Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Yes, it’s been a while.  This has been the longest hiatus I’ve taken from blogging since I started.  In fact, I’ve taken a hiatus from just about everything I used to enjoy.  Call it laziness.  Call it busy-ness.  Call it lack of focus.  Call it “the season I’m in”.  Any way you cut it, I’ve been MIA from many things I enjoy in life.

In addition to not blogging, I haven’t scrapbooked in nearly 2 years.  I quit reading blogs for months.  I quit using my camera.  I quit surfing the net.  I quit Facebooking.  I quit reading.  I quit watching TV.  And if I’m honest, I quit putting much at all into my relationship with God.

There was no specific reason why.  Slowly  but surely those things just went by the wayside.  Oh, I guess you could call “just the season I’m in”…arriving home from work by 6pm (if I’m lucky), play with Kylie, eat dinner, put Kylie to bed…and that leaves about 90 minutes for me to shower and do whatever else I desired.  Most nights I’d play a game on the iPad or read a magazine.  Or many nights, I’d do some Bible study (just because I was filling in the blanks doesn’t mean I was really studying).

A few months ago, I realized how much I’d let go that I enjoyed.  So, now that we are in 2014 and starting with a clean slate, I decided to try harder to incorporate those things I once enjoyed back into my life.  One of those things is blogging.  But I’m blogging now with a different intention.  I started blogging just to document what what going on in my life.  And document I did.  During scrapbooking retreats, I’d have my blog open looking for dates and times of when things happened.  Then we decided to adopt and all of a sudden, I picked up a bunch of new readers and I started blogging every night and really stressing over getting up a new post every day.  And somewhere in all that, blogging became more of a job than something I enjoy.  So I’m going back to blogging as documentation.  And if there are any readers left after my long hiatus, then they can follow along.  Or not.  Either way, I hope to be back.

For a while, it’s going to be a lot of backtracking since it looks like it’s been almost 9 months since I really hit the high points.  I’ll leave you with some of our Easter activities (told you I was backtracking!)

It was a special day because I was able to get up and attend the early service at our main campus.  I love my church but I sure do miss the full orchestra and choir of the “big house”. 

And this is the reason why I got up so early…This is my neighbor.  We lived next door to she, her son and husband since we moved into this house over 8 years ago.  We never really knew them and didn’t do more than throw up our hand as we drove by.  Until we brought Kylie home.  See, my neighbor is Chinese.  Her husband is American and at the time was training to be a truck driver so he was away from home for a very long period of time.  She began to visit with her son (who is Jenna’s age) and as we began the relationship, she began to ask questions about God, church and Christianity.  After several months of this, she and her son were saved and both of them were baptized on Easter Sunday by the pastor of our Chinese congregation.

And there was no way I was going to miss it.  Unfortunately, Steve missed it as he was playing in the worship band at our campus.  I managed to see the baptisms and then make it back to our campus in time to teach my Sunday School class and attend service second hour.

This was after church…my sweet girls looked so beautiful!  And Steve in his pink shirt! 

Incidentally, Easter Sunday of 2012 was Kylie’s first Sunday at church EVER.  We’d only been home about a week.  She’s been every week since.  She’s grown so much!

Well, that’s it.  Thanks for indulging me a break from blogging.  It’s good to be back!!

My Happy Place

This is my happy place…

My lifegroup from church.  I love these people.  They, collectively, make up my happy place.

One Year Home!

One year ago today, at 12:07pm, the wheels of a large aircraft touched down on a Chicago runway after a long journey from Hong Kong.

The minute that happened, our Kylie automatically because a US Citizen. 

I have made several international trips and every time, landing in the US has brought me to tears, but there is nothing…hear me…NOTHING like arriving on US soil after 2 weeks in China WITHOUT your husband and with your newly adopted child.

I knew that just steps outside of customs Steve awaited and I got choked up just thinking about it.  I knew once I latched on to him, I might never let go.  And I really didn’t want to.

But then, we touched down in Nashville and I really did think I would cry from joy.  PURE.  JOY. to see these faces all waiting to see this child they had prayed for.  My photo calendar has a few of these photos for the month of March because they are so dear to me.  So, in celebration of Kylie’s citizenship and surviving a whole year at home, here they are again.  (click here to see the blog post about our arrival).

