What a difference 365 days can make....

One year ago today we arrived in Nanchang, China to meet a sweet girl who would change our lives forever. As we walked in to the freezing room, we saw a scared, tiny, bald little girl being held by a social welfare worker that had taken her from the only home she had ever known just hours before. Resilient doesn't begin to describe this little trooper.

Here are a few things she's conquered in a year:

• crawling


• walking


• running


• jumping (sort of - she jumps just like Makenzie used to)


• speaking English (this is our most frequently asked question - Does she speak English?)


• loving cheese -- all day long she says "I Mo' Cheese Mamma"


• playing a mean game of peek-a-boo (she's stays hidden for way longer than you'd expect)


• eating ALL-DAY-LONG!! (My girl can EAT)


• laughing - I remember her first laugh when Seth came running down the hall at the hotel. He can still get the best belly laughs from her without even trying


• Dora - she loves to watch Dora, and won't watch anything else


• body parts (even random things like forehead and eyebrow)


• the hearts of her Mommy, Daddy, sister and brother. It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord has knitted us together.

--I know it's a crazy picture - whenever the camera comes out she yells "CHEESE" she would only sit if she had Goldfish in her mouth. It is a good representation though!

The Gang's All Here

The entire Deslippe clan gathered in Battle Creek for a delicious Thanksgiving feast. Dan was in charge of frying up the turkey. As you can tell, that was an eventful activity. Apparently, the oil got a little hotter than it was supposed to. We had so much to be thankful for. We were surrounded by family, in a warm home with more than enough food to eat. We are still anxiously awaiting our next addition, but realistically, we will likely celebrate another Thanksgiving without him here. We know that the Lord will bring us together in His perfect timing. We saw Him work so faithfully with the adoption of Sophie. It is less of a challenge so far this adoption.

The fall has been busy for all of us. Makenzie is taking violin lessons and is in Girl Scouts. Seth is playing basketball and in Boy Scouts. Sophie is busy watching Dora! We are looking forward to our one year anniversary of our trip to Sophie!!

St. Louis or Bust!!!

Makenzie and I took a road trip last weekend to the Hannah Montana (a Disney show - for those of you who don't live and breathe Hannah) concert. We left at 6am on Thursday morning and drove straight to St. Louis to meet Josie, Rylie, Aunt Ju Ju and some friends at the mall for a LibbyLu makeover before the concert. Josie and Rylie were celebrating their 10 birthdays. We loved celebrating with them. We spent the weekend shopping and sight seeing. We had a lot of laughs and some good girl fun!! We had a great trip!

Sophie is 2!!!

Sophie Mei turned 2 on September 27th. It frequently strikes me how full our hearts are with Sophie in our lives. Of course, we felt very full with Makenzie and Seth all along. It is just an amazing God that can cause our hearts to fall in love with a little girl from China and knit us all together in such a short period of time. Sophie is growing physically, emotionally and especially verbally! She has lots of words and she likes to use them! I told you she is a Neal! She is such a loved little thing. She makes friends where ever she goes. I remember how hard this day was for me last year. I just wanted to hold my baby and she was a world away. But, I can tell you now that every moment of waiting was worth it for this precious girl. She makes us all laugh with her silly little antics. She sure has her sister and brother tied around her little finger too. There are many mornings where there are arguments about who gets to get her out of her bed. They are in love with their little mei mei. Looking forward to another year with our sweet kiddos and maybe even having a picture of our newest Neal by then!

A taste of Ethiopia

Take a few minutes to view a great slide show our social worker put together on a trip to Ethiopia this summer. The first photos are of the countryside and then some kids that are currently being cared for at Horizon House, the orphanage for our agency. The end of the slide show is a travel group there picking up their children. It is incredible to think that our son will be there one day in the future. Please say a prayer for all these sweet kiddos and the people who care for them until their new Mommies and Daddies can get there.



Click here to view the slideshow.

