BUTTERFLIES!!!

Our butterflies were "born" on Father's Day. We received them as caterpillars a few weeks ago and I think I have had more fun and amazement watching them than the kids. We got to witness 2 of them turning into their cocoons. It was so amazing as it happened in the span of about 30 seconds to a minute. I always thought it was a long process. Every time I thought one of the caterpillars was going to turn into the cocoon, I'd call Dave. You could hear me screaming across the house "DAVE!!!!! The Caterpillar is changing!!!!" Dave thinks I'm a little insane and that I need to get out more :) I'm in awe of the butterfly!
Today was the day the kids and I let them free. They only live for two weeks and I felt bad they had to live almost half their life in that little netted cage. Leah was sad to see them go as she has become rather close to them. They are named "Hermie", "Wormie", "Mary" (I questioned where that came from and she just thought it was pretty name for a butterfly), "Tinkerbelle" and "Butter". I came up with Butter. I told her we could then say, "look at Butter fly!". Maybe Dave is right and I do need to get out more. Hmmm...
We opened the little door on the cage and no one seemed to be interested in moving out. So, Leah put her hand in and one by one took them out and let them free! We followed them around the yard a little and I prayed that the hungry mama Robin that was watching us intently would be kind and avoid the kill until we were out of sight. Leah was afraid the birds would eat them and I told her OUR butterflies are way to smart to get eaten by birds. What we don't know won't hurt us. We will believe that that flittered and fluttered happily until the end.

Father's Day and some other stuff

This is a brief re-cap of the past week. We had Fager's Birthday party and she had a wonderful time. She was very surprised and very appreciative of the cake and new toys.

Father's Day was very nice. We spent the morning at home (exhausted) as we didn't get home until 1:30 AM from the Jimmy Buffet concert on Saturday night. We were tired but it was worth it as we had a great time. Fins to the left! After breakfast we went to spend the day with our Dads. We had a very nice day and by the end of it the kids were exhausted. Not to mention their parents who were thinking they just may be too old to hang with the rest of the ParrotHeads.

Here's Leah giving her presents to daddy.

And my crew on Father's Day. Notice Daniel's shirt. It says "My Dad is the MAN!" :)

The kids with Pop-Pop and Poppy

Relaxing in the pool

Last Friday night we took the kids mini golfing. This was Daniel's first time. Tiger Woods he is not. Although he can swing the golf club like Daniel Briere with the hockey stick.

Leah perfects her form and she got a hole in one!

Daniel is thinking this game may be more fun if he threw the ball into the little stream instead of the hole. Dave and I went fishing a few times that night. Who's bright idea is it to place water in the middle of a mini-golf course anyway???

The day we saw our son

One year ago today we saw Min Fu Jie for the first time. It's hard to believe just 1 year ago we did not know our son existed. Leah and I had just returned from a trip to the Mall. I saw the answering machine flashing and hit the play button. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what I'd hear. Our social worker called and left a message. This was a new social worker to us. We had never met, or even spoken to one another. The SW who did our homestudy had just moved. We were told a new SW would be in touch. Our dossier was submitted and logged in to the CCAA on April 20, 2007. We were anticipating a VERY long wait for a "non- special needs" baby girl. We hadn't heard from our new SW, however, it didn't really matter as we had such a long wait. So, when I heard Patti say "Hi, I'm your new case worker". I thought, OK, she's calling to introduce herself. Then she says "We have received our new group of waiting children and there's a file that you may want to look at". I almost fell over. We had filled out the medical checklist stating which conditions we'd be willing to consider. I never thought we would get a call so soon. So, I immediately called her back. When I heard the file was for a little boy who was 22 months old with cleft lip and palate I was a little disappointed. I'll be honest. He was so far from my vision. I envisioned a "healthy" baby girl under 1 year old. I told Patti, " thanks for checking. I'll check with Dave but I don't think we'll look at the file." I cringe at that now. Cleft lip and palate was one of the conditions I wasn't so comfortable with. So, I called Dave at work. He says "let's look at the file." I thank GOD he said that! When I opened the file that Patti sent via email and saw his photos, I thought "yeah, he's cute". It wasn't an instant "He's my son, He's ADORABLE!". (Although I think that now!) It was a week of pure Hell as we talked to doctor's about all the possible worst case scenarios. By the middle of the week my heart had turned and I wanted this baby boy bad. The more we researched, the more unknowns about his health there were. I could feel him slipping away. I remember a few times I just sat and cried. Why was this so difficult. There were some unknowns that I wasn't sure that we could handle. (they all turned out to be fine by the way). Dave is one of those people who is prepared for anything. He needs to know everything before proceeding with a decision. Here, we so little information. I thought no way will we go through with this adoption. I had forwarded him an email from the doctor. I was certain what she said in the email would be the final decision. When he came home from work that night, he just looked at me and said "She has to say that. She's covering her butt." Who was this man? heehee That's when I knew that Min Fu Jie was meant to be our son. He was destined to become Daniel Fu Jie Link.

There's a story I saw on another person's blog that says it all:

The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a Chickadee sang. But, the man did not hear.So the man yelled "God, speak to me!" And, the thunder rolled across the sky. But, the man did not listen.The man looked around and said, "God let me see you." And a star shined brightly. But the man did not notice.And, the man shouted, "God show me a miracle!" And, a life was born. But, the man did not know.So, the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are here!"Whereupon, God reached down and touched the man. But, the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way that you expect.

