The Meurrier Café…

We had a fun Valentine’s Day which started bright and early with these two little love bugs.  I think they knew they may have a little something waiting for them when they woke up, so they were up earlier than normal!

They loved their big Lalaloopy (or as Selah calls it, Lalalalaloopsy) to play with in the bathtub! And, of course, they loved the candy. It’s their favorite food group!

I stole an idea from my friend, Tamah, about making our house into a “restaurant” for dinner that night. The girls LOVED the idea and were on board 100%.  I let them do the decorating, and I did the cooking (and cleaning), of course!

We made our menu (Daddy’s favorite) and the girls set up a little hostess station to welcome him when he came in the door.

We set the table, which we need to do more often!  We have a large kitchen island that we eat 90% of our meals at, so it was fun to set the table with good dishes, candles, etc. The girls got a kick out of it!

Myla made place cards for everyone.  She also cut out some hearts for Selah to decorate.  She had lots of fun doing that.  I was really happy about how well they worked together doing this. They are normal sisters and bicker so much that it’s nice when we have these peaceful moments of doing things together!

They made so many hearts that we decided to hang some from the light.  We also strung some Christmas lights up.  They were so confused why I did this since it wasn’t Christmas!

After everything was ready, they couldn’t wait for Daddy to get home!

Daddy finally made it home from work, and  the girls greeted them at the door with their aprons on since they were the hostesses.  They had a pen and notepad so they could write down what Daddy wanted to drink.

Daddy and his crew.  He didn’t know exactly what we were up to, but I had sent him an email earlier in the day to confirm his dinner reservation at The Meurrier Café, so I guess he knew that we would at least be eating!

Enjoying our meal!  I love my little family!

I’M BACK!!! Wow…it’s been a long time!

Well, it’s been almost 8 months since I posted anything to the blog.  Too bad we haven’t had that much going on during that time.  Yeah, right.  We’ve had a huge life change in September when we finally brought home our little love, Ramsey, from Taiwan.  To be totally honest, after my last post in May, things were just tough. To travel and spend a week with Ramsey, and then have to leave him for an undetermined amount of time was just awful.  I was pretty much depressed, irritable, pouty and didn’t want to blog about it.  Ha.  Looking back, I greatly regret that.  I wish I could read back over those raw emotions now.  Then, after Ramsey got home, things were just nuts.  That is another blog post (or two, or three, or more) on its own, which I hope to get to!

 

SOOOO, I think I’m just going to start with 2014 and then back track and try to catch up one month at a time from June-December 2013.  I’m excited about getting back to documenting just our normal, everyday life…this crazy one we have!  I bought a new, little point and shoot camera with my Christmas money which I am so excited about.  I had gotten to where I was taking hardly any pictures…even with my phone.  I didn’t like taking my big camera around, so now I just have my little one in my purse at all times so hopefully I won’t miss anything important!!

 

January 2014

 

Well, we made it through the crazy, wonderful holiday season! I absolutely LOVE the fall holiday and Christmas seasons.  This year they were especially fun with a  new little one running around! I’m going to do a separate Christmas post, but here’s a little teaser!

Back to January…

Myla lost her 3rd tooth at the beginning of January.  Is losing a tooth as traumatic for everyone else’s children as it is for Myla? (See the red eyes, evidence of a lot of crying)  Goodness, for us, it’s at least an hour long process of trying to convince her to let us pull that pesky little tooth that is hanging on by a thread.  It’s crazy.  Nonetheless, once it’s out, she’s ok.

For Christmas, Myla got a “fake” American Girl doll from Target. She was pleased as punch with it because she had no idea Target didn’t sell authentic American Girl dolls.  No offense to AG, but I think the price of these things and all of their trillions of gadgets are a bit, um, outrageous!  Myla has never been a big fan of playing with dolls, but now that she has been around other little girls with AG dolls, she has really been wanting one.  Anyway, a friend of mine at church told me that her nieces were ready to get rid of two of their AG dolls, and they wanted to give them to someone that really wanted one.  Myla was so thrilled that now she had not only one, but two REAL AG to go along with her knock off.  Ha.  To be honest, she has played with them more than I would have thought, and Selah loves them too.  They play with them together a good bit, which is very sweet!

