Cleaning up...

These chairs seem to be a dumping ground for the girls after they get home from school. Daily they are piled with books, papers, backpacks etc... and every day I have to get after them to clean up their spaces.

Today Rylee was so pleased to show me that she had cleaned up both chairs - and believe me with end of the year books and papers coming home in record numbers the piles were especially high.

I was so please and told her how wonderful it was that she cleaned up not only her own chair, but also her sisters as well - without even being asked!!

She looked at me, like she was all perplexed...

"But Mom we sang the song together!!"

Now I was confused... The song?

She rolls her eyes at me "YES Mom, the song... Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up, clean up, everybody do your chair!"

I actually did not tell her yet that we are actually singing "do your share" and am still laughing!!

My Little Fashionista!

Remember how much fun we had with Fashion Friday? I think Rylee is taking it to a whole new level. Do you think that maybe she is somehow sneaking in episodes of America's Next Top Model or does this just come naturally? (sorry for the odd sizes, I didn't have time to fix them first)





And for just one more glimpse into my life:

We sat down as a family to watch American Idol and after a while Rylee gets up and comes to stand in front of me. She takes her little hands and very gently cups my chin with them. She looks deep into my eyes with a very serious expression on her face. In a deep sort of husky voice she says "Mama... you are deeeeeelicious!"

I really have no idea where she gets this stuff - and she was just a little offended when I fell over laughing!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The newest member

Well, it caused a lot of flack from my husband but we have a new member to our family. This is Oreo and she is super sweet. Once you get past that tail - she really is quite cute! The girls adore her and so far have been taking really good care of her.

I have so much to catch up on, which I plan on doing very soon, but I wanted to just share something that happened this week with Rylee. I consider this a big milestone for us and I know that my friends that have also adopted will know just how important this was...

Rylee got off the bus on Monday and came running up to me "Mommy! Mommy! guess what???" She then went on to tell me that one of the teachers (her favorite) had said to Rylee on the playground "There's my little Rylee!" She looked up at me all serious and said "But I told her - I am not your little Rylee, then she (Ms. C) said Oh, I know you are my big girl!" Rylee takes a big gulp of air and continues "But I told her the truth Mama, I told her that I am only Mama's girl, I am not her girl. I have my Mama and we are together forever!"

Maybe this seems rude to our favorite teacher, but boundaries has been a hard thing for Rylee to grasp and she "family shopped" for a very long time after coming to us. She was always willing to go with whoever had the best looking family to her at the time and has even told me a few times that she wishes she could have that family... or she wants to live with so and so's family because they get to have makeup... whatever the reasons, there where times that I really felt if she could have she would walk away and not look back. But things are different now and she really seems to have claimed her place in the family. I know without a doubt that she loves me fiercely and it brought tears to my eyes for her to publicly state that she belongs with us and that she will keep us forever!

Do you see anything different? :)

Rylee as we have always known her heh....

and Rylee now...

And because it's been a while (okay a really long time!!!) here is a Rylee quote:

Rylee: "Mom, I know what's big! REALLY BIG!!!!"

Me (hoping she is not going to include me in this list): What's that?

Rylee: "God and Mickey Mouse! THAT is the two biggest things!"

Happy New Year !!!!

Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all have enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are thankful for each and every one of you!

2 Years Ago Today - I touched my baby for the first time...

One of the first pictures we saw of Rylee was this one...

And now she has grown into this:

I am overwhelmed with emotions today... two years with my baby girl. It is just so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that two years ago today we were nervously waiting in our hotel room for Rylee to arrive. When she did she was scared, reserved and so small! I was so worried about bonding with her and if she would love us... love me... and want me for her mom.

Two years later it hurts to breathe when I think of what life would be like without her. She has so firmly planted herself in my heart that it is almost hard to believe that I did not give birth to her myself. When I look at her, my eyes well up with emotion and I just want to scoop her up and hug her and tell her how happy I am that China let me be her Mama. And I do...

And she laughs at me and says "Oh Mama, I just love you so so so much! You are my best mom ever and China did a good job making us a family, didn't they Mama?"

