The Advantages of Being an Older, More Experienced Mother

You maybe one of those few people I see on the street who give me funny looks probably wondering if Sophie's my granddaughter. Or like many family and friends who boldly ask "Why I would want to start all over and raise a baby?" Here are a few of the answers:

1. Ever since I was a young girl, I've always felt God giving me the desire to adopt a little girl from Asia. I'd see an adorable little girl and my heartstrings would be tugged or Frank would come home and tell me about a broadcast he heard about adoption and say we needed to consider it for our family. Little signs along the way of our lives would occur here and there, over and over, always leading us on the same path of adoption. We were following a leading that God had placed in our hearts. I'm am sure of this like nothing else in my life, that adopting is definitely a "God thing".

2. Besides the fact that we were following God's plan for our lives, we can truthfully say that we've been there and done that (BTDT, affectionately referred to as in the adoption community). I know what to expect and have the experience to deal with temper tantrums, potty training issues, spilt milk all over the floor, and how important it is to play with her.

3. I have two, terrifically loving teenagers at home who enjoy giving her a bath, taking her to the park, playing with her while I cook, putting her down for her nap, and babysitting so I can run a few errands. Without Courtney and Josh this would be a different story. They are exceptional teenagers who continue to amaze me with their thoughtfulness, caring attitude, and gentle ways. They are being trained as parents and I know they are benefitting from all this practice, they've said so themselves!

4. Also, I actually ENJOY changing diapers, cleaning sticky fingerprints off the sliding glass doors, watching silly kid videos, reading wonderful children's books with lots of pictures, teaching Sophie all about the world and seeing her eyes light up in excitement, dancing with her in my arms to Steven Curtis Chapman's song "Cinderella", laying on the floor doing puzzles for the hundredth time, and building towers out of blocks only to let her knock them over.

5. She has caused me to slow down and enjoy life. I'm not working at this time so I can focus on being the best mommie I can be and I'm loving it. The entire family is reaping the benefits as well. Frank has been such an awesome father and provider allowing me to stay home indefinitely to be there for my kids. I appreciate all he does for our family. Having a Godly husband is a great advantage!

6. One of the best parts is I get one more chance to get tight, squeezy hugs; wet, slobbery kisses, and hear that oh-so-sweet voice calling out "Mama". I still get to see my sweet baby's eyes as she drifts off to sleep, or she stops playing for a minute-looks up at me-and smiles. I love it when she wants me to carry her everywhere, knowing that I'm the only mama she's ever had that would value her so much as to care for everyone of her needs. My heart is constantly being melted by this little miracle, God's miracle in our lives.

7. I now have the wisdom (and finances) to realize that hiring a babysitter is very cost effective, giving me a much needed break, allowing me to have dates with my husband of almost 25 years, and giving Sophie someone new to play and interact with. And...I don't feel guilty about leaving her. Now that's definitely an advantage!

So you see, it's not all that bad being a mama in my late 40's. It's a blessing really. Don't feel sorry for me. Be happy for me that I've heard God's voice, followed His lead, and have finally found my purpose in life. Adopting a baby is the biggest blessing of my life and I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks for listening!

Beautiful Life Friday

Well, this old Mama is learning something new! Without any idea of starting to potty train on my part, 3 days ago Sophie signed that she had a dirty diaper. This was a new thing. So I followed her lead and took her to sit on the potty like a big girl. Lo and behold she went #2!!!! I was blown away. She actually had some control and knew what she was doing. How did that happen overnight? So for 3 days she's been going on the potty like a big girl at her request. She thinks she is so grown up and gets a big kick out of her own abilities. I know that she'll probably tire of the novelty of it all and go back to her normal diapering routine, but for now, we're going with it. I've stocked up my supply of M&M's (one of the few words she can actually say with clarity), bought a Winnie the Pooh potty seat and we're ready to go.

On the downside of all this "growing up" is the fact that I'm beginning to mourn the loss of an oh-too-short babyhood. I never minded diapering her, giving her a bottle, picking up the spilt milk (well, that one I did get annoyed with too often), or all the things that came with having a baby in the house. Rather, I enjoyed it immensely, savoring every moment of it. So now that she's entering toddlerhood in full force, I'm missing the cute little baby face, the fact that she loved to please me, that I could help her with everything. Now, she's telling me at every turn "I do" with her words and sign language. I guess this is to be expected and yes it goes by too fast, even more so with an adopted child that I've only had since she was 1 year old. I missed a year of her babyhood. I'm sad. But, I rejoice in things to come. I know God has a plan for this little spitfire's life and I'm excited to see how it all unfolds.

Can't You Just Stay Little Until Your Carters Wear Out?

