GOTCHA!

**Warning, if you are an adoptive parent easily offended, don’t read on! ;-)

I read an article recently on some site that was supposed to help you prepare for adoption/travel/your new child, etc.. And I came across this article under a section called whats hot, titled, “Getting rid of gotcha”. Interesting. For those of you who don’t know, Gotcha Day in adoption world, typically refers to the day you meet your child. And so I read the article and once again have found more “rules” in adoption world I just had no idea about! Honestly as I read it thought it was a joke. No, sadly it was true. Apparently saying Gotcha Day is offensive. Maybe you all know this, I must be slow to catch on to these things. Some parents refuse to call it Gotcha day, so they refer to it as

Metcha Day
Forever Family Day
Adoption Day
Family Day
“child's name” day
Siblings Day
And the list goes on.

The article said “ when you catch a mosquito, you say Gotcha. How awful that we use the same term when speaking of our children.” Are you kidding me?

Here is what I have learned. Some people have WAY more time on their hands to dissect the silliest things! Are we seriously that worried about the term we use for that day? Wow! I honestly just had to laugh! Who really cares WHAT we call it? Does it really require writing a magazine article to warn new parents NOT to say gotcha?

August 21st, 2006, God handed me the most amazing gift. I GOT my Sage! WE became a forever family. My life was changed in only ways that God could have ordained. It is among the most memorable day of my life. YOU can refer to it as whatever YOU want, and I will happily refer to it as I want. It is a day I will celebrate till the day I die, and I could care less if it is labeled “Sage’s gotcha, metcha, forever family, placed in her parents arms, planned from the beginning of time, she is a Laxton, Day!”

I guess the thing to me that I just don't get is this. How can we even care what it is called? How can some people look at that day and really worry about the terminology that was used for it. I look at August 21st 2006 and the name is NOT what pops into my head. My daughters face, the way she felt when I finally held her in my arms, the smells, the look in her eyes, THOSE are the things I think about from that day. I can still FEEL the way I felt on that day, the way she felt in my arms. I can promise you, it did not feel as if I was swatting a mosquito! ;-)

So before anyone leaves me a comment telling me I am going to ruin my childrens lives because I don't worry about these things, don't bother. If you want to get rid of gotcha, you go ahead! I have MUCH more important things to worry about like, how can I will an I171 into my mailbox, or how can we possibly get to China near the Olympics or, how can we change the world so every orphan has a GOTCHA day which actually means they all have families! Those are my worries.

Hammy The Hamster is no more..

Well, I guess if you can't escape the cage, you just kick the bucket while in it. Today I went downstairs and checked in on the hamster, and he appeared to be laying at an odd angle. I told Mark he might need to check him out and he said, uh, he is dead. DEAD? The hamster who ran FREE for months on end and escaped us how many times has now died? What in the world am I going to blog about if I can't blog about the hamster and how smart he is! I guess he outsmarted us in the end, he is FREE! Running in the land of passed on hamsters I am sure! ;-)
So were the kids sad? They just wanted to know if they could dig up the backyard and bury him. We read that dwarf hamsters only live a short time, so I guess it was his expiration date. THANK GOODNESS we found him when we did or we would have been in trouble. Oh and can you imagine had I actually sold him to some sweet kid at my yard sale, to have him die on them a week later. My oh my.
One of my friends suggested today that we should stick to kids rather than pets. Probably a smart idea! The good news is, we now have TWO cages to go in our next yard sale pile! HA!

Another Peek at our Princess!

Hi Mommy, blowing you a KISS all the way from China!!!
Look at those cheeks on her! Only a waiting momma can get excited over a glimpse of her little ears! Look how THICK that hair is! You know I am already figuring out what bows to take with me!


Look to the right hand corner, see her coming in! As if to say, don't forget me, my mommy NEEDS my pictures!
Look at that face, isn't she precious!
I am sure Mavery will be so excited to see that I posted her photo wearing split pants for all the world to see!
Simply Beautiful

A family traveled to Jinhua for their daughter and that is how we were blessed with these photos. Their daughter is in the pink and blue that is a little smaller than Mavery. She apologized that there were not more clear of their faces, but can you even imagine the chaos of that moment going on! We are SO thankful for any little tiny glimpse of our precious girl, we are happy with pictures of her backside! Even the side of her face makes me smile. I have studied every teeny tiny detail of these pictures over and over. Where oh where is my I171??

