I was thinking today, Grace has done so well that sometimes I talk little things so for granted. You know Grace was only drinking a bottle when we got her. We started right way only giving to her at nap and bed and giving her a sippy cup during the day. She was not real thrilled with that and as a result didn't drink a whole lot (Nanny told me she drank A LOT - all day. Yeah I remember seeing a bottle in pictures always hanging out her mouth, gripped in her teeth). So as a few days passed when she was thirsty she learned to use the cup. She was also on formula. So when formula was gone, we switched to milk - no problem! I thought I would not take the bottle at night right away, I would use all my liners up and then take that next. Now she loved her bottle so this I was a little apprehensive about. She used to require me laying with her to go to sleep, but for past month or two has just taken her bottle, (now her baby) and a kiss and goes right to sleep all by herself....blessed I'd say. But, when I took the bottle, no problem! Gave her a sippy cup instead (she takes a few sips that is it and off to sleep, no excitement about the sippy cup, but no problem either)....so I'm just saying...thank you Lord for all the blessings along the way. I catch the big ones, but gosh these little ones are not so little themselves....just sayin. Let's not miss all the beautiful kisses from our King along the way of the normalcy or chaos (either one) of our day.
We are getting more and more used to a routine. Things are good.
Little bummed out, we were suppose to be celebrating the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival with some other local families that have adopted from China at a local park, lanterns, moon cakes..the works, but weather calling for thunderstorms tomorrow so pushing it out to next weekend.
Off to a little birthday party for my cousin's little 1 year old. Grace will have fun!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Another Week in the Life of the Fishers
Christian continues in his PT 2x a week for his shoulder injury.
Grace has started Kindermusik and Gymnastics. We do the Mommy and Me classes. Kelly and Lily are doing with us. It is fun! Grace loves it! The teacher and mom's were blown away she just turned two and that she has only been home since July. She didn't miss a beat, doing all the moves and dancing. She did her best to keep Lily (our little free spirit) in tight rain. Grace is so smart and picks up so fast. She amazes us every day and we just love her so much.
I will say she will still not let me leave her in Sunday school. She cries HARD you know with the heavy breathing and takes them a while to catch their breath. Baby steps I know. The sermons she gets a bit answer..but my girl loves to worship..singing in her own sort of language (making a joyful noise), dancing and hands in the air! That in itself is enough to bring tears to my eyes each Sunday morning and a smile to my face. She captivates me!
As school settles in, we had 2 more curriculum nights this week..since have 3 in 3 different schools right now it keeps us hoping. Projects have already begun and Jonathon and I spent most of the day Saturday working on a project on Jewish holidays in movie maker for his Honors English II class..ugg.
Trying to pick up work hours this month too, so putting in about 15 hours a week which is a challenge and calls for some late nights, but hey it's worth it. Two more weeks until I am back to work...I did manage to get out a couple hours this week and get the "grey" colored and Mom watched Grace. Then Friday night a had a girls night out with my accountability group and Guy had the kids...that is always a breath of fresh air, time with great friends and the Lord will do amazing things for your soul.
Other than that just life, bday parties, football, baby showers...stuff, stuff and more stuff!
I will say today I did find myself in awe of an amazing, faithful God...you can never ever out give God. You can never be more faithful then our God is to us. You can always trust God and his perfect time...he will always show up, always! I am so humbled to be a small part of a plan he had this day to pour out his love on a daughter of his. Thank you Jesus!
Grace has started Kindermusik and Gymnastics. We do the Mommy and Me classes. Kelly and Lily are doing with us. It is fun! Grace loves it! The teacher and mom's were blown away she just turned two and that she has only been home since July. She didn't miss a beat, doing all the moves and dancing. She did her best to keep Lily (our little free spirit) in tight rain. Grace is so smart and picks up so fast. She amazes us every day and we just love her so much.
I will say she will still not let me leave her in Sunday school. She cries HARD you know with the heavy breathing and takes them a while to catch their breath. Baby steps I know. The sermons she gets a bit answer..but my girl loves to worship..singing in her own sort of language (making a joyful noise), dancing and hands in the air! That in itself is enough to bring tears to my eyes each Sunday morning and a smile to my face. She captivates me!
As school settles in, we had 2 more curriculum nights this week..since have 3 in 3 different schools right now it keeps us hoping. Projects have already begun and Jonathon and I spent most of the day Saturday working on a project on Jewish holidays in movie maker for his Honors English II class..ugg.
Trying to pick up work hours this month too, so putting in about 15 hours a week which is a challenge and calls for some late nights, but hey it's worth it. Two more weeks until I am back to work...I did manage to get out a couple hours this week and get the "grey" colored and Mom watched Grace. Then Friday night a had a girls night out with my accountability group and Guy had the kids...that is always a breath of fresh air, time with great friends and the Lord will do amazing things for your soul.
