Our Trip to Charleston

On Aug. 27, 2009 I made my first big trip with the two girls in tow without Billy. Billy went on his annual fly-fishing trip and I decided to brave the flights to see my family and celebrate my dad's 60th birthday and my sister's 32nd. birthday as well as meet Hunter - my first nephew - and introduce Gracie to my family and friends. The girls were fabulous on all the flights!!!!

We stayed very busy between seeing all the family members, celebrating birthdays, touring the city a bit (we were on vacation, after all!) and seeing some old friends from both high school and college. We also celebrated Libby's Gotcha Day on the 4th! It would be impossible to recall and share all the details and memories made on this trip. The pictures will have to tell the story. Here goes:

Libby and her Papa

Gigi holds Gracie for the first time!

Gracie and Aunt Becky

Great Mimi holds Gracie for the first time. Gracie was a little unhappy, but we had traveled a long way and she was very tired.

Libby and her cousins, Taylor and Camryn, all dressed up in costumes for fun. Libby was, of course, a Chinese Chicken! haha!

"What? I didn't do anything wrong? Chinese Chickens never do anything wrong."

Papa and Gigi took Libby, Gracie and I to the SC Aquarium. Libby loved looking at the water in the Charleston harbor with Papa and Gigi.

Libby was a little too scared of the giant frog to sit right next to it. Close enough.

Taylor and Libby with Papa

Taylor, Libby and Gracie stand next to the stinky cage of a beautiful Bald Eagle.

Gracie looks sweet in this picture, but I'm sure she was about to tug on that beautiful blonde hair.

The four girls together - Libby, Gracie, Taylor and Camryn.

Libby and Taylor played hard. They got along so well and would play for hours together.

Gracie - close up. Love those big eyes and sweet lips!

The outfit Gracie has on is one that Libby wore to her own Court Appointment in China. Libby was 9 months at that point, so Gracie is passing up Libby's size at just 7 months! I love this pic of them together. So sweet!

Libby and Bowen. Bowen is the son of my dear friend Betty Jean. He is such a doll!

This is not the best photo angel, but its the best I've got because my photographer was Libby and since she is shorter, her view is not eye level. These are the beautiful and precious ladies with whom I went to high school. Betty Jean, Laura, Shannon and Leighanne. We had such a great time catching up at the Sunflower Cafe. I also went to college with Betty Jean. Betty and I go WAY back. Love that girl! Thank you for working out all the details for us to get together Betty. I love you!

My mom really enjoyed holding Gracie.

My dad with the girls.

Gracie with Ann and Pepa Strickland.

I drove with the girls to Columbia, SC (about a 2 hour drive north of Charleston) to see some of my best friends in the world. I met each of these ladies in college and our hearts have been joined since. I love them all so much. God has multiplied each of us and 8 kids were present for our gathering - and that's not counting the school aged children! Oh my! Libby had so much fun with the older girls and they were so sweet to include her in all their fun and games. It was a fabulous day catching up with these pearls! Libby and I also met another college friend, Misty, for lunch one afternoon and enjoyed catching up with her as well. It is so good to reminisce and remember the faithfulness of God in each of our lives. Alli, thank you for hosting us all in your beautiful home. We have to do this again soon girls!

Upstairs, the six older kids gathered for a movie. The 2 infants, Gracie and Lily, were downstairs with the ladies. Each of these precious faces glows with the love of God because each of their moms and dads love Jesus and are true to that in private just as much as they are in public - just good, authentic, people - each and every one!

The girls huddled in on Jason for some love and attention.

Becky threw some leaves around with Libby. Simple entertainment that works!!

Camryn has grown up so much since I last saw her in Nov. '08. I can't believe it's been that long. Camy is SASSY and so much fun!

We stayed at Becky's house for our entire stay. The girls adore her! Becky, you were a wonderful hostess and we enjoyed your home (which is looking fabulous, btw!) and your family. You are so laid back and fun! We missed you the moment you drove away at the airport.

A sweet sister moment.

We met some of Becky's friends and their kids for lunch at Chic-fil-A. Libby and Moli (I just realized I don't know how to spell her name - sorry Tara!) had a chance to catch up and play together. Tara gave me great info on homeschooling since I THINK I'm interested in doing that in the future. Moli and her sister, Grace, are precious! All the kids there were so cute. It was great being with Becky's friends!

Cuteness!

Cuteness again!

I love this picture. It looks like Gracie is coming in for a big slobbery kiss and Libby is graciously accepting.

Mom was able to give Gracie her bottle a couple of times. Sweet times.

WE FINALLY MET HUNTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is he a doll or what? He just sits there and observes his crazy girl cousins. He is squeezable, kissable and so very sweet! We were so happy to meet him. Kelly and Carissa had taken him to California to see Carissa's family, so we had to wait until the end of our trip to see them. It was worth the wait and extended stay. He is awesome!

Hunter is only a couple of weeks younger than Gracie. But he's in the 90th percentile in height, weight and head circumference so he was a big boy compared to Gracie Lu. This pic (above) was taken just minutes into their first introduction. I can't wait to see them grow up together over the years. I'm so happy Gracie has a cousin her own age!

