Always catching up…

Like most everyone else, I feel like I am constantly playing catch-up. And while I like posting on this blog and having an online journal of pictures and things that we’ve done, it is not a priority anymore. Since we brought Molly Kate home last July I have learned (painfully at times and slowly) that I cannot keep up with everything. I cannot do everything I want to do. It is much more important for me to focus on the things I can do and to make sure my priorities are right.

Last time I blogged I mentioned giving an update on Molly Kate. She has changed SO much in her 10 months home. She is a firecracker of a little girl and keeps me on my toes constantly. 🙂 She still loves to eat and we battle keeping her out of the pantry all day long. She throws many temper tantrums over food. She is up to 29 pounds (9 lbs gained since her homecoming). 🙂 She has recovered so well from her two surgeries. Her constant ear infections have basically stopped since she got tubes last fall. Her lip and palate are healing as well. However, she has developed a small hole in her palate. We are monitoring it and as long as it doesn’t grow, it will not be fixed until her next surgery. We are praying for that. She has been through so much medically in the last 10 months we do not want any more surgeries for several years.

Molly Kate is by far our most strong-willed child. I won’t lie and tell you that it has been easy to parent this feisty little girl. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. After all, she is still adjusting to so many things. She still struggles to communicate. She is in speech 2 days a week and LOVES her teacher, Miss Karol. She is making progress but it is slow. She gets so frustrated when she can’t tell us what she wants (and we do to!). However, she understands everything! This sweet girl is smart. I know she’ll get the speech, it is just going to take some time and practice.

She loves her brothers. She definitely has her favorite and Seth wins that award. He pays her the most attention and is always willing to leave what he is doing to help her out. If she’s crying and I can’t pick her up, she immediately goes to Seth. She also loves to sit in his lap when we read books at night. They are quite a cute pair together. She and Ethan play really well together on Mondays and Fridays when they are the only two at home with me. Ethan bosses her around everywhere she goes. I guess he is excited to finally be the older sibling. 🙂 Carter helps out with Molly Kate when needed and loves to read her books at bedtime. I am so thankful for the unconditional love between these 4. We have our fair share of screaming, hitting, and fighting but I know they love each other and are growing closer every day.

Adoption has been an amazing thing for our family. To look at this precious girl and try to envision what her life was like a year ago is painful. I can’t even imagine her in a crib all day. She has SOOO much energy and literally does not sit still all day long. I hate to think about her not being able to explore, to play, to snuggle. She is so much a part of our family, it is hard to even imagine life without her. The boys definitely do not treat her any different than they do their other siblings. A few months ago, Seth asked me if we would tell Molly Kate that she is Chinese when she grows up. 🙂 I think she’ll know but I am thrilled that my children don’t look at her differently than any other kid they encounter. We are all God’s children and every child deserves a family to love them. After being in China it is so hard to think about those children that do not. Zach and I talk a lot about how we want to use our passion for orphans. We obviously cannot adopt them all but we do feel a huge need to help in some way. We continue to have many conversations about what God wants us to do to help “the least of these.” Until we know what He wants us to do, we’ll keep loving on this little girl and sharing our story!