Home 4 Months

Home Depot Saturday morning project

The update: We have adjusted to being a family of 6 and are doing great!  We are super busy with Bryce, Elise and Benjamin playing soccer/softball/baseball and going to all of the practices and games.  Olivia is doing fantastic.  She has jumped right in and has learned to throw, catch, and hit the ball or shoot hoops outside!!  She loves to do this almost every day!  She is so much more comfortable and is responding more to others.  She still loves to be with her siblings but she also enjoys being with her cousins who live across the street. She loves our dog, Shelby, as well as our cousin's dog, Millie.   Her food issues are so much better.  She has even started to like pizza!  She is such a precious and fun little girl.  She is doing amazingly great with learning the language!  We have "Olivia school" daily and she has learned the alphabet (upper and lower case) including sounds, shapes, colors, numbers, etc.  Nanette is trying to get her ready for Kindergarten, which she will officially start in August.  She is so proud of how well she is doing!! =) Her teacher in China did a great job because she already knew how to use the scissors, glue, most of her numbers, and colors!  There is still so much to learn and we still have some issues but overall she is doing fantastic.

Vogel State Park in Georgia (highly recommend)

Cousins enjoying a pretty day

She is getting to have so many firsts!  During Spring Break, we went camping in north Georgia.  We enjoyed camping, campfires, hiking, and fun family time!  She loved it.

Fire Hazard!

We can tell that she is forgetting her Chinese language, despite some efforts to help her maintain it.  We have lots of Chinese friends that speak to her in Chinese, but she does not speak to them yet…  We listen to Chinese music and have some videos as well… =).

First time climbing up a tree--she was "very scared"

 It is not always rosy and she still has some issues that we are lovingly working through.  The hardest and most frustrating thing is she totally shuts down when she is hurt or upset, so it is hard to determine what is wrong! That being said, I totally am amazed at how she has handled and adapted to all the changes in her life.  She has been through so much in such a short 5 years!

Climbing wall in Birmingham

Some walked and some scooted across the bridge

We had a great opportunity at a local orphan care conference to personally meet with "JT", the man that founded the Both Hands Organization to facilitate fundraising for adoptions through serving a widow. We were able to meet him and his wife and introduce them to our entire family. What a special experience for JT to meet Olivia because Both Hands helped us bring her home! It was great for us and hopefully encouraging to him to see the "fruit" that comes from this great ministry.  You can look through our blog and see our "Both Hands" project from May 2013 to raise money for our 2nd adoption.

JT from Both Hands…please consider supporting them!

(http://www.bothhandsfoundation.org)

What a Blessing

The whole crew!

I get overwhelmed at how incredible our God is!  How He knits families together in such unique yet perfect ways is astounding to me.  During the waiting period, we prayed fervently for Olivia before we even knew her.  When we received her referral, we just knew that she was ours with complete and absolute peace.  Yet, we did not know what a blessing God had in store for us.  She has officially been with our family 7 weeks today and we have been home for 6 weeks.  Olivia is adjusting well, is a happy child and has us laughing a lot.  She loves to have fun and loves to play with any family member that is available.  She actually reciprocated one of my hugs on Christmas (the best present ever!!), and she now gives both Scott and I hugs and tells us that she loves us as well.  She was doing this to the kids long before us parents…  When she is comfortable (on her own turf), she has such a sweet and fun personality that is laughing most of the time, but when we are out in public or meeting people, she totally shuts down and becomes “stoic”.  I am sure this will improve with time as well.

 Very happy at home!

Some artwork.

Olivia is learning more English words every day and speaks one to two words at a time.  She is gradually starting to express herself with words versus us asking questions until she nods her head yes.  She sometimes mimics us, which causes much laughter!  She touches my heart and brings tears to my eyes to hear our sweet little girl thank the Lord for every family member by name in our prayer time!!  How sweet that must sound to Jesus!

Olivia is sleeping well but snores as loud as Scott! Unbelievable!!  So Elise has had some difficulty adjusting to her roommate.  Elise told us that she woke Olivia up, trying to turn her over to get her to stop snoring.  When Elise told Olivia that she was snoring, Olivia said “Me??” with surprise and laughter.

First Christmas!

Olivia’s is still very picky with foods but she is getting better with this as well.  She is at least trying new things like her first peanut butter sandwich and sliced ham today.  She still loves noodles and rice and could eat this at every meal if we let her.  Her food issue could have been related to her 19, yes 19, cavities!  We have addressed her bottom teeth already, which consisted of 4 crowns, 3 root canals, 2 fillings, and 1 extraction.  We have her uppers to go.  She is one brave kiddo with the way she handles doctors, shots, blood draws, dentist appointments, etc.   It will be nice when we have all these things behind us!

So in conclusion, we have come a LONG way from Nov. 25.  Olivia has had a huge turn around and is very happy.  I will close with how she closes her day in bed, “See you in the good morning!”

First time on the bike!