The End and the Beginning

Well, I thought I was done blogging about the beach vacation we had last July/August, but there’s just a few more words left in me.  The funny thing is that as I wrap up last year’s vacation, I am booking this year’s!  We thought we’d go back to Pensacola Beach but we are gypsies when it comes to vacation spots.  I always wanted THAT spot that we always went back to year after year but even when we find somewhere we love, the next year, we want to try something new.

This time I polled my town’s Facebook friends and got 70+ responses for beaches in the 7-9 hour driving radius.  (This is the coolest part about having most of the town we live in on a FB page.)  We first looked for condos…back to vrbo.com.  But they are so hard to gauge not seeing them personally.  Finally, I decided to look for actual houses on the beach because even with a condo, you still have to carry chairs, toys, bags, towels, Kylie etc. to the beach.  And even from the 4th floor condo and less than 50 yards of boardwalk, it’s still tiring.  But houses are SO expensive.  Much more for a family or two and you don’t find many houses literally ON the beach.  Well, thanks to VRBOs filtering capability, I noticed townhouses were an option and BINGO!  We found the perfect place for us.  With the damage deposit (which we will get back) and taxes, it’s a wee bit over our budget, but y’all…you walk down the back deck stairs into the sand.  YES.  I can’t wait to go.  But I digress…back to Pensacola…

After the professional photo session, I decided to try some of my own with the girls…it was evening on a different night and to be honest, they didn’t turn out too bad.

By this point, we were all peeling!

Absolutely my favorite.  This one went with our most recent post placement report!

One afternoon late, Jenna was getting bored so we rode around and found some go-carts.  Obviously, Kylie was too little to ride and that seemed like something Steve would enjoy, so I sent them around the track a few times while Kylie and I enjoyed a late afternoon sweet.

I’m also including this one (and the next) to prove I was on this vacation too. 

We made the most of the last few days we had and boy did Kylie start to enjoy the beach and our new “home”.

I have a bunch of photos of her on me in various stages of cheesin’.  I’m just so glad she loved the beach.  I can’t wait to take her back!

Contrary to how it might appear, Kylie was not always happy.  In fact, most nights at dinner, it was hard.  She didn’t eat well and we were starting to tire of seafood (I know?!?).  Our last evening there we went to a Greek place.  The only way we could get Kylie to settle down, not scream and eat just a little…was this…

I’m not joking.  She sat at the table the entire time like this.  Eating her food.  Luckily, we were about the only folks in this joint.  I tell you…this kid always makes me laugh!

After checking out for the week (and waiting on the elevators for at least 30 minutes), we headed towards the Aviation Museum which was not too far away and FREE. 

Steve really enjoyed this and I would have too had it not been for Kylie.  Walking around a museum after a long week at the beach is just not her thing.  While we were there, Jenna found some authentic fighter jet seats you can sit in.  While trying them out, a gentlemen, retired Marine himself and volunteer at the museum, came up and offered to strap her in the way they were really strapped up.

This guy was super nice and it was interesting to see where everything clicked and buckled together to make you super tight.  I’ll admit, I was a little afraid of getting her out because he did walk away after he was done.  Then, I started to actually consider that it might be a good thing…

Oh well…it was a fun thought!!  Not really…but Jenna enjoyed being shown something like this from someone who had actually strapped himself in a few times.

After we finished at the museum, we were homeward bound.  It was bittersweet, but we knew we’d be back…

(special thanks to all of you who have stuck with me as I go back in time…lucky for you we are almost caught up…almost, but not quite!)

Ah Summer…

The weather has been crazy this winter and so we are already planning our beach vacation for the summer.  Silly, maybe, but it’s getting me through these long, dreary, days!

I’ll hurry and wrap up our trip to Pensacola beach.  Most of the week we hung out at the beach and the pool.  We had great weather just about every day.  There was one day where we spent a good portion of the day driving down to other popular beach towns just to give our skin some rest from the sun.  We had scheduled professional family photos while in the area and we didn’t want to look like crabs fresh from the ocean!

Let me stop here and give a huge shout out for the condo we stayed in.  Our good friend Will B. recommended it as somewhere his parents had stayed recently and it was very economical.  The pictures on the website don’t do it justice.  It was much roomier than we thought and it was plenty of room for our family of four with one bedroom and a pull out couch.  My biggest concern was whether it was “ON” the beach.   So many hotels and condos say they are “on” the beach and it really means they are really close, across the street from, near a public part of or 300 years from the beach.  But this place was ON.  THE.  BEACH.  As a condo, it was in a building several floors high, but we were located on the 4th floor.  The owner has a reserved parking spot in the covered garage which meant our black truck was always cool and the spot was literally about 5 steps away from the elevator.  Once on the 4th floor, the elevator doors opened and about 3 steps away was the front door of the condo.  The beach walkway was probably 50 yards long.  It was HEAVEN.  I can highly recommend!

