Toothless Wonder

Look who lost her first tooth!  Someone please remind the Tooth Fairy that she has a job to do tonight and well, apparently, "pixie dust" is this little girl's toothless wish.

Maliah, "You're getting all growd up"!  

My blue eyed beauty makes me giggle.  Today we had our "home study" update meeting for our adoption of "Z".  The social worker coming to our home had never met our family as during our first home study and 4 visits, we flew in Adela from Dallas (our agency's DSS).  Since then, AWAA has hired a social worker in our area and so today was our first meeting with her for our "update" (Texas home studies expire at one year so they must be "updated".

When a social worker leaves, it always makes you wonder how crazy she really thought your family was.  BUT ... when your social worker is greeted at the door by your blue eyed, whimsical beauty ... your mind goes into overdrive.

Then again, this is the same gal who told our SW during our home study for the adoption of Maliah that she "Had lots of wrinkles on her face" and asked if "she had a baby in her tummy".  Our SW was about 65 at the time.  I about died ... and was never so relieved to see that mail arrive putting my mind to rest if we "cleared".

Check out how Dakota was adorned today.  HAHA ... all you can do is laugh!  She brings "abundance" to LIFE.

"Beat the Cat"

Maliah "Mommy, at school we read "Pete the Cat"


"What?  BEAT the cat! (Thinking to myself ... WHAT are they teaching my kids?)

Canyon, across the table with a mouth full of drink, spews into laughter (literally)
I get drenched ... in my face, in my plate ... you name it.

The table goes into a complete uproar of laughter.  Yep, welcome to dinner at the Martine's.

The next day ... Maliah draws, cuts out and glues together for us her special friend.  Too bad for her, his name will never be "Pete" with a serious face in our house.

Maliah, I loved your cat!  It will always make me smile.

Kindie 500

Maliah has been studying "Transportation" in school and they ended their unit with the annual "Kindie 500".  We're not quite sure who this homework was actually for ...  but in the end ... it got finished.

I sure was impressed at some of the parents creativity.  I think their was an inside competition ... little did I know.

Here's my girl and her "Princess" mobile.

OOPS ...

Handing me a white slip of paper, Maliah says "sign this please".


Looking at the piece of paper, I notice that it's a "permission slip" for her to buy snacks at school.  Having done this tango with my two older kids, I smile and say "oh, Maliah doesn't need to buy snacks at school because Mommy sends you snacks".


Looking a little suspicious I start to get the feeling their is more to this story.

"Maliah, have you been buying snacks at school"?


With her finger pressed to her lip, she drops her chin and peers up to look at me and nods her head ever so slightly to signal a hesitant "yes"


"Oh, Maliah, Mommy sends you snacks.  You don't need to buy snacks".  


"But, I's still hungwy".


Remembering the lunch box 1/2 full of all the food she didn't eat each day, I ask, "Maliah, you didn't eat all your lunch, how could you be hungry?  What did you buy?"


"Toast" she answers with the same hesitant voice.


"Toast?" I say with question.


Doing a little deductive reasoning and listening to my Mommy radar, I ask

"Maliah, have you been buying breakfast at school each day"?  


"hmmmm mmmm" she says with that same finger pressed to those same lips.

"OH No,  Mommy fixes you breakfast every morning.  You don't need to be buying breakfast at school each day.  


"But the 2 girwls and the boy do it".


Inside I laugh.  I know another Kindergartner who did this once.  He bought ice cream every day ... and sometimes more than one.


We go on to have the conversation about how she isn't to be buying breakfast, that Mommy has already fed her breakfast and that Mommy didn't send money with her to buy breakfast.  I explain to her the "pin number" she keeps using and how Mommy will send her "cash" if she is going to buy anything.  Don't get me started on the Pin number system.  Yes, a brilliant system to teach our young children the system of DEBT that our congress also lives by!  You know the one, where you spend money you don't have, to buy something you don't need.  All the kids have to do is put in their "pin number" and bamb ... everything is at their fingertips.  Little do they know, that "charge" is then sent my way.  Yes, my sweet child, everything you BUY costs MONEY and I know alllllll about it!   

