Gracie is SEVEN months today!

The week leading up to Gracie's 7 month "birthday" has been incredible! Gracie started sleeping through the night after her 11:30 PM bottle! She started eating banana flavored oatmeal - her first food other than formula! She bumped up sizes to a solid 3-6 month size. She started rolling over both ways constantly with no aid. AND she started sitting up for a few seconds. Her physical therapist was really impressed yesterday. And today - Gracie is SEVEN MONTHS old! I can't believe I've been looking at her face (in picture or in person) since she was just 3 months old. She has been a part of our lives in one manner or another for 4 months now. She's been home for a little over 2 months!

Gracie is starting to be more responsive and expressive. She gets very excited about eating oatmeal and gets twitchy when she tastes peas! She loves to watch her big sister and Libby loves to make Gracie smile. We are trying to move Gracie away from taking a nap every 3 hours to taking 2 solid, longer naps a day - one in the morning and one in the afternoon... but haven't quite got that down just yet.

I can't believe I actually uploaded 18 pictures for this post... but I just couldn't choose my favorite! Enjoy!

All About Gracie

Brighton recently visited our home to evaluate Gracie's development and see if she qualifies for free physical therapy. She was actually not far enough behind to qualify for the regular program, but because of her unique beginnings, severe malnutrition, early sicknesses and adoption she qualified for the "A-typical program". The physical therapist was very helpful in showing me some exercises to help Gracie develop her trunk, neck and arm muscles. The very next day, as if Gracie was listening to her every word and decided she wanted to excel, Gracie started rolling over both ways - from back to tummy and tummy to back. She is getting stronger every day and will be sitting up on her own in no time! Last week we had a check up with Gracie's physician. Gracie weighed in at 15 pounds and 4 ounces!!!!! And she's 26 inches long. So - that puts her in the 20th percentile on weight (which is incredible given her start in life) and the 40th percentile in height. Her little legs are getting all chunky with fat rolls - so cute!

The following are pictures in no particular order of the past 2-3 weeks. Gracie's smile is sly and contagious. She's going to have flirty eyes and the best hair ever (which is growing like weeds! YAY!) We are enjoying her so very much!

Gracie's new jumpin' seat. She looks like a lopsided cricket when she hops on one leg and spins around. Its very funny!

For the next 3 pictures:

My friend, Britney, gave Gracie the butterfly onesie in the photo below. It is special because in the very first picture we had of Gracie (when she was severely malnourished and frail) she was wearing pjs with the "very hungry caterpillar" on it (I've included this picture also so you can see the difference - it's amazing!). When I realized what was on her pjs in that picture it was like God showed me a promise - that Gracie would be just like the beautiful butterfly at the end of that book. And now, here she is at 15.4 pounds wearing the butterfly on her outfit from that same book. The promise was true and God is faithful!

Our Beautiful Butterfly.

Gracie sits in her Bumbo seat on the kitchen counter while I cook. She looks like she's another decoration on the counter she's so small. I love it!

LOVE that smile!

The Gummy Smile!

The kissable cheeks!

The growing soft, curly hair!

The big eyes!

Stretching during play time.

Love that sweet face!

Just want to stare at her eyes forever!

"mommy's answered prayer" onesie. So true!

Cooking with Libby (the cutest Chef in the world!)

Libby loves to help mommy in the kitchen and recently we rediscovered a kids cooking book my sister sent me a while back. Libby decided she wanted to make some special dishes for our house church - so we did. She went shopping with me for all the ingredients and proved to be an awesome chef - not to mention - she is the cutest chef in the world!

Bam!

Above - one of my most favorite photos of all time! How could she be any cuter?!

Catching up... in pictures....

These pictures are not in the right order, but time is too valuable to fuss over it. First pic is my new haircut with my new baby girl.

The Lord has given Libby and our family a special gift in that we have about 10 families around us with adopted Chinese girls the same age as Libby. One of the moms - Shawna - decided to start a China Camp for hand full of us to do a trial run and see how it goes. She did a fabulous job! She invited the girls to her home to learn about China through song, dance, games, foods, etc. The morning of China camp Libby was beyond excited. She just around the house shouting "I'm going to China Camp!!!" Just the idea that she was going to a place that talked about the country she came from meant the world to her. I dressed her up in some of her Chinese clothes for the first morning (above). She was all smiles!

The last day of China Camp all the girls wore their fancy Chinese clothes and had a Tea Party. Libby, again, was ecstatic! She loves hot tea!

The girls also had a "show and tell" day and Libby took her parasol to show off.

These are the precious girls who attended the camp. Aren't they all so beautiful!?!

I even dressed Gracie up in one of Libby's very first Chinese outfits. So cute!

Libby showing off one of her China camp crafts - her paper lantern.

One of Libby's dearest friends, Maliah, was also there and during story time they would sit with their arms wrapped around one another.

Recently, Libby helped me tackle the fun job of teaching Gracie to eat baby food.... it didn't go so well.

Sweet Gracie Lu

I love this sly look. She displays it often!

