Grace and Brady

Brady is five days older than Grace. My mom is friends with Brady's grandmother. Recently the grandmothers got Grace and Brady together to play. They had such a good time. When it was time to go home his grandmother told Brady to tell Grace goodbye. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. Isn't he a cutie?!

Climbing, Swimming and Good Times

This morning I was making the bed and Grace was playing in her room. Suddenly I heard a cry which I immediately identified as her "I'm in a tight spot" cry. When I go to investigate here is what I found.


Does it make me a bad mother that I ran for the camera before I rescued my daughter? In my defense, I could tell that she wasn't hurt. My daughter is a climber. I used to never worry about putting her in her room with the gate up, that is no longer the case. She is very good about using various items around her room as steps. The other day I caught her trying to pull herself onto the chest of drawers. She had pushed the glider into position so she could climb from the seat to the arm to the back and onto the chest. What makes it worse is that she is strong. It amazes me the things she can move. Does anyone have any advice?

Onto the day's fun. We got out the little pool. She looks so cute in her duck swimsuit. She loves anyting with a duck.





Grace adores her Pappy and he can always make her laugh.



Also he gives her ice cream.

A Few Pictures

Doesn't she look like a proper little lady? Not quite. This was taken just before she shoved a handful of animal crackers in her mouth.


Check out this finger. Gracie is double jointed and I crack up everytime she points her finger. She also can do crazy stuff with her wrists/hands.


We has spent a lot of time playing in the yard this week. Grace will run and roll around and have the best time.

From the Mouth of Gracie

Grace always has something to say these days. You have to really be careful, because she repeats EVERTHING. Then it is permanently in her vocabulary. Some of the things that she constantly repeats and have really cracked me up recently:

Biiiiiiiiite - this is Grace's really, really southern word. She makes the word bite last forever.

Amen - we say the little kiddie prayer before meals. One day when we finished she emphatically said amen.

Ugly - her Aunt Terri came by the other day and when she came in she asked how's Grace toay. I immediately answered she's been ugly. Grace looked at Terri and said ugly.

All right - I was playing Wii and hit a home run. I said all right and that is now here phras.

Stop it - this is her favorite not mine and it does not crack me up.

Typical Gracie faking the head injury. She doesn't get enought attention.

Kaylee's Mom

Yesterday Grace and I met Kaylee's mom. I have been following her blog for some time and we recently realized that we live about 2 hours from each other. We had the best time! We had lunch, shopped and had a great time getting to know each other. It was such a blessing to meet someone with strong faith and a positive attitude.

Melanie and her husband are still waiting for Kaylee's referral. They have been waiting soooooooooo long. Please say a prayer for them. Melanie is already a mom, she just needs to see little Kaylee's face.

Happy Mother's Day

All my life we have spent Mother's Day at Memaw's. It was the one time that you saw all the cousins, aunts and uncles, family friends, etc. When my Memaw passed away the tradition continued at my Aunt Florence's house. She is my mother's only sister and they are very close. Grace adored my uncle. He has a sheep named Courtney that he raised from a baby and he took Grace out to pet her. After lunch Grace was sitting in his lap drawing a picture when she decided to lay back and take a nap.

I am happy to report that today I received a call from the office of one of my senators. A few weeks ago I wrote letters to my elected officials voicing my concerns over the situation in Vietnam. I am please to report that the person returning my call wasn't just a random staffer, but someone who knew exactly what was going on and he called to give me an update.

* I forgot to mention what the staffer told me. He was vague, but told me that the US had decided to actively pursue a new MOU with Vietnam. They will be working with reputable US adoption agencies/officials to help this process.

A Great Birthday Present

Saturday was my birthday. The singer in the family gave me the best present. Grace sang Happy Birthday to me! The only words she sang were "Happy Birthday Mom" and she hummed the rest but she was perfectly in tune. Thanks to my mother for that surprise.

Grace's musical gifts have only surfaced recently. She sings constantly! And it amazes me that she can replicate a melody after only hearing it once or twice. She sings(using "da" in place of all works of course)both verse and chorus of Jesus Loves Me.

The best part is that she is happy. She will sing a song and then say happy, happy, happy. I love that.

This is a long one.

A record of my thoughts for Grace

Most of the people who read this blog know about the recent changes in the world of Vietnam adoption. For those of you who are not aware of the changes, here is a quck summary.

The US is supsending Vietnam adoptions because of supsected corruption. The government says that mothers are being paid to give their baby up for adoption, babies are being given up for adoption without the consent of the parents, etc. Parents who do not have a referral by September 1 will receive their dossier back from Vietnam and they will not have a child referred to them. These reports have stirred up so many emotions in me. I thought that blogging about them might be help me sort out my thoughts and to record them so that I can share this with Grace someday.

There are so many wonderful people who are waiting for a referral. People who will be fantastic parents. My prayers are with them. I pray that they will receive referrals in the next four months. I cannot imagine coming so far and not completing an adoption.

