. He told Matt that he wants to go to cooking school when he gets older. I have a feeling we are going to be eating alot of Chinese food and my time in the kitchen is going to decrease.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Sunscreen

Mylee's Frog Prince

Jaxon loves animals. He catches anything and everything. He's caught bunnies, fish (with his bare hands), turtles, he digs for worms and bugs, you name it, he's all over it. In some ways it completely grosses me out (I am so not a bug catchin girl), then on the other hand, it amazes me that he is able to catch so many things. I mean, how many kids do you know who can catch a fish with his bare hands?

Anyway, the other day he and Blake were mowing Matt's dad's lawn and on their way home they caught a frog. I guess it was a pretty big frog (I wasn't here but Matt could not wait to tell me all about it). The boys brought the frog back and after a while of playing with it Matt told them to take it to the pond.

Mylee asked Jaxon if she could carry it and of course he let her. All the way to the pond (which is just across the street) Mylee was talking to the frog, singing to it, and yep, you guessed it, kissing it! Honestly, when Matt told me that I thought he was joking. He was dead serious.



Of course Matt asked Mylee why she was kissing the frog....

Matt: "Why were you kissing the frog?' Mylee: "Because I wanted it to turn into a prince." (she is dead serious) Matt: "Did it turn into a prince?" Mylee: "Nope, he was too tired so I was just kissing it goodnight before I put it to bed in the pond."

As if that wasn't enough, Jaxon caught another frog last night (a much smaller frog) and Mylee had to get up close and personal again. As soon as she was done kissing her newest victim, she looked at the frog for a few seconds and said "nope, this one's not a prince either," gave the frog back to Jaxon and walked away.



Just a reminder from my last post, Jenna is still on WACAP's Waiting Child List. For more information on Jenna please hop over to Rita's blog. She has done an entire post on Jenna and the progress she has made since arriving at New Day. Oh how I wish we were able to go back for her...