I've met some wonderful blogger peeps on this journey and one of them is the very sweet and generous Tiffany. I've mentioned Tiffany here before; our girls are both from the same SWI and she kindly sent Lilah a beautiful panda pinafore made by Robin at Red Thread Stitches a while back.
Well last week we got a surprise in the mail! Guess what Lilah got? Yes she did, she got some beautiful Matilda Jane clothes. We can't get them here in Canada so you can imagine how thrilled I am that Tiffany chose Lilah to pass them on to.
We are so blessed by this sweet Mama and her darling littles - Lily Feifei & Ty Olsen. Thank you so much. Lilah is loving her new clothes and needless to say, I am too!
Yesterday we went downtown on an errand to the passport office. Since we were there we decided to walk on over to Parliament Hill. Honestly, I thought this kind of thing would be boring for a child? Not Lilah. She kept saying to me, "Let's follow the peoples". Of course they were on a tour and I really didn't want to be on a tour and listen to all the history. I know, I'm bad like that. But we did look around and even made it up to the peace tower, which is right under the clock. It was my first visit and it was pretty neat.
One of the security guards asked Lilah how old she was and she totally pretended to be shy and wouldn't tell him. So I told him she was two. He said to her, "Oh, you're two, are you?". She looked at him with a little sass and said, "No, I'm two and free twarters!". Funny girl.
On our walk back to the car we stopped and had a street vendor hot dog. She looked at me with a big grin and said "We're having so much fun Mama!". We are so blessed to have such a positive happy girl.
I've added several black & white pictures below. The set (in colour) is here.
It was one pretty amazing day and I'll never forget the joy and excitement we felt when we first heard we were to be parents to a baby girl. We knew her name, we knew which province she was from and we knew her birthday. Unfortunately we had to wait until the following day to see her, in pictures of course. She has changed our lives in a truly remarkable way.
We are so blessed.
Psalm 107:1 - Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good: His love endures forever.
This time 2 years ago we had completed all the necessary paperwork and we were waiting for a referral. Our file, approved by the Ministry of Ontario (in October 2007), had these particulars: 12-18 month old baby with a special heart.
In the midst of dating, almost 13 years ago, we talked about adoption. This conversation was initiated by my husband, because you see he was born with a special heart and had open heart surgery when he was 18 years old. It wasn't pleasant. We talked about adopting a child, because even though his special heart wasn't hereditary, at that time he was pretty sure he still didn't want the possible risk of passing it on to a biological child. We talked about it and both agreed that maybe we would adopt some day.
It was a conversation we had but didn't quite live up to, because you see, we did try to have our own biological child. We did go to a fertility specialist. But after all that, we chose adoption over medical intervention. It wasn't even a question for either of us, we both distinctly remembered the seed that God, only an amazing God like we have, planted those years before.
And then what did our amazing God do?
He showed us that we should adopt a child WITH a special heart.
We prayed, we read and shed many tears. We bowed to His will and we trusted Him, and in return He gave us peace and He gave us this beautiful verse: Isaiah 43:7 ~ Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
And then what did our amazing God do?
He gave us Lilah.
Her file (among others) was sent to our agency. The other files had been matched with families and we were the next waiting family on the list. We didn't know this at the time. In fact, when I'd called our agency to find out about the files they had received in March, I were told that there was only one special heart file in that quarterly batch and we were the third waiting family for a special heart child. So we imagined we'd be waiting until the next quarterly batch in June or possibly even September.
Just a few weeks after hearing that news, we got the call that changed our lives.
The call came on Sunday, we'd went out (after Church) to our friends house for dinner and when we arrived home we listened to the voice message our coordinator had left. It honestly knocked our socks off. She told us about the file, specifically that it was a baby girl, she was 11 months old and her special need was esotropia. Our coordinator also told us that the file had been sent to the Children's Hospital (CHEO) and the doctors that reviewed it said as far as they could tell from the medical information provided, the baby didn't have esotropia and there was a possibility she was diagnosed too young. Our coordinator then went on to say, since you are the next waiting family on our list, we felt you would make a good match.
After jumping up and down and squealing with excitement, it suddenly hit me: This isn't right? God wanted us to have a special heart child? It was at that very second that it dawned on me, He just wanted us to trust Him, to have faith in Him, to rely on Him.
God is in control.
I thank God every day for Lilah, for adoption, for guiding us through this wonderful path in life. I can't imagine it any other way and there is no other like our sweet daughter.
The following picture was taken minutes after seeing her darling little face for the first time.
God Moves in a Mysterious Way
(by William Cowper)
God moves in a mysterious way
his wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
and rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs
and works his sovereign will.
You fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds you so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
in blessings on your head.
His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain:
God is his own interpreter,
and he will make it plain.
"They're banging my house down" says Lilah. And she isn't far from wrong.
