It's a new day and an old outdated blog.  There's a new excitement and it seems to bring my posts all together and wrap them with a bow.  When I started this little thing called blogging, my mind was full and God was up to crazy things, pulling at tugging at a bored, numb and cynical heart.  He mashed down in places that hurt, places that had hardened over too many years of "knowing".  And he kneaded out the knots and pried away the layers I'd put up to protect it.  And after a really tough time of fighting, He revealed a softer side to my heart that I had no idea needed to be freed.

And in that freedom, my eyes began to see what God had been mashing into my heart all while I thought He was just hurting me.  It was a little bit of His.  Compassion.  Poverty.  The Fatherless.  The Unseen.  His mercy.  His burden.  His ache.  His grace.  His provision.  

It was baby steps.  Volunteering here and there.  Reading books.  Others's blogs.  Scripture.  And boom!  We were all in!  Rwanda here we come!

Three years later, we are a family of five, each of us with skin described by all different flavors from the ice cream bin.  

And as that becomes more normal and my family life has finally begun to beat more rhythmically, I feel led to support in other ways.  

Noonday was there all along.  A new friend adopting from Rwanda (Jessica Honegger) had started a new business to help fund her adoption.  I went to a trunk show finding beautifully styled items from several parts of the world that if I bought would help fund those who made them and bring them a dignified and sustainable way to get out of poverty.  And add to that, I got to help bring a little kiddo into a loving home.  Are you kidding?  Not to mention the stuff is out of this world fun and fashionable and down right awesome!

So full circle, here I am.  Noonday Ambassador.  I'm beyond excited and can NOT wait to get going.  But it's going to be work.  And today I'm ready.  Itching actually!  I got a little nook carved out of our spare bedroom closet that is going to be my office.  I love it.  Maybe I'll show you a picture.

Tune in for more and my new website link!

OH and scroll down for pics of family (albeit 2 years old) and a video of our sweet little princess!  I'll update soon.

A Season Gone By

September is almost gone and it's still almost 100 outside.  But we are pretending anyway.  Fall is here.  I went through Aliyah's closet and thanks to the BEST neighbors in the world, brought down all of Aliyah's Fall hand me downs.  I sat on the floor of her closet and tears came to my eyes.  Really?  Has a whole season passed?  This tiny little peanut is turning into my, too cute for words, busy toddler.  Her hair just beginning to fill in and her tummy filling out to plump round goodness.  She is still petite and adorable, but bigger.  That makes me sad.  I am excited for her to try on her new clothes (ah the benefits of being a mom to a girl) but seeing the old ones stuffed into a plastic box makes me want to hold on.  Today I made sure I had her momentous occasions captured correctly for her baby book and noted that her next new teeth are finally coming in.  
An hour ago, I cuddled with Aliyah before her afternoon nap and sang her my little song that I wrote for her right after she came home. 
To the tune of On Top of Old Smokey :o)
"I love my Aliyah.  She's my little girl.  She has great big brown eyes and beautiful curls.  And when she smiles, she lights up the room.  I love my Aliyah from here to the moon."  She looks up at me and she is mine.  There's no bones about it.  I love her in the same space in my heart as my boys.  It's different.  I've only known her 6 months now, but I love her the same.
Now who to pass these cute summer clothes to?

Just keeping my head above water on this 106 degree Texas day.  We are alive and well, but haven't had much bandwidth to post on the blog.  So here's the best I could do to sum up July 2011, headed to be the hottest summer on record in Austin, Texas.

The faces say it all

3 seems to be the "naughty" age around this house

Growing up and headed to kindergarten in just a few days!!

Our happy little peanut

Would spend all day trying on shoes if she could

Such a princess

Anyone have advice for this momma who is excited but has no idea what to do with girly girls?

animal sounds galore

She's so into books and words and sounds and just makes my heart go pitter patter (as you can tell)!!


