Happy Forever Family Day, Lilly!

What a difference a year makes. March 16th marks the one-year anniversary of Lilly joining our family. From the very first moment we laid eyes on her till now, it has been an incredible journey filled with miracles, challenges, love, and massive amounts of joy. I have been working on this slide show to encapsulate the past year--it has been wonderful to look back through all the photos and reflect on all that God has done in our hearts and in Lilly's life in such a quick year. It feels like just yesterday that she became ours, and yet it also feels like there was never a day that she was not in our family. I know before long it will be hard to remember "did that happen before or after we got Lilly?" because it will all begin to blur together. Our hearts are knit together, by the grace of God. May He get the glory.

Summertime, and the Living is Easy...

These first two were taken yesterday morning when Jared was the one to get Lilly up in the morning and take her to the potty. I was out walking Tad and got home just 30 seconds or so after she had awakened. She decided she wanted some snuggle time with her "ge ge" when she saw him lying on the love seat.

Here is Lilly driving Katie, Anna, and me to the store on Jared's trombone. Earlier in the day she had declared that it was a car, demanded some money (she is ok with invisible pretend money being handed off to her), and headed to the store to buy meat, eggs, bread, and milk. Later in the day she invited some passengers to join us. As you can see, the girls were ready for bed but I had yet to get out of my swimsuit from our swims earlier in the day!

Here's Lilly eating watermelon on the kitchen counter. Don't worry Nana, she doesn't try to play with the Cutco knives you see behind her.

Here's handsome Jared, hot and sweaty and dirty after our hike in the woods last weekend. He brought along his tools to cut some firewood for our firepit. We encountered what Anna dubbed "the demonic bluejay" who followed us into the woods and relentlessly dive bombed Jared and Anna. I guess we were invading its nesting territory and it wasn't happy with us. Thankfully Lilly had a canopy over her head and didn't even notice it!

Here are Anna and Lilly watching Tad play in the water below. Lilly didn't want to sit on that dirty forest floor!

He loves to get wet and dirty.

Here's Lilly in her first backpack ride. She enjoyed it! We didn't go far, but hopefully in cooler weather we can do longer hikes and she'll stay content to ride. (BTW, I'm wearing my new t-shirt from a duathlon I did on 4th of July--5K run, 200m swim in the bayou. I won the "grand master female" category--basically fastest woman over 40. Yes, I'm now in the "old folks" division!)

Playtime at home!

So many babies, so much love!

It has been a fun week at our house-uneventful but enjoyable. Lots of time in our pool--with friends some days and just ourselves others. A sleepover with Anna's friend Katie. Playdates. Time to play in the "villa" (the small wooded area near our home where the big kids have set up a mini society--complete with currency--with their friends and plan to hold a tournament today. Lilly got her third round of immunizations Friday and so far is not suffering any major fevers or ailments as a result.

I was able to go out one evening this weekend with my dear friend Denise to meet up with a mutual friend we knew in Turkey, Robin, who was in town for vacation. What fun to catch up with Robin and have some time to spend out with Denise, who is only in the area for a few more weeks before moving to Virginia!

The next few weeks promise to be busy as Jared begins his stint at Kids on Campus and Anna participates in the local British Challenger Soccer Camp. Lilly and I will be manning the carpool! I can't believe we are halfway through July already! The summer seems to be zipping by.

Happy Memorial Day! Back to the Blogosphere!

It has been WAY too long since I"ve taken the time to post anything on this blog! I'm sure many of my regular readers have since dropped off (sorry!) but hopefully those of you still reading will enjoy these pics from the past few weeks.



We have had much going on in the past few weeks, with my parents' visit, Tom's change of command ceremony, Tom's parents' visit, end-of-the-year band and orchestra concerts for Jared and Anna, a "Welcome Home Lilly" party thrown by the Women's Ministry team at church, and just the normal fullness of daily life!



It was wonderful to have Lilly's grandparents meet her...she now talks about them and sometimes includes them in her regular "roll call" sessions in which she'll go down the list of family members with me and ask me where they are! She loves to talk to them on the phone, and anytime I am talking on the phone (no matter witt whom I am speaking!), she cannot help but say "HI!!!!" very loudly in the background.



