A BIG Celebration!!

by Steph // Monday, August 7, 2023 // Comments off

It is getting a little trickier to get everyone together these days, which means that everyone’s lives our full in a wonderful way!

Tate and Eliza’s Forever Family Days came along in July, and we always leave it up to them if they want to celebrate or not.

They wanted to!

Tate’s birthday was one week after his Forever Family Day anniversary, so we decided to lump these three celebrations together.

It was a GREAT idea!

We set the date for the last Saturday evening in July.

I had great helpers as we got ready for the party – including a decorating committee, ha, ha!

Seeing the Prime guy pull into your driveway the afternoon of the party was a huge relief because he had ALL of the presents!

The mama of this crew has been super busy and ordered everything very last minute.

I know! You are now wondering who in the world that mama is!!

Me TOO.

Smile.

Eliza promptly helped me wrap everything up!

Except I did not have enough paper for that one huge gift!

I looked at that pogo stick leaning against my bed and seriously thought I had temporarily lost my mind!

But that is ALL that Tate wanted!

Tate and Eliza requested Jap Chae, watermelon, and french bread for dinner with crepes, fruit compote, and homemade ice cream for dessert.

Good choices, you two!!

After dinner we switched into birthday party mode, and Tate opened his gifts!

He always has the CUTEST helpers!!

I LOVE the excitement of birthday parties!!

Of course we had to go outside and try out that pogo stick.

I have a hysterical video of Grant on that thing – he was, of course, that only one that could do it perfectly!

Kayla, Saige and I hung out on the front porch watching them all.

We sang Happy Birthday to Tate!

TWELVE candles in his crepe.

Tears in my eyes as I sang.

HOW is he twelve??

It was the best evening that ended way too soon but very late!

My favorite thing is this house full of people – especially all those kiddos and grand kiddos!!!

This is how you know you had THE BEST party – doing dishes until midnight!!!

Eliza Claire and Tate Owen, there could not be a party big enough to celebrate the anniversaries of the arrival of you two precious children into our forever arms.

It is such a BIG GOD THING that it should be celebrated EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!

We are never worthy to be yours, but we are SO grateful the Lord allowed us to bring you home!!

And Tate Owen, you are growing into a fine young man.

Your heart for others is inspiring.

You have such an old soul in your twelve year old body – and it is our favorite thing about you!!

We are so excited to watch the Lord write your story!!

Happy Forever Family Day, Zhao He Jie and Zhang Hong Yang – now our Eliza Claire and Tate Owen!!

And Happy, happy birthday to our cheerful young warrior!!

WE LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH!!!

Our Favorite Weekend Trip

by Steph // Saturday, August 5, 2023 // Comments off

The second to last weekend of July we had a plan to take our favorite weekend trip to Illinois and Indy to see our extended family!

We LOVE these weekend trips, even though they are short for so many miles traveled.

I am getting to be an expert at packing everyone up for our weekends away – which is something to say for a homebody like me!

Of course, we have our essentials that must go on every trip – the things we use the most.

As soon as Blake was home from work that Thursday, we loaded up to head out!

Sad to say our trip did not start off as we hoped!

Thankfully once we jump started the van it was fine – but we do need to replace our battery very soon.

Our travel team was these three cuties!!

We arrived at our hotel in Morton, Illinois at 11 p.m.

We are usually at least one person too many for one room, so we divide into a girls and a boys room.

That means Eliza is my only roommate!

She sleeps through anything, but I still try to do my Bible time quietly in the dark.

Friday ended up being a gorgeous day in Illinois!

As usual, our first stop was with Grandpa and Grandma Nettell!

We had a wonderful visit with them – enjoying lunch – and of course Grandma had ice cream for the kiddos!

As usual, our next stop was to Four30 Scones to meet up with Blake’s Mom.

First we drove by our very first home that we had purchased the year we were married.

It looks exactly the same!

Except there was a tree missing from the front yard.

Four30 Scones did not disappoint – and it never does!

We enjoyed coffee and lemonade treats, and of course scones.

We also surprised Grandma Barb by not telling her Grant and his girlfriend Kamryn were going to meet up with us there!

Before we knew it, it was time to head on to Indy!

It is only three and a half hours from Morton.

We all arrived at our hotel at 10 p.m.

