Thanksgiving and more....

 Gosh, i know i've been a slacker.  I'm working on getting better!! I'm getting the hang of being a parent and taking care of two wild and crazy littles.  Sometimes, in the midst of the chaos, I forget my name.. much less to take pictures and blog. :-) 

This guy... this amazing man that I married... He's an amazing daddy as well.  I'm SO very lucky.

On our way to Houston to meet with Doctors, we stopped in College station.  We stayed with lifelong friends.  Casey (the one in pink) was a little girl i babysat starting at age 2 or 3.  Here we are.. grown.. with kiddos.  It was SO fun to be together again and get to share this exciting life we both have!

While in college station, we also got to meet with another adoptive family that we've met along the way.  The girls had a great time playing and getting to know this family.  It's a constant struggle to get them to play with other kiddos and each and every opportunity i can arrange helps.

The girls love Christmas trees! They love the lights and all the decorations.  Now if i can just keep them from pulling them off daily.  :-) 

Sometimes, there's nothing better than falling asleep in Daddy's arms!

There's also no better entertainment than Laundry baskets!

They really are my kiddos... they loved the parade and pumpkin pie! I'm the only one in the family that loves pumpkin pie... until now!! woo hoo.  I really didn't think they would care about it but they really seemed to enjoy it! I've missed very few in my 42 years.  I love the Macy's parade!!

Mamaw and Papaw (Rob's folks) visited for Thanksgiving and Rob's sister and our niece came on Friday.  Fun times were had by all!

I love this picture.  The shirt Rob is wearing is the shirt from an adoption fundraiser.  It has several kiddos names on the back that were adopted from the Henan province this year.  Our daughters names are included!

It was a great holiday weekend.  Those who know me know that I LOVE Christmas.  I'm looking forward to enjoying every minute of it with the two angels!

Some of you may be wondering how our Houston trip went.  I wasn't super excited about the Doctors we met with.  I'd have meet with another team or two to know if that's just par for the course or if maybe they're not for us.  We have a meeting with another surgeon on Thursday of this week.  Hoping to have a little more clarity by then.  

We've so much to be thankful for.  It's unreal!! 

With love and Thanksgiving!

Jenn

So it's adoption awareness month.... Let me share the WHOLE story!

Ok, we will start off with some pictures because I know that's what you want! :-). 

Kids and boxes, is there a better toy? Emily is never thrilled when I get out the camera. She can be laughing and such one minute then I pull out the camera and she goes silent and blank. Lol. What can you do. 

I put up a Christmas tree in the girls room, they LOVE it. They both stand in front of it and look and smile and point all the time. I can't wait to see their reactions to all the other decorations. After this week I can get it done! 

This is heaven! All of my fur babies sleeping with my sweet little girls. Some day they'll all be cuddling each other. Not there yet! 

We got pictures made with Santa. This is a pretty good picture of how it went. Lol

So... That brings me to this coming week. 

Let me back up so that you have the rest of the story first. 

When we decided to adopt from China, we had a couple options. We could go with the traditional program and wait for a healthy child or we could go the path of the "waiting " child.  The waiting child program encompasses a lot. Basically, if you choose the traditional program, you're in for the long haul. The wait, as of recently, for a healthy child is approx. 8-10 YEARS....YEARS! As you know we are old and don't have that kind of time.  It really wasn't so much time as us wanting to step out of our comfort zone and let God lead us to our girls. In the very beginning of the process each adoptive family fills out a medical conditions checklist (mcc). On this list are a jillion medical conditions that you can "accept" or not. The whole spectrum pf special needs exists. We meticulously went through the checklist, studying each condition and deciding if we had the means to take care of it. 

We selected many different special needs on our mcc. We believed this was the path we were to take. Even after we submitted the mcc, I must've edited it a hundred times. I'd learn more about this condition or that condition. I'd meet an adoptive family that adopted a child with a this or that condition and then we would revisit. It was overwhelming as well as mentally exhausting. I didn't want to not select a need we could handle and I surely didn't want to select a need that would be beyond our ability to care for. Not out of selfish reasons but in the interests of the child as well.  Our list constantly changed because we were constanly having people put in our path that would nudge us in a direction. Many moms I talked to suggested we be open to a wide range of needs and let God speak to us. That was scary, but it's what we did. I'm sooo glad we took that advice. 

 So, how it works...when you get a referral, you're given a few days to speak with doctors, share the child's medical information, and then try your best to make a decision that's right for the child and right for you. Keep in mind, the information may or may not be accurate. 

Fast forward to December 2013. We went through Emily's file with a fine tooth comb. We sent her file to several specialists, Pediatricians, a neurologist, and a local physician. We gave them her info and waited. All the while we were falling in love. Pressure was on to decide. We still hadn't heard from most of the doctors. On a Sunday morning before Christmas we sat together and talked. Rob shared his heart...he said "babydoll, when she is 20 years old and asks what made us decide to adopt her, I don't want to say "when we had all the information and knew you'd be ok, I want to say yes now, before we hear from the doctors because we know she's ours!" Well.., after some tears and praying, Monday morning I submitted our letter of intent. The following days we had some good conversations with several doctors and they gave us hope that indeed she would be ok. Similar situation happened with Olivia.. We said yes first. L

Emily was born with a cleft palate and a hole in her heart. Olivia was born with a cleft lip and palate. Her lip was repaired in China. There were also some other concerns but they're big words that I can't spell and they don't matter. Either way they are both perfect. They're smart, funny, energetic, and of course beautiful. Sometimes children are labeled with scary diagnoses and they're just not accurate. It's a leap of faith for sure. That's why researching your mcc is so important. 