Note:  I still cry when I look at these pictures…the smiles…the joy.  I love these people.

Christmas!

OK, so hopefully this post will wrap up the Christmas posts and get me back on track. 

Christmas Eve, Rachel M. and I hosted, what has morphed from our families’ Christmas Eve celebration into a Christmas Eve open house of sorts.  I love love love to bake between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I bake up a storm and Rachel typically contributes the savory finger foods (and some sweets too).  We invite anyone who doesn’t have anything to do on Christmas Eve.  We always think not many people will come, but it ends up being 6 or 7 families and just the right number.

Of course, we work around the awesome Christmas Eve service at the church. 

I’ll tell ya, the service is one I look forward to every year.  It’s not long and it’s all family, so I wasn’t sure how Kylie would do.  But as expected (since we went to the 2:00 service), she fell asleep and slept right through the best part…

It’s an awesome quiet time right before the mass chaos of Christmas.

Christmas Eve, we let Jenna open up one gift and traditionally, it’s always pajamas…usually Christmas themed.  This year, there was a little twist and it was a big hit!

Footies!  And to top off the excitement of the day, right before we left for service, Jenna comes in with this…

Good thing the tooth fairy and Santa know each other! 

Christmas morning, Jenna managed to sleep until about 7:30 or 7:45.  I woke up before her, of course, and got presentable.  When everyone was up, we traipsed downstairs.

This little scooter thing was Jenna’s gift to Kylie.  She saw it somewhere (on tv, online?) and paid for it herself.  It is like a 360 ride on toy and so it’s very easy to maneuver and Kylie LOVES it.

I love this but still haven’t found time to put photos in it.  In time though…in time.

Jenna took money and bought both of us stuff and she is getting really good at picking out thoughtful gifts.  For instance, because Steve volunteers at the gun range, she picked him out a Wii paintball game.  But the biggest “Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle” gift this year was for Jenna.

So Jenna reads the riddle (there were numbers underneath but for privacy, I cropped them out) and she’s trying to figure out what it means when the box starts vibrating.

Now before I catch heck about giving my 11 1/2 year old a cell phone, an iPhone no less, let me explain…this is my old iPhone 4 (part of our early Christmas to each other was that Steve and I upgraded to 5s) and because of our shared minutes plan, it only cost me $10 more to put Jenna on the plan AND I am under no contract and dropped our $30/month mifi, so still saved $20.  Anyway, we wanted to see how responsible she would be while we have little to lose and lots of control.  In this day of instant contact, I like being able to reach Jenna when she’s at a friend’s house or across the street/outside playing.  Anyway, it has been a good thing for us (the best way to get her to listen is threaten to take away the phone!) and the phone did come with a list of rules that she had to agree to before accepting the phone.

Anddddd…that’s her reading them.    But all in all, she’s been good with it and I loved her excitement.

Later in the afternoon, we went for the Taylor family Christmas and how wonderful it was!

My niece Alex and her family weren’t able to make it in town but this is the rest of the crew.  I love these folks.

After that, we went home and exchanged with the big kids which I always enjoyable.

This is Steve with his gift from Chase.  I can assure you, he didn’t smile like this for ANY gift I got him  Humph.

We bought Gage a Wii which was his big surprise.  He didn’t really get too excited over it here, but Micah says they play it all the time so I know he is glad to have it.

It was a good Christmas.  Not too chaotic…I wished the weather had been colder.  I’m a fan of white Christmases, but that definitely wasn’t in the cards this year.  Maybe next…

And that concludes the Taylor Family Christmas of 2012.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Christmas fun

A few weeks ago, our church life group had a little Christmas party.  I'm pretty certain I've mentioned how much I love my life group (and church) before.  We wore ugly Christmas sweaters (explaining the green one in the video) and did some fun games.

This is a video of a game of spoons...I was already "out" and I laugh hysterically every time I watch this.

 

One of the other games was to take balloons and hose and make a reindeer. Oh my word.

 

  And somehow the reindeer antlers became a new Christmas decoration in the yard of our fabulous leaders...