Saturday morning came early thanks to the time change.

We were SO excited to get over to my Mom’s place and see my Mom and brother!

We had a GREAT day with them!!

We went to Meijer – our favorite grocery/everything store – and got ingredients to make lunch.

My brother has traditions with the kiddos that he is SO good about continuing – a summer water fight, ice cream, and Chipotle for dinner each time we are there.

The kids had a blast!!

We thought this was funny as we saw Grant and Lane sitting side by side.

Grant is taller when they are sitting!

Not so much when they are standing!!

SO cute!!

Sunday we headed back to my Mom’s place and spent the morning there before the very long drive home.

It was SUCH a bittersweet time.

I can’t stand leaving there.

I just want all of our family to be right up the road so we can see them EVERYDAY – which is the way I think it should always be.

Before we knew it, it was time to go.

The “until next time” gets harder every time we have to say it.

We drove away with me in the front seat of the van with my hands over my face sobbing.

It was a long nine hour drive, but Blake does such a good job driving on these long trips!

We arrived home right before 7 p.m. Sunday night.

We already have our next date on the calendar, and I CAN’T WAIT to go back!

I LOVE being there SO much!

My Mom’s caretaker had my Mom write notes to Mike and I both.

It is something I will treasure for the rest of my life.

So very grateful for her care, and for my brother and all he does.

I could never say enough thank you’s or I love you’s to make my words have the weight that they should.

Our favorite weekend trip, you did not disappoint!!

It was such a wonderful weekend!

Until next time!!

Team Tate back to UW Madison

by Steph // Wednesday, August 2, 2023 // Comments off

On July 13th, Blake, Tate and I headed back to UW Madison to see Tate’s orthopedic surgeon.

If you would like to read my report on Tate’s last appointment with this surgeon, go here.

It was a beautiful day for a long drive!!

It takes us a little over two hours to get to the Health and Science Center where we see this doctor, as he does not have his clinic days at the hospital where we usually go.

Thankfully it looked pretty empty when we arrived!

Last time we were there we had waited for hours to see the surgeon.

Blake and Tate went back for Tate’s imaging right away, and then we were put into a room right after that!

They had Tate change out of his clothes for the imaging this time, which is something he has never had to do before.

A resident came in first, as usual.

We had never met him before, as usual.

He examined Tate and talked to us for awhile, and also showed us Tate’s new imaging.

He left to get the doctor, but left the imaging up on the screen of the computer.

We studied it and made our own evaluation of Tate’s progress, of course!!

The surgeon came in and examined Tate as well, and looked at his new images in comparison with many old images.

We talked for awhile – we love this doctor so much!

He told us our favorite words – that Tate is STABLE!!!

Then he added the surprise that we did not need to return for ONE YEAR!!!

WHAT??!!!

That is a FIRST, my friends!!

And it will be the longest Tate has gone without imaging since he has been home from China!!

There is a need to look more closely at the kyphosis of Tate’s back as he grows, but we will do this by comparing last year’s imaging with this year’s and next year’s imaging.

We skipped out of that place, as usual!!!

And headed to get our cheerful young warrior some NOODLES!!

I couldn’t help but also ask if it was ok to stop at Costco.

We really didn’t need much grocery, but we got some snack foods for an upcoming trip and a few other things as well.

My guys wanted some coffee for the long drive home, so we decided to stop at a cute little coffee shop on the way out of town.

It was worth the stop!

They also had an ice cream shop next door that we had to peek at and take advantage of their photo spot!

Just like that, another medical day was in the books!!

We will only have four medical days total in Madison for 2023, Lord willing, – which is AMAZING, isn’t it???

We go back in less than two weeks with Tate and Eliza for their urology check-ups and then we should be done for the year!!

YAHOO!!!

If you, like us, enjoy praising the Lord – please do so for Tate’s (and Eliza’s!) health and stability!!

Thank you, Jesus, for all You have allowed!!

We never could have even imagined the story the Lord would write regarding our two precious Chinese cherubs when we looked at their paperwork all those years ago.

What a wonderful journey it has been!!

Tate is S T A B L E!!!

We could not be more thankful!

WE ARE SO GLAD, TATE OWEN, FOR YOUR HEALTH, AND WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!