United Tour - Norfolk

I would really appreciate your prayers tomorrow. As most of you know, we received a grant from Shaohannah's Hope to bring Lily home. So when Steven Curtis Chapman goes on tour, I get an e-mail requesting volunteers to help man booths for Show Hope.

Tomorrow, Lily, my mom, and I are travelling to Norfolk, VA (3 1/2 hours away) to assist at the concert. The concert begins at 7 pm, we arrive at the venue at 5 pm, and leave around 10 pm. Yes, I love getting to see SCC in concert (and Michael W. Smith this time too). Most important to me, though, is the opportunity to serve an organization that helped bring Lily home. Show Hope does so much for orphans around the world. Check them out here.

Check back here for pics and maybe some video if it will upload :)

Pray for:
- Safety while travelling
- Peace for Lily in the car
- Peace and calm for Lily throughout the evening (did GREAT job last time)
- Hearts to be turned to adoption or assisting adoption financially
- Words of encouragement might flow from God's heart, to my lips, and to the ears of those who need to hear them.

Conversations with a nearly 3 yr old

Lily: "You can't have my hair bow. I want my hair bow!"
Me: "Mommy just needs to borrow it today, please."
Lily: "NOOOOOO!"

I finally got her distracted, out the door, and into the car.

Lily: "Mommy, letter P, letter P!"
Me: Confused at first until I notice that the inspection sticker on our windshield says 9/09 which is seen backwards when you are in the car making it look VERY much like a capital letter P.

Me: "Oh, yes. That is a letter P. You are amazing, Lily."
Lily: "I make mommy happy?"

Me: "Yes, Mommy is very proud of you!"
Lily: "You can have my hair bow now." This was repeated several times on the way to school and returning from school to home.

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Me: (on the phone with my dad) "Bye, Dad."
Lily: "Daddy?!?"

Me: "Remember we talked about how Daddy is your Daddy and Grandpa is my Daddy?"
Lily: "Why?"

Me: ". . . . Um, um, Grandpa is mommy's daddy."
Lily: "Oh."

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We were reading "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes" the other day.

Me (reading the book): "How did they make this perfect match a world away? Do the Chinese people have a special window to my soul?"
Lily: "No!"

Me: "Who did it? Did God do it?"
Lily: "God did it. God did it purpose!"

Me: "God, did it on purpose?"
Lily: "YES!"

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There is so much more, but I can't seem to remember them all. That is precisely why I am blogging, so I can get at least some of them down. Lily's heart is so tender towards things of God. We met with our pastor just before Wednesday night church the week Steve was home. I tried to send Lily home with me, but she refused. She really WANTED to stay for church.

Has it really been TWO years?

I know I am actually 21 hours late (we received Lily just before 3 am EST), but I couldn't go to bed without recognizing this very special day for our family! More "Lilyisms" to come in the next couple days!

Prayers

Lily and I have started calling "Daddy" right at bedtime to allow for Daddy/daughter prayer time. Steve and I have been praying together every night since he left for school. Just this past week, Lily started asking to pray with Daddy. Now, Steve has a class on Wednesday night's so Lily can't pray with him at bedtime. Yesterday she was asking to pray with Daddy and was pretty upset that she couldn't.

Me: "Do you want to call and pray with Grandma?"
Lily: "NO! DADDY!"
Me: "Grandpa?"
Lily: "NO!"
Me: "What about Nana Susan?"
Lily: "Yes, Susan!!!!!"

We proceeded to call Nana Susan in Ohio and talked for 6-7 minutes! Nana Susan you saved the day!

Another Week Down!

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I am one more week closer to the end of the school year. I think we are all counting the days, 50 school days to be exact! I have two weeks of "regular" school, one week of standardized testing (yes, my K students will be attempting to fill in circles that I will later have to fix), Spring Break, three days of school, two days of Kindergarten registration, a week of school, Steve is off for a week, then there are only 3 weeks of school! If that was completely confusing to you, I keep it simple! THE END IS IN SIGHT! It is going to be VERY busy, so please keep praying for us! Lily's birthday, a wedding, and volunteering at a SCC/MWS concert all occur in the next 7 weeks!

The two pictures should say a lot! Lily found the suit on her own Friday night. She took her clothes and pull-up off (she did put it in the garbage) by herself. She wore it the rest of the night. She woke up Saturday morning and proceeded to do the very same thing! She CANNOT wait for summer!

BTW, Lily is on her fourth round of antibiotics in 11 weeks. She goes back to the doctor for her well check over my Spring Break. They will make the decision then whether or not to refer her to an ENT to discuss the possibility of putting tubes in her ears. She also had a little guck in her eye (the real reason we took her to the doc in the first place - we had no indication at that point that her ears were bothering her) when we took her to the doc yesterday. She is on an anti-biotic for her ears, drops for her ears, and drops for her eyes!

I think I am done now with my random ramblings!

Sisterhood Award

Well, I have never done this before . . . Here goes . . .

I follow Linn's blog and she was awarded the "Sisterhood award." She is passing it on to all her bloggy friends, so I am going to pass it on as well. I felt funny accepting, but she said that she would be checking on us and I can't exactly pass it on unless I accept it! Here is the link to the original post. I am nominating the following people:

1. Kim, my sister-in-law
2. Cindy, fellow mom to a Xuwen girl
3. Leslie, fellow adoptive mom
4. Shannon, travel family
5. Stefanie, fellow adoptive mom
6. Kim, travel family
7. Naomi, "waiting" mom
8. Kerry, orphan advocate
9. Marybeth, fellow adoptive mom
10. Linn, giver of the award

Anyway, in order to officially be the recipient of this award, here are a few things that need to be done -----
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

We're still here!

You would think that with Steve home this past week, I would have more time to attend to posting. I might even have more material to post about. I can't hardly believe that his Spring Break is just hours away from being over. I can't think about it or I might cry!

Lily has REALLY enjoyed having Daddy home. He took her to and picked her up from her "school" everyday which gave me nearly an additional hour each day at school while staying within my normal hours.

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Lily: "Ow!" Crying
Mommy: "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."
Lily: "It's okay. I forgive you, Mommy." Big hug follows
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Lily: "I'm bringin home a baby bubblebee. Won't ma momma be sa proud a me. Ow. He Owa me. I'm squishin up a baby bumblebee. Won't ma momma be sa proud of me." This continues for several verses/minutes.
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Lily: Crying
Mommy: "What's wrong?"
Lily: More crying. "Susan. I need Susan." Nana Susan is my mom's best friend and she was just in the area for a brief visit
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Mommy: "Are you ready to play?"
Lily: "Yes, I'm SUPER ready!"

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Recent prayers:
She'll name everything on the table with "Thank You ____"
"Pastor Stephen, sick."
"Daniel, sick."
"Susan, Daddy school, Mommy school"
"Miss Robin (her teacher), etc"
Then if we try to say Amen, "I'm not done!"