Back to School

Today was a big day! Makenzie started 5th grade and Seth started 4th! We were all up and ready by 8:20 which is a feat around here. After home schooling last year, we are all used to taking things a little more slowly in the morning. Everyone had a great 1/2 day of school. Sophie was in a bit of shock with only Mommy to hang out with. I am sure will we all adjust though.

My Lips Hurt Real Bad

The cut under the eye is from a previous incident! That is one fat lip!! Seth has been attempting some stunts with the skateboard ramp. This one didn't work out so well for him!

Happy Birthday and Ethiopia

I've decided to try to do better at this blogging thing - mainly just as a keepsake for my kids.

Makenzie turned 11 yesterday! It's amazing that she can continue to get older, but I don't! Aunt LoLo tried to show everyone up with the great birthday present she gave Makenzie. Addie was born at 10:04am. It was sort of strange to be at the hospital 11 years later - it was much easier this time for me :) We had plans for Makenzie's birthday and she was super gracious about postponing the plans. I know that Makenzie and Addie will enjoy spending birthdays together for years to come!

In other news: The Neal family dossier is in Ethiopia. We were officially added to the waiting list for an infant boy from Ethiopia with Wide Horizons for Children yesterday. Everything we've been waiting for arrived on the same day! The wait will be about one year until we get a referral. We all know how fast that year will go!

Pictures...

you can always see new pictures at www.dropshots.com/sophiemei. Alright, maybe not ALWAYS, but sometimes....

You are kidding me right??

We had an interesting day today. In the span of about 20 minutes Sophie did/encountered more damage than you can imagine. Upon returning home from the grocery store I dumped all the groceries and Sophie on the rug in the kitchen (not on Rugs, on the rug). After she systematically dumped out all the bags I noticed that her hands were wet... and I smelled pickle juice. The pickle jar had leaked all over the rug and all over Sophie. I removed her from the area for a quick clean up. After about 2 minutes of not hearing any noise at all -- always a bad sign, I went looking for her. She wasn't in her room or Seth's room. The bathroom door was closed, and I had been in the kitchen and didn't see her pass by me. After a minute of panic I checked the bathroom where she was apparently rinsing off the pickle juice with toilet water up to her armpits. I stripped off the 2 wet shirts and put her in the hall way while I cleaned up that mess. She meandered into the living room to find some other things to "explore". I went to the kitchen to continue making dinner when I glance over at her and she is putting something wet and yellow in her mouth. I look on the floor and there is a pile of DOG VOMIT!!! She was eating dog vomit!!!! It was at that point that I decided that the hidden camera Lauren had called to ask me if I had installed in her house to laugh at her kids antics had suddenly been moved to our house.

Walking...

Not really, but falling with style. Sophie has been doing this thing where she will take some really fast steps from Dan to me or vice versa. You can check it out here: www.dropshots.com/sophiemei. Enjoy!!

Wise musings....

I have this great, wise friend (you know who you are - well, probably not - this friend is so great and with it that she isn't online reading blogs (like me) she is working out and cooking and reading, etc). Not that all of my friends aren't wise and great!! Anyway, back to the point - there is one I promise. I was telling this friend that I don't remember having to work so hard to manage with Makenzie and Seth - I don't know if it is going from 2 to 3 or what, but then my friend wisely says "you have mental work with the older ones and physical work with Sophie." Ahhhhh - that's the ticket!!! That's why I have such great friends - they get it.

Sophie has another ear infection - #3 since coming home on Dec 14th! She is such a little trooper though. You woudn't even know that she isn't feeling well except that she isn't sleeping great,.

Rob and Julie are on their way to Ethiopia to get Caden. You can see pics here www.dropshots.com/cadenrobert. I am so excited for their journey and can't wait to meet him!

New Blog

I've decided to start a new blog since our other was about our adoption journey. We are settling nicely into life as a family of five. Hopefully, this will be a way to keep up with family and friends who aren't around the block. Also, it is a great outlet for me and a journal of sorts. So, hold on and wait for something exciting to happen. Or, for something at all to happen....