Best Friends!

Well, we knew we were getting another daughter when we adopted Sarah, but it has become quite obvious that Lily got a best friend!

What brothers do for sisters and some other pics

The girls love their new Kids Quest cups from church! Here theare going"cheers."

Lily is drinking what she calls "Gatorador."

Kids Quest Rocks!

A morning in Sarah's bed! We were told that Sarah likes to sleep with a lot of things...that's an understagement! She has too many things in bed with her...oh well...you choose your battles!

Another morning shot!

I love how my boys just love their sisters! This video shows how much they love them! There was another video of the girls painting their toenails, but somehow that video got erased from my camera!

Glory Revealed Tour at our Church

A few weeks ago we hosted the Glory Revealed Tour at our church here in Lancaster, Ohio. It was a great concert. The majority of songs were all Scripture....awesome. Here are two of the videos that were made by the production company that came to our church. The entire concert will go on television at some point.






This video has Mac Powell from Third Day and Brian Littrell. Brian used to sing with the Back Street Boys and now is doing Christian music.

Oh, where O where have I been?

I don't have any cute pictures right now so my words will have to do!

The Midwest Summit on Adoption and Orphan Relief took place at our church last Saturday. I think it went extremely well! We had 250 in attendance. We also had 50 speakers and 30 Exhibitors. The keynote address was exceptionally good as Dr. Taylor challenged everyone to come out of their comfort zone when it comes to getting involved with adoption and/or orphan relief. I am confident that we will never know (on this side of heaven) the number of lives that will be changed because of this conference! God is good!

We also had our 12-month post-placement appointment with the Social Worker. It is hard to believe that we are approaching our one year anniversary of adopting Sarah! Time flies! This will be our last correspondence with the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs. No, we won't be adopting again....not from China anyway! (tee hee) China does not allow families to have more than five children in the home...unless they do a large family waiver. To be quite honest, my quiver is quivering so we will move on.

I was talking with some friends during the conference about how I had two big hurdles to clear in regards to Sarah. First...get her off of the bottle. Okay, so she was still on the bottle! It was her still on the bottle or me going on one! Quite frankly, there is only one thing meaner in the morning that me without my coffee....Sarah without her bottle. The other hurdle had to do with her sleeping arrangement. I have spent every night in her room until she falls asleep. If I sneak out and she isn't asleep....oh, my! So, I knew that as we approached the first anniversary of having Sarah home with us, I needed to take care of those two things. What I didn't know is that three nights with Grandma was all it took! Sarah has no interest in the bottle and no interest in me being in her room as she falls asleep. Go figure!

We are now focusing on finishing up school. We are busy with track meets. Tyler is in the school play this year, too.

Well, that's a little update. I'm sure I'll be posting more pics of our crew soon.
K

Peanut Butter and Green Beans

Life is certainly not boring in the Alexander home!

He is risen! Sarah's first Easter! Yes, the Easter Bunny showed up today!

Easter 2006...............we didn't have Sarah home yet!

The girls at church. Miss. Denise gave them Easter Ducks!

Getting ready to leave for church....snow on Easter?!?!

Blurry, but beautiful!

Sarah's first Easter dress! Guess who gave it to her?

Lily is dressed and ready to go!

Lily and her Easter Bucket!

Sarah and her Easter Bucket!

Dane is the only boy that is allowed to hunt for Easter eggs!

Big brother TJ help Lily in the Easter egg hunt!

Sarah has her brother Tyler helping her!

Eggs all over the place!

Sarah did a great job on her first egg hunt!

The boys had a great time watching the girls!

Sarah had a good eye for those eggs!

Keeping warm during our breezy egg hunt!

This photo looks better than the top photo! We can't imagine

life without our Sarah!

Sarah, Lily, Dane, Ty and TJ.....the youngest to the oldest!

He has risen! He has risen indeed! It has been a great day celebrating one of the most important holidays of our faith....the resurrection of Jesus! We enjoy celebrating His birth, but to celebrate his victory over death! What a celebration! "Where o grave is your victory? Where o death is your sting? The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. Praise God who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus our Lord! (I Corinthians 15:55-57).

Okay, I obviously enjoyed dressing the girls this morning! My friends at church were surprised that I even had white gloves on them! I knew without a shadow of a doubt that no one would have the same dresses as my girls! These dresses were sent to us last Summer from Sarah's foster family in China! Aren't they beautiful?! It was so nice to say, "Ah-moo bought you these dresses!" My girls are not much into bows and ribbons so we settled for a few pretty curls. The boys? Well, they dressed themselves..although I did make a big deal and say, "no jeans and t-shirts today!"

