A week, a year, a life?

Before I say anything about us tonight, I'll make a request for you to think about other children still in China in need of a "life or death" heart operation. Love Without Boundaries is an organization that strives to make the lives of orphans in China better. They are entered in a contest on Facebook to get the most unique donors. By making a mininum donation of $10, you can help Love Without Boundaries win the grand prize of $50,000! The contest ends tomorrow at noon and currently LWB is in first place, but the second place group is not far behind. Check out this link and if you feel it in your heart, please give! Your donation could end up providing surgery to an extra 12 children if they win the $50,000!


Ian and I made two resolutions this year that so far we have pretty much been sticking by! (I finally decided to quit saying, "this will be the year that I lose 15 pounds"...) One is the de-clutter idea and we are getting there one room, closet, and junk drawer at a time. The other is that we've been more fiercely protecting our family time. What does that look like? Well, perhaps a lot less exciting during the week than our previous "life in the fast lane," BUT we are having more time to chill out at our house and enjoy our precious gift from God!

She amazes us with her tenacity to try EVERY piece if necessary to solve her favorite puzzle.

She wows us with how much she's growing ~ no, this picture doesn't just make her look tall, she's grown almost TWO inches since October!

She makes us smile each and every day, especially when she shows us that she knows how to work a camera!

She cracks us up with her antics ~ and YES, she did put them on herself, without encouragement from either of us...

She shows her sweet side by reading a book to second cousin Toby when he was fussy.

She's learning to share, even her coveted Eeyore, with second cousin Chloe.

And she's a big help (well, most of the time) in the kitchen when we are cooking! She's assisted with chili, shortcake, banana bread, cranberry muffins, and today she helped Daddy bake some oatmeal raisin cookies. It appears that there was only one egg casualty...

I think the thing that amazes me most is that I pretty much can not remember what life was like before she was here... Looking back over the past week has made me begin to think about the past year. I find it utterly amazing that one year ago tonight we were zipping our suitcases for the final time and TRYING to sleep wondering if the snow predicted in our area would cause problems with our flight! How could so much time have slipped through my fingers already? I'm feeling so nostalgic ~ this week is gonna be wonderfully emotional!