Libby visited the Guadalupe River with her daddy several times this summer. She loves to sit in this little rapid and let the water push her downstream. She's been catching fish out there too. She helps her daddy get the worms out of the container and she holds the cat-fish and all. She is so much fun!

Neil McClendon, a good friend of ours, was the speaker at one of the camps we lead worship for. He met Gracie for the first time and was really great with tricky Libby.

Sisters!

Hopefully I will have time to share more tomorrow night.

Growing a Princess

The last 4 months of our lives have been.....a hectic, difficult transition met with many challenges. To briefly recap, we received Gracie's picture on April 13 and discovered that the daughter God chose for us was having a difficult start and was severely malnourished due to sicknesses. The wait for a court date was miraculously short and we passed court the first try. Then we thought we were traveling to Ethiopia early and had everything packed and ready to go literally up to the last minute only to discover we would have to wait 2 more weeks due to a minor paperwork issue. Two weeks later we boarded our first plane for the trip to Ethiopia and by the end of the day Libby had a 103 degree fever. The trip to Ethiopia and back became a roller coaster ride of emotions as we battled Libby's illness, her abnormal tantrums, her fear of becoming a big sister, her refusal to eat, jet lag, meeting and embracing Gracie for the first time (chicken pox and all!), feeling the magnitude of poverty in Ethiopia, meeting Gracie's birthmother, and making the looooooooooooooong trip home. We landed in the US and my (Cindy's) stomach issues began... call it traveler's diarrhea or a bug - I don't know - but the next 2 weeks were a rough road with jet lag and potty time. Then I had a 24 hour bug that included throwing up... 5 pounds lost later... I discovered a lump in my breast. Sonogram revealed a golf ball sized cyst that needed to be removed. The day of my surgery consultation, Gracie's pediatrician called with news that Gracie may have a metabolic disorder and we were ordered to go to the hospital immediately for further blood work. Later that week our new CD was released and I had my lumpectomy. That evening our in-laws came in town for a visit. The next morning Gracie had a third round of blood work in just under 2 weeks time. Finally, news came that my cyst was NOT cancer! Praise God. Then camps began. First one was at camp Zephyr. Juggling 2 little ones and leading worship and eating in a crowded-teen-swarming cafeteria took its toll. By the end of the week I had RAGING pink eye, a fever blister (which I have NEVER had before) and terrible body aches. AND Gracie's ears started oosing infection (for a second round of double ear infections). Gracie started antibiotics (and diarrhea with that) and I felt EXHAUSTED. Arrived home from that camp at 2AM that Friday morning. Had Saturday to do laundry and repack. Left that Sunday for camp #2 in OK. Arrived at that camp feeling HORRIBLE. Cried a lot. Still had no solid word on Gracie's health and blood work - at this point the docs were also considering that she might have TB. Finished camp, started some new discipline ideas with Libby that FINALLY brought about some results, and sought a doctor about my health. Blood work revealed the next week that I had MONO!! All summer I assumed my exhaustion was from jet lag, foreign travel, becoming a mom of 2, and sleepless nights of feeding the baby - but nope - that wasn't all - I've had MONO! But hallelujah..... we also received news that week that Gracie is CLEARED of ALL assumed illnesses - she has NO tb, NO liver disease, NO metabolic disorder!!!

While I am still getting well and forcing myself to take it easy and hunker down at home most of the day, I am so relieved that my babies are doing well. During our trip to ET I shared on our other blog how difficult Libby's behavior was. Considering all we've been through and how hard the trip was, I know that most of her issues were understandable. But there were some meltdowns and tantrums that I just couldn't figure out how to handle. God brought a godly man back into our lives who spoke with Billy and I about how to handle Libby and we've had a seriously amazing breakthrough. The last 2 weeks have been SO AMAZING with her. She has settled into being a big sister. She loves on Gracie all day. She desires to obey. She is more affectionate than ever -even with all the extra discipline - in fact, the consistency and extra work have caused her heart to bond with us more deeply and sweetly than ever before. And Gracie is growing and getting fat! She is wonderful and pleasant and perfect (cause she's not 2 or 3 yet - haha!). It has been a complete joy - even in the midst of all our trials - to just be wife and mom. I'm loving it!

So - blogging has suffered due to the life of changing diapers and I am, after all, on a learning curve for trying to juggle a second little one. But I have a plan! I going to try to post a short post with about 5 pictures each night until I've completely caught you all up on our summer life in pictures... believe it or not... the "short" recap of our summer above is not an exhaustive list... much more happened than that even!

Here are my picture posts for tonight... 2 years ago we did the same camp at camp Zephyr and I took some sweet pictures of Libby. This year I tried to take a couple of the same shots so we can see how she's grown... Growing a princess may be hard work, but man, she is worth it. And who knew 2 years ago that we would be back with a second princess in such a short time!

Enjoy....

Libby at camp Zephyr July 2009

Libby at camp Zephyr June 2007

Camp Zephyr 2009

Camp Zephyr 2007

Camp Zephyr - newest addition - Summer 2009

Welcome to Camp Life Gracie!