Little Pianist

I love having my grandmother's piano in our house.  She passed away when I was just 11, and left her piano to me way back then.  It took 20 years, but the piano finally made its way into my home.  I'm not sure if she could have envisioned my children's little fingers playing the piano, but what a joy it is for me to see it. Sunshine grabbed her new book (which is wonderful, I highly recommend it for transracial adoptees!) all by herself, propped it up on the piano, and started playing away.  It was such a sweet moment, I'm so glad I captured it.

Pencils

Homeschooling is never dull, I can definitely say that.  This is what my goofball was "practicing" this morning after his letter work was done.  Love this little man!

I broke down and bough the 50mm f/1.4 a few days ago ... this is my first shot with it.  I don't typically shoot at f/1.4 but I adore it!  Although I would definitely still recommend the 50mm f/1.8 to others, the f/1.4 is more accurate with focus and is faster.  It was absolutely a good $350 investment!

Not letting go

This girl loves her Daddy.  Adores him.  It's an ever-developing relationship that was slower to form, but ohhhh she is smitten.  She still prefers me when I'm around (especially for bedtime), but she cannot get enough of her Daddy.  Took her awhile, but she finally figured out how fun he is, and I'm pretty certain she's not letting go anytime soon.

My reluctant reader

Is not so reluctant anymore.  Praise God.  It's amazing what the right set of books will do for a child's desire to read.  Even though these books have plenty of more difficult words also, for some reason, she is happy to ask for help.  Unlike many other chapter books we have been through ... which were more like torture for her to read, she is happy to pick up these books.  Albeit a bit slow, she is doing it.  I think my beautiful girl has finally found the gift of reading, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

A few additional fun facts for my homeschooling mamas ... many of these books have "Fact Tracker" companions that are non-fiction.  They give the kids more information about the time, place, etc. that the book was about.  So for example, there is a Fact Tracker companion to the book Angel is reading about pandas and other endangered species.  AND ... you're gonna love this, many of the books have correlating lesson plans.  So because the characters go back in time, as well as all over the world, these are fictional history books that could be incorporated into history studies!  There is a Thanksgiving book that has a Fact Tracker companion about Pilgrims that I'm planning on working through next week.  And there are several books that take place in Ancient Times ... oh how I wish I researched this series earlier!

Silly girl

When Sunshine pulled out all the floss out at once on this one, I did what any self-respecting photogramama would do ... I moved her into the light and grabbed my camera to document.  Hehe.

Pretty ironic though ... because this is a girl that used to scream in terror anytime a toothbrush would come into vision.  Ah, change is good.

Fit for an Emperor

Homeschool isn't always glue and glitter (there is definitely "boring" stuff too, promise!) ... but we had fun this week learning about the Roman Empire.  I try to make history and science interesting for the kids by including related projects and activities; and it seems to be doing the trick because History is Angel's favorite subject (wahoo!).  Today we created our own crowns after Emperor Nero, they had a blast, as you can see.

When you allow the kids to have unlimited access to scissors, glue, glitter, buttons, stickers, stamps and all things messy ... it is sure to be a success in their eyes, right?

Sunshine was in Heaven with her very own pair of scissors for this project.  Thankfully, no hairs on her head were harmed during the making of this crown (thank you Kelly Raudenbush for making me teensy bit nervous about it!).

We will be continuing our study of the Roman Empire into next week too.  Angel is especially excited about building Roman columns with cookie dough and then eating, um I mean "smashing," said columns like the Barbarians did.  Hopefully I will remember to grab my camera for that one!

Strong-Willed?

I often use many different adjectives to describe my 2-year-old daughter.  After her most recent palate repair surgery a few weeks ago, the top adjectives have been strong, brave, courageous, graceful and pretty darn amazing.  I have also called her loving, affectionate, beautiful, smart, clever, happy, funny, silly, spunky and feisty.  She is one of the coolest kids I know and I love that I am blessed enough to be her mama.  She is also one of the most strong-willed little girls I have ever met, which can make parenting challenging on some days.  She has been this way since we brought her home from China in June 2011 and that part of her personality has just always been there.  She has a need to control as many situations she can and will fight hard to get her way, even if the situation is inconsequential.