Cluck cluck!

this is one overstuffed chick!

Trying to fly to no avail

Our little sweetpea will be a chick for Halloween

This is my favorite pose

Sophie's wearing her new hat (notice plastic tag thingy still on top) not caring that it clashes with her bib and shirt

Look at the delicate way she handles her "oh-so-precious" cupcake

As I was rocking Sophie before naptime, a tear formed in the corner of my eye. I realized my little baby was growing up way too fast! I must admit that I enjoyed changing her diapers, giving her a bottle as I cuddled her in my arms at night, watching all those Baby Einstein videos explaining what all the animals and shapes were, just basically doing all the baby stuff with my little cutie pie. Everyone knows that I've been loving her as much as possible and trying to catch her up on all she missed by living in an orphange, but all of a sudden it seems that she instantly turned into a toddler.

Her face looks more mature today. Her hair is longer, her body is leaner and taller. Her 18th month clothes are snug and most of her 12 month clothes don't fit anymore.

The biggest deal though is that for the last 3 days she's told me she has to go potty with her sign language. The first time this happened, not believing that she could possibly know what her body needed, I cheerfully sat her on the toilet for a little pretending. Well, much to my astonishment, she went #2! Now some might say it's a fluke but she has done this for 3 days now. I'm still thinking that the novelty will wear off soon and we'll be back to doing her business in the corner of the living room, but still...I am quickly realizing that she's growing up more and more each day. I'm not ready!!!! It wasn't my idea to start potty training. What's up with a little baby telling their mom that they're ready to grow up?

I'm really OK with waiting on the potty training thing until she's 3...it's fine to be a cute little complacent child who wants nothing more than to please her mommie. The terrible twos and threes are creeping up on me and I'm grieving for the loss of babyhood. God give me patience!

Blessed Bliss: Finally, An Update!

Jesus loves me this I know!

Our little celebrity loves to wear sunglasses b/c she always gets such a huge reaction from people!

Josh and Courtney (at Monterey Bay) are an INCREDIBLE brother and sister to their Mei Mei

Sophie enjoys watering flowers and does it with such finesse, just like her great-grandpa "Charlie"

At 20 months, our Sweet Pea has an amazing personality that likes to play games, do tricks to astound her audiences, and has adorable facial expressions that say, "Go ahead, tickle me if you can catch me!"

Don't 'cha just love the little drool that comes out her mouth when she's concentrating?

Priceless!

Wow, it has been 2 months since I last updated my blog. Sorry about that. Summer has been so much fun for all of us filled with Mommy and Me swim lessons, 2 days a week of speech therapy, playing with fake food and plastic dishes (her new favorite pasttime), discovering The Wiggles on TV, learning new sounds and having a blast with each other. We all totally enjoy being with Sophie, so much so that Josh and Courtney sometimes fight over who gets Sophie. I read a Beth Moore Bible Study the other day that defined "Asher" a name given to a child as "blessed bliss". That defines our life with Sophie. She never stops amazing us with her incredible cuteness and personality.

Here are the Top Ten Things She Does to Amaze Us:

1. Hides her hand in her sleeve and then suddenly POPS it out like she's doing a disappearing hand trick with full-on facial expression that says, "TA DUH, can you believe it?"

2. Imitates our words and phrases with intonations in her own "Sophie-speak" and can say "Mama", "more", "apple", and "amen"consistently

3. She continues to increase her sign language vocabulary with about 70 words,

4. Sophie can make animal sounds of cows, ducks, horses, dogs, cats, sheep, & chickens,

5. Loves to dance along with the Wiggles and does the hand motions to "Taba Naba",

6. Likes to hide in a big carseat box and spontaneously play peekaboo around corners and doors,

7. uses her brother's laptop like she knows what she's doing-typing with both hands on the home row keys, using one finger to manipulate the built in mouse pad, and pressing buttons,

8. loves to do big people chores like feeding the dog, washing dishes, cooking, cleaning, and holding the dustpan to pick up dirt from the floor,

9. go outside with Daddy (Papa) to say goodnight to the moon, stars, birds, crickets, and grass,

10. give real pinched lip kisses and hugs to those she loves!!!

Hey, here's a great book for adoptive families recommended by Laurie Loudenback (China Travel Buddy): God Found Us You by Lisa Todd Bergren. It's one of those books that makes you cry. It's great for assuring your adopted child that " God knew you, and knew me, and knew when we'd fit perfectly together," in our forever family.

Blessings,

paula

Wordless Wednesday

It's Been Six Months Since we Traveled to China

It's amazing to see this picture of Sophie 6 months ago. She has grown so much, 4 pounds and 2 inches to be exact, and has soooo much more hair. Here she is adorned in a pink traditional silk outfit purchased on Shamien Island.

