The two older girls were invited on a date by their daddy to the local YMCA Daddy/Daughter Dance. While they danced the night away, Grace and I met up with the other moms and ate a delicious meal at Ram. So we all had a great time!
Here's some photos of the dance. Sorry, I didn't take any photos of Grace and me at the Ram restaurant.
I know I've been lax in posting any newere photos of the family and the girls, but well, life gets in the way sometimes. So to try to give you a taste of how the girls are growing and changing here's some photos that were taken this month. Enjoy!
Taken from Hope for Orphans: http://www.familylife.com/atf/cf/{8E975F2E-4C1C-4315-AAFF-34A97EB367B5}/TenWays_inside.pdf
1. Pray with the Father for them.
2. Speak up for them.
3. Give them what they need.
4. Support those who support them.
5. Provide them a safe place.
6. Go visit them.
7. Give sacrificially to them.
8. Cheer them on.
9. Give them a forever family.
10. Mobilize your church for them.
After a week and a half of not having a daycare provider because she had pneumonia, we sighed a sigh of relief to have Grace be able to go back to daycare on Tuesday. DH and I were both able to go back to work knowing that our little girl was well taken care of. Well that sigh of relief lasted exactly one day.
At dropoff on Wednesday morning, our daycare provider told DH that they were going to be moving to the city west of us in order to be closer to their oldest daughter's school. They've already signed the paperwork to begin building a new house, but even with that according to our daycare provider, they have up to 4 months to back out if they can't sell their current house. So, instead of waiting for the maybe move, we're out looking for daycare again for Grace. We have a couple of leads, but are essentially starting all over again! This has got to be the hardest part of being a working mom - finding good affordable daycare!
To be fair to our daycare provider, she says that they are spending 40 minutes driving their daughter to school, and spending $60/week driving her back and forth. She said when they built the house they're in, the plan was to only have one child and when that child went to school and mom went back to work, they would commute together because work and school were close by. But, they had a surprise when their second daughter was born, and now it's much harder to get their oldest to school. So I do understand their reasoning, but Grace has been there less than 5 months, she's become attached to our daycare provider, and now will have to adjust all over again. I would've appreciated it if we'd known back in September that they were thinking of moving. But I guess since that didn't happen we'll just figure out what to do next. Please pray that we can find loving daycare for Gracie!
It doesn't happen very often, but today I have so much to get caught up on, that I'm posting twice to the blog. Last post I brought you up to date on thinking of adopting again. This post, I'll talk about Hands of Hope, International Adoption and Orphan Care Ministry. You can learn more about Hands of Hope at: http://www.gracehandsofhope.org/Hands_of_Hope/Welcome.html
We had our big birthing announcement weekend at our church this past weekend. We had a compelling video that indicated the number of orphans around the world had grown exponentially, gave some information about why, and then introduced our ministry. We had a good response from the people that were in all 6 services. We had a giving tree that people could pick hearts off of where each attached card had a specific need for an orphanage, and bring back the needed items to our church. I was responsible for the tree. It was pretty cool. Here's a photo:
We also have a project for donations of 400 mosquito nets for 400 orphans in Liberia to help prevent malaria. That's one of the mosquito nets convering the table where the Giving Tree is sitting.
Lastly, we had a kiosk where people could stop to talk with us about our ministry, and what we're trying to do with helping orphans. Our booth looked like this;
It was a very cool weekend! I had lots of help with getting everything ready, and lots of support at the kiosk. I can't tell you how much fun I had talking with people about what we are trying to do, about God's heart for orphans, and how we're trying to make it easier for people to adopt. All in all it was a great weekend. Now we just need to run with our good start and keep our momentum! God is working big time in our ministry, and we owe it to Him to follow where He leads us!
I know it's been awhile since I've blogged, but I didn't realize it had been that long until I saw my last entry about Grace walking. Lots has been going on, not the least of which is that Grace's walking has improved very quickly. She's pretty much a pro at it now.
First Steps came out a couple of weeks ago with 2 therapists: speech and motor development. Turns out that Grace is right on target for her age on speech, but that she needs some therapy to help develop her upper body muscles. They said that holds her shoulders up (like in a shrug) too much, and that's a compensation for lack of tummy time when she was a baby that has now caused her chest muscles to be tight and weak. So this week, Alecia is coming out to get us signed up to start occupational therapy with Grace. I must admit that I was surprised by the evaluation, but am willing to see what comes of the therapy. So on we tread!
Another thing that came and went was the consideration of adopting a 2 year old little boy from China off of the A Helping Hand special needs list. We had received an email from our adoption agency, A Helping Hand, that said that there were still children on the special needs list that needed families.Their files were being returned to the CCAA on February 9. So they wanted us to spread the word that these children needed families. Well, when I went out to take a peek at the children out there, I fell in love with a photo of 2 year old Luke. He had a repaired cleft palate/cleft lip, and was "slightly motor delayed." I inquired about Luke and the info that was available on him, including medical. I also found out that there was one other family that was interested in adopting Luke. So I read over it, noticing how small Luke was at 16 months - 15 lbs, and took the info to our pediatrician for her to look at and tell me what she sees. She came back and said that he was small - really small, and his head was large. She said she'd be concerned about fetal alchohol syndrome, but of course, she couldn't tell. I asked her off the record if she would do it. Of course, she said she couldn't answer that.
So armed with all this information and prayer, I went to DH to ask him what he thought. Oh, I should say that I didn't get to talk to him about Luke until the night before we had to decide whether to go forward. Well, his response was "I applaud that you want to help an orphan in need, but I'm just too tired." I asked himif he thought Luke was cute. His answer was "No, not at all." I didn't argue or beg, but rather just decided that it wasn't meant to be. I was disappointed, as was DD1, but not heartbroken. Later, I went out the website and there was a (Hold) by Luke's name. So I know that he'll have a chance at a family. Maybe that's why I wasn't heartbroken, or maybe the reality of having 3 children, a job, a husband, and a house to take care of weighed on me. I'm still praying for God's direction on what he wants us to do, and I still struggle with having another Chinese child that Grace can identify with in our family. For now, though, we are not adopting again. I have other things to focus on in my life - many other things, so I can live with it, for now.
I knew this would happen. First Steps is coming out on Tuesday to evaluate Gracie to see if she is developmentally delayed on walking. Well, the past couple of days she's taken off walking on her own. She's still not as sure of herself as she could be, but she is walking to get from point A to B without being prompted to. I think it's only a matter of days, I think, until she will be quite confident.
Of course, I'm still glad that First Steps is coming next week, but it's funny that this has happened. They will still evaluate her speech development too, which I think is behind. So I'll be happy to find out where she is on the continuum, and to see if she needs extra help.
