Adoption....

As most of you know that our precious daughter, Farrah is adopted.  We adopted her from the very beginning.  Farrah was fifteen hours old when we first held her.  Over the years we have been very open with Farrah and her being adopted.  We read books and talk about being adopted and what it means and mostly what the bible says about being adopted.

A couple of weeks ago we were asked if we could be interviewed about Farrah's adoption.  We explained to Farrah that we were asked to do an interview about her adoption and explained what would happen.  Farrah said that it was fine with her to do the video so we did.

I wasn't really sure what to think about it....I knew mostly that I wanted to protect and respect Farrah.  She is now getting to the age where she is asking questions about being adopted and why.  I wasn't sure how she would react or respond to the questions that were asked but she did great!  After the interview she acted like it was no big deal.

This morning our church did the sermon and showed the video of different families who have adopted.  These families all have different stories.  Some were Foster Care to adopting, adopting family members, adopting overseas and some adopting locally.  I knew the video was going to be shown today and I told Farrah that but she still wanted to go to class.

I walked her into class and she was so excited to be there....when she walked through the door another child pointed across the room and yelled in front of everyone "Farrah, you're adopted!!"  My heart sank!  I didn't know what to do.  I watched Farrah's little shoulders drop and she stopped in her tracks and just stood there.  It took all of me not to run after Farrah and give her a great big hug and shield her from being "tagged" adopted.  I just told Farrah have fun and see you in a bit because truthfully I didn't know what to do.

After hearing the sermon from Pastor Jantzen about how important adoption and his passion for it it made me proud.  Not in a prideful way but in a way that I'm honored that God called ME to be Farrah's mommy.  As I sat and listened to why as a church we should take care of the orphans I sat there being thankful.  Thankful that I didn't say no.  Thankful that we were obedient to God.  Thankful that I fought for her.

So many times we hear what we can do for the orphans but let me tell you what Farrah did for us.  I had no idea how broken my heart was.  I was at a point in my life that I was questioning God....to the point to was he even real?  Farrah being born to us not only made me a mommy but she healed my heart!  I was heart broken and the first time I laid eyes on her all the heartache went away.  God had truly shown us his perfect love.

After church we got in the car and I said to her "Farrah, when that little kid yelled across the room about you being adopted how did that make you feel?"  Her response was "It made me sad."  I asked her why and she said "I know people know I'm adopted but I don't FEEL like I'm adopted."  It took me a second to not just cry with joy, but that's the truth.  We've never given Farrah the label "adopted".  She is our daughter....100% our daughter!  She doesn't get any special treatment because she is adopted.  She still gets disciplined and she has chores just like everyone else.

Farrah has been such a faith booster not for only us but for so many of our friends and family.  Will we adopt again...I sure hope so!  All I know to do is sit and listen and be obedient to God.  If he calls us to adopt again then we will be honored to but if not then we are blessed by Farrah!

Happy Father's Day...2014!!

Dear dad,

First of all, your my favorite dad!  Just wanted to say thank you for being a wonderful dad.  You've taught me so many wonderful things over the past year.  Here's a thank you for what you've taught me....

You taught me how to ride my bike and how to stay safe...

You encourage me to swim farther....

We have the best tickle fights while mom is shopping.....that's one of my favorites!

You taught me how important it is to workout and to be strong.....

You gave me a need for speed....

You've taught me that super hero's help mom in the kitchen....

You taught me that's its ok to be a beast on the field...haha!

I have my very own personal travel pillow....

You teach me knew things like shooting a bow and hopefully one day I will get to go hunting with you!

You've taught me how important family is and how we support each other....(Quinn's softball game playoffs).

You've taught me how to slow down and stop and watch it rain....

And that it's fun to dance in the rain....

You are always willing to let me sit beside you when you are busy working....

You've taught me how important my education is and to always do my best....

You support me when it comes to something you have no idea about like my dancing....

You are the hardest working man I know!  You've taught me that it's ok to work hard and get dirty....

You do a great job of loving mommy!

But my favorite part of you being my dad is our daily wrestling fights we have!  I love hearing you laugh and that you "let" me win sometimes!

Thank you for always loving me!  Thank you for always being there when I need you the most.  Thank you for letting me be me and always encouraging me to be my best.  I will always be your little girl and your biggest fan!

