Holy Moly, cannot believe I haven't posted in 5 months. Truthfully I just haven't wanted to and I am still not sure if I will continue to update but I figured if any faithful followers are still around they may appreciate an update and be glad to know we are fine, doing very well in fact!

Ellery has blossomed into a wonderful little girl and we feel so fortunate to be her family. She is adorable, full of life and spunky. She is doing great in all ways minus a little speech issues. I am sure we will be heading down the road of Speech Therapy with her but we've already been down that road so we got that! Here are some pics of our girl....










 And Lastly Bobo...he's doing great all the way around. Great student, great athlete and great kid. His only struggle is learning what to do with those anger emotions that pop up from time to time but he's matured so greatly in that area and experimenting with back talk! We found out just recently he was accepted  into the Gifted and Talented program at school and just received the Leadership award for this 9 wks for his class.

I have truly met some of the most incredible people through the process of adopting our girls. One thing people who adopt have in common is they love people and they really love people who they can share their adoption with. I can talk about issues about my bio boys with any mom friends but to have a special adoptive mom who has BTDT with adoption and its issues is a gift. I have been gifted by many friends and many adoptive friends. The way I have connected with each of them is special and unique and they all add such value to my life. Some I am able to see just by running into them at the grocery store, some I drive a mere 40 minutes to see and some I have to fly all the way to IOWA!!

Through the process of waiting for Ellery I did what any waiting mom does and I wasted  spent hours a week on the Internet. Looking up blogs, seeing what current families wait times were to travel, watching child after child come home. Somewhere along the way I visited a blog that I would link you up to here but it is no longer in service. I periodically checked the blog, knew they were adopting but didn't pay any attention to her timeline. Then one day I was on her blog and she had posted their in China travel itinerary and a blurred copy of boarding passes. I looked at it for about two seconds before I realized we had nearly the exact same itinerary, our girls were from the same province. Well if you've been around long enough in bloggy land you know there are some blogs that are. dare I say , famous? To me this was one of them. My blog was not and is not "famous" (nor do I want it to be). I reached out to her not knowing what her the reaction might be. I have done that before to another "famous" blog and it went no where. Thankfully she did respond back and we exchanged emails and eventually decided we would meet in the Hong Kong Airport. And meet in the airport we did.

We flew to Nanning together and then went our separate ways, we were staying at different hotels.
Throughout the time in China we honestly did not spend very much time together. We were with different agencies so on different schedules and excursions but we did see them some everyday. The truth is I just really liked her. She was someone I knew I would be great friends with if we lived in the same town. The last time we saw each other was during an exhausting layover in Chicago (5-6 hours) after a reaaaallllyyyy long flight home from China (thankfully on the same plane). She went home to Iowa and I went home to South Carolina.

I honestly didn't know if we would keep in touch, I am horrible at keeping in touch with people long distance. Thankfully she and I kept in touch just enough to begin to develop a friendship. You know those people that you love being around because they are fun and warm and nice and share so many of your beliefs and thoughts, that was her. We wanted to see each other again and reunite our girls but Iowa and SC are not so close ya know. Then my hubby surprised me with tickets for Ellery and I to go see them in September. I was so super excited!!

On September 9th Ellery and I arrived in Iowa and met our friends Sara and Ruby at the airport. It brought tears to my eyes to see them again and our girls instantly grabbed each others hands. Boy have they changed...

Finally Lily and Jia were recently reunited and spent an evening together. She was so quiet on the 2 hr ride there, not saying a word. I can't imagine was she was thinking because anything that reminds her of China brings back so many emotions. When we turned onto their street I saw them sitting there and a big lump formed in my throat and my eyes began to water. I knew that it was going to be special but I cannot put into words how it felt to finally meet Jia and her mom in person.




She certainly didn't disappoint, the very first text I got from Jia's mom just minutes after I had left said that Lily was talking up a storm. I hated I didn't get to witness it but I am so happy they got to spend time together. We are committed to staying in touch and keeping these girls connected. For Lily, Jia is the only significant connection to her past she has. Jia absolutely means the word to her, not a day goes by that she doesn't talk about her friend.