Now begins our journey to take care of some of the medical needs. 

Both girls will need to soon undergo surgery to repair their palates. We are in the process of deciding who will do it. So much is involved that I surely don't want us to make a bad decision.  Our first consultation is with the university of Texas medical center team. We are traveling to Houston to meet with them on Monday. We would surely appreciate your prayers in making this decision. 

So... Today we traveled to College Station to stay with some lifelong friends (mom is traveling with me as Rob needs to save his days off for surgeries) 

The girls screamed the entire 6 hour trip until we crossed the city limits sign...,

This happened. Ha. Go figure. 

Emily wants to help with the driving. 

We have one more stop before our appointment on Monday and if you could pray for the girls as they learn to ride in a car seat for long periods of time. My nerves are shot. :-) tomorrow I get to meet a fellow adoptive mom that I've gotten to know along the journey. She happens to live here in College Station too. 

It's an awesome journey folks. If you've met our daughters you wouldn't know a thing was wrong. We are so glad we chose the path of a waiting child. There are so many precious kiddos out there that just need a mommy and daddy! 

If you have any questions about adoption, china adoption, waiting child adoption, our girls, filling out an mcc, I'd be thrilled to share more. The majority of adoptions coming out of China now are waiting child adoptions. It's an Awesome awesome thing! 

Goodnight all I must sleep before they wake! 

Enjoying a little silence 

Jenn

A quick note.

Dear Emily and Olivia, 

Sweet girls, I LOVE watching you sleep. You are sooo beautiful and peaceful then.   

Here's the thing though....I wanted to share with you a tradition we practice on team Taylor. 

We sleep past 6am on Saturdays. :-) if you could join in on that tradition... It would be great. 

Love you angels!,

One sleepy mama

Ps. Is it nap time yet? 

First play date, First black eye, First Halloween, First Cousin..that's a lot of firsts.....

It has been a big week in the Taylor household.  Lots and lots of "firsts"

We had a busy week and what a week it was!  We went to our first "play date" with the other Mama's and babies from my MOPS table! Emily and Olivia just aren't sure of themselves around other littles yet.  These littles were so great to try to encourage them but there has just been so much change and so many different faces and places that they were a little timid.  

Olivia took a tumble down the steps.  She didn't want to go up, she just wanted me to hold her, I knew she'd love it if she tried.... I set her up on the step.. she fell... 

Her first black eye. Totally my fault.  Poor baby.  

By the end, they were really enjoying getting to be with other kiddos and play with bubbles and chalk and balls... maybe next time the girls will feel a little more comfy.  I know these things take time.

 First Halloween.. 

they had no idea of course but we tried to make the best of it and have fun!

First time to meet her cousin.

Rob's sister Sunni and our niece Savannah came to visit.  It was SO great to have Savannah show Emily and Olivia the "ropes" with Halloween.  We dressed them up in their traditional Chinese dresses and sent them off to gather some candy!

First stop... the best neighbors on the planet.  

It didn't take them long to figure out that if they went to a door, somebody would give them a treat!

The girls didn't last long with the trick-or-treating so we ended the night early.  Savannah got to enjoy some of the fun games at the church across the street! The girls just LOVED watching all the other kiddos and people in their costumes!

Emily had her first time in a bounce- house. It was fun to watch her experience it.  Olivia wouldn't have it.  Even if I went in with her. No way. 

Saturday we ventured out to every. single. park. in Snyder. :-) The girls were timid at first but by park #4... man, they were having a GREAT time!

Sweet Cousin Savannah showed them how to go down the slide.

Then, off we went on our own!

Swings are definitely our favorite!

Sometimes we just want Daddy.  Emily is a Daddy's girl for sure!

The girls tried to follow their Cousin and Aunt Sunni, but didn't quite get there!

Yay for Cousins!! 

Look at my sweet, brave little girls coming down the big kid slides on their own! 

Olivia loves sand.  Her shoes, hair, diaper... all full of it! 

We went to a park in town I'd forgotten about.  It had an old school merry-go-round.  The girls LOVED it! I don't know that i've seen Emily laugh so hard!  

Our first attempt at a "cousin" picture.  

We can't wait for the next visit.  I think these 3 sweet girls will be good friends over the years! I'm so glad they have each other! It was a really great visit.  

Over the years I've heard about "Orphan Sunday" and "Adoption awareness month".  Of course I really took an interest last year, as we were just beginning our adoption process.  We had NO clue how amazing the journey ahead of us would be.  

The BIGGEST "First" of all...  

today is the first "Orphan Sunday" in their little lives that they are no longer...

an orphan.  

These two pictures were the moments each of them was placed in our arms. 

The moment they had a forever family.  

While we certainly didn't adopt Emily and Olivia in order to "save an orphan" 

(we adopted them b/c they were ours... and we were theirs)...

  I am glad that there are two less. 

I told you that was a lot of firsts! 

Bring on some more! It's so great to explore life through the eyes of our children.  

With Love, 

Jenn