They did and I am forever grateful!

Thankful for my blog friends...

I haven't had time to get back to all of my blog friends that emailed me and commented on my venting post, but I want you all to know how much it meant to me to have your support, comforting words and encouragement!


We have not solved anything, in fact things have gotten even more ridiculous. So much so that I guess we will have to be seeking legal council. If anyone knows any great attorney's in Birmingham let me know!

Now back to the important stuff - I can't even put into words how it felt for so many of you to reach out to me. You all mean so much to me and I appreciate each and every one of you!

Yes, I am on the emotional side today :) It is our 2 year "Family Day" and my heart is full!

I just wanted to say thank you!!!!

Can I just vent for a minute?

I have been sweetly reminded by several people that it is past time for an update but maybe today is not the day I should be doing it...

Today I am angry, frustrated and sick of being nice - always trying to do the right thing and for what? Tired of people taking advantage of us and walking all over us. Job losses... money losses... cranky neighbors that have nothing better to do than stalk our house waiting for my husbands truck to get home so that they can call and complain - I am sick of all of it! Are you offended by a truck in your neighborhood? Seriously we have someone that comes out everyday about the time she thinks he will get home and then she walks around the block until he comes home so that she can call the homeowners association what time the truck entered our driveway. I am a little bit happy when he is late and she has to stay out there for a really long time or even after dark - at least all that walking might counteract the stress that we apparently cause her by parking our truck in our driveway.

Whatever happened to compassion, caring about your neighbors and watching out for each other? Apparently those qualities have long gone away. So if you all believe in prayer then maybe you could pray for me to forgive these people, instead of secretly hoping that a big tree falls on their house and they have to feel a little bit of all that we have been through in the past several months. I know that sounds terrible and I feel bad for feeling this way and I know it's not right, but I just can't seem to make it go away.

Finding a place to keep our Snap On truck has been complicated. There is valuable equipment on it that has to be protected. If the truck is not on our property then it has to be in secured storage with surveillance or else our insurance is not valid. When Pat lost his job - we lost our second car and just don't have the means to replace it right now. We are so fortunate that one of our friends has loaned us a car to use for emergencies and today agreed to let Pat drive it back and forth to the storage place for now. There is a lot more but I won't bore you all with the details...

So the bottom line here - what has gotten me so upset is that we have made the arrangements that we needed to, arranged for the use of the car and just needed a couple of more days to get a paycheck so that we could go pay for the storage space on Saturday and when Pat came home on Thursday night - they closed the neighborhood gate on him and would not let him come in. We live about 4 miles from the gate so with dinner on the stove I had to grab the kids and go pick him up. The truck had to remain outside the neighborhood, they would not allow it to come in. The problem is that the office had given us the temporary variance and was tired of this certain couple of people calling and yelling at him for our truck being here, that he closed the gate on us. With no notice that our temporary variance had ended!!!

It took 45 minutes into my cardio workout this morning before I started to feel better, but then by the time I finished my shower I was steamed again! My issue with the whole thing is that not one of the complainers EVER came to us and bothered to ask us what was going on. Why we suddenly had this truck, how long we planned on keeping it there or anything! I guess they prefer a foreclosure sign instead - which may or may not still show up... That still remains to be seen.

So how does a person deal with all the stress that life in todays world deals out? I'm going to share with you the secret of how to cope...




The secret is to take your eyes off yourself and take a look at someone that has it so much harder than you do... sponsor a child, feed a homeless person, love an orphan and don't forget to thank God for the many blessings that you do have!

One of my dreams is to someday be a Compassion Blogger and when I went in to church all angry at God for mountain after mountain that has been placed in our lives (not that I think He placed them there because I certainly do not - but I know He could take them away if He chose to) I was all set to sit there and show Him how I was there to worship even when I was ticked off at Him.

Then the Compassion International slide lit up the screen and my heart melted. In one short breath God reminded me that I have so much to be thankful for and that there are so many people in this world that are so much worse off than we are and live daily lives that we can only imagine. How selfish to be wallowing in my own struggles and not taking the time to notice the needs around me.

