Happy Thanksgiving!

Our house has been busy busy since the start of the school year. Emily and Alyssa are both enjoying their teachers and doing well. Madison is working hard and keeping us all on our toes. I cannot believe she is home almost a year! WOW. Emily is having fun in dance and is happy her cousin Hannah is in her class this year! She loves Girl Scouts and helped coordinate a Care Bag drive full of toiletries and snacks for those in need. We are distributing them at a local soup kitchen tomorrow morning! Alyssa is enjoying Girl Scouts too. She has a great leader and a nice group of girls in her troop. The girls and families worked hard filling the Care Bags and will also be there with us tomorrow. She had to make a choice this year about whether she wanted to be in soccer or gymnastics. There is a limit to how much running around I can do with three kids. She chose to leave soccer this season and give gymnastics a try. She LOVES IT. I have to say she is really good too! She can't wait to go each Friday night. She continues to study for her First Holy Communion and is excited for that on May 11th! Madison keeps busy with OT, PT, and speech after school. She loves to go and for now this is her after school activity lol. She is also enrolled in Girl Scouts which meets during school at recess. It is a great compromise for me. I can't fit another thing in after school....and she is tired! We fared well during Hurricane Sandy. We lost power for almost two weeks, but had no damage to our house. Some friends and MANY in our community weren't as lucky! It will be a long time for many of them to rebuild, if they even can. Our beaches have sustained significant damage too :-(. It reminds us even more of the things we are thankful for! Pictures to come!

Meilee'a family has found her!!!!!

I am beyond thrilled to announce the Madison's best friend has a family bringing her home. Madison's wish has come true!!!!! Please help her family bring her home. This gorgeous necklace has been custom created with Madi's Wish-Dream and Hope for her friend to have a forever family!!! Please consider purchasing one of these necklaces in honor of all of the "best friends left behind," a sad reality for most of our kids adopted at older ages. Thank you in advance for supporting Meilee's family AND Madison's WISH!!!! xoxoxoxox http://jubileesjewels.com/dream-hope-wish

Madi's best friend watis and waits and waits...

....and Madi cries for every night. She talks about her everyday. She is at the forefront of her every thought. Every baby doll she has is given her friend's Chinese name. Oh how I wish I could bring her home to our family. I cannot, therefore the best I can do is to advocate like crazy. As is the case any time one adopts internationally (or has a child by birth) her Meilee's parents must be open to some unknowns. What IS known is that she is a sweet, affectionate, quiet little girl who desperately needs a family to call her own. Please help spread the word about this sweetheart! She is currently on an angency specific list, but her file can be sent back to the shared list (orsent to another agency) at an point as I was told by the agency that they have had her file over 3 months. They may have it for a while longer or the CCCWA can pull it at any point. Even if you are already dtc with another agency, call and find out more about this precious girl. You never know where her file may end up..... Read more about Marvelous Meilee here: http://www.lwbcommunity.org/meilee-waits-for-her-perfect-match Just cut and paste the link above and you will see her adorable face!!! Above all else, please pray that her family finds her, even if that family is not yours!

June was a busy month for our family...

June was filled with lots of celebrations. Some were captured by pictures and some were not. Emily was recognized for her academic achievements. I am so proud of this girl, my heart could burst. Alyssa had a blast at our school "Variety Show" and sang her little heart out with her Daisy troop (pictures to come). She also had a fantastic soccer season and her coaches gave the kids a really nice trophy. Field day was so much fun. A first for Madi. We ended the day with ice cream cones!! Madison was baptized. It was a small but very special day shared with our close family. We are all on vacation for the summer. This weeks starts 10 weeks off!!! YiPpEe!!! I will try to do better with posts. We are all doing fantastic and looking forward to the adventures that summer break will surely bring!!!

Easter 2012

Easter Photos...in no particular order.

Alyssa's 7th Birthday

Overdue update, but no pics tonight

WOW, so much has gone on since my last update. The girls are doing fantastic and they are keeping me busy with all of their activities.

Emily:
Emily is just an amazing big sister. She is caring, protective, and patient with Madison. She loves to take her under her wing and "teach" her different things. She participated in our district wide Science fair again this year and her experiment was to compare the evaporation of liquid when placed under different wattage light bulbs. She is quite the scientist and enjoyed coming up with the hypothesis, procedure and conclusion. She is doing fantastic in school, which is no surprise. She has matured so much in the last several months and I love just being with her. On March 23rd, we celebrated 9 years of being a family. She made my dreams come true the day she was placed in my arms and she is everything I could have asked for (and more) in a little girl. We celebrated by going to the circus!! It was a lot of fun and the first time for Madi.

Alyssa:
The tooth fairy has earned a lot of travel time during the past couple of months with this little lady. She lost her bottom two teeth and her top two teeth and she is just adorable with that toothless grin of hers. She turned 7 years old on March 17th. WOW. SEVEN. How could that be? My brave girl, still quiet and shy, has overcome so many obstacles in her life. She has grown into a healthy and loving little girl who has a best friend, loves fiercely, and is the best sister and daughter anyone could ask for. She has eased into her role as the "medium" sister as she calls herself. She has handled herself well with all of the adjustments she has had to make since Madi joined our family. She excels in school, LOVES being a Daisy in Girl Scouts and is beside herself with joy that the soccer season started this week!!

Madison:
This little fire cracker continues to keep us all hopping. She continues to adjust. She is settling in bit by bit. Still quite active and "into" everything, like a toddler experiencing the world for the first time. This has nothing to do with development, rather a real lack of exposure and experience. She is a happy girl with a bit of a stubborn streak. She is learning the rules of school. Let's just say some days are better than others. She has a full time aide in kindergarten as well as OT and PT. The school has been amazing with making accommodations for her to be successful and her teachers (classroom and esl) are simply amazing. We meet in June to plan for next year, but I suspect that we will just repeat what we did this year...repeating kindergarten with her aide and OT and PT. She needs to develop more English, learn more phonics for reading, and higher level math skills. I would rather her get a strong foundation by repeating kindergarten now rather than struggling to keep up with a 1st grade curriculum that she is not prepared for.

She got AFOs a couple of weeks ago. They are braces that support her from the tips of her toes up to just below her knees. She walks really well with them and she loves them!! She is scheduled for her first round of Botox (which is used for children with cerebral palsy to decrease spasticity) on April 18th. I am very nervous but have been assured she is an excellent candidate for it and it has a high success rate for kids with her type of CP.

I continue to be HAPPY and EXHAUSTED. Some days I wish I had a clone. Some days I am not as patient as I would like to be. Some days I feel like I just can't keep up. EVERY day, I thank God for my three amazing girls. They complete me!! Along with my amazing support system (Mom and Uncle Tommy) as well as my BFFs and trusted MNO posse.

I promise to post some pictures this weekend. They are on all different cameras, including my cell. I need to upload them all in one place!!

Love to you all!!! Happy Spring!!