Oh so fun...

And there's been fun going on at home too.  We have a Santa that dances to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree and a Grinch that sings the famous "Mr. Grinch" song.  Kylie loves to dance to them both and thinks the Grinch is hilarious as long as she doesn't have to touch him.

At the end, she's singing that last note with him.  And if you listen closely, you can hear her say "more" to Jenna meaning she wanted Jenna to push his button and make him sing again.

We did go to see Santa.  It went as well as could be expected.  I'll post that picture a little later...until then, here's a pic of my sweet Sunday School class watching the live nativity last weekend at church...

PlayTime!

Kylie enjoys the church nursery SO much.  This past Sunday, when she left my classroom (I teach young 3s) with Steve, to go to hers, she said, "Bye!  Bye!" and Steve said she walked right into her classroom and started playing.

Her teachers are truly fabulous and I am SO thankful for the men and women (yes, men...Kylie loves her men, just like Jenna did) who sacrifice their time each week to teach her and make her feel safe.

Luckily, a few weeks ago, my friend Elizabeth, joined the teaching crew in that room, because her sweet Congo boy, Moses, was being introduced to church nursery (if you remember, Elizabeth and I first met while I was loving on her older girls in the nursery).

I got the following videos while teaching my 3s a couple Sundays ago...tell you what...these kiddos know how to have fun!!!

A few weeks ago, my friend Jill and I went to hang out at Elizabeth's house and it was a little like we were running a daycare.  3 adults, a tween and 5 or 6 little kids!  In January, Kylie will join Moses and Wylie in a local Christian daycare.  I told Elizabeth, those poor teachers have no idea what they are in for!!!

And you know, I can't show a video like this without bragging on my wonderful church.  How many churches can boast at least 3 nationalities in one toddler class?  Not many.  Not to mention, I'm ultra excited about a new China friend coming to join out church in the next few months...some friends of ours just got their referral and I absolutely cannot WAIT to meet him!!

VBS

Last Friday night, the 29th, we went to the VBS family night celebration at church.  I might have mentioned a time or two how much I love my church.  This night proved over again, why.

Shout out to my friend Rachel who actually made this awesome logo!

The kids sang all the songs they'd learned and the littles were even on stage doing their thing.  Jenna and some of the older girls led music on stage every day during the week.  They were on the risers for family night though and I just didn't get a good photo of them (I was behind a pole making it hard to see clearly...not to mention wrestling Kylie half the time).

Look at all those kids!  I think there were upwards of 300 kids that week at VBS.  For a young, start-up church (south campus), I think that's excellent!  And there were so many helpers...even working moms and dads in our congregation took the week off to assist.  I'm totally doing that next year...I don't want to miss another year of something this wonderful!

3 Months Home!!!

This might be a marathon post, so hang in there with me.  I didn't want this milestone to pass by without doing a blog about it.  As you've noticed, my postings have been more sporadic since Kylie has been home.  By the time she is in bed and I have a few hours to myself (more like 90 minutes), the only thing I want to do is read.  As an aside, a few years ago, I read like a book a week.  It was ridiculously crazy.  After that year, I stopped reading.  Books...magazines...newspapers.  For the first time, I was burned out.  But I'm slowly starting to get back into it and as such, at night, I spend a few minutes with the iPad, but the rest of hour before bed, I read.  So anyway, blogging has taken a back seat.  And I'm not going to apologize for that.  I have a blog remodel in the works and once that is done, I'll try to be better about blogging!

So, back to the point of this post...Friday marked Kylie's 3 month homecoming.  Many adoptive families tell me that the 3 and 6 month marks are the biggest turning points in the adoption.  As we neared the 3 month mark, I really started to wonder if that would hold true for us.  Yes, we have definitely seen some progress in some areas, but it just didn't seem like Kylie was fully HAPPY.