So a few week pass by and Maliah is happy each morning taking her coloring book and colors to school to occupy her time while she waits to go to class (or so I think).  On a side note, the poor girl has to get their before the sun rises each day as big brother is on safety patrol and has a "job" each morning starting at 7:00 to "patrol".  Who said "yes" to that anyways?

So this past Friday, I get an e-mail from Maliah's teacher.  It reads:

Hi!

"One of the morning cafeteria duty teachers brought it to my attention this morning that Maliah has been buying breakfast in the mornings.  She had a note this morning from the cafeteria that says her balance is negative $14.55.  I was just curious if she was supposed to be buying breakfast or not?  I will send the note home in her folder today!  Thanks so much and have a great day!"

Seriously!!  NO NO NO!  What is that girl doing?  

Of course, what can you do but laugh?  I mean, who wouldn't go to school each day and go through a line and get a yummy breakfast ... especially when everyone else is AND your Mommy doesn't even have to know?  Of course, Mommy went through all of this with her ... but it seems that following the "herd" is far more tempting that the sound of Mommy's little voice on her shoulder.  

Let's just say that Maliah had to empty her piggy bank this weekend.  Unfortunately, 2$ isn't enough to pay off her debt.  She's got 7.55$ left after she also "paid" us in one hour of her room "thinking about her choices".  Cost of time - 5$.  

So, officially, I have a Kindergartner who has more debt than I do. OOPS is right!  

5th Gotcha Anniversary - 9/4/11

Where does time go?  Just last week, I was meeting an amazing woman named Cindy Foote who would soon become a dear friend (June 2005).  Weren't we just meeting for coffee's and praying our girls would be from the same province so we could be in each other's "delivery room"?   I swear, just yesterday sweet Amy Pearson was on the other end of the phone telling us about a beautiful almond eyed beauty in XuWen, China named Xu Xiao Wen ... and of the Foote's, XuFan, an answer to that prayer who was only 20 days younger and not only from the same province but the same orphanage - our girls were TOGHETHER!!   And what feels like days ago, we boarded the plane to China to bring that beauty home.  Full of emotions, excited beyond belief, with a stomach full of nerves -   We were off!  Gotcha day, September 4, 2006.

Fast Forward.   Good times.  Hard times.  Happy times.  Sad times.  5 YEARS!  Can you even believe it!  Our girls have been HOME 5 YEARS!

This year, in lieu of our traditional dinner "out" with the Foote family at the Ming Court restaurant, we decided to stay in, get take out Chinese and avoid stress!  The kids loved it.  The parents loved it!  It was a Gotcha celebration hit!  My have our girls grown.  How great is our God who has blessed their sweet friendship.   5 years of memories ... but wasn't it just yesterday?

 Our first glimpse of Maliah - Referral Picture (THEN)

Our pretty 5 year old beauty (NOW)

A very very scared Maliah - Gotcha day (THEN)

A pre-k graduate who is adored (May)

Mommy's Girl (THEN)

Mommy's Girl (NOW)

Maliah and Libby - BFF's (THEN)

Maliah and Libby - BFF's (NOW) - Gotcha Celebration 2011

 Indeed, we traded in the stuffy restaurant ... for cooky and crazy FUN!

Happy 5 years Maliah and Libby! 

A glimpse of summer

Summer  2011 is coming to a close here in Texas.  Well, who are we kidding, that's not true ... it's Africa Hot here.  But, school is back in session and so that means "summer is over".  It was another great one around the Martine home.  Busy as usual.  Each of the kids enjoyed some special camps just for themselves.  Maliah did a gymnastics camp and from my observation, I am certain that China is totally ticked off as we have commandeered their next great Olympian.  She also enjoyed another awesome year of "China Camp" with all her precious almond eyed friends and their rockin' Moms.   Canyon enjoyed baseball camp and TbarM sports camp.  Dakota partook in Chef's camp, horse camp and TbarM sports camp.   All were a hit and somehow, Mama managed to get her taxi to and from each activity on time and with gas!

