• Hip Hip Hooray Evie is 3!

    Date: 2014.03.25 | Category: Evangeline Faith | Tags:

    It is somehow appropriate that it is 3 a.m. while I write this post.  I was awake every day at  3 a.m. in China and that is when I would blog.  When we returned home, I still had trouble sleeping during the 3 a.m. hour.  It seems to happen to a lot of people when they travel to China. I’m sure there is a perfectly good, logical reason why this happens and if I googled it I could probably tell you why but since it’s 3 a.m., I’ll leave the googling up to you.

    All three little girls are awake right now.  Maisey because she has finally succumbed to the bug that has wiped us all out during the past week.  Evie because she has been having a much harder time sleeping at night.  I couldn’t tell you why exactly.  I sometimes wonder if God is giving me extra time with her because we spend a good hour together most nights lately.  And then little Lainey…she is awake because she fell asleep earlier than usual for her and she has decided it’s play time.  Right now Lainey Rae is spinning a toy on the kitchen floor, singing her own little song, serenading me as I write her sister’s birthday blog.

    Because I treat all my blogs as my journal to my children, I usually leave their birthday blogs as simple as I possibly can, mainly just pictures and sweet stories and descriptions of themselves.  Evie’s blog post is going to contain a bit more.

    As I was driving around to my many appointments today, Jasmine for her initial orthodontist appointment, where she ended up having a tooth pulled, and on to Evie’s appointment to check her thumb that she smashed over the weekend.  She had a nasty hematoma that just wasn’t healing very well so we decided to have them culture it and make sure there was nothing else going on.  In between those we mailed fingerprints, filled out more forms to go out in the morning, and copied more papers than I care to do again for a little while.  As I was driving around, I spent my time thinking about what I could write about little Evie.

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    I talked with many people today.  I was asked on numerous occasions about Evie and Eli’s upcoming surgeries.  I told people that their surgeries have been scheduled a day apart on opposite coasts, Evie in Boston and Eli at Stanford.  Everyone said, “What are you going to do?”  It’s a dilemma because Eli’s has already been rescheduled and he is definitely more blue and Evie really needs her surgery too.  We have already waited for months for both places.  During all these conversations someone said, “That is just too hard on you guys.  It’s just too complicated having that many heart kids at one time.” The words themselves aren’t anything big.  It’s the truth.  It is complicated.  It’s just the way they say it.  It always seems to come across like Dan and I shouldn’t have done it.

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    Yes, it is complicated.  Yes, this is frustrating.  But my response is, “Would it have been better to just left Evie there so Dan and I didn’t have this concern?”  Yes, our lives would have been much less complicated had we not adopted these children.  Yes, we would have avoided headaches, heartaches, and the very busy days and crazy times.  But it’s not about us.  It’s about them.

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    The fact that we got Evie’s file at all was a miracle.  We had already decided on two children, Eli and Lainey, but because the orphanage was taking forever to get the paperwork done for Eli, our agency presented us with Evie’s file.  I refused to even look at the file because I knew that Eli was my son and we had already sent our intent in for Lainey.  Dan looked the file over and went to sleep praying about it.  He woke up and told me that he thought God was saying Evie was to be our daughter.  Dan told me that he knew it didn’t make sense but he believed that God had a plan and it would all work out.  Watching the details unfold over the year with our four children’s adoptions was an amazing miracle in itself.  Being presented with Evie’s file was a gift.  It was definitely not something I would have gone looking for.

    I will never understand God’s timing.  I will never understand the waiting and the seemingly unanswered prayers, but I have lived long enough to see that God is in the details.  God has a plan and His plan is so far above and beyond my understanding that I don’t question it anymore.  I believe His plan to be perfect and I believe God to be trustworthy so in turn I am obedient when I feel that calling.  I used to question it and argue with God and tell Him that the plan just didn’t make sense but when you see how things fall into place and in a way that is so beyond anything you could have ever dreamed of or hoped for, well then you realize it’s better to just close your mouth, trust, and wait for His glorious plan to unfold.

    When we showed up in China, Evie was a 26 months old, weighed 13 pounds, and could not sit by herself.  Evie was a very sick little girl.  Evie was also a bundle of personality even though she was so ill.  We spent our time in China, having everyone comment on the sweet, little baby and then she would smile that mouthful of teeth and everyone would exclaim, “She’s not a baby!”

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    Evie is truly a blessing.  I can’t accurately describe her little personality.  She is a charmer.  She is the greeter in the family.  She only has to be in the room for a few minutes for people to see her sweet little heart in action.

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    She has helped heal another soul in our house and their bond is very, very sweet.

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    She loves her sisters so much!

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    She is the easiest to correct because just a word breaks her little heart.

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    This picture was taken right after she ran Jasmine’s wheelchair into the door.  She showed her brother the hole in the door and he said, “Evie that was naughty!”  Yes, she truly is that heartbroken over just a few words spoken by someone she loves.

    Don’t get me wrong she can be feisty as all get out too.  I don’t think you can survive in an orphanage for as long as she did, as sick as she was, without some feistiness in you.

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    But all that being said, she truly is the sweetest little soul.  She is the one full of laughter and smiles.  She is the one dancing and singing her days away.

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    She is the girl to lead the way in playing pretend.

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    She is the girl who hugs everyone good-bye.  She is the first to say “hi” when she sees you.  She says please and thank you in the sweetest way possible.  She is determined and beautiful and a walking little miracle.

    In eight months time she went through three heart catherizations, one code, open heart surgery, and still managed to learn to walk.  She runs and marches and dances all over the house now.

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    I can’t imagine my life without Evie.  I often think how crazy it was that we got her file but how very, very blessed I am that we did.  There are many things in Dan’s and my life that don’t make any sense.  I realize that to most outsiders it would look beyond crazy, but I am telling you that you would only need ten minutes with little Evie to see that all of that crazy is worth it.

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    She so deserved a family.  She deserved more than to die alone, on a dirty mat, in a cold orphanage.  Don’t kid yourself into thinking that wouldn’t have happened or that it doesn’t happen EVERY.SINGLE.DAY!  My heart breaks for all the little ones that I can’t bring home and it makes me celebrate every moment I have with the ones that I could bring home.

    Here is Faith Evangaline.  We just had to have a Faith to go along with our Hope and Grace.

    This has been am amazing journey.  Her health has improved so much this year.

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    She has grown and blossomed right before our eyes.

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    There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank God that I was allowed the blessing to be called Evie’s mama.   It’s an honor and a privilege to be the one who gets to care for her, comfort her, love her and be loved by her.  I don’t take a moment of it lightly.