Catherine Keene Photo Shoot

Sarah Mei and Isabelle have been asked to be co-Queens for the MUSC American Heart Association fall fundraiser and parade in Charleston, SC. We'll have more details to follow, but we met with Catherine Keene last night in Lincolnton, NC for a photo shoot. The AHA needs a photo of the girls for their website, so we turned to Catherine Keene to capture the appropriate "candid." We love the finished product!!




We met Catherine in 2008 after contacting her through Celebrating Adoption.

Catherine takes part in a wonderful adoption ministry, Celebrating Adoption. Within the first year of coming home with your new son/daughter, you can contact a Celebrating Adoption photographer. Participating photographers may offer different specials, but Catherine gave us a free sitting for Sarah Mei. She came to our farm and spent several hours with us. She bound all the photos into 2 small 4 x 6 books for us to keep. The only fees we paid were for extra portrait packages we ordered.

What a blessing to have such high quality photos of Sarah Mei within her 1st year of joining our family!

We're planning on having Catherine do Isabelle's homecoming photo shoot, on the farm, this fall when the temperatures cool down!

Last night we drove to Lincolnton, Catherine's hometown, just 30 minutes from our home, and she captured some images of the girls in their matching dresses. Enjoy:) And check out all of Catherine's work at her website: www.catherinekeene.com or her facebook page: www.facebook.com/catherinekeenephotography



When we were all exhausted Catherine pulled out the lollipops...

Catherine let AnnaGrace get in on the action...

My favorite photo of the evening...

Charlotte Symphony, Greenville Zoo & Platelet Counts

Friday evening the whole family went to the Duke Energy Explorium's free Charlotte Symphony Concert on the Lawn. It was a great evening for the concert. We got to the park around 6:30 p.m. and enjoyed a picnic dinner.

Three other families from church joined us. The kids had a blast throwing Frisbees, blowing bubbles and playing card games, while the teens and twenties caught up on the latest movies and Facebook happenings.

Finally around 8:15 p.m. the Charlotte Symphony began playing. Their choice of music - mostly opera- wasn't my favorite this time, but you just can't go wrong with a free outside classical concert.


Isabelle is serious about her chicken!





The weekend's fun activities didn't end, for me, on Friday!!

I missed the Saturday Simplify Post because I was meeting my sister, Terry, in Greenville. My mom graciously drove me to meet Terry in Gaffney. We shared a yummy lunch at Outback, made the hand-off and drove on to Greenville. Getting to Greenville and back home was no easy feat since I STILL can't drive thanks to my little health issue. I'm working on six months with no driving...ugh. The last time I had issues with my seizures was 10+ years ago. That time I went 6 years without driving. Let's pray I don't compete with that record!

Terry, my sister, took me to Greenville for my birthday (with Izzy too of course), and we spent a few days relaxing, watching a movie, doing a little shopping and catching up on life. Thank goodness a two year old can't repeat everything she heard...oh the stories she could tell:)

Depressing story of the weekend...when the gentleman in the clothing store asked Isabelle if she was out with her "nanna"...and yes he was referring to me...ugh!!

On Monday Phil piled the girls in the Sequioa and made the two hour drive to pick me up.

One of the beautiful things about having a large family is buying season passes begins to make a lot of sense (and cents...o.k. a little corny but I just couldn't resist). Earlier this year we went to the Columbia Zoo and discovered that for just a few more dollars than our daily passes we could buy a yearly family pass. Many zoos in the country have reciprocal agreements and Greenville Zoo is one of the them.

After the two hour car ride to retrieve me from Greenville, we treated the girls to a 1/2 day at the zoo. Despite the soaring temperature, in the 90's, we had a great time.


One of the highlights of the day was a misting station in the middle of the park. At first Isabelle was very skeptical..

However, once Phil convinced her to walk through the mister she decided it was WONDERFUL...

The other girls took the opportunity to cool off too!



We saw these vultures and immediately Phil, Michaela and I started laughing and quoting Jungle Book...

"What da you want to do"

"I da know. What do YOU want to do?"

"I da know? What do YOU want to do?"

"Don't start that again."