We came home to a wonderfully cooked meal by Bob Evans! (smile) It was a deal I couldn't pass up when I was at Bob's for lunch this past week! I caved to pressure from my lunchmate Susan. She bought the package, too! Call me wimpy, but it was nice to have a great meal with the seven of us and not have to stress over getting it and everything else done.

Some Christians choose not to do the Easter Bunny thing at Easter because they don't want to put Jesus in the same category as the make-believe bunny. They skip Santa at Christmas for the same reason. That's fine if they do that...that is their business. We have no problem with the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause! The main reason I don't have an issue with it is because Jesus is a part of every minute of every day of our lives. We talk about Him as we come and as we go...all year round! We worship Him all year long. He is incorporated into our daily lives in such a way that I don't think our kids will ever struggle with putting Him in the same category as the Easter Bunny or Santa. That being said, we had to find the baskets that the Easter Bunny hid in the house for the kids.

The girls had a great time! They got a little candy, a little stuffed animal, and a movie. Sarah got "Curious George" and Lily got "Cinderella III." They were thrilled. The boys still enjoy trying to find their baskets, although we are running out of places to hide them since we've lived here for nine years now!

After the girls had their naps, we had the Easter egg hunt in the yard. It is hard to believe that I had to wear winter coats on them! TJ and Ty helped the girls while Dane joined in on finding them.

This has been a great Easter as we celebrated it as the Seven Alexanders! A year ago I was doing my best to wait patiently for China to tell us that we could come to get Sarah! Time almost stood still then as the waiting was such a challenge. As my friends who have adopted overseas would agree, it is very difficult to know that you have a child that is yours, just waiting in their home country until you can come get them...and you wait, wait, wait! Here I am a year later and we are comfortably settling into being this family of seven. God is good!

TEASER: If I get time tomorrow, I will post the videos, "Licking Peanut Butter off of the Window" and "Green Beans and Licorice." You'll love them!

What a day!

I do have some video from today that I might post, but haven't gotten around to uploading them.

I have been really busy cleaning the house. I've put the boys to work in their rooms while I tackled closets, the girls room and my room. Goodwill is going to make a killing from our cleaning! The girls played in the house all day long. I was surprised how well they did with me trying to stay busy.

Tyler messed things up by putting one of my knee high hose over his head and running around the house saying, "I'm not Tyler." Sarah was scared beyond words. I was a bit mad at him, but I must admit that I enjoyed having her cuddle up to me for a good 15 minutes!

The next interuption came when I thought Tom was watching the girls. I came downstairs and saw Sarah licking the sliding glass door. I thought it was odd, but thought maybe she enjoyed the return of cold weather and the chill it brought to the glass. Not! Tom had given her peanut butter on a spoon. Sarah put it on the glass and decided she liked to just lick it off of the glass. I got it on video! I know my germ-concerened friends are probably thinking, "I can't believe she let her lick peanut butter off of the window!" I thought it was funny until I saw the bouncy horse had a bit of a layer of peanut butter on him,too.

The next video I took was Lily at dinner. We had fun video taping her eating a green bean..yes, one green bean. That is huge progress for my I-don't-like-veggies girl! Of course, I bribed her with a red licorice. You know, this cold weather has brought on some boredom in our home so we needed to create some opportunities to laugh and have a good time.

After the girls had their bath, I put them in front of the television and snuck upstairs to watch a little TV in my room. It wasn't long until Sarah found me. She loves to be wherever I am. She just hangs out with me and tells me she loves me. She worked on some puzzles while I watched TV.

It was bedtime before we knew it. I still lay down on the floor until Sarah falls asleep. I hope to stop doing that in the next month or so...I hate doing it, but I believe it has been in her best interest for now. Sarah's last words to me before she fell asleep were, "You're my best mother forever." That would have been a great ending to my day, but Lily was still awake.

If Lily is still awake when I get up to leave the room, she asks me to get in her bed and tell her a quick story. Tonight she wanted to hear her favorite story. It's about a mom living in a house with four boys..a daddy named Tom and three brothers named TJ, Ty and Dane. (Lily just grins as she tries to suck her thumb at the same time I tell the story) I tell about how this mommy was the only girl in the family and how lonely that was sometimes. I then tell her that the daddy said, "We ought to get a little girl in this house!" I then tell her about going to China to get a little girl named Yang XiaoJing and how we named her "Lily Kathrine XiaoJing Alexander." I kiss her good night and she says, "You're my best mother forever." Twice blessed tonight!

What on earth is Sarah saying?!?!

The girls were cracking me up tonight! Sarah took these end caps from our computer chair and put them up to her eyes and kept saying something that I couldn't figure out what it was! You can hear Lily in the background repeating her and then saying, "She's speaking Chinese!" I then made another video of Lily and Lily started doing the same thing, but her hand position and wording clued me in on what Sarah was saying....binoculars! They are so darn smart! Sorry for some of the potty talk in the Sarah video. Lily was sitting on the potty chair so Sarah got to "talking potty." We finished the second video on a more positive note...Jesus is our hero!