I know many other adoptive parents that have reported similar behavior about their adopted children, so I truly thought this kind of behavior was the status quo.  After all that our children have been forced to endure, being strong-willed made sense to me because it helped them cope and survive so many situations that we cannot fathom.  So although this behavior made for some interesting parenting days, I “got it” and didn’t think much else about it.

After I returned from a short-term Mission Trip last month, the strong-willed behavior seemed to kick into high gear and has continued through her palate repair surgery.  Her reaction to both of these major events makes complete sense in so many ways, but again ... the behavior has been difficult to parent and leaves me exhausted on some days.

So I started heavily reflecting about this behavior and pulled out the book, “The Connected Child” by Karyn Purvis.  I had read it long before we brought Sunshine home but it just seemed like a good time to give myself a refresher read ... I was happy to pick up any tidbit of advice that could help my daughter.  What an eye opener to read it a second time around after my daughter has been home for a year!  When I read it the first time, of course all of the information made complete sense but it was just theory at the time.  Reading it this time was a different experience because I could relate to the behaviors discussed in the book.

It seems that my “strong-willed” and sometimes defiant baby girl is still going through some adjustments.  Reading about this hurt my heart.  I naively thought that after being home for a year, these adjustments and transitions would have been finished, but I was wrong.  She is still adjusting to life and the major changes that we have recently thrown at her certainly don’t make that any easier!  Perhaps her strong-willed nature isn’t all “strong-willed” ... maybe she’s just trying to tell us that she still doesn’t feel completely safe and that she needs help in coping with all of the adjustments she’s been forced to make.  Maybe her need to control situations isn’t defiance, but simply her way of telling us that the situation scares her.  I do think that Sunshine will always be “strong-willed” to some degree, I truly do.  I think that she’s gotten as far as she has because of it and I am so proud of her.

But I have also begun to see this behavior with more discerning eyes.  It’s difficult to pick apart her reaction to a situation, because I don’t always know whether it’s typical 2-year-old behavior versus adoption-related.  But I’m learning to see what’s going on her little head instead of just pulling the “strong-willed” card all the time.  She’s not a typical 2-year-old and shouldn’t be treated that way.  It’s easy to forget because she’s been home for a year.  Figuring out the best way for me to handle a situation has proven to be more difficult than I thought, but it’s a challenge that I am committed to getting right, no matter how many mistakes I make along the way.  As her mama, it is my job to give her what she needs, even if it’s not always what makes sense in my head.

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She loves him

Sunshine has been pretty hot and cold since her palate repair with everyone except me.  But yesterday, after she warmed up to him, she was happy to play with Granddad for a bit.  It was a-dor-a-ble. A rare moment in the most recent past for sure, but one that I was excited to grab my camera for :-)

These two

I spied them like this on his bed while I was vacuuming (yes, I was actually cleaning, woohoo!).  They were so precious I just had to take a break and capture it.  I was lucky enough to run downstairs and grab my camera in time, before they decided to move onto the next thing.  Precious, precious, precious ... that's all I can say 'bout these two.

The beach

This is an old picture of Angel at the beach, from about a month ago right after school got out.  I actually forgot about it because of the Mission Trip craziness.  But I went looking for full sun portraits for the SHOOT MY KIDS! Workshop and found this gem.  It's not the best smile, but I love the muted beach colors and the sun reflecting off of her hair.  Oh what a beauty she is!

Linking up with Favorite Photo Friday today!

L'artiste

First time experimenting with watercolors.  It was a hit, she sat there for at least 30 minutes.  After several spilled water jars, paint everywhere and completely ripped paper, she finally signed "all done."  Isn't she gorgeous?  I mean seriously!  Oh the eyelashes in the first one and the expression in the last, Je t'aime!

One year

One year ago on June 7, 2011, our baby girl was placed in my arms.  Our lives were forever changed.  Looking back over the pictures from that day, my heart hurts for the loss that she endured, having no certainty in her life and not knowing what was happening.  She was so incredibly brave and courageous, not even shedding a tear over her life being turned upside down.

Although adoption is always born out of loss and grief, it is an amazing story of redemption.  God's love for us is overwhelming.  Just as we all are adopted into His Heavenly kingdom and made new, Sunshine also was made new that day.  She continues to be made new every single day through God's redemptive and unconditional love.  Even though the images from that day are sometimes difficult for me to look through, I also see God's grace and love overflowing in them.

