Tonight Lily had her very first dance recital. I have been reluctant to sign her up for dancing for numerous reasons but when I found out about Christian Dance Ministries Summer Camp I knew this was the perfect opportunity for Lily. She attended camp for two weeks, they dance to contemporary Christian Music and the dancing is considered a form of Worship. Tonight they had they final recital.

Birthdays are a hot topic around her these days. We will celebrate 4 kids birthdays in the next 7 weeks. In order to keep me from being too stressed about this and to give birthdays a little perspective we allow our kids to have a party every other year. Mason will be turning 4 and hasn't had a non family party yet.
So tonight we talked a little about it....

Mom- Have you thought about what you want to do for your birthday?
Mason- Yeah, I want to play sports. Like kickball and dodge ball and soccer.
Mom- Who do you want to invite?
Mason- My girlfriend and Wyatt's girlfriend
Mom-Who is your girlfriend? I didn't know you had one.
Mason- Hayley
Mom- Oh, does she go to our church? nods yes. Is she in your class? nods yes
           What does she look like?
Mason- A dinosaur
Mom- Oh, what kind?
Mason- A T-Rex.

This was a serious straightforward talk, he never once cracked a smile. But I did.

No news about our LOA. Hoping to see it by August 20th or before. This week would be great, a lot of people have been getting them so maybe that is a good sign. Not that I believe in signs or anything, it is really just in Gods hands.

I have been super busy. I have been working a little more for some extra moolah and having the kids home makes me feel like I am forever feeding someone or cleaning something up. This week three of the kids are in camps so just Lily and Sellers are home and I have time to blog because those two just cleaned the whole downstairs for me in exchange for a trip to the Chinese Buffet. Seems like a fair swap to me!

We are just about done cleaning out Ellery's room. I am looking for a used crib to buy (cheap) or borrow. I am going to have someone make a few pieces of bedding and I am looking for an old vintage chest of drawers to paint turquoise and a rug. I know her room is going to be so cute, turquoise and pink!

My mom retired from the State last week and we had a super fun time celebrating with family. My parents siblings were all there and my mom's sister cracked us up with a funny roast! My mom got a late start working because she stayed home with us until we were in school, I know she is so excited about retirement. She already has made a big to do list, sorry dad ;) !

My friend Sharon has started a business and she has some super cute stuff. You can like her on Facebook
at Bloom Child Bloom. She has some adorable super hero  and Star Wars shirts for little boys and lots of cute things for girls!

Sometimes I have a really hard time imagining the size of Ellery. She is two but very small, she is in the 3rd percentile on Chinese growth charts which means she probably doesn't even show up on America's.
So today I looked up her measurements again, converted them and then marked them on the wall in my room. I stood next to it so I could imagine what it would be like to have her by my side.

I know that's weird isn't it?

I showed it to my crew and they got so excited because it finally sunk in to them that they are really getting a "little" sister. They all stood against the wall to see where she would come up to on them.

So....weirdness runs in the family.


She is nearly a foot shorter than our youngest. I just can't wait to get my hands on that  little girl and hold her. I wish I could post the updated pictures but we signed a paper that we swore we would not post any pictures of her on the Internet. I figured I would leave the others up, damage done. But I am a rule follower and would not want to jeopardize my daughters adoption in any way.

This week we will come to our 50th day of waiting. John feels certain this week will be the week we get our LOA, I am a little less optimistic but hopeful!

Today I am home all alone. I have big plans for the day and they mostly involve preparing for Miss Ellery's arrival hopefully later this year! We plan to have a big garage sale soon and are cleaning out. Also we are moving her into John's office temporarily so that she will be near us at night so we have a lot of cleaning out and furniture moving to do. I am convinced even if though she will be nearly three that she still needs to start out in a crib. As far as I know she is in a crib in China and I feel like she should be in one here until she gets used to everything. Even a few of my boys stayed in their crib until 3ish.

