Creativity

As I have written before, one of the things I enjoy most is seeing what my boys will come up with next. Last week while visiting with Ryan's family, Colin and Pryce discovered some ostrich skin boots that belong to G-Dad. They each put a pair on, ran next door to Uncle Fred's house and borrowed some toy guns, then began their adventures in the Drafts' backyard. A little while later, they came inside and invited me to view a scene from their movie they were busy creating, the title "The Chronicles of the Horizon Wars". They clunked around in those boots all day, hoisting their guns, talking for hours. It was perfect. When they finally got tired, they came inside and went upstairs to their "secret hideout"....a closet way off in the corner of the house. Boys will be boys.....and girls will be girls. In MK news, she is quickly becoming somewhat of a mini-me. This morning as we were preparing for breakfast, I put Mason-Kate into her booster seat. Finley, whom she tends to argue with the most, jumped up to see what might be on her tray. She said, in quite a stern tone, "NO-Ma'am"....wonder where she has heard that?!

Quote of the day

Colin had a Christmas list full of items he was hoping to acquire. Somewhere between the trampoline he was asking for and the batteries that he was requesting, Colin suggested Santa rent a limo for him to take a ride in. Nowhere on the list was the game Apples to Apples. Christmas morning as they were all inspecting what Santa had left for them, I said "look guys, it's Apples to Apples".....it is a game that we play at Ryan's parents house when the cousins are all together, lots of fun and the boys really enjoy it. Well, Pryce glances over at the game and says "yeah, that must be your gift, mom"....fair enough, I do enjoy it. The Apples to Apples game was the lone gift left under the tree until yesterday morning. We decided to get it out and play it as a family during breakfast. It was fun, the boys laughed, we laughed, MK cheered, great fun. So, they wanted to play today and we did, TWICE. Colin says after dinner, "you know guys, I am pretty sure that Santa decided against the limo because he knew we would enjoy the Apples to Apples game more"....Ryan and I were pleased to hear that all has settled well into his little mind. Great game. Below are some pix of Mason-Kate playing with her new crib and baby doll....

Apples to Apples

MK and Finley playing in her toy crib.

100% girl, complete with handbag and cellphone.

MK posing so pretty for pictures.....


MK done posing.

Addicted

Yes, we can all honestly say that we are addicted to the Wii Rock Band 2....what a fun time we are having. I told Ryan we are like the Von Trapps from Sound of Music, our children sing, they play the guitar, they beat the drums, even the littlest little Drafts is a part of the action.

Christmas

Christmas traditions are important to me. Until I was in college, my family always went to my grandparents home Christmas Eve to attend a party at their house. That evening, we would go outside to see if there was any sign of Santa in the sky, my parents always said there was, so then it was time to travel back home and go to bed quickly so that Santa could come visit us. My brother, sister and I would always sleep in my sister's room together....not sure how that became part of the tradition, but my guess is that it had something to do with the fact that my little brother always threatened to stay awake so he could see Santa or he would say he was going to sleep downstairs behind the couch and "catch" Santa during his big delivery....I am thinking my parents needed our help to keep the little escapee in one place. Christmas morning would arrive, Santa always came through, there was a huge breakfast to be cooked, family came over, presents were opened and that was the end until the next year. Tradition. It is important to me to try to create traditions for my children. Christmas Eve we now invite friends over who are in town for a chilli dinner after church, we feed the reindeer, we decorate a Gingerbread House, we decorate cookies for Santa and we always read the Christmas story before going to bed. We are also always very excited to have my parents join us for Christmas Eve and Day....the children LOVE that part, someone to entertain, two more people around to give them extra attention, it is great. Christmas Day is a big hit, gifts are everywhere, the children open some, play with some, open more, eat (this Christmas my parents brought "snowman" donuts and that was a huge hit), eat more, open more, some of us get a nap, others stay awake to take it all in. So that is what has become our "tradition" for Christmas. This Christmas was extra special....two years ago we were dreaming of our little girl in China, wondering when we would be lucky enough to meet her, wondering what she would look like, praying for her; last year, we had a picture, three pictures to just stare at actually, we carried those around telling anyone who would listen about our 11 month old baby girl waiting for us in China and we prayed for her; this year, she is here in the middle of it all, thrilled by opening gifts for her and others, loving the lights, loving the sounds....unbelievable, really, that she is here with us. This year the prayers for Mason-Kate were answered and new ones have begun.

Up at 6:00 AM....

