A Celebration!

Our Tate Owen was forever ours on July 27th five years ago!

Our Eliza Claire was forever ours on July 14th six years ago!

We let them choose if they wanted to celebrate or not, and they chose YES!

A double celebration with Chop Chae, chocolate cupcakes, triple berry chocolate chip ice cream, and our favorite people!

It was PERFECT!

And dessert was YUMMY!!

Big family dessert prep looks like this!

During dessert Eliza hugged me and said “I couldn’t have a better family.”

CUE ALL THE TEARS.

Oh, how far they have come!!

After all that eating, we headed outside to enjoy a beautiful evening together!

It was one of those perfect temperature, slight breeze, can’t pull ourselves back inside kind of evenings!

Our simple celebration was SO perfect.

The best part about it was the opportunity it gave us to speak affirmation over Tate and Eliza, that evening, and for several days leading up to their celebration as we prepared for it.

As Grant prayed for the meal, he thank the Lord for bringing Tate and Eliza into our family and for how amazing it is to trust in God’s perfect plan for them both!

It was a beautiful, truth filled prayer – and those are the words we speak over them often!

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our Tate Owen and Eliza Claire!

We ARE trusting You with their future and Your plans for them!!

We cannot wait to see how you continue to write their stories!!

Because You write the BEST stories!!

Happy, happy forever family day to our precious cherubs!!

A Recipe//Smooth Sweet Iced Tea

I have a recipe for you today for sweet tea, but a secret ingredient makes this tea smooth and delicious!

A jar of iced sweet tea is such a treat on a summer weekend!

We found this recipe on line years ago and this tea is supposed to mimic the tea at the Lone Star Steak House.

Smooth Sweet Iced Tea

Bring one quart of water to boiling.

Turn off heat and add 3/4 cup of honey, stirring until dissolved.

Add twelve regular tea bags of choice (we use decaf green tea) and steep for 15 minutes.

Remove tea bags.

Add 1/4 tsp of baking soda and stir until dissolved. (This is the secret ingredient!)

Pour mixture, once cooled, into a gallon glass jar and add cold water to the top.

Store in the fridge and serve over ice.

*we make sure the tea is cool before pouring into the glass jar – we learned to be patient with this step when a glass jar broke as we added the hot tea one time!

*we changed this recipe (as usual!) from white sugar to honey and use half of what the original recipe recommended

Enjoy!!

Forever Family Day!!

It’s been six years!!

Six years since we flew half-way around the world to bring home our Eliza Claire!

It feels like yesterday and a million years ago all at once.

I don’t think I will ever forget the emotions, smells, sounds, feelings, heat, and excitement of that day!

We were taken to a steaming hot civil affairs office in the middle of the afternoon, and the children were already there waiting for us!

We got a glimpse of Eliza when we entered the room.

After some paperwork, and waiting on our turn, Eliza was brought to us!

I sat down on that tile floor, gathered Eliza into my arms, and it was like she had always, always been there.

God writes the best stories!!

We have made plans to celebrate Eliza’s Forever Family Day – at her choice – with Tate, since his Forever Family Day is just two weeks away!

Whether we have a meal, dessert, and gifts or not, I will ALWAYS celebrate this day in my heart and I know Blake will too!

When I look back over these last six years with Eliza, my faith seems SO small.

God is SO BIG!!

Thank you, Lord, for choosing us!!

Thank you, Lord, for trusting us with SO much!!

Happy Forever Family Day, Zhao He Jie – our Eliza Claire!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

Team Eliza On The Road Again

This past Thursday it was Eliza’s turn for a doctor’s appointment!

We had Eliza practice wearing a mask too, knowing it would be harder for our sweet sensory girl.

She did GREAT!

I pulled her mask away from her face often to allow her to take a deep breath.

For this appointment we were headed to the Twin Cities, a three hour drive.

Our appointment wasn’t until late in the afternoon on Thursday, but they called at 9:30 that morning asking us to come earlier.

Blake headed home from work and we got on the road!

It was a rainy day, but our drive was uneventful!

Thankful for a hubby who makes important stops, and for google maps to find important places, ha, ha!

Once we arrived at Shriner’s we were screened and then they told us only one parent was allowed.

They were allowing anyone else who traveled along that day to stay in the lobby since it was hot outside.

The lobby was about the size of our kitchen and dining area, and was FULL of people – makes perfect sense, huh?

No, it doesn’t really.

GOOD GRIEF.

Eliza and I went through the glass doors to register for her appointment – into a huge EMPTY (good grief again) area to wait for her turn.

The building is brand new and beautiful – they had only been there for over a week!

We took Spark the dog along for moral support!

First up Eliza had new images taken.

Only one view where she was lying down.

Easy peasy!

Then she and I waited to see the surgeon.

He came in, had Eliza walk up and down the hallway, and checked the rotation of her hips while she laid on the table.

Then he pulled up her new images and measured the degree of “gap” in her hip socket.

I think I saw him smile under that mask!

Next he pulled up Eliza’s images from last year and the year before and put them all side by side.

I KNEW.

Right then I could see the measurement “triangles” on those images – and they did NOT look the same!

The surgeon swung his stool around and said “Those are two NORMAL hip sockets today! Eliza’s hip dysplasia is GONE.”

Out of my mouth, with a huge breath of relief, came the word “HOW??!!”

Silly me! I know HOW! I love the Lord! HE’S HOW!!

The surgeon did ask Eliza “What do you like to do, Eliza?”

She replied, “I like to swim, and swing, and jump on my trampoline, and be outside.”

He said, “Keep doing all those things! And see you and your Mom in two years just to make sure there is no regression.”

While we waited for the nurse to bring our discharge papers I was texting Blake to tell him the news!!!

Then it was time to head home!

With a stop at Chipotle for dinner of course!

I AM BEAMING just typing this!!

Believe me, we would be praising the Lord EITHER way – good news or bad – but SERIOUSLY!!

It is hard to explain the emotions because they stem back to years ago when we first read Eliza’s (and Tate’s) file and the unknowns were terrifying.

SILLY US!!

What if we had let that fear stop us?!

What if.

Oh my goodness, I cannot imagine what if.

Well, there is crying in my eyes, as usual.

Our precious Eliza is healing, strong, thriving, smart, enthusiastic, and FULL of life.

I am SO BLESSED to be her Mama!!

We are so thankful!!

We are NOT worthy!!

Praise Jesus with us for this GREAT REPORT!

Eliza Claire, we love you SO, so, so much!!

You are precious and fearfully and wonderfully made!

Praise the Lord!!