Hana is 5!

My dear sweet precious baby girl. Five years ago today, you were born into this world - one of the greatest gifts God would ever give me. He knew you from the moment you were conceived, and He made you with the plan for you to be our daughter in mind. I still am amazed that God chose us. I get the privilege of being your Mommy! YOU are so precious to me.

Every day as I watch you grow, I see a little more of the precious spirit God has gifted you with. You are so caring and sweet. Just tonight on the way home from your birthday party, you were telling KaiKai, "I'm your big sister and if you ever fall, I will be there to help you. When you drop something, I pick it up for you. Because your still little, and you need my help!" WOW! What a blessing that KaiKai gets you as his big sister.

You are so helpful. If you see Mommmy making dinner, you will drop everything you are doing or ignore the movie you were watching and come ask if you can help me! I love the way you always want to eat the carrots and cucumbers I am cutting up. I am so proud of how you can crack eggs and mix up all my ingredients for me. You can almost make French toast all by yourself, you can do everything but cooking it on the fire. You also help put away laundry. You LOVE to help feed and care for you baby brother. You have been given the gift of helping!

You love to learn! Your favorite birthday gift was a learning set of blocks that Mommy and Daddy gave you. You have been wanting them for weeks, since I gave them to Ma-kun as his birthday gift. I was so happy to give them to you and so proud that it was the first thing you wanted to pull out and play with when we got home! You are going to be such a wonderful student in our home school! I look forward to teaching you!

You are so happy and funny! I am so glad that Jesus put so much joy in your heart! I pray you will always be able to find that joy, no matter what happens. It is something that draws other people to you. I don't know if you will ever be able to comprehend just how MANY people adore you. I pray you'll learn to use this gift for God's glory and to share his LOVE and joy with others!

I could spend hours and hours talking about just how special you are. In only five short little years you have made me the happiest Mommy in the world. I really look forward to watching you grow and change.

Mommy loves you more than you could ever imagine. Thank you for being my precious baby girl! Happy Birthday!!!

A few weeks of rest...

and I am a NEW woman! It is amazing how much rest and free time will do for you! I can remember things now. I am sooooooooo much more productive now. I am in a good mood all day everyday! I am soooooo enjoying cooking our own meals, cleaning and organizing, and just getting my life in order again, on the outside as well as the inside.

We have been doing some fun things together too though. We've been on an overnight trip with the whole extended family. We have already spent one day at a water park and will do it again tomorrow (so fun)! We've enjoyed some time shopping and spending time with friends.

I just feel normal again. I feel like myself. I mean, if I think about the last year of our lives, sometimes I wonder how I survived. The end of last year was so busy I don't even want to think about it. Then Kai arrived on top of all our normal busy life. Then I took over the English classes at our church. Did I mention that was in the middle of trying to exclusively adoptive breast feed our newborn! (If you've never heard of adoptive breastfeeding, do an internet search, it is AWESOME, but exhausting, that's the short story of it) I always try to do too much. But the English classes have been a huge blessing. And Kai is just so amazing and wonderful, and God perfectly planned for him to come and the timing of his coming as well! So I am not complaining, just saying it's been busy.

I had to start backing off on how often I nursed Kai at around 4 months cause I just couldn't keep it up anymore. He was down to nursing only one time a day most days and getting a bottle every other feeding by last month. We had a couple busy days at the beginning of this month where I couldn't nurse him all day long and he went to bed without it. After two or three days of that and he wasn't protesting, I decided it was time to let it go. I was protesting but he wasn't so....

I miss it so much. It was probably my last chance to nurse a baby. MAN it goes by so quickly. That time is more precious than anything I could imagine, ESPECIALLY since I didn't get to carry my babies in my womb. It always passes too quickly. Hana quit nursing around 7 months as well. They just grow up way too fast. Okay before I start crying let us move on...

It is such a joy to be a Mommy. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Hana and Kai are both so happy and so well adjusted. They both are good sleepers, and are happy expressive children. (well most of the time, Kai was not a happy camper this evening for some reason). I can not tell you how awesome it is to have children who sleep! It is great for the children AND for Mommy and Daddy! We are just so blessed to have these babies!

I'm enjoying working out some. Reading some books. Catching up with friends. My house is fairly clean. I've had plenty of time to talk with my hubby and Hana. I can stop what I am doing and get in the floor and play with Kaikai. I have had a few naps. Okay, so I've taken one almost every afternoon.

but come September all of that ends. Come September I will get to spend every afternoon exploring Our Father's World with my precious daughter! and once or twice a week a special friend of Hana's will be joining us for home school. I am really looking forward to it! It's going to be soooooooooo fun!

Alright, I am going to go crawl in bed and read my book and then get to sleep early. Tomorrow we go to the water park! YIPPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!