Our little Chinese Sweet Pea waiting to travel home to her new life in America.

June 8th is the 6 month anniversary of traveling to China, so I thought I'd commemorate the occasion by sharing some pictures and memories from that trip. It's funny how we all instantly bonded and felt like family upon meeting each other. We were stuck in a big bus traveling all around Beijing in 19 degree weather with a wind chill that made it seem like sub-zero temperatures. We all had a great story that brought us to adopting from China. The one other commonality was that we all had a strong belief in God, his perfect timing, and generous provision. We spent the first weekend together in Beijing, then some of us separated and went off to different provinces to pick up our new children. But then we reconvened in Guangzhou to show off our sweet little children. We had been through so much together in such a short time. I hope that we'll always stay in touch and that we'll commit to getting together regularly for reunions.

The Gammariello's

We're loving being a family of five!

This is the entire traveling group posing on the staircase at the Asia International Hotel in Guangzhou. Our wonderful tour guides, Maggie and Rosa took this picture.

Our travel group was so much fun. We swapped stories, antibiotics, baby clothes, diaper, formula, and snacks. Eating together as a group was always a pleasure. We saw some pretty "interesting" food choices and even tried a few new things.

All the moms with their newly adopted children

America's newest soon-to-be citizens!

Eating was always a big event for our group. We loved the breakfasts with a great variety of American and Asian foods. Imagine eating Udon soup for breakfast along with plain rice congee, lox and bagels, and french toast!

The Loudenbacks and Woodruffs enjoy the fantastic buffet breakfast in the restaurant that rotates 360 degrees every hour.

The Downing's

Ronnie, Sandy, Mitchell, and Qing Shuang are enjoying being a new family. Courtney and Josh loved hanging out with Mitchell! They loved playing Chinese hacky sac in the hotel hallways and making fun of translations gone wrong.

The Gager's

Karl, Jenn, and Karleigh Mei can't wait to take Karleigh home to meet their other kids. Karl showed us cool tricks and made it something to look forward to at meal time!

The Evan's

Chet, Ann, and Matthew begin their new forever family. We got to share a nice dinner with them and watch "foobers (food-boogers- a term made up at the Gammariello family dinner table)" come out of our cleft affected children's noses.

The Loudenback's and Mr. Jordan

Laurie and Aaron (Scott is taking the photo) pose with the famous "Jordan" the Christian store owner on Shamian Island known by all the AWAA families. Laurie showed us that Jordan had the best deals on squeaky shoes in all of Guangzhou. Her advice on stocking up squeaky shoes for all growth stages was priceless.

The Woodruff's

Dave, Amy and Abby are excited to be in the Olympic Birds' Nest. This was before they met their newest addition, Elisabeth.

The Bythewoods'

and finally, Jim, Rebecca, and daughters-Jennifer and Kimberly go sight-seeing together in Guangzhou.

The Jacobs' and Gammariello's

We traveled to Jiangyin City, Jiangsu with another couple from Ontario, Canada, Lee and Leslie Jacobs. Our daughters, Lyla and Sophie, slept in adjoining cribs for the first year of their lives. Here we are posing in front of the Children's Social Welfare Institute in Jiangyin City after a wonderful tour of the orphanage. We were welcomed like old friends and treated to a lunch fit for royalty. There was a sense of love and caring very apparent from the moment we entered the glass doors of this modern, clean orphanage.

The Jacobs'

We were blessed to be able to travel in Sophie's province with another couple. Lee and Les were such nice people whom we enjoyed eating breakfast with every morning. We loved their Canadian "accents." eh?

The memories of our trip to China are too numerous to include here, but we know we will never forget those two weeks spent halfway across the world.

i <3 mei mei

Courtney posted these pictures of her mei mei. Can you tell that Sophie is her favorite subject to photograph? She sorted through 400 pictures of Sophie taken over the last 2 weeks and finally chose these 12. Enjoy her artistic creativity! Note: The pictures with Courtney in them were either taken by Josh or me.

modeling her sparkly shoes in front of the couch.

is it possible to go up a slide?

Courtney's favorite from that sunny day at the park. :)

Crazy driver at the Santa Barbara Zoo...

Do I look cool or goofy?

They were trying to take cover from the bird poop!

One of her favorite animals at the zoo is the giraffe (look carefully in the background).

Goofing around with her brother, cousins Elizabeth and Mike at the park by Nonie's house.

Her Godmother and cousin, Analise, just adores Sophie as much as Josh!

And there's Chloe, waiting for any little morsel of string cheese dropped by Sophie.
Sophie has so much fun at the park with her Mei Mei!