There was one day where Jenna and I went parasailing.  We debated on renting a pontoon boat but we passed on that idea.  Jenna really wanted to do a jet ski but we decided to parasail instead.  It was not Jenna’s first trip up, nor mine.  And I had a wrist camera they gave me where photos were taken just seconds apart the entire time we were up there.  Since I didn’t take my laptop, all of them are loaded on Steve’s PC…I’ll try to load them up later for some laughs.

But we did find a photographer who was reasonable and available the time we were there.  We ended up using Savanna’s Studio.  The weather for the day we selected was perfect and it was even a good hair day (to start with) for me.

The problem was that Kylie was not enthused.  We managed to get some decent shots but the pics would have been oh so much cuter if Kylie had be the normal happy girl she usually is.  She did great on the car ride down (which given her meltdowns surrounding being in a car seat was a miracle) and back and she loved the beach.  Restaurants and photos weren’t always easy.  Of course, this was the first “big” trip she’d been on since she had been home so I am sure some of her behavior was just her being out of sorts.

I was determined we were NOT going to do matching khaki and white.  I wanted COLOR.  I think we ended up coordinating pretty well.  And I got the color I was after.  That’s part of the reason I chose Savanna’s Studio was their spectacular use of color.  I didn’t want to be washed out into the background of the ocean.  And they did not disappoint!  Here are a few of the better shots.  And trust me…I had no trouble spending a ridiculous amount of money on the ones we did get.  I’m a sucker that way.  And if you need a photographer in that area, check out Savanna’s Studio!  You’ll be pleased, I promise!

This one of Jenna was one of my favorites.  There were some pretty corny shots but this is the most genuine of them all.

Don’t be fooled.  She is smiling, but just a little.  And just because we were letting her do whatever the heck she wanted.

What you can’t see in this one is the reason why Kylie was ticked. There was a bright pink stuffed monkey (hereinafter dubbed “pink monkey”, not to be confused with “green monkey”, “blue monkey”, “purple monkey” or “red monkey”) that we’d just bought her (and which started the monkey craze) that we refused to let be in the photos.  The dang monkey had a freakin’ eye patch!  But yes, the thing not only made most of the photos, but was toted everywhere from that point on.  She is her mother’s daughter (and so is Jenna) when it comes to stuffed animals.  Also notice the broken sail on the little boat?  That was a prop of the photographer and yeah it took Kylie about 3.2356 seconds to break it.  Fabulous.

At least it’s not a scowl but this was still early on and Kylie was not happy.

Yep, so my hair is blown all the heck and Steve’s back is about to break and if you look closely, Kylie has a big handful of my hair in her hand.  But she’s got a small grin, so this made the cut.

And this one pretty much sums up the whole experience.  Katie is just thrilled to be in the picture and basically thought it was playtime in the sand.  I’m all hunched over, hair blowing across my face and my breasts nearly hanging out of my shirt thanks to Kylie.  Kylie scowling at Katie for even thinking about having a good time.  Steve looks like he’s about to cry or laugh, who knows which and then Jenna who amongst all the chaos was managing to pose like a dang model.  Sigh.  This is the story of my life summed up in one photo.

But it was a good time and we were able to laugh about it later.  Like, much later.  As in, when I saw for myself that we did get several good shots.  And in the end, I’d do it again.  All of it.

A Princess Needs…

I’m trying (and failing) to keep up with current events here while simultaneously going back and catching up on all that I missed while I was on hiatus.  In my post-hiatus catch-up mode, I’m still at the beach, but let me tell you about what my day was like today.

I took the day off today because I had several things I had to do and the girls had a previously scheduled dental appointment which I wanted to go to, so I just took the day.  After both girls were dropped at school, we sat down for a quiet chat about finances, decisions and our future.  Nothing major but when you have kids in the house, it’s hard to find 5 minutes to talk uninterrupted except after they are in bed, in which case… YOU ARE TOO.  Then we went to lunch as an early Valentine Day gift.  Boy, I could get used to just hanging out with him all day. 

