And the journey goes on...

Jeremiah 29:13
"You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart."

The last four weeks have definitely been a journey through my heart and believe me I've not yet "arrived." I do feel the Lord close to me and on some days that's a miracle. I feel so busy now. Busy with things I'm not used to doing. Busy tending to Abi's every call and the other needs of our family. It's been tiring and on some days the flow of my day is wack-o! But we're managing and learning our new life. God is faithful!

I had the sheer pleasure of spending time in DFW at the end of September...MAN, GOD WAS SOOO GOOD TO ME/US!!! Abi had a magnificent Sip & See Shower and many of our friends from 10+ years ago were there to celebrate with us. Bruce and Josh thought they were coming to the shower for a "few" minutes but the women managed to keep them there...which I LOVED! Many of these women knew our Josh as a baby so they were pleasantly surprised to see him standing taller than me and as handsome as ever. The love, the prayers, the gifts, the friendships shown...BLESSED ME TO NO END!!

The same evening Mom had a get together with our family. They loved seeing Abi and making her a part of our family! It was a sweet time.

The following day, Mom had an Open House for the sweet people that have planted seeds into Abi's adoption. It was tremendous! Ms. Nancy Tappan who cared for Risa (my sister) and I at the orphanage happened to be in town that weekend! Thank You, Jesus! She was there along with JoAnn Slay (who has also been apart of our lives since our adoption)! I can't tell you what it felt like to be in my Mom's house with my sister and these two powerful women!!! We talked, we laughed, we embraced...soo much was said, even by a look of love from these women to us. It filled my heart with everlasting thankfulness. I treasure any moment with them!

All of these events happened within 2 days...I was so happily tired!! Bruce left with the older kids after the Open House and so that they could attend school the next day. I was blessed in staying a couple more days and flying home with Abi. The next two days held moments of counseling for me (God confirmed that my heart is healthy and gave other words of great value to me)...a doctors visit (I'm healthy!)...time out with the YaYa's!!!...time with one of our precious "youth" who is now a wonderful husband and father, chatting with his wife and holding their new baby girl ~ love you, Brett, Lindsay & Harper!...time on the couch with Maria while crying during Oprah...and there's more and more memories. The last one I'll mention is that on Wednesday morning Abi and I went with Mom to the YMCA and so that her workout buddies could see Abi! They loved her! Then we were off to Allen, TX...no where near the airport to hit the OUTLET MALL!!! We put Abi in the stroller and went crazy! It was awesome!! Got to the airport early. Abi was perfect on the plane and we were happily reunited with our family! That was a perfect getaway!!!

About Josh...
The day after we got back to Lubbock, Josh was involved in the Band Extravaganza here in Lubbock! All the middle school bands along with a couple of our high school bands and the Texas Tech band, spent an evening offering us some great music! There we sat in the football stands...a beautiful evening with the sun setting behind us and OUR Josh is OUT there! When his school performed, I raced to the front row with a camera in hand (borrowed from a friend). When I was able to take a picture, Josh looked away. I love him. I wanted to be discreet but the tears that were filling my eyes with pride were overwhelming. You know, when you're on a heart journey, the Lord begins to pour out love from you to others. Boy, did this ever happen! He has captured my heart.

The following day, Josh was up early to get to his first period class. If you choose to swim as an elective at Evans, you must be at the school at 7:20am every morning! It's quite a sacrifice if you love sleep. The previous night made for a short night's sleep but Josh was up and ready!! He had his first swimmers-time-trial that evening at 7pm. I stopped by the school to give him something and he came out of the room with a flat, rubber, horseshoe shaped thing. He said, "Hey, Mom look at this!" I kid you not...it looked like a whoopie cushion. I said, "Josh, why do you have that in class? I'm not sure that's a good idea." He went on to explain it was his swimming cap. We laughed our heads off in the hall and he was thankful for the brilliant idea I had for using it as a whoopie cushion. Oh dear! He did really well at the time-trial. He's a beginner but showed great strength in diving off, swimming 1/3 of the way down the pool, under water and then coming up to swim with perfection! I was soo proud of him!!! Bruce's mother, Helen, was in town and was able to come along too. We all had a GREAT time! Afterwards, we went to dinner at Raising Cains to celebrate Josh's accomplishments!

