When it RAINS it POURS!

I have SO MUCH to share with everyone.  First of all, I’ve been a little bummed lately because we wanted to see pictures of Mackenzie so badly from her birthday party and it appeared we weren’t going to get any and THEN…20 pictures came through!  Thank you, thank you Ladybugs N Love!  Angela and Kelly are angels and managed to get the orphanage to forward a whopping 20 pictures from her special day.  According to our adoption agency, this is an unheard of amount of photos!  Here is my favorite:

This all came after we also received new photos and an update from Lindsay and Mark, who just traveled to China to pick up their little girl, Julia. 

Mark is a PA, and he did a quick assessment of Kenzie’s eyes and gave us the great news, that in his opinion, she does not have nystagmus but probably estropia (crossed-eyes).  This is totally treatable and just became the least of our concerns!  So YEAH, right?  Not so fast…the pictures have raised a few eyebrows around here and we are doing our best to stay upbeat and positive and believe that the Lord put this little girl in our lives because we can handle whatever comes our way.  Her little clenched fists, lack of muscle tone and floppy head have us wondering; what actually is her special need?  Regardless…we LOVE this little girl and we think she is AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL!  (P.S.  I totally forgive Mark for thinking she was a boy – in his defense the outfit and hair are questionable.)

Here are some more birthday pictures – Happy 1^st Birthday Baby Girl!

I’m not sure she is enjoying this!  It sorta looks like she is being “cake boarded.”

Funny note about the pictures – notice the little one in the walker?  Oh yeah!  It’s the photo bomber again!!!  Turns out, she’s not our baby – she just resembles our pumpkin and obviously has a real issue with sabotaging pictures at the orphanage.  Sam says, “Someone is a little narcissistic.”  But we’re sure there’s a family out there who will love that about her.

So, while we were blessed with a deluge of pictures, we were cursed with downpour of rain.  Check out Lake Gregg on the patio:

We’ve had thunder, lightning and rain every day this weekend.  It makes for a nice muggy mess.

                                                      ** -- ** -- ** -- ** -- ** -- ** -- **

In other news, I had the honor of being able to deliver a huge care package to our friend Brian and his daughter, Sierra.  As I mentioned before, Sierra is beginning her fight against Stage 3 ovarian cancer.  Angie, Michelle and I went over to the house to bring gift cards, cash, snacks and gifts to the whole family to help support them through this trying time.  Sierra’s smile touched my heart and filled the room with light.  It was the strangest thing, I thought I would leave sad, but I felt stronger after visiting with her.  Please say a prayer for Sierra and her family.

                                                    ** -- ** -- ** -- ** -- ** -- ** -- **

Hope you have a wonderful week!  I know these two girls sure will....

 Love,
Marlo

The little photo bomber!

7/21/13 - OOPS!  Turns out this is not OUR little photo bomber - just the orphanage photo bomber - check out the next post!

I’ve been sort of depressed since finding out we probably would not get pictures of Kenzie’s birthday party or any questions answered.  I spoke to our adoption agency the other day and they told me they would try and ask for some updates once our paperwork was in China and logged in.

I think the man upstairs realized I needed a little pick-me-up and he sent it to me in the form of another China mom – Shelly R.  Shelly was going through her adoption trip pictures from April and happened across this picture, which she posted on Facebook with a note that read:  “I thought the little one in walker maybe belonged to Marlo Gregg!”  Guess what?

SHE WAS RIGHT!!!!!!! And here she is!

Shelly was trying to get a picture of little girl at the table (Charlotte) and got photo bombed by Kenzie!  This girl is going to fit in just fine!


Love,
Marlo

 

Fingerprints & Family Freaking Fun Time!

On July 3rd, before we hit the road, John and I headed over to the Homeland Security building to get our fingerprints done.  As I've mentioned before, we are old pros at his part.  It took 15 minutes from when we walked in to when we walked out.  The folks inside were super nice and commented how unusual it was to have someone born in the USA getting fingerprinted.  Not many people adopt from foreign countries in Nevada - we are a bit of an anomaly.  This suits us just fine. ♡

Well, due to summer school and work and Sam's return to Texas Tech, we chose to vacation in Salt Lake City, Utah for our family vacation.  We had the two best tour guides anyone could ask for...Uncle Rich and Miss Amanda.  Although we had a few bumps along the way, we had a nice time and got to see some beautiful country and spend time with friends.  We also escaped the heat in Vegas, but traded it for humidity in Utah.  I don't think I've sweat that much in a long time! 

The joke in our family is that when the children are being cranky and ungrateful, John and I tell them THIS IS FAMILY FREAKING FUN TIME...YOU WILL TURN THOSE FROWNS UPSIDE DOWN AND START HAVING FUN...OR ELSE!  Hee hee, I hope everyone has picked up on Mommy's love of sarcasm.

The drive from our house to Salt Lake is about 6 hours and we were entertained by some interesting sights...and smells...along the way.  Besides the usual boys tooting in the car, we were all subjected to the raunchiest smell any of us have EVER smelled...dead pig!  Seriously!  First we thought someone was in gastric distress, then we blamed Codi's stinky sneakers but then John noticed the garbage truck...with two pig legs sticking straight up in the back of the truck bed!  It would have only better if the pig's hooves had pinwheels taped to them...whee...whee...wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Our first night in town we visited Mike, Nancy and Liv in their beautiful new home.  It is humongous!! Their home is stunning and so is the neighborhood they live in.  It was so neat to see deer right in their backyard.
 

