This Post is Dedicated to Sonya

Okay...so ever since November 11, 2010 our family life has almost been nothing but a big blur.  Why, you ask?  Because it was on November 11 that we woke up to a first-floor flooded bathroom and kitchen!  Followed by eight wonderful and relaxing days at a brand new Holiday Inn only five miles from home, followed by a few "hellish" weeks of renovations to our kitchen and bathroom coupled with the beginning stages of the adoption process of Mei Mei who we had no idea of until she happened.  A whole lot of mold was torn out of the walls in our bathroom and kitchen, much of it pre-existing,  and I can't help but wonder if everything we went through with the flood was leading up to a way for God to prepare our home and make it safe for our second China-born daughter to come home to....

So anyone following our story knows how many fundraisers we did in a three month period.  I incredulously tell folks, "Three in three months."   Starting in February through mid-June, I was all about organizing events to make money to defray adoption costs. That is why I say to you now, our family life has almost been nothing but a big blur. 

Now, I will swiftly switch gears and share a few things about the beginning of Sonya's summer vacation, which incidentally didn't really start in June like most children her age, but I would say maybe the second week of July?

Let me just say Sonya has been quite the trooper through all of the ups and downs of our adoption journey, and she's witnessed her mother cry more than a river of tears and somehow manages to keep positive and upbeat about the whole process herself.  Although, Sonya will occasionally exclaim, "Oh, how I wish Mei Mei could be with us right now!  I miss her, momma." 

I will begin with a visit from Sonya's very dear friend and lifelong friend, Lucy.  Lucy came over to our house the week following the fourth of July at which time her mother so graciously cleaned our carpets, for free I might add, getting rid of all the grit and grime accumulated in our home since the parking lot sale at the end of May.  Remember, our entire first floor of our house and entire garage had been used to store sale items until the big parking lot sale day.  And then on into mid-June when we had a garage sale fund raiser at our residence.  Remind me to never do three in three months. ever. again. 

So... where was I?  Oh yeah, Sonya's friend, Lucy.  Lucy btw whom Sonya allowed to dig a splinter out of her foot with a pliers, I mean tweezers, without as much as a wimper.  Okay, obviously I'm exaggerating about referring to the tweezers as pliers, and just so you know, if Lucy wasn't such a little perfectionist I wouldn't have let her come near Sonya's foot with a ten foot pole.  And Sonya btw who can't help but scream bloody murder at the very mention of me taking the end of a sterilized needle ever so carefully and delicately to remove the aforementioned splinter from a body part, namely a hand or foot.  The following picture says it all....

   













When I asked Lucy what her secret was to keeping Sonya so calm throughout the entire twenty minute removal process, she very politely and joyfully declared, "That's because I'm really good at this.  I know what I'm doing, so Sonya doesn't have to be scared."  Thanks a lot, Lucy. 

Once Lucy's mother was finished with the carpets, we took the girls along with Lucy's big sister, Lily, and little brother, Sam, to the new Kreager Park splash pad.  I have to say, really and truly, that day at the splash pad felt like the very first day of summer vacation, for Sonya more specifically.  For goodness sakes am I looking so very forward to slowing way down once we get Mei Mei home from China.  As one adoptive mom put it, "Adoption is not for the faint of heart."

So here's sharing with you a few smiles from Sonya and her special friend, Lucy, who has been with Sonya almost since birth:

Remember to check back soon as I will be posting pictures of Sonya's latest summer adventures at the farms of the Bontragers and Millers.  Sonya doesn't know it yet, but we will be starting back to school the first week in August, so I am trying to show her a really good time filled with good, clean (or dirty - you should have seen Sonya's feet after her full-day excursion at these farms!) fun in the meantime.