Other than that just life, bday parties, football, baby showers...stuff, stuff and more stuff!
I will say today I did find myself in awe of an amazing, faithful God...you can never ever out give God. You can never be more faithful then our God is to us. You can always trust God and his perfect time...he will always show up, always! I am so humbled to be a small part of a plan he had this day to pour out his love on a daughter of his. Thank you Jesus!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
More Photos For You
Logan playing his first game of football - number 3!
My baby boy!
Grace and Lily at the Social Security office applying for their cards
The boys and Grace at the zoo feeding the beautiful birds nector, one landed on Logan's shoulder
Grace and Zoe on their first play date at Franke Lisk Park
Lots of Fun Stuff This Week
Jonathon climbs the tree while the little ones play on the playground
Logan decides to hang upside down from the monkeybars
This is hysterical. Grace is Lily's mother hen. When ever she is doing something Grace doesn't think she should be doing she chases her down and says "no no Lala, go to your momma" yes she says that whole sentence just like that and Kelly and I are about in tears. Lily just ignores her and does her thing and Grace continues to chase her down quit frustrated she is not listening. 
She loves when Christian pushes her high.
Isn't she beautiful!
Well in addition to the BIGGEST news this week of our visit to Wake Forest Baptist, we had some fun times!
Kelly and I took the kids to the park Sunday. We went to the zoo on Labor Day as a family. Grace had had her first play date on Tuesday with a friend Zoe right after a doctor's appointment to get 2 more shots (she was a trooper!). The end of the week we headed to the social security office to apply for Grace and Lily's social security cards since we still have not received them. This was an event. The girls entertained us though and everyone else! Then Saturday Logan has his first football game. Everyone came to cheer him on, all his brothers and Grace, of course Mom and Dad, PawPaw, Kelly and his 3 favorite cousins! After about half way through the game, the kids hit the nature trail and Grace and Lily ran around and played. All was good except the off and on rain which was a bit of a pain. It was a fun week.
In the midst of it all trying to keep up with work which has been a bit of a challenge. I am learning to juggle things still with a 2 year old, makes for cramming a lot in during nap time and staying up a little later, sacrificing a little bit of sleep. I keep telling myself it is worth it and it is but for a list driven, type A person I am twitching some a bit and get a little short and agitated...okay I can be a real hard person to be around at times and sometimes I just scream, but reality is with all that said my life is wonderful and I wouldn't trade places with anyone. I just have to step away from it all sometimes take a deep breath and gain a reality check.
Grace continues to do great. She is saying more and more words and beginning to put words together. She is very strong willed and independent (just like her mommy). She has a dvd she watches over and over and over again (about ready to lose it) but it has all the nursery rhyme to songs and she has all the motions memorized...Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider are her favorites. It is an interactive dvd with kids doing motions to songs and she does what they do..fun to watch and she will tell you to sit and have you join her as well. She is quick to tell you no, or sit or stop. She is a girl that knows what she wants. I need a lock on the fridge door because she will bang on that when she wants to eat, which is a lot! She is one that is very routine driven. Funny I can't bath her until right at bed time, because right after bath she will say night night and ask for her baby and a cup of milk and off to bed she goes. She walks the house and kisses everyone good night. I lay her down, give her a kiss at bed and nap with her cup of milk and baby and tuck her in and walk away. Within 5 minutes she is a sleep. She is a blessing there. I transitioned from bottle to cup of milk, figured easy transition and she drinks a few sips an goes to sleep. She still wakes up some at night which is always hard since I am not liking being woke up right. ....but she is usually pretty quick to go back to sleep, just a little pat on the back and it isn't every night so can't complain.
Enjoy the photos!
Update on Grace's Visit to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital and From Angel House,China
WAKE FOREST
Okay before I give details I will tell you what you all want to know off the bat…NO MORE SURGERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay that is the biggest praise and I am so thankful! God is so amazingly faithful. I sit in awe of him still as I type this the tears flow. One day I may write a book, for sure will give a testimony.
Here are the facts.
1. Grace will always have lymphangioma. They are not curable.
2. Grace’s tongue- the lymphangioma on her tongue are small and not hurting anything so we leave them alone. They are so small will not affect her speech. They do not normally change in size or grow so they are what they are. We should need to do nothing. Down the road if she is self conscious of them they can be lazered, but will come back.
