INVASION!

Molly was playing outside on Friday, blowing bubbles with Maybel. Marie looked out the dining room door and saw this horrifying sight.


BEES! Thousands of bees! Molly and Maybel were hustled inside the house and Marie called a company to come and remove them. They came this morning and sprayed some kind of contact killer on them and took them away. Several are still buzzing around but they are supposed to leave in a day or two now that they are without a queen. Molly was fascinated by the whole process. Seeing the buzzing mass of bees, watching them being taken away and doing a lot of talking about honey and bears.



Spraying the killer stuff.


Taking the bees away.

Our girl is growing up . . .

. . .SO FAST

My once velcro baby is now a brave and independent toddler ready to explore and enjoy her world around her without her Mama. Molly's ability to separate from me started months ago but was fairly limited to the time we spent at one of our parent and me classes and play group with her friends. Now she has no problem staying with either of our two babysitters and just smiles and waves goodbye as Mom and Dad walk out the door. This one didn't come easy, it was over a year after being home with Molly before Eric and I ever had a date night and weeks of paying the babysitter to come play with Molly while we were home. Now when she is left with the babysitter she kisses me goodbye and says "mama comes back" and goes about her fun.

In preparation for preschool which will start this summer, I thought I should get Molly enrolled in some independent classes. Last week she had her first private swim class with Mom not in the pool and just sitting on the sidelines. We were prepping Molly all week for this class explaining that Mama would not be in the pool and she would have a teacher in the pool with her and Mama would watch. I was fully prepared for crying and a child that would not want to go in the pool without me. Friends that have taken the class said to expect as much for the first few lessons. Well, we got to the pool and Molly couldn't wait to go in! As soon as she had her suit on she walked to the side of the pool, her teacher swam over to her and reached out her arms and
asked Molly if she was ready to swim and she JUST JUMPED IN THE TEACHER'S ARMS AND NEVER LOOKED BACK. It was quite obvious that the teacher was surprised that Molly was so willing on her first lesson, she shook her head and said you're ready alright.




I was trying so hard to choke back the tears as I watched our little girl out in the water without me. The tears were a little bit sad that she is growing up so fast and tears of joy that my once scared little baby was now growing into a confident little person that now knows MAMA ALWAYS COMES BACK.




When the lesson was over Teacher Julie told Molly we're all done and Molly looked at her and said "I am not all done." Let's hope this isn't a one time thing and next week goes as smoothly.

Thank you to Faith

I wanted to share an important part of our journey to Gracie which started when we were on our journey to Molly . . .

When we traveled to China to bring Molly home one family in our travel group was adopting a little girl with special needs. It was hard to believe that she was in the SN program, she was doing amazing developmentally, smart and beautiful! We learned that her special need had already been repaired in China and she was now a healthy little girl. This was the seed that was planted that led us down the road to a SN adoption. When it came time to fill out the SN checklist form for our agency (which let them know what needs we were open to) we checked maybe for a lot of special needs but yes to only a few that we felt very comfortable with and really understood. The night we filled out that form we talked about the little girl, Faith we met in China and said we knew we felt comfortable with her special need, we saw how beautiful and healthy she was and that she was now thriving with her family. We looked at each other and said if only it could be that easy and we would know for sure . . .

We got the call from the agency saying we had been matched and it WAS that easy. Gracie had the same special need as Faith! All we needed was a little "Faith" to find our way to Gracie.


Keisha, thanks for letting us share this story. Most of all thank you for helping us find our Gracie.
Check out this post at The Walker Blog for more of this wonderful story.

Meeting Gracie

Finally had a moment in between working 2 jobs (gotta pay for this kid somehow!) to edit together the video of when we first saw Gracie's picture. It was a different experience than seeing Molly's for the first time. E-mail vs. hard copy, the ability to say no, the last-second nature of it all. In the end we were just as charmed and excited and emotional. Now the wait is turning difficult but we're keeping (really) busy so hopefully it will go by in a flash.

Embracing Gracie

We have for months now been doing a night time ritual. We all clasp hands and say "Good night Gracie in China. We love you Gracie in China. Come home soon Gracie in China." Molly won't go to bed without it. Now that we have pictures we have added kissing Gracie's picture to the ritual. Tonight Molly made our hearts melt when she did two things: we didn't have the picture at the ready she asked us for it. "Kiss Gracie's picture" she said. When we brought it and had passed it around and everyone had a kiss she asked to keep it. She wanted her Gracie to be right in bed next to her. We can only hope that they are this close and loving when they meet face to face but so far, so good.
We are still amazed at what a compassionate and caring child she has become. We hope it is at least 10% our parenting and that we can replicate it with Gracie. She'll have a third teacher at least - Molly, the girl who is sleeping with a picture of her little sister right now.