Selah is 3!

We celebrated Selah’s 3rd birthday last Saturday with a Minnie Mouse/Breakfast/PJ party!  Selah woke up in the WORST mood that morning, which is unusual because she normally wakes up very happy.  Oh well, she seemed to have a good time after it was all said and done!

I had to change out the chalkboard to celebrate Selah!

The party table all ready minus the balloons!

My sweet friend, Hilarie, who is an awesome graphic designer, made the cute invitations as well as these little tags to attach to the favors!

And, of course, I had to make a special door hanger to welcome the guests!

Smiles were not easy to come by before the party started, so at least I got this one!  If you are wondering about the Minnie head, we borrowed a Minnie Mouse costume, so Minnie could make an appearance at the party!

Mimi with the birthday girl before the party started!

A sweet girl from our church, Brooke, dressed up as Minnie (the head never made it on her b/c some kids were a little spooked out!).  Charlie knows Miss Brooke, so he was so happy to see her!

This was Selah’s face most of the morning.  ha!  Myla, as you can tell, thoroughly enjoyed herself at the party!

We were SOOOO excited to see the Buckleys.  We miss them so much!  Grace and Myla are practically grown, and then there is sweet baby Abby!

Since it was a breakfast party, we decided to do a “do-nut” cake versus a traditional birthday cake!  There were no complaints!

All the sweet friends!!  Sweet little Remi on the end wore her hat.  I was so happy at lease ONE child did since it took me six hours to make them.  HA!!

Finally got a smile (albeit somewhat fake) with Minnie!

Selah pinning the bow on Minnie!

Myla getting ready to take her turn!

I think she was quite proud of herself!

Group picture!

Grace and Myla.  Everyone had left at this time and they were playing school! 

I still cannot believe Selah is three! I know it sounds cliché, but time really does fly!  Even though she is my spitfire, sassy pants girl, she brings so much joy and laughter!  Happy Birthday, Sweet Selah!

TOT at the Globetrotter’s!

A couple of weeks ago, Myla got the chance to perform with her TOT group at halftime of the Harlem Globetrotter’s game in Tupelo.  It was such a great experience! She had been looking forward to it for months, so she was so excited when the time finally came!

Sweet TOT star ready to perform!

Myla and Clayton, her friend from church

Will, Myla and Clayton

After the performance, they gathered at half court to have their picture made with the Globetrotters.  Selah deleted the video of the performance off my phone, so unfortunately I don’t have that to share.  :(

All the TOT stars with the Globetrotters…who are hilariously entertaining!

Mrs. Amy and Myla

Myla had quite the fan club at the performance.  Henry and Peyton were there, and of course, all the kids had to have a sno-cone during the second half!

Can you guess what color Selah’s was??

All the kids with Peyton.  Selah was still showing off her tongue!

Sis Sis also made the trek over…she doesn’t want to miss anything the kids do!  I hate I didn’t get a picture with Mimi and Bodie, but they were there too!!

TOT…

In the fall, Myla (and Selah) began a program at Mother’s Morning Out called TOT…Teams of Tomorrow.  It is a basketball skills program (kind of like little dribblers), but they also do fun learning games and activities.  They love going and have loved Mrs. Amy, their teacher, so much!  Mrs. Amy is actually Myla’s first employer!  Myla goes early each week and helps Mrs. Amy out with the 2 year old class!  She loves going to “work”!  Back in January, they had their first TOT performance.  Myla was so excited about it!  It was in New Albany at a high school basketball game (boy, did that gym, even the smell of it, bring back lots of memories!!)

So thrilled to go to her performance…seriously she was bouncing off the walls!

Myla with Daddy before the big performance!

All the First Baptist class (minus 2). 

Getting close to performance time!

Finally on the court!!!!  Myla was so excited!  I wasn’t sure how she would do once the time came because she can be a bit apprehensive about being in front of people, but she did awesome!!!  We were so proud of her, and she was so proud of herself!

Mrs. Amy does TOT all over North Mississippi, so there were lots of classes combined, so it was fun to see so many kids participating.

Myla and Mrs. Amy

Mrs. Amy does TOT all over North Mississippi, so there were lots of classes combined, so it was fun to see so many kids participating.

They have another performance coming up at the end of this month at halftime of the Harlem Globetrotters game in Tupelo!   I’ve always wanted to see the Globetrotters, so I’m excited about getting to go to the game.  Myla performing at halftime is just icing on the cake!

On a totally unrelated note, on the way home from the performance, Selah at an apple.  I noticed that she had been eating on it for quite some time, so I asked her to give it to me. This was ALL that was left!  She was mad that I didn’t let her finish it!

Our Sweet Little Man…

I have to be honest…many of my thoughts are taken up each day with my son.  I will think of him and pray that God brings him to us SOON!  I wonder…what is he like?  Is he a happy baby?  Does he sleep well?  What are his favorite things to play with?  Is he eating baby food?  It is such a strange feeling as a Mommy to have a child on the other side of the world, but know so little about him.  I am SO thankful that he is being taken care of.  In fact, he is probably getting quite spoiled because he has a nanny that gives him lots of attention.  That makes me SO happy and thankful because I know there are many children in his situation that are not properly care for, and it breaks my heart.

