Lots of photos and even more talk!

 Her we are at our weekly date night sitting in the gym.  

Katy is loving her family and we are loving her!!!!

 If you were wondering how we are doing.....well....busy, busy, and good.  There is so much that goes into bringing a child into your family especially an older child that has a lot of set habits, ideas and lived in a completely different environment.  If you haven't walked this road, which many of you reading this have, you might think it would be impossible.  The minute to minute changing emotions for all of us can be a little tiring that is for sure.  I think I have said it before but this type of adoption is not for the weak or for the family that wants a simple life.  At church on Sunday our pastor said in order really love people with messy issues that we have to get messy ourselves.  That was a great for me to hear.  In parenting several children in our family that can be just a little difficult we have to jump right in and join them where they are in order to help them.  I have to say that in doing so I have seen the icky part of, Wendi.  You might think that we are really helping these children but really they are teaching and helping me way more.  For instance this week Katy and I were shopping at Costco. She was riding and hanging on the basket which was fine until it got full and then I could hardly push it. (by the way the amount of groceries that I buy each week is flat out insane) I asked her to get off so she did and then began hanging on it, I asked her not to touch the basket anymore.  She let go and then looked me in the eye as she grabbed hold of the basket.  Ok, now this is a Wendi move.  Mom, I know you had a little girl who did this same thing .  This is where I began to understand her and see a snippet into ME.  I don't flat out disobey my mom anymore but but it comes out in many worse ways than that and it isn't pretty.  I began to tell Katy that she wasn't obeying me and that she needed to obey her mama.  She crossed her little arms and said "ME not obey".  Yep, you said it girly.  You sure aren't.  At least she is honest and she tells it how it is like the time I had her sit in time out on the couch.  She was upset and said no, no, no, 100 no.  I think that meant I really, really don't want to do that.  She storms, pouts and has the loudest cry you have ever heard.  It is full of complete drama.  Ok, now for the amazing side of Katy.  She is THE most loving girl I have ever known.  She is smart and knows what she wants.  If she doesn't understand she asks until she does.  If she is upset with you she tells you.  She has no hidden thoughts.  She has wanted a family her whole life and even asked for one on her birthdays.  She tells me she loves me all day and hugs and kisses.  She desires to do everything right but can't get past that stubborn part of herself which I have no doubt has helped her survive for the last 10 yrs.  We have already had deep conversations about her China mom and dad and why they might have had to give her up.  She spontaneously prays and asks God for things and also thanks Him.  In many, many ways she deserves so much more than I have to give her however God chose me to be her mother.  We are learning from each other everyday and I think we make a pretty good team. 

We have lots of Medical evaluations ahead of us.  Some not so fun.  If getting her teeth cleaned is any indication on how things will go I am going to need some serious vacation time.  If you could pray for us as we go through the process I would really be thankful.

As for the rest of the family.  Well, can you say basketball and soccer.  Lots and lots of it.  I really love watching the kids do this.  The only problem is the ones not participating are left having a boring weekend and I have a hard time feeding them in between games.  I need 2 of me.  Wouldn't that be great.  The one who would stay home and do nothing but laundry, homework and cook.  The other to run around and play all the time with the kids.  Scott joins me in the insanity as we carefully make our game plan of attack each Fri. night.  

Sam is playing basketball for the first time.  Joel has been a great big brother and gone to his practices with him.  The coach liked Joel so much that she quit and gave him her job so now Joel is coaching Sam.  That has been really fun.  When you have kids who are learning English you get so many funny things out of them like the "100 no".  Sam refers to the other team as the "bad guys".  I love it.  We have some good laughs.  Also he gets "he and she" mixed up.  He tells me about friends that he has.  He talks for days about her and then when he shows me her, she is really a HE.  

We had a track meet last weekend for 3 of our kiddos.  DonLI, Ellie and Luke.  DonLi and Ellie ran the first and fourth leg on the coed relay.  It was so fun to see them do that together.  

Leah is our soccer girl.  She loves it and does so well.  The new rule is if Scott and I have to split up to different games he gets soccer if it is cold and windy.  Whew.  He happily took that one for me.

Joel is playing club basketball and loving it.  He plays for hrs a day and has tournaments every weekend and coaches on the side.  I assume he is going to school because someone posted a photo on FB of him in class today however he looked kind of tired and there was an iPod and cellphone laying on the desk.  hmmmm.

We only have 2 more weeks of school.  Yay.  That means I can sleep a little more and it also means that they will all be home everyday for many days.  What in the world am I supposed to do with 8 kids all day!  For that matter, what am I supposed to do with 8 kids period?  Well, God gives me what I need everyday.  Really nothing left over for the next day.  He wants me to know that He will show up again the next day for my needs.  It takes some getting used to.  We like to know that everything is perfect before we jump into something, right?  We are in it....we are loving it.....we are tired......we are excited and we wouldn't have it any other way............

Wendi