This past year has been the most amazing and most difficult of our lives.  Although we have gone through so many hard days together, we have also triumphed over seemingly impossible tasks in indescribable ways.  God has surely been with us through the good and the rough, smiling down as we persevered.  I know all of you adoptive families can most definitely relate :-)

I have been writing a well-worded, flowery post over and over in my head for weeks to celebrate this most-special anniversary.  But now that the time has come, I think it's best just to keep it simple.  Although yes, Sunshine's life was surely changed in positive ways ... we are the ones that are blessed.  We have learned more about ourselves and grown in our relationships with Jesus and with each other.  We have seen firsthand what God's grace really means and how beautiful His unconditional love is.  We sit in awe as we've had the chance to witness such remarkable beauty.

Happy Gotcha Day to our gorgeous little Sunshine.  We love you to the moon and back and are so blessed to have the honor of being your family.

Good luck hugs for Daddy

Girlfriend gives some seriously awesome hugs, lemme tell ya!  Daddy was heading off to his softball game and Sunshine just had to get in on the goodbye action :-)  What's so awesome about her hugs is the passion ... I shot a quick one (of course I missed the focus! ugh!) to show how tight she's squeezing - see how hard her right fingers are pressing on Daddy's neck?  LOL.  Affection has definitely never been an issue for this girl!  So sweet!

Telephonervisernetting

No, that's not a typo!

"Tel-e-phon-er-vis-er-nett-ing" ... ever heard of it?

Awhile back, there was a commercial circulating for Verizon or some other phone/cable/internet provider that promised you could use the phone, watch TV, and surf the net all at the same time.  Obviously that's old news nowadays, but at the time the new term was invented, telephonervisernetting.  LOL.

Sunshine was doing just that last night on the sofa - DH noticed it, so I grabbed the camera.  Watching TV, working on her computer and playing with the phone.  Ha!  Her little computer is, by FAR, the favorite toy.  She really loves to sit on the sofa and work on her computer, surrounded by lots of books and whatever other toys strike her fancy.  I just adore her pillow table too, oh this chickadee is too much!

Come over and find me on FACEBOOK yet???

Ah, young love ...

... it's such a sweet thing to witness :-)

Angel and Mr. B. are quite the duo.  They are so sweet with each other and it's actually mutual :-)  I love the way they innocently "love" each other, whatever that might mean.  I took this quick snapshot after their school musical tonight ... which was super-sweet, funny and absolutely precious.  The teachers and students worked tirelessly on it and boy did their work show.  Amazing what can be done with such young children.  The way they praised God with their performance was truly a beautiful thing.  Sweet, sweet, sweet.

PS - Have you found me on FACEBOOK yet???

Rainy day

It was on overcast, wet day yesterday so the kids got a little ... ummm ... bored.  After watching Frosty the Snowman And Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (yes I recognize the wintery Christmas theme there - not my choices, that was all Lovebug!), we pulled out the Coffee Bean Sensory Bin, watercolors and crayons.  Sunshine adores drawing and amazingly, can hold a crayon perfectly without any help.  And Lovebug worked on a picture-in-progress that he is painting all red.  A guy after my own heart .... ahhhhh.  Oh and we stayed in PJ's all day, a favorite for me - I'm sure you'll recognize a theme if you've read my blog for any length of time.

We did finally get dressed just in time to pick Angel up from school, where we enjoyed an Ice Cream Social at the book fair there.  It was a delicious mess and we got to hang out inside, but outside of the house.  And of course I spent even more money at that darned book fair.  Why oh why must I be a sucker for books?

One more, one less

I picked up this t-shirt for Lovebug at the C4C Retreat - I just adore this for a "boy" tee.  There were lots of girly, pretty t-shirts there, but not as much variety for neutral shirts.  It's difficult to read because my lighting was harsh and flat (love that high-noon sun!) but it says: "One more child with a forever family.  One less orphan in the world."  Lovebug really likes to wear it and I really like seeing him wear it even more.  If you want one for you, hubby, or your precious little, go check out The Sparrow Fund's Etsy Store.  And if you'd like to find out more about what The Sparrow Fund does, click on any of the links or the button below :-)