My Overthinking

Philly Area mom, Life forever changed by adoption

Sunday Snapshot: {loving creation with the fam}

Beautiful, beautiful day today. Worthy of lots and lots of pictures. And, I’ve got loads of them.

As a Christmas present to my dad last year (yes, last year), we gave him tickets to go to Longwood Gardens with us. We tried once to go over the summer, but it was 300 degrees out so we decided to go to P.F. Changs instead. We rescheduled for today, literally the most perfect fall day to walk around outside and enjoy sheer beautiful images of creation.

Evan sorta nailed it on the head this morning when he told me something like this: “Whenever we go to Longwood Gardens, I want to play something like Indiana Jones. But, I just want to take my time. It’s all so beautiful.” Pretty profound for an 8 year old boy–an 8 year old boy who then brought a notebook and pencil for “research” and note taking of all the beautiful things he could find.

My scientist in the making and some of his cool finds below.

Some other snapshots from the day…

 Nanma and Granddaddy
Evan taking more notes…so cute 

our own queen bees

And, a few last pics of Lydia just because I love this headband and had to take some pics with it today. How could I resist? Look at her total cuteness?


Of course, I have to tell you that you can buy this sweet headband at Jiayin Designs — they are handmade and are so cool! Check them out here. I love them despite my husband’s remarks about them being too big or too girly or whatever he says…clearly, I’m blocking the comments out. 

Ni Hao Y'all

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Thursday’s Things to Pray For

  1. Praise that Lydia’s ear tubes surgery on Monday went well. She did just great–as did I! Pray that the surgery was successful in restoring her hearing. We have not noticed any change in her behavior or reaction to noise. But, given her age, maybe no change would be noticed by us??? We won’t have a follow-up appointment and repeat hearing test for 1-2 months. 
  2. Pray for me as my surgery on the 12th approaches. We have some logistical things that have got to come together tomorrow–lab work back, doctors reports faxed in, etc. Pray that we work that all out quickly so that there are no issues on Tuesday with all of that. Pray that the anticipation of the surgery would not be something that causes anxiety for either Mark or me this weekend.
  3. Pray for me personally — for me to let go of some things I hold too tightly to so that I can enjoy each day and be an encouragement to my family.

Click here to learn more about Thursday’s Things to Pray For. Pray for me, for these things I list. And, leave me a comment to let me know you did if you don’t mind. It would be a great encouragement. And, I invite you to do the same on your blog–haven’t had too many takers on this in weeks past. But, I still feel compelled to invite you to.


raudenbushfamily

Grab this button above and add it to your blog post. All you have to do is highlight the code in the box above and paste it into your Thursday’s Things to Pray For post in the “edit HTML” tab wherever you want the button to appear.

Then, add your link to the list below. Just click on your own Thursday’s Things to Pray For post and copy the web address. That’s a direct link to the specific post (not just your blog in general). Then, paste that url address below. I’ll be sure to come by and pray for your requests too.

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It’s Monday night

 (I promise I won’t name each blog post a day of the week going forward)
Lydia’s ear tube surgery went well. She was pleasant despite me waking her up at the crack of dawn and not feeding her anything. The nurses and anesthesiologist were not happy because she has a runny nose and a little cough and threatened to cancel today’s procedure. But, ultimately, they decided it was okay to start and that they’d just have to stop if she started showing any respiratory distress. But, it also meant they would not give her the sedative they promised me they’d give her so that she’d be fine when they took her from me. I was not happy about that. But, God’s hand was on her because when the nurse reached out for her, she just went with her–stared at her intently and didn’t cry at all. I had to take some serious deep breaths but held back the tears. 15 minutes later, they told me she was in recovery, and I went back a few minutes later. Not even the deep breaths could keep a few tears away then, seeing her so teeny in a big bed still asleep with an oxygen mask on. But, she woke up soon just fine–a little bit confused but not crying. What a blessing. We were home quickly and she was in bed for most of the day which actually wasn’t so bad.

It’s my birthday.

