Thankful Thursday

Soooo thankful this Thursday....

We had a fantastic Family Birthday yesterday.  It was business as usual for the bulk of the day, but then I picked them up from my sister's (a Godsend, yay!) and headed home.  When we arrived home, their Mimi (my MIL) had tied balloons to our door and left cupcakes and a card!  So sweet!  The girls were pumped!

So I changed their clothes and we hung out until Baba got home.  Then we loaded up and went to our favorite Chinese restaurant for "lots of noodles and rice!" like the girls wanted.  It was yummy and we were stuffed!  (Sorry, pics are on my camera at home.)

We headed back home and gave the girls one of their gifts we bought them in China.  They were lovely little wooden drums that when you shake it back and forth, two little beads bang the sides and make the drum sound.  Abby figured hers out right away, and Laney soon after.  They were a hit!  Until our heads hurt from the sound!  hahahah

Then we just played as a family.  We tackled and tickled.  It was wonderful.

This year's birthday did come with some sadness...and I want my blog to be real, so I'll let you in on a bit.  The night before our birthday I was in a reflective mood.  Let's just say thinking about the girls and what they had to endure before us (which I thought I had processed) weighed heavily on me.  By 11:00 I was a sobbing mess laying in bed.  Tony, sweet man that he is, did as I asked and got our sleeping sweeties out of their beds and put them in ours.  I just needed to be close to them.  To tell them they were loved.  To pray over them. To pray for their birthfamilies with them beside me.  To hold their hands while they slumbered.  Finally, I had some peace. 

With such wonderful reason to celebrate, I cannot leave on that sad note.  I'll leave you with something funny. 

One of the girls' CD's in the Jeep is the Children of the World Choir.  On one of the songs the chorus goes, "Lord, You are good and your mercy endures forever...."  You know the song.  Anyway, the other night Abby said, "LISTEN, this song says DORA!"  Laney, looking disgusted, said with a sigh, "NO, ABBY.  It doesn't say DORA!  It says............ DORIS!"    You could feel her rolling her eyes and imagine her saying, DUH!  Tony and I just chuckled and chuckled in the front seat about that. 

"Lord, You are good, and your mercy and DORIS forever!"

Time is flying, my friends.  Hug  your loved ones more often.