Ready for Church

Well this weekend has been boring for Jake, Lila and I. Scott took Cade to Charleston to trade out trucks with my dad so he could haul around the Royal Restrooms trailers ( new side business). I just couldn't stomach the thought of the 10 hr drive with the kids and the dogs by myself( Scott would be driving the huge truck) for 2 days at Gigi & Pop-pops so we stayed home. Jake was going to go when at the last minute he changes his mind because I was staying home with Lila and the dogs. A few hrs past when he started asking "When are Dad and Cade going to be home?" They are not coming home Jake you could have gone with them but you chose to stay! so Friday evening comes and he asks " When is Cade coming home? He has to come home for Halloween!" Once again I tell him he could have gone but chose to stay. Well bed time approaches and now the tears are flowing heavily " I need Cade to come home right now. I'm going to Gigi & Pop-pops tomorrow and it will only take 1 hr!! He cried for about 20 mins and fell asleep. They have never been separated that I can remember so it was an adjustment for Jake. I have to admit it hurt my heart to see him miss his brother so much. Maybe next time he won't stay home! This morning Lila came down with her Cowgirl hat, heart necklace and " Lila" bag ( gift from Aunt Libby) and was ready for church!! I am pretty sure I will be changing her clothes before we go. I hope everyone has a great Labor day !!!!

First Day of School!!!

Well the day has finally come when Jake and Cade board the big yellow bus together ! They were so excited that we were at the bus stop about 20 min early. Everyone was happy and until the bus came and Lila realized she was not going to get on that bus with her big brothers and the tears started to roll!
Last night I made them a chocolate pie to celebrate the upcoming school bus milestone and they all dug in. I think they liked the whipped cream more than the chocolate. I am so proud of my boys and hope they really like school this year ....oh time goes to fast!

The Starfish Thrower

I love this story. I read it the blog for Starfish Foster Care run by an amazing South African women in Xian Province, China(Lila's home province). This sums up her philosophy and check out the foster care's blog: http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/ the all do incredible work for these deserving kids!

The Starfish Thrower

Once upon a time there was a man
who used to go to the ocean to do his writing.
He had a habit of walking on the beach
before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore.
As he looked down the beach he saw a human figure moving like a dancer.
He smiled to himself to think of someone
who would dance to the day.So he began to walk faster to catch up.
As he got closer, he saw that it was an older man and the man wasn't dancing.
Instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something
and very gently throwing it into the ocean. As he got closer he called out,
"Good morning! What are you doing?"
The older man paused, looked up and replied,
"Throwing starfish into the ocean."
The man noticed that there were hundreds of starfish
all washed up on the beach from a storm the night before.
He watched as the man carefully continued to pick up the starfish
one by one."I guess I should have asked, ‘Why are you throwing
starfish in the ocean?’"The sun is up and the tide is going out.
If I don't throw them in they'll die."
"But don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach
and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!"
The older man listened politely.He bent down, picked up another starfish
He looked at the starfish as he prepared to throw it into the ocean,
past the breaking waves and said –
"I will make a difference to this one!"

Copy Cat

Cade is getting so excited about school and proceeded to put on his new self chosen Rain Forest backpack (embellished with tree frog patch) on and his camo baseball cap and was ready to go collect bugs. Well Lila saw his attire and wanted a backpack and hat so I went and found Jake's backpack from when he was 3 and Cade's Superman Cap and she was happy. Of course Mable had to get in to picture with Lila! I have to say that even though Lila will have only been home 6 weeks tomorrow I can not remember her not being here! She has exceeded our expectations.We( I was) were expecting for her to be shy and a bit behind for her age, but that is so very far from reality. Lila is just an easy going kid that rolls with the punches and is smart to boot!! I must say I feel like we won the jackpot when we were matched with her. She was meant to be our daugher and we could not be more blessed to be her parents!!

3's a Crowd ....

...when you are trying to exercise!! So in my wisdom I set up the ball tent to try and get on the treadmill without any interruptions!! Yeah Right!! I usually wait until Lila is napping and the boys are usually no trouble. Lila loved all the balls and then they decided to start throwing them at each other and in about 5 mins the first victim, Jake, was in tears from a ball to the eye (lets keep in mind these are plastic hollow balls very light weight so no real damage was done).So needless to say I will no longer try to exercise with three kids around! When school starts things will be much easier and I will have no excuses not to get on that torture machine!

It's Offical.... Lila is a US Citizen!!!!!

Well today we received Lila Ailing Stark's official Certificate of Citizenship and a nice note from President Bush! This was a great document to see; we have finally made it through this process and it has been worth all the ups and downs! We also went to the SS office and applied for her card and it should be here in 2 weeks.

School is just around the corner

Well school starts in 13 days in the beautiful state of WV. The boys are getting excited and so am I. I think I am most looking forward to the school routine it keeps everyone with work to do.

We have also decided to put Lila is a pre-school 2 mornings a week. I really feel like that will give her that language base and fun she needs. I am a little nervous but she is so curious to learn pre-school just might be her ticket! I have to make sure there is still room for her tomorrow and if so I will go ahead and sign up our little lady for T/TH mornings! Here is a pic of Cade that decided to express his artistic side last Sat afternoon. He has NEVER drawn on himself in 5 yrs so why now? why ask....this is Cade the free spirt we are talking about. When I saw him I just had to laugh because he is so funny and you never know what he will come up with. He gets that from Scott who also cracks me up all the time!

A boy and his toad!!

My dreams have come true with Cade he is just loves nature and likes to hunt for critters and learn about them. I hope one day he wants to be a biologist, vet , zoologist, entomologist etc... I could live through him!! No pressure Cade!!! It is so fun to watch him get excited about living things. And here is Ms America in one of ther adorable outifts. We are getting ready for school and the kids are so excited and I am excited for them. The doctors visits went well and Cade did a great job and didn't shed a tear. Lila cries this time for her 2 shots and blood draw but not to much and was a trooper being this is her third time at the doc offices since she has been home!! I am having her titers check to make sure we don't over vaccinate our lady so we go back in a month and see what she needs next. The doctor was so impressed on how healthy and well adjusted she is. I for one was happy to hear that.

A girl and her bike

We had a busy weekend here at the Stark house. Lila got to experience her first 2 B-Day parties and we all had a great time at both!! Of course I was too caught up in the fun to take any pics as usuall. She loved the ballons and cake and since she copies everything anyone does she only eats the icing off the cake just like her big bro Jake. Both parties were water theme parties so they were wet and happy. You will see this pics of Cade who wanted to weat his rain boots to the party but thankfully I conviced him other wise. Cade and Lila bothe have appt t his week for shots so I will let you know how it all played out later this week. We also bought Lila her first little Barbie big wheel. She was so excited by the box I didn't even think we needed to put it together! Even though it claims to be for 2 yr old her tiny legs barley reache the pedals so she still likes it!!

First time at "Glory Days"

Well it was a big night for the Stark 5 for we were taking Miss Lila to one of our staple restaurants "Glory Days". We like to go there because you can sit outside and the kids don't bother anyone. So we went but the there was a wait for outside so we ate in an all the kids were great despite the long wait for our food. Since this was the first time I had been out to eat since returning from China I was looking for some good old American poison, that right some fired stuff. Of course we tried to keep Lila on the healthier side but she loves fries and how can you deny that face!! We all stuffed ourselves and when home and crawled to be!! Ah to be back in the good old USA!!! Lila's adorable outfit courtesy of Aunt Nanna people just loved it!