Some of you are just shaking your heads but if you watched the Jungle Book DVD (back when Torie and Michaela watched it was still a VHS) hundreds of times like we did, you know EXACTLY what we're talking about. Whenever we're trying to figure out what to do on a slow day in our household...yeah like that happens...we start the vulture dialog..."What da you want to do."


AnnaGrace with one of her favorite animals...

Michaela bought this shirt to help our friends, the Bryants, bring home their 7th child (3rd adoption) from China. They just got home last week with sweet Hudson. You can read about their trip at their blog http://lillymakesfive.blogspot.com/



The monkeys above were WILD and LOUD. They made a raquet the entire time we stood in front of their enclosure. We heard them as we walked all around the zoo. You can see the incredulous faces of Phil, Michaela and AnnaGrace as they watched.

Being the equestrian family that we are, the girls are always looking for something to ride. When a horse is not available, a bear will do!!



Now we're back home and sadly Sarah Mei's platelet counts are back down. We rode the wave for longer than anyone anticipated and for that we're thankful. Tuesday's hematologist appointment revealed low counts which mandated scheduling an appointment for tomorrow. If the numbers are as low as predicted, we'll be spending a few hours there for another WinRho treatment. The great news is she responded really well to the last plasma treatment! We are praying for another good response and a return to "normal" activities including riding her pony.

Torie is Twenty!

Today we celebrated Torie's twentieth birthday. She's officially no longer a teenager, and she's not sure she likes that. I'm not sure I like being old enough to be a mother to a 20 year old...humph. But as a friend reminded me...I must still be quite youthful since I'm also a mother to a toddler. I like her way of looking at things!!

We started our new birthday tradition today of taking the birthday girl out to lunch with JUST mom and dad - no other siblings. I can't begin to tell you how quiet it was.

We had a wonderful lunch at a local Japanese restaurant, and Torie was thrilled to order Sushi. The funniest moment at the meal was when I picked up the Wasabi, thinking it was Avocado (o.k. so I don't get out much) and took a big bite...need I say more. Torie and Phil laughed so hard they had tears rolling down their faces. Thankfully we didn't have the camera to capture THAT on film.

This evening we made my mom's famous tacos. It's ALWAYS what our girls pick for their birthday meal.

Michaela, Torie and my Mom

After we ate Torie posed for her requisite princess picture complete with tiara. Thanks for being such a good sport Torie!! I love that girl!!!


AnnaGrace and SarahMei took turns handing Torie her presents.

Torie with her dependable package delivery system!



After opening presents everyone watched as Torie blew out the Cinderella candle on her ice cream cake. (Thanks for the recipe Linny.) You may notice Torie is trying not to laugh while blowing out her single candle.


There's a reason for that...we discovered poor Cinderella was decapitated when we pulled her of the drawer. We've used her on every birthday cake for several years now, and I guess the repeated lighting's of the wick were more than she could take. We managed to still light the candle, but it was a bit hard to keep a straight face while blowing out a headless princess.

I guess we'll be doing a little candle shopping before AnnaGrace's birthday in August.

Isabelle was unfazed by Cinderella's predicament. She just wanted her cake!



Happy Birthday Torie. Our 1st Tinkerbelle and Original Princess!

The Face of Adoption

Yesterday I was writing a few thank you notes to a Congressman and an INS worker who helped expedite Isabelle's adoption paperwork. I printed photos of Isabelle to show them how far she has come in the last 5 months. I was ABSOLUTELY stunned by what I saw.

This is the face of adoption:



Please look at both of those photos on your screen at one time. Look at Isabelle's eyes. This is the adoption story! From hopelessness to hope. From despair to love. From despondency to belonging. What is this worth in the life of a child???

The Lord just spoke to me through these photos in a new way. I know she is my daughter, but what is this worth?? What is His love worth and what is the love of a family worth to an orphan??

If the Holy Spirit has ever whispered to you to consider adoption...listen!! It's the most precious gift both to the child...and to your family:)

Simple Living - Simplify Your Wardrobe

It's Saturday again and time to link up with Linny at

A Place Called Simplicity

to share our favorite ways to simplify our lives. Go check out her great ideas this week on how to simplify your children's birthdays and make them feel super special.