Lilly has come a huge long way in the area of contentment...she is such a happy girl so much of the time these days! I know I said I wouldn't post about sleep anymore, but let me just say that we are all SO much more rested these days!! Last week I taught the 5am spin class at the gym every morning (subbing) and felt totally fine getting up atl 4:15am each day. Getting my exercise makes all the difference in my mental outlook, so it is nice that LIlly's sleep habits are allowing me that early morning boost.



Tom and Jared are heading out tomorrow to Colorado for our nephew, Ryan's graduation from the Air Force Academy--very exciting! We girls will stay home and have some girl time...we'll find some fun things to do!



The FLorida weather is beginning to feel a lot like summer with the humidity moving in--looking forward to more days at the beach and in the pool when the kidsa re out of school...just 2 more weeks. We have signed up for some fun summer camps and classes--Kids on Campus at the local college, soccer camp for ANna, Boy Scout camp for Jared, trombone lessons for Jared, and (possibly?) violin lessons for Anna. So life will be full and fun this summer!


I have some projects in mind for the next month of two: a photo/video montage of our adoption trip to try to encapsulate the experience, which I will post here when it is done; and beginning work on Lilly's "Life Book" to document our journey to her and her journey into our family.


We are thankful to God for how far he has brought all of us in bonding as a family and how far he has brought Lilly in her communications skills, her level of contentment, her health, and the blessing of having 3 kids. Tomorrow we celebrate our 19th anniversary--wow, I can't believe it's been that long! Thank God with us for the blessing of marriage and for His enduring love that has carried us through these awesome years together! I am thankful for my man, who works so hard and who gives thoughtful consideration in all that he does.


Thanks for reading, and remember to thank God for those who have laid down their lives for our freedoms.

No, we did not plan to all wear orange. But it worked for a back yard picture! Here is a shot from Grammy and Pop Pop's visit.

Anna with her friends Hannah and Isabella at their 3rd grade orchestra concert at Bluewater Elementary.

Anna and Lilly walking at Destin Commons, a local shopping/dining/lifestyle center.

Jared helping Lilly learn how to drive our latest yard-sale find: a cute little pink battery-operated car.

The girls showing off the cake we made to celebrate Tom's Change of Command. Lots of chocolate. Mmmmmm. Lilly likes to help bake (just like her big sister).

Jared is hard to spot in this shot of the 6th grade band at Destin Middle. They sounded great!

Grammy and Lilly on Lilly's little slide handed down to us by friends the Nippers, whose 4 boys have outgrown it.

Lt. Col. Cantilina and his girls, just before the Change of Command ceremony.

The Cantilina Clan following Tom's change of command ceremony. The object falling from Lilly's hand is mama's pearl bracelet which Lilly insisted on "wearing" during the ceremony. It helped to keep her quiet! She tried a few times to go up to the stage, but I managed to keep her near me!

Tom giving his short speech following acceptance of command. To the left are Col. Van De Car, the med group commander (soon to be retiring), and Col. Stirling, the outgoing med ops Squadron Commander, whom he replaced.

Tom accepting the squadron guidon from Colonel Van Decar.

Lilly has discovered the world of dress up clothes, and LOVES to put on wings and "fei fei fei" (fly!) around the house. I am thankful that Jared is strong enough and enjoys helping LIlly to fly, since I tire of it way more quickly than she does!!!

ANna and Lilly wore their matching Chinese dresses to church on MOther's Day, when Lilly was dedicated to the Lord. Our good friends James and Barbara Haynes came forward to pray over Lilly during the ceremony, and James' words and choices of scripture to pray for Lilly were wonderful.

Finally, some new photos...

We (ahem, I mean Tom) got the card reader working again! Here are some belated photos of Lilly's completed room, some of the cute clothes my book club surprised me with last week when I hosted book club, some fun ones of Jared and Anna just being cute, and the new vehicle we got last weekend after Anna's big championship swim meet in Pensacola (her last 8 & under championship meet!) It feels good to have a new, reliable car, as we look ahead at traveling for medical appointments and ever further ahead at Tom's deployment early next year.