If I had stayed with the first agency I signed with, I would most likely still be waiting for a referral. When I signed with them in Dec 2005, I was told their was a 6 month wait for referrals. When I got my 171 in July 2006 I was told it would 18-24 months. I was devestated. Then I found out that a friend who began the adoption journey the same time as I did was up next for a referral. They had switched to a new agency. After researching the agency I made the decision to switch. The agency had recently began to facilitate adoptions. They had previously worked providing humanitarian aid in Vietnam and made the decision to handle adoptions.

As they were new, the waiting list was very short. Within a week I had turned in my dossier and was number four on the list for an infant girl. That was July 28, 2006. I received my referral on October 12. On December 28, one year after beginning the adoption process, we had our G&R and Grace officially became my daughter. Everything happened so quickly. I am a bit embarressed when I think of the many wonderful people have waited for soooo much longer and they are faced with a deadline.

Even though I have the utmost faith in my agency and their ethics, there is no way that they can be certain of exactly how a child came to be in an orphanage. The recent allegations of corruption makes me wonder about Grace's family. Was she willingly given up by her mother? The report says she was abandoned. Grace is from a very tiny village and I truly beleive that the nannies probably knew who Grace's mother was. I can't stand the thought that some mother had her child, my Grace, taken from her without her consent.

I truly believe that God picked me to raise Grace and be her mom. I believe that is true even if she was taken unethically. Taken unethically - that makes me sick to type. I believe that God has power over EVERYTHING. Does God take babies from their mothers? No. Does God give man free will to make decisions which are often bad? Yes. I believe that God often cleans up man's messes. He took babies who had been essentially stolen and placed them in loving homes.

I am going to raise Grace in a God centered home. It is my hope that she will be equipped to make sense of the diffcult things in life. This includes not knowing the truth about how she came to be in an orphanage. Whatever the circumstances, I truly hope that her mother can feel in her heart that Grace is happy.

Pictures from the park.

More Pictures from the Weekend

Here are more pictures from the zoo. I especially love the last one. We were in the Asian area and Grace walked up to a statue of Buddha and started rubbing his belly! It was hilarious. I love the zoo and had a great time. However it does make me sad to look at some of the animals. Does the cheetah ever get to run at full speed? The bengal tigers were just sort of pacing around. Do they have exercise areas at zoos, places where animals can be taken to run freely? Anybody know? Anyway, I hope the animals don't lead sad lives. We sure enjoyed seeing them. Here in Tennessee there is an elephant sanctuary for female elephants. They have been neglected by their owners and get to retire to the sanctuary. Check it out.

It has been a beautiful weekend. The weather has been perfect. We have made the most of it by spending lots of time outdoors. On Saturday we went to the Memphis Zoo with Aunt Terri, Kristan and Kayla. They have a fantastic zoo. Grace loved naming the animals and imitating how they sound. She really loved the sheep ane the ducks.





The Memphis Zoo has a fantastic Asian area. The pandas are the main attraction at the zoo, so they really did a fantastic job with the area. There are beautiful gardens, pagodas, etc. They had this cute, little hollowed out tree with a small panda sculpture where kids could have their picture made. Gracie was so cute. She reached down and petted the little panda.







I have a ton of pictures. Will post more later.

A Nicer Bedtime

There have recently been many posts about sleep. Sleep has also been an issue at our house. After we had only been home from Vietnam for a week, Grace began sleeping through the night. Nighttime has never been a problem at house, our problem is bedtime. Our problem is that Grace thinks she should be held while she sleeps. She can feel it as you pull her away from her body to lay her down and she will immediately be on her feet with arms outstretched. When I say immediately, I truly mean immediately. There is no way you can rub this child's back or hum to comfort her back to sleep.

Now this habit doesn't just happen with me, so I have no delusions that it is a "Mommy" thing. She merely wants to be held. Several people have helped facilitate her desire to be held while sleeping, but I must break this habit. I began this process on Monday and I am pleased to report that we are doing well. In hope that she would remain asleep when I put her down, I previously rocked her until she had been asleep until about 20 minutes. We now have a new routine. After her bath I rock Grace until she is almost asleep. I make sure she that her last memory is of her crib. That way she will realize that is where she should sleep.

The first night she yelled for about 20 minutes. She doesn't cry, she yells. This has been steadily decreasing and last night she only yelled for about 5 minutes. As a nice bonus this new bedtime habit has also positively impacted morning. She used to begin calling out "milk" as soon as she woke up. Now she will occupy herself for about 20 minutes! I will hear her talking, singing and jumping. WOW. She has had this same problem at naptime. This week we have been out and about alot. However we will be working on naptime as soon as possible.

I got these tips from a great book that my social worker recommended during my home study. The book, Your Child's Health, has information on rashes, fevers, immunizations, behavior. You name it. It has been so helpful to me as a first time mother. Here are some new pictures of Gracie.

Sneaky Grace


Sweet Grace


Her new thing is to go to the pantry and help herself to raisins. Problem is she gets them everywhere. The first time I stepped on one and saw it on the bottom of my shoe I thought Ellie had an accident in the floor.

Playing with Reilly

On Saturday my best friend Karen came over with her daughter Reilly. Reilly will be one year old the end of next month. It is so much fun having kids around the same age. Grace was very nice and hospitable. She shared with the baby and I was very proud of her. I think she wondered why that baby didn't get up and run around and climb like she does. Here are some photos from the day.