Getting Back to Normal (kinda of)

The Church had us a Welcome home party Sunday night and it was great. Everyone was so sweet and took alot of time decorating and making the party so special for Reaiana , she got so many nice presents and she loved it all, she was not real sure about evertyhing at first so we had to get Caden to help her open the gifts but she was happy ..We are beyond happy to be back home..
Well here we are finally settled back at home( it took nearly three days for me to get everything back in order,Laundry Laundry and more laundry...Anyways we are back in the swing of things (kinda of) life is a wonderful and more interesting, Im a little scatter brained these days and poor little ole Caden has been the victim of my many "mess ups" Our 1st time back to Stevenson to church I was rushing around like crazy and out the door we go and I realize after getting in the car Caden has no shoes on, and of course Michael is flipping out because its 12 till 7 and we live 5 min from the church so I run back in the house and grab his brown flipflops and jump in the car and toss em in the back seat and demand he put them on that instant and he says"mama could you not find any that matched" and I said THEY DO MATCH AND YOU BETTER HUSH AND PUT EM ON RIGHT NOW...He did.. Then as we were walking in the church I noticied he was dragging his left foot and I looked down and busted out laughing, I had given him one of his and one of Carters (needless to say they were 5 sizes bigger than what he wears) so he had no shoes the whole night at church..I also tried to force him to take Resiana's medicine insisting it was his but finally realized I had the "Wrong Kid" well I gues I am getting use to having three kids and two that are the same age and did I mention one of mine is- well for a lack of a better term we will just say adventureous...But life has never been better...This house is lively to say the least and oh yeah we are having another baby in about three months!!!!CANT WAIT and I know everybody will be so happy to see us coming..Yeah right...The Clarks and their 4 kids... Boy are we gonna have fun..

Life Is Grand

Were HOME and it is wonderful, Resiana was and is soo excited to live in the "Big House" that is what she calls it...We are enjoying being home and just watching our children play, it is such a Miracle, really to think she has had no issues of any kind, that is just extremely amazing to me and just validates the truth of how God intended for her to be apart of our family, she just fits, we feel soo blessed to have been chosen to be her Mommy and Daddy.Daily we are reminded of what a blessing she is and how hard a life she has had..She constantly ask "what's this called Mom" we probably hear that at least twenty times a day, for just the most normal things but she is processing everything and learning very fast.Each day I wait for her to be reminded of life in the park and tell me something new..Like the other day we were eating at Logan's and she got soo excitied when she seen the peanuts sitting on the table and said "Mommy Mommy I eat these before in the park" and I said really and she said "Yeah" and then that turned into another gut wrenching story that she did not even know was gut wrenching, it was just Life to her.
We were driving down the road and we seen some people walking and she began to tell me that her and her other mommy always walked because they only had one moneys and then got super excitied and started clapping and said "but Mommy you guys have two moneys and yall have cars and food and everything" and just laughed and smiled for several minutes then went back to singing Hannah Montana.

I have truly been humbled by all of this and at many times throughout this journey I have tried to imagine her in the park living life as they did but it was just to painful of a thought and I would just shut my mind off to it and not "go there" but in the last few days Resiana and I have had some good conversations and it has brought a since of peace to me and I have realized that even in the most dire situations that her and her "other Mommy " was in, God knew where they were the whole time....She told me she loved coconuts and that she loved to drink them and they taste soo good (Food and drink supplied by God) and that the nice people from church came and brought food to them and sang and prayed ( Food and love supplied) and that baby birds were so fun to play with and if you be real quiet they will fly to you and you can hold them and pet them and they will not bite you ( enjoyment for a child with no toys provided)..wow and the list goes on but how amazing to know that our precious Saviour looks upon the world and takes care of us and when he seen it was time he spoke the word and allowed her to become our child. The lessons I have learned and am still learning from my little darling are worth more than silver and gold, Trust on Jesus for he knows!!!!

Home Sweet Home

Praise the Lord we are home, got the call from our attorney at about 6pm this evening and packed up at the hotel and now we are home, the kids were jumping up and down and so was I.. You know you never know how much you appreciate something until you do not have it. We are so thankful and this has been an amazing journey. Sometimes there are bumps in the road but none of that compares to the joy Resiana has brought to our lives and will continue to bring for many years to come.. We look forward to resuming our lives and just being a normal family!!Hope to see you all soon!!

Update

Well we are still feeling very blessed...Resiana is still doing amazing and everyday teaches us something and reminds us how fortunate we are and have always been, we will be doing nothing and she will just start talking about life in the park and needless to say we are humbled, but then in the same breath laughs and goes right on her merry way, it is amazing.

