NW India Adoption Gathering 2010

Well, tomorrow is the big day for our first annual gathering...A group of families that have a passion for India adoption. We can't wait!!!! We have connected through our blogs and have helped carry each other through the ups and downs of adoption. What a blessing it has been to share a virtual life with so many and then now to meet in real life.

Good times will be had by all! To those that could not make it this year, we will miss you and are hopeful that next year we can add more to the gathering.

Be watching for an overload of pictures of some very sweet kids meeting for the first time.

Our Video...finally!

1 year later...our Adoption Video. We have had this done since October but ran into a problem with having it loaded and now its fixed. Yay!!! I hope you enjoy watching our journey to Adia-leigh. Our friend did this video for us and I am so thankful for his work and the special gift this is to our family.

Adia from Boone Langston on Vimeo.

Happy "Adia" day!

I can't believe that ONE YEAR ago today our precious girl was placed in our arms. It has been a year rich in so many ways, hard in many ways, but full of the Lord, His grace and tender mercy. We love you Adia-leigh and thank God for you everyday!


Side Note: Can you view my blog OK? Whenever I view it, its all messed up!

The dreaded "Night Terrors"

Do you see that most precious smile? I have missed it so much and don't know what has happened. Just wanted to see if anyone else has dealt with Night Terrors. We have had Adia on a pretty good sleep pattern (with a few minor bumps here and there)for many months. Three weeks ago she stopped sleeping through the night and has been completely freaking out at nap/bed time. The last two nights I can officially say she is having Night Terrors. Last night was the absolute worst, my heart was crushed for her as she was trembling in my arms and acted like she didn't know me. It was awful!!!!!!!! Any advice would be helpful and please pray for both of us. Words can't even describe the fear I saw in her face and all I know is that my heart has never been more crushed.

June...Oh, how I've longed for you!

June, if I can just make it to June. I said this a lot over the last several months with a few other things that I won't mention. These last 6-months may go down in history as the days in life that kicked my trash around the block and back. Having 3 kids at home by myself for 6-months was not my ideal situation. I have learned a thing or two about myself and it has not all been good. All, I can say is that I am thankful for God's grace and that his mercies are new every morning. There have been many a night that all I could say was "We will start over tomorrow." :)

I have learned that being loved by my 3-little's is one of the most rewarding things life has offered me.

I have learned that adoption can be extremely hard work but so rewarding and beautiful.

I have witnessed first hand that their is NO difference between the intensity with which a parent loves an adopted child and a home-grown child.

I have learned that a brief time away is vitally essential to my state of being more now then ever before.

I have learned that my house will still hold up whether it is clean or dirty. ( I must of had a good builder ;)

I have learned how much I really love to be at home and not running my children everywhere for everything.

I have learned that an extra NF/SF Mocha can solve many a problem. A few nice trips to the beach can do the same thing.

I have learned that their continues to be a strong desire for more schooling...so guess what? I start in the fall and couldn't be more excited.

I have learned I need my husband. I don't just love him, or want him around, or enjoy his company (though all those things are true)...I NEED HIM! I need his support, his help with kids, his input, his humor, his presence and participation in our lives. The last 6-months Eric has worked out of town M-F and it has been hard. Yes, we were very thankful for the work but that still did not make the day to day any easier. We have been blessed with such great friends and family who helped out. Thank you for saving the little bit of sanity I had left.

and now its JUNE!!!! This means that Eric will be coming home in about 3-weeks. We are so excited to have him home.

AND, this brings me to the next phase of this journey called life. It has been a dream of Eric's for quite sometime to own his own business. It has never felt like a good time but we feel confident that the time is now. You are probably thinking that we are crazy to take this step of faith in this economy, we really feel at peace and hopeful about this decision. We are excited to see how God can use us and want to be open to his plan. He continues to refine us everyday and we have lots of questions but are trusting that God has something in store for us.

This change comes with a ton of emotion (insert crying) as Eric is leaving a company that he has loved as his own for 10 years. We are forever grateful to Shannon and Gina for allowing Eric this opportunity and most importantly for the friendship that has developed over the years. We love you both so much!