Finally, some new photos...

Here are some much-belated photos from our recent birthdays and other happenings in our home. No word yet on our TA, but I am happily following blogs of those families that are in CHina right now getting their new children. Feel free to check some of them out if I can figure out how to post them on here!

Here is Anna with some of her Barracuda teammates celebrating after last week's swim meet.

And here is Anna helping me paint Lilly's room...hope to have "after" photos of the finished room soon!

Here we are celebrating my 40th b-day at Osaka Japanese steak house--yum!!

And the rest of these are of Jared and his friends celebrating his 12th birthday. We initially tried to take a group of them paintballing, but when we got there the painball field had to turn us away as all of their guns were checked out. Yikes! What's a mom to do when she has 8-10 boys ready and eager to play paintball? We went home the the same eager boys played "Capture the Flag" in the woods behind our house for HOURS! They had a blast. We proceeded with the pizza, cake, presents, and an impromptu nerf gun war around the cul-de-sac, and rescheduled the actual paint ball outing for a few days later. They had a blast! Tom sported some pretty nasty bruises from all the fun! Jared has such a nice group of friends--he is truly blessed.

And, last, but certainly not least, is the photo of Lilly we received most recently. This photo was probably taken even earlier than the referral photos I posted back in October, but it is new to us and it is a joy to catch another glimpse of her sweet face. And she has hair!!

WOW! Trying to catch up on this weblog!!

Happy 2009! Can't believe Christmas has now come and gone, and we are beginning 2009. We are excited that this is the year, Lord willing, that we will bring Lilly home to her forever family.

Let me catch you up on our comings and goings since November!

We were thrilled to have a string of visitors through November and December. After Doug and Judi's visit here in early November, Jeremy, Emily, and Peter joined us for Thanksgiving, which was lots of fun. Peter is only 6 weeks younger than Lilly, so it was fun not just to spend time with this funny and sweet little guy, but also to see what 2 1/2 year olds are up to in order to prepare us for Lilly's arrival! The kids had a blast with Peter here, and we managed to find all sorts of fun things to do--including the Air Armament museum, some hikes in the woods, a local playground, the beach, and swimming in our pool.

"Auntie" Gracie stayed for a quick week in mid-December, and helped me not to lose my mind as we frantically baked and made candies to give to friends, neighbors, and co-workers, wrapped presents, assembled fruit baskets, finished up last-minute Christmas shopping together, and all the other pre-holiday to-do items on my list!! She got to enjoy Jared's winter band concert and Anna's Christmas party at school. She got the quick and dirty look at my daily life (even sharing the kids' bathroom for a week--yikes!) and she still kept smiling all week long!

Finally, my whole family was here for Christmas (sadly, minus my sister-in-law, Ollie who was home working). We rented a large beach home nearby and stayed together for a week, celebrating the birth of Christ, enjoying time together, playing with the new Wii Nana and Pap Pap gave the kiddos, jogging, walking, and playing on the beach, and eating lots of yummy meals together (note to self, however, fondue night doesn't work with a table filled with 13 people, 6 of whom are minors!). It was nice for us to have a "staycation" and not be the ones traveling over the holidays. We recognize what a task it is to travel, and appreciate our family's willingness to come down here all that much more. We did, however, miss our time with the Cantilina clan this year...tomorrow we will join them via skype to open presents "together."

Enjoy the photos...if I were more tech savvy (or at least "blog savvy") I would know how to attach labels to each photo. But you're all very smart so I'm sure you'll figure out who is who!!

It has been a whirlwind few months, and we have LOVED every minute of it. All the excitement has helped the time to pass very quickly. Which is a good thing, since I might have lost my mind without all of these divine distractions!

So, the next major event in our lives--hopefully--is our trip to China to meet and bring home Lillian Joy. Stay tuned here as I plan to keep the blog updated as things unfold and as we travel. Just 3 approvals left to get, which will come one by one. Once we have our final travel approval (TA) will will likely travel 2-3 weeks later. Pray with us that Lilly would be kept safe and healthy as she waits for us. Praise God with us for her foster family who is caring for her now.

Happy 2009!