The last 2 weeks have really been encouraging though.  2 Sundays ago, we attempted to leave Kylie in the nursery during worship care.  Well...a few minutes in and they had to come get me.  Last week was our church's VBS week and it was all hands on deck!  Steve had already committed to volunteer and Jenna was already signed up.  For volunteers with littles, there was childcare.  Honestly, I wasn't sure how VBS was going to go with Steve dropping Kylie off.  I emailed my social worker for direction and she told me not to give up on VBS quite yet.  We went out and bought a new forward facing carrier so Steve could wear Kylie and still do his volunteer duties if needed.  Our SW suggested we try and drop her off every day with instructions that if she went 15 minutes upset, to come get him.

I think Steve and I were both nervous wrecks on Monday...I waited at work for the text...and when it finally came, it was that she did GREAT!  She didn't cry at drop off and they reported back she was playing and doing fine. 

BIG.  SIGH.  OF.  RELIEF.

Then Monday night, she was literally up almost all night long.  And I figured it had everything to do with her feelings of abandonment etc.  Because she wasn't just pat-you-back-to-sleep-for-30-seconds awake.  She was HOLD-ME-I'M-AWAKE awake.  ALL.  NIGHT.  LONG (off and on). I was up most of that night with her because Steve just wasn't in the frame of mind to be awake and had also had a long day (first day of VBS=CRAZY).  We prepared ourselves for Tuesday VBS drop off not to be great.  But Tuesday came and went...no problem.  Part of the great thing about VBS was what we affectionately refer to as the Bye Bye Buggy.  We used to have them at the main campus, but they are bulky and we have no room to store them here.  But we got them for VBS.  Here's  photo my friend Elizabeth took...that's her baby girl, Wylie next to Kylie (yes, Wylie and Kylie right?!  SO cute!)

See Elizabeth hiding there to the left of the picture?  That's so Wylie didn't see her and freak out.  LOL!

Kylie was worn the heck out every day after VBS and started actually falling asleep AT VBS towards the end of the day on Thursday and Friday.  I take that as a good sign that she felt like it was a safe place.  So yesterday, we tried to drop her off in the nursery (the room NEXT to the one I work in, which she really is better in anyway).  Steve dropped her off during first hour (while I worked next door).  She fell asleep about 20 minutes in, but then woke up before the end and was playing happily.  I knew she wouldn't nap again in church so I decided to leave her and she did wonderfully!  I got the happy privilege of picking her up and I was so happy to see her and she was so happy to see me!  All of this is huge!

Saturday night, we spent some time playing with the Elizabeth's girls and we noticed that Kylie really enjoyed their little kitchen.  Later when we got home, I checked out our town's online buy/sell/trade FB page and there I found this awesome Step2 kitchen...the girl wanted $35 for it and it had 3 bags of food and utensils/pots/pans with it.  It had been posted back on June 11, so I was sure it was gone.  Imagine my surprise when I got an immediate response that it was still available.  I picked it up Sunday after church and it's been the best purchase yet!

Both of the girls played with it AND it retails on Amazon for $149!  SCORE!

Kylie has also been sleeping a little better.  She's still waking up in the night, but every other night or so, we'll hear her cry out, but she soothes herself back to sleep without us having to go in there.  Turns out, last Monday night, she was congested...had gotten somewhat choked and I think woke herself up terrified.  We, at the doctor's suggestion, gave her Benedryl (like 1/5 of a tsp!) and she cleared up in 2-3 nights not to mention slept like a LOG!  But even not on Benedryl (which she hasn't had since mid last week), she seems to be sleeping better.  Sunday morning, she woke up without crying for us...and this morning, Steve woke up with a start at 8:00 after not having heard her at all.  Turns out, Jenna heard her babbling and moving around and went to get her and took her downstairs to feed her!  I mean, I am BLESSED with some fabulous girls!

Steve even mentioned to me last night that she just seems HAPPIER.  And I agree...she does.  I believe much of that is due to the fact that she is beginning to trust us and maybe even love us.  I know my love for her is growing.  I also think Kylie is a social girl.  She is not yet at the age where she will play WITH other kids, but she does like to be around them.  If nothing else, this past week and weekend have given me a sense of peace about Kylie ever going to daycare.

And just to leave you with a few fun pics from the weekend...it's been SO hot that we finally forced our outside hound, Fred, inside.  He is a hound and hates being inside, but temps have been over 100 for a while now, so we put him in his crate for a while to cool off.  After a while, we let him out to roam the house and within minute, this is what we found...

