Wouldn't it be amazing?

I have ABSOLUTE faith in divine providence. I know that my life is guided and I see miracles so often that I can't deny the fact that the Lord is over all. So the past 5 months are another confirmation of my faith. I can't write all that has transpired but I will note one small thing that is amazing to me.

When you adopt from China there is no process of choice. You apply and then they send you a picture of your daughter. They choose and you don't have any idea who she is until 2 or 3 weeks before you travel. I knew she could be anyone, she would have her own temperment, her own likes and dislikes, her individual talents and abilities and I was ready for anything. I knew that the Lord would send us the right girl for our family. We joked about her coming to a family that loves music so much and how she may love math and computers ha ha!

Well the night she arrived my girls had written songs for her that they played for her and since that day she has often sat at their feet and listened to the girls sing the songs they have written. The first week she was sitting on my lap and the girls were singing and she started singing with them and matched their notes perfectly. We were all screaming and laughing but were sure that it was an absolute coincidence. Well, it happened a few more times, then many more times and we are all shocked that there could be a possibility that she is musical. She is never off tune. My girls also dance and do constant dance routines and now in the past month she has now begun dancing in a way that I have never seen a baby dance. It is like she is doing a contemporary rendition off of "So You Think You Can Dance". We keep being so surprised at her love of music and the arts.

From the moment Eve was in my arms I knew that even though she had a different biological Mother and Father, her spirit was always mine. I know it. I have no idea if these little musical nuances that we are seeing will translate to talent as she grows older but wouldn't it be amazing!!

Here is the latest song that my 13 yr old daughter has written

Lyrics (c)
Welcome everyone please take your place
In this world, every type, every race
We cry, we pray, we laugh, we dance we sing
I'm gonna be myself, it makes me unique

Chorus:
Every night
I pray that the world will unite
And in-spite
of all our differences we'll make things right

The clouds, they laugh at me
Cause they have the power to hide the sun behind their wings
The rain falls on my face
I'll do what I can to make this world a better place

Repeat Chorus

Bridge:
Hold your hands up high
It's up to us we have to try
We only have one chance at this life
So you and I will take the time

Repeat Chorus

She is ours forever!!

My mother Lorraine....Eve's middle name is Lorraine after her Grandma.

July 23 will go down in my heart as one of the most treasured days of my life. Eve was sealed to us in the Salt Lake temple. There are no words to describe the emotions of being in the sealing room of the temple with my 5 daughters dressed in white and pondering the joy of being together forever as a family. The english language is inadequate......I am just so full of joy and so deeply grateful for these people that I love so dearly.

Eve is the light of our lives right now and boy is she ever doted on and spoiled by all 6 of us. What a lucky lucky girl she is.

"Reflections"

I have not posted in forever and there is so so so much to tell, but alas, I am way too tired tonight so I will just put on a song my daughter wrote called "Reflections". It makes me happy.

"Reflections"

I have watched the seasons change
from blue to green and pink to grey
and I still sing the same songs I sang yesterday
There are holidays and those hard days
i've seen hope and faith, failure and fate
I'm a different person than I was yesterday

Chorus:
And I have seen hard days and I took the time to pray
and I'm thinking isn't this life great
and I've walked down the street just to see who I'd meet
as the pavement kissed my bare feet as I walked to the beat.
whoa whoa ........

I've seen funerals and wedding rings
I've seen glad tidings that seasons bring
I've played in the snow as the earth looked clean
I have hoped and sang and prayed a little more
and girl scouts have come knocking at my door
I've grown to learn and learned to grow
from sunny days to winter snow

repeat chorus

I have watched the seasons change from blue to green and pink to grey
and I still sing the same songs I sang yesterday

Our lives just got so much bigger!

Here are a few of the comments from my girls this week!

"oh Mom, I can't imagine our lives without Eve"

"Mom she is absolutely the most wonderful thing in the world"

"Mom, our lives are so much bigger and more wonderful with Eve"

"Oh Mom, I love her so much, I just can't imagine loving my own children more"

Mom, she is seriously the cutest baby in the world!!"

My Mom then said "Gale, this is a very very special girl, you are so blessed"

I keep thinking that this honeymoon period will wear off but it only gets more and more intense. We LOVE this little girl so much.

Is it possible to spoil someone with love?.....I don't care, I just can't stop kissing and hugging on this little sponge cake!

We survived

The Arrival

We have absolutely loved having Mom here. There are just not words to describe how much we love her. We have laughed, eaten, watched school programs, gone to bookstores, read together, eaten some more and laughed even more. She is such a light and joy in our lives and we feel so blessed that she is here to visit. I can't believe how amazing she is, she has so much wit and humor, my girls just love to joke and banter with her and she throws it right back at them. I love how much they love her.

Oh she loves this little girl, she spends endless hours on the floor with her playing and talking to her. I love it!!

We had a harrowing experience on Monday. First I must say that, unaware of what was ahead, I joked with my Mom as she arrived that we hope no tornados come while she is here. Well, I shouldn't have spoken so quickly. Monday afternoon we headed out to take the girls to piano lessons at the university in OKC. We dropped the girls off and went across the street to get sandwich. It was a sunny calm day and as we were eating our sandwich I looked up at the TV and happened to notice the weather man warning that tornados were forming. He pulled up the map and it was only about a mile from us. We quickly gathered up and ran to the car, in the 30 seconds it took to gather ourselves up, the sky became black and rain in torrents began to fall. We were getting frantic text messages from my daughters and my husband (he was in Edmond). We drove to the university and lucky for us thy have a shelter. So we gathered and prayed. Ava was sooooo upset and was crying uncontrollably because she was afraid that her Dad was going to die. My Mom was so sweet in comforting her and helping her feel safe. We waited for a long time until Chris, who was near a TV told us the coast was clear. We had to drive through hail and rain but made it home safely. We later found out that 5 people had died and many more injured or lost their homes. We are so sad for those who are suffering from their losses and so grateful that we made it home safely.