So it is exciting to start making room for her and planning her space. It will occupy my mind and pass time. It's not unusual in this waiting game to have days of feeling like it will never happen. I know it will but it seems so far away. All this "nesting" is good for my soul! My husband is pretty excited too to see some messes getting cleaned up and is being a good sport about losing his office.


COME ON LOA.....!!!!!!!

Days waiting for Letter of Seeking Confirmation from China: 38

Unfortunately not long enough. Average wait is 50-60 days.It could take much longer. (sigh)

Please come soon!! We want to go to CHINA!!

Last night was family night at Camp Barstow, our local Boy Scout camp.We are huge supporters of boys in scouting and Noah loves scouts. I was a honorary scout growing up because my dad was a scoutmaster for many years. I always wanted to be a Boy Scout instead of a Girl Scout because they had more fun. Noah is totally at home at camp enjoying the outdoors. He has learned many useful things and his favorite thing this year he is learning is Lifesaving. Never know when you will need that! Although it was great to see him, it gets more obvious each year how much he is growing up and needing us less. I thought about that on my ride home last night. There are difficult stages we go through with our kids but realizing that they need you less and are becoming independent I think is one of the hardest. Although I really don't want him clinging to my leg begging me to take him home because he's homesick I do wish he would just miss us a little bit. For the first time last night I think I realized how much I am going to miss him when he is gone. Thank the Lord I have four more years, I better treasure them!!

At the beach the kids were playing Hide n Seek while the adults were watching the USC Gamecocks win the College World Series (again!!). They were taking turns counting. As one little O'Cain was counting it went like this...

1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi.... Don't you remember counting that way?

My Sister in law asked this little O'Cain what was Mississippi? His reply was, "a second".
Amused she told him it was actually one of the states of the United States not a word meaning a second in time.

When Bobo came to count I thought I would ask him. I thought he may know since he has one of those United States interactive maps. So I ask, "do you know what Mississippi is"? He looks at me puzzled and then a little light bulb goes off and he says very matter of fact, "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi". We laughed.

We repeated this with each and every kid present and every single kid answered the exact same way. First a puzzled look then a matter of fact answer of "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi".

All Tammi could say was, "poor Mississippi". Time for a little US Geography lesson.

Check out www.beapieceofthepuzzle.blogspot.com for our lastest update.

Leaving today to get some sand between my toes. I'm taking four of the kids to the beach with my Sister-in-law. Just the moms and the kids. Can't wait!! Hopefully I'll get some good pics to share.

Hope you are having a GREAT SUMMER and don't forget to check out our blog:

www.beapieceofthepuzzle.blogspot.com

Are you amazed at the internet?? Sometimes I take for granted how easy it is to get information and pictures of things off the internet. Case in point....

I Googled our newest daughters town, city and province name and hit images. Wanting only to see what her surroundings are like and what type of enviroment she was coming from. But what I found really surprised me. I found 3 pictures of our daughter. An organization called Hope 4 China founded by an adoptive family in Scotland started the organization to help provide necessities and foster care to children in our daughters orphanage. In February they donated supplies and posted some pictures on their blog. In the picture our daughter is modeling some of the clothes that were donated. Only an adoptive parent knows how exciting this is. I can remember joining Lily's orphanages Yahoo! group and searching through all the many pictures trying to catch a glimpse of Lily other than the referral picture we had.
This glimpse into our daughters life is priceless. I look at this picture everyday. I have memorized her lips, her little fingers and studied every little detail about her. I sure hope the next 4-6 months flies by til we travel to see those little lips and hold those little fingers in my hand.

Yesterday Bobo (Wyatt) turned six. His wish was to have all his BFF's to the pool for a pool party.
That is my favorite kind of party. Easy entertainment, no mess at home and cool in this hot,hot Spring we are having.

We are so fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends that came to help us celebrate.

 The kids all came up with this game. I love to see them all holding hands, even my 13 yr old!