3. Grace’s neck/face-the lymphangioma on her neck/throat area that cause her face to look oval and her to look like she has fat cheeks will look underneath her skin like what is on her tongue. Some lymphangioma are large and can sometimes inject chemicals in them to cause them to shrink. This is not what she has, hers are small. (I guess what they took out was a cluster of small ones). These are harder to get out because they are small. All her blood work came back normal. She has no problems with her hearing, swallowing or any other medical issue so he wants to do nothing. He said there is no sense in doing any imaging (MRI) because he wouldn’t’ do anything. Basically because lymphangioma are incurable. If they are not hurting anything then you leave them alone. If there is a problem you take out what you can or deal with the problem. But otherwise you do nothing. So we do nothing. Again down the road, if she is self conscious that the baby fat has gone away and she has chubby cheeks we can think about doing surgery for cosmetic reasons or for her scars, but for now nothing. Who knows what God can do by then? Who knows as she grows if they were to look more or less noticeable. Who knows as her face grows and she grows how it will change. But great news that no surgery and as long as no “medical” issues, my biggest concern, no surgery!
4. Throat – last thing, his biggest concern with children with this issue is their airway. Because Grace does snore, he wanted to scope her. Not fun, but advantage of being there was we did it right then and got results right then, we watched on the screen. They went through the nose and down her throat. I held her – again, no fun but lasted 1 minute and worth the results. This is greatest fear – airway too tight, and need track. When kids have them on their tongue and neck like this they tend to go all threw ay down the throat. Problem. With Grace, NONE on the throat, just tongue all the way back and neck. Airway clear, adenoids and tonsils normal size! Again, tears flow, I am in awe!
5. Lastly, the eye issue from ophthalmologist – I asked him and he said highly unlikely. Where hers are he has never seen affect eyes. So we will go back in 6 months to eye dr and expect to see nothing changed.
So with all that said, we go back in 1 year to check in and see how everything is going and after that he expects we just call him if we need him, if any issues arise or decide to do anything cosmetically later.
FOSTER HOME
I also got an email when I got home today from lady who runs foster home Grace was in. I want to share something she said that further supports the miracle of life of this child, our miracle baby…truly her name fits her …
She says to me…that head of the orphanage Grace was at asked her to take Grace and told her of her condition and wanted her to take her and to get her to Beijing to the hospital for medical attention. She said I went to the orphanage ( I think several hours by train) and saw her. She said I told her I couldn’t take her. She was very thin, severe malnutrition I thought something else had to be going on, she assured me there wasn’t. I said I can’t take her, that I was afraid she would die on the trip back to Beijing she looked so bad. The head of the orphanage begged her, she said she begged me and said please take her if she stays here in these orphanage conditions she will die. She said I looked at her in her “eyes”. She said her eyes were beautiful and clean and pure. When I looked in her eyes I had to take her. She said yes! My daughter is alive today because she said “yes”. Grace was taken from the orphanage to the foster care home at 13 weeks.
Folks I have pictures I found of her several months ago. I have not shown anyone these because I found them on the internet and they tore me up. I don’t know how she lived through this. I know that I know that I know God has a plan for her life, a big plan, and she will do great things…she has fought too much, too hard, and God has been faithful and his hand has not been removed from her for one moment! One day her story will be shared, the pictures to prove where God took her from…I promise you it will be shared!
I called this a very, very good day!
Thanks everyone for all your prayers..
Okay before I give details I will tell you what you all want to know off the bat…NO MORE SURGERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay that is the biggest praise and I am so thankful! God is so amazingly faithful. I sit in awe of him still as I type this the tears flow. One day I may write a book, for sure will give a testimony.
Here are the facts.
1. Grace will always have lymphangioma. They are not curable.
2. Grace’s tongue- the lymphangioma on her tongue are small and not hurting anything so we leave them alone. They are so small will not affect her speech. They do not normally change in size or grow so they are what they are. We should need to do nothing. Down the road if she is self conscious of them they can be lazered, but will come back.
3. Grace’s neck/face-the lymphangioma on her neck/throat area that cause her face to look oval and her to look like she has fat cheeks will look underneath her skin like what is on her tongue. Some lymphangioma are large and can sometimes inject chemicals in them to cause them to shrink. This is not what she has, hers are small. (I guess what they took out was a cluster of small ones). These are harder to get out because they are small. All her blood work came back normal. She has no problems with her hearing, swallowing or any other medical issue so he wants to do nothing. He said there is no sense in doing any imaging (MRI) because he wouldn’t’ do anything. Basically because lymphangioma are incurable. If they are not hurting anything then you leave them alone. If there is a problem you take out what you can or deal with the problem. But otherwise you do nothing. So we do nothing. Again down the road, if she is self conscious that the baby fat has gone away and she has chubby cheeks we can think about doing surgery for cosmetic reasons or for her scars, but for now nothing. Who knows what God can do by then? Who knows as she grows if they were to look more or less noticeable. Who knows as her face grows and she grows how it will change. But great news that no surgery and as long as no “medical” issues, my biggest concern, no surgery!