Our sponsored child is from the Dominican Republic and she is the same age as Rylee (6 yrs). The girls actually picked what child we would sponsor and then came home and made cards for her. We have our first letter ready to send out to her, I just have to print a family picture to include with the letter. Nothing lifts your spirits better than helping someone that really needs it! You can try it too - look around and find someone that is worse off than you are and smile at them, give them a hug, do whatever you can - it doesn't matter what it is as long as it comes from your heart!

I wish peace to all of you and a wonderful weekend!

It's finally happened... "I have two Mom's"

Let me start by backtracking a little bit. We talk about family a lot with Rylee especially. She brings it up and tells us often that she is glad that China gave her the best family, or that she is happy she has a family now. But she really does not want to go any deeper into the conversation than that.

The other day we were out at a deli having lunch and there was a really cute, young girl cleaning off the tables. Rylee talks to everyone and this time was no different. She asked the girl what she was doing and if she had kids. She laughed and said no and told Rylee that she was cute! Rylee looked at me and sighed and said "I wish I could have that girl for my Mom!", I said "what?" Rylee said "I like that girl, she is a good Mommy, I love it to have her for a mommy." I am sure the hurt registered on my face before I could make a neutral expression because Rylee was looking at me and said "never mind". She kept looking at me all through lunch, I was kind of avoiding her gaze because she is so very good at reading people and I didn't want her to feel bad or think that she had hurt me. Pat told her later that she has one Mommy and that is me, and I will be her Mommy forever and ever.

Later that night I spoke with her about it. This is what I told her "Rylee, remember when you said that you wanted that girl to be your mommy?" She nodded and wrapped her arms around me and hid her face in my neck. "Listen to me okay? It's okay for you to like people and if you think someone is really nice and you think they are pretty - that is okay! But you don't know that person, she may be a good Mommy someday when she is a little older, but right now she is a kid. She is older than you, but still very young. If you like someone and you think they are nice or pretty, it's okay to say "I think she is nice and she is very pretty". I think that is what you meant today." She said "That is what I want to say - that girl is beautiful!" We discussed what being a family means again and how special it is and also that it is about relationships. I think to her the highest compliment she can give to someone is to tell them that she wishes they were her mommy. She has told me this about pretty much everyone that she likes and her friends Mom's that she thinks are really nice. Especially the ones that let their kids do whatever they want including yell at their parents, talk back or even hit, stay up late, watch sponge bob (things we don't allow) etc...

It's so easy to try to read stuff into days like this. I know she loves me, love us and feels like she belongs here. She is comfortable and settled. When we first brought her home she would do what is known in the adoption community as "family shop", she doesn't do this anymore BUT she is also far from being ready to sleep over at friends houses or spend extended amounts of time with other families. It's something that is not always understood by my friends or people that are not very familiar with adopting older children.

So the next day when Rylee told me that she "wants two mom's", my husband assumed this had something to do with the girl at the deli and he went right into "you have one Mommy, Rylee and you love her very much! She is your Mommy forever." She wrapped her arm around my neck tighter and said "I have two Mom's, Dad! I talking about my Mom and my China Mom!!!" Now I set her down so that I could look at her because this really surprised me. She has never mentioned another mom (except for her China Little Mom, which is an older girl that helped care for Rylee in the orphanage). I said "Rylee, are you talking about the Mommy that had you in her tummy in China?". She nodded, "Yes, that is the Mom I am talking about - I have two right Mama?". I got down on my knees so that I would be eye to eye with her and told her that she is absolutely right, she does have two Mommies. She has her China Mom and she has me. She said "Right and you are my Mama forever, because China gave you to me so that I could have a Mama forever." and she hugged me. The conversation was over, but in reality I think it is really just beginning. I just hope I do this right...

Totally unrelated I wanted to share Rylee's Sunday outfit. The first outfit includes one of my old black party dresses from many years ago and the thing on top of her hat is a little number that goes over one of her Disney nightgowns lol! Very creative - but I made her go try again. The second outfit is Hanna's shorts that she insists are her size now. We let her wear the last one :)

Don't you just love when they learn a new skill?

