HOUSE!!!!

I am so excited to announce that my family has placed an offer for purchase of our next home, negotiated overnight and this morning - and was accepted!!!  Oh my gosh, friends.  You have no idea how completely agonizing the last 14 months have been.

On August 6, last year we left Nebraska for California, leaving behind our fully furnished, decorated home because it showed better furnished.  We packed up 1 suitcase each, plus a couple of boxes of toys for the kids and that is what we lived on for 9 LONG months.  I know life isn't about all our STUFF.   But we never guessed our sacrifices of the comforts of home, the basic necessities and the familiarity of our own beds and pillows, and the simple joy of children's toys would seem so endless.  We thought surely our house would sell the very minute we left town and that we'd be able to settle into a home outside of Sacramento quickly and easily.  Not so much.

We moved in with 3 host families over the course of 9 LONG months.  I am so grateful for the Souzas for opening up their brand new home to my family of 4; then the Martinezes with the 3 boys of their own, for sharing their bedrooms and toys, not to mention the holidays; and lastly the Raus for allowing us to stay in their trailer and to be reunited with our dogs and feel like a complete family on your beautiful, peaceful ranch (especially when we needed that peace the most).  You 3 families gave us the gift of our family, because without your help we would have been separated by 2 time zones and mountain ranges for endless months while we waited for that darn Nebraska house to sell.

And again, my sincerest thanks to the Lew's for housing and taking such good care of our dogs for 7 months.  We never intended it to be that long but we're so grateful for your graciousness and sweet spirit so that we didn't have to give up our beloved American Eskimos.  Even our guinea pig Russell had a foster home too, with the amazing Le family.  I'm still a little sad that piggies Russell and Sally couldn't get married and have a family of their own.  Ha!

After a year on the market, our house in Nebraska finally sold this past spring but our time in California was cut much too short.  I'm still struggling with why God sent us there only to have our feet cut out from beneath us just weeks before I was to pick up my daughter in China and literally 2 days before we were going to put an offer on a home in California.  We had no place to bring our daughter home!  I can't tell you how completely lost and hurt I was.

Those feelings lasted all summer long as we moved into my mother-in-law's condo in Texas - the only place big enough to house us all that would give my daughter the room she required as part of our adoption agreements.  Texas?  Really, God?  Is this really where you want us?  Apparently so.  We had friends put all our stuff into storage in Nebraska while I went from:

Northern California...

to Texas... 

to China... 

and back to Texas... 

in 3 short weeks.  

Despite dozens and dozens of resumes sent to churches and non-profits across the country, no jobs popped up for my husband all summer.  The only things that came up were here.  And the job we took is here, for now.  So...

San Antonio, Texas will be our home!  We close in October, likely in about 20 days (still waiting on the title company to determine exactly when).  We'll pack up our few belongings here at the condo, drive down to sign all the closing papers, run to Home Depot for a carpet cleaning machine and then spend the rest of the day cleaning in preparation for our STUFF from Nebraska to be delivered to a very, very anxious wife and momma, 2 excited boys who are so thrilled to have their toys and bunk bed back and a little girl who has no idea that she has a full-sized crib, books, toddler toys, even a Jeep for her to drive, all on it's way.

Please see our prayer request page.  But for now...

Thanks, God for our new home!  I pray Your hand of blessing on the house and our family there in the years to come.  Amen.

Our soon-to-be new home!

View of the Living/Dining Room from the front door.  We LOVE the hard wood floors!  Planning to spray all the fixtures a silver color to get rid of the brass finishes - a temporary, cheap fix for now.

View of the formal Living Room from the Kitchen (we'll likely use this LR area as our home school area).  The door on the far left wall is an under-the-stairs storage closet.  Crown molding would look great in this house... eventually!

Kitchen.  My mom says this reminds her of my kitchen in Nebraska.  Same layout.  That open door you see on the right is a walk-in pantry (I'm not excited about that - YES I AM!!!)  The door that you can barely see on the left leads to the back yard.  I can hardly wait to paint the cabinets white and put some cool hardware on them.  Also, a glass tile backsplash would be amazing and fun to do!

Family Room right off the Kitchen.  Call me crazy, but I'm thrilled to have a fireplace, even in Texas!  I can HARDLY WAIT to hang the stockings on the mantle this Christmas!

Master Bedroom is HUGE!  I seriously will be looking at garage sales for furniture to fill this room.  Love the tray ceiling, just like my bedroom in Nebraska.  The whole house is painted very neutral beige and livable for quite a while.  Carpet upstairs is also very nice and clean!

