Not the water again!

Someday's I wish I were a fly on the wall of my kids room in the morning. Today I was wakened to the stomping of my husband feet. He clumped into the room to wake me up, all discouraged and down.  Now that is no way to go off to work!  You see last night I wanted the get the girls used to Daddy not waking them up more independence and use their alarm clock to wake up.  Because I'm  to lazy and grouchy  really tired in the mornings and I just can't handle the drama have Sarcoidosis as my excuse.   Sleep is very important to keeping it in remission don't you know. 

So the alarm went off Little Miss Sunshine hopped out of the upper bunk and turned the alarm off.  Little Miss Grouchy she takes after her mother sat up, heard the alarm stop and plopped back down into bed.  I wonder where she learned that from?  Where upon she promptly fell back asleep. Or faked it really well! 


Little Miss Sunshine had a Little Miss Darkover moment, I've blogged about this before where she decides she needs Be the mama  to wake up her sister and pours water on her, because you know Mom sprinkles her with water I'll use a whole cup, it's faster. You know in 10 years this will be a hysterical anecdote at Thanksgiving dinner, but right now her sister was soaking wet in her P.J.'s and it's not even her fault this time.


My concern here is for Little Miss Sunshine's heart. She is so good and sooo perfect and sooo afraid if she isn't, she will be sent back to China. Although since the mischievous and down right bad behavior is on the rise, I have hope she is loosing that particular view on life.

I could see the issue was pride I have been watching it coming. Last week she gave me the wide eye look of "No Way!" when I told her her sister could help her with borrowing in math, when I was working in the cafe and couldn't stop to help her.  She didn't believe it.  I don't blame her, her sister plays the "Dumb Game" so often even I have to stop myself from playing along as well.  I could she she was setting her self up for a fall.  And like Kevin Lemen often says, Somedays you just have to pull the rug out from underneath them.   This morning I did that.

"Oh so since you are quicker/ faster/ better at doing things, You are the better person?" I asked with that Momma tone of "watch out how you answer" in her voice. "But I am!" didn't pop out of her mouth but her body was screaming it.  I was grinning from ear to ear inside, but outside I was firm with a hint of sympathy.  So because you figure it out right away and your sister has to WORK HARDER at getting the answer makes you better?  Who works harder you or Your sister?  Hey look life isn't fair.  After a long talk about the condition of her heart and a peek into the story of the prodigal son.  With whom I've always related too the stay at home son. Did I just say that out loud?

I assigned her the task of clearing up the messy bed and remaking it. With a firm injunction on no longer touching her sisters alarm clock.  You may NOT turn it off, because if you do she goes back to sleep! 


All this is done in hopes that when Daddy is gone he will be missed less. and Mommy still gets her extra 15 min of sleep in the morning.  

On the other hand doing discipline first thing has it benefits.
School went well today even tho we started 10 min late! DD2 is painting up some horses for a diorama of her DITHOR  book.  She is doing a fantastic job. DD1 got to have recess! since all her Morning work was done woo hoo...  All I have left is about 1 hour of Therapy and DD2 is doing a fine narration!

adoptive mom and the day we found out about you.

In December we pull out the Advent book and every day we read another part of the birth of Jesus. DD loves to open the doors each day and read the story. Everyday the first week, we read the annunciation where the angle says to Mary “nothing is impossible with God” Luke 1:37 Everyday I heard this verse, it wormed its way into my heart. I began to talk to God. “I know I’m not Sarah or Hanna, or Mary, I’m not some great giant of faith that I deserve to be in on the secret. But God you love me just as much as you loved those women. I really wish you would speak to me and reassure me.” I prayed this prayer without any expectations it was like a sigh from my heart.

When we first started our adoption journey I choose a baby instead of an older child. DH in his infinite wisdom played along. As the process began to unfold God started to challenge my heart. Asking me such questions as “Who are you to dictate what I have for you?” I kept thinking about God as if he has both hands full of a great gift and I keep asking for what is in His right hand. “No, no really God I don’t need all you want to give me, I’ll just take what I think, I want, and it’s in the right hand.” He couldn’t give me anything unless I took what was in both of His hands. I began to see I needed to be open to what God wanted for me, not what I wanted for me. If I look at it logically doesn’t God have my best interests at heart? What was I so worried about?, so like Abraham I took my “baby” to the alter and gave it to God. Then I held out both hands and said God you fill em.

Shortly after I had sighed my prayer, I cracked open my bible to read. I was going to read some Psalms. But instead I decided to read Isaiah. I then read this:
Sing, O barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,"
says the LORD.
"Enlarge the place of your tent,

 stretch your tent curtains wide,

 do not hold back;

 lengthen your cords,

 strengthen your stakes.
Isaiah 54: 1-2
Wow when God chooses to speak, He Speaks. I still was a bit confused should I start shouting for joy right away? Our adoption process was in the queue and we had just gotten another email saying child wait times were going up another month possibly two. It seemed our child assignment wait time had been holding at 16 months forever. My mind kept asking the Lord “Huh?” Yet my heart was satisfied, sitting in amazement at how He ministered to my desire and I was at peace. I stored these verses in my heart as a secret treasure.

In on December 11th we got a call from Holt International, it was the waiting child program. They were wanted to know if we would be interested in a 5 year old girl.
She hadn’t been in care that long, less than a year and had some lung problems. I told J. we would look at her file. So she emailed it to me. I poured over the English translation. I fell in love with her story, her picture, her sweet half sad, half smiling face wrapped itself around my heart.

God’s timing is perfect He really knows what he is doing. You see the very next day I had an appointment with my Pulmonologist. I scheduled this appointment 6 months ago. How awesome is that???
So I took in my pile of paper and we had a nice talk.
Would this problem affect her quality of life? No.
Is it something operable? No not really.
Is this issue going to shadow her life everyday? No.
I got some tips on what not to do, like scuba diving is not a good idea, mountain climbing is out as well. Not real hardships for me! She seemed to fit in to our family right away.
Who better to take care of her than me? I understand the feelings of heaviness in ones lungs.

So for days I couldn’t sleep I was too keyed up, could we, would we. As we filled out form after form explaining why we would be good parents for her. We had to get this approval and that approval, were other parents interested in her? Would we be chosen?
I slept in fits and starts praying and asking God, thanking God believing in faith she was our Lily. Then the day came, I got a call from the director. We had been ok’d by our local agency and the waiting child program. They were handing our file over to the China program we were officially matched! I called DH, his phone was on do not disturb!! Such exciting news and I can’t reach him!! I called J.D. one of his co-workers and J.D. tracked him down. It wasn’t that hard as DH was just returning from a meeting. It was exactly what he had been hoping to hear! As we rejoiced together as a family that evening, DD was confused. “Mama why are you crying?” Poor DD, tears only mean sadness to her. So we stopped and explained, “Some times when we are incredibly happy we cry tears of joy.”