Linzi's Christmas Program

Linzi had her first pubic appearance! :D Okay, it was a preschool Christmas program, but I think she was the star! We were so proud. You have to understand just how big of a deal it was for Linzi to even go up on the stage. Every since Linzi came home from China, we have had major, (and I mean MAJOR) separation issues. Everybody has their challenge, and ours would be her over the top clinginess and complete fear of doing anything without mommy by her side. We don't leave her in the church nursery or preschool class. Every time we tried, I was always called back and twice, I came back to find her hyperventilating. The rest of the day she was visibly shaken and stuck to me like glue. It has been a couple years since I have even attempted it, but if I mention it, she freaks. You do what you have to do. And because she has always sat through church with us, she is the most well behaved little person in church. She colors, plays quietly and sits in our laps without making a peep. So her success in preschool this year is an extra big blessing and makes us so very proud and happy for her. She has wonderful teachers and I think she was just ready to make this big step.

As you can see in the video, she was the best singer up there! No bias here, just keeping it real! :D I love how she scanned the crowd for us and smiled when she saw us. Then she got down to business. In the very end, as she was leaving the stage, she wanted to smile at us soooo bad, but felt she must keep looking straight ahead and moving with her class. Too cute. Yes, I cried, before, during and after the performance. And then all over again when I transferred it to the computer! :)

BTW, some of the songs are not complete on the video because the person in front of us kept leaning over to make oogly faces at the baby on the lap next to him. Each time he did, he totally blocked our range of view and we got lots and lots of video of the side of his head. ;)

Mandi's Birthday Party

Mandi's actual birthday was earlier this month. But because of all the acitivities, we didn't have her party until a couple weeks later. She had a sleepover with a few friends. We went to the movies, walked around the mall and then went back for cake and fun. This was my first time meeting almost all of the girls. Since Mandi's has started middle school, she has a totally different set of friends. They were all very, very sweet and I am so proud to see how my little girl is growing up. I felt like a young girl again hanging out with them! Each and every one of them were genuinely sweet, good and crazy fun in a good sort of way. Eric and Alex escaped for most of the night and it was just me, Linzi and the girls. Linzi LOVED partying with the "big" girls!

The girls all went in Sephora (the makeup store) at the mall. Of course, Linzi had to try a sample or two. It is hard to see in this picture, but she had eye shadow pencils of all colors, all over her face.

This is the cake that in true tween style, became a facial!

Each of the girls got a pair of these Christmas socks that Mandi picked out. They all wore them to school over top of their jeans the last day before break. And of course, Linzi couldn't let us take a picture without her in it! :D

Oh My Gosh! Has it really been THAT long since I have updated?!!! We have been lost in a sea of Christmas activities. It has been a wonderful season full of so many sweet memories. I will try to do a recap of some of them. If I tried to put it all into one post, it would get way too long, so I am going to do several posts over the next few days. As for going private - I was a little freaked out when I posted the last post. I got a few private emails from other adoptive moms and I am really struck by all of the wonderful people I have "met". I also have family and friends who stop in once in a while but are not active enough to bother with a password. So for a little longer, I am going to stay public, but very cautiously.

Sooo, on to the Christmas fun! I will start with Linzi's class Christmas party. She was so cute and I loved seeing her in her element at school. She started out so shy, but has totally come around to sharing her silly little self with her teachers.

Linzi got this book at the book exchange. It is so precious and she loves it!

She made an "I Love Jesus" necklace all by herself.

And my personal favorite ornament of the year - decorated by Linzi. . .This really made me chuckle. The teachers made this bulletin board and asked each child what they thought baby Jesus would want for his birthday. Each present represents what each child thought Jesus would enjoy.

And this was Linzi's answer. :D

Going Private

Some things have happened lately that have made me rethink blogging. I have loved reading everyone's blogs, "met" some incredible people that I am honored to call friends and have been forced to really stop and think about a lot of important things. For that, I am so grateful to each of you who has reached out to me, made me laugh, think and pray. I have every intention of keeping up with all of you and following your blogs for as long as you will allow me to. But for us, I am just no longer comfortable with Linzi's pictures and the personal details that I have shared about her story and my thoughts to be so public. I want to continue to write these things as they are put upon my heart and I love to share these thoughts with other parents who have or are in the process of adopting. I also love that fact that I am documenting many things that I want to share with Linzi when she is older. But I don't want to be so vulnerable to who knows who might be trolling and stumble upon my little ol' blog and pictures of my children. So for that reason, I am going private. I have thought about this for several months now, and frankly, the only reason I haven't is because everyone who has contacted me or commented has been nothing but kind. I have not had one single nasty comment or anything that made me feel a little bit creepy, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. I have to protect my daughter - I don't want some creep looking at her pictures or gawking at her story. So my friends, I will be taking this blog private after Christmas. I have every intention of keeping it up, just password protected. So if you are interested in following our blog, just leave a comment or send me an email. When I go password protected, I will be sure to send you an invite. As for all my bloggy friends that I visit regularly, I am not going anywhere! I will continue to visit, comment and watch your families grow as long as you will let me! :D

