Palm Sunday

The ups and downs of parenting are sometimes great extremes.

This morning when I went into the girls' room to get them up for church, their room was so warm and pink and sunny. They both were still asleep, but with a few gentle words they were awake and smiley, fresh-faced and ready for a new day. I dressed them in pretty spring dresses (can we finally do that?!) and put bows in their hair. Gwen exclaimed about both her dress and Madelyn's, "Pitty, pitty", and hugged Madelyn. Madelyn was so pleased to be wearing her new pink patent leather Mary Janes ($8.83 at Walmart), and the three of us sang "Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna to the King of Kings" all the way to church.

After the service, which was a fabulously moving rendition of the passion of Christ, complete with explanation of atonement acted out by Scott and the boys choosing the perfect lamb to sacrifice for their sins, Gwen and Madelyn and I went to visit the real lambs and rabbits and chickens that had been used for the drama in the service. They were in a make-shift pen on the side of the church, enjoying the sunshine and occassionally bleating, to the delight of the children gathered around. Both girls were thrilled and Gwen was a little afraid, but not enough to keep her from reaching through the bars to touch the lambs' wooly coats.

The girls and I left the animals and headed out to grocery shop, as the guys had to stay to do their drama in the second service. Madelyn has been asking for months to get the special cart at the grocery store that you pay a dollar to use because it has a little TV screen inside what looks like a little car, with the basket portion for the groceries up on top. I was feeling generous today and knew we'd be in the store for a little while, so I said yes. Things went well for a while. Gwen periodically leaned her head out from under and called out to me to kiss her little puckered lips. But after about twenty minutes, and me still with shopping to do, things broke down. Gwen was tired of the little "Bob the Builder" video running on the mini screen in the car cart. She's not much of a screen time girl to begin with, and the quarters were cramped with 6 year old Madelyn sharing the space. I tried to encourage her, reminding her how fun it was, but she Wanted Out. She likes sitting in a regular cart where she faces me and we can see each other. This was Not That, and to top it off, this type of cart does not have that child seat facing the pusher of the cart, so there were No Other Options.

So we continued through the store with Gwen fussing louder and louder. I tried to hold her for a bit, but pushing the heavy car cart and holding a wiggley girl didn't mix well. So she went back in with much protest. Soon Madelyn called out to tell me Gwen had taken out her bow and hair band, and next thing we know, the bow is lost. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but it was the one bright pink clip-in bow we had, it matches lots of things, and now we don't have it. Sigh.

We made it to the check-out, choosing the aisle that was touted as having no waiting. We waited through a price check and some ID problem for the customers ahead of us, Gwen squirming and fussing and with very messy hair that was now unconstrained. She wanted a banana, she saw them on the belt waiting to be paid for, but did not understand why she couldn't have one yet. My explanations were in vain. We made it through the college age male cashier's comments about what Gwen did and didn't want, paid for our loot, and escaped to the outside, towing a full cart of groceries, including the biggest box of Huggies you can buy, containing 104 diapers, and 3 gallons of milk, on sale today only for $1.50 each.

When I reached the car, I realized I had not emptied the Large Amount of Stuff in the back of it that we had taken to Caleb's baseball game yesterday. That meant that a wagon and other paraphenalia were taking the space that my groceries should now occupy. So I got the girls in the car, handed to bananas to Madelyn to feed to Gwen to appease her, and pulled my cart around to the passenger side front door. I tried with varying amounts of success to stack things on the seat and the floor, and was chastised only once by the owner of the car next to me for having my door open too close to her car. In the middle of that effort, Scott called me on the cell phone to tell me that he and the boys were almost home. Thank you, thank you very much for letting me know. I'm just a little busy here, can't you see?

On the way home, after the banana was gone, Gwen said "Mom" in a loud voice about a hundred times. This begins to grate on my nerves after about the 20th time. Can you understand this? As I drove, I tried to gather my scattered thoughts, and remember the service and the depiction of Jesus' death for me. For me. For my sins. He loves me.

The ups and downs of parenting... not such a big deal, I guess.

Have You Met My Handsome Boys?

Seth, age 9
Caleb, age 11 1/2

Bubbles

Called "bubbies" by Gwen, these soapy circles have caused great joy and excitement! She loves to dance in them with Madelyn, and loves even more to try to blow them herself. She meets with little success, however, because she puts the bubble wand directly against her lips, and so ends up with a soapy mustache instead of bubbles floating through the air. I get lots of nice, wet, soapy kisses from her!

Our Sweet Rose

Yes, there are costs to adoption, although they aren't as outrageous as some people may think. But the reward of looking into this sweet face...

Priceless.

Jammie Games

A little Saturday morning fun!

Up in the air~
... and down!
Trying a sommersault.
Look at Madelyn's new trick...
On the way down...
...and landed!

The Best of Intentions

So, our original plan for yesterday was to run in the Shamrock Shuffle, the largest 8K race in the country. At least Scott and the boys were going to run, and the girls and I planned to walk the 5K held at the same time. We had the t-shirts, the numbered bibs, etc. But with the time change and the chilly weather... well, we slept in and just went downtown for the food and entertainment afterwards. Good intentions count for something, don't they?!