4. Throat – last thing, his biggest concern with children with this issue is their airway. Because Grace does snore, he wanted to scope her. Not fun, but advantage of being there was we did it right then and got results right then, we watched on the screen. They went through the nose and down her throat. I held her – again, no fun but lasted 1 minute and worth the results. This is greatest fear – airway too tight, and need track. When kids have them on their tongue and neck like this they tend to go all threw ay down the throat. Problem. With Grace, NONE on the throat, just tongue all the way back and neck. Airway clear, adenoids and tonsils normal size! Again, tears flow, I am in awe!
5. Lastly, the eye issue from ophthalmologist – I asked him and he said highly unlikely. Where hers are he has never seen affect eyes. So we will go back in 6 months to eye dr and expect to see nothing changed.
So with all that said, we go back in 1 year to check in and see how everything is going and after that he expects we just call him if we need him, if any issues arise or decide to do anything cosmetically later.
FOSTER HOME
I also got an email when I got home today from lady who runs foster home Grace was in. I want to share something she said that further supports the miracle of life of this child, our miracle baby…truly her name fits her …
She says to me…that head of the orphanage Grace was at asked her to take Grace and told her of her condition and wanted her to take her and to get her to Beijing to the hospital for medical attention. She said I went to the orphanage ( I think several hours by train) and saw her. She said I told her I couldn’t take her. She was very thin, severe malnutrition I thought something else had to be going on, she assured me there wasn’t. I said I can’t take her, that I was afraid she would die on the trip back to Beijing she looked so bad. The head of the orphanage begged her, she said she begged me and said please take her if she stays here in these orphanage conditions she will die. She said I looked at her in her “eyes”. She said her eyes were beautiful and clean and pure. When I looked in her eyes I had to take her. She said yes! My daughter is alive today because she said “yes”. Grace was taken from the orphanage to the foster care home at 13 weeks.
Folks I have pictures I found of her several months ago. I have not shown anyone these because I found them on the internet and they tore me up. I don’t know how she lived through this. I know that I know that I know God has a plan for her life, a big plan, and she will do great things…she has fought too much, too hard, and God has been faithful and his hand has not been removed from her for one moment! One day her story will be shared, the pictures to prove where God took her from…I promise you it will be shared!
I called this a very, very good day!
Thanks everyone for all your prayers..
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Getting Into A Routine
Hand in hand!
Morgan takes Grace and Lily for a walk around the yard
Grace says I want to lead now Morgan....
Lily leans over to tell Grace a secret.JPG)
Taking in the view.
Well we are starting to get a routine to our day with boys back in school and me trying to get a little work in during nap time and of course the dreaded homework in the afternoons, which honestly hasn't been too bad. I have to say it is a challenge at times to help the boys if they need it with Grace under foot. But they have been so good at working independently. Logan's had some drama but been getting better. I even had Grace helping me scrub down the bathrooms by end of the week. I feel like I am getting the hang of #4 in the house and managing to some how pull off all the things needed to get done each week and learning to let go of what doesn't. God is teaching me in this that is for sure, but it is refining me to a better person (I hope!)
Grace and I met a good friend Rachel this week for breakfast and she got to meet her for the first time. Been real busy so some of the people I love dearly still haven't met her but we are getting there. We also went into my office so folks at work could meet her who didn't see her at the luncheon they had for us when we got back. She made herself right at home and was all over the place. She set up at my boss's desk and began working at the computer (she picks up things quick!). I also heard that Grace had a "southern" accent, funny to see a little Chinese girl speak southern. Jim said, you don't think you sound southern but you do (Jim you are too funny. Jim is from Ohio). She does have a twang....okay a few words give her a way.
1. Bye .... sounds like Byyyyyyyyyyyye
2. Wow...another popular word of hers when she is amazed....sounds like woooooooow!
She drags out those vowels. Okay, Jim, you did not hear her say baby which would have had you rolling.
3. Baby ....baaaa (long a) ba (short a) - come on try it!
Now I do not talk like that ! Not sure where that is coming from.
Also pulled off curriculumn night at the middle school and my mom watched Grace for a couple hours for first time while I was gone and Guy and Logan at football. She did great!
Christian began his first physical therapy for his shoulder accident and is unfortunatly back out of baseball at least through end of the month. Rotator cuff still very weak and could cause further injury. He has been a trooper though at the games this weekend cheering them on.
We enjoyed cooking out at Kelly's today and kids got to play and swim and we got to just enjoy each others' company. Enjoy the photos. So funny, Lily came and grabbed Grace's hand for a walk....
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