I couldn't help myself, when I saw Rylee practicing her new skill in the mirror, I just had to run for the camera!

Rylee sings...

...to Sid the Science Kid - I'm Looking For A Friend. She is entering the Sid The Science Kid giveaway at MommyPR (Angela's Giveaway). She really wants to win, but I think the only way she can win is if no one else enters LOL - not because she is not super talented but because we want it to be fair!! Anyway there aren't any other entries yet... so we thought we would give it a shot. She has great rhythm and is hoping to start dance classes pretty soon, I think we need to do that :) Enjoy!



Have your kids make their own video and enter over at www.mommypr.com!

Touched my heart...

I found this video on JamericanSpice and I wanted to share it with you.

You look just like my sister...

This photo captures a typical scene at our house, Rylee helping out in the kitchen dressed in some kind of formal wear or in this case a tutu (compliments of Sugarbeez Tutu's)! She has been in shorts maybe a total of 5 or 6 times all summer and only when we insisted on it.

We took the kids out for dinner the other night because Daddy was getting ready to head out to Texas for several days to attend his Snap On franchise training classes. While we were at the restaurant Rylee received lots of attention (as she always does!) and our waiter seemed to be really taken with Rylee.

Rylee cups her hands over her mouth, smiling at him and tells him she has a question to ask him as she alternates between adorably bashful and boldly bossy... He says "What is your question?" She gets up on her knees on the booth, dramatically sweeps her arm across the front of her body with a regal bow says "Thank you for being here today!" In a perfect imitation of the Queen Clarisse Renaldi in Princess Diaries (one of Rylee's favorite movies). She pauses and looks at him expectantly... he said "what?" so she did a really big eye roll and repeated the gesture "Thank you for being here today" as she bows again.

He laughs and says "You remind me so much of my sister, you look just like her!" Rylee studies him for a minute and the she lights right up "OHHHHH! So, she look like a princess then!" He gave what seems to be his standard response "What?", she said "You sister look like me, then she must look like princess, because I am look like the princess!" as she nods her head in his direction.

At this point we are all cracking up because it never crossed Rylee's mind that his sister might be Asian or maybe from China, she just knew immediately that if the sister looked like her then she must be a beautiful princess.

Just so you all know that we have more than one child with a love for everything dramatic, here is Hanna trying to convince me how stylish and fun it would be for a cell phone to be part of her back to school necessities. Do they even allow cell phones at school for 4th graders?








I can't believe that they go back to school this week - it seems to be so much earlier than most of your kids go back! We do get out in mid-May though and actually they are starting a few days later this year than they usually do.

Rylee and Hanna will be at different schools this year since Hanna is moving on to Intermediate School. I'm not really sure that I am ready for her to leave elementary school, but she has no doubts that she is ready to go!

Rylee is repeating Kindergarten this year. The teachers really felt that she did not have the social skills or the language comprehension yet, to be moving on to first grade. Since she is repeating this year we kind of slacked off a bit on academics this summer and focused more on social and emotional development. It seems to have been really good for her, she definitely feels comfortable in her place in the family and she talks a lot about how glad she is that she has a family.

I have a questions though... do you think it is possible to teach tactfulness to a 6 year old???

Rylee or Bow-ee?

Rylee told me that she has changed her name. She would now like to be called Bow-ee! I said "Bow-ee, really Rylee that sounds an awful lot like boy don't you think?" She planted her feet firmly on the ground, placed her hands on her hips and said "BOW-EE!! Mama, it's BOW-EE like you wear in your hear - like a princess!"

A few minutes later I said something to her and called her Rylee. She gave me a look (not all that pleasant) and said "Okay, you can call me Rylee Bow-ee, Mama, but everybody else has to say Bow-ee!"

So apparently for now we have a new name here... I just hope she comes back around before school starts next week!!!





Remember Ling from Karito Kids? Rylee loves their matching outfits and still really loves this doll. There are only a couple of more days left for the giveaway over at MommyPR. Click here to go enter!