Happy Gotcha Day

Today we celebrate Lucy's adoption into our family. Here is the year in review: 



Gotcha Day - May 21, 2012

 



Place of abandonment

Place to call home





First plane ride to the U.S.

Having fun at home

First birthday at home (June 16, 2012)

First visit to the doctor (vaccines - ouch!)

First "real" haircut (not a buzz cut)

First visit to the Fairmont Water Park

Boys first day of school. Saying good bye.

First harvest

First U of M Adoption Clinic visit

First surgery while at home (tubes in ears)

2nd dose of anesthesia while home (Dental procedures under anesthesia)

First time being sick at home

First carved pumpkin

First Christmas

First Minnesota Winter



Sleeping in her toddler bed. Ha!

Lucy and her favorite blankie - "Purple"

Wearing "Gotcha Day" outfit at home

Sneaky girls outside of room asleep

First Mother's Day with the family together

Lucy Fei - You are beautiful!



 At times Jason and I talk about how much it hurts or bothers us that we missed so many memories from Lucy's first 2 years of life. We missed her first smile. We missed her first steps. We missed her first tooth poking through. We missed her first babble or spoken word. We even missed her first surgeries to repair her lip and palate. However, as I have looked through pictures over the last year with Lucy at home, I remember so many memories that we have been able to make with her. We weaned her from her bottle. Yes!!!! It used to take 45 minutes to one hour for her to fall asleep. We stayed at her side while she fell asleep those first few months. We now read books, rock a little, and off to bed she goes. She is comfortable in her bed. We have celebrated and praised her for working hard in speech therapy and have been there when her words started to make sense to us. We have been able to get her out of diapers and into big girl undies. Double YES!!!!:) We see how she plays with her baby doll. With care, she holds her baby and sways back and forth like a little Mommy. She makes us laugh when she plugs her nose and says "stinky" when her baby needs changed. We enjoy listening to her sing, and I may be biased, but I think she has signs of being musically talented. I look in the rear view mirror as we are driving and see hands lifted high when KLOVE plays a song that she recognizes. We have witnessed a sad, sad grieving child blossom into a happy energetic 2 year old that blends right into our family. There is nothing like seeing healing happen before your very eyes. We have witnessed healing in Lucy's life and have realized the healing that comes when our Heavenly Father draws close to us and says, "Don't be afraid child. I love you. You are mine."


"What can I offer the Lord
for all he has done for me?
 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and praise the Lord’s name for saving me.
I will keep my promises to the Lord
in the presence of all his people."  ~Psalm 116:12-14

Throwback Thursday. One Year Ago Today.....

One year ago today, Jason and I took the kids to the park before school and ate breakfast together for the last time as a family of 5. As we dropped Ian and Aiden off at school, I remember tears filling my eyes because we were about to embark into unknown territory and I was leaving my 3 children behind.

Last year Mother's Day - a few days before leaving

There were so many things I was anxious about on this day last year. I was anxious to leave 3 children behind as we traveled half way around the world to bring home another child. I was anxious about making all our flights and traveling for almost 24 hours straight. I was anxious to see what China was like and to be in a completely different culture. I was anxious to see Lucy after waiting so long for her. How was she going to respond to us?

Getting packed

Jason, taking on the task of packing and staying within weight limitations

Minneapolis to Tokyo - First stop before going to Beijing

Now, one year later, I see that I had nothing to be anxious about, as always. I tend to be quite a worrier but I am learning in my later years of life that it does not help one bit to be anxious or to worry. Trust. This is what I continue to learn. My dad showed me these verses when I was very young. Worrying came so early in my childhood and he pointed me to some good advice for which I am thankful.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Matt. 6:24-34

A souvenir we bought in China.

Life as We Know It

Well I was going to try to be better about keeping this blog up to date, but finding time to sit and add pictures and write about life gets complicated this time of year......or any time of year for that matter. So here is a little summary of Penner life in some pictures, and some words, the past few weeks:

The boys after their piano recital with their teacher Miss Jenna

Lucy during speech therapy. Looking in a mirror to see how her mouth should look to make the correct sound. I think here Miss Denise is teaching f-f-f-f-f

Ian during his state presentation.....talking to Grandma Penner about Indiana. :) We made sugar cream pie for this presentation and it was tasty!

My 4 loves!

Mother's Day family photo and a photo we are sending in for our 1 year post adoption study

I just sent our 8 pictures required for our 1 year post adoption home study. Here are a few we sent in:

Grandpa Herman and his granddaughters with the baby cradle he made each one for Christmas

Lucy in our church child care playing with play dough

I love that smile! :)

"Mom, you 3 are wearing purple today," said Izzy our fashion and color expert of the family :)

Christmas!

I find myself thinking what we were doing 1 year ago. I have looked back at this blog from a year ago and try to remember all the emotions and excitement we had at this point. I believe I am thinking about this so much because my brother and his wife are in the exact same position we were in one year ago. It is so exciting! They are leaving to get little Lilly on May 22nd. Oh, how excited this makes me! You can follow their blog here. I have a lot to say about all the changes that have occurred in little Lucy's life in just one year, but I will have to save that for another time.:) I have a few special things planned for Lucy's Gotcha Day. Hopefully we can set aside time to celebrate among all the late spring planting that is going on here.

Lucy is making small progress with her speech. She is definitely trying to talk more. We go to a cleft clinic in July where she will go through hearing tests and more intense speech therapy among a lot of other specialty visits. We have met with her early childhood special education teacher and a speech teacher for next school year. The plan is to have Lucy go to class 2 mornings a week next year and see how she does with that schedule. It is possible for her to go 4 mornings a week, but this mom is having a hard time sending her barely 3 year old to school that often. If we see she needs extra help she may go more, but we decided to start with just 2 mornings a week.

