Finally an Update!!!

Okay Cheryl, here's the update I promised. Sorry to everyone for the delay. I have lots to catch up on but here's a start:

Eden started school! She goes to Mother's Day Out 2 days a week and was apprehensive at first but is starting to love it. On Monday when they came to get her out of the van in the carpool line she confidently announced to the lady, "Mommy always always always comes back!" as she hopped out of the car and walked in like a big girl. How far we've come!!! She is in the Groovy 2's class with her great friend Mia, who is also in her class at church and gymnastics. Thank you Lord for knowing how much a familiar face would help her feel secure! Boy,0 does God watch out for our little ones or what? She has her own school bag and a Dora lunch box. Mommy LOVES school (8 hours a week alone makes a huge difference)...and I'm even the room mom! Here are some pics of her leaving her first day.

Such a big girl!

She loves Dora!

The rest of these pictures below are just some that capture her sassy, silly and precocious personality. She is a mess, a handful, and an angel. I am amazed daily by the words she is learning. Gene was tickling her the other day and she busted out with, "You're driving me crazy!" He laughed for 5 minutes. I have a feeling her 3's are going to be much more challenging than the 2's have been. She is becoming so opinionated and bossy (much like her mommy, I think). Sometimes it is so funny, but other times so disrespectful. Lord help me as I try to shepherd her heart towards You...so challenging!

Right now my focus is authority. God is daddy and mommy's boss, and we are her boss. We are beginning to teach her Scripture and she knows 4 verses. Her memory astounds me. Now we have to work on making sure she knows what they mean, and how to apply them to daily life, right? Knowledge without obedience is useless.

Sleep continues to be our most difficult challenge with her. We switched her to a "big girl" bed (toddler bed) and now she crawls out of it every night and comes to our room. This is better than her screaming in her crib 3-4 times a night. We have put a cot at the foot of our bed and are trying to train her to crawl in it without waking us up so she can be near us if she needs to be without being IN our bed. She won't let anyone but mommy put her down for bed. She still has so much anxiety with separation at night. Maybe she will always struggle with this. I'm trying to redefine "normal" and adjust my expectations while still gently pushing her towards more confidence and independence in this area. She is now going down to sleep in her bed which is a huge step. She just doesn't stay there. You'll never guess how we got her to do it...she asked if our Lab, Maggie, could sleep in her room. Sweet Maggie!!! She's 9 and just goes with the flow. It comforts Eden to have her in the room.

Here are some recent pictures I thought you'd enjoy. I'll post more soon!

Love yall!

This is how Eden wears her tiara...she is learning she is God's little princess...just like GiGi (a children's book series we love)

We were finally able to buy Eden her long-awaited tricycle because she now is fully potty trained and pooping in the potty like a big girl!

Eden's new big-girl bed.

Playing dress up with sweet Maggie. Poor dog!

I LOVE her in dress up clothes!!! Check out the jewel necklace!

Silly bath time.

More silly bath time.

Paws For China

Hello my name is Maggie and I am a chocolate Labrador retriever. I am 9 years old (nine is fine) and I live with mom and dad and Edenhopewubochenpaigemason in my house in Birmingham. This is my first time to post on a blawg. Here are some cute pictures of my littleness...




First I want to say that I love everyone, as all clocolate labs do. Second I want to say that if you have a dawg and you adopt a baby from China, please be sure not to let the baby grab your tail, or sit on you, or eat your dawg food. Also, sometimes the baby may want to put her finger up your dawg's snout, and this is not very nice. In all likelihood your dawg will not complain and in fact I just continue to wag my tail and love everyone but really this gets on my nerves.

I really like baby Eden and she likes me. She calls me "gaggie" and hands me food all the time. I stand near her high chair when she eats and get lots of people food from her. However, I have noticed that ever since she came home from China I get fewer Scooby Snacks from mom and dad and that money now goes to buy Apple Juice for Edenhopewubochenpaigemason, which I do not drink. (Mostly because Apple Juice I am told makes you go to the bathroom more and since I have to wait to go bathroom outside it would not be good for me to drink it.)

Finally, if you ever come to my house, do not forget to pet myself, as I am very friendly and like all people, especially if they have people food for me. Also you can bring me rawhide bones because I love to chew on them after I bury them in the sofa cushions. Remember that dogs are people too, except we have fur, but we can still sleep on the sofa and also eat people food from time to time. I like my house because I have a bed, and a food bowl, and a water bowl, and some toys and it is very, very nice. The end.

Oh, and also if you want to email me my dawg email address is maggiesweetcutefeet@gmail.com. This is my address because I am sweet and also I have cute feet. Okay, now it's the end.

The Word Became Flesh

How do you even do it? How do you even begin to try and put into words the depth of God's love and grace during this season? I cry every day. This is not my first Christmas as a believer - but this year everything seems so...real. John chapter 1 says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." God as a newborn, then a toddler, then a teenager, then a crucified and risen Savior. God with us. Emmanuel. Wow! There are no words. As I contemplate the birth of Christ with a toddler in my home it brings this reality alive in my mind and in my heart. When Eden does something silly, or needs a diaper change, or tee-tees in the potty like a big girl, or asks to be held and cuddled I think, "Jesus did these things." How humbling!

For 2 years we "looked forward to" meeting our daughter in the flesh. She was alive in our minds and in our hearts...but she wasn't here with us. We hoped and we waited and we dreamed and we imagined. We prayed and we prepared and we wept and we believed. We watched the mailbox waiting for I-171's and passports and visa's. And then one day, July 23, 2007, Eden "became" flesh to us and dwelt among us. She came to live with us. She became real to us. What a miracle!

I can't help but see the parallel in this adoption process. And I can't help but think how many thousands of people are going through all the motions of the Christmas holiday, but Christ isn't real to them. He is just a story, a Christmas carol, an idea, an excuse to be off work and exchange gifts...but not their Lord, Savior and friend. Not their rock, refuge and strength.

You might be thinking, "Keri, you are way over-thinking this!" Maybe so. I have been quite contemplative with things that I used to just "gloss over" now that I'm a mommy. You see, Eden mimics me...in every way. When I yell, "GO!" in traffic, she yells it, too. She sits in the bathroom and pretends to put creams on her face and contact lenses in her eyes. She tries to repeat what I say. When I hug Gene, she hugs Gene. When I kiss him, she follows suit. When I tell him "I love you" so does she. She is like a dry sponge soaking everything in.

So, what about Christmas? What attitudes, traditions and values am I pouring into her? She is so teachable right now. So eager to please and to learn. These are precious days with her. So this year, we're talking A LOT more about Baby Jesus than about Santa. Why? Because I want Christ to be real to her. He is so very real to us.

I hope as you celebrate this season He is real to you. I hope you are able to take time to worship Him with your family. And if you are struggling right now and feel sad, lonely, or forgotten, I pray He will give you the grace to look past your circumstances and see how much He loves you. So much so that He gave up a throne to enter a womb, and a world that rejected Him. He is real, and He loves you.

Merry Christmas!

Pictures of the Nursery

We finished the nursery recently, and Maggie the dog was the first one to try it out. Here are some more pictures of the finished room.

Hi From The Masons

Welcome to our blog as we chronicle our adoption in China in Summer 2007. Gene and Keri thought it would be fun to let our Chocolate Labrador Retriever, Maggie, participate in the blog by naming it. Since Maggie is such a smart dog and loves to tell stories, she decided to name it "True About This Story."

We'll be posting regularly leading up to, during and after our trip to China, which we expect to happen sometime in the next month.