i heart faces weekly challenge.....

"Reflection"

You can check out more reflection entries here at "i heart faces."

Blogs to share, 5 years ago, & update on Faith's hair trim...

My heart is constantly touched by the adoption community and the way so many work together in bringing families together.

I learned of this family today at "All Roads Lead to You" working to raise enough funds needed to bring their sweet Sophia Jane home. I have donated the following items to their auction in hopes that every little bit can help in bringing their daughter home......

"SONYA LEE LITTLE PEOPLE DOLL & DVD SET"

You can go here to place a bid. This was Faith's and she does not play with dolls so it is very gently used. She did watch the dvd a few times. It really is a sweet doll.
Wishing Kimberley and her family a life time of happiness!


I also wanted to share this new blog "One Thousand Treasures".
This family is very good friends of ours that we met while living in England. We were waiting to bring Faith home and they were waiting to bring their second daughter from China home. We started a wonderful adoption group together and shared in bringing our children home. They are now living in China running an education center and caring for children in their home. They are a true testimony that we can all some how make a difference. I know they would love for you to stop by their blog and show support in the wonderful work they are doing.


Love Without Boundaries is having an art auction right now to help raise money to help care for the children of China living in orphanages. I have always been in awe of this organization and it holds a special place in my heart. Check out some of the amazing things you can bid on by going to their web site and clicking on the art auction link.

"A baby is born with the need to be loved and never outgrows it"

~Frank A. Clark



I can't believe it was 5 years ago that we were in China near the end of our trip getting ready to bring Faith home. This photo was taken on Faith's last day in China and is one of my favorites of her from our trip. We were preparing for our long trip home. We were finally starting to see some smiles from her. It was very obvious to us when Faith was placed in our arms that she had never learned to bond and was only existing through life. She was very stoic and showed little emotion. By the time we left China we were starting to see subtle changes and a spark in her eyes. We knew we had a long way to go in gaining her trust and the bonding took a lot longer than we ever anticipated.


"The cutest baby ever!"

I have been reading several blogs lately with concerns about RAD (reactive attachment disorder) and although Faith did not have this she did have many attachment issues that took a long time to work through. It was a slow process as she also was very developmentally delayed. I have not shared too much about everything we went through as I have felt the need to keep things private for Faith, but if anyone has any questions please feel free to email me. I may do a post on things we did to help with the attachment process in hopes of helping others.
It is amazing what love can do!!!


Ohhh and for an update on the post below......Faith's little hair trim was unnoticeable! Whew!! (of course being her Mom I could tell !:)
When she woke up I asked her if she did anything last night before going to bed and here is how the conversation went:
Faith: I cut my toe nail.
Me: was there anything else you cut?
Faith: oh yes, I cut my band aide off my finger.
Me: You did.....was there anything else that you cut.
Faith: noooooooo, oh yeah I cut my hair!
Me: I know, Reed found your hair on the toilet.
Faith: When I cut it, it fell right in my hand and I took it and flushed it down the toilet.
Me: Why didn't you tell me last night? I don't ever want you cutting your hair.
Faith: I'm sorry, next time I'll ask you before I cut it!

I never did get around to taking pictures today. It was another really long day!
Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday and Daddy is coming home!!!!!

Have a great week-end!!!!!!

Just a little nail, eemmmm hair trim!

(It is really late and has been a really busy day (Dale is away this week on a business trip) but I had to write this down so I don't forget)

Faith was all tucked in bed for the night so I went downstairs for some computer time:)
A few minutes pass and Faith calls down to me,
"Moooommmmy one of my toe nails needs cutting, it is bothering me."
I hollered up to her that I would be there in a minute.
She then hollers down saying,
"I'll go get the scissors for you."
I am listening out for her and I hear her go into the bathroom and open the drawer where her small baby nail scissors are. About a minute later I hear the toilet flush and I think to myself....."oh good she went potty one more time."
Then another minute later she calls out,
"It's OK I took care of my nail...I got it."
I told her I would be up to tuck her in again.
A minute later. OK make it 5 minutes later. Oh alright about 10 minutes later (you know how hard it is to get away from the computer!) I went up to kiss her good-night again and she is snoring away.

