Jaidyn's Summer of Fun

Jaidyn and Noah's first time to play on the water slides.

Noah enjoys playing in the water!

Jaidyn practicing her swimming moves.

Jailynn on the waterslide

Amanda takes Jaidyn down the lazy river.

Everyone in the lazy river....wait for a quick picture!!

There they go...

JonMarc hides from Mom and the camera!

A quick pose from Jailynn and Jaidyn...boys are too busy having fun
to take a picture.

Amanda with baby nephew Jonah. He is tired of the water and ready for a  nap.

Jaidyn and Jailynn in Galveston.

Big sister helping with her arm floaties.

Jaidyn loves playing in the water.

Building sand castles or burying the dump truck in the sand??

Grandpa takes everyone to the lake....time out for watermelon.

Jaidyn had the most fun this summer filled with new experiences.... playing at the waterpark, waterslides, lazy river of fun, hanging out at the park, playing at the lake, building sandcastles, and jumping the waves at the ocean (Galveston) for the first time.

                                          Just as the sun is setting....summer is ending.

All too soon, the first day of school is here.

Jaidyn has her first day of 2nd grade and Noah's first day of Kindergarten.

Where did the time go???

Jaidyn loves school and riding the school bus. Noah had so much fun at schoolthat he slept with his back pack every night this week.

Bragging Time!

CONGRATS Goes out to my beautiful Senior Anna Joy Kerr!!!!!  Anna graduates from high school in the top of her class #7 to be exact in just a few short weeks. Anna has been accepted into Dallas Baptist University and has just made the 2012-2013 Patriettes Drill Team for DBU today!!!!! She tried out with 30 girls and was one of the 19 girls to make the team! I am such a proud Mamma right now!!!! Yaaaaaaayyyyyy ANNA!!!!! Anna plans to study at DBU and become a socail worker. She wants to travel and teach English in China and volunteer for International Justice Mission. Did I mention how proud I am???? Love, Love my baby girl almost all grown up!

3 months and some progress made!

Sister Love

Peace from Jailynn and Jaidyn

More Love and Happiness

Jaidyn playing with Jailynn on the tire swing.

Jaidyn's first bike!

She rode her bike all day long!

Riding bikes with Jailynn.

Jaidyn is coming out of her shell and blossoming! She is full of joy and happy most of the time. She loves playing with Jailynn outside and loves her first bike. She is also bonding more and more with me. I am also doing so much better and feeling like myself again. It was a hard adjustment for me and I had to do some major soul searching to make sense of my emotions. I finally prayed and found that I had to forgive myself and Jaidyn for her initial response to me. I had to let go of the negative emotions and ask God to heal my emotions. I also had to forgive myself and let go of all my preconceived expectations and except Jaidyn for who she is right now. I realized that I had so many preconceived ideas and expectation for how this adoption would go and how I would feel in China and how Jaidyn would respond to us. None of my expectations were realities and I was disappointed on a deep level that I did not even realize. When Jaidyn rejected me that just made matters worse within myself and I did not know how to deal with how I was feeling. I did not know that I was feeling all this. I only knew that I felt terrible and I was not bonding with Jaidyn. I was experiencing post adoption depression and post traumatic stress from previous adoptions. Very hard to deal with when I wanted to feel excited and happy to be united with Jaidyn and in China. So it took nearly three months to work all this out and get over myself! Wew! I can honestly say that when I began to forgive myself and let go that I started feeling so much better. It took lots of prayer and soul searching. This was not the rainbow and roses adoption. I am just thankful that I am over that phase and enjoying getting to know Jaidyn. She is a sweet and loving little girl that needed a Momma and family to love her.

A Long Overdue Post!

Three Princesses and their new bed!

Jaidyn, Jordyn, and Jailynn

Jaidyn smiles for the camera!

Jailynn is 10 yrs old! Can you believe that??

Jailynn is my monkey girl...she loves to climb trees...how she ever got up into that tree is beyond me!

I had to have at least one picture of JonMarc on his bike!

 Just a couple of pictures to post to try and catch up. Where to begin is the question because so much has happened in the last few weeks. New Year Day has come and gone and we missed celebrating the Chinese New Year. I had to work :(
We had our first post placement visit with our SW just two weeks ago. I'm sorry, but one month PP study and visit is just too soon. I was not ready,  my house was not ready, and Jaidyn was not ready. I was a basket case trying to get my house presentable because raising 7 children in a small house creates a mess all on its own accord. Never mind working 40 plus hours and still not feeling quite like myself yet. Bonding time with Jaidyn has been very slow because of having to work. Bottom line is that I was not ready for my SW. My vision of our pp visit and the reality did not quite match. I had imagined that I would have new furniture in the living room and kids rooms (because our old furniture is needing to be replaced in a bad, bad way), brownies baking in the oven, pot roast in the crock pot, and everything in it's proper place. So not how it happened!! I had worked the night before and stayed up past my bedtime cleaning like mad and barely got to take a shower before she arrived. My kids got off the bus and we discussed how they MUST BEHAVE while dear SW was here and no tv during the visit. I then bribed promised them special rewards for good behavior. Then, she arrived and I was so shocked at how well my children all got along and talked with her. Jaidyn had not a clue about what was happening and locked herself in her room. She finally came out and helped Jordyn and Jailynn put a puzzle together. In the end, I was very happy with our visit and collapsed in bed for a much needed nap.
I did get some of our furniture replaced thanks to craigslist and answered prayers. I have wanted a doll house bunk bed for my girls for a very long time and finally found the bed of my and their dreams on craigslist!! The price was unbelievable and just in my very low price range. We realized that the price was a steal because  the bed was very difficult to take apart and reassemble. Thanks to my DH Tim, and our friend David, we had the bed home and put together for Jailynn's 10th birthday. All three girls absolutely love the bed. Jadiyn was very happy with the bed and she is making huge progress at home. She actually posed for the camera with her sisters and let me take her picture. That may seem like a small thing but I literally had to sneak in pics of her in China and Christmas. She is starting to say more English words and phrases and she will say she is sorry when she corrected. She also is better at the store with Tim and in public. I am very happy to see her doing so much better. I am also starting to feel like myself again and feel much better. I had allot of issues in China and when we came home that had more to do with me and how I was handling everything than with Jaidyn. I plan to post about that later. I am just thankful that Jaidyn is starting to bloom and we are starting to have a new normal.