Master Bath has double sinks, garden tub and separate shower.  Again, would love to paint the cabinets white!

Master tub and shower.  The door on the left is the walk-in closet, which is decent sized, but not enormous like in some homes we had seen.

The upstairs has a Loft that will serve as the kids play area.  That's right... THREE living spaces in one home.   This is awesome since we are giving up a basement that we had in Nebraska where the kids had all their toys.

Upstairs Bath only has 1 sink for all the kids.  That's a bummer.  Double sinks are hard to find down here, at least in our price range.  Oh well.  

The laundry room us upstairs and is quite large.  Not sure I'll like having laundry upstairs (I like a mudroom on the main level for the dogs) but we'll see.  Jay says I'll love it.  We still won't allow our dogs upstairs.  I need a fur-free zone!

Not pictured are the bedrooms.  They just don't photograph well.  But in addition to the Master upstairs, there are 2 additional bedrooms upstairs with decent sized closets.  The boys will still share the largest bedroom and L will have her own room.  On the main level of the house is bedroom #4 which will be a guest room/office.  That bedroom also comes with a full bath on the main level of the home.  It feels nice to have the guest room/office set apart from the rest of the house!

I don't have pictures of the back yard either, but its a clean slate.  Heck, there isn't even a patio out there.  That will be the first thing we add.  But the home backs to a greenbelt, so no one will ever build behind us.  It's a fully fenced yard for the dogs.  I'd love to see a patio and shed, trees and flowers out there sooner than later.  We'll see if we can swing that. 

Introducing Brooke's Best

The day I joined Pinterest I thought I was crazy.  I mean, who has time for one more thing?  Who needs one more mindless activity to consume our time on the web?

True confession:  I love it!  I often enjoy browsing after the kids are in bed and Jay and I are relaxing with a show on TV.  It's kind of my "me activity," something I do for myself to relax after a long day with the kids.  I know a lot of you might not have time or even interest in Pinterest.  That was me.  But I will say you are missing out on some fun stuff!

After months and months on Pinterest I found myself doing nothing with any of my pins.  Absolutely nothing.  I just pinned and left it alone.  After a while, that bugged me because if I wasn't doing anything with my pins, then I really was just wasting my time.  After a few months haitus due to life and a little trip to China, I have attempted to try one pin a week, be it a recipe, a home schooling activity, a cleaning product, etc.

So now my blog is going to have a little added feature that I'm calling Brooke's Best.  It's my best Pinterest pins that I have personally tried.  I'll give you the direct link to the pin's website (not my Pinterest board in case you don't want to join), my rating, any pros and cons, likes or dislikes, or tweaks or changes.  I'll try to categorize my blog pages here on the tabs above and it would be my goal to keep up with the 1 new pin a week and then blogging about it.  Have a question about something I blog about and you can just leave a comment on that page and I'll get back to you [hopefully] with an answer.

I hope you enjoy Brooke's Best.

Words with Quiet Tiger

Kids are sponges, aren't they?  I've been trying to keep a running list of all the words L says and the stories behind them (because you'll laugh at us).   For the most part, these are in order of her progress, as best I can remember.  She's learning quickly and I thought you might enjoy hearing her progress.  Don't miss the video at the end, but don't you dare scroll down to that first.  :)

