Holland

I love my kids. All three individually. They each have their own unique personallity. And though Abby has Down Syndrome, we try to keep it on the down low. It does not define my daughter, but its a major part of her life. Not long after Abby was born I found this little article. While I don't know that this is about Down Syndrome specifically, this is such a beautifully true description of what we experienced. I was thinking of this especially yesterday... most of you know I had found a little Ecuadorian boy on Reece's Rainbow, Josue :) who completely stole my heart. And while Jake was making "no way Josue" jokes, I couldn't get this little boy out of my head. So I was praying and praying about this today, I decided to take a step in one direction or the other and emailed his adoption agency. And within the hour they emailed back to tell me that he's already been adopted. He's home. :) Which is wonderful news for him and a final answer for me to put him out of my head. A door closed, which is exactly what I prayed for. And though adoption is a totally different experience- you know what you're getting into- still all day I've had this article in my head. Thinking of the day Abby came home to be a part of our family. This is exactly how I felt. It brought tears to my eyes the first time I read it because it hurt so bad to be in Holland. But when I read this now, I can appreciate that I've been to Italy AND Holland. And I LOVE both places. And it makes me smile...

"I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try and help people understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this....

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas of Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It is all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, 'Welcome to Holland.'

'Holland???' you say. 'What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy.' But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you have been there for a while you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going to Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, 'Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned.'

And the pain of that will never, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.
But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't go to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland."

One more

Ok, so three post in one day is BIG for me. :) But I have this one last picture that I have to share... one of the girl's friend's, Lily turned three last week (a lot of birthday's, I know!), and I got this picture of Abby... it was a "Princess dress-up party", which you KNOW my kids loved, but I even dressed up little Abby. Its kinda hard to see her little outfit, but she looked so sweet and I think it really shows what a big girl she's getting to be. Enjoy. :)

Girls Night Out

No, not "the girls", but my friends "the girls". : ) Mindy and D'Arcy had birthdays last week and we've kinda made it a tradition over the years to go out for a girls night and celebrate their birthdays together. What a blast we had!!! We started with dinner at Cheesecake Factory and ended with a "picture schavenger hunt". (Which I won't show pictures of.) Anyway, dinner was great and we played quite a few rounds of "shout an emotion"... which I am reluctantly sharing with you. Anyway, we had an awesome night out with no kids, no husbands, and no worries. It was VERY refreshing. :)









Shout an emotion explains its self really... you shout an emotion just before you snap...

I can't believe I'm posting this. :)

Ashley's Birthday

Wow, what a busy month, and it still isn't over! Ashley turned five last week... yes FIVE. I can't believe how big she's getting. We had a little party at church with Bible study friends and then another party at home with just family. Here are a few pics from church-

Thanks to all for the sweet gifts and for being a part of this little milestone in her life. We love you all!

Reece's Rainbow

Ok, so I came across the coolest website today and just had to share-

In America, there is actually a really long waiting list to adopt a child with Down Syndrome. For a couple of reasons- mostly because there are a lot of families out there who know a child with DS, OR have one of their own, and have been so touched by that child, that they are waiting on lists to be a part of the life of another baby with DS. (On my Down Syndrome forum, many of the family's have more than one child with DS and I thought it was just because they "had the gene" but just kept having more kids anyway... and while that is the case for a very few, the rest of them loved their little baby so much, they've adopted more!) But the other reason that there are such long waiting lists is because there are women all across America who, when they find out that they are pregnant with a baby who has DS.... they make an unthinkable decision. (Which is WHY I have a DS awareness ribbon, to raise awareness that my little girl is a GIFT and I feel HONORED to be her mommy.)

Which brings me to my point. There is a website called Reeces Rainbow and they are a "connecting point" for American families to adopt children with Down Syndrome internationally! There are kids with DS all over the world (the rate of 1 in 800 isn't just in the US) who have been given up and need families!

Anyway, if you have time and this interests you, you should just scroll through the pages of little faces all over the world. They will melt your heart. Especially if you've ever had Abby blow you a kiss or heard her "tell a story" or squeal when she gets REALLY excited. :) These little ones need someone to love them back too...

http://www.reecesrainbow.com/

Some more info on this whole adoption issue:

http://adoptionblogs.typepad.com/adoption/down_syndrome_adoption/index.html

http://www.dsagc.com/adoption.asp

Updates

Well, what I was afraid would happen with this blog is happening... no time to update. :) Oh well, I try. Lots is going on though.

Jake got home from Ecuador safe and sound. They had an awesome time and many lives were eternally changed. I don't have any pictures at the moment, but I'll try to post some soon. I'm so thankful for my amazing, wild-at-heart, youth pastor/missions-minded husband, but the girls were so glad to have daddy home from "Ecka-door".

We had a birthday party for Emily last week. Can't believe she's already three. We had a nice little party at home with just family and her best friend, Lily. She was VERY thankful for all of her gifts, haha! (*wink, wink* to everyone who was there!) Here are some shots from that:

There was our annual "Barn Bash" at church- there's some great live music, lots of food, games and best of all, baptisms in the river... Jake baptised one of the youth girls who went to Ecuador with them.(Go Bonnie!) I hung out on our blanket with Abby and visited with friends while Jake spent most of his time chasing the girls around the blow up bouncy... things. :) The girls also got to play down in the river, which they LOVED. I didn't catch many pictures that day, but here are a few:

And besides all of that... I painted the living room this weekend! Aaahhh! Its VERY blue. And crazy. But I love it. As Hannah so eloquently put it, it makes my kitchen look less wow. :) It does. But I love both rooms now. It makes me really happy. I needed some fresh color in my life. I'll update with pictures of all that soon too, but its too late right now. I'm going to bed!!