Steve went and picked up Kylie and I got Jenna from school and we met at the dentist.  This was Kylie’s 2nd visit and even though she did great back in August, that is not always an indication of how things will be this time.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Here she is waiting on an x-ray.  The Rapunzel dress is courtesy our good friend Maribeth Johnson (ooh, since you’re here, check out her album!) whose sweet son is a friend of Kylie’s from church.  Kylie doesn’t have any dress up clothes except for her old Halloween costumes so I wasn’t sure if she’d take to this.  Well.  Not only did we take her into the dentist in it, but she wore it to school also.  Not sure where her princess crown made it off to, but she usually has one of those one as well, very much completing the ensemble.  Note the Olaf shirt (from Frozen) underneath.

Here’s my big girl getting her x-ray done.  I used this photo to get Kylie to cooperate.

While we were waiting for the x-ray, she kept doing this and going “hello?  hello?”  I thought I would die laughing.  She would also put her ear up to it like she was listening for something.  Unfortunately, the little x-ray slide they put in her mouth was just too big and so we will try again in 6 months for x-rays.

They very smartly let her pick out her own toothbrush.  No big surprise she picked out the pink one.

And then promptly laid back in all her regalia and let them brush, floss and fluoride her teeth.  She really didn’t seem to mind at all even though she looks like she does here.  She did so well!  I guess she realized that even a Princess needs her teeth brushed (which we do every night…no small feat for a cleft kiddo!)

After our day was done, I hopped in the shower.  When I got out, I saw this:

“Can you hear me now?”

Why yes, those are Q-tips sticking out of both ears.  You can tell she is her daddy’s daughter because Steve has a somewhat unnatural love affair with Q-tips.   She’s a hoot, I tell ya. 

By the way, Kylie’s teeth look great!  10 on the top and 10 on the bottom.  The bottom ones are a little crookedy and there is 1-2 in her palate instead of the gum line up top but all in all, good report.  Jenna has several baby teeth still left, but they seem to be falling out, albeit slowly.  She had a cavity in the far back tooth on the bottom which we have to go back to have filled next week.  Other than that, she has perfectly straight teeth.  No braces needed.  Yes, I realize how lucky we are.  But don’t you worry…Kylie will send some orthodontist’s child to college with the amount of work she is likely to need.  Jenna also has her 12 year molars coming in…I’m hoping she has enough room in her mouth to accommodate them without messing up her straight smile.  As of now, we think everything will be fine.

And that was the way I spent my day.  More photos to come from the beach!

Growing!!!

Today was Kylie’s annual check up.  She weighed in at 28lbs and is 36.5 inches tall.  Since coming home almost 2 years ago, she has gained almost 10lbs and grown 8 inches.  2 years ago, she was barely on the charts for either.  Today she was well situated in the 25th %ile for both!  She was quite low on iron so we are trying to increase her greens for that.  Otherwise, she got a perfect report!

Going back and trying to catch up…we left off at the beach in Pensacola…

Our first day was beautiful and we spent most of it at the beach.  For dinner, at the recommendation of a friend, we went to McGuire’s Pub. 

We had some delicious food there and it was quite the interesting little place.

The next day…well, the next several days looked a lot like this:

It was the perfect vacation if you ask me.  After no vacations for a couple years, we really needed it.  We did venture off the beach to do more fun stuff that I can share with you later.

For now, I get through these dreary days of winter by thinking of these days!

3 Years Ago Today…

3 years ago today, a young woman did what was probably the hardest thing she would ever do in her life.

She bundled herself and her newborn baby girl up against the freezing cold and wind and walked down the street in her town.

It was probably in the wee hours of the early morning just before the sun began to peek over the horizon and the cold cut through her like a knife.  She dreaded what she had to do but looking at her baby’s face one last time, knew there was no other choice.

To ensure that her sweet baby girl was found quickly, she put her under the big light pole right outside the gas station in town where she knew the owner would be up shortly.

She wrapped the baby girl up as tight as she could, sat her down and maybe even kissed her cheek and whispered “Wǒ ài nǐ”and then hurried off.  She might have hidden close by to be certain her daughter was found quickly. 

We’ll never know the full story.  At least, not this side of heaven.  But I have to believe leaving that sweet baby girl behind was the hardest thing she ever had to do.

 

But in sacrifice, there is always redemption. 

Happy birthday, my precious miracle, my answer to prayer, my blessing from China.  You have made our lives 100 times more exciting.

I can’t imagine life before you.