Ok here is the rest of the story- I do not think the Lord wants to spoil us rotten, you know things have went perfect with Resiana so if everything was perfect then maybe we would get to spoiled and now we are having to trust him once more that when the time is right he will help us get HOME and all will be good. As I write everyone is asleep so that is good because we are in a small hotel room and two of us has strept throat and one has been throwing up so sleep and peace and quiet is nice even though I cannot swallow, Michael wathced the kids while I tried to take a nap earlier today (not that there is any place they could go or much they could get into) but he did try and keep them quiet and to my amazement I did take a nap..Carter took bad sick Thursday running a high fever so Michael took him to the doctor in AL while me and the other kids stayed at the motel and the doctor was nice enough to write prescriptions for the whole family knowing the circumstances, and knowing strept is very contagious. Resiana is not sick and we are thankful for that!!!

As far as us getting to retrn to the state with her we have complied with all the laws and all the paperwork but Al has asked fo extra documents such as a signed statement from us saying we love and accept her as our daughter and that she will not be a burden to the state that we will supply for her..That was last week, so it has been out of our hands and we spoke with our attorney who is trying to get some answers for us and she said everything is taken care of it is just a matter of the lady in Montgomery taking the time to look at it and approve it and surely that will happen sometime Monday...But as Michael and I have talked and discussed all of this the peace comes in knowing that our precious daughter is not hungry, or homeless anymore and if we could of stayed in the comfort of our own home for this past month(will be tuesday) and just now be going to get her, there is no way, we are just thankful to have her in our care and we know we will get to go home soon and when we do I will probably appreciate getting to do housework and all that good stuff that I normally dread so just another lesson learned and more to appreciate cause absence makes the heart grow fonder..Hope to see you soon!!

Goodbye Cabin, Hello Motel

OK I will start off by saying yes I have kind of got used to this blogging thing since thats about all there is to do when my children are asleep and Michael is not here..Anyways we did get to go to Coolidge Park today with the Church so that was very nice and Resiana had a blast she loved playing with all the kids in the water, it was nice not to be cooped up..I think she has adapted so well, I know I say that everytime but it is just hard to get it across how "Normal" she is. We still are waiting to hear something from the state about approval to go home..I know this is strange but its just a legality thats hard to explain. Our attorney said she would do her best to find something out tomorrow, the lady over our case in Montgomery was off today. We are patiently waiting , I hope that patient part is true, well I am trying and actually have enjoyed my time "Away" but right now I am feeling like Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz "There is no place like home, no place like home".. NO in all seriousness I am ready but this time has been good for us and our children, in our own little world up here.We are supposed to check out at 10am in the morning, so I guess we will be going to a motel from here..That will be fun!! yeah right... well anyways if anyone could send up a little prayer that we could go home I would greatly appreciate it and I know there could be much worse things and I know others need it way worse than us but we do believe he has enough power and enough time to listen to all of us right? Oh yeah and I feel horrible I was supposed to be planning a baby shower for my precious niece for this weekend but with basicaly no phone for the past two weeks they have had to do it without me and I sure hope their surviving without me!!Sorry Guys maybe I can at least show up..Also My sis-in-law and nephew had surgery and Mama Crystal could not be of any assisstance, sorry guys..Maybe the family can make it without me..Oh yeah and my niece was supposed to have a slumber party at my house for her birthday last weekend ,sorry babe I guess it will be a belated birthday..Oh well I guess they have proven the point they can live life without me..But I am going to tell myself they need me anyways...I have survived two weeks without talking on the phone wow im proud of myself ..Hope to see you all soon and show you our little miracle in person!!

Sweet Home Tennessee?

Well here we are still in Tn, we are hoping to hear something late tomorrow evening ( our attorney is in Hawaii 5 hours behind us) maybe we will get good news..Anyways I am still enjoying all the quality time with my children and I guess I do not get to have everything exactly perfect so I am trying to be patient and enjoy this time. Resiana and the boys are having a blast together, Carter is off school this week for spring break, we have not been doing much of anything except being together and that is good but I think we might have just a bit of cabin fever, I am so excitied tomorrow we are planning to go to Coolidge Park in Chatt. with several people from church since all the kids are on Spring Break so it will be exciting to get out with my friends and see Resiana get be with the kids..Carter and Caden will be excited as well. I am bored stiff at the moment my children are fast asleep and Michael went to our real home to take care of some things and needless to say again, no cell signal(very limited cuts off bout 10 times when you try to make a call) no television and Im lucky to have internet because it only works half the time, anyways back to my story we are looking forward to getting out tomorrow. Resiana is still doing amazing and sometime when I think about it, it blows me away to think what all has happened to her in the last three weeks to be taken from everything she has ever known and not even question a thing and just except us as her Mommy and Daddy and the boys as her brothers and I am telling you it seems she has been here forever just one of us, she LOVES the boys and if I give her a piece of candy or something she always says"what about Carter and Caden" she is a typical little girl who is very girly and loves all the things she never had before, she is a little singer and she is obsessed with Hannah Montana-she watches the movie at least five times a day. We are great, just ready to get home and show this little beautiful girl off...