Auntie Carissa with both girls.

Huggable Hunter asleep in his car seat.

Dad and Becky's birthday bash! Dad turned 60!!! Becky turned 32! It was great to celebrate both of them. Dad is a man of incredible strength, integrity and is has such a servant's heart. Becky is a lot like him in so many ways! She is always serving someone. Love them both so much!

Libby and I had fun decorating the room together.

Gracie gave Becky a big kiss!

The birthday pair!

The party guests - including my sweet little brother!

Gracie and Hunter at play.

So cute!

Carissa with Gracie

Kelly holding Libby

The sisters and their kiddos. 5 grandkids in all (so far!)

Jason gets some love from Taylor and Libby.

Libby and I had a date on the morning of September 4 to celebrate her 3rd. Gotcha Day Anniversary. From the moment she woke up all she wanted was a large lollipop!

The sweet girl God graciously gave to us! Isn't she pretty in her blue dress?!

We found the lollipop in the downtown market!

And then we took a carriage tour together. It was so much fun!

Lastly, we went to Bessengers just so we could throw down some old fashioned mac and cheese. YUM!

Three Years Ago

On Sept 3, 2006 we attended a moving service at an international church in China and then climbed the Great Wall. But nothing could prepare us for what the dawn would bring. When the sun set, Billy and I finally shared our deepest fears about becoming parents and we wept together, held one another for hours and then prayed. We were so exhausted from jet lag, fears, crying and tourism that we fell into deep sleep with ease - though, very late. Then the sun came up... full of hope and promise and....NERVES!

We flew to the Gaungdong province of China that morning knowing that in a few short hours we would meet our first baby girl for whom we had chosen the name Liberty Song Foote ("Libby"). A name for "freedom" - both physically and spiritually. Little did I know that God had chosen this child of joy to set ME free from the fear of being a mother.

I will never forget all the heightened emotions of seeing Libby face to face for the first time. She was screaming and crying wildly within seconds of our embrace. But I was prepared for that and immediately went into mommy mode - holding her, kissing her, bouncing her as we walked up and down the hallway with one other mommy (Cristie) and her screaming baby girl (Maliah) who would travel more than a hallway's length several days later back to San Antonio with us - living just 10 minutes apart. Was God's hand in that or what! Two Chinese babies from the same orphanage ended up in families that were friends and lived only a few miles apart. From one side of the world to the other we would fly home and maintain Libby's and Maliah's "sisterhood". God is good!

We arrived back at the hotel and Libby continued to cry. Knowing her much better now that she has been with us for 3 years, I can say that her cry that day was one of great fear and grief. Libby has always (even before we met her (according to her nannies)) been afraid of meeting new people. In her paperwork it said that anytime a new face entered the room she would cry. That is a stronghold we have prayed over, had grace with and been tender towards ever since.

That night I had to escape the hotel room for the mountain of paperwork that had to be finished. Billy had a calming effect on Libby and she took her first bottle from him and then fell asleep on his belly. He waltzed into daddy-hood and sweet contentment took over his countenance.

We listened to the sound of Libby licking the silky edge of her new blanket for quite some time. It was so sweet. We wondered what our first night would be like for us. We barely slept, but not because she was crying or needing a bottle. She slept ALL NIGHT! But we were nervous, first time parents and were alert for every little sound in the dark.

When the next morning came we were looking over the crib at her angelic, still-sleeping face and wondered how much longer before we should wake her. We opened the curtain to let in the sun. We simply couldn't bare the wait any longer to see if she would be happy or sad at the sight of our faces on this first full new day of her life. To our delight she was happy... and the rest of our three years with Libby so far is just as much a beautiful story.

Today, Libby is a thriving 3 year old beauty who has blossomed especially in the last two months as she has learned much in becoming a big sister to Gracie. She is even doing much better at welcoming new faces and sharing her affections with friends and family. She is an ever active, extremely bright, constantly inquisitive, positively athletic, gorgeous girl who happens to like super heroes, match box cars and soccer balls much more than dolls, dresses and bows. She tells me she love me a hundred times a day and throws a fit or cries a little less often than that - LOL! She loves to talk about Jesus, Adam and Eve, Jacob and Esau and...Maliah and Lily! She asks numerous times a day why God made flowers, trees, rocks, people. And she will often ask me to tell her the whole story from Genesis through the life of Jesus. She LOVES drums, dancing and telling stories and her imagination is off the charts! And every day... EVERY DAY.... I want to hug and squeeze and nurture Libby Song with everything I've got. She inspires me. Her joy is so contagious and her smile is piercing. She radiates in my eyes.... this must be how Jesus sees his own... this must be what he means when he says that he delights in us. Oh, how I delight in Libby. Thank you Jesus for bringing her into our lives. Thank you for the 3 years I have had with her so far! What a deep, profound, life-altering blessing!

You can read my words from that Sept 4, 2006 Gotcha Day at: http://www.libbysong.com/web/do/site/photo?ID=113142

Here are the pictures on that same journal page:

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!