I have so many people ask me where we are in the process.  All of our paperwork, which has been translated into Chinese, is in the court system in Taiwan.  We are waiting on a court date, which could come anytime between now and the next 8 weeks, if I understand correctly.  Of course, we are hoping it comes sooner!  There is a process of papers, or decrees, that are issued from the court subsequent to your court dates, but do be honest, I don’t know every detail of that.  We’ve been told that you “typically” travel around 3 months after your first court date.  I am hoping and praying that he will be home in April or before. 

The wait has been HARD.  We have been waiting now, in total, for about two years (we began our paperwork in Jan. 2011)…including our time in the Ethiopia program.  I am ready to have him home.  I am ready for him to meet his big sisters, who ask every day, “Is today the day we get Ramsey?” (Especially Selah!)  It’s like she misses him and wants him home so badly too!  I am ready for him to know that he has so many family members and friends that love him and have been praying for him.  I am ready for him to just be in our regular routine of life as our son/brother.  I am READY! 

Our agency is so good about getting us pictures!  I have so many pictures of him that I will treasure forever…even one from the day he was born!  He is growing, and I can’t believe how much he has changed in the past couple of months.  I pull them up on my phone many times a day to just look at him or show him off to someone!  I can’t post a full size picture until we go get him, but I can give you a glimpse…

Can you tell form his eyes that he has a mouth-wide-open full grin!  It is the sweetest picture!  I cannot tell y’all how handsome he is!  OH.MY.HEART!  I cannot wait to get my hands on him!

God has been SO good to us through this process, and the things I have learned have truly changed me.  I am so thankful!

Holiday iPhone Pics…

Looking through the pictures on my phone are a great way to remember what we were up to over the holidays as well!  I’m just going to lump them all together rather than do individual posts, then I think I will finally be caught up! 

Our Elf, Lucy, returned this year, and she was up to a lot of mischief.  I forgot to take pictures everyday, but the girls, especially Myla, loved looking for her each morning, and they were sad that she went back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve.  I, on the other hand, wasn’t sad to see her go so I didn’t have to think of something for her to do each day!

Playing a game with friends!

Playing in marshmallows because she missed the snow at the North Pole!

Rolling our Christmas tree!

One day we invited some friends over to bake, and Lucy didn’t want to be left out!

In December, we also mailed a package to Ramsey!

We also went to Daddy’s work party.  The party is at his bosses house, and Selah remembered this big Barney that was there last year.  She went right in and quickly found the big Barney again to play with!

We had LOTS of lazy days over the Christmas break!  This day we all napped together in mommy and daddy’s bed, although I think I was the only one that actually napped!

Another fun thing I did was go caroling with our church choir.  This was at the VA home where we visited a former pastor of FBC Oxford.  It was so special because he was SO thankful we had come.  He was overcome with emotion, which made all of us emotional too!

Sae Sae came one day to play and take us to lunch!

We made the trip over to Cotton Plant, MS, to see the inflatable display.  I’m sure many of you heard about this place.  It was featured on the TLC show, “My Crazy Obsession”.  These people are obsessed with inflatables, and they display over 500 of them as well as a light show!  The girls really enjoyed it!  Myla actually had her picture made with the grinch.  I think this is the first time she has ever had her picture voluntarily made with a character!  Funny Myla story…she had a crocheted hat on, but on her visit to the porta-potty, it fell in the toilet.  Needless to say, I was NOT getting it out!  She was so upset, poor thing!

Selah loved the Mickey section!

Little snowmen in Cotton Plant!

Selah loves playing with all of her babies!

On our way to the Christmas party day at MMO!

Selah’s class sang a few songs on stage, and she loved every minute of it!

The day we celebrated with the Meurrier’s, we ran over to see Granny and Papa (Macy parents) for a few minutes!  The girls love Granny!

Michael and Papa always enjoy talking about the world’s problems, and as Macy said, “The conservativeness was flowing!”

I loved my Christmas tree and decorations this year.  I was so sad to take them down!  I bought a new tree this year on sale, and I can’t wait to have 2 trees next year!

A new addition to our decorations this year was new stockings.  My friend, Paula, made them, and I LOVE them. I told her I wanted to leave them up all year!

Sweet girls after bath!

Myla has become a little domino player.  She loves to play and would play 25 games in a row if she has someone to play with!

Sis Sis getting fixed up by two little beauticians!

I decided to paint stripes on the walls around our dining room table to create an accent wall.  This is before…

During…my friend Molly helped me tape and paint!

It took over 4 hours to tape and about 15 minutes to paint!

And after…I’m a little obsessed with the way it turned out!  I love it!

I was one happy girl when our paperwork was delivered in Taiwan on Monday!  I’ll do a separate adoption update post soon!

And it’s been SOO cold the past day or two, so the girls requested coffee mid afternoon yesterday!