"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,

but where he stands in times of
 challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King Jr.

Lilly's 4th Birthday

Making the wish...if you close your eyes it comes true faster.

The Queen opening her presents.

It was decided earlier that she skipped right over the title of princess and went straight to Queen.

Should I be worried?

Family

(notice the vintage stove in the foreground....love that thing!)

Working on her painted tea set.

Apparently it helps when you stick your tounge out.

A very cold walk.

Watching Horton Hears a Who with Daddy.

Lilly turned 4 today...so hard to believe that much time has passed us by already.

And the question always ringing in our ears is "what did we ever do without Lilly?"

She is funny and compassionate.

Sweet and sassy.

Tender and tough.

Beautiful.

Smart.

Kind.

This day can never come without my thoughts going to Lilly's birth parents, especially her mother.

How could it be that 4 years ago today a woman gave birth to a little baby on the other side of the world.

And how could it be that we sat waiting for that very same little girl.

Every twist in the road. Every delay...ours or the government's or the postal system's.

Each day that I didn't work on the paper work to proceed with the adoption.

The promise from our agency that it would be 5-7 months after we turned in our paperwork before we were matched with a baby and then 7 months became 8 months became 9 months and ulitmately

became 2 long years.

It occurs to me to be so grateful for every perfect moment to bring us to this one sweet girl...our daughter.

My prayers go out to comfort the heart of a woman I will most likely never meet but lives in my heart always.

Thank you to Lilly's birth mother...thankyou for doing what must have broken your own heart in two.

Thank you for the greatest gift we have ever received.

Your courage amazes me. Your sadness lives in me.

I honor you. And our daughter is thriving...equal parts nature and nurture.

Perfectly herself.

Happy Birthday sweet, sweet girl......Lilly Marguerite KeXiu Stairs

What would we do without you?

Christmas Day

My favorite Christmas tree in a long, long time.

I even used tinsel. Tacky? Maybe, but it made me happy.

That's the main thing, right?

Our sweet Belle, minding the tree on Christmas Eve...something she has done for 14 years.

I have a feeling this could be the last.

What a gift she has been.

Pretty even without bows and ribbons.

Some year the paper has to stand on it's own.

Ya' know?

The Lilly Bean....waiting patiently for her gifts.

My dad passes out the gifts one by one so we all get to enjoy each other's gifts instead of ripping and tearing into things. I love taking our time to enjoy the whole thing. The wrapping, the thought behind the gift, the look on someone's face when they love their present and the look on the face of the person who

was so excited to give it.

All of it precious.

This year, no matter how much we tried to explain the gift tag and the whole to and from thing...Lilly was convinced every single gift was from my Dad which the kids call Dad Dad.

So, every time she opened something she would say..."Thank you Dad Dad." The first several times we corrected her...after that we just laughed! That's where 'remember the time' stories come from!

This coat deserves a post all it's own so I won't elaborate here....just suffice it to say it is adorable and she looks like a princess in it AND it was only $10. Seriously! One of those "you can't NOT buy it" situations.

More on the coat another day. I am thinking fresh snow, a walk with Lilly and my camera.

It's that cute.

Christmas Day was calm and peaceful which was just want I wanted and needed.

I wrapped presents on Christmas Eve, which I try never to do but this year it felt easy and I was still in bed by midnight. My father came in the morning and played Santa. We made a nice breakfast and then opened gifts. We went to my mother's for lunch and more gifts and then onto Scott's parents for dinner and presents. It seems like alot of running but so much less then we use to do. We were home by 8pm and I was asleep about 8:12. So much for watching Avatar...which I really wanted to watch as a family. Lately watching things as a family really means my kids watch it while I sleep. Am I getting old?

So it was a quiet Christmas and with all the changes in my life right now that was just perfect.

Maybe I will talk about changes in the next post.

For now I must focus on laundry and the dreaded job of returning ornaments to

their storage boxes for the next 11 months.

There are certain jobs I really can't stand and that is one of them.

 Another would be cleaning out the place you use to live. Yuck. 

But...it has to be done and I have the promise of my friend

Roberta making dinner for me tonight with our good friend Metta joining

in and I work well with a reward waiting for me on the other side.

Who doesn't?

The Tree

I love this picture.......

and....I love Moore's Tree Farm...we have been going here since Heidi was the age Lilly is now.

They are so nice there and have thought of every detail to make the experience easy and enjoyable.

Lilly takes the "I can do it myself" attitude to a whole new level.

This tree was H.E.A.V.Y.

Time to shake the needles and wrap the tree....all included in the price of the tree.

Now that you have seen the Halloween costume and the tree search I can share Christmas Day before New Years Day.........IF I remember where I put the cord to my camera to upload the pictures.

I vow to create a system for all of the cords in my life for 2011.

This is no easy task....6 cell phones, camera, laptops, video cameras......

Wait...do you hear that???

I think it is the sound of my Grandmother laughing at me.

Halloween before Christmas

I have missed this blog. I have missed writing everyday. I have missed sharing my life with those I know and those I don't. I have missed taking lots of pictures. I can't go back and share every little moment since I stopped blogging regularly but I thought it was important to show off my Halloween Dragonfly before I share about our Christmas celebration. Isn't she adorable????? She is so joyful and excited about everything and it makes our lives so rich and delightful. Thank you Lilly for being perfectly you.

I am having a lightbulb moment about my life right now and it is exciting, a little shocking and yet....so incredibly comforting.

There are reasons I have been away and reasons why I am back. I may share those reasons at a later date but for now just know that......

I AM BACK AND I AM HERE TO STAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feeling nostalgic

Nostalgia is a funny thing isn' t it? Of course I don't want to really go back because that would mean I wouldn't have had the blessing of being Lilly's mom for the past three years but sometimes I long for those precious moments and I wish I could repeat them just one more time. Flying so far from all that we know and love...including our three children, stepping off a bus and into a hotel feeling like my head would spin right off, meeting the other families who were adopting at the same time, going to such ancient places as the Forbidden City and The Great Wall......and then.......being handed THE most precious gift. Our daughter. It was a moment that took our breath away and still does when we recall that moment. It is beyond description. I find myself at a loss to describe it in a way that anyone would really understand. I am so blessed. So blessed. I know we have another daughter out there and I pray for way to be made.

Lilly wants to name her sister Daisy. My big kids think it would be weird to have all their little sisters named after flowers. I personally think it is adorable. Lilly is pretty good at getting what she wants so Daisy it is!

Uncle Tom

I miss you Uncle Tom.

So much.

When my heart can bear it I will share with you about this great man.

xo

Kimberly