We are the Truth

In light of what is happening with Russian Adoptions, the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCIS) has asked families to celebrate their successes by sharing their adoption stories on their blogs today as part of their “We are the Truth Campaign.”

We are the truth - Grace and I. The truth is a girl in Vietnam made the hardest decision a woman could have to make when she gave up her daughter. The truth is that I am blessed to be Grace's mother and I hope that somehow her birth mom know she is truly loved. She is my rock star. I loved her long before I saw her face. And then I memorized ever detail of her chubby face while I waited to bring her home. It was a bit surreal when we finally met. This is the day I met Grace - December 28, 2006. My girl loves to eat so the bottle was probably a great icebreaker!

The truth is that she is my heart. I love to see her learn new things or try something for the first time. The truth is that she told me no about a hundred times today and she yelled at me when I told her that it was getting dark and when needed to go inside. But I won't remember that tomorrow. What I will remember is how she crawled up in my lap and told me she loved me. I am so blessed to be her mother. That is my truth.

I did not rescue her from life of poverty in Vietnam. She rescued me from a life of ordinary and shows me daily how fortunate I am to be the mother of an extraordinary little girl. Here's Grace holding her referral photo on the third anniversary of her referral.

Who's Your Daddy?

I wrote about this just a bit last post. But this has been a big deal around our house lately. After visiting her friend Reilly and seeing her with her daddy (who is normally at work when we get together) she talks about daddies all the time. Gracie has name everyone's daddy. She starts with friends she sees all the time. Mr. Scott is Reilly's Daddy. Mr. Tony is Emma's daddy. She always has to tell me that Annie's daddy is Mr. Warbucks. It continues until we get to friends we rarely see. Mr. Justin is Lucy's daddy. Gracie has an amazing ability to remember names so this can go on for some time. I wish she would ask about Petunia's daddy. Then we could discuss that her Pop is her daddy just like Gracie's Pappy is her daddy. She came up with that one on her own. While naming people's daddies she said Pappy is my daddy. He was of course elated. She says that Pappy is my daddy, Momma's daddy, Aunt Terri's daddy and Uncle Mitch's daddy. She always comes first but we are just thankful the she includes us! So far I just say that's right and move on.

Let me preface this by saying that I am NOT going to go out daddy shopping. I would never change my decision to adopt Gracie on my own. However this whole revelation makes me so, so sad. She realizes that she is missing out on something. She is only 3 1/2, how will she feel when she there is a father/daughter event at church or school? She has her grandfather, uncles, older cousins who she is close to and love her dearly. They are great role models. But they are not a daddy. I guess I am worried that I am shortchanging her in some way. I hope she doesn't feel that way as she grows up.

This is a downer post but I want to remember this and I hope that someday I can read it and laugh.


We have had an amazing amount of snow this year. I feel like I don't live in the South anymore. It was beautiful falling though.

We enjoyed it at first but are really missing playing in the yard and on the swingset. The ground is just saturated with water after all the snow. Grace is tired of it too. She has to settle for swinging in the gazebo and it just isn't the same.

Crazy girl in the bathtub. I keep threatening to cut her hair off because it is like this alot. She is being very resistent when I try to comb her hair. Not tenderheaded, she's just very busy and doesn't have the time.

Diving Back In

Ok I have not posted for three months. Facebook made me lazy. Then when I would think about posting I would just put it off. It had already been so long what did another day make. So this may be a weird, rambling post. But my hope is that if I get that first post done, the others will come easier.

What has Gracie doing? Here are a few things...

• She has had a tremendous growth spurt. One day I noticed her sleeves and pants were looking too short. It seemed to happen all of the sudden. When I measured her she had grown 2 1/2 inches in 5 months! Grace is now 39 inches tall. I haven't weighed her in a while but I would guess she is between 30-35 lbs.
  
• Just before Christmas we went to visit my friend Karen and her daughter Reilly. Reilly's daddy stopped in for about 10 minutes at lunch to pick up something he had forgotten that morning. Scott is normally at work when we visit. Since that day she has had this obsession with daddies. She is always telling me who someone's daddy is or asking me who that person's daddy is. And I mean constantly. Then she'll say "My daddy is Pappy." This is really breaking my heart. I know that she has more fantastic male figures in her life than many little girls and I know she is better off than if she had a "dead beat dad." But it still makes me sad knowing that this is obviously something that she is very, very aware of. I didn't know this day would come so soon.
• Grace still loves music better than anything. Her favorite toys are her piano, drums, and keyboard. She loved her guitar but it sincerely drove me crazy so I hid it. She sings all the time. She remembers lyrics and sings in tune too.
  

I don't want to tire myself out on my first post so here are some recent pics I took. She calls this her puppy dog jacket. It was sweet when she said it, but as I was typing it seemed like animal cruelty! No puppies were harmed to make this jacket.

Doesn't she look grown up? Her legs and her hair just keep growing. She has become a real pain about being still to have her hair combed. Sometimes I want to get her a short haircut with bangs.

We have had a couple of really big snows. Like 6-8 inch snows.