Frozen and Transitions

Well, our heat’s out upstairs.  The low tonight is supposed to be in the mid teens and tomorrow night in the single digits.  All our bedrooms are upstairs, so we are making do with blankets and space heaters.  The A/C guy is coming tomorrow and I pray we don’t need a whole new unit.  That would STINK.

Today we had our transitional meeting for Kylie.  Since she has been home with us, she qualified for speech therapy through the state in a program called Tennessee Early Intervention Services (TEIS).  For those who aren’t familiar with this, it is a program of the state which provides a variety of services for children with a range of special needs whether it be occupational, physical, speech, developmental etc.  Kylie originally qualified for speech so thanks to the state of TN, she received free speech therapy two times a week for 1 hour each time.  We have grown to love her sweet speech therapist!  But the day she turns 3, she ages out of the early intervention program and hopefully morphs into the services provided by the public school system.

Today was our transitional meeting where we find out her test results and what, if any, services she qualifies for.  For us, we knew the only piece Kylie would even come remotely close to needing were speech services.  This is different than language services.  Speech is what she is saying and that includes intelligibility and language is pretty much the understanding of what is being spoken.  Kylie understands almost everything we say, but most of what she says isn’t understandable to anyone but us and most times we have no idea either unless she’s repeating something or she says something in context (like “Where Dad go?” after Steve has left the house).

At transition, there are three options.  1.  Qualifies for no services 2. Qualifies for drop in speech therapy. 3. Qualifies for the preschool program.

It’s quite a bittersweet issue because if you qualify for nothing it means your child is almost or all caught up (which is a good thing).  Alternately, if you qualify for the preschool program (which is like 4 days a week, 3 hours a day), then your child still needs help.  Because we have the blessing of a wonderful, Christian Parent’s Day Out for Kylie on Monday/Wednesday, we were hoping she would fall in the middle and just qualify for drop in speech where she could continue with her PDO program.  And during the meeting today, we found out that’s just EXACTLY what they felt would benefit her most!  And they can accommodate her Tuesday/Thursday open schedule, not to mention the school is closer to home than the facility she was going to for speech therapy.   I love how God just worked that right out!

And now, I leave you with something a lot warmer than my upstairs right now…

This is Jenna after we first arrived at our condo.  It was kinda overcast, but it was also late in the day…

Wishful thinking, but yes, you can see Jenna has already changed into her swimsuit.

Here she goes!  Literally the first time her little Asian feet have touched sand on a beach!

Before…

After.  Sans everything but diaper. 

Ah…these girls…

What I’ve Been Waiting For

Ah yes…for several years, I’ve waited for our beach vacation time to arrive.  If we don’t have a mission journey or trip to China planned, in the summer we usually spend a week at a beach somewhere.  Kylie had never been to the beach, so towards the end of July, we were off! 

The chosen destination was Pensacola Beach, Florida.  A friend of ours gave a glowing recommendation for a condo “on the beach” there.  I put that in quotes because we’ve stayed in several places that were “on the beach” where we still had to cross a busy road or walk 3 condo high-rises deep or hike 2 miles to the back of the condo complex to actually put our toes in the sand.  So, I was excited, but skeptical.  But OH.  MY.  WORD.

This was the view when I walked in…

Yep.  This beauty is really “on the beach”.  The owners have a parking spot in the underground garage (i.e. the truck was always cool) AND it was literally 2 steps away from the elevators.  The condo was 4 floors up and the front door was literally steps from the elevator when you got off.  It was super economical considering the location and the fact it was peak season. 

It was a sweet little place.  Plenty big for the 4 of us.  The owners were very kind and let Katie stay with us with no additional deposit.  Because the condo is individually owned, they have the right to refuse even a service animal (they have a no pets policy) but they didn’t.  And while I’d like to keep this little jewel all to myself, I also want to thank the Neals for allowing us to visit by sending some business their way.  You can find out more about the condo here if you are interested.  But if this doesn’t convince you, maybe this will…

No?  What about this?

It was very beautiful there.  We were able to make the trip down in a very easy 8 hours or so.  We left early and really just took our time and it was perfect.

I had waited so long for this.  And also to watch Kylie…I was praying she would like the sand because the beach is no fun if you hate sand.  And sand definitely can get on your nerves, but if I have to choose between the beach and the pool then beach will always win out.  Here is Kylie’s first few steps EVER onto the warm sand.  Judge for yourself…

There’s so much more to show you…so I’ll have to break it up into small posts…I’ll try not to stretch it out too long.  After all, it was JUST a beach vacation…