Camellia's Been Home 6 Months!

 

Over the bay windows in our family room, we have this verse:

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

2 Timothy 1:7

 

 

Dale and I have had discussions about how adoption is not for the faint of heart.  We truly believe you have to be called to go on this journey of love, mercy, and biggest of all...submission.  As I read this verse in my home daily, it is a constant reminder that Christ Himself has given Dale and me what we need to survive this phase in our lives.  While adoption has blessed our family immensely, how would we have gone through this without His help?  I don't think I could survive a single day as a mother without God giving me the power to make it through one day at a time, the love to be compassionate when I'd rather yell, and the sound mind not to lose my marbles.  The last attribute may be up for debate, but I already admit it, so there will be no discussion of that!  :)

 

 

In the last entry, I talked about how the zoo was not a tremendous hit with Camellia.  The park seemed to be more her pace.  Perhaps it's because she was free to run around without having to be confined in a stroller to keep her safe, or maybe it's because there were none of those scary animals.  Whatever it was, she had a great time at the lovely park we have just down the road from our home.

 

Some of Camellia's smiles come out a little "cheesy," but that's just her way of trying to smile nicely for us. 

 And here's what it's like when you try to get a picture of four children all cooperating at the same time.  Sometimes these goofy ones are the best!

 

I have very few photos of Jack by himself because he was so busy helping his little sister.  I cannot express how wonderful he is with Camellia.  He is so full of compassion for her, and it shows.  She feels the same for him; she just adores him and will do just about anything for him.

 

 My sweet little Chloe is such a caring little girl and a joy to be around.  And when I say girl, I mean 100% girl!

Ooh, that slide was kind of scary!

People often say they can tell the ornery one in our bunch.  They say Ian has that special glimmer in his eye that gives away the fact that he's usually doing something silly.  Dale and I love that he still giggles so hard and loud, like a baby with that adorable belly laugh.

 

 And here's Jack taking Camellia down the slide because it was too scary to do on her own.

 

Oh no, the wind is blowing!

I'm melting!  I've been touched by a raindrop!

 I just love this shot of Camellia blowing dandelions.

Another example of trying to get a decent shot of four kids:

 

For the past year, I've had to listen to Chloe tell me how mean Daddy is because he took the training wheels off her bike, and she's scared, and she's never going to ride a bike again.  One day last week, she came in the house to exclaim that Jack had helped her ride her bike all by herself, and it's not hard at all.  By the next day, she proclaimed that she had surpassed novice and intermediate level and was now considered advanced at bike riding.  She even went so far as to tell Dale, "I'm sorry, Daddy, but Jack's just better at teaching bike riding than you."

 

Learning to ride your bike warrants some time at the church parking lot up the road.



 

I just have to say that when we went in for the evening, we threw away this holey pair of play jeans that Ian has been wearing.  Looking at these photos, I'm embarrassed that my child was wearing pants in this condition.  It goes to show that the boy plays hard!

 

Jack rode back to the house to get his Green Machine so he could take Camellia for a ride.  She was so funny with her legs flopping on top of his when he pedaled.

Here we are on Mother's Day.  Recently, Dale has been looking around and saying, "This is a lot of kids.  Can you believe this is our family?"  All I can think is, this isn't that many kids; look at our friend Janice whom Dale met while in China.  They are expecting biological baby number 6 and have 2 boys from Africa and 2 from China.  Now there's a lot of kids!