Ear Piercing!

I am taking a breather after a hectic week last week. We had a birthday, two orthodontist appointments (which took forever), and two kids had physicals on Friday. 

Selah insisted I take a photo of my flowers from Jeremy. They are beautiful!

In one year Micah grew 4 1/2 inches and gained 10 pounds! He is thirteen and a whopping 5' 6" tall. He is on target to be right around six feet tall. That is quite tall for our family! He just began his third phase of orthodontic treatment. He has had a palate expander and a set of traditional braces. This past week he began the final phase.

Ben also had his physical on Friday. He also grew beautifully! His growth hormone injections are working so well. He grew 4 inches since last year. We left the appointment only to get a phone call later. They are concerned about Ben's heart. He has a very unique murmur. We were made aware of this when Ben was a few months old. We are scheduled for an echocardiogram this week. I fully expect the results to be fine but they are not comfortable with not investigating further.

Mariah should have had speech this past Friday however, our speech therapist called and cancelled. It was a very difficult situation. The principal of our middle school passed away last weekend. The funeral for him was on Friday and our speech therapist was filling in for teachers who were attending his funeral. He was only 48 years old. My prayers go out to his wife and children. 

Our weeks here have fallen into a nice routine. I think we have figured out somewhat of a schedule for all six kiddos. As long as I can keep Mariah out of the glitter in our school room, we can manage.

Selah has begun school. I would love to tell you how thrilled she is but I'm not sure exactly how she feels. She breezes through math but is not thrilled to be learning botany or early American History. She is working with negative numbers right now in Pre-Algebra. I imagine she will breeze through the first several lessons easily.

I snapped a photo of the girls in their matching jammies. Sorry for the poor quality but I do not believe they would have volunteered on their own.

The night of the 12th we realized that Selah wanted something. She was hanging around when the other kids went to bed. But she just kept saying, "No! Nothing!" We just sent her to bed. The next night she was doing the same but finally came to me and gave me my goodnight hug and gave an extra squeeze. Then this was our chat.

Selah: "Goodnight, Mom."

Secretly I wanted to jump and scream but I did not. I smiled and made a big deal about it as she walked out of the room. I was on cloud nine!

I could not wait to tell Jeremy. Then I saw him come into the living room and he was smiling. I knew she also had done the same with him. But.....she called me "mom" before she called Jeremy "dad". This was very intentional on her part. She knew it made us so happy! She still mostly doesn't call us anything but she often refers to us as "mom" and "dad". I'll take it!

The next night the following was our conversation:


Selah: "Will you listen to me?" 

Me: "Well, of course I will! What is it honey?"

Selah: "I just needed to thank you for teaching me my math. I really need to thank you for things you do for me."

Me: "Selah, I love teaching you! You are such a smart girl and you make it easy. I love you."

Selah: "Okay! I go now!" 

Off she went to bed! I realized again that we have lived such a pampered life in comparison. I did have tears in my eyes as I realized the significance of what just happened. I keep telling Jeremy that it is all about the perspective.

Then on Saturday morning I stayed in bed just a little later than the rest of the family. I had a terribly sore muscle in my back. Specifically, the muscle that runs from my shoulder down around my right shoulder blade. Ugh! It was so sore. I texted Jeremy a simple, "I love you!" He replied the same.

Then I got a text from his iPad that sounded a little strange for Jeremy. I immediately recognized it was Selah.  Highlighted is Selah's text. Mine is the other.

I

Love

You

I love you too!

Thank you for your love

You and dad

Thank very much

I cannot begin to tell you how much this means and how huge this is! We definitely did not expect this from her. 

She has such a great disposition! She knows that this coming week is my mom's birthday and she felt that we needed to make a trip to Pittsburgh to visit mom for her birthday.

We had taken her the evening before to get her ears pierced.

Almost......

And go!

She seems to really like having them pierced. She chose a pair of star-shaped earrings. They sale was for 2 pair. The second pair she really wanted was a pair that was a cross. Obviously she understands what is important to us. Now she can admire her very own earrings!

Perspective!

This past weekend we had some great friends make jambalaya! They are originally from Louisana and make the best jambalaya. They knew that Selah likes spicy food. Oh this was yummy! Robert and Billie......Thank you!

We are blessed beyond what we could ever imagine!

She shared with us tonight that her last orphanage in China was home to 801 orphans. If we were independently wealthy........

Please pray for the Lord to reveal His will and for more people to step forward and commit to adopt. We cannot begin to express how blessed we are to be chosen twice now to go down this path.