Happy Birthday, Cassie Mei!

It's hard for me to fathom that just one year ago Cassie was celebrating her very own birthday for the very first time ever with her ayis and children at Zhongshan orphanage.  

While on the other side of the world was another little girl blowing out seven candles in her honor.

Now here we are,  Just one year later.  Today the girls busied themselves preparing for our little birthday party to celebrate Cassie Mei turning eight years old!

And while I do not have a picture of Cassie blowing out her candles, since we decided to record it, I do have other pictures to share with you of this monumental day.

For close to four months now, Cassie has been asking me if i would cry for her on her birthday.  You see, on Sonya's birthday in May, while I read to her the birthday card from her father and me, I cried.  I couldn't help it.  

Once even, Cassie brought over a birthday card for me to read to her while we were shopping in the card section at our local Walgreens.  She had first asked me which cards were for daughters.  And then she picked out a card and handed it to me to read to her.  I knelt before her and looked up into her tentative little face and read this birthday card, and do you want to know something, it was perfect for how I feel about her, and rest assured I cried..

Now the moment Cassie had been waiting for for so long finally presented itself to her.  After the dinner, after the cake, and now finally the card from Mommy and Daddy.  It was time for her very own Mommy to read her birthday card to her....   Also recorded, yet we do have pictures of what followed.

 


















It was not easy finding a card for Cassie since most cards for daughters talk about loving them since birth or the other cards which speak of what great mothers these daughters themselves have turned out to be....

But there was one..... And it was perfect.... And I cried while I read it in the store.  And i cried again while i read it to beautiful Cassie Mei.  Here it goes:

What does the word daughter mean?

It means loving more than you knew you could love.

It means laughing harder than you knew you could laugh.

It means learning when you thought you were supposed to be doing the teaching.

It means giving more than you knew you could give.  It means receiving so much more in return. 

It means sharing a connection that keeps surprising you with its depth and strength.

It means feeling a kind of pride you never knew before.  

It means seeing your hopes fulfilled in ways much sweeter than you could have imagined.  

It means knowing that whatever else you did or didn't do, you gave the world something beautiful. 

Happy Birthday To a Beautiful Daughter.

Happy Birthday, Cassie!  I thank my God in Heaven for you!

When Silly Meets Saucy

As much as Cassie has kept all three of us - Randy, Sonya and me - on our toes, her life with ours has been worth the effort with all of the unexpected challenges we've met along the way because of her in it. As much as Cassie is a pistol and a little firecracker and spunky and temperamental as all get out, still, I gotta admire her.  Really, she shows me every day what I would have been like as a child had I been given the time of day.  She really is so much like me that I feel like i'm looking at a mirror sometimes, and while God is using me as her mother to help shape and grow her into the person He wants her to be, He at the very same time is delivering me from an unfulfilled and tormented past through it all.  Does that make any sense? 

Cassie really has had so many rough edges to work through, and she's not perfect yet, but of course we don't expect her to be and who is anyway?  Yet amidst all of the drama, really I just have to say she melts our hearts every day. By her sweet, sweet nature and generous spirit, Cassie fills a place in our family noone else could ever possibly fill. 

There was a time had someone asked our oldest what it was like having a little sister she would have responded, with a hint of a smile on her face, "Horrible."  But Sonya deep down would not have been joking.  Even though back then there were more good times than bad, still there was enough rawness left in Cassie which made her completely unpredictable and which in turn made Sonya feel insecure and unsure if things were ever going to get better.  But now if you were to ask her what it is like to have a little sister, she would gleefully and cheerfully tell you, "It's good" or "It's nice".   

Something i had always wanted to do with Sonya pre- Cassie but didn't for fear of building up a vanity in her as an only child, was to take her to a beautiful flower garden somewhere and snap hundreds of pictures of her in lovely dresses with her hair all done up.  Now that I have two it does feel more natural to follow through with this idea without either one of them needing to get a big head over it.  So we did it. 