Resiana's 1st Church Service

Well I have missed so much church and when I found out it could possibly be another two weekends of church me and the kids would have to miss, I told Michael lets just go somewhere close that is not in Al, so that is what we did..last night all of us went to church for the first time as a new family and Resiana was so excitied she was laughing and smiling and saying "yes were going in church in church" I was a nervous wreck and when we stepped up on the steps of Trenton my heart was beating out of my chest, I knew she was excitied but I also knew she had no idea what church means, well our kind of church anyway. As we walked in she just started waving at everybody and was all smiles. She kept looking around just checking everybody and everything out. Church was very good and many people got blessings and I was not sure how she would react to that but she just laughed and smiled then eventualy feel asleep so it was a success!!! I asked her what she thought and she said "Wow mommy that was a cool one church"
so she is looking forward to going again and I cant wait until she gets to go to Stevenson but I was thankful to get to go to Trenton (we have very dear friends there) so that was great and several from Stevenson got to come as well...This journey of Adoption has brought to me a renewed outlook on my life in every aspect, I realize what we have is just a gift from him and by his mercy and it is not anything I have done in this life to be worthy of his blessings. I could never praise him enough for all he has given me and I pray through this journey I have become a better person and I do not want to forget what I have learned about life and that we are the most Blessed people in the world, not only do we have Shelter, food , clothing, but we also know the Master and what better could we have, no amount of money could ever buy the peace that comes with our salvation, and today I thank him for Salvation, Life, Love, and Motherhood!!!!

Happy Tears

Well another breakdowm moment, Michael and the boys went fishing and Resiana and I are just hanging out here in the cabin and watching movies, so anyways we just got finished watching Stuart Little and I have seen that movie several years ago and never thought twice about it..Well near the end of the movie Stuart Little is searching for his human family and finally finds them and when he does, Resiana starts jumping up and down and says "like me, oh his mommy and daddy and his brother" and continues to jump up and down and then hugs me and tells me she loves me. At the very end of the movie there is a song (Trisha Yearwood) " You're Where I Belong" I never heard it before, and as my daughter danced and twirled throughout the song, I broke... It was very touching..well I just thought I would share that with everyone since I cannot call anyone...I am ready to go back to our familiar surroundings but each day that passes all that matters is that I have ALL my children safe and sound and in the comfort of their parents arms..We will be home and life will resume but for the mean time I would love to enjoy every moment we have in this slow paced time because as we all know Life is not usually slow paced, so I would Love to count my blessings and know he is in control and does everything JUST RIGHT!
We do look forward to seeing you all soon..May God Bless You All!!!!

Well we are still in Tn and looks like we could be here for a least another week, Michael said it felt like we had been halfway around the world and back and we still aint home. I am here to tell you there is no place like home...But just to all be together means so much..We have had lots of good quality time together and that has been wonderful but we are ready to get back in the swing of things, Michael has been able to go to church and work, so that has been good but I think it has been nearly three weeks since I have been to church and I am ready to go , I miss being there so bad and miss my church family as well. Resiana ask every time Michael leaves for church to go with him, and every night when we say our bedtime prayers(Now I lay me down to sleep) she folds her little hands and tries to say it,even though she does'nt know it yet, and when were finished she begs for us to do it again, I think last night we said it five times.. I am still amazed everyday at her acceptance of us. I was hugging her the other day and telling her how much we loved her and that we would be her Mommy and Daddy forever and she said " your not going to leave me at the park no more" and I said no baby were going to take care of you forever..I was also talking with her about some of the scars she has on her legs and asked her what happened and she said "oh that is where the cockroaches bit me" and that got me, I can not comprehend that..She has dealt with more in her short little life than I have ever thought about. I was putting cream on her sores that are on her head and it took about thirty minutes to doctor her head and she sat there still as could be and when I told her I was done she looked up at me and said "Thank you Mommy "she is such an humble little girl, everyday is another lesson and I am enjoying being taught..Children are truly a most wonderful gift from God and I praise him for blessing us beyond measure, three times over!!!

