I Just Called To Say...I Love You

Today is my dad's birthday, so this post is for him.

Last week, I had to run to my parent's house for a quick little errand. My mom and dad live only a mere handful of blocks from us-- part of the reason we moved to our house 2 years ago. I love that we live close, we've become good friends and neighbors (it's so convenient to have someone you can call up and ask to borrow a cup of this or a scoop of that!). So, it wasn't really an unusual thing that I ran to their house last week.

So, I went to their house, did my little task and my dad came and checked on me, then went back to what he was doing. I went to see him and say good bye when I realized what he was up to!

My dad has very vast taste in music from Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy and Pachelbel to Yonni and Enya to The Jackson 5 and The Bee Gees to techno dance mixes. I have great memories of his music from when I was little where we would be sitting downstairs after dinner in a well-lit room listening to record after record of dad's most favorite tunes (which in turn have become some of our favorites!). My sister and I loved "The Tide is High" by Blondie so much, in fact, that in high school, whenever we were hard at work on a big paper and needing a new source of inspiration late at night, we would turn on that record and dance around the room.

Well, it just happened to be that I came to their house on just such a night as I remembered so long ago. Dad had his little box full of 45's and he was playing all the greats! Among my favorites were "Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton, "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes, "Everywhere" by Fleetwood Mac and the best of all, "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder. These are the songs of my childhood and the songs that make me so nostalgic to be back at home.

So, Dad, even though it's your birthday today, I take that night last week as a huge gift and blessing in my own life. Thanks, I needed that.

H*A*P*P*Y*B*I*R*T*H*D*A*Y, Dad!!! I love you!

Bana's Baby Shower

**First of all, to those of you who don't know what or rather who a "Bana" is, that would be grandma to a little boy who learned to speak way too early for his own good! My mom (Bana) has said before that if Samuel had not learned to speak as early as he did (started at 9 months), she probably wouldn't be a Bana :) Anyway, since Samuel was first, the name has stuck and so be it. **

My mom has some really wonderful friends from when she was teaching. Most of them are also retired now (though, I don't know when we will actually be able to say that my mom is officially "retired." She still subs on a rare occasion) and a small group of them get together regularly for coffee. Well, a few weeks ago (I'm a little late in posting this), my mom showed up for coffee like it was any other coffee day. What she didn't know was that her loving friends had thrown her a surprise shower for her new granddaughter! Here are the fun things she/we received:







Thank you to everyone who was so generous!! LilyJoy will look smashing in all of her new duds just as soon as she fits into them :)

Headed in the Right Direction

Last night, we had the sweetest little moment that has yet transpired between Timothy and LJ. Timothy has seen me prepare a bottle for LJ once an evening ever since LJ came home. So, for the first time, Tim Tim got it into his little head that he was going to feed LJ. Now, I know how much she LOVES her bottle and how the only thing that she allows me to do anymore is rock her while she holds the bottle. If I attempt to hold it, she gently, but insistently pushes my hand away. So, as you can imagine, I did not think Timothy holding the bottle would go over so well. But, he was being so sweet and calm (a rarity in the evenings), that I figured, what the heck. So, while I laid her on my lap and rocked her, Timothy reached over and put his hand on her bottle. Granted, LJ had her hands both on it as well, but she actually allowed him to "help." And T was perfect. He kept saying all these loving little things to her, stroking her forehead. Then he looked up at me and said, "Mama, we're not going to bring LilyJoy back to China. She'll be with us forever..." It was almost like Timothy was resolved to the fact that this is a permanent thing and he is willing to accept it, while LJ was telling T that he's not so bad-- he is welcome to be her big brother.

I love these babies. Just trying to savor these kinds of rare moments when they happen.

What Do You Get When You Have...

A knight, a pirate and a chicken?? Loads of Johnson Halloween fun!





They all took their roles VERY seriously...

Have You Heard This??

This is a new song by Steven Curtis Chapman. You may recall that Steven and his family lost its youngest member (adopted from China) in May 2008 in a tragic accident. This is the song that came from the tragedy. Get some tissues.

She's IN! I'm OUT!

I have something to celebrate here that I have been keeping quiet for fear that things might change. LJ has decided her crib is not such a bad place after all! Admittedly, this was not necessarily the plan for us-- we are very much a "do whatever works so that everyone gets the maximum amount of sleep possible" kind of family, rather than the "this kid will sleep here and we will 'train' her to like it" kind of family. I think I mentioned before that we figured out LJ's preference was to sleep on the floor. It was getting a little old bringing out my air mattress, setting it up with blankets folded from the previous morning, then setting out the old crib bumper and tying it to various objects in the room. Not only that, but LJ's room is tiny and all that took up pretty much all leftover floor space, so it was a pain to move about. BUT, in this experience, the Lord has FINALLY taught me an amazing lesson of patience. Specifically, when I came home from China, things were H-A-R-D. I know they are hard for anyone adopting, but we really struggled. I found myself almost constantly asking, "I wonder what things will be like in a year from now..." At that point, how was I to even know that things would be any different in a year? Who was I to inquire about the future before it happened? God started saying to me, "Courtney, it is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!" So, I listened. I actually LISTENED!! And I cannot tell you the weight that was lifted from my shoulders. It was such a burden to be straining my eyes toward the future. And I was able to say, "okay, I can sleep in here for one more night..." "Okay, so one more night isn't going to kill me..." until the right time came.

So, the first step was sleeping in the crib. The next step, which I tried one time about a week ago, was to get myself back into my own bed. That first night didn't go so well. At about 2am, the moon was shining enough into LJ's room that she could look around a see that I wasn't there. She lost it, I came running and spent the rest of the night holding her hand (luckily, I had already set up the air mattress in case of this scenario). All I said was, "it just isn't time yet." And we all slept fine. For the past three nights, though, I DID IT!! I have slept in my own lovely, warm bed--the first three nights there since the week after we arrived home in China at the end of August! Now, these nights have not been without their interruptions, but nothing like that first try a week ago. If she cries, I can go in and either hold her hand or pick her up and rock her slowly for about 5 minutes and then lay her back down again for more lovely, precious sleep. I think this little girl is beginning to trust us! Could it be...?

I FOUND IT!

Yes, folks, that's right. If you're sitting out there in blogland just waiting for your Hague adoption to be complete, fear not!! I found the ONE positive thing about the Hague today. Are you ready? I spent less than 30 minutes in the Social Security office today applying to LJ's soc sec number! Okay, so it's not all that exciting, but I sure as heck thought it was cool. The officer who helped me out said she had done tons of adoptions completed domestically and internationally, but none ever under the Hague. She couldn't believe how easy it was to find LJ's immigration stuff (their system was automatically linked to USCIS) and prove that she was a citizen. I was fully expecting her to look at my documentation and say, "huh, yeah right, come back tomorrow when you have everything you need." Nothing-- she said not a WORD of such disgust.

So, there you have it. The one positive thing about the Hague. Sorry that it happens to come after all the excitement of the adoption itself. Figures.