Just a few days ago i put the girls in dresses, did up their hair, and with a spare dress for each of them, headed out the door to a nearby park with gorgeous flowers, plentiful trees, benches and a nice gazebo.  The rest of my post will be of pictures I took of the girls in their poses or simply acting silly with eachother.  You will see for yourself by the time they changed dresses they had begun to wilt a little at the very end as the temperature outside had climbed to about ninety degrees by then.  Even so, they were both good sports about it for the most part, not to mention i promised i would treat them to Wendy's if they kept smiling and did not complain. 

Enjoy!  And please leave me your comments if the spirit moves you!

"To God be the glory for the great things he hath done!"

May God Bless America Again

Where but in America can you freely worship in public, pray before meals at restaurants and speak your mind without fear of imprisonment?   

How much longer will we be able to enjoy these special freedoms bestowed on us by God and recognized and penned by our founding fathers in the Bill of Rights?  The climate of America is changing quickly, and if you are not a Christian you may not find cause to shudder at the thought of America no longer being a Christian nation, but people, listen carefully, whether you are an atheist, an agnostic, a jew or a buddhist, you have the freedom to worship or not as you wish without fear of persecution because this has always been a Christian nation premised on a biblical worldview.  

If you are a Christian and you find my assertions baseless, then please oh please, wake up!  We will lose our freedoms if we do not begin to openly exercise them. 

When was the last time you told someone about what Jesus has done for you?  When was the last time you prayed with your family before a meal at a restaurant?  When was the last time you opened your bible or went to church?  When was the last time you got on your knees and begged God for forgiveness for chasing after worldly ambitions, all the while teaching your children to do the same by your example? 

Why did the Pilgrims come to America?  Contrary to a newly-evolved popularly held belief by our youth of this nation -it was to escape a tyrannical government bent on controlling every facet of man's life and to worship their God without being persecuted for it. 

Tell me, can you see our government usurping Its control over the masses while the church sleeps?  Do you know anything about Obamacare, for instance, and the far-reaching implications to enslave our children and the generations that follow?

Perhaps you are thinking it's enough to just vote Obama out at this point?  Or perhaps you are thinking Mitt Romney is a guy for the people?  Do you?  Do you naively think he is going to honor and uphold your right to religious freedom, for instance?  Really?  What does he even know about your Christian religion?!!!!!

I am a Christian.  You don't need to take my word for it.  If you get to know me well enough I will show you.  And I find it more than a little unsettling that so many Christians are so naive and willing to take it at face value when someone claims to be a Christian.  "Well if they say it is so, then it must be so.  Their word is good enough for me."  

We as a nation have voted our interests for far too long, while failing to vote for the candidates who uphold biblical worldviews and can show us by their fruits.  Now we will be faced with a non-Christian president either way we vote, although one may or may not pose less of a threat to our Christian ideals than the other.  Still, how did we get here?  Can we blame it on our parents or on our parents' parents?  If they are partly at fault for the rise of the duldrums and ignorance that has slowly and methodically lulled this great nation to sleep, then why oh why are we now choosing to take up the same banner and walk with it?!  


Only God at this point can save our nation, that is if we are willing to get to know Him through His written word, pull our collective head out of the sand and get right with Jesus. 

Oh...did I just ruin your fourth of July celebration while you eagerly await the fireworks while sipping on a tall, cold glass of iced tea or beer?  I'm sorry, but then again, maybe I'm not... 

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?  or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?"  Psalms 94:16

Oh please, body of Christ, to everyone who loves Jesus and who is proud to declare His name before all men, pray with me now, your sister in Christ and in bondage to Him!  Pray that our Father in Heaven will hear our prayers through our spiritual works done in His name!   Pray that He holds back His wrath on this nation while we take a good, hard look at ourselves and determine from this point out to turn away from this world and live as Christians truly!  Oh please, body of Christ, wake up and don't be satisfied with celebrating one more fourth of July without recognizing Him in the middle of it!  Don't do it!  Don't do it!  Don't do it! 

And please oh please, determine with me that you will share Jesus with others!  Do not be ashamed of the one who saved you!   AND WHEN PEOPLE ASK YOU WHAT IS THE HOPE THAT IS IN YOU, DECLARE IT IS JESUS CHRIST:


THE ONE WHO SET YOU FREE FROM A SIN-FILLED AND DESPERATE LIFE!

THE ONE WHO MADE YOU A CHILD OF GOD AND KEPT YOU FROM REMAINING AN ORPHAN!

THE ONE WHO WALKS WITH YOU IN TIMES OF TROUBLE AND REJOICES WITH YOU IN TIMES OF TRIUMPH AND COVERS YOU WITH A HEALING BALM IN TIMES OF HUMAN DESPAIR!

THE ONE WHO PROMISED TO NEVER LEAVE OR FORSAKE YOU WHEN YOU GAVE YOUR LIFE TO HIM! 

THE ONE WHO DIED, WHO WAS BURIED AND WHO ROSE FROM THE DEAD SO THAT YOU MAY EXPERIENCE AN ETERNITY IN HEAVEN!



Jesus is alive!  Jesus is alive!  Jesus is alive!  Say it with me, "Jesus is alive!  Jesus is alive! Jesus is alive!"
 
There, now go and enjoy the rest of your fourth of July, at least what is left of it! 

No Greater Joy Mom: update on the Moghadam family

No Greater Joy Mom: update on the Moghadam family

Body of Christ - Please pray for this family!

I just now read of a family who is in Ghana right now to adopt a sibling group of four.  The parents have been placed in custody with a charge of child trafficking and their two bio children who are traveling with them have been placed in the very same orphanage as their four adopted children!  Please pray for this family and intercede on their behalf right now for their protection, for the grace and mercy of the Father to set things right quickly for the sake of these parents and their six children.  Our prayers will rise!  Thank you so much!
No Greater Joy Mom: very urgent prayer request

I Promised

Since my friend Lauren  gave me the "Versatile Blogger Award", I  promised her i would write 7 random things about myself and post them on my blog.  So here goes:


1.  I love the color green so much that several rooms in my home are painted various shades of green.
2.  I love cats.
3.  I've wanted to adopt ever since i was five years old.
4.  My favorite ice cream flavor is Rocky Road.
5.  I have flat feet.
6.  I love hiking in the mountains.
7.  I love watermelon.


There!  Done!  

The Latest

Okay, do not do what i did today, and that is delete pictures from your picasa web album.  And do you want to know why not?  Because you will also delete pics off your blog!!!!!


Suffice it to say....I now have many posts without pictures, and I am really not so sure i am up for replacing all of them, or even remembering which pics i had where, for that matter.   Lesson learned, the hard way....


Well we just returned home from a two-night stay at a water park in Sanduskey, Ohio.  Cassie's first ever experience with inner-tubes  and water slides, and let me just say right now, me the proud mama, she did fantastic.  This girl is truly fearless!  All this time I think she was just waiting for a family to show her who she really is.  


Unfortunately I did not get even one picture of them in the water, but i will share a few others with you that i think are cute.  Hopefully you will like them too!

While we were away from home, Cassie lost another tooth, her third one since being with her family!  these are EXCITING times, friends!

The next picture was taken by Cassie while we were at the restaurant.  It reflects what Randy and i have always known - that Sonya is a mommy's girl.  Oh sure, Sonya loves her daddy, and he's the best toy she's ever played with.  Not to mention a wonderfully loving and gentle father to her.   

Now we are learning that daddy has a girl of his own.  Don't get me wrong, Cassie can't live without me.  I mean, I'm the first one she runs to when she wakes up in the middle of the night filled with fear and panic that her new life isn't real.  But no doubt about it, Cassie is a daddy's girl from the top of her head to the tips of her toes!  This next picture is of Cassie at Zhongshan when she is probably five years old.  When I saw it for the very first time, there were two things i identified about her from studying her face and posture.  #1:  She is a perfectionist and likes to do things well.  #2:  She needs a daddy so she can do things well and without fear.  Cassie, once called Zhong Feng Mei, is the last one in line.

But look at her now!