We're headed to El Salvador tomorrow!

So the day has come. We are leaving for Chicago tomorrow, and then on Saturday to Houston, and on Sunday to El Salvador. We are going to El Salvador as part of our Hands of Hope ministry. Our intent is to visit 3 orphananges while we are there. We are looking for the right fit with our ministry to see about partnering with one of the orphanages to support it.

Our ultimate goal is to have a strong connection with the orphanage, where we financially support it, have mission trips there to work on projects, form a bond with the children there, and of course to have an impact on the children of the orphanage by sprirtually supporting them and the staff. It's a lofty goal, but one we feel God is calling us to. I'm excited to go, but a little worried about our daughters, in particular DD2 being homesick. I think she'll be fine, but she is worried about it too. And Gracie is staying with her aunt and uncle. I don't want her to feel abandoned. I want her to know that we're coming back in a week, so we're planning on calling her as often as possible.

I pray that the Lord will protect all of us while we travel, and lead us to the right orphanage and partnership to be able to make a difference in these children's lives.

Play Date

Gracie gets plenty of playtime other children when she goes to daycare two days a week, and to the local YMCA with her daddy while he works there a few hours a week, but I really want her to be able to have girl friends that look like her, and have a similar background as her. So I've been trying to set up play dates with a couple of little girls that are also adopted from China. So far I haven't been too effective at doing so. The last two playdates I set up had to be cancelled because of illness, either mine, theirs or the other mommies.

So I was pretty excited when we actually were able to have a play date with Miss D. Miss D is 19 months old, and has been home with her mommy and daddy for a little less than a year. Their age difference right now makes it a little bit more difficult for them to play together, but I think that in another 6 months or so, that won't be a problem at all. And even with the difference in their ages right now, they had a good time drawing and playing on Gracie's slide. for the hour and a half they were together.

I hope to get a playdate with Miss J set up too, and wouldn't it be cool if Miss G (Grac), Miss J, and Miss D all ended up being friends together??!!

Oh, these photos are courtesy of Miss D's momma.

I'm sick again!

Ok. I figured it was just a matter of time before I caught the latest round of a bug that's running through our family, but darn it, I'm TIRED of all of being sick!!!

On Wednesday, DH was feeling poorly, running a fever, stuffed up nose, the whole bit. He's now to the point of having sinus infection, which for him is typical. And though a sinus infection is not fun, it does mean that he's probably going to get better within a few days or so. Unfortunately, though, I started feeling like I was getting a cold on Wednesday. I didn't feel bad, just like I was getting a cold.

I bought some homeopathic medicine called ColdCalm, thinking that maybe I could catch this thing in the bud before it turned into a full blown cold. Well, yesterday I started feeling really bad. I took the last of my ColdCalm last night, and today I feel even worse. So if the ColdCalm worked, then I can't imagine what I would've felt like had I not taken it. My head is totally stuffed up! I can't breathe, and I feel like doo doo.

I have to say that I'm thankful that if I have to be sick that I'm glad it's now instead of the week of I'm laid off (which is next week), or the week we'll be in El Salvador. So hopefully I'll start feeling better in the next day or so. I'll write more about the trip to El Salvador later, but for now I just want to feel better!

Then again, maybe not

A couple of posts ago I told you all that Gracie was potty trained completely.Well, I'm retracting that slightly. She is still mostly potty trained, but something that's been happening the last couple of nights make me think that maybe she has a reason for waking up at night.

For the last couple of nights, she has been waking up wet. Wet to where I've had to change her pants, her pj's and her cribsheet. So last night we decided to put a diaper on her just in case. Like I mentioned before we don't have pullups, so diapers were the next best thing. I put them on her, and voila! she slept through the entire night! Not once did she wake up crying, calling out for mommy. So we all got a good night's rest. Ohm and she was dry this morning.

So here's my theory: Having the diaper on is her security. She doesn't feel the need to wake up and call out. She can "hold it" until morning. Of course, after just one night doesn't prove my theory, but we'll try the diaper again tonight and see if it makes a difference again. Let's hope so!!

She's going thru something!

Poor Grace. She is clingy when I'm home to the point of throwing a fit if anyone else tries to hold her or sit with her. She wants to be held alot! Although it's nice to be loved, it's hard to get anything done with a 2 year old hanging on me! Someday I guess I'll look back on these days and miss them because she actually wanted to be around me, but right now it's hard to think of anything but wanting a little bit of me time.

The other thing that she's doing is waking up at night maybe 2 or 3 time screaming. Usually she's fine if I go in and comfort her a little bit or give her a drink of water, but boy it's hard to function when you get woken up so many times a night.

Lastly, she seems to be going through a screaming phase whenever she wants something or doesn't get what she wants. I don't know if she picked this up from daycare, or if she's frustrated that she can't express herself or what. But it sure does put stress on the eardrums.

Anyway,I'm wondering what this stage is all about. Is she going through a normal insecurity phase, or is she feeling insecure for some other reason related to being adopted? I don't know, and probably never will, but I pray that we can all get good rest soon!

Potty Training Graduate!

I believe I can say without a doubt that Gracie is now totally potty trained! We are done with diapers and into big girl undies without many problems at all! I am so happy to be done with diapers. They are expensive, they are stinky when soiled, and they contribute to the landfill problems.

I'm so proud of Gracie. She has practically potty trained herself. Both of the other girls were well over 3 before they 'got' the whole potty thing. Gracie got it within a couple of weeks, and with another few weeks has been essentially accident free!!

She skipped right over pullups too. We never even bought a one. I did buy her 3 pair of training pants and two plastic coated training pants. She never used the plastic coated ones, and has now moved up to big girl panties or "nonnies" as she calls them.

Of course, there are some downsides to being diaper free. First is that we check out every potty at every store. Second is that when she says she has to potty, you can't really doubt that she does. You have to take her seriously, which when you're travelling in the car can be somewhat inconvenient. For the most part though, I'm just glad to be done with them!

Good job Gracie!!