Here's a little peek... (and no, the gem of a camera does not have auto focus)




Untitled from Jon Choy on Vimeo.

the latest

I hate to admit technological ignorance, but here it is.  I stink at this.  I do pretty well most of the time, but when it comes to this new little gem of a camera that I now own, I can't seem to make my oh so special and precious movie mementos come to life here on my blog.  This makes me extra sad because I currently have so much to show off with my little Aliyah.  She is 14 months as of this last week and I personally think headed to absolute giftedness.  She is sheer genius!  Or maybe it's just the shock of having a girl.  HA!  
But truthfully, I am in utter bliss as I get to watch this precious gift blossom.  She began walking about 2 weeks ago and this weeks is just about to break into a full out run...mostly to get away from her crazy brothers.  But what baffles me the most is this vocabulary she's got going.  I thought that maybe coming from a different language might slow her down a bit.  OH NO...this girl is one chatty little sister.  I LOVE IT!  And gosh darn it,I just want to show her off like any proud mama should.
But alas I suffer.  We'll just have to wait for my technology savvy husband to get home and help me out with this one.

Oh and because I'm pretty much just rambling here, I wanted to share a funny story from Costco the other day that pretty much sums up most of our outings this summer.  So I realized pretty quickly that tackling the grocery run with all 3 was inevitable.  We branched out soon after Aliyah came home and I will say most trips have been relatively uneventful.  But what IS true of almost EVERY trip is the sweet smiles from onlookers.  Yes, the MANY onlookers.  Living in Austin, I have found trans racial adoption to be a fairly common sight.  But you'd never know it based on the looks we get.  Now granted we are all mixed up.  I, the lone Caucasian, my boys mixed Asian, and Aliyah, the stand out.  We've been called a "mini-UN family".  But mostly people tell us how beautiful we are.  Really, it's been sweet.  The looks and smiles are 99.9% kind hearted.  But at Costco last week I just had to laugh.  I was busy feeding my 3 little hungry birds their afternoon samples and minding my own business, when I saw out of the corner of my eye a middle aged woman passing by.  She looked, looked again, and was so amused that she literally stopped in her tracks.  I looked up and caught her in her moment and she suddenly looked guilty.  She quickly apologized and said, "I just couldn't help but be captured by the beauty of your family".  Now, that was sweet.  Funny, but very endearing.

I just laugh, because never in my WILDEST dreams would I have ever imagined myself marrying an Asian man and having an African child.  What a cool outcome!  

Okay, that's enough babbling for now.  Stay tuned for the bragging highlights to come.

Aliyah's Video...finally

Our Pursuit of Aliyah Grace in Rwanda from Jon Choy on Vimeo.

Massage?

So when we brought Aliyah home from Rwanda, she quit sleeping through the night.  And unlike what we expected from someone accustomed to sleeping with 20 other potentially crying babies, she demanded absolute quiet.  We would spend up to an hour and a half putting her to bed.  That with 2 WILD and very NON silent boys running around was next to impossible and very stressful!  She also has a habit of pinching my nose when she's mad.  You know the death grip pinch that makes you tear up immediately.  Going to sleep is not her favorite time of day and was not on my list of favorites either.  Several weeks ago as I sat rocking her in tears (from the nose pinch) I remembered Kyle's need for sensory input would often cause him to unintentionally (at least most of the time) hurt us.  So, I took Aliyah's tiny, but naughty little hand and began to press down.  Immediately her tense body that was fighting sleep with all she had, began to relax.  It was like magic.  I went with it.  I'm no expert in massage, but this stuff works!  


While were in Rwanda, we met several ex-pats who volunteered at the Home of Hope.  One mentioned that they used to do baby massage in the baby room.  The woman told me that unfortunately they were soon told that they were no longer allowed to because the babies were becoming too attached.  I know.  I know.  Frustrating.  But I guess you could argue both ways on this one.


Anyway, I feel sure Aliyah benefited from some of this massage.  Or maybe it's just "her thing".  But I do know for sure, the girl can't get enough TOUCH.  Her little body just craves the replacement of what was missing for so long.  Her skin is chocolatey smooth and pretty irresistible, so that helps.  I just take her little feet and press down and rub.  And then move onto her little hands.  Her eyes will start to roll back, and often just when I think she's almost out, she'll kick her foot up in my face requesting, "more on this foot please".  It's really cute and a sweet bonding time as well!


Anyway, just wondering if that might be something any of you adoptive moms have tried or have seen work.