Some sweet words to hear

Just the other day, we had a nurse tell me something that just made my heart melt:

"You know, I just have to say, your daughter is a perfect blend of you and your husband. I see qualities of both you guys in her. She's a perfect splitting image of the two of you".

Oh, those were such sweet words to hear.

She didn't know our story. She had no idea what we went through to bring Hannah home. She had no idea that Hannah was adopted. And to be honest, I didn't feel she needed to know. I just simply said "Thank you for sharing that. I love hearing that."

And I do with all my heart.

When people tell me that it shows me so much.

That Hannah is truly our daughter, a true mix of the two of us.

That Hannah was meant to be our daughter.

That God never makes mistakes.

And I'm reminded of the absolute miracle that happened to bring Hannah into our lives. A true miracle of God and in a way that can only be explained as a "God thing".

All reminders from a few words someone felt led to say.

God is good.

Christmas 2017

Our Christmas Eve started out a little bit rough. Poor Hannah started vomiting at about midnight and was sick about every hour after that. She spent most of the day resting. :( Not a way for a 6-year-old to bring in Christmas. :( I felt so bad for her.

It's tradition for our family to go to our church's candlelight service Christmas Eve night. Being both Mark and Hannah were feeling a bit under the weather, my mom stayed back with them so I could get out of the house and go to the service. It was absolutely beautiful.

Then we had Christmas Eve supper at our house, watched "Christmas Vacation" and opened up a couple gifts. It was a nice night.

During the night, after Santa came thankfully, Mark started getting very short of breath and I ended up taking him into the ER. Before we went, though, Hannah had to see what Santa brought her and she was very excited to see that she got her pink motorcycle she had been asking for for months.

For most of the day, I was at the hospital with Mark while Hannah was with my family. I was able to sneak away to get some Christmas dinner with my family and open some gifts

Then we went back to the hospital to spend some time with Daddy that night.

Not the Christmas we were expecting but at least we were together.

Hannah's 6th birthday parties

This year Hannah decided to have her birthday party at Flex Gymnastics. She had recently joined the club this fall and was excited to have her party with her friends there.

They had tons of fun on the gymnastics equipment:

Then it was time to eat. Hannah wanted "princess food". With Pinterest's help, I tried being creative :):

And then it was time to open gifts:

It was such a fun day but I think it went way too fast for the kids!! All of them would have loved to stay there much longer. :)

Thank you to all her friends for making it such a wonderful and fun afternoon for Hannah!


That night, we had a party for family. We had the same food which was a big hit. :)

We played a couple games including a word search of some of Hannah's favorite things.

Her cousin, Tyler, made a wonderful butterfly cupcake cake for her. It was awesome!

And of course gift time:

We are so grateful to our family who helped make this little girl's birthday so special. Thank you!!

Hannah is 6!

My precious Hannah,

Wow....where do I even start? You're 6. You're closer to double digits than you are a newborn. While I certainly miss those younger days, every year is precious with you.

I've seen you grow so much this past year. You lost two teeth and have another one loose as I type this. You learned to ride your bike. You've learned to love riding bike so much you asked for a pink motorcycle for Christmas----A mother's dream. :) You started kindergarten this year and you are going to school full-time.

You've experienced quite a few changes in many different ways but you've flourished and you've exceeded.

I'm so proud of you all the time.

I've watched you with other younger kids. The way you "mother" them, the compassion you show, the patience and so much love.

I've witnessed you friend someone who wasn't as well-liked as other kids.

I've watched you as you stepped away from clogging, even though you loved the sport so much, because someone you love wasn't treated right.

I'm so proud of you all the time.

Oh, sweetie. If you only knew just how proud I am of you.

You have your moments for sure. Everyone does. But you learn from it, make it right and move on and that is what is so important.

You're a born leader. You have such a compassionate heart. You care for people and their feelings so much. You want things to be fair.

I'm so proud of you all the time.

I'm excited for this next year, watching you grow and learn. I love seeing your smile, your energy (although I wish you would share some with me) and your personality as it shines through. We have so much fun together and I can't wait for more.

Most of all I want you to know that I love you. I love you so much sweet Hannah. I'm so very proud of you all the time. I know you have trouble believing that at times but it's true sweetie.

Remember that God loves you and He has big plans for you.

I'm so glad those plans involve me by your side. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Happy 6th birthday sweetheart.

Love,
Mommy

Kindergarten--week 14

Fun work with numbers this week. :)

Letter was C this week (I had to include Hannah's cat :)):

And shapes:

This week they learned about the story of the gingerbread man which Hannah loved telling me:

Hannah apparently was playing tic-tac-toe by herself she said :)

And also learned about other words with the gingerbread story. Apparently they made gingerbread men at school and they disappeared! It was quite the mystery at school. :)

And other projects:

She says this says "I see a Christmas"

According to Hannah this is a girl blowing a horn and she gets an A+

My family goes to a park. I love my family.

This is a kite that apparently goes into a canal---sometimes I just don't quite get it :)