The boys discovered the trampoline as the sun was rising.

Rock Band has us all rocking!

MK saying "WOW!"

MK spent the day doing everyone's hair....

she was right, we all needed a little help in that dept.

An Adoption Poem

Below is a poem I came across today. Mason-Kate was a baby when she was adopted but this poem speaks for all of the older children who wait for their families to come for them.

An Adoption Poem
By Debbie Bodie

I saw you meet your child today
You kissed your baby joyfully
And as you walked away with him
I played pretend you'd chosen me.

I'm happy for the baby, yet
Inside I'm aching miserably
I want to plead as you go by,
"Does no-one want a child of three?"

I saw you meet your child today
In love with her before you met
And as I watched you take her out
I knew it wasn't my turn yet.

I recognize you from last year!
I knew I'd seen your face before!
But you came for a second babe.
Does no-one want a child of four?

I saw you meet your child today
But this time there was something new
A nurse came in and took MY hand
And then she gave my hand to you.

Can this be true? I'm almost six!
And there are infants here, you see?
But then you kissed me and I knew
The child you picked this time was me.


This is especially on my mind now as I wait to follow along on the journey of one of our "blogger buddies" during their journey to adopt their 5 year old daughter who waits for them in China. They leave tomorrow, Christmas day. You can access their blog and follow along at www.cupcakesandhairbows.blogspot.com.

Tradition

Tradition. Every year we attend Ryan's extended family Christmas party. It is ALWAYS held the Saturday before Christmas. Then, we have my extended family's Christmas party. It is ALWAYS held the Sunday before Christmas. On this weekend last year, we were telling our families about Mason-Kate. The boys volunteered to say a prayer at each gathering and read a poem:

She was found on the steps of her orphanage house,
Wrapped in old clothes, quiet as a mouse
Her name is XueMei, to us, Mason-Kate
We're going to China and we can't wait!

Being that it is our first Christmas season with MK, we are all very excited to see her reactions and excitement to everything around her. She is having such a wonderful time with opening gifts, eating the holiday food, dancing, seeing the Christmas lights, making people laugh and playing with her new toys. Her favorite gift thus far is a piggy bank. Ryan's parents gave her a pink piggy bank with coins for her to put inside. Everytime you put a coin inside the pig, it sings "It's a Small World". She loves it so much that we are probably going to have to use the "out of sight, out of mind" technique on her. When the coins run out, she is not a happy camper.



Colin and Pryce enjoyed their school Christmas parties with some friends....



Mason-Kate tried her first piece of fried chicken....



The Tisdale grandchildren....

Santa arrived on his sleigh, er, ATV....

Merry Christmas, Everybody!

Timeline

• Late March 2006 - Application mailed to our agency
• April 2006 - I am at a McDonald's drive thru at the beach with the boys and my two cousins. Ryan calls to say our application to adopt has been approved.
• May 2006 - Ryan attends an adoption seminar held by our agency in Atlanta by himself. It was kind of expensive for both of us to go. I had always wanted to adopt and had very few questions about adoption in general. Ryan wanted more info so he spent the day learning about adoption. He came home late that night and talked and talked and TALKED to me about all of the exciting things he had learned. I remember him specifically stating how much he enjoyed meeting the families that had already adopted from China. It was on that day that Ryan decided adoption was for our family, not for me, but for all of us.
• May 2006-October 2006 - PAPERCHASE.....with any adoption comes paperwork, multiple social worker visits, multiple fingerprinting excursions, notaries, an ongoing relationship with the local FedEx facility workers, letters of recommendation, tax return info, medical exams, background checks, passport requests and pix, etc....it is BUSY work, it was not hard for us, just a lot of documentation, a lot of organization. I liked this phase.
• October 2006 - Our dossier (compilation of necessary paperwork) was mailed to China for recognition.
• November 13, 2006 - Log In Date (LID) China recognized us a family from the US who would like to adopt a non special needs child from China. The wait, we were told, was averaging 14-16 months.
• Late October 2007 - Our minds and hearts were opened up to China's Waiting Child program. We completed our Medical Conditions checklist with our agency. We prayed for what was meant to be.
• December 7, 2007 - Our referral call for Jiang XueMei, Mason-Kate. She was 10 months old.
• December 10, 2007 - Our Letter of Intent (LOI) was submitted. This letter stated to the Chinese officials that we wished to adopt XueMei.
• December 25, 2007 - Pre Approval (PA) was given to us from China.
• January 22, 2008 - Letter Of Approval (LOA) - This letter states that China approves us to adopt and we are officially going to be XueMei's family.
• Late February 2008 - Travel Approval (TA) - Honestly, for us, this was the hardest part. This was the equivalent to labor during childbirth. We had Mason-Kate's picture, we had clothes, we had a room, we had everything packed and ready to go....at this time, TAs were averaging 2-3 weeks for families to receive. Ours took over a month, but, alas, it did arrive and we were soon to be on our way.
• March 11, 2008 - Boarded our planes to CHINA.
• March 17, 2008 - Gotcha Day, Forever Family Day, Metcha Day - the day we met our little Mason-Kate.
• March 28, 2008 - Mason-Kate became an American citizen upon landing in Detroit, Michigan.