Our house is almost 100 years old; it's an urban, semi-detached, 3 storey house with a postage stamp backyard and we absolutely love it. We love the house, we love the neighbourhood and we love that we are within walking distance to so much: Grocery shops, coffee shops, book shops, toy shops, clothes shops, antique shops, restaurants, a library, a swimming pool, an ice rink, etc. It's so perfect. We renovated the 2nd and 3rd levels of our house five years ago and now it's time for the ground floor to be renovated. The insulation is dreadful and the rooms are all sectioned off. We decided we wanted it a little more open plan and a lot more airtight, to better handle our freezing winters and hot summers!
Did I mention I dislike dust? ...with a vengeance?
If Lilah could write her name, she'd be doing it in the layer of dust on our leather couch right now!
It goes without saying that I take a lot of pictures of Lilah.
Lilah was calling the shots today. She said to me, "I sit here and you take peesher (picture) of me". I was actually photographing the daffodils at that moment. So I turned the camera to her to take her picture and she made this cute pouty face. She cracks me up. In fact, she cracks herself up as you'll see from the picture I took right after!
Out of hundreds of pictures I take there is sometimes just one that captures me and I fall in love with it.
The first one below is definitely one of those. I love her expression.
Yesterday, while Lilah was having her midday nap, I organized an easy peasy little easter egg hunt around the house for her. I left the basket in her bedroom so she'd see it when she woke up. Well it didn't take her long to catch on to the game and it took her even less time devouring as much of that chocolate as she possibly could!
This girl loves herself some chocolate! There were times (like in the first photo below) that she would hold the egg out and ask "You want wee piece?". She might love her chocolate but she doesn't mind sharing. I think she realized there was more than enough to go around!
I also think she could do an advertisment for Cadbury Creme Egg: 'How do you eat yours?'
Here she is, reaping the rewards from her hunt!
Matthew 28:6
He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place
where the Lord lay.
Thus the angel answered the women at the empty tomb. But how
could it be? They were the last to see Him buried there by Joseph.
Soldiers later were stationed at His sealed tomb. “For He is risen”.
Why should it not be? He is the sinless Son of God. Death and decay
could not hold Him. He had prophesied it Himself (Matt. 17:23) and
it was “as He said”. So just believe it; and like Thomas, put aside all
unbelief and acclaim, “My Lord and my God”. - K.C. Ung - [ taken from the choice gleanings calendar ]
Revelation 1:18
I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
[ more pictures here ]
Lilah is extra happy today. Baba has the day off work and he even came to playgroup with us for the first time this morning. She loved him being there, even though she was off doing her thing, I know she still loved the idea of him being there.
I put together Lilah's little IKEA tent yesterday and set it out on the porch. She's having such a great time playing with it.
Just look at that beautiful happy shining smile of hers!
No, this is not an April Fool's joke!
The weather today is 18°C.
Tomorrow it's going to be 26°C.
And on Saturday it's going to be 27°C.
Seriously. I'm beside myself! Although I have a certain 2 year old who is extremely sceptical and set in her ways. She demanded her boots and winter coat this morning! I finally got her talked out of it, but she wasn't at all chuffed.
We met a few white rabbits outside the antique shop on our walk to Tim Hortons.
We've had many chats about pregnant women and I've talked to Lilah about how she was in her China Mother's belly and that she was born in China.
There have been lots of babies born in the past nine months: Baby Luke, Baby Zachy, Baby Oliver, Baby Jade and Baby Juliana. All babies that we see and talk about on a fairly regular basis and three of them go to the same Church as us.
So when I went upstairs this morning and found her in her bedroom with Baby Boy (he's a stuffed lamb that she's recently taken an interest in and named 'Baby Boy') pushed up the front of her t-shirt, I should not have been in the least bit surprised. She said to me "I'm having a baby", and 3 seconds later she said "I'm still having a baby" and 3 seconds after that she said "I'm STILL having a baby". It was very cute role play! And so that went on for a while.
Then she asked me to put Baby Boy up my shirt and right after I did it, she asked me to put her up my shirt. I gently told her I couldn't because she was too big and she wasn't a tiny baby anymore. She said to me, "Lilah wasn't in Mama's tummy".
I had no idea she was listening, never mind understanding.
I held her tight, because I had no idea just how much I would hurt for her (or myself), that she will probably never know who her birth Mother is. On the one hand I know nothing of her birth Mother or her circumstances, but on the other hand I know that she carried her daughter for (probably) 9 months and went through the pain of delivery. And I DO know that she chose life for her daughter and I am so very thankful for that. In fact, I didn't fully realize just how thankful I was, until today. Thank you so much for giving our sweet baby girl the gift of life.
To see lots more fabulous 'dramatic black and white' images, visit the link below.
And to see more pictures of Lilah wearing her 'Austin Powers' glasses, which she loved wearing and was very quick to assure me, 'There's no glass in it!"... play the flickr slideshow below.