Really, we went to the zoo!

Dane helping the girls feed the bird.

Sarah feeding the bird all by herself!

Lily's turn!

Taking turns.

Still feeding.

Time to feed ourselves!

Gotta love this profile!

This one, too!

Cheesy!

Sarah loved the elephant!

Lunch!

Lily groomin' the goat.

Sarah's turn to groom him.

Groomin' together.

Nappin' at the zoo.

Well, today was a beautiful day! It looked like it was going to be the only really nice day this week. TJ is spending a few days on the farm with Tom's parents. Ty and Tom went golfing 18 holes. Dane and I took the girls to the zoo. I took a lot of pictures, but they were mostly of the girls! Really, we did go to the zoo! Dane was a wonderful big brother as he helped me all day with taking care of the girls.

It was so much fun to take the girls! The best part of the day was simply watching the faces of my girls as they saw so many animals. I wish I had taken pictures, but I was too lost in the moment. The best moment was when Sarah saw the elephant. They were walking and playing like crazy. It was so cool to see an elephant come to life for her!

They loved feeding the bird! And they squealed on the merry-go-round as I was anxious keeping my arms around both of them knowing I was going to get motion sickness....ah, but the things we do for our kids!

It was a great day!

Just thinking of Sarah

Yesterday Sarah wanted to look at pictures of her in China. She sat on my lap as we looked at all of the photos of us on our trip to get her. We came across this picture of her on Gotcha Day. She wanted to wear her bracelets from China. They were on her wrists when we got her. One of them said, "Smart and Wise." The other said, "May you have a long life." I went to get them and they weren't where I had left them! I was so sad...more for her than myself. I knew I had put them up for safe keeping and I just couldn't figure out where I put them! I finally found them in a tub of photos that have not found their place to any album..whew! I have spent a lot of time yesterday and today thinking about how different today is from that day in May of last year.

Before we got her we were given a sheet of paper with her eating habit, toilet using habits, likes and dislikes. We pretty much were told that she'll eat most anything, was potty trained, liked new toys and liked to sleep with hairy things.

The photos show my girl at two different times. The lower one is on Gotcha Day. She picked at her dress the rest of the day...or would nervously play with her fingers. I'm not in the mood to revisit her grief from that week, but it was intense at times. If some of you recall, it was a quiet grief that broke my heart! There were tears, but no cries...an occasional calling out for her "ah-moo"...the name she had for her foster mother. There was a bit of a blank slate in my mind as I looked at her then. What was does she like to do? What does she like to eat? What is meant by "hairy things?" Will she like me? What is her personality like? There were many questions that day.

Today I can look at her and I no longer see a blank slate in my mind! She likes to read books and play dress up! She likes to swing and ride her bike. She likes to eat just about anything, but soup is her favorite. She does like hairy things, but our culture calls them "stuffed animals." She absolutely loves me! I know her quite well now! She's vert smart. She's funny. She's spirited and determined! She's sometimes very stubborn. She loves her brothers and will now say, "I am Lily's best friend." She is amazing!

I love to watch Sarah and Lily together. I can't imagine them not having each other. Two girls born from two different women. Brought together to be sisters in a land far away from where they were born. Brought to a family that loves them so very much! And I get to call them "my daughters." I am very blessed!

Alexander Update....hair cuts, too!

Alecia getting started on Lily's hair.

Your beautiful, it's true!

Alecia getting started on Sarah.

Still working on her.

So beautiful, too!

Our special friend, Alecia.

Jammie time.

Jammie Time II

Have you ever seen more beautiful heads? Even from the

back they are beautiful!

UPDATE:

Well, it seems like I haven't been blogging in such a long time. I don't have any real reason exept that I'm busy with the crew that God has blessed us with!

TJ is busy trying to get his grades up so he can get his drivers liscense. We won't let him unless he has all A's and B's on his report card. He isn't running track this year, but is lifting weights every day at school to prepare for the next football season. He is enjoying his new drums.

Ty is running track and should be starting baseball soon. He works hard at school. He is also in the school drama this Spring.

Dane is working hard at school and violin. He is skipping baseball this year, but I've signed him up with some private basketball lessons with a retired basketball coach....me!

The girls are doing well. We got hair cuts today. Before anyone gets frustrated with me for cutting Sarah's hair, just know it was in her best interest. She has never had a hair cut and had a lot of broken strands of hair. They made it difficult to comb out her hair every morning. We consulted with our good friends Alecia and she thought it would be good to cut it a bit shorter. We all like it.

Be sure to check out the videos I added below!

Kathy