We're going to implement the "take them out for lunch with just mom and dad on their special day"!! Torie's turning 20 this Thursday, so I guess she'll be the 1st one to try out this new birthday tradition. Thanks Linny for the great idea!!


One of my long-standing simplify ideas is "Simplify My Wardrobe". Now I'm warning you...this one is going to be really, REALLY boring to some of you. But it works and if you ever try it you will be hooked!


Limit your base color to 2 or 3...Let me explain:


I only buy black or denim pants/capris/skirts (and I splurged a few years ago and bought the white capris pictured above). What this translates to is I only need a few pair of shoes - they only need to match black and denim. When I shop for shirts, I can totally dismiss whole racks of shirts because I only need to match black or denim. My earrings and necklaces need to match - black and denim....you get the picture.

I can't tell you how much time, energy and money this saves me!

For those of you old enough...remember "Color Me Beautiful." Phil spent hard-earned money to have "my colors done" not long after we were married.

Every time I went shopping I faithfully carried around my wallet of "allowed colors". It seemed like 100 colors...probably really about 36. I faithfully held them up to each rack of clothes.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with picking colors that look best against your skin tone, but I can't tell you how I agonized over this. And I'm ashamed to say how many times I went over our meager budget. At the time we were living in a single-wide mobile home, so I could stay-home full time with our 1st daughter and live on Phil's teaching salary at a private Christian school.

Finally I had an "aha" moment and realized I could put colors near my face that looked good next to my skin and the base color really didn't matter. Voila...black and denim.

Now I don't need to own a plethora of pants and capris. They are black and denim. And who really knows if I am wearing the same pair day in and day out. I own a few classic pairs. I wear them until they wear out and then I replace them. EASY!!

The same goes for Phil. He wears khaki pants to work - denim at home on the farm. His suits are navy and khaki. The end.

It's simple and sweet.

Okay...maybe a little boring for some but it works for our family and simplifies our closets, our budget, our time and our wardrobe!

I just have to tell you how my family was laughing with me (o.k. I think it was at me) when I was hanging my pants on the old homestead chimney to take the photo for the blog. I dropped the white capris in the dirt and we were all trying to decide if that was part of simplifying your life...you know coming back in the house, washing the capris, drying the capris, ironing the capris...oh the irony of it all...I just had to share:)

The Summer of Specialists & Surgeries

This spring & summer will always be remembered as the year of specialists and surgeries.

Michaela, AnnaGrace, SarahMei, Torie and myself have seen the "typical" pediatrician, internist and gynecologist this year, but we've also seen the following specialists this spring/summer:
neurologist
pediatric cardiologist
hematologist
urologist
asthma & allergy specialist
pediatric neurologist
physical therapist
speech therapist
and we still have a visit to the geneticist scheduled in a few weeks

We've made three trips to the ER for....

stitches for Torie's hand after a deep laceration with a box cutter
kidney infection for Michaela
bump to the head causing the need for a platelet check due to her ITP for Sarah Mei

We've had a plethora of procedures and tests performed including:

upper GI to check for malrotation of the bowel - Isabelle
heart cath - Isabelle
CT scan for my ovarian cyst to rule-out ovarian cancer
MRI for my seizures
EEG for my seizures
multiple EKG's for both Sarah Mei & Isabelle - routine for heart patients
WinRho treatment for low-platelets - Sarah Mei
weekly blood draws to check platelet counts - Sarah Mei

And finally we had the following surgeries performed:

laprascopic removal of an ovarian cyst - Elaine
open-heart surgery - Isabelle
and still on the agenda for the summer...another urinary surgery for Michaela in a few weeks.

These visits are along with all the routine dentists appointments, annual physicals, eye exams, etc.

We were in the ER two nights ago to check Sarah Mei's platelet count after she bumped her head. Thankfully she was fine, but I had to laugh when the nurse asked for her medical history. Not only is her history a mile long, but worse than that, I honestly had to sit for 2 or 3 minutes to sort out in my brain which medical history I needed to catalog for the nurse????

Do you think I could earn some honorary nursing degree for carrying all this medical knowledge in my head??

In between the Dr.'s appointment we're enjoying the weather and our farm. I love the simplicity of times caputured in the photos below. No expensive toys, no entertainment necessary by the media - i.e. I-Pods, or X-Boxes, or Wiis's, etc. just a good old fasion garden hose...ah the Charm of Simple Things.

