My New(ly organized) Kitchen!

Those of you who have ever seen my pantry on a bad day, or even a good one for that matter, know that we have been in dire need of a serious kitchen organization! Well, we actually won a kitchen organization in a silent auction, and had an awesome organizer -- Rebecca Morris -- to come in and completely organize our kitchen ... disastrous pantry and all!

Rebecca came over first to survey the scene and put together a plan for our kitchen. She asked us lots of questions up front to learn our style and what we like to cook. Then, she spent two long mornings in our kitchen finding everything a perfect place and making a emily-do-you-really-use-this-pile. She made me rethink what is necessary, and I needed that. She did things I would likely not have done on my own (like throw out out-of-date spices that were overflowing out of my spice cabinet) ... I am so not a minimalist at heart. When all was said and done, we greatly appreciated her perspective, advice and fresh eyes. And we are loving our kitchen!

Here is an after picture of our pantry. It would mean a lot more if I actually had a *before* picture next to it, but I never took one. Even so, if I did have one, I'd probably be too embarrassed to show it here!


One of the amazing things in this process is that Rebecca didn't want to handicap us by taking apart our kitchen, so she provided meals both nights. Ummm, wow! And they were both incredible meals. Like, amazing incredible. One night she made the. best. pot roast. we've ever had. (Sorry, mom). And the next night, she made a Thai dish that the whole family loved.

For the local folks who read this blog, I highly recommend Rebecca if you are in need of a kitchen redo. She has been doing this for years for friends, but is now starting to do it as a side business. Highly. recommend. Her contact information is morris.family[at]me.com.

Love This Face

And she loved her Daddy taking her out to breakfast recently. Or maybe it was the bacon.

Either way, I love this face!

A Sweet Reunion

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness

of the LORD in the land of the living! --Psalm 27:13

We were witness to a sweet reunion last month when Lia Kate and one of the precious girls from her orphanage were, at last, together again!!! Gracie and Lia Kate lived in the Lianjiang orphanage until they were 16 months old. Gracie went home with her forever family several months before Lia Kate, but we understand they were in the same room for awhile together at the orphanage.



There is so much we don't know about Lia Kate's first 16 months of life, so it is very special to have a piece of her past near us. Gracie remembers Lia Kate from the orphanage and called her "GangGang" (her Chinese nickname) the entire time we were at their house. She is the only person we know of in the U.S. who knows Lia Kate by this name. There is something pretty special about that.



There is a children's book I love called Three Names of Me, about the three names that a Chinese adoptee has ... the name her birth mother gives her, the name her orphanage gives her, and the name her forever family gives her. And this sweet girl...

...remembers Lia Kate's second name. What a precious piece of our daughter's past we've been given in Gracie.

Gracie's mother, Rachel, and I connected before we traveled to China. They had already been home with Gracie for several months, and I had a lot of questions about Gracie's transition and what to expect with Lia Kate. Over the last year and a half, we have followed each other's blogs and watched each other's daughter blossom.



When we finally got to meet, during our trip to South Carolina in January, we discovered a lot of similarities between the girls. For example, they both are joyful little girls by day, but often express their grief in the night. They both have similar sleeping patterns, and they both grieved very heavily during our time in China. These two share a past that we -- as their mothers -- will never know the details of.



But we are so glad they have each other.



I hope that this is the first of many get togethers between our families! We had such a fun evening of talking adoption and our girls, trading stories about our time in China, and watching our children all play together. Britton and Lia Kate had so much fun playing with Gracie and her sisters and brother that we had to drag them away at the end of the night.





Thanks, friends, for sharing your home and your sweet girl with us! We are ever grateful...

Britton & Lia Kate's Special "Peeps"

There are some very special people to us who will always be dear to our hearts, and to whom we are ever grateful for the role they played in the lives of our children. We have recently gotten the chance to see a few of them...


This is Wanda. She is a nurse practitioner in the hospital where Britton was born. She was in the OR the morning Britton was born, and led the team of nurses who resuscitated him. She has since told us that she had little hope for him after that day ... first, that he would survive, and second, that he would come out of this cognitively intact. So, to see him now running around, talking and saying his letter sounds/colors, showing her how Danny's iPhone works... well, you would never imagine he had such a terrible start in this world. We took some Valentines cookies up to the NICU last week, and Wanda kept saying, "I just want to see him walk!" I realized then that we hadn't been to visit since Britton's first birthday ... and he wasn't walking then. She was amazed to see all that Britton is doing, and how he has far exceeded every expectation they had. She kept remarking at what a miracle our boy is. We are so grateful for Wanda!


And these two ladies are very important in the life of our Lia Kate! Lily (on the left) and Rebecca are two amazing ladies who live in China and work with our adoption agency. We had them over for dinner when they were in town last August. Lily is the person who matches Chinese children to families for our agency, and she is the one who found Lia Kate and thought we would be a great family for her. When you think of all the variables that go into the matching process it is pretty humbling. For example, another agency could have easily gotten Lia Kate's file before Lily was able to lock it, or Lily could have locked her file and given it to another family. When you think of what could have happened, you just have to trust in God's sovereignty, and we certainly believe that Lia Kate was meant to be our daughter. The other woman in the picture is Rebecca, who was our amazing guide when we were in China. She was with us the day Lia Kate was placed in our arms and she oversaw every last detail of the adoption (of which there are many) and helped us navigate the process with ease. We are thankful for Lily and Rebecca and for the important role they have in placing the fatherless into families.

We are blessed to call these ladies our friends. And we continue to be so grateful for how they have served as God's instruments in the lives of our children.

"Lip"

Lia Kate came running into the kitchen recently looking like this...

"Look, Mama, lip!!!!" Beaming from ear to ear. Pointing to her lips.

As if I could have missed it.

Valentines

We had a great weekend with our two little Valentines ...




The kiddos had their Valentines Party at school on Friday and I had fun making their Valentines cards...


...and some heart cookies for the party...


Then, we boxed the rest of the cookies up and took them up to the NICU to see the nurses and to mark the day we finally brought our boy home from the hospital three years ago on February 15 ...

We have a sweet picture from that visit coming in the next post.

"God Our Father"

Lia Kate loves singing the "God Our Father" prayer...

(This was taken back in December, hence the Christmas shirt.)