Isaiah turns 10!

January 20th, marked the day that our first son was born, Gosh we have now been parents for 10 years, that seems like a long time.  The theme seems to be going at our house to keep things simple, so I guess that is our ongoing birthday thing:)  Anyway, Isaiah did get his share of celebration though.  First we were blessed by a dear/generous couple who gave Travis a pair of Duke tickets for the Duke/Clemson game.  So sidenote, Travis has been a huge Duke fan since he was a kid so this was a double blessing because then Isaiah is now a Duke fan, so this was a perfect time for Isaiah to go to his first ACC basketball game and he loved it!  Not to mention Papa was pretty happy at his first venture to Cameron Indoor!

Isaiah James Williams

We did of course the usuals, we had our chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, along with real thick bacon which is a splurge, that all the kids love!  We did this saturday morning, since sunday mornings make it kind of hard to cook a big breakfast that takes any amount of time.  So then on Sunday, after church we just did things Isaiah enjoys, football, play games, watch football, etc., had a yummy dinner and then double layer chocolate chip cookie cake with chocolate icing per his request, can you say rich!

We had a great couple days of honoring the life of our first born son, and prayers for him.  Isaiah is our
oldest, so he does bear a lot of the responsibility around the house in helping and for that I am thankful because he does a good job.  He has a sweet demeanor, and is great with the little ones.  For good reason you hear Shiloh yelling through the house, "Isaiah" she knows if she wants a free ride upstairs or down, she has one in him!  He is tender toward her and other little ones, but also is rough and fun out on the football field.  Isaiah loves to read right now, and is working hard in school(most of the time).  We do pray he will be a man of great faith one day and thankful for his life!

Isaiah holding our friends baby, Derrick.

Christmas Part 2-still late:)

Well Granna and Grandpa made the trek from Tennessee a couple days after Christmas to meet Shiloh and of course see everyone else too!  We had a good visit with them, enjoying all the yummy food Granna brings which usually includes her fudge that the kids love.  Yes Shiloh actually loves it