Court date

We received a court date today for our adoption!  It is August 10th and they are not requiring us to be there for it.  Check out adoptingjudah.com for more details :)

Happy 2nd Gotcha Day Laila

Today marks two years since the day we brought Laila home.  Wow, time flies!

Remember this girl the day we brought her home??

And now she's this crazy girl......

I've been a bit teary eyed today thinking of the past two years.  I can honestly say they have been the happiest, saddest, rewarding, frustrating, tears of joy, tears of sorrow, self reflection, self disappointing, lovely years of my life.  I can't explain how this girl has changed me.  It's not about me.  This is what I've learned.  When I step back and look at my life what do I want to see?  I want to know that God truly used me for His purpose.  I feel like being a mother of my children is definitely what He wanted.  Every one of my kids is so unique and special and I see God working through them in so many ways and I know how different they could be because I've seen different.  God has blessed us beyond belief and grown us in uncomfortable, incredible ways through this little miracle girl named Laila.

She went from just a handful of words two years ago to about 75-100 words last year and today (according to a handout I just did from her therapist) she's at about 450-500 words now!  Oh how communication changes things.  I can honestly say that I would choose speech over any other ability she could gain.  Yesterday my parents stopped by and she was just cracking them up.  She's a jokester and then says "Papa, I so funny!"

She went from diapers and me thinking that would be our whole life to being pretty much completely potty trained.  She tells me she has to go (most of the time) and actually enjoys her alone time on the potty.  I get her all set and then she says "goodbye momma, goodbye!" and kicks me out!  Oh yes, the four year old attitude is there FOR SURE!

She loves to pester her brother and sister and is so sneaky about yelling at them when she thinks I can't hear her.  Her absolute favorite thing to do is hang out in Emma's room.  I think she really feels like a big shot when her big sister invites her into her room.  She's also starting to understand that she has a new brother coming and when she sees his picture on the fridge she says "RJ!"

She has the absolute most infectious laugh I've EVER heard.  I was so frustrated with her the other day and I was just was about to cry and then she and Emma were in the back seat, of course everything Emma and Jackson do make her crack up, and she started that laugh and I tried as hard as I could to stay mad but I just had to laugh too.  She's got a special light in her that I only see in other special needs kids.  God definitely made them different but not in the ways we see them as different, but in their eyes and hearts and minds.

We absolutely, positively, without a doubt love you to pieces baby girl.  Thank you for what you do for us!

The Summer So Far

Wow, this has been a fun filled summer so far!!  I think this is the first week all summer that we have gone longer than two days without swimming and actually E&J haven’t because they are in swim lessons this week!  We love that both Grandma’s have a lake house, one grandma has a pool and a few friends have pools.  One day we even went pool hopping from one pool to another! 

Here are some fun pictures of what we’ve been doing so far this summer (not necessarily in chronological order!):

Fishing at Papa Roger’s lake when we stayed there for a week.  Our friend Zoe & Kate came for a day

Fun at the Beach at Papa Roger’s

Snuggles with Papa

Emma Learned to ski!!

At the beach with Grandma Kathy

Jack got some wake boarding in

Hand stand contest with Emma & Kirstyn

Jack & Chad getting dumped off the tube.  They LOVE their father-in-law

Visit to MN, Laila decided the magna doodle was her DS!  Ha!

Fun cooking with Uncle Dave & Erin

We attended Camp Masala which is a camp for families who have adopted from India.  We learned all kinds of fun new things and are so excited to bring Ranjit home.  Hopefully this year!!

Jackson LOVES cricket!

Emma’s first Limca from the Indian grocery store

Last day of India camp in our beautiful new clothes

All the kids doing the final program.

My beauties (minus one )

A local church had a super fun fundraiser for our adoption.  We raised almost the whole amount of our matching grant!

LOTS of fun day at Grandma Kathy’s pool, especially since she got a slide this year!

Emma had a week of Girl Scout camp.  She had lots of fun!

Our friends we met at India camp came to visit!

We spent half a week at Papa Tom’s lake with Jill and the girls

The girls spent a lot of time playing blocks

Jumpers!

We got to visit Uncle Kevin, Aunt Brooke and the twins too!

Emma & Logan having fun

Jackson has been so brave this year!

And of course old Superstar comes out!

Jackson found Papa Tom is a good foot rest

Fun on the Fourth of July

We celebrated 12 years of marriage!

Been learning some Indian cooking!

the Daddy’s girl loves the water

Fun trip to Chicago with our Shedd membership

Jackson got to spend his first time alone with Papa Roger fishing like the big kids.  He LOVED it!

Laila has surgery and we were accompanied again by our surgery helper Melissa who always takes fun pictures She just had an endoscopy and it gave us no answers but I guess we can cross one more thing off the list!

Spent an afternoon at the park with Grandma Mary and Papa Tom

Emma went on her annual trip to Papa’s for special fishing time alone.

And… of course went out to breakfast

And this is consuming me now.  We’re waiting for an email any day (or who knows when) that we are getting a court date scheduled in India for Ranjit. 

What a fun summer we’ve had so far and it’s only a little over half over!  We’re of course doing our reading a summer school work as well to stay in practice

One Week Post CLC

We've been home for a week and Laila is doing GREAT!  Sorry to always talk about potty training but I think I'm just still so in shock I think I have to talk about it before she decides to regress!  I know that's not positive thinking but again, still in shock.  She is still in pull-ups because it's rare that she tells me that she needs to go but she goes every time I sit her on there and yells "I PEED!!"  She is also mostly pooping on the potty one time during the day so no yucky dirty diapers (although cleaning out the potty isn't pleasant).

Her walking and standing are doing great as well.  It's so very interesting to see how different she does with people that don't expect it of her.  I was just telling Jack today that I have truly seen with my own eyes how much influence parents and caregivers have in the progress children make.  If she's with people that don't want to take the time with her, don't see her the way I do, don't expect anything of her then she doesn't use the potty, doesn't eat and doesn't hold any of her weight to stand or walk.  She so stinking smart, she knows.  I'm so thankful that CLC gave me the opportunity to see her the way she truly is.

Her arms are SOOO much better.  She's keeping beautiful straight arms when holding onto the ladder back chair and also when she's playing.  It is such a joy be able to sit her in her bumbo chair in her room to play with toys in her toybox.  She loves to sit next to it and pull everything out.  I've also learned she's the perfect height to sit in her wheelchair and play in the towel drawer in the kitchen.  She can pull it out and hold onto the edge with one hand to stabilize herself and then pull everything out with the other hand.

Her speech continues to develop wonderfully.  Today at the doctor she said "Dr. Brewer took my temperature in my mouth." She's just amazing and speech makes all the difference in the world.

I'm very happy that I get her for the summer to really work on some of this.  Thanks for following our journey at CLC again with session.  I hope you found it inspiring and informative.