Happy Halloween/Merry Christmas

Grace started talking about Christmas about a month ago. She has had not time for Halloween. Didn't care to talk about it, about costumes, and didn't care to say trick or treat. She is all Christmas, all the time. She wants to listen to Christmas music all the time. And the mail man better watch out. She devours ANY magazine or catalog that has anything to do with Christmas. It doesn't matter if she is looking at monogrammed guest towels. She doesn't care as long as it's Christmas. This week she has started asking about a tree. So I got a Christmas tree costume. I really worried that she wouldn't keep it on because because it's bulky and she had to stick her face out a hole. I had to make her take it off. As you can see in the photo, she even rode Trigger in costume. We went to see some friends and she still didn't say trick or treat. She came out with "Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock."

Referral Anniversary at the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday was the third anniversary of Grace's referral. Last year we started a family tradition. We celebrate the day with a trip to the pumpkin patch. There is a great pumpkin patch near my house. They have lots of great places to take pictures and who wouldn't love running around the rows and rows of pumpkins?

Gracie's smiling with her referral picture. Is that a gorgeous smile or what?

She loved the ones that looked like they have warts. I think those are interesting too.

She ran and jumped in Pumpkinman's lap. Then she started going through his pockets.

She is such a nosy girl.

She was tired of having her picture taken.

A Day with Friends

My sister Terri, Grace, and I traveled to see friends and their beautiful girls. We got to visit with Susan and Petunia and Justin, Kelly, Lucy, and Annie. All of the girls are from Que Son, Vietnam. Grace, Lucy, and Petunia were all roomies. We also got the added treat of visiting with Kelly's mother, sisters, and the two most adorable, curly headed, little boys. Despite the rainy and chilly weather today was a fantastic day. Kelly is an amazing photographer and took pictues of Petunia and Grace. I can't wait to see them.

Petunia had fun collecting leaves.


Grace standing still for a moment.


Lucy, Justin, Annie and Gracie found a butterfly on the ground.

Looking through my pictures I noticed that Grace was watching Annie in lots of them. She would be a good big sister.

Ready to Go

Yesterday morning I was sitting in Gracie's bedroom floor trying to figure our what I wanted her to wear for her pictures next weekend. She was running around the room in her panties. I told her that we were going to see Justin, Kelly and the girls and that Kelly was going to take her picture. She heard nothing after Justin. She grabbed the dress I had laid across the end of the bed and threw it on and grabbed a flower get her hair out of her face. She already had on mismatched black shoes that I had been trying on her. She then ran to the door and said, "I want to go see Justin please." She looked so funny I grabbed my camera. Justin you should probably be prepared to get your groove on, I think she is expecting you to entertain her.

Since she looked so pitiful, I took a picture of her this morning before church. This dress is my favorite. I had good intentions of taking her down the street to the wildflower garden and getting taking her picture, barefoot in the flowers, in this dress. This will just have to suffice.

For some reason she thought it was hilarious that I was taking her picture before church. She giggled and giggled. I think it is a cute picture with Ellie lounging on the chair in the background.

Update

I am so ashamed that it has been so long since my last post. I post pics and stuff to Facebook and forget to blog. Here is a little about what's been happening.

Grace weights 30 lbs and is 36 1/2 inches tall and is in excellent health.

She would eat rice for every meal.

People warn you about the terrible twos, but no one says anything about the threes. Age three came with a big dose of attitude. My mild mannered daughter now shows her temper and is at times unreasonable. Imagine that.

School is going well this semester. I absolutely love my classes. It blew me away when I realized that I would begin teacher at the same time Grace goes to Pre K!

Grace waiting for the Wiggles to come on stage. She was hilarious. For the first part of the show she sat their mesmerized. She could not believe that they were really there! The second part of the show she spent dancing and clapping. It was so hot that day, I thought we were going to melt.

Grace and her cousin Brody play well together. They are so fun to watch. He adores her and follows her everywhere and he thinks everything she does is awesome. She spends a lot of time ignoring him.
My mother got this card for her birthday six weeks ago. It plays the Chicken Dance and Grace loves to carry it around with her. I wonder what will happen when it quits playing?

Gracie Turns Three

I can't believe that Grace is three years old. She is such a big girl now. It amazes me to watch her, I often have trouble remembering a baby!! Her birthday was on Friday and we had her party on Saturday. This year she was all about birthday. She started singing Happy Birthday to Me a couple of weeks before her birthday. And she always put great emphasis on the "me" when she sang. I tried spacing out her gifts. I gave her the first one in the morning. It turned out to be a favorite. It was a bobblehead UT football player that sings Rocky Top. It is particulary annoying but was a replacement for one she loved but it no longer played music after being dropped. After she opened it she played for a few minutes and came into the kitchen and said "I'd like another present please." I was so glad that she loved her piano! She is such a musical girl. It was hilarious how she tore the paper a little and when she saw the keys she began playing with the paper still on. Doesn't she look professional in the third photo?

Saturday morning we had a play date with Reilly. The two girls always have so much fun together and Reilly is a real sweetheart. It is always nice for me to catch up with her mom too!

Don't you love that face!?!

She looks like a power walker!


Here's Grace the night of her party.

She loves her Gator but still wants to ride on the Mule with Pappy.

