No Hands But Ours

Ryan and I made the decision to switch from the Non Special Needs China adoption program to the Waiting Child program about 5 weeks before our referral for Mason-Kate. What a huge yet easy, peaceful decision that was for us to make. Some families really struggle with whether or not a special needs child is right for their family. Recently there has been a blog created to share special needs adoption stories. Please visit www.nohandsbutours.blogspot.com and read these incredible journeys (have a tissue available). What a great resource this site is for those contemplating a special needs adoption!

Update

• Pryce spent Friday evening with his friend Molly and her family. They had a basketball game and with Molly's help, he scored 10 points....go Pryce! Afterwards they dined at McDonalds and then made their way to our house. During the car ride home, Sarah (Molly's sister) said to Pryce that Molly had 10 boyfriends! Pryce shrugged that off and responded, "she had 9 until she met me!"....and that was the end of that conversation.
• During our morning prayer, Pryce thanked God for "making Mason-Kate beautiful"....so sweet.
• At dinner, Pryce said, "Mom, I think there are two Chinese people at our school." I said, "Great"....he said, "yeah, they look kinda China-ish so I think they are from China"....turns out, they are from Japan!
• Our daily routine for MK's nap has turned into reading two books and then she gets her bunny blanket and I rock her. I used to put her in her bed awake. For several weeks now, she has been wanting me to sing songs from school, Wheels on the Bus or Itsy Bitsy Spider or whatever. So, I have been singing her to sleep. We start with the usual and it has turned into ending with a made-up lullaby by me. Today she fell asleep in my arms, I knew she was asleep as she was twitching about like you do when you are asleep. As I was standing up to put her down in her crib, she opened her eyes, big and round, smiled and said "YAY"....not sure if she was happy I was finally going to stop singing my made-up song or if she was dreaming!
• In other news, we are trying to obtain a social security number for Mason-Kate. Frustrating. It looks easy to do on paper but apparently looks are not always what they seem. We are finding that to be the case. Any suggestions?

Chinese New Year

Friday evening, we had four families over to celebrate Chinese New Year. Great time! Everyone brought their favorite Chinese food, homemade or bought :) Mason-Kate was in heaven as she ate fried rice, lo mein, sesame chicken and topped it all off with chocolate cake - not sure that the Chinese eat chocolate cake but they would if they tasted the one we had! One reminder of how much Mason-Kate has grown came when I tried to put her in her traditional Chinese outfit for the party. It was way short and snug around the waist - we ended up in a red dress. The excitement is growing around town. One of the families celebrating with us is going to travel in a few months to be united with their baby boy. This is their first adoption and we all had advice for them on what to pack, meds to take, what to eat, what to buy, where to stay, what to see, etc., etc., etc....I am sure they are in recovery now!

For Christmas, I gave the boys of the house tickets to see a Monster Truck show in January. The big day came on Saturday for them to attend the show and they had a blast. They spent a few hours in the "pits" getting autographs, meeting the drivers and seeing the trucks up close. Needless to say, their latest game together is Monster Truck show....they have created their own course in the gameroom complete with ramps and cars to crush!

A Girl and Her Sword

The title pretty much speaks for itself....Mason-Kate loves her brothers' swords and everyone has to be very aware of her when she is armed as it is a very dangerous time for anyone who is near.

Guess Who Got A Haircut???

Although Mason-Kate's hair was not extremely long, we decided it was time to give it a little trim to avoid the stringy look. Mason-Kate was not convinced that sitting in a tall chair in a strange place was for her until she saw Miss Cynthia coming towards her with not one but TWO lollipops, one for each hand. Somehow, Mason-Kate also acquired a peppermint, so with all three pieces of candy in place, the cutting began. Two minutes later, we were all done and ready to go. Painless.

Our weekend

Happy Birthday to you! Ryan celebrated his birthday last Thursday. I think I enjoy his day as much as he does because it means that he becomes my age again. Of course, I am 3 1/2 months older than Ryan and he is forever telling me that he will NEVER be as OLD as I am. We sang, we opened gifts and he feasted on a juicy steak. I think MK was still in shock over her birthday candle. When we brought out the cupcakes with candles lit for Ryan, MK started to cry hard.

On Friday, Colin participated in the third grade talent show at his school. He did his piano solo perfectly. The children all did a great job. I must say that I was nervous for all of them and just proud that they had that confidence to get up in front of all of their peers. Nice job!

Ryan and Colin spent their weekend aboard the USS Yorktown with Colin's Boy Scout Pack. They thoroughly enjoyed spending some much needed father/son time together. My plan is for Colin to do his own blog about their trip and post pictures. He did an awesome job as the photographer in his group.

Pryce was in charge of himself, Mason-Kate and I on Saturday. Everything was up to him. He chose to visit the Charleston Aquarium. Wonderful place, the children loved it. Then he chose to eat at one of my favorite restaurants on the harbor....beautiful. Mason-Kate would point to the boats as they came and went and she would say, "daddy, boat?"....she knew Ryan was on a boat. We did manage to at least put our feet in the sand on the beach for a few minutes Sunday morning but being that it was 30 something degrees, we didn't stay long.

Sunday evening the boys of our household went to play Laser Tag with the children from church. They will never be the same. One thing I took note of is that six months ago, Pryce was not too impressed with Laser Tag. Our children's minister took the boys on their own private outing and he ended up riding on her back while she and Colin "tagged" one another. He was scared. Fast forward six months and he is a mad man with a Laser gun who can't "tag" enough people. Ryan said he was all over the place, hiding out, scheming who he was going to get next and rejoicing when he had a successful shot. Just a small reminder of how my little man is growing up!

Pinkalicious

This is another one of those posts that I am writing for my memory alone so I will not forget this precious moment with MK. This morning Mason-Kate awoke crying. That is very unusual especially being that it wasn't even 7:00...she is an 8:00 girl most of the time. Anyway, she wasn't awake very long when I realized all was not well in her world. She was not gleefully greeting the boys and Finley, she just laid her head on my shoulder. I could tell there wasn't a fever involved so I just shook it off to a bad dream and went about my morning with her on my hip. Minutes later she got sick. Poor baby. If you have been following us along on our journey, you know that my entire family has been stricken with its share of minor illnesses this year. This morning was no different. MK was not feeling good at all. I know this because she is normally playing early in the morning or eating or putting on her make-up while I myself get ready to tackle the day. This morning she just sat in our den chair with her head tilted slightly back clutching onto her bunny blanket. At one point I hugged her and she didn't let go so I just made myself comfortable and held her for awhile. She was not well. We drove the boys to school which is normally filled with noise of our prayer and MK saying "mommy" this or "boys" that....this morning it was silent, I thought she was asleep. This went on for the better part of the morning....she got sick one more time. Then, just as quickly as her illness set in, it left. She ate. She drank. She was all smiles and back to her giggly self. She had lunch and I opted to put her down for an early nap. Our routine at naptime and bedtime is two books, songs and night-night. She loves to read a book called Pinkalicious. It is precious and if you have a little girl, it is a must. It is about a little girl who suffers a rare case of "pinkititis" due to the fact that she ate one too many pink cupcakes while baking with her mom. Today MK gave me more reason to love the book. MK picked out the book to read, told me to lay down with her and we began to read. The book begins and the mother asks the little girl what color cupcakes they should make....so I read this part and MK yelled "PINK!"....then she looked at me with those eyes and laughed. The book continues on as the little girl continues to ask for cupcakes, "MORE, MORE, MORE!" yelled Mason-Kate, all the while doing her sign for "more" as well. She has the book memorized and it just amazed me and brought a smile to my face. She is so cute!