Praise and Patience

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  - Galatians 5:22-23

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.  - Galatians 5:25

I apologize that it's been a while since my last post.  I had really good intentions to keep this blog updated regularly, and I still intend to do just that, but I'm sure that you can understand when I say that I have a ton of catching up to do at home. There are many balls that I dropped during Haven's hospital stay.  So, I have spent much time getting our home back into order, assessing our children's school work, completing a ton of paperwork, catching up on church work, and looking at curriculum for the 2013-2014 school year.  I've also been rescheduling appointments, restocking our cupboards, purchasing birthday gifts for a couple of lovely young ladies, and planning fun activities for our wonderful children who have been so patient during this time.  Thankfully we started school in late July last year, so even  with the delay we should easily have all work completed before the end of the first week in June. Hooray!  I pray that we will then have time to relax and spend time together as a family.

It was especially nice to spend some time with my sister and her two boys recently.  Haven adores babies.  She really likes to touch Becky's baby Eli.  What a fun time we have together!  I just had to include this photo of Haven and my nephew Max checking each other out.  Too funny!

This has been a busy time in other regards as well.  On the Saturday before Mother's Day, I spoke at our church's Mother - Daughter Banquet.  It was such a blessing for me to be able to share a tiny bit about what God has done in Haven's life from before her 'Gotcha Day' through her surgery, stroke diagnosis, and readjustment to being home.  It was a difficult thing to do with my emotions on overdrive and with the events of the past couple of months still swimming in my mind, but I just feel so compelled to publicly praise God for all HE is doing in Haven's life and ours.  The photo below is of the girls and I as we practice a song we prepared to share at the banquet.

We celebrated Haven's first 'Gotcha Day' on May 14.  We decided to take Haven to her favorite Chinese buffet restaurant where she ate bowl after bowl of noodles.  After the meal, we came back to our home to watch home movies of Haven's first moments with our family.  I am so thankful for how well Aaron documented our time in China.  Even stuff that I found stupid at the time is now interesting to us.  Yes, Dear, You.  Were.  Right.  (He's never going to let me live this down!)  The kids talked about their favorite memories of our time in China as well.  It was such a fun evening!  The temple in the background of the last two photos is called the Temple of Heaven.  We actually saw that temple in Beijing while we were in China.  It's funny to us that there is a photo of that temple at our local Chinese restaurant!  I've added a few photos of our China trip and then some of our Gotcha Day celebration.

Aaron and I with Haven about 20 minutes after seeing her for the very first time.  She was tired, hot, and thirsty!

Haven and Mama right after I managed to get her to sit on my lap for the first time.  I was on the floor because that is where Haven was comfortable.

Our first family photo with Haven.  This was taken in the lobby of our hotel.

Haven's official adoption decree.

A walk in a beautiful park in Nanning, China was the perfect way to help our girl feel comfortable. 

Here we have the Walker Five at the Chinese restaurant where we celebrated the anniversary of Haven's Gotcha Day!  This was taken just a couple of weeks ago.

I just love Haven's happy face!  Can you see her dimples?

Love this family!

See?  I told you we saw this temple in China!  Notice Levi and me in the front of the photo.  The sky is overcast because that's how the sky looks all of the time in Beijing.

Our sweet little Eden turned eight years old on May 16.  We spent a couple of days doing fun things to celebrate her. She received some beautiful new bedding for her bed and speakers for her ipod.  Suddenly we are hearing much more music blasting around our home!  My favorite part of Eden's birthday was our Mommy/Eden date.  We ate at Panera Bread and went shopping.  It was so much fun!

Eden in Nanning, China in May of 2012 celebrating her birthday with her Chinese birthday cake.  It was a special day!

The incredible Walker children....my cup overflows with love for these kiddos!

Who doesn't want to lick the plate clean when there is ice cream still on it?

This is pretty much the result after most meals.  We are still working on feeding skills!

Aaron and I with our sweetie Eden (or Lulu as we like to call her).  I can't believe she turned eight!  It was fun to celebrate her birthday at home this year.  Last year we were in China with her new sister for Eden's birthday.  Eden said that Haven was her best gift ever!

Haven really enjoys heisting our phones.  Here she is playing a toddler game on mine.  Check out what Levi has in his hand in the background.  That kid is incredible at video games.  I can't say that I'm proud of that fact or that I've encouraged it!

Therapy seems to be going well at Akron Children's.  Haven continues to improve, but not as rapidly as she did at first.  Sometimes it is so difficult to be patient while waiting for Haven to make more improvement.  I find myself growing weary of the waiting, then I stop and remember how far we've come and I find that I am more at peace.  I have so many hopes for our daughter.  I hope that people will be able to understand her speech, and I hope that she will walk smoothly without listing to one side.  I hope that she will be able to look back on this time in her life and say, "It is Well With My Soul."  Obviously, I'm still learning lessons about taking life one day at a time.  Losing one day per week to therapy is difficult to manage when you have four children who want to do activities as well.  This week I was beginning to freak out about our schedule next year and literally two days later God worked it all out!  So, I'm still learning and growing throughout this experience.  It's not over yet either!  We just learned last week that Haven is facing about another year of once per week therapy for speech and we are still waiting to hear about PT and OT.  Through it all, I find that I am just so weak and need to lean on my Savior for strength.  No, this is not what we wanted Haven's life (or ours) to look like for the next year.  We were thrilled when we thought her heart surgery was the end of our running to doctor appointments.  We plan and God laughs, right?  I have so much more growing to do and I am blessed that I serve a God who loves me and holds my life in His almighty hands!  I'm thankful that He forgives my weakness and supplies strength when I have none left.  I'm humbled that He loves me through it all and works things together for good.  May His great name be praised!