Missing Child, Please Help

I have hugged Grace so tight today. My 10 year old cousin Lindsey is missing. It is like she just vanished. They have had two different sets of hounds track her and they all lose her scent in the same spot. I heard from them a few minutes ago and they have found nothing.

Lindsey's mom and I grew up together. I cannot imagine what Melissa is going through, not knowing where her daughter is...my heart is breaking for her. They live in a very small town in Washington state. We are from a very small town and when we were in elementary school a girl at my school was kidnapped, raped and murdered. I know that must be on her mind. Please pray that Lindsey is found safe. Here's a link to the story. If you'd like to post it on your facebook or send it out to your friends I'd appreciate it. You never know where she could be spotted.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/49383897.html

First Day of School

Gracie had her first day at daycare yesterday. She did a fantastic job. She is going to the daycare where my niece Kayla (Brody's mom) works and Kayla teaches the three year olds. Grace is in her classroom and I think that has made all the difference. No meltdowns like last time. The first time I tried daycare she went for two hours and was sent home. She is a very loud screamer. This happened three days in a row and then we were done with daycare for a while. I knew having Kayla there would make the difference. Her is a pic of her at breakfast yesterday.

The only problem she had was a little fit when she didn't want to help clean up. This morning she got right up and said she was going to see the kids. My sister picked her up to take her to Kayla's when she went to get Brody. Grace said let's go Terri! It means alot knowing that she is having fun!

Puppy Love

After Kelly shared Annie's love for kissing Bianca, I thought if would fess up and let everyone know about Grace's love for Ellie. My mother always grosses out about this and refuses to believe me when I tell her that, scientifically, Ellie's mouth is cleaner than Grace's. At least Grace doesn't eat the dog food anymore. I took this back in February.

Quick Update

It's been awhile so I will give a speedy version of what's been going on lately. But first here are some photos from Aunt Rachels's visit which was so fun. Aunt Rachel, her daughter Pat and son Dan were wonderful houseguests. We had a great visit and on Friday we had lots of family over for dinner. There were about forty people here including Grace's cousins Ellie and Tyler who are her age. They had so much fun. I thought we were going to have a confrontation over Trigger but the crisis was averted. Grace adored Dan because he would swing her around, sit on the porch with her and do pretty much whatever she asked.

Grace and Dan

Aunt Rachel and Pat

Ellie, Tyler, and Grace

• Working on potty training and she is doing a good job. Occasional accidents but she loves wearing panties.


• With my classes being on line we have been hanging out together lots. She has become a real Momma's girl. I don't want her to get too dependent on having me right there with her ALL the time. However it has been so sweet. She loves to sit in my lap and rock. Every morning I get us something to drink, she will crawl in my lap with her blanket and we will rock. At bedtime she will crawl in my lap and we will put a blanket over us and snuggle. We watch The Sound of Music. How awesome is that? If I have my arm around her and move it, she will grab it and put it back around her.


• I am thankful for these sweet times because I think three is going to be tough. In between morning and bed time she is not always so sweet. She is really testing me these days. She will be an absolute angel for my mother or sister. With me she is always trying to test the limits. This includes yelling at me when she doesn't like what I say, refusing to clean up her room, and running from me (this really irritates me). Some days I feel like all I do is correct her or put her in time out. I really try to make a big deal about the positive things so I don't feel like a warden.

• On the upside we have had no more trouble with climbing. It took three days of spanking her bottom and putting her in time out to get that under control.

• She has started chasing Ellie. She will walk up to Ellie and say "Run" then begin chasing her. She will just laugh. Ellie will always tire out first and duck under the couch.

• She has three loves (not counting Trigger of course). They are lawn mowers, tractors and the Mule (like a gator but made by Kawasaki). She and her Pappy go everywhere on the Mule. She has a booster car seat on it so he can strap her in and it is so cute how you can just see her head sticking up. They have this crazy purple monkey hanging on it. They go ride and visit the neighbors. She loves to go see our next door neighbor Mr. Luke. He has is a farmer and has lots of tractors.

Grace and Pappy on the Mule

A Busy Week

The university has this new thing called a "Maymester." It runs May 12-29. That means I have five chapters and five quizzes to cover each week. I had the midterm last Friday and the final is this Friday. Also thrown in there are two research projects and two case studies. The really hard thing is that Grace is having terrible problems sleeping. If I am not in the bed with her she immediately wakes. My best study time is after she goes to bed and I have completely lost that. I think an A is out of the question, please pray I can keep my B.

The fun news is that my Aunt Rachel will be here for a visit tomorrow! She is my 92 year old aunt from Chicago and I absolutely adore her. It is a quick trip, they will be leaving on Saturday. I'll be having 30 for dinner on Friday. It will be great to see people I haven't seen in a while. Grace has a couple of cousins her age so I think she'll have fun. I hope to have all my classwork done today so all I have left is to study for the final.

Brody riding Trigger with Nanny's assistance.

Look how big Brody has gotten!

Gracie discovered her old walker when we got it out for Brody. All these baby toys seem so great to her!


Grace loves cinnamon biscuits (cinnamon rolls).