• Mama...  She knew this word in China and would point to my picture in her photo album, but she didn't point to me in person.
• Baba...  Daddy in Mandarin
• Ge ge...  Big brother in Mandarin
• Gou... Dog in Mandarin - I included pictures of our dogs in the photo album.
• Hi...  She said this in China with me while we were looking out the window in our hotel and waving to the traffic below.
• Ball...  She loved the beach ball I brought to China for her.
• Uh-oh...  Her first word at home, but at first she'd call everything an "uh-oh."  Only a day later and she was using it correctly.
• Noodle... She loves eating them (she's back on wheat again - yay!) and she likes playing with the pool noodles too.
• Good, good, good!...  My mom said this over the webcam one night to her and she loves saying it.
• Bye bye
• Night-night
• Hi kitty... She loves the stray cats that roam around the condo complex
• Hi deer...  She also likes the deer that roam through the neighborhood both here and at Jay's aunt's place. 
• All done...  A very rare occurrence heard from her high chair, complete with sign language.
• Polo...  We play a lot of Marco Polo in the pool.
• Hey!...  She likes The Duck Song on YouTube.
• Ow...  She repeated big brother C with this one and she was smiling thinking she had learned a new word.  She now uses it correctly.
• Cow/Moo...  She only said this once on National Cow Day (yes, there is such a thing apparently) and the church we were visiting that weekend offered free milk shakes and had 2 cows we could all pet.  She seemed to like the cows and I wished I had my camera.  She was fascinated and she'd point to them and say, "cow."
• Miami...  Here's the story:  When we first took L into the pool, she didn't want to swim with Jay, only me.  To keep things fun, Jay would take L in his arms, make choo-choo sounds and visit all the number placards for the depth markers along the pool wall.  3 feet.  4 feet.  5 feet.  But the company that made the pool has their own logo on the steps and that would be Jay's last stop - "Miami Pools."  :)
• Eight...  Swimming at the fancy pool at Jay's aunt's neighborhood, their pool goes up to a whopping 8 feet, so L likes the number 8.
• Goggles...  She likes all our goggles in the pool.
• Boat...  She loves watching the boats at Aunt Patti's lake house.  Even a wave runner is a boat to her.  Oh, and she's learned boating etiquette too - waving to all the boaters passing by.
• More...  Complete with the sign for it.
• Xie xie...  Loosely pronounced "shay shay."  Thank you in Mandarin (I loved it when she started saying this (along with gou for dog) and hearing her speak her native language because the nannies said she wasn't saying any words in the orphanage).
• Yay!...  Complete with a big smile and clapping hands and usually heard when I'm taking food out of the oven.  (sigh) 
• Bucket...  We carry all the pool toys in an old ice cream bucket.
• Ta Da!!!...  Oh, she is so pleased with herself sometimes. 
• Stay/sit...  Talking to the dogs.
• Wo ai ni...  Mandarin for "I love you."  My heart melted the first time I heard it and this phrase now flows freely from her mouth.  Oh, my heart!
• Eww... She doesn't like bugs.
• Ninjago...  (Heavy sigh).  Her brothers are obsessed with the show and she sings along with them.  Are your boys obsessed with Ninjago like mine?  I think I need a support group - for ME! :)   It's all they talk about.
• Rock...  From watching her brothers play rock, paper, scissors.  She also likes the rocks around the hot tub at Aunt Patty's.
• Daddy...  She has started this one recently.
• Bye bye, dead bug. ...  Her first full sentence.  She doesn't like bugs and she doesn't like them in the pool.  So, after she shouts "Eww!" I go over and scoop up the dead bug and flip it out into the grass.  I must have said once, "Bye bye, dead bug," because she says it every time now.
• Bow...  She's learning to like bows in her hair but they still don't last long.
• Airplane...  When she sees the small planes flying into the local airstrip, she's fascinated by them and makes sure I'm watching them too.
• No/uh-uh...  I'm surprised this one took so long for her to say, after all, she is two!
• Yes... Only on rare occasion.  ;)
• Head...   She is learning the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes."
• Toes...  Again from the song.
• Minnie...  She loves Minnie Mouse.
• Torpedo...  We have these torpedo toys for the pool that we dive for.
• Bye lizard...  We drove away from Jay's aunt's house a couple weeks back and we waved goodbye to all the lizards that we were watching climb on their home.  She cracked us up with that one. 
• Please...  We've been working on this one.
• Pew!...  When she passes gas or makes a dirty diaper, she'll pinch her nose and wave the other hand.  Hysterical.
• I want that...  I heard this really quiet clear this morning when Super E was playing with one of her toys.  She was not happy to share!

For a girl who wasn't saying anything in an orphanage just a few months ago, she sure has come a LONG way!  I'm sure there are some things I'm missing too.  I think of something at 2am and tell myself to get it on here when I get up and do I remember?  No.  But L is a smart girl.  And she understands everything we're saying too, that's for sure.

I've been trying forever to get her to sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" for the camera.  Enjoy a quick 1-minute clip.  Sorry for the bed-head and lack of proper lighting.  You've got to catch these moments on camera when you can!

1st Day of School... DELAYED

Physicals... check.  

Hair cuts... check.  

New shoes... check.  

Backpacks... check.  

Lunch bags... check. 

School supplies... check.  

Well, after three years of adoption drama, job drama, moving drama, it only seems fitting that we'd be faced with more.  This time we have school drama!  Oh, can't I just have my comfortable little life back, please?

Last week, Thursday was supposed to be Meet the Teacher Night at the boys' school, the one that is 17.7 miles away from my mother-in-law's condo where we've been staying all summer.  That same afternoon I was playing phone tag with the bus company to find out where our bus stop is located and what time pick-up and drop-off would be for the school year.  My jaw dropped to the floor when I heard that my boys would be on a bus at 6:33 a.m. and would return home after 4:00 p.m.  That's nearly 10 hours away from home, 5 days a week.  The bus ride alone would be an hour and a half on the way to school and over an hour on the way home.  My husband wouldn't make a commute that long for work!  No way we're putting our kids through that for school!  I called my mom in tears over what the bus guy said and Jay thought it was ridiculous too.