Please remember us in your prayers. We have no doubt this change will come with stress and anxiety until Eric is established. We are up for the challenge!

We are continually reminded that we live a beautiful life. We are blessed. We are loved and oh so happy to have a few lazy summer days as a family of 5 coming soon.

Please Pray...

for a sweet lady friend and her 7yr.old boy that she just brought home from India. This has been nothing but a nightmare situation and I am crushed for N(the boy) and S(the mom). They have been home just over a month and N has had a few seizures and some very extreme behavior. She thought they had discovered that his behavior was because he had not had any medication since leaving the orphanage and it was more like someone going through detox. S, was told that he hadn't been taking any meds and had no seizures for quite sometime but...N told their Hindi speaking Pediatrician that he was still taking meds everyday back in India and if he did not he always had seizures. Someone did not give them the proper information on his medical report! :( The seizures I know are really scary but they can handle, the hard part right now is that his behavior is completely scary. She has had to call 911 a few times because she can't tell if he is having a reaction to medication or he really has a serious behavior disorder. I can't list everything but you get the idea of the stress and frustration they must be going through. Please remember them in your prayers and pray for peace in their home and for S's heart as I can't imagine the emotions they are all going through.

Some Days are Better than Others...

**Edited** Rejoicing that Adia's adoption was finalized last week. So thankful to close that chapter of the adoption process...God is good and faithful!



That sums up how life has been the last several months. It is hard to believe Adia has been home over 5 months now. The first 2 months home seemed so easy compared to the months following...WOWZERS! In the back of my mind I knew it was to good to be true but was still hopeful that we wouldn't have those more serious struggles. But..the honeymoom is over and life has become quite difficult. I am not talking about attachment and bonding, I believe those things have gone really well. It's the reality that we brought home an almost 3 year old that is a super strong willed toddler, figuring out her new life and also being diagnosed with significant hearing loss. Yep, you read it right our sweet girl hears only about 20-30% of what is being said. This explains so much and I am sad that we knew nothing about it. I am hopeful that her shrieking fits will come to a hault once she can hear what a God awful sound she is making. Haha, I can dream right? :) We have had to make several trips to our local childrens hospital for the developmental testing, Hearing procedures etc... Adia seems to be doing pretty well considering she can hardly hear. Most of her results showed her at the age of a 2-2.5 year old and fine motor skills at 3 yrs. old. We were very pleased with the results and know everything will improve very quickly once we get hearing aids. Our insurance does not cover hearing aids(another huge stress)and they cost thousands of dollars. We are very THANKFUL to have Adia in early intervention for speech and physical therapy. This program has hooked us up with temporary hearing aids in January that we can use for 6-months until we can buy our own. Our audiologist gave us a great way to explain her hearing loss. She said its like reading the news paper with only vowels for words...everything else is all jumbled. :( It just breaks my heart but I am sooooo excited to see the difference in our lives after she hears at 80%. Her language is not horrible, so I can't imagine how it will take off in the next couple of months.

Other than our stressful visits to the doctor and getting Adia the services she needs, volunteering at the older kids school and being a taxi cab life has been good. We are definately having more better days than not right now and it makes my heart happy. We have also had two great weeks at church, the weeks before that not so great. Adia is just a doll and has a smile that melts everyone's heart. It's hard for people to believe she can be such a challenge when she is a charmer to EVERYONE else she meets. We are blessed to have her as a daughter and I wouldn't want anything different.

We've had our adoption video done for several weeks and I haven't had time to figure out how to post it. I love it!!! We watch it all the time and still cry everytime. Hopefully soon I can share it with you. I am still reading everyones blog and following on FB but responding is a challenge. Please know that I do pray for all of our journeys and am thankful for the friendships made. Hopefully someday I will be able to blog more frequently. For now, some days are better than others and I am just doing what I can.

Here are a few picks from the last several months. Happy Holidays to everyone!
Family pyramids after our Thanksgiving feast...fun times!


Halloween 2009= skeleton, leapord and a goth girl.

Adia turns "3" with all her cousins