Reed then calls to me from the bathroom,
"Mommy did you trim Faith's hair or something?"
"No, why?"
"Come look at this hair on the toilet."
I go in the bathroom and there are little pieces of what looks like Faith's hair all over the toilet seat!
I'm thinking noooooo she wouldn't have.
Then I turn towards the bathroom counter and on the bathroom floor I find this...

and on the counter is setting these.......

I started looking around for more hair, but THANKFULLY that was all I found!!
I started laughing just picturing her going into the bathroom to get the nail scissors and then deciding to try and trim her hair. I can just picture her face as she gives it a snip.
She must have tried to flush her hair down the toilet is what I am thinking???? I am just hoping there was not a lot she flushed down there!
I am actually surprised she did not tell me as that is really unlike her. She will usually tell me everything even if she thinks she might get in trouble. I can't wait to ask her about it in the morning to see what she says. Tomorrow is picture day at school so I am REALLY thankful she didn't cut more off!
And speaking of school pictures I just bought these cute outfits for Faith and I am trying to decide which one to have her wear for her photo...........

or

They are size 6!!! I think it is official that I can no longer shop for her in the toddler section.:( She needs to wear size 6 now. My baby is growing up. She now weighs 41 lbs. and is 43 1/2 inches.
She also saw these at T@arget and had to have them..............

Now off to bed, after I go hide the nail scissors!!!!!!!;)

Happy Earth Day!!

I'm posting these photos I took of our rose bushes in honor of Earth Day today.

They are all in full bloom and I am enjoying them so much. I took these yesterday evening as the sun was setting.

( i have more on my photography blog here that I took a few days ago)

On this day.............

"5" years ago in 2004............

I held your sweet tiny hand for the first time,

I touched your beautiful face that I knew so well from memorizing every detail of your referral photos,

and we were finally together, Mother and Daughter

A Happy Family Forever!!!!!

Collages of our Easter......

The excitement of coloring Easter eggs!!!

(Faith has always loved coloring eggs. It is such a wonder to her. She and Reed sat for an hour with so much patience. They wanted to see who could make the brightest colored egg so they sat there with their eggs in the dye forever. It was so funny. I think Reed ended up with the brightest egg....that blue one:) Dean colored one egg just to make me happy and then said he was finished. (Is this what happens when your 13?)

We had a very blessed and simple Easter filled with our family traditions and time being together. (And lots of wonderful sunshine!!)
(The roses are from Faith. She had Daddy cut them from our rose bushes and she brought them to me and said "Happy Easter Mommy. These are to show you that I love you.")
On Friday we took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens. It was a fun family movie and Faith loved it. She actually sat through the entire movie without saying one word. She usually can not stay quiet for too long and she will start talking during movies. When this movie was over Dale and I looked at each other in shock! I think this was the longest she has ever gone without talking! lol It was definitely her kind of movie!
On Saturday we took Faith to an egg hunt at Dean's school. She was slightly overwhelmed with the tons of kids running after hundreds of eggs at one time egg hunt. When she would run to an egg and get ready to grab it (along with hundreds of other kids reaching for the same egg) she would just kind of freeze. She did get 5 eggs which she was really excited about!
On Easter morning we were awaken at sunrise to Reed and Faith running in our room that it was time to wake up because the Easter bunny came. They jumped on Dean to wake him up and we all sleepily went downstairs to check out Easter baskets and to have an egg hunt at 7:00 in the morning. We managed to eat a quick breakfast of chocolate candy ;) to get to Easter church service on time. After church (to make up for our unhealthy breakfast) we went out for a nice Easter brunch.


Faith and Reed went back to school Monday after being off for 3 weeks. We're still trying to get back into the routine. Dean is off this week on his break. I'm thankful he's content just sleeping in and staying home because it gives me a chance to try and get caught up on some things. Some of our neighbors are having a garage sale this week-end so I'm hoping to do some cleaning out and join them.
Hope everyone has a great week!!!

i heart faces~ Easter/Spring.......

This weeks challenge at "i heart faces" is Easter/ Spring. My entry this week is a photo I took of Faith today on "Easter" all dressed in her brand new Easter dress. I love the way the Easter morning sunlight is shining down on her. She just takes my breath away.
I look forward to checking out all the great Easter photos and learning from everyone:)