Ok so we got something that started with a 'P' this weekend though not what I really wanted and something I cannot believe we got. 


Meet the newest member of the O'Cain Crew:


 

Busy, busy we have been.
Three field days, one 8th grade cookout, a soccer party, 4th grade
American Days, 100 Book Club Celebration, Poetry reading, 8th grade awards and presentation and 3 end of the year class parties. Throw in work, drum lessons, a day at the lake with friends, and you can see why I am ready for
SUMMER!!!

So ready to sleep in everyday and just spend time with the kids.
We are going to have a great summer, even if the kids don't think cleaning out
the entire house for a massive garage sale is fun. ;0)
Seriously we do have some fun things planned.
And today we will start with a day at the pool right after school!

And I am so hoping to share some good news soon people!! Just waiting on a little thing the starts with P! (Woo Hoo)

We have been on a referral roller coaster these last two weeks with
many ups and downs. We have been LID since late April. Chi*na just failed to let our agency know and we didn't find out until I inquired (not just once) and when they contacted Chi*na they found out we had been LID for a while. We missed the last matching by just 6 days. There have been days I have felt confused, frustrated, sad, happy and sometimes all those emotions all in one day. But I knew in my heart that our child would be revealed to us in God's timing and that is what got me through it all. Faith.


So our Faith got us through and we hope to have a BIG announcement very soon...stay tuned.

Kelly and her husband are the brainchild behind The Sparrow Fund. I just recently learned of this
organization and its purpose. The Sparrow Fund was founded to provide grants to families that have received referrals and need to have financial assistance to have these files reviewed by medical professionals. It can be very costly for these files to be reviewed and there are times you may have more than one file reviewed. That cost on top of the cost of adoption adds up. What a great way for Kelly and her husband to give back. Right now they are having a Sparrow Fund Fundraising Blitz. They have some adorable shops that have gotten on board and are donating a portion of their proceeds this month to The Sparrow Fund. There are some great finds so check it out! Everything from clothes, jewerly and hair accessories.

Two years ago today I met the little girl behind the picture I'd been staring at for 6 months.
Not only was she our first adoption, she was 7. I had no idea what it would be like when we walked
into the Civil Affairs office that day.

But that day we met a little girl who was no doubt scared, she was meeting two strangers who looked
nothing like her, didn't speak the same language and they were taking her far, far away from everything she has ever known.


And she was brave. She never let on that she was scared and didn't want us to know. In those first
days in China I would hear her crying softly in her sleep.


In China she rejected us, preferring to hang out with other kids in our travel group and holding hands and talking to our guide. Thankfully, I had read enough and knew that she would come around and told John to just be patient with her.

I can still remember the moment she let go. Our guide took us to the airport to depart home for the US. Lily held his hand all the way to the last gate. They had grown fond of each other over the last 10 days and our guide had actually been a huge help to us with her. She was hanging on to the last familiar
thing around her. As he bid us farewell and we walked across the line, just the three of us, she reached over and grabbed my hand and never let it go. While traveling home over the next 23 hours we started to see signs that she was ready to start attaching to us. From that moment she allowed herself to become our daughter.


Things haven't always been easy, but they have always been worth it. Over the last two years she
has fallen in love with her family and her family has fallen in love with her.

For Mothers Day Lily made me a book. She is the most thoughtful child I have ever known.
In it she wrote...

"the most important thing about my mom is that she loves me"

People I cried, no bawled when I read that.

She just wanted a family and to be loved.

Lily Kate O'Cain,
You are the most amazing blessing and God sent us the most perfect daughter ever!
We love you, Happy Gotcha Day!
Your Family

You may remember a while back when I posted this about Lily. Well right before Spring Break we found
out Wyatt had been nominated and was selected as the Leader for his class for the 3rd Nine weeks.
We are so proud of him. Wyatt received the award for being a leader in his classroom by always working hard and finishing his work and staying on task.