Just a Catch Up Post

This week so far at a glance.....

• Basketball season has begun and both boys are enjoying some time on the court
• Unless there is food involved in the shopping trip, MK does not care to go - sigh
• Colin decided that we should take a few gifts that are wrapped under the tree and return them so that Santa will have more room to place gifts on Christmas morning
• Pryce is so much better, breathing good and coughing less - his stomach continues to hurt when he is offered vegetables or fruit, again, SIGH
• Mason-Kate's favorite part about the holiday season thus far are the snow globes that are placed around our home
• Ryan has one week left to work in 2008
• Less than a month until MK turns 2
• We followed along during the adoption journeys of four families last year....three of the four are in the process of adopting again, one is in China now (http://www.myshelbybaby.blogspot.com/), one is leaving sometime hopefully in January (http://www.cupcakesandhairbows.blogspot.com/) and the other is in the paperchase phase of adopting a little boy from Ethiopia (http://www.sarahbethmiller.blogspot.com/) - I am loving following along with them again!
• Unless you are a Georgia fan, you cannot find any college team related sportswear in our city
• Pryce lost his second tooth this past weekend
• And I have to add this.....as gross as it is, it is typical boy fashion. Colin learned to "armpit fart"....gross. Well we told him that he was not allowed to do that at home or in the car or basically anywhere. Obviously that went in one ear and out the other, typical somtimes. So, today he came from school on the bus, ran inside and announced that he could armpit fart much louder, huge smile all over his face. My normal response came out of my mouth "where/how did you learn that?" Anyway, he asked us if we would get mad if he showed us how to do it, we agreed out of curiosity and he then licked his hand, stuck it under his shirt and wouldn't you know the gross sound of an armpit fart came out louder than ever, amazing what a little lick of the hand will do!

We are truly just taking in this Christmas season, enjoying time with our family and friends and our little Elf, Matthew, who continues to remind us to mind our "p"s and "q"s.

Funny Stuff

Our elf, Matthew, chose to hide on top of my cookbook that is displayed in our kitchen. I was joking around with the boys and I stated that I thought maybe Matthew was trying to tell us he was hungry???? That led to the conversation of exactly what do elves eat? Pryce stated very confidently that he was sure elves liked fish. Colin immediatley questioned this and he announced that there was no way Matthew could eat fish because all of the water was frozen in the North Pole, so how in the world could Matthew like fish? Pryce came back very quickly with, "Matthew has magic powers, Colin. If Matthew wants fish, he just flies by a store on his way home and gets his fish!"



Speaking of food, Pryce's job in the morning is to feed Finley. It worries him if Finley chooses not to eat his food right away. So in order to avoid worrying, Pryce has started making trails with pieces of dog food from the door of our laundry room over to Finley's bowl. Finley likes this game and always participates in eating each piece until he makes it to his bowl. I think it is so cute because Pryce works very diligently on making the trail to the bowl and he talks to Finley while he lays each piece of food precisely where it needs to go. Cute, a boy and his dog.



And lastly, I have to write about my husband. He makes me laugh. Every night after the children are in bed, Ryan will make me a cup of ice cream. I could do this myself but I prefer him to do it because he always gives me more than I would give myself, and he gives me a second serving (I would not be that generous to myself). I like to combine frozen yogurt (Moose Tracks) and ice cream (normally a flavor from Brusters). Well, apparently the freezer was experiencing an ice cream overload. Instead of Ryan questioning why in the world we have so many boxes of ice cream in our freezer, he chose a more subtle approach. He placed all of the ice cream containers from our freezer in a line and took a picture. Then, he just waited for me to respond, knowing very well that I would see the picture on our camera when I went to take a picture of something else. His point was made.