The Ants Go Marching One by One......

Last night I was watering the zinnias in the front of the house. I felt my feet getting bit by something and looked down to find many many ants crawling all over my feet. I'd apparently stepped on their home. Leah is not a big fan of bugs. Neither is her mother, but she's a little worse than me. Last night, about 2AM, I hear her calling "Mommy!". Dave gets up to see what she needed. As i lay in bed I can hear conversation but I have no idea what's being said. I can see Dave carrying something down the dark hall past our bedroom. He goes into the bathroom, closes the door and turns on the light. A few seconds later, he emerges, goes back into Leah's room carrying whatever it was he brought in there. He talks to Leah and the comes back to bed. I asked him what happened. He replies "She had ants on her pillow". She really didn't. I guess she was dreaming. The funniest thing of all was that Dave actually took the pillow into the bathroom to look for the ants! I was laughing out loud at 2 am! Fun fun!

Happy Birthday Fager!!!!!

Today is our "puppy"'s 8th birthday. Yes, she was a millennium baby :) Seems like yesterday we were potty training her and scolding her for eating everything in site. Wow, makes me think of what we are going through with Daniel now. Just kidding....well, sort of.

Sorry for all the space between the photos - they are scanned and I didn't have time to edit them. What I did before digital I'll never know. If anyone reading is wondering how we came up with that name....and for a girl at that......she is named after the place that Dave and I got engaged. It's a place called Fager's Island and it is in Ocean City Maryland. It's a very unique name and I would probably bet that there isn't another Fager out there anywhere. Unless the poor dog's owners are as crazy as us. Fager is a great dog. It feels strange calling her a dog. She is anything but. I don't think she thinks she is a dog. When another dog tries to get her attention she simply blows them off. It's like she's thinking "Why the heck is this DOG bugging me?"

She is so good with the kids. She pretty much tolerates anything. She is a great companion...except when she is up my behind at 12 noon and 5 PM. If it's within 20 minutes of her eating time and you haven't fed her, she helps you to remember. I can set my clock to her stomach. She can be pretty annoying, but we love her.

We're having a party for her tonite. The kids and I made two birthday cakes. One for Fager which is consumable by humans although it doesn't appear too appetizing. It consists of carrots, peanut butter, honey and some other stuff. We'll be getting a good 'ol boxed cake. With gobs of frosting :)

happy Birthday Fagey! Here's to another 8 more!

Yum! Peaches and bananas.

This kid is pretty cool. I can sleep like this all day. And now I get a comfy blanket. Where's MY binky?

Go Flyers!

Daniel and the Kung Fu Panda

Last night we took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda.

We weren't so sure how Daniel was going to do. Let's just say, a snack cup full of Cheez It's, a bag of fruit snacks, a bag of mini M&Ms, a pack of peanut butter crackers, a sippy cup of water and 2 hours later we're still happy. We really don't feed our children junk all the time. Leah was allowed to eat popcorn and Daniel's not able to. So, we had to keep him happy somehow! He seemed to enjoy the movie as well. The best was when the entire theater was laughing at a part of the movie. Daniel had no idea what was going on but busted out in this huge fake, phony laugh. Guess he thought he might as well join in.

Wow, look at this huge screen.

Can we get one of these in the family room? SpongeBob would look GREAT on that!

With enough practice I can kick like that.

A few photos

I wanted to take some pictures of Leah in her pretty new dress that I LOVE! While I was taking Leah's portraits, someone was not happy at all. I overheard the little person sitting on his Elmo sofa softly sobbing "Anyo's tun". sob...sob.... For those who don't speak Daniel. That translated means "Daniel's turn". So, I put him in his July 4th best and took some of Anyo as well. He's a pro. He immediately laid down on his belly and propped his chin in his hands. He is definitely my child! Leah of course has been doing this since she was born. She loves the camera.

A little of this, a little of that

We've been very busy now that the weather is warm. I know I forgot to post about Memorial Day so I'll post a few images now. We had a nice BBQ at Linda and Tom's again this year. Uncle Tommy bought sparklers. I was a little bit terrified of what Daniel was going to do (even with adult supervision) but all went well. We told him hot and he was very good. I know, we're insane.

And here's Leah with one. I think she was a little scared to hold it but would never tell us so. She's a pre-school graduate now ya know!

This past weekend we finally got around to planting some flowers and adding a splash of color to the yard. Daddy had a lot of help this year.

Here's Leah with her ladybug gardening gloves.

And Daniel with her first gardening attempt. He was the "fertimlizer" (as Leah calls it) helper.

Here's Dave with his....count 'em.... three....helpers. Can't forget Fager. She's always willing to get in the way....er....help.

Then, while we were planting (well, Dave was planting with 2 kids getting in the way while I took pictures of the melee), it started to rain. Yeah, fun. Well, the kids enjoyed it anyway.

Daniel had a BLAST! He was running around dancing having so much fun.

He was so fun to watch.

That brings us to today. It was a warm and sunny 84 degree day. So, I got out the little blow up pool and we had some backyard fun.

What a goofball

Showing off his new earmolds. Custom fitted and custom colors at that. Phillies red and white striped!

Playing ring around the rosie in the pool