In the past year we have had our house re-sided due to wind, roof patched due to wind, lost Christins's step dad in a grain bin accident, lost her dad suddenly, had her mom in ICU, unsure when or if she would ever come out of an induced coma due to severe pneumonia (luckily she has improved greatly), gotten new hearing aids for Gabi, gotten Gabi's tonsils and adenoids removed, surgery to replace one hearing aid with a cochlear implant, and are waiting to turn it on in the next week or two. Through all of these trials we have filled the gaps of extreme boredom with soccer, football, basketball (and that us just Aiden), swimming, dance, and countless other activities.
In the midst of this, we have a daughter that has bonded great. So well that she refuses to leave our side at night. Her crib is parked next to our bed. This has helped everyone's sleeping, but obviously is not ideal. She can be the sweetest, most loving thing this Earth has ever seen. However, (this is a big however) she has made us appreciate how easy we had it with our first three kids. Who knew someone would kick, yell, and scream for TWO HOURS since we did not let her eat m&m's until she was sick? Followed by three hours of it the next dag for some unknown reason.
Gabi grew 6" in the first 6 months and sits above the 50th percentile for weight. She is far from the petite girl we were expecting. She easily out eats Lyndsey and there are days she out eats the rest of us too. Hopefully once the cochlear implant is activated, we will see these same leaps and bounds of growth in her communication.
In three weeks, I will have just arrived in China. One night in Beijing before a three hour bullet train ride to Tiayuan. I have no idea what the next year will bring, my hope there are more highs and less low's! More of Aiden and his friends raining money to support our adoption and less of people backing into Christine's car. More of Colton becoming closer to the youth group and less of him losing his backpack contsining his wallet.
We would like to thank all of those who have helped support us through this nearly 2 year process. I look forward to sharing my two weeks in China with everyone. We could not have done this without the help of our friends and family.
If anyone is still interested in financially supporting us, we still do have puzzle pieces available. We have not done a good job of keeping everyone up to date with the progress. We will do our best to update everyone before I leave. It would be great to have the puzzle framed before Elijah comes home with a name on every piece.
Fundraising has been difficult for us this time around. Plus the drop in mining caused a very small bonus this year. Luckily i was able to borrow from my 401(k) to fill the gap. Five years and i will have this paid off! I look forward to being done asking people to donate to us. However, that does not mean I will be done asking. This time I will be supporting those in and out of our church that have felt the call to adopt.
Love from the Law Clan