And here's MK posing by the tree this morning......

Sibling-itis

Colin never ceases to amaze us with his inquiries. Yesterday he arrived home from school, started taking everything out of his backpack to begin homework and then he looked at Ryan and me and asked if either one of us had ever heard of "sibling-itis". I was actually on the phone but paused to listen to what Colin was asking. Ryan and I kind of glanced at one another, both of us thinking that he is now feeling some sort of issue with his siblings. "Sibling-itis" apparently is when siblings are a bit jealous of one another. Thankfully Colin stated that he has not experienced this personally but had read about it and wanted to know if we had ever been there.

I cautiously write that Pryce is on the mend. I am from the "anything above 98.6 is a fever" school. I have been taking his temp three times a day, morning, noon and night.....MK has noticed this and now walks around with the thermometer in her hand saying, "mama, pryce?" With that said, his body temp continues to register anywhere from 99 to 99.9. And he is so tired. He has taken a good two hour nap everyday for the past week and then has asked to go to bed at 7:30 in the evening, not like him at all. He has acted more normal today and has not needed cough meds. He will return to school for the remainder of the week but only on a half day basis. We are all praying that he is 100% soon!

And Mason-Kate....she had her six month speech evaluation done today by her therapist. It was not a big shock to me that she exceeded in all areas, scoring over 100 in each category. She knows her colors, she says two word phrases, and so on. I am happy that she is doing so well but with a passing score, this most likely means that we will no longer qualify for speech services. I am going to request another evaluation to be done in three months just to make sure that all is still well.

15 days until Christmas! My boys are so excited! And MK walks around the house sporting her Santa bag and saying "ho, ho, ho". Too cute!

Pryce has pnuemonia. We went back to the dr. today, our third trip in two weeks, and the "crackling" was heard. He is more tired these days and just not himself. Looks like I will have my little partner home with me for a few more days.

This weekend we visited a local Christmas tree farm. We took a hayride to find just the right tree. The boys enjoyed helping to pick the tree out but they honestly had more fun counting the lines on the trunk stubs to see how old the trees were when they were chopped down. We came home and wouldn't you know that the tree wouldn't fit in our 12 year old stand. So, back to the farm Ryan went to get yet another perfect tree. MK loves to look at the ornaments and she always says "Wow!" when we turn the lights on.

Last night we rang in the Christmas season with our church Christmas party. The children enjoyed making ornaments to decorate the church tree and they got to visit with Santa. Mason-Kate cried like no other when she caught sight of Santa. He wasn't even near her but she was hysterical. Luckily we managed to get a picture of Santa and the children. The children took a seat in Santa's chair....Santa snuck up behind them and the photographer snapped the picture. Perfect! No tears!

The boys and I have started reading one of my favorite Christmas stories, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We all three love it. I read it to them every year and I think it gets better each time!

THE Call

One year ago today I woke up anticipating one thing and went to bed dreaming of my baby girl in China. She finally had a face to go with her name. I remember playing tennis with a friend that morning as I waited for our agency to call me back with what they had stated to be a question regarding our Waiting Child application. My friend, Laurie, asked "what if they have a baby for you?"....I seriously thought that was impossible, we had just applied less than 5 weeks ago and their message stated they just had a question, not a child. The call finally came at 1:00 pm. The rep asked her question, paused for a moment and then said, "We have a match for your family! She is a 10 month old baby girl". That afternoon, Ryan and I opened up her file on the computer, he was at work, I was at home, and we saw her face together for the very first time. Her bright, brown eyes looked back at us and that image will be forever ingrained in my head. We knew she was ours. There was so much I didn't know on that day, but I knew that she was a beautiful child with a cleft palate. I didn't know what I know now. Now I know that she is funny and that she loves to make people laugh. Now I know that she loves books. And her bunny blanket. And her "babu" (baby). And jewelry. And Barney. Now I know that she likes to color. And talk on the phone. Now I know that she is a girlie girl. Now I know she will eat anything and everything that is placed in front of her. Now I know what it feels like to hear her say "mommy". Now I know what it is like to see Ryan with his daughter. Now I know what it is like for the boys to have a sister, someone they protect. Now I know her cry. Her laugh. Now I know her smell. Now I know what it feels like to have a child go through major surgery and recover quickly. Now I know that you can love children who have not come from your body as though they did. Now I know that there are days that I forget she didn't. A year ago, she was just a picture, a face to hold onto in our dreams. Today she is our baby girl, our little sister.