And, having her sleeping all day meant I had to stay home and have Mark do all the pick ups today of the other kids. Plus, it was pouring down rain all day. So, this birthday girl got to snuggle in under the covers and read and take a nap herself! Now, that’s the way to spend a birthday. Mark even did homework with Evan and packed the lunches for tomorrow. Does it get any better? Oh, yes, it does. Out to dinner with the fam to Molly Maguires where kids eat free on Mondays (Mark thanked me for having my birthday fall on a Monday this year). Then, home for a very pretty cake Mark bought today on his way back from one of the kid pick ups.

Lydia is mesmerized by the candles in this picture. Or, maybe she is just fantasizing about digging into the chocolate. She did give us her famous “mah mah mah mah?” (translation: “more more more more”) while we fed her some.
Okay, so, Mark cheated a bit copying my basket idea that I gave him. It’s even the same actual basket. But, you know what, I don’t care! It was filled with lots of my favorite goodies–they don’t go together really at all. But, they are some of my faves, and it was sweet of him to find them for me. 
Mmmm….Wegman’s milk chocolate sauce (THE best), honey crisp apples (why aren’t they available year round???), gum, Nestle crunch (not really my favorite anymore, but I won’t hold it against him), cute little iron peg crafts by Ashlyn (she works so hard on these, making the perfect “patdrins” as she says it), a flavored water, the book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (I’ve heard a lot about this one and am excited to add it to my pile of books I want to read read it), a magazine to flip through while I recover next week, my favorite herbal tea, a Chinese silk covered journal, some other little doo dahs, and a gift card to a local coffee shop for some alone time.
Alone time. Nice.
Perhaps the best gift in the basket was this one, personally chosen by Drew.

A little mini cat waving his arm. Those of you who have been to China know that these are pretty much everywhere. But, they are larger and actually waving at you. They are pretty odd…or maybe creepy. I am sure they symbolize good luck or something like that. 

And, here is Drew sulking when I told him that it was my birthday gift and that meant he could not keep the cat in his room on his nightstand. Apparently, he picked it out because he really liked it. Perhaps he was hoping I would not and then give it back.
His prayer tonight before bed went something like this:
“Thank you, God, for dying on the cross [that’s how they always start]. And, thank you for the little cat that waves his arm and comes alive at night. Amen.”
Perhaps I should rethink keeping it on my nightstand where it now sits.

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It’s Sunday night

It’s now Sunday night. 

The weekend went by fast–my sister and her family were here overnight Friday. My parents were up too. We did the big consignment sale that we always do Friday night and Saturday (sold old stuff and bought some used stuff–hoping I made more than I spent). We celebrated Erin’s 30th birthday on Saturday (she’s all grown up now with 3 kiddos to prove it). I was up past 1:30am last night cleaning and organizing (have you caught on that I enjoy order?). The day today went by fast too–at church early to serve on the worship team, home for lunch and a little bit of time to get some things done, off to Chinese class with Ashlyn, came home and proceeded to spend 3 hours making Ashlyn’s Halloween costume. I don’t know why I chose to do that project tonight. Distraction maybe. Maybe for a sense of accomplishment. Maybe to relieve the stress I was feeling over the stinkin’ costume that Ashlyn was so excited about (“How in the world am I going to make a peacock costume without any pattern at all????). Well, whatever motivated me, it worked. I was distracted (much to my husband’s chagrin), and I ended the project quite proud of myself that I made a rather pretty (and sparkly) dress that will make this peacock princess look pretty darn awesome (you’ll have to wait to see it…sorry).

But, now, it’s Sunday night. 

I will be headed to bed early tonight and getting up early to leave the house by 6:15 with our little girlie for her to get her tubes put in. Someone at church today told me that when her son got tubes put in, just when she was reaching for kleenex for the first time in the waiting room, they came and got her to tell her it was done. I know that that will be the case for me too. I’m sure I’ll cry, but it will be over fast. And, then I’ll get to be with her as she wakes up.

I’ll be glad when we can say one surgery down, and one to go. (My surgery is next week.) And, I’ll be much more glad when it’s all over with and all I have to worry about is what shoes for Ashlyn to wear with this kickin’ Peacock dress.

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