Hugs,
Sheryl

Linzi is just as enchanted by reindeers as I am! Every since our Rudolph night, she has talked about reindeer nonstop. It is almost surpassing her pony obsession, which still reigns supreme after 6 solid months of running around on all fours pretending to be a pony!

So today, I am busy doing my cleaning chores while Linzi was eating a snack. Next thing I know she is running around in the very back corner of our backyard. Our yard is fenced so I wasn't concerned and I was really focused on sweeping the floors when she came running in and said "Mommy, you gotta see this!!!". I am embarrassed to admit my first reaction was "Mommy's busy sweeping", but Linzi was soooo insistent. So I put my broom down and followed her outside. I am so glad I did because I would have missed one of those magical moments, when you see the world through your child's eyes, and you really believe in magic. This funny girl makes me laugh every single day but today, not only did she give me my laugh of the day, she reminded me of why I love being a mother. My floors can wait, my house is not as clean as I would like it to be, but moments like these will never come again! So this is what Linzi was so excited to show me. . .



BTW, you can see that our backyard has no grass, thanks to the drought. Thankfully, the bermuda grass in the front is okay, but we lost all of our fescue grass in the back because of the total water ban this summer. It makes me sick to look at our barren and empty backyard that used to be so lush and green. Not only do we not have grass in our backyard, but the lake is empty too. The lake is down 20 feet (or more). The water crisis in GA is only getting worse. Praying for a wet, wet winter!

A daughter is a miracle that never ceases to be miraculous...full of beauty and forever beautiful...loving and caring and truly amazing.
-- Deanna Beisser


Today is Mandi's 12th birthday. I am so blessed. Mandi is sweet, kind, loving and everything else that is good. Each day I marvel at the beautiful person she is becoming, inside and out. Just yesterday, she shared with me that she feels closer to God than she ever has before because of her youth group at church this year. My heart soared, not only is her future on Earth bright, but her eternal future is secured in her faith. I haven't done a Thankful Thursday in a very long time, I just can't seem to get it done on Thursday. But today, I am thankful for my daughter. I am thankful that God sent this angel to me. She has taught me so much and is a better person than I could ever hope to be. Most children model their parents, but at our house, I want to be just like Mandi! Happy Birthday Mandi girl! I love you more than words can say!

My favorite Christmas icon - Rudolph!

For as long as I can remember, I have loved reindeer. I mean LOVE reindeer! Rudolph of course is my all time favorite. I have probably watched the Rudolph special at least 30 of my 39 Christmases. Last night, we all piled on the couch to watch it again. This is the first year that Linzi really watched it. She was completely enthralled. I don't think she moved the entire episode or took her eyes away from the T.V. I wish I would have gotten a picture of her watching my beloved Christmas favorite. But I did even better! A friend gave me the heads up on these light up t-shirts at Walmart, so I picked one up today for Linzi and Ally. They are really cute, Rudolph's nose lights up and it is supposedly machine washable. Ally is Lucy's daughter and Linzi's playmate a few days a week. She has totally stolen my heart and I just adore her. Aren't they just the cutest?!!!

Making treats for friends & the finished garland

Tomorrow is Linzi's turn to bring snack for her preschool class, so we decided to make some Christmas treats. They do ask that we bring as healthy of a snack as possible. Do you think pretzels dipped in white chocolate is healthy enough? :D We had lots of fun making them!

Getting the treat bags ready

Notice the our cat trying to see if there is anything good up there? ;D

Gotta make sure it's good enough to share!

Yup, I think they will like it!

They turned out beautiful.

Loading up the bags with treats.

All done!

And this is the finished garland I talked about in the last post. I am so happy with the way it turned out. It took me two solid afternoons, but it was so much fun. My hands are a wreck so a manicure is on my To Do list this week.