All weekend long, it's been in and out, in and out.  What is it about dog crates that kids love?

Also, I have attempted to put Kylie's hair up in ponytails/pigtails/etc.  Steve snapped this shot and captioned it with a comment about having a bad hair day...I still think it's hilarious!

And no, that's the way her hair STUCK after the rubber bands came out!  Something else we've noticed is Kylie is now smiling on command, which makes this photo-mama's heart HAPPY!

Happy Monday all!!!  Stay cool!

Our Special Day

I'm sorry I've been so delinquent in posting.  Working full time doesn't actually allow for time to blog.  But I'm going to do better...

Today was a pretty special day for us.  It was the day of Kylie's dedication to the Lord.  We had planned it for today because our pastor, Jay, had been on sabbatical and he was finally back.

I was nervous as to how Kylie would act.  She loves church service and the music, but she's never really been on stage.  The neatest thing was that as we walked up on stage, the whole audience started clapping and cheering.  I can't say enough about my church family and how they gathered around us during the adoption process.  Our pastor and his wife are also adoptive parents and they have stood beside us through this whole process.  I can't tell you how blessed we are to have a congregation full of adoptive families.  I think at last count there was 24 total families...we literally have every tribe and nation represented (almost).

At the beginning, Kylie was pretty happy to look out at the audience to see what was going on.  Then, as our preschool minister, Amy, spoke to us, she got distracted by the band behind us...

Yeah, I think that's our drummer, Brandon, waving at her.  At our church, they present the children with the Jesus Storybook Bible because it is so great for the kids.  The stories are unbelievable.  Every single story points to the coming of Christ.  Every.  One.  I have a Bible like this for Jenna.  Now Kylie has her own.  You can see Kylie's name in the background.  Amy talked about how Liann means "God has answered" and indeed, he has.  Her life verse is also listed and the one we have on her Baby Be Blessed Doll. 

After the presentation of the Bible, Jay says a few words before the prayer and it was about this time that Kylie started to get antsy.  She wanted to get down and started whining.  Jay was telling her it was OK, that lots of people cried when he spoke!

Another cool part of our parent/child dedication ceremony is that they ask the congregation to stand and pray but to also put their hands forward as if they are laying hands on us.  It's their commitment to help us raising Kylie in the Lord.

There are no words to explain the feeling of looking out on this room full of people and know they are committing to you to help you raising your child.  I can't say enough how much I love this congregation of believers.

A special word of thanks to my sweet friend, Leigh Ann Moore, who took these pictures for me.  She's my unofficial photographer!  She took photos of Jenna's baptism too!

Also, the cute yellow dress Kylie has on?  Made by the wife of Steve's friend, Jim.  She barely knows us, but Jim has really taken Steve under his wing at the sheriff's office where they volunteer.  The dress was a perfect fit and Kylie looked quite cute in it!  Jim and his wife, Sharon, also came to the dedication as did my sister, Teresa, my niece Karen and their families!  Steve's brother, David and wife Konnie also was there.  It was great seeing my family there in support of such an important event. 

And finally, thanks to my church family...for without you...and yes, I mean YOU, we could not have walked this journey and stood on the stage with this child that was prayed for.

Kylie's life verse...  Psalm 139:14

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Your works are wonderful.

I know this full well

Worship Leader

This past weekend, our church had a family worship service where the kids are on risers on stage leading in worship music.

Occasionally, two lucky kids get to actually lead with the worship team.  And this was Jenna's chance!!

She was SO excited and the worship music was some of our favorite and most familiar!  Mr. Jeremy (our wonderful worship leader pictured here to Jenna's right) did a fabulous job choosing just the right music!

I was SO proud of my girl!  She just keeps giving me things to be proud of!  And Kylie is still going with me to service each week (although we did hang out with our friends in the nursery during the first hour this week and she did great!).  She just watches and listens to the music so intently.  She always has her hand raised and I can't help but thing these worship services (we've been going every week since Easter) are the first times she's heard the wonderful music I love.  And being there every week fills me up the way I need too.