On the 4th of July we celebrated Independence Day with a round of putt putt golf, the batting cages and a stop at the "Up" house.  The owners were nice enough to let us take a few pictures.

 

We also saw the new movie "Despicable Me 2"...let me say LOVED IT!  I want a purple minion!  Oh wait; I have a purple minion...Maddie!

 

 

We were also treated to some of the most amazing fireworks on the BYU campus.  Uncle Rich's family saved us great seats and it felt like we could reach out and touch them!

 

On Friday we headed to Park City, home of the 2002 Winter Olympics.  We had a blast riding the downhill coaster and Mom and Dad experienced their first zip line ride.  What a thrill!  The coaster was a bobsled-like ride that is totally gravity propelled.  You have a lever that controls how fast or slow you go.  Mommy rode with Maddie, who is a freaking daredevil in disguise as a sweet, little Asian baby.  When we started I said, "Do you want me to slow down", and she screamed, "Go FASTER Mommy!!!!!!!!!" So I barely touched the brakes and she squealed with delight the whole way down the mountain.  When we were almost to the end she yelled at the top of her lungs, "You are the BEST Mommy ever! Thank you for bringing me here!"  The bummer of the day was it starting pouring and lightning, which meant they had to shut down the rides.  We paid a lot of money for just a couple of rides, so Daddy did his best to get some of our money back, but we all wished we could've rode more.

Saturday was zoo and shopping day.  First we headed out to the Hogle Zoo.  It's a small but nice zoo.  I got a lot of neat pictures, but we had to laugh at the monkeys...they all seemed to be a bit...aroused.  Most of the monkey pictures are not appropriate to be shared. :(

Then we headed out to shop...oh yeah!  We hit Tai Pan (seriously, why do we not have one in Vegas?) and I picked up a couple things for the nursery.  Then on to the coolest store I've ever been in - IKEA!  Fun, fun, fun!  The little kids got to play in the playroom while we shopped. Awesome.  I found a cute rug for Kenzie's room and Sam picked up some stuff for her dorm.  Our last stop before dinner was Scheel's sporting goods store.  As stores go, it was ok and had a lot of sporty stuff, but Amanda, Nancy and the kids and I enjoyed our ferris wheel ride...in the middle of the store!  It was relaxing and a great way to see the entire store.

Dinner was an epicurean delight!  We ate at Tocanos, a Brazilian steak house, with Rich's family.  When we finally got up from the tables two hours later, we could hardly move because the food was so delicious.  We also met another family visiting from Texas who are adopting from China too. It's a small and wonderful world we live in.

So now we are on the road again heading back home to our puppies, which Maddie has told us everyday she misses.  Hopefully we will receive an email this week that our fingerprints were accepted and the last piece of paper from the NV Secretary of State will be in the mailbox.  Baby steps closer to bringing Kenzie home.

OUR "DAY" IN THE GORGE

 

I thought my blog post was complete and then...we hit the gorge.  It appears we will be spending an entire day here!  Two lanes of traffic...m-o-v-i-n-g S-L-O-W-L-Y.  It's times like this that the genius comes out of our children.  We get questions like, "what happened?" and "how long is this going to take to get out of here?"  Um....yeah, let me consult my crystal ball.  John then informed me we had travelled two miles in ONE HOUR!  Ugh!  We are making the most of it by listening to Maddie singing Taylor Swift and Katy Perry songs.  As it turns out, it was road work on the right lane of traffic for just a few feet that was slowing things down.  Really Arizona? 

 

To everything there is a season… A time to be born, and a time to die…

This has been a tough week for Mommy and her friends.  We’ve had to deal with a lot of loss and bad news.  My dear friend Paula had to put Rebel, her furry companion of 16 years, down.  We also had a friend from work receive horrible news that his beautiful 10-year-old daughter has a form of very aggressive ovarian cancer.  Prayers for her and her family would really be appreciated. 

The hardest news this week to handle though, was the loss of little Teresa Bartlinski.  She was an amazing little girl, adopted from China, with a bad heart and lungs.  She finally got her new heart, but her little body just couldn’t adjust to it, and she passed away surrounded by her loving family on Monday afternoon.  It just breaks my heart.  I can’t even imagine how her parents must feel.  I fell in love with this child.  She touched my heart and I don’t think I’ll ever forget her.

So, today I came to work and I prayed that something wonderful would happen.  I just needed good news.  Boy, did it start flowing in!  Last night Brian B. (friend/co-worker) proposed to his girlfriend (my hairdresser) and she said YES!  Then I found out another friend/co-worker Jason R. is expecting baby #2 with his wife.  And even though I already knew, it should be mentioned, my other friend/co-worker Jason W. and beautiful bride are also expecting baby #2!  Babies make me happy.  I mean, how can you be sad when you have a baby around?

I also had the cutest little visitor this morning at work!  Daddy brought Maddie by to pick up my truck and wash it before we head to Utah tomorrow!  What a nice surprise!

Look at my baby - how cute!  In case you forgot.

The girls made Mommy a present too – I know you are all jealous of my sun catcher.  Maddie can be hired out on commission.

I also want to brag on the Codi-meister!  He got an “A” on the first half of his summer school!!!!  Rock on Codi!

Happy Fourth of July!

Marlo