Bella Grace...
Bella is doing really well in school. She's taken to a few girls that seem to be good friends. She's a helper to those that are in need and an encourager. She loves it when I bring her lunch and smiles as she holds my hand and we walk to the cafeteria. I told her recently that if I could look like anyone in the world, even all the movie stars, I would choose to look like her. Of course, I added that I love the way I look but I was wanting to point out her great beauty. She gave me a great, toothless smile and big hug. Bella has recently learned to jump rope...thanks to her friend Elizabeth who taught her. Each year her school does Jump Rope for Heart...fundraiser for heart disease. All the kids go by grade and compete against each other in the gym while jump roping. Last year, she desperately tried to jump rope but just couldn't get it. I remember thinking, "why can't she do this?" but she wasn't developmentally ready. You can't force growth in an area that is developmental so she did her best and was one of the first to sit down because she couldn't do it. Let me just say that our carpet must be wearing out because this girl runs while jump roping through the house. She's learning new tricks and is sooo proud of herself. We are constantly hearing her say, "Watch this!"..."Look at this!"...and we love it! Since she's taking first grade again, Bella is a bit bored with her spelling words. She came home a week ago and said, "Mom, REALLY?! Listen to my spelling words...pin, win, etc....can you EVEN believe THIS? I don't even need to study for the test this Friday." Well, she was right. She's not studied her spelling words for six weeks now and manages to get a 100 each time. Math is another subject. Still thankful we made the right decision for our Bella. Her growth in so many areas are beneficial to her!

So what's new with Abi?...a look at her daily life:
Depending upon when she went down for bed the night prior, she wakes EXACTLY 10 hours later. Thus, the reason she wants two naps each day. I keep her up until 9pm and so that she will wake at 7am and no earlier! It doesn't seem fair to Bella (and it's not!) that her baby sister goes to bed after her. I hate that for her.

Abi wakes happy! She LOVES her mornings with Daddy! We are all up around 7:15am and everyone is at the table eating breakfast. Well, I'm not. I can't eat that early in the day. She usually eats a banana (still holding it herself) and yogurt with cheerios mixed in. She's a great eater! Matter of fact, anytime she sees someone put ANYTHING in their mouth, she's racing to get to them because she thinks she needs a bite.

I usually pick up the house in the morning and do laundry. I know. Fun, huh? Abi walks around the house during this time and pushes her toys in the baby stroller OR reads books. I'd love to read to her but she won't sit still long enough. She wants to do it herself and she does. She knows where her toys are and is usually good about playing with them while I'm doing other things around the house. Of course, there are days when I notice a stillness and quietness that wasn't present 5 minutes earlier. I go to find her pulling the toilet paper off its roll or something of that nature. She offers a huge smile before being told, "no." She's a cutie!

Two and a half to three hours after she wakes each morning she wants a morning nap. This usually works for me. On the days that it doesn't work and we need to run errands or such, she naps in the car and wakes 5, 10, 15 minutes later with a happy heart. She's amazing!

Same afternoon routine...lunch, nap, pick up Josh and Bella (which she LOVES!) and then home to begin homework for her siblings and preparation for dinner by me. At this time, she sits in her Johnny Jump Up (why didn't I invent those?!!!) and goes to town! She jumps as high and as fast as she can. She twists the cord in an absolute knot while spinning and then it unwinds with her spinning into the wall, the chair, whatever is near. She LOVES it!!! She does it over and over! I've never seen a child take such good advantage of the Johnny Jump Up...wow!

Abi understands EVERYTHING we say! From "pick it up and put it back" to "go get your shoes"...she's GETS it! I still use the few Spanish words I remember and talk to her daily with those words. A couple of our sweet friends greet her in Spanish too. I love that! I'll ask Abi if she wants a bath and she goes to the bathtub and begins to "try" and remove her clothes. She loves bath time! She's gone poopies on the potty a couple times which still amazes me. I just see her urge and off we run. :)

She doesn't have alot of "words" but the one word that she uses OVER AND OVER AGAIN is "Me"...pronounced with a short "e" sound. In the 2.5 hours that she was awake this morning, she's said it 24 times. Yes, I've counted. I'm trying to get her to say, "Mama" or whatever it is that she's wanting at the time. "Me" is driving me crazy!!! Even Josh and Bella are like, "Mom! Make her stop saying Me!!!" Repetition can be a good thing in some areas. This is not one of those areas.

Speaking of our Colombian jewel...she just woke from her morning nap.

Love, love, love to you! Ruth