At home before the race
The kids display their painted faces back at home after what would have been the race but for us was a party. :-)

Morning Bath

Both girls love the tub...
...and each other.

Little Piggies

Somewhere under that blanket is a girl... but the only thing showing are her cute little feet!

When I went to get Gwen up from her nap this afternoon she was still sleeping, and had completely covered her head with the blanket. Only toes showed!

Museum Day

Today we did a little museum hopping... along with the rest of the world! Remind me next year that spring break for all the public schools is not the best time for Chicago museums. We had fun despite the crowds... we went for specific exhibits, which allowed us to see what we came for and then go!
We checked out the shoe exhibit at the Field Museum. It has shoes that look quite familiar, and others that look completely unfamiliar. Here is a very tiny (about 5 inches long) pair of women's shoes from China... for bound feet.
These child's straw sandles caught my eye because they were from the Sichuan province of China, where Gwen was born. The placard says they are circa 1950... maybe something her birth mother's mother or father could have worn as a child?
Posing in a bug in the "Underground World" exhibit. While I was taking this picture, someone watching said, "What a cute family!" That made me smile. :-)
Now at the Shedd Aquarium, Madelyn and Nellie take a ride on a sea turtle!
Seth wanted to check out the Gentoo penguins at the aquarium for a presentation he is going to be doing, so we camped out in front of this window for a while.

Interlude Between Clothes and Jammies

Madelyn took these pictures... just a little silly fun!

Clothes

I realized recently that I had never taken a picture of the clothes that Gwen was wearing the day she came to us. So I did, and here they are.

The first layer, on the left, are both a soft cotton knit. The socks, which were two times the size of her feet, were pulled up over this first layer of pants. The second layer, in the bright orange and bright green, are both knitted. The green pants are completely split in the crotch, which is common for Chinese babies to make toileting more convenient. The top layer was the pink one, which is a fine corduroy and heavily padded, almost quilted. The cute panda shoes have a squeaker in the heels, as do all of the shoes we bought for her and for gifts while we were in China. She still wears these often.Here we are in our hotel room in Chengdu, just a couple of hours after laying eyes on each other for the first time. She is wearing all three layers of pants, the socks, and the cotton shirt. When I look at this picture I can't believe that it was only 3 1/2 months ago...

Working with Socks

I took these pictures about 6 weeks ago and just found them... she is getting much better at her sock work these days! Thought the series was too cute to leave out, though!

Hmmm... what do I do to get these things where they belong?Will this work?


I think I need to start over!
I guess I'll keep on trying!

Liptak Weekend

Last weekend we all gathered at Scott's parents to celebrate Aunt Joy and Uncle Eric's marriage and renewal of vows ceremony. Gwen got to meet her aunts and uncles for the first time. She did amazingly well with all the new faces. Here she is riding on Uncle Justin's back with Madelyn.
The whole crew, minus Uncle Andrew and cousins Meredyth and Maggi, who live in Atlanta.

Gwen is 2!

Can't believe our girl has been with us only three months now. Today we celebrated her second birthday. I couldn't help thinking of the new Steven Curtis Chapman Christmas song as we sang to her, the one with the little boy singing of his wish for a family, a family who will "sing me Happy Birthday for the next one hundred years." Well, we sang Happy Birthday to Gwen at least ten times tonight. We sang, and she danced. Every time we came to the end of the song, she'd start nodding her head "yes" for us to do it again. We did, and she danced again. Here she is loving Daddy's singing and moving to the music!
We did some loud cheering tonight, the kind where we all yell "Yeah!" and put our hands in the air. Gwen loves this game!
New bike! She doesn't quite have the hang of pedaling yet, but she is so coordinated in other areas, I think she will figure it out quickly. She was very excited to try it!

It has been an amazing thing to have God add Gwen to our family. It has been an amazing journey~ spiritually, emotionally, and geographically. It has been an amazing adjustment to have a toddler in the house... an amazing amount of work! It continues to amaze us as we watch our older children care for Gwen so unselfishly. It is amazing how God worked out the finances of her adoption. It is amazing how well Gwen has settled into our family. Amazing how she is learning to speak English, how she has learned to play in the playpen, how she sleeps so well and plays so hard. We are amazed that God chose us to be her parents, that He gave us this privilege of knowing and loving her. And somewhere in China, there is another mother who gave birth to her two years ago... she did an amazingly courageous thing, to give her daughter the chance for a different life.

Thank you. I want you to know that our girl had a very Happy Birthday.

Swinging With Seth

Last week we had some warm days... I had just found a swing for Gwen and put it up in the tree in our backyard... swinging is the thing to do on warm days. She is content to stay in it for quite a while, just looking around at all that is outside, things that we haven't been seeing a lot of until now. Seth came up with a fun and ingenious way to push her... from up in the tree!
!

Girl in White

I know, it's a lot of pictures of the same girl in the same dress... but you should see how many I took and didn't post! She just looked so lovely, I couldn't help myself.