Izzy had a dance recital on Saturday and I will have to get those pictures and video up on another post. Whew! With 4 kids in different activities it is hard to keep up!

Here is a video that just makes me laugh. I have to explain a little first. Ian decided to build this bike at the farm. He has not yet put pedals on the bike, but that does not stop Lucy from riding it. She figured out a way to ride the thing without pedals. Hee, hee! She is a funny girl! Oh and we have 4 baby kittens that Lucy is a little protective of at times.

Meeting A Hero

"He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does The Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

April 29, 2013 - Do you have a hero or heroes in your life? You know, those people that are maybe a bit famous, maybe they are not so famous, but when they speak or write they can just speak straight to your heart. Please tell me there are other people out there admire and want to hear more from a speaker or author. Yeah, well, I had the privilege to hear my "hero" in person over the weekend (thank you dear husband and mother-in-law for watching the kiddos). It was one experience that I do not want to forget or let the words that were spoken go away void in my life. Jen Hatmaker is an author and speaker with whom I can relate. She is an everyday, down to earth girl. She does not get all dressed up to speak in front of crowds. (For some reason I really like that.) She is humble, she is funny, and she captures my attention. Now, I do realize she is not perfect and should not be placed above what the Spirit is telling me. However, I do think God places certain books, certain authors, and certain people in your path to guide you in this journey of life. Jen is that instrument of guidance in my life right now and I learned so much from her presentations this weekend. Funny story: So me and my friend, Anita (who was really the person that introduced me to Jen's books), were out in the hallway during a break at this conference. Jen was standing at her "table" signing autographs, getting pictures taken, and talking with ladies. I kept thinking to myself, it would be fun to get a picture with her, but what do I say to her. I mean seriously, she is just a woman seeking after a life that truly follows Jesus. So, I gradually made my way over to her and saw that the line was short. I stood in line thinking the conference directors would be telling her she needed to get back up on stage soon so there is no way I would be able to meet her. Well, two ladies in front of me were done talking and I walked up, heart racing, and said, "I really don't know what to say to you." (Yes, my true honest self comes out in these types of situations.) But this is what I loved, Jen just looked at me and said, "that's o.k. just come here" and then hugged me. We are talking an everyday, does not see herself as anything special kind of person. I had someone take our picture and after the picture I did tell her that I read her book "7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess" on the way to China to pick up our daughter. She asked how old Lucy is and how long we have been home. She could totally relate and said "oh, you are just getting out of the foggy stage. Things are starting to look up." She can relate because she has two adopted children from Ethiopia and has been home for only 1 1/2 years with them. I then thanked her for being such an inspiration and for speaking truth. An everyday, down to earth girl who is doing what God has equipped and called her to do.....to train and lead people into what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and to live in radical obedience. She also made me sob when she showed the video of meeting her two children in Ethiopia for the first time. I mean, I couldn't hold back the tears. It was beautiful!

Anita, Jen, and myself

"Oh just come here!"

 All this talk about who Jen is and she wasn't even the only one at this conference whom I learned from. The whole weekend was just great, I cannot say that enough. Laura Story, who has written many songs, but the one everyone seems to know is her song Blessings. She told her story of dealing with a husband who had a brain tumor and what her life is like since his surgery to remove the tumor. She too is an amazing woman and has an amazing story of her own. I love how God uses our stories to learn from one another and to see how God is working in each of our lives.......What I really wanted to capture here and remember are things learned from the weekend to ponder over. LOTS to ponder! I don't want to forget it!

1. Life was so nice and comfortable before God messed me up! :) Jen said something to this effect and oh how I can relate! Once your eyes have been opened to a lot of the NEEDS in the world, you cannot ignore it. But that makes life complicated and messy and doesn't always seem to make much sense to other people. Where do you even begin? What does God ask of us and how do we know what direction we are supposed to go? The answer I heard was "just do the next right thing." God places people in our path every single day. Just do the next right thing with them. Walk with the Holy Spirit and He will direct you.

2. We can be so saturated and filled with bible teaching, and bible studies, and sermons, and serving in our church and yet still be searching for more of Jesus. We can have all the head knowledge possible, but what good is that if we are doing nothing with it (this is why I am writing this down so I do not go away having done nothing). In the Jewish culture, when boys started school and if they became elite students they were expected to follow everything their Rabbi did. In fact, it was such an honor if a boy came home covered in the dust of his Rabbi's sandals because that meant he followed so closely to his Rabbi. Often the disciple of the Rabbi became an exact replica of the Rabbi himself once the disciple was done with his training. People could tell which Rabbi a student was following by his actions. How closely am I following my Jesus? Am I covered in His dust by the end of the day? Lots to think about!

3. The quote I have pondered the most is this, "The enemy tells you what is true but he does not tell you The Truth. Yeah, let that sink in. When I think about it, I would have to agree with that statement. Cling to The Truth. "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and THE TRUTH and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' " (John 14:6)

So what is the takeaway for me? Living with the Holy Spirit's guidance. I don't know much else. During a quiet time a couple weeks ago I was reading in John where Jesus' disciples start following him. So I asked the question, what does Jesus mean when He says "follow me" in this culture, in this place, at this time in life? I looked down at my bible again and the passage John 1:39 jumped out at me. "Come," Jesus replied, "and you will see." I am still unclear as to the where, what, and how Jesus is asking me to follow him, but this response was so real to me the tears started flowing. "Come and you will see."

***Just a side note, I am taking a break from Facebook for a while. Starting May 1 I will be taking the FB app off my phone. I don't know when or if I will ever be back, but I will try to keep up with my blog. Exciting things will be happening in May. We will be celebrating Lucy's Gotcha Day and possibly have exciting news from my brother and his wife as they anticipate the arrival of their China doll, Lilly.