(The play time began with a bath for our Australian Shepherd, Zoe. She wasn't that impressed with the entire day, but she sure did smell better after the bath!)

Simple Living & My Favorite Blog - A Place Called Simplicity

One of my favorite (and one of the few blogs I follow) is A Place Called Simplicity. It's a blog that mirrors my heart for the Lord, adoption and living simply.

Linny and her husband are...ahem...mature like Phil and I. They also are adopting toddlers even though everyone thinks they are crazy. She's transparent and real and on-fire for the Lord. I love reading her blog!!! It's always an encouragement to me!!

Last week she started a new weekly edition on Saturdays called, "Striving For Simplicity." I decided to jump on-board and begin posting my tips for simple living each Saturday too. I look forward to learning from each other.

I read my best organizational tip of the year in The Duggars book, "20 and Counting". Having a family with 5 daughters I find my laundry and closet organization is a challenge and is a major time waster.

After reading how the Duggars handled their laundry, for a family with 18 children (at the time of the book writing) I decided to give it a try. This is what the Duggars say, "We would no longer use bedroom closets for clothing....No more carrying clean clothes all the way to the bedrooms and putting them away in drawers and closets. Now they're sorted and put away right in the laundry room..."

I decided this was a brilliant concept and gave it a try. My husband - handyman extraordinaire - installed a hanging rod in our laundry room.



Now we hang all the clothes directly in the laundry room. This one organizational tip saves me countless minutes each day. No more carrying laundry up to each bedroom, putting it away in closets and dresser drawers, or worse, sending the children up with the clothes only to find the clothes half-hanging on hangers or sticking out of drawers later in the day. And best of all...no more cranky mommy telling the children to clean up the clothes in their room. Now the clothes are all neatly contained in the laundry room.

When we are getting ready in the mornings, the clothes are within fingertip reach. It makes the entire laundry chore easier, and the girls bedrooms stay much neater. Since our girls share bedrooms, it also leaves more room for them to store their toys and belongings in our small bedroom closets.

In addition to putting up a hanging rod, we also installed a shelf above it. It is a great place to store our out of season clothes and hand-me downs. I use free copy paper boxes and just label them with the sizes/seasons. This saves both time and money as I don't overbuy for a season.


I love simplifying...anything to give me another minute to sip a cup of coffee and rock on the front porch while I watch the girls ride their ponies in the arena and enjoy our farm life.

Three Years Ago Today Our Lives Changed Forever

as they placed Sarah Mei in my arms in China. Phil was home with Michaela and AnnaGrace, and Torie was in Changsha, CHINA with me to witness the miracle of adoption one more time. I wish I had adequate words to express the awe and excitement I felt that day.


Sarah Mei - After just being placed in my Arms by her Ayi

The overwhelming joy I felt that day and every time the Lord blesses us with another child just leaves me speechless. Lest you think I always felt that way...just ask my mom. She will quickly remind you that I was the daughter who said I never wanted to get married, and if I did get married, I NEVER wanted children. Look at me now...five children later...and wishing that I had more.

I love serving the Lord who is in the miracle business....

My love for motherhood is definitely a miracle!! Adoption is a miracle!! Sarah Mei surviving her heart condition until she came home from China is a miracle!! After two open-heart surgeries in 2007 & 2008 and many check-ups, Sarah Mei gets a clean bill of health (cardiac-speaking) from the pediatric cardiologist this week and now only needs annual check-ups. That is a miracle!!




Sarah Mei - home three years - that is a miracle!!

Thank you Jesus for blessing us again!! Words can never express our gratitude.
Thank you for being in the miracle business!!

...A funny side note. Most families celebrate their Chinese daughters' Gotcha Days by going to a Chinese restaurant. That makes sense.

Our family, being a bit unconventional (o.k. some may just call us strange), goes somewhere a little different for our girls Gotcha Days...the local Mexican restaurant, Mazatalan.

Picture this...sweet Chinese girls, with deep Southern accents, celebrating their homecomings from China by practicing their Spanish at a Mexican restaurant:) Nothing "ordinary" about our family!!