A Happy Easter

Well i did not think I was going to blog useless information that no one probably cares about reading but the truth is I am very bored and I kind of like writing on this thing...We are still up in Tennessee in a place I had no idea about until about five days ago, and we have little or no cell signal, there is no land line, the TV reception is horrible there is very little house work to do and Michael is at work, the kids are watching a movie, Carter is at school and this internet is so slow I cant look up anything on the computer so as you can guess this is about the only option I have. It may seem as though I am complaining and that is not what I mean to do I am in fact trying to explain why I feel the need to blog...I am also computer dumb, really we did not even get internet until like a month ago, we got it to make communication easier for our adoption process.They do not even offer wireless in the area of Stevenson where we live we had to get some kind of expensive satellite that is stuck out in our yard ,anyways I was just going to talk about our Easter a little.....Well Michael went to church but I had to stay here with Resiana (due to the ICPC) so both the boys stayed with me as well and while Michael was at church the kids and I decorated Easter eggs, Resiana could not understand for the life of her what in the world we were doing but she still had a ball.. We decorated the eggs and then the kids got there easter baskets and once again she was in amazement..After church Granny and Pappy brought dinner up here and Todd and Erica came also and the kids hunted easter eggs and at first Resiana just looked at us like ok what is the point (most of the eggs were in plain sight and she seemed to think we were crazy) but within a few minutes she was acting like the other kids and running around picking up the eggs and putting them in her basket it was pricless to watch her and know she had no idea there was such a thing called Easter but like I have said she has just fell right into place in this family.She did not even know what a bunny was, but she catches on very quickly. We had a wonderful day even though I missed getting to dress her up and take her to church but I will have many years to come for that. My parents (Nanny and Papa) came that evening to spend some time with Resiana and the boys and we had a great time as well. Resiana acts so excited each time someone comes to visit and seems so happy to have all these new people that love her. What company we have had has been in small amounts at a time and I actually think that has been good for her because that gives her one on one time with everybody and does not overwhelm her. I really cannot wait for her to meet all our friends and loved ones. Well enough i guess but it seems there is a million things I wanna share with people but no phone and out in the boonies with no one we know around so sorry to all yall in the blog world for my ramblings but trust me I could keep going but I will stop and hope I have not turned everyone away from reading our blog..lol

Well we are so proud to have all our children safe and sound and things are going great..We found out we have to reside in Tennessee until all our paperwork reaches the right people(we cannot reside in the recieving state AL) will probably be here ten to twelve more days. We are thankful that someone told us about these cabins, it has three bedroom and two full baths and it overlooks the river, so its not bad, actually pretty nice and quiet. Much better than the alternative, we thought we were going to have to stay in a motel room, all five of us for nearly two weeks...I truly love my husband and children but I am not sure that would of been to good for any of us..I probably would of been pulling my hair out and theirs to..Well anyways we are about 10 min. from Kimball TN and that makes us about 25 to 30 from Carters school and our church..Resiana is still doing amazing and has taken up very well with the boys..Carter is very protective of her and wants her right by him, and kisses her boo-boos its soo sweet and her and Caden are just little play pals and while Carter was at school just played pretend all day just normal little kid stuff.. I am already settling in to having three kids and it just seems as though she has been here forever and then comes moments that shock me back into reality of knowing she has not been priveliged to all the things my boys have..Yesterday we were in the bedroom and I raised the blinds and she pointed to the window and asked what it was called, even simple things like that break my heart how much in life I have taken for granted..She loves to smell things that smell good we had some of those woodwick scented sticks and I watched her every few minutes go smell of them over and over and she loves taking a bath and putting on clean clothes something my boys have never had to think twice about.. I am sure everyday will be a new adventure but for now we are just taking things slow and spending every moment possible together just being a family. I do look forward to getting back to everyhting as normal, and just going about our daily life with our three wonderful kids.

Family Reunion

We are soo thankful to be home, well not actually home but on the mainland anyways,( who is ready to leave paradise, well when only half of your family is there its not exactly paradise.) Through this journey I have learned so much about life and myself , I thought I was a pretty good person and knew I cared about others but this experience has been a wake up call,we are so fortunate that God choose us to be Resiana's parents and I truly believe it was meant to be. She continues to do remarkably well, still no tears have been shed( other than being scared of a sand crab) I still shed tears when thinking of her birthmother and probably will for years to come, and at some point she may as well and when she does we will be able to tell her many wonderful things...It is as if she somehow knows this is God's will.. When we stepped off the plane she ran and bear hugged Caden and was just shouting Carter Caden..It was pricless.The boys are in amazement of her , Carter just said" wow it finally seems real , she is here I have a sister"Caden wants to be with her every second and show her everything..We are still trying to take it all in , it all seemed to happen in a whirlwind and as I sit and reflect I have my moments of breaking down and my moments of laughter and pure joy, nevertheless it as been an emotional roller coaster but I sure have enjoyed the ride...I look forward to how she will adjust to her new life and all her new surroundings, I think in just a matter of a short while all the things that were forgein to her will be the norm but I also believe her little life that she has already lived will be a legacy to me anyways, she has brought such a newness to me and I am grateful for that and I just cant wait for life to get back to normal and just enjoy being her mother..Once again thank you all so much for your prayers , I truly believe that is what has made all the difference, he has comforted her little heart and let her feel our love and has made us a family......