We're Going Out to Celebrate Tonight!

We are all very proud of Hillary. It's been an exciting day. We are so happy for her and, quite frankly, relieved. She did a great job with her applications and auditions (she did them ALL by herself) and stayed very cool under the pressure of the whole process. Woohoo!!!!!!!! We aren't quite sure of her final decision, but her options are great.

Monday's the Big Day.

We'll find out where Hillary's been accepted and where she is headed in the fall. She's totally calm and I feel like the weekend couldn't be dragging by any more slowly. C'mon Monday...I can hardly wait to hear. The emails are supposed to be sent out Monday at 5pm (couldn't they have done this Friday and saved us a few days of sweating it out?). Besides finding out where she is going and what program she'll be studying there, I really am curious to know if she'll be close enough so I can get to some of her concerts or meet her for lunch once in a while which would be amazing. I hate for her to lose the bonds she has with the other kids, especially Hannah and Emma. Emma is so young that she might even forget her so we'll have to make sure they see each other once in a while (they totally adore each other). No matter where she goes, we'll make that happen!

Hillary cannot wait to go to college and I'm thrilled she feels that way. It's such an exciting time for her and she's so ready. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping she gets just what she wants!

Boy 2.5 with cleft lip and palate (lip repaired) waiting for his family

I'm trying to help this little guy from Fujian Province find his family. He sounds like a doll!

He is a clever and outgoing child who is noted for being cooperative! (an amazing trait for someone 2.5!) The orphanage has noticed that he will proactively get close to people he knows and reach out to them. This little boy is all smiles, with his cleft lip repaired in August 2006. His favorite activity is to dance around the room while listening to music!

If you are interested in learning more about him, please contact Meg at China Adoption With Love, Inc.
http://cawli.org
email: info@cawli.org
Phone: (800) 888-9812, (617) 731-5756

Feel free to email me for questions about that agency...we've used CAWLI for two adoptions and they are incredible.

Just Got An Email....

and we now have a LID....3/6/08.

Photography Class - Week 3

Our homework for week 3 was to take portraits of "things", not people. I'm not all that clever. I didn't know what to shoot and we are supposed to shoot in natural light without flash. Outside, everything is so dreary this time of year...leafless trees, dead grass, gray sky. I had a hard time finding interestng things but I learn so much by seeing what everyone else shoots. Some of the people in our class are incredibly creative and it helps give me an eye for different possibilities. The teacher goes around the room and discusses each person's photos - what worked, what didn't, and why. It is such great feedback and amazing to see how taking a moment to crop a photo differently or to edit it slightly can turn a boring photograph into something beautiful. I still am very clueless about the whole thing, but not quite as bad as a few weeks ago and it is a lot of fun! Here's some of my homework from this week.

Another "Flowers" Quote

I named my blog FIVE FLOWERS with the Claudia Ghandi quote in mind, but I have found another "flowers" quote which I think is beautiful. Staying mindful with five kids isn't easy for me and I need constant reminders. I think I'll post this one on the fridge.

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” - Thich Nhat Hanh





This is a photo of my garden taken by my brother, Pete. I miss him so.

Photography Class

I started a photography class a few weeks ago and realize more than ever just how much I don't know about photography. Every time I take my camera out of automatic mode, it won't work. I'm hoping to at least figure out how to use my camera so that I can take better shots. I took these shots for homework. They are technically pretty bad, but I think the subjects are pretty cute anyway. Some day, maybe I'll learn enough to do them justice!

Emma Joined Our Family One Year Ago Today!

Pete and Matt met Emma for the first time one year ago today! I still pinch myself everyday when I wake to her sweet voice and tiny footsteps. Last March, Emma was 8.5 months old and not quite 14 lbs. She was tiny but strong. She moved pretty seamlessly into our family. Within a couple of days, she started to crawl, babble and was all smiles. She walked shortly after arriving home and is now hitting lots of developmental milestones. She talks all day long, is starting to count, recite the alphabet and loves singing her favorite songs. I was driving down the road the other day and was shocked when that little person in the backseat told me to "slow down." She is gentle and sweet but can hold her own when she needs to (which seems to be more often all the time). I love her so deeply and often wonder how the stars collided in such a way that we became her family. I know the kids feel just the same way about her. She's the best and we all adore her and feel incredibly blessed to have this beautiful little girl in our lives!

Some of Pete's Photos.

Hillary and I spent most of today trying to put together a photo book of my brother Pete's photos. I'm hoping to have a coffee table book ready for the celebration of his life that we are having next weekend. Pete used to send me his photos all the time. Sometimes they were wildlife photos to entertain Hannah. Sometimes he had a new camera or piece of equipment that he was trying out or maybe he just wanted an opinion on a particular photo before entering it into a competition. Mostly, he emailed me from either the Cape or Florida just to show me what he'd been up to for the day and to keep in touch when we weren't close by (we both spent our summers on the Cape). It was the way he kept himself busy and sane while dealing with his illness.

Peter always loved photography and nature. He didn't take too many photographs of people, but he did love photographing Hannah and swore that he never could seem to get a bad shot of her! I cherish all the photos he sent and the great emails and captions that went along with them. I can't wait to see the book when it is finished! His photography is now such a gift to us all.

Anticipation...

Hillary is busy filling out scholarship applications. That's all that's left to do, well, that and wait. She's done such an amazing job getting everything done this year. She's done most everything by herself, from college applications to auditions and interviews, etc. I'm really blown away by how organized and independent she has been. I'm very proud of her! She thinks she will hear where she has been accepted by March 31st. She's heard from one school already and is waiting for letters from four others. I'm glad that the application process is behind her and hope that, in the end, she is happy with her choices. She's worked so hard to get to this point!

We're DTC!

Okay, it's back to blogging after a bit of time away and this is the latest news from our house. Our dossier was sent to China by our agency on 2/26/08 and at some point, we will learn our LID. No one really knows about this yet. At this point we are not sharing this information with our families as they already think we are a little crazy, well, a lot crazy. We've been on our ageny's WC list since the fall, but there are many families ahead of us in line, so it will be a while and that's okay. Things are very busy around here and time is one thing we need a bit more of. Actually, we are taking this one as it comes as we are now painfully aware of just how quickly life can change. If the time comes and we feel like we are able to handle it, we are going back to China. If this path isn't the right one for us, hopefully time will make that clear. The process is now taking so long that it is hard for me to know where we will be in our lives when the opportunity arises. What we do know is that our children are the joys of our lives and adding another is just something that I haven't been able to get out of my head. So, we decided to follow the path and see where it takes us.