As a family we kicked off our summer with the annual "Beach to Bay" run in Corpus Christi and family reunion with the Martine, Fergason, Gibbons, Rhodes, Gill reunion.   This was like, our 5th year, I think.  I don't know, they are all starting to run together. ~TRADITION~ ??  This was the first year that I, myself, didn't run a leg of the race.  Why you ask?  You getting old?  Well, no comment there but I will say, it's not that I am getting old ... it's that my oldest is get old enough.  He took on my leg this year (with Daddy struggling to keep up and stay by his side ... HAHA) and ran my leg.  He knocked out almost 5 miles of running as if he'd been training all year and I think gave the Ethiopian competitive team a run for their money.  Who is that white kid anyway?   He never ceases to amaze me with his athletic abilities!!  I'll sadly admit, those genes didn't come from me.

June wouldn't be June without Dakota's dance recital.  I have lost track how many years she has been doing dance now.  I think that was her 5th.  Does that also mean it's now a ~TRADITION~??  Perhaps I should go count the $100 costumes that adorn her closet to verify.  At that price, good thing both my girls think it's fun to use them again and again and make them into next years Halloween Costumes.
If you didn't know, there is nothing about kids activities that are cheap.  There's a hefty cost for every.part.of.it.  I'm thinking with 4 kids, I'll have to have a full time job just so they can be "extra-curricular".   Then again, aren't they full time?   Whose gonna pay me for driving that taxi?

In June we welcomed home our newest cousin, Rood, from Haiti.  It was an awesome day and he has acclimated well into cousinhood.  He is full of excitement and energy as he explores all things new.

Along with these great activities, we enjoyed a weekend at a friend's lake house for the 4th, summer birthdays, a family reunion day at the "Pecan Farm", last days of school, and many days of swimming in PiPa and Granny's pool or starting at each other as we wondered what to do next.  Isn't that what summer days are for?

Our summer highlight for sure came on August 11th at 2:30 in the afternoon.  You can go read about it here if you haven't already.  Our family received our long awaited referral for our son and brother.  We are smitten and he is precious!  We are now anxiously waiting for courts to open so that we can get our court date and go meet him.  Canyon and Dakota are going to make the long and exhausting trip with us.  Having done it before, it's not a fun one (the travel) but one we think will be worth the work.  They can't wait and have bravely already succumbed themselves to a hefty dose of shots to make it happen.

Well, I am going to admit, I get an "F" this year for keeping up with the madness.  There is a reason I call it so.  I have been devoted to making sure our adoption blog is kept up as I know that that will bless our little guy one day.  Making the time for both has been tough and yet, I am kicking myself for not being more diligent.  I love love love going back and reading the life and story we have lived through these posts.  I have so many great pictures to share.  Someone asked me once (or should I say I was told once), that they didn't understand why in the world I'd be so "open" with my life.  I have many answers to that question, however, as I read back through my blog posts and see how much my kids have grown, one of them would be ... there is no greater way to document for myself the growth of my kids and family.  The end.

Enjoy the days of our life through pictures.

Beach To Bay 2011

Walking the plank

Buddies

Maliah digging in the sand

Surf's up

The "Family Ties" team

All the kids of the gang

Cousins

Cousins

Jumping waves

Dance Recital 2011

A ballet - from the Nutcracker

Look at my beauty smile

Granny, Pipa, Nana and Papa, Aunt Betty - Raving fans!

Chef's Camp

Thank you Granny and PiPa for an awesome birthday gift!  

Gymnastics Camp

Almost has that flip flop

The girl can kick to her head

TbarM Sports Camp

Lake House - 4th of July

China Camp 2011

Building the "Great Wall"

Learning to write Pinyin Characters

Hope teaching Maliah and Libby to say "One, Two, Three" in Mandarin

Sweet friends ... all within weeks of each other in age with exception to Lilly 

BFF's - Maliah and Libby

It's hard to believe these girls have known each other long before we knew them.
Pecan Farm

Family Camp