Andrews Blog

Sorry I have been so behind in posting on Andrew. It has just been a little crazy here! But I know many of you have asked and I wanted to share their blog we have started. Things are going good, as you can read. But do please continue to keep them in your prayers. He is not home yet, and has a long road to go. The other family that had been in a separate accident? Their daughter did pass away last week. So they lost 2 daughters to a car accident, after having lost a daughter in a car accident a few years ago. They have a younger daughter. How does one not become bitter? Only the Lord can help them find peace. Also, Kathy lost her grandmother on Saturday. So it is just one thing after another. But God is good, Andrews leg is looking better and he is ALIVE!!

YEAH for Team Mavery!

Before the sale begins, you would not believe the stuff we had!
Still before...

Hot Dogs anyone?
Jenny & Michelle wearing Mavery spirit!
Queen of Yardsalers, shopping for a new hat?
Let the shopping begin!

My mom, Kelly & Mark's mom putting out baby clothes

After the sale!




Wow, wow, WOW!! I am not even sure where to begin. I am so overwhelmed and blessed and tired and excited and WOW!!

Ok, so here is how it went down....

Friday we had to be up early to drive to the funeral of my sister in laws mother. Please continue to hold her in prayer. So hard.

We had Megan here babysitting for us. Who had also been here the night before while we attended a banquet. Thank you Megan! While we were gone, she said there was a party going on at our house! Our childrens director came w/ pizza. my mom came to help. Our youth pastor came w/ youth and they carried up the ENTIRE basement of stuff to the garage! YEAH! My friend Renee showed up while we were gone and worked for us, also bringing along food and fun for everyone! They all loved you Renee!

We got home just in time for our Team to show up and WORK some more! We started about 6, and I think it was about 11 when everyone left. We tried to set almost everything up that night, and then covered tables in plastic. We finished the evening w/ prayer. Thank you Amy!
Today we started early. And those who left my house late on Friday, were back at my house at 6:30 today to work. My prayer was, please Lord, let people show up, and please Lord, let your glory shine. Sure we need money, but most important, let us show your love to these people.
Well we had people, LOTS of people! Team Mavery was in full force for sure! My cousin Amy made the cute little name tags, we all wore those in honor of our girl! Aren't they great? The kids were thrilled, they got to have a hot dog stand and had so much fun doing that. We had to threaten them not to knock on the neighbors doors to try to sell them hotdogs!

So, what you all REALLY want to know, WHAT IS THE TOTAL right? We did not keep track during the day. We wanted it all to be a surprise. Our yardsale queen(Amazing Jan, who did SO much work, thank you thank you, thank you) said her goal for us was $2000. I said I would be happy w/ $900. My friends doing check out said they guessed we had made $1300 or $1500....

We made over TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! Praise God! And we still have a few hundred dollars worth of stuff we are pretty sure we can sell online plus another small sale we are doing at the end of the month in a busy subdivision.(we live in the country) God is good, He really, really is.

As I watched this whole day unfold, this whole project unfold, I was just in awe. I could never, NEVER have pulled this off alone. No way. And I thought, who am I, to deserve to have this outpouring of love poured upon us? I am sure not that great of a friend, I can't ever repay anyone for all they have done. And God just whispered, they love you, but they do this because they love ME! And they love Mavery. A little girl, who sits in China as an orphan, but each one of these friends BELIEVES she is supposed to be home, a Laxton, our daughter. So we are once again humbled and blessed and thankful and happy. We got our SON-Shine in more ways that one!

I can't even begin to name names, we had SO many people helping in SO many ways. From sign makers, to pricers, to food makers, to kid watchers, to carriers, to givers to buyers, to money counters, to cleaner upers, to encouragers, to everything in between. We have had people at our house ALOT giving time and energy to make this work. And they really ALL did it w/ a smile! Sadly I missed lots of workers in pictures. We had over 20 here working today alone!

We can't wait for someday when Mavery is home, and we can share the story of the love that surrounded her from here to China! Team Mavery, Helping us Grow!!