Case in point, take our day in San Antonio last Friday - just 1 day after I learned of the bus schedule.  Jay's uncle was down there on business for a few days and his wife decided to go along because she loves San Antonio and she offered to treat us to a fun day.  It was a wonderful gift after a summer of staying in, spending no money on any non-necessities, going no where to save gas money with no income coming in.  We put the boys to bed at a decent hour the night before our day trip.  We got up around 7:15, showered, dressed, ate cereal and loaded up the minivan.  We were on the road by 8:30am for our hour and a half drive to San Antonio.  We picked up Aunt Patti at her hotel and we drove to a museum where the boys learned about Texas history.  We followed that with lunch at the Mexican Market and then tried to hit an IMAX movie, but that didn't work, so we just walked the mall and shopped as Patti let the kids each pick out a souvenir from the trip.  We dropped her back at the hotel and were on the road home by 4:30pm.  My 5 year old Super E was out like a light in the backseat of the van almost immediately.  And that day wasn't even as long as a full day at school would have been!

A few weeks ago, when we registered the boys for school and learned that the school servicing our county is over 17 miles away, I expressed my concern on Facebook and my friend Amy in Iowa said I could borrow her old Sonlight kindergarten curriculum should we change our mind about public school and go with home schooling.  I kept that sweet offer in my back pocket.  After the Thursday conversation with the bus company, crying to my mom on the phone and talking with Jay, I happened to text my friend Hilary in Minnesota to tell her about our last minute thoughts on home schooling.  I had no idea what Hilary used for her kids and I mentioned that Amy (a mutual friend of ours) was lending me the kindergarten set.  Hilary called me immediately and said she had most of the 4th grade Sonlight curriculum for my oldest son.  Thank you, God!  Oh, that made me so excited!  I just don't think we could have afforded to buy curriculum on our own, at least not right now after the summer we've had with no job.  Thank you, Amy and Hilary for offering to lend me your stuff!

A little help from 2 of my best friends sealed the deal -- WE'RE HOME SCHOOLING!!!!!

The plan may still be to investigate public school in October when we move into a house of our own (more details on that to come).  We hear the schools are excellent in the town that will most likely be where we set up house.  At the same time, if I love home schooling and if our kids are excelling, we may just keep it up for the rest of the year and then rethink things for the next year.  Thankfully, I don't have to make that decision until we reach those crossroads.

In both Nebraska and California I was surrounded by friends who home school.  I always thought that funny and felt like the black sheep for sending my kids to public school.  I always wondered if someday I would home school.

So, pray for me and for the boys, please.  School starts on Monday here in Texas.  We'll start home school soon, once I receive the boxes from my friends and figure out what the heck I'm doing.  Let me know if you know of any fun, free online groups I should be a part of.  Leave it to my amazing adoption community to invite me into one already.  I love you guys!!!

Here's to a great year for my Super E in kindergarten and Super C in 4th grade!!!!

PS...  You won't want to miss my next post.  I've been working on a running list of all of L's new words in her brand new English language.  I'm even trying to capture some on video.  It will be well worth your time to check back in for a few laughs.

"We're Bonding Here, Aren't We?"

Social workers and adoption experts say that if a child struggles and grieves when they are placed with their new family, that's a good sign that the child had bonded to one person/family prior to placement and that the child will very likely bond to the new family in due time.  For me, yes, L did cry on Gotcha Day but not much at all.  Once we were in the van, she was totally fine.  We had our moments like diaper changing and bathing but once those were over, she was totally fine and back to exploring and playing.  If I had to say anything was grieving, it was bedtime when she'd cry and scream and thrash in my arms before tiring herself out (or tiring mommy out).  Our first few nights were like that.

Other than those things, she really didn't grieve much.  She didn't cry for hours and hours like some families experience with their kids.  She didn't hit or bite or try to get away from me.  And when we were out in public doing some of our sightseeing with our guides, the guides would tell me to let L run and play and L never once would look over her shoulder for me or seek me out.  She was happy to be playing and seemingly didn't give a darn about me or where I was.  I immediately wondered if we really were bonding at all.

My baby boy,  Super E.