Below is a picture of Mom, getting all her Mothers Day phone calls from her children....she was soooo happy to talk to everyone. It was wonderful day and such a treat to have my Mother here to celebrate with. She received many wonderful gifts one of which was a book from my sisters on heroic women, what they wrote in the front sums it up so I hope they don't mind if I write it here.

"To our mother who has her own heroic story and who became one of the finest women to ever mother a family. One of the great blessings of our lives has been falling under your motherly care!!

Mothers Day, Eve just looked so cute

Generations

My Sister and I with my Mother

We teach our children how to treat us when we grow old. How we honor our parents directly effects our children and they in turn will honor us as we move through the later stages of life. I pray with all my heart that my girls see how much I love my mother. Today we have been busy getting ready for her arrival tomorrow. Fresh linens, chocolates and books by her bedside, meals planned and a whole family ready to love and care for her.

My Mom has Alzheimers, there is no way to explain how hard it has been to watch her memory decline yet I can see that even when disease ravishes a body her spirit remains the same and despite her diagnosis she is fun, happy, sweet and positive at every turn.

She has at times forgotten names, events and constantly needs reminding but one constant that she has NEVER forgotten as the disease progressed was that Eve was soon to join our family. Every time I talked to her she asked when we were going to get her and wanted to know every detail. She would forget so much but never that. As we came home from China she expressed sadness that she was not here and was missing out so we arranged to fly her here to spend 2 weeks with us. I am so so so excited about her arrival and so excited for her to meet her new granddaughter and name sake, Eve Lorraine Bray. I can't wait to get pictures of her with Eve! It will be a wonderful Mothers Day. Here are a few pictures we took last time she visited.

I can't believe it......we have lost our minds!

For our friends and family who know us well they know that Chris and I adore each other. Really we do!!!! Our kids get annoyed because we flirt and kiss too much and we just genuinely love to be together. We have gone on a date every single Sat night since the day we got married and we make a point of keepin the love alive.

So with the adoption and all the craziness of life imagine our surprise when tonight at around 5 pm as we were making some airline flights and talking about dates for my Mom to come and visit and Chris said..."what's the date today?" at which Olivia replied "April 28". Chris just sat there and stared at me with a blank bewildered look and then in a slow methodical voice said, "Gale, do you realize that today is our anniversary?" We both just sat there in shock.....absolute shock!! My mind was spinning in disbelief. Could we really have just completely forgotten our 18th anniversary......YUP!

The funny thing is that it wasn't one of those things that I thought about last week or last month and then just had it slip my mind, it hadn't even entered my mind at all. We both started laughing and then he said...."do you even care?" "nope" I said "do you" "nope" he replied!

Then he said...."our anniversary gift is Eve and the 4 girls and this is the best anniversary EVER!!" I agree!!!

I am sure we will go to dinner this weekend and celebrate but I must say that 18 years ago I made the wisest and most important decision I have ever made!

Update

So the day after I wrote the last post Chloe and Olivia got in a huge fight over who wore who's clothes and hair and make-up issues. Ava and Elle were fighting today about who would sit where when driving in the car and when eating breakfast. All the altercations involved tears. I need to add that girls are FULL of drama and tears. So today, even though I am so in love with my girls, I can't be sure I have the strength to raise all 5 of them. :) Ha ha

Sisters

I have had many many people question me on why I adopted a girl. Isn't that funny? it is to me! I just keep getting comments like. "Wow you have 4 girls already and you adopted another one? Why didn't you adopt a boy?" I often feel that people can't comprehend that I am not pining to have a boy in the mix.

I know that a boy in the family would be a treasure and my friends who have boys just love having a little man around but I NEVER feel empty, hope for, or feel incomplete because I have all girls. I just feel like Chris and I were meant to be the parents of these amazing girls and it all feels so right and so absolutely wonderful. There is no question that we were meant to adopt a girl and I never thought twice about it. I love having 4 sisters. My sisters are my lifeline, greatest confidants and best friends. I can't imagine my life without them. There is something about a sister who sees you through all your school dances, first kisses, marriage and babies and knows everything about you. It is a relationship that, aside from my husband, is unequaled.

So tonight as Olivia got ready for her big cotillion dance I loved seeing her rely on her big sister. Chloe did her makeup and hair, gave her advise, and cheered her on right to the drop off. I can't tell you how happy it made me to see the love and closeness they share. I watched and thought about my love for and reliance on my sisters and I see those same bonds between my daughters and it just fills me with joy. I am grateful that Eve will be surrounded by hair and makeup advise, someone to always tell her secrets to, and a safety net that will be there long after I am gone.

Getting ready before the dance

At the dance with her best friend Taylor

I think she looked stunning last night!! My little girl is growing up.

What a difference 30 days can make!

10:30 am March 22nd 2010, Eve meets her Dad for the first time, she looks a little bewildered

Meeting Mom, she was so cautious

Then she got scared!

We never quite figured out why they dressed her like a boy?

Her first feeding, she was so hungry when we got her!!

Those first few minutes after meeting her, can you see in my eyes that I loved her instantly

Today, only 30 days later!

Oh what a difference only 30 days can make, our life is bigger because of her.

We won the life lottery,