A glimpse of GORGEOUS!!

LOOK WHAT WE GOT!! Is she not beautiful? Oh my aching heart NEEDS to hold that baby girl! Yep, that is MY MAVERY! The one on the left in the yellow and blue sweater. They have cut her hair, but that is her! So much to blog about but I have to get up for a yardsale in a few hours so will post tomorrow or after I recover from the sale. Just had to share the gift we got today to see ALMOST a smile on that face!

Shop till you Drop!

Well Saturday we are having the yardsale of all yardsales! We are SO excited and you would not believe what amazing friends we have! The donations have just poured in, we have had at LEAST 20-25 familys donate. And the help in pricing, I would have been SO lost w/ out these amazing girls who have been here many, many days helping to keep me sane. I have had help w/ my kids, people helping to make lunch for workers, friends offering to carry things upstairs. And it even seems the weather is supposed to be good on Saturday! Thank you Jesus for that!

We got sad news this week. My sister in laws mother passed away suddenly. (she lost her father 18 months ago). We will be going down for her funeral on friday morning. please pray for them. And those amazing friends I have? They have stepped up and even offered to RUN the sale if we needed them to be here while gone.

They are making signs, and just being SO encouraging. They are even offering to be here EARLY on saturday! We are so, so thankful for everyone who has helped us out. We can't say thank you enough for all everyone has done for us.

Today as going through the stuff, we came across some sheets and a bedskirt. A brand new bedskirt still in the package. Well, I have been needing a bedskirt, I ruined my old one by drying it. And trying to figure out how I was going to find one to match the comforter we had. Guess what? The brand new one in the yard sale pile? It is the SAME bedskirt I had! It is not just a plain one, it is one that matched the set! Isn't that just like God to give us those sweet little surprises in a pile of yardsale "stuff"! Which is kind of like this whole yard sale. It is ALOT of work for sure. but the blessings I have found in the friends & family helping out are just so sweet.

AND THE WINNER IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a video, will post later, but wanted to shout out the winner while I have time! We are so excited to say that #106 was the winner, which is the Gove Family! Now if Sage knew her numbers or who had what number, I am sure she would have been excited to know that she pulled her Evie out! But since she has no clue what is going on, we can promise she did not cheat! So YEAH for the Goves!

Our grand total for the raffle was $1445.00!! We are THRILLED with that and SO, so humbled by the outpouring of support from you all. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. As I cut up the squares with numbers on them last night, I prayed for you by number. As I checked off my list to make sure everyone was accounted for, I prayed for you by name. We feel so very blessed.

Last Chance for the GARMIN!!!

*Please scroll down to the next post for updates on Andrew and continue to lift him up in prayer.

We are SO excited to see who the winner is of the GPS!! The kids are all fighting over who gets to draw out the winning number! I wish we could draw 4 winners, so they could each get a chance, but we have only ONE navigation system! Monday the 31st at midnight is your last chance! We will draw on Tuesday as soon as we can. We appreciate all of you so much who have given for this. We have had alot of fun watching the numbers GROW!

And stay tuned this week for pictures of the growing yardsale piles. The big sale is SATURDAY! The kids said we could offically open our own store, since it appeared we had as much stuff as Wal Mart! HA! We are praying for SON-Shine on us that day for sure!

We also got some "frustrating" news on our agency this week. Trying not to panic, but please just keep Mavery-paperwork-Hague Agreement in your prayers.

Please Pray UPDATED AGAIN!

Update 3/31-

We are working on a blog for Andrew, look for a link soon. He is in surgery now, she said it could be from 5-14 HOURS long. They began at 8:15am. Please join us at the throne for this family. While praying for them this song played "I will praise you in this storm" and I am just reminded that God is who He is. He holds Andrew in His hands.

Update 3/30

Andrew has a major surgery in the morning on his leg, they are doing a skin and bone graft from what I understood. This will tell them alot about the outcome on the leg. Kathy said the surgery will last 5 hours. PLEASE pray that God would heal his leg. I do not know if I mentioned this before, but Andrew is a huge basketball player, a really, really good one to. Kathy did say that they took out the breathing tube and he ate a popsicle! So that seems encouraging! Please pray for peace for Kathy as she has to watch her son go through all of this. As mothers we know that when our children hurt, we hurt even worse.

