WoooHooo!

Thanks to a sweetheart named Carla she pointed me in the right direction and I have found almost my entire blog! Mind you I have lost my blog design and comments but I can do without! I am so excited! :D I may have lost about 40 posts but we'll see. It will take me some time to upload these but I can't take to long as I do not know how long they will stay on the web. Thank you Jesus! What a way to start the morning!

Answered Prayers!

**Be sure to have your volume turned on so you know what is going on**

We hope you enjoyed our children’s reaction as much as we did. Spitfire was a little hesitant at first but after about 20 minutes really came around. We wish we had captured some of things she was saying then because her excitement was really starting to show.
So, we always knew we would go back for our son but just didn’t know the timing. God does however and his timing is perfect and it is now. The Count and I started to seriously talk about it a few months ago. The conversations first started to lean towards opening our home to foster care and then before we knew it were discussing the possibilities of adopting again from China. Going back was something we knew we would do but probably wait a few years. As we talked we started to ask why we were waiting a few years. Now was the time. Twink has made huge strides and continues to show even further improvement almost daily. My health with my neck will always have certain limitations but am about as healed as I will get. The Count will be done with school later this year so now is the time.
We had started a new blog about a month ago for this new journey and we’ll open that up once China approves us. We thought the Lord was opening certain doors with a certain child but after several weeks, realized this was not God’s plan for us. Our new path has led us to a little 6 year old boy. We officially accepted his referral today. We have worked on our paperwork over the last few weeks and most of it is done and ready to go. Our hope is to travel in early January of next year to bring him home. We always wished that we brought Jewel when we brought Twink home so this time we will bring her. We will write more later but please keep us in your prayers as we embark on this new journey.
When we have our approval from China we will be able to post more about our little guy. As for the name, we are still working on that one. Just when we think we have one we change it! LOL

Signing

Yes, I'm still here but I really don't have much to blog about these days. The weather is cold but there is no snow! :) I have to love that. We are looking at a warm up for the weekend so maybe I'll send the kids out for a "treasure hunt". Oh what is my treasure hunt you ask? Oh that is when my kids and the neighbor kids race around my 2 acre yard looking for as much treasure, ok garbage as they can find! Then they hit the neighbors yard! LOL I don't think this will happen for too much longer. Usually an ice cream is their reward and our yards look great!

Ok back to signing! Twink is doing great with some of her signing. I taught her the most beautiful sign last week. She points to her eye and says I then crosses her arms and rocks back and forth a bit and then points to you! Soooo, I LOVE YOU! It is very sweet to actually see. If I can find the right camera I'll video it and show you her sweetness.

Twink's speech is really coming along. Maybe I should say her speech sounds and her babble. I'll be on the phone some times and she gets going and it totally distracts me from my phone conversation. She is trying so hard to produce more words. She tries to sing twinkle twinkle. She can say some of the words clear and some of them come out kind of crazy BUT you know what they are suppose to be. We are seeing improvements! :)

We are finally going to get a sensory evaluation! PTL!!!!! She is still having problems in that department. I've been told that she will be able to do therapeutic horse back lessons otherwise known as hippo-therapy. I am looking forward to that, sorta. LOL I feel we are finally make progress in areas that needed it.

I'm off to find the camera and get of video! :)

I Wonder?

Have you ever wondered how many families go back to China (or another country) to adopt after their first adoption? The Count and I were talking last night and told me he thought atleast 50%! He then proceed to tell me that if we could we would go back a second and probably third time. He seems to think it's a cycle. If one has the money, the heart, and the room then they'll go again.

So how many families do you think actually do more than one adoption?

Medical ID Bracelet

Is this what you visualize when you think of a medical id bracelet? Me too! Well we really wanted to find a bracelet for Twink for her seizures. Problem is we didn't want something that would stand out too much and make her feel different. (Not that at three you can feel different but as she gets older) I mean she already limps and she has a hand that gives her problems. So we went on-line and found some beautiful medical id bracelets. I found a great Etsy shop and she does all sorts of bracelets not just medical id.

Don't get me wrong we wanted some thing that would tell medical personnel she has a seizures but also wanted some thing girly. So below are some pictures of her pretty bracelet. It does have a medical plate and I would have taken a whole picture of that but it has her full name engraved on it. Although I like you all a ton I don't think I want the whole world knowing our last name. On the reverse side it tells that she has seizures and gives emergency contact numbers.

At first she HATED having it on! She wanted it off but if we covered it up with her shirt sleeve she didn't mind. Now she doesn't even think about it. It did take a couple of days maybe even a good week for her to be comfortable with it.
I have to add that last week she was running a fever and we had no seizure! Thank you Lord! She is taking seizure medication twice daily and we really jumped at the Motrin. So for now we are breathing a sigh of relief.

Icy Heart

This is what I saw when I looked out of my window on Feb. 13th! It is a big icy heart! LOL I took this picture from my upstairs bathroom window. My whole back yard was wet and icy but this is what stood out. Pretty neat don't you think! :) In the summer we have an outline of dark green grass that grows in the shape of a heart. Really strange if you ask me. I think we have crop circles too! ;) I'll take pictures if we get them this year.

Almost Done

I have less than 20 more blog posts to back post! I'll be so glad when I'm finished. LOL I'm sure those of you who read your updates in Google Reader will be also. ;) It seems I've lost about 30 posts. Some of those posts where important. You know the one where we found out Twink actually had a stroke and not an arachnoid brain cyst. Also the one where she had her very first seizure. Oh well, I can't complain. I'm so VERY happy to have been able to recovery as much as I have. :)