Surprisingly there are still some of you out there checking my blog for an update, I just can't seem to find motivation or the time. Having 6 kids home all summer and trying to work part time have kept me so busy and when I do have a few moments to myself I want to relax and do something mindless like watch Big Bang Theory my absolute latest guilty pleasure. That show is so funny and I love it!
We are doing so great and are entering our busy season of school, many birthdays, marching band and trying out (for the first time ever) 4 kids playing a sport at the same time. I may be living on the soccer field this fall.

Noah turned 15 yesterday and right this moment is taking his test for his permit. In some ways I am scared to death of him driving and in others I am so ready! He is ready and of course thinks he already knows everything. I heard a discussion between him and his dad going out the door that no he could not drive home. This boy has never been behind the wheel of a car, anywhere. He has driven our golf cart and didn't exactly do very well with that. I see driving lessons in our very near future!

This year Noah starts 10th, Sellers will be in 6th, Lily in 3rd, Wyatt in 2nd and my baby boy Mason starts kindergarten. Ellery will be home schooled preschool this year by me and my mother in law.
She is just too all over the developmental spectrum to do a school preschool right now. We will try next year. We are going to try a Biblical based curriculum called Bright Beginnings. It was highly recommended to my by one of the instructors that teaches for me. I will let you know how it goes.

I am so excited that I will be attending the Created For Care Retreat at Lake Lanier in March with 4 friends. Two moms who have long been an inspiration to me and have been to China 7 times between them and then my best friend who is in process of her home study and Dossier now. The fifth person I have not met but I know we will be blessed to have this time of fellowship as adoption moms. One friend and I are seriously looking into doing one of their mini retreats next year, I'll keep you posted.

I am still working to develop the Orphan Ministry at our church and it is coming slowly together, thank goodness I have a team member keeping me going! It is a lot to work.

I also cannot believe that I am going on September 9th to visit my sweet friend Sara. Sara and I met in China when we traveled last year for our girls. We had not known each other before hand (though I had read her blog) and were with different agencies but had almost the same exact travel plans. Our girls are both from the same Province. Anyway, even though Sara and I were both busy with 2.5 year olds in China and our husbands, we bonded enough that we have kept in touch. She is one of those people you just love right away for so many reasons. We have tried to throw together some plans since then to see each other but we live pretty far apart, either a plane ride or Looooong car ride are necessary. In July my husband surprised my with tickets for Ellery and I to visit her and her family.
I just cannot wait!!

Now for some pictures....

Almost two months since my last post and so much has been keeping us busy.The end of the school year for one and then we left the day after school let out for a week long vacation, then my big boys headed off to Boy Scout Camp. We celebrated Wyatt's Birthday and Ellery has been home now SEVEN months!!! I cannot believe that. And....the two children my friend and I were advocating for and raising money found a family, very quick. Like only days after our posts. How awesome is that??

First an update on our little Scooter Bug (just one of my nick names for her). Ellery is overall doing just great. She is such a mommy's girl and I love it. She and Lily are usually within 2 feet of me at all times if possible unless something fun is happening somewhere else.

• Her language has exploded but I foresee speech therapy in our future. She has a lot of problems pronouncing several sounds but especially the F and P sounds. Time will tell though I will probably have her evaluated soon for early intervention since it's a free service around here.
• Her favorite saying is, "what happened?". She says it 100 times a day. She has to be in the know and when she doesn't understand what is going on she will say it.
• She is still sleeping in a crib and I rock her to bed every night. I don't foresee this routine ending anytime soon.
• This girl loves to swim. She has taken to water and I am so excited at how well she is doing. Today we are going to get water wings because she has grown out of the tube thingy she was swimming with. She needs something she can swim with not just float becuase she is moving her arms and putting her face down in the water.
• On June 25 she told me she loved me after I came home from work while hugging me for the first time. That is such a special time that first time they tell you and you know it is not just something they are saying but something they are feeling.
• She has grown a lot as well as her hair and she had her first haircut the end of June. As John put it her hair was looking kind of scraggly and since she pulls out bows and ponytails a lot we needed to clean it up. It looks cute, now we are going to grow, grow grow it out!!

This look is one she makes often, it is so her.