One day the girls asked to help with chores.  Of course, I jumped on their requests!  Selah enjoyed vacuuming.  She loved it so much that she did it several times over the next couple of days, and the poor vacuum endured more torture than it could stand.  I think she dropped the handle part no less than 15 times.  Anyway, the vacuum became a casualty and we ended up having to get another one.  Needless to say, vacuuming has gone back to being a “mommy only” chore.

Myla emptied the garbage cans. Nice!

We had some pretty frigid days in January.  I think this particular morning it was 9 degrees.   I called this picture, “I’m dreaming of the tropics of Taiwan.”  I can guarantee that Ramsey, before coming home from Taiwan, had never been subjected to temps less than 60 degrees.  (When I do our Taiwan posts, you will see a common theme of HEAT…it’s the hottest place I’ve ever been!)

Tooth number 4 was lost in January as well.  This one wasn’t quite so dramatic.  This tooth was literally sticking out of her mouth. I was calling her Nanny McPhee.  Anyway, Michael was looking at it trying to get her to let him pull it and she had her lips tight together.  He pushed on her top lip, and she opened her mouth and her tooth was on her tongue.  She was shocked…I mean because it was obviously not ready to come out if it just took a little push on her lip to get it to come out. 

Capturing a sweet moment in the car!

Selah got this dog for Christmas.  His name was Shadow.  Anyway, Selah loved the dog much more than the dog loves her.  So, after about three weeks, we had to find him a new home. This was right before we dropped him off to his new owner.  I think the look on his face says it all….”Please, get me out of here!”

Random January movie night!

Ramsey had his 18 month check-up with Dr. Molly in January.  Health wise, he is doing great.  He is  like a string bean, though…tall and skinny!  I was shocked to learn he was in the 19% for weight because he eats ALL the time.  I don’t know how he could eat any more.  LOL.  He is in the 65% for height. Unfortunately, his ears have been yucky and infected pretty much since he came home.  Looks like he’ll be getting tubes in March.

In case you were wondering, this is Ramsey’s preferred posture to pitch a fit most of the time.  And believe me, he can pitch a good one!

He (and Selah) loved playing under the table in the exam room.  He’s like a little monkey!

These two have come a LONG way together!

Sweet boy!

Over and over again…back and forth over that bar!

Pleased with himself.

On another random note, Ramsey LOVES to dip his food in any condiment, ketchup, Ranch dressing, mustard, Ro-tel, etc.  It is so funny because the girls are not “dippers”!

Taiwan–Trip One!

So, we have been home from Taiwan for a week, and I am finally getting around to updating the blog!  As you can imagine, we have lots of pictures, so this post is a little lengthy!

First, let me say, our God is good!  He blessed us and showed us favor over and over again on our trip.  We could not have asked for anything more…except to have gotten to bring him HOME with us!  We are so, so, so ready to go back and bring him home.  Of course, we do not know exactly how long it will take, but we are praying no more than 2-3 months.  So here goes…

The night before we left, the girls had their AWANA awards night at church.  Selah was very excited about her Puggle certificate.  At this point (of the picture) we were meeting my parents to pick up the girls.  They stayed with them and Michael’s parents some during our trip.  Myla and I are in the front seat both bawling our eyes out. It was very hard to leave them…I was fully NOT prepared for the emotions that we endured during the drop off.

On the first leg of our trip…Memphis to Los Angeles. 

Once we got to LA and made our way to the international terminal, we got some lunch.  We ate at Panda Express, which is hysterical. If I had only thought about how much Chinese food we were going to eat over the next 8 days, I probably would have chosen McDonald’s.  Ha!!  Michael read the Duck Commander book while we waited for our flight.  He literally laughed out loud every other minute.  I got so tickled at him!

I mean, he was seriously cracking up!  And he was giving me a summary of each paragraph/page even though I had already read it!

Our big plane!  It doesn’t look big in this picture, but it was huge!

Next stop…Taipei, Taiwan! Such a rush of emotions at this point knowing we were so close to meeting our son and being in his birth country.  Like I said earlier, I really wasn’t prepared for ALL of the emotions of this trip!

Michael in his nice “slippers” that were provided on the airplane.

Right at 14 hours later, we finally landed in Taiwan!  The flight was LONG…very LONG!  Once we landed, we got our luggage, literally walked through customs and met Tim, the man than was picking us up.  After an hour and a half drive, we finally got to the orphanage where we were going at around 1:30 am.  One thing I was totally unprepared for in Taiwan was the HEAT.  Sweet goodness, it is HOT and HUMID there and air conditioning is RARE.  We did have it in our hostel where we stayed, so I was super thankful for that!