Love Farrah

Here is my interview with Farrah about dad.

My dad is funny because....I like to wrestle with him.
My dad thinks I'm funny when.....I jump on him.
My dad is 28 years old.
His favorite thing to do is....love on me!
His favorite color is red.
My dad's job is.....work at Chevron.
He loves to eat.....broccoli
He is really good at working for money for us.
My dad loves when I......steal all of his kisses.
My dad always says....I love you baby girl!
My favorite thing about dad is....when I don't want to eat my veggies my dad will eat his with me.

Rainbow Ballerina

Last night Farrah had her first dance recital!  It was the sweetest thing to watch!  Her song was Rainbow Ballerina and it was a ballet.  To be honest Farrah wasn't very excited to do ballet, she wanted to do tap...haha!  I think after she did her rehearsal she was excited to just be on stage.

This dance thing was fun but a little stressful!  The doors opened at 5:30 pm so I got there at 5:15 not knowing what to expect and OH MY GOODNESS!  This place was a madhouse!  Once the doors opened it was every man for themselves.  People were running and fighting over seats.  I have never seen anything like this in my life!

Thankfully I had some really good seats and spent an hour guarding them...Haha!!  At one point Farrah tells me she needed to go potty and I looked at her and had no idea what to do.  Do I leave my seats and take the chance of getting them taken?  Do I let her go potty by herself? (I only thought this for a quick second....I promise!)  I got the guts up to ask a (what I thought was a sweet little lady and quickly realized I was wrong) lady in front of me.  I told her that my daughter needed to go potty and if she minded looking after my seats (because I would do this for someone else.)  She looked at me and said "It's against the rules to save seats!!"  My look of horror was all over my face I'm sure so I nodded my head and said "Your absolutely right!"  She grabbed my arm and said she was just joking but I knew better!  I turned to Farrah who at the time is doing the potty dance and found a friend who offered to take Farrah to the restroom....thank you Ms. Heather!!  Needless to say these dance people mean business when it comes to saving seats!!

After I looked at the program to see where Farrah would dance I realized we were smack dab in the middle of the program.  I think there were 32 dances in front of Farrah and she was AFTER the intermission.  James was so happy....haha!!  Once the show began I took Farrah back to get dressed and she was so excited!  In the past, I had helped my niece get ready for dance recitals so I knew what to expect.  This was a little different in the fact that there was no A/C in the backstage area.  We were melting and these poor little girls were whining and crying about being so hot and sweating their makeup off.  Luckily I found a box fan and had Farrah stand in front of it so she wouldn't pass out.

After I checked her in I went back to the show and watched my baby girl sing and dance her little heart out!  It was truly a moment I will never forget!  After all the years of heartache of infertility I sat there watching my precious daughter.  All the heartache went away and I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.  To sit there and watch her was priceless!

I hope I will always watch her in a way that makes me enjoy the moment.  All the stress, dance lessons and hard work Farrah has put into this dance makes it all worth it.  After I picked her up she ran into my arms and gave me a great big hug and asked "How did I do mommy?"  My response "Baby, I'm so proud of you!!  You dance and sang so loud!!"  After that she ran into her daddy's arms and he gave her a big bouquet of flowers and she gave him a great big hug and said "Thank you daddy!  Can I do this again next year?"  Of course baby!!

Lined up and ready to dance!!

Farrah LOVED being on stage!  (second from the left)

A very proud mommy and daddy!!

Texas Tech soccer camp

This week Farrah attended her very first soccer camp!  It was a Monday through Wednesday camp which I was glad for.  She was so excited and we both didn't know what to expect.  On Monday she had to be there by 7:45am so that was interesting but we made it.

I loved watching this experience through her eyes.  I could tell she was kinda nervous when we first got there but she quickly found some friends and started playing soccer with them.  When it was time for her to go with her group she smiled at me and said "Bye mom!"  So I left.....haha!

Everyday, the last thirty minutes of the camp they put the girls onto teams and they play against each other like a World Cup game.  Farrah was on team China all week.  She loved playing all the games and it was good for her to play against girls that were older then her.  She got pushed and shoved a lot but it was good for her!

Farrah's China team actually made it to the championship game.  They had all the girls to sit and watch them and cheer on a team.  Farrah's little team actually won the World Cup finals!!  She was pretty excited and she scored some goals.