Also, the night of the accident, Kathy was on her way to the hospital to visit a friend because her children were involved in a horrible accident. The driver/daughter of the car was killed, and the other daughter is still in serious condition from a brain injury. This family had a daughter killed a few years ago in a car accident. Horrible. So while Kathy was on the way to this, she got the call about her own son. Please also lift this family up in your prayers.

I will keep posting updates on Andrew to this post, so please continue to check back.

UPDATE 3/27

Well we have some encouraging news, the doctors have been able to stabilize Andrew's left leg. They did however find what they had suspected. All of Andrew's muscles and nerves were destroyed. They were able to get a pulse in the foot, but are not sure he will have use of it. Kathy says the main worry at the moment is infection. Andrew has no casing on his leg, so he just has an open hole, if you will. The plan is to do more work I believe Saturday and then on Tuesday they will go back in to surgery and take stomach muscle for a graft and hope that takes. If it does it would seem to suggest the leg will be saved. The doctors have been bringing him in and out of the drug coma and he is able to respond to their questions, so this is very good news as well. Kathy is very tired, but very optimistic! Keep the prayers and positive energy coming, it is going to be a very long road for them.

3-26 I have talked about my friend Kathy many times. I am asking you to please, PLEASE lift her son up in prayer. His name is Andrew. He is 16 and was in a terrible car accident last night. He had to be airlifted to the hospital. He made it through the night and things are looking better than last night, but he is still in very serious condition. He had a brain bleed, and they are very worried he could lose his leg, among many other breaks he has. He is going back in for surgery on the leg in the morning at 8am.

Things like this, so sudden, it just makes you want to hold on to your kids a little tighter. We just never, ever know. We trust that God is holding on to Andrew, and holding Kathy up. Please, pray that Andrew is healed, that he can be home w/ all those sisters soon. We know very well that sisters NEED their brother! I tell Kathy all the time, he is the king in a housefull of princess'!

I'm Dreaming of a White...Easter??

Attempt #100 at family photo. Nope, Sage looks the wrong way.

Attempt #200, well Sage is looking, but Malaine is almost in the picture and not sure what face Makenna is making! Should be fun getting FIVE kids to cooperate!
Maybe no parents is better. Sage IS saying Cheese. And no Malaine is not wearing lipstick, she gets this chapped face during colds and cold weather.There is a smile from Sage! Wishing for Mavery to be here too...
The boys ready for some serious egg hunting.

The girls, well part of Makenna and part of Sage anyways.

My brother, parents & me!

Our pastor and family. Sheila is Malaines preschool teacher and she thinks it is really cool that she gets to see her at school, and church and even our house! Next year, they will have a sweet little baby girl from Vietnam joining their picture & family!


If I don't look at the camera, maybe they won't notice I found the candy!

A cold egg hunt!

My niece Tyler, Makenna, Jordan and Sage

Dreaming of a White Easter... These were the words we were greeted with at church today! Yep, it was snowing here as we made our way to celebrate. So much for cute spring dresses and open toed shoes. Pull out the warm clothes and coats.

Easter is one of my favorite Sundays for our church. We are outgrowing our current location and typically have 2 services. So on Easter, we meet at the middle school in town for just one service. I love being able to worship together. I love seeing those I don't see often or, actually ever besides this day. I love celebrating our Risen Savior. As Malaine said.. "Mommy, He PUSHED those rocks right out of the way and He ROSE from that grave!" Yep, I love celebrating that He died so we can live, forever!

We ended our service with this song and I just think it is so perfect.. "Savior, He can move the mountains, He is mighty to Save Forever, Author of Salvation, He rose and conquered the grave.." It is why we celebrate Easter, it is everything we believe in, our Hope and the reason we live.

After church we hosted Easter lunch for 40 of our family and friends. No, I do NOT cook all that food! I simply supply the house and everyone else does the rest, including clean up! We really do enjoy hosting the holidays and are thankful for a house that seats 40 people together! (and for a big driveway..) ;-) Another cold egg hunt, but at least the snow stopped! We now have candy coming out our ears. Does that sell at yard sales? ha!

We pray you had a Blessed Day celebrating our Savior!