Saturday morning, the moment finally arrived!  We had Ramsey in our arms!  (We cannot post pictures of Ramsey’s face until the adoption is final, in case you are wondering why a heart is covering his face in every picture!! It was a sweet meeting with his nanny, and I was just overwhelmed by all of it.  Of course, tears were shed by all and we were just grateful, grateful, grateful!

Ramsey cried soon after his nanny gave him to me, which is totally understandable!  We were complete strangers, and he was in a brand new place!  After we got back into the car, Michael reached his arms out to him and he went to Michael and didn’t cry again.  Melt.My.Heart!  It was seriously the sweetest moment, and from that point on, it was if he had been with us forever.  He didn’t miss a beat.  Did I mention that God is good?  He answered many prayers about Ramsey adjusting and attaching to us.  Simply amazing!

Our first night together…I think the shirt says it all!  He even slept great!!

Our hostel was a short walk to the orphanage that we served at while there.  The island of Taiwan has beautiful vegetation.  So much different than what we are used to!

The driveway to the orphanage.

LOVE the tall trees!  Michael was pushing Ramsey in the stroller, which he LOVED, by the way. I think he would stroll all day!

Getting some play time with Daddy!  Ramsey really attached to Michael, which was so sweet!  I helped a lot with the babies in the home so they had a lot of alone time together!

I guess iPhones are international with kids!  He loved it.  And, yes I introduced him to smocked Jon Jon’s!

When we would say the Chinese word for telephone, he would hold the phone up to his ear.  We’re pretty sure he’s a genius!!

Poor Ramsey’s hair stayed soaking wet with sweat most of the time, so we sported a mohawk while running errands one day!

Ramsey’s favorite toy was this bike! If he wasn’t riding on it, he was pushing it around everywhere!

One day while we were there, we went to a place called the Cultural Center.  It is set up like Taiwan would have looked many years ago.  It was very interesting, and we had a great time getting to explore and shop!

There was a parade/play that came down the street….

…and ended at a pavilion.  The acrobats were really neat!

I was so excited to see a 7-Eleven at the cultural center!  We went in to get a snack, and I almost picked up these Lay’s until I realized they were seaweed sushi flavor.  No, thanks!

I didn’t get the chicken flavor either.  Ha!  I did get some plain Pringles and a Coke!! YUM!

At lunch, I did try some squid.  That was about the extent of my craziness.  I pretty much stuck to rice and fruit!

Still so surreal to have him in our arms!

Me and my SON!!  I still love saying it.  Notice the shiny face.  I sweated gallons every day!

Ramsey loved playing with this basketball!  He would kick it and chase it forever.

Michael enjoyed playing a little ball too!

We stayed at a great hostel that had air conditioning, plenty of room and a great bathroom!  I was very thankful for this place!

The morning we had court was the only morning I tried to “fix up” by drying my hair, etc.  Needless to say, by the time I walked to the orphanage, my hair was in a ponytail and all my make up was pretty much sweated off! That morning, we had a wonderful meeting with Ramsey’s birth mom that I will remember and treasure forever.

This was the building where we had court.  I thought about getting a picture on the way out, so this was the best I got out of the back windshield!

We ran some errands after court, so I took a chance to take some pictures of some of the scooters.  They were everywhere!!

Lots and lots of them!

After court, we came back to the area where the orphanage is and walked down by a beautiful lake that is very close one last time.  There is one little street with some vendors and bike rentals.

The lake is very beautiful and serene and has a walking track all the way around it!

If you didn’t want to walk, you could rent these bikes.  Four people could peddle at the same time!

The hardest moment of our trip.  Driving away from Ramsey.  Oh my, it felt like my heart was breaking.  The only peace I had leaving him was knowing how much he loves his nanny, and she takes wonderful care of him.  Of course, going over, I knew we were going to have to leave him, but again, there is nothing to prepare your heart for that. 

When we got to the airport in Taipei, we headed straight for the Burger King.  Best french fries I’ve ever had.  Ha!

About to board to head back to the USA!

As I said, our trip was great! There is much that I didn’t share because I just want to keep some things private.  We are praying every day for the call that we can go back and get him for good.