After a couple months home, one of the biggest ways I know she has bonded with me is her jealousy over her big brother E.  My 5 year old is a mama's boy.  He and I are very close, due in large part, to his struggles in infancy (which is a story for another time) and our closeness is not welcome by Miss L.  She'll swat at him, push him off my lap, cry and scream if I read a book to E, play a game with him, or spend any one-on-one time with him.  The fact that I have 2 hips to carry my 2 babies doesn't work for L.  I can't have E on one side while she is on the other.  She must have all of me and he must have none.  Oddly enough, she's more okay with my oldest boy being close to me, but not E.

Another way I know that L has bonded with me is that she simply cannot stand when I leave the room without her.  It seems like age regression for her which is very typical in adoptions.   If I so much as go upstairs for 2 minutes to choose an outfit for her to wear for the day, she cries this overly dramatic, crocodile tears cry, buries her face in the couch and is inconsolable.  Jay will often go over to her for comfort, but it only makes matters worse.  The boys and Jay can try to distract her to no avail.  I can peek down from upstairs and show her where I am and that still doesn't stop the incessant carrying on.  I have to admit that these antics drive me crazy the longer they continue!  I can deal with sibling rivalry but not being able to leave the room for 5 minutes to put away laundry, let the dogs out, or even use the restroom gets old quickly.

My title for this post may have been stolen from Father of the Bride II, but as for our daughter, we really are bonding here and it's great to see her adjusting and attaching so well to her new life.

Thought you'd enjoy her mischievous little grin.  

Our Adoption Video

Yesterday was August 6.  Two years ago yesterday, we lost our Nepal adoption.  The loss still stings, not only because we lost so much financially, but because of what the children of Nepal lost on that day - a chance for a forever family.  But I also remember our loss on August 6 because we dug deep into our hearts and continued to hold God's hand on our adoption journey and He was faithful!

Today is August 7.  We've been home from China for 2 months today with our daughter.

When we were in the paperwork phase of our Nepal adoption and then waiting on our China, watching adoption videos on YouTube really encouraged me to keep plugging away at the paperwork.  The one that really grabbed me was one from an Ethiopia adoption.  I'll include the link here because it was just so well done and really meant the world to me!  I do not know this family and they will never know just how much their story has given me hope along such a broken adoption road.  I'm sure half of the views on their YouTube video were from me alone, that's how much I watched it to keep myself going.

Now, I am not a videographer, music mixer or anything of the sort!  But I've been playing around with iMovie on Jay's laptop and have had great fun with it.

Please enjoy our video.

Birthday Girl

Two years ago this week, across the International Dateline, across the globe, a mother gave birth to a daughter.  Just like most mothers, she endured 9 long months of pregnancy, her final few months being in the heat of summer.  Just like most mothers, she probably experienced contractions, labor and delivery.  And just like most mothers, I bet she held her daughter and counted her fingers and toes:  1... 2... 3... 4... 5... wait a minute.  Five.  Five fingers.  Not ten.  Only 5.  I'd bet she was shocked, surprised and sad that her daughter wasn't born absolutely perfect in the world's eyes.

But this mom gave this girl life.  She gave this girl a chance.  For a couple of months, she held her sweet baby girl, she fed her, bathed her, cared for her.  She loved her.  If she hadn't loved her, she might have chosen a very dark, dreadful, awful, alternative route.  But she chose love, love brave enough to know her daughter would be best raised by someone else, somewhere else, unknown to her for the rest of her life.  I couldn't have made that decision.  I couldn't.  No way.  

To this dear mom who must be wondering where her daughter is today:

I want you to know that you were in my thoughts all day today and that is not an exaggeration.  I cried real tears over your loss as I held your daughter on her 2nd birthday.  I prayed for some sort of phenomenal miracle that you could hold your daughter through my arms, that could could smell her sweet, freshly washed hair, feel her smooth, soft skin, kiss her rosy lips, hear her silly laugh and that you could see your daughter through my eyes today.  

I pray for peace in your heart over your decision to give your daughter life and a second chance at life with another family who will cherish her forever.

I pray for wisdom for you to know, without a doubt, that your daughter is safe, growing, happy, cared for, and loved beyond even our own comprehension by a mother, a father, brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

I pray for God's message of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ to be at the very core of who you are so that one day you will be reunited with your daughter in Heaven and we will be one large, extended, beautiful Chinese-American family that God Himself orchestrated from the very beginning.

I pray prayers of thanksgiving for you, for sharing the daughter you carried for 9 months, held in your arms for 2 months and will carry in your heart for as long as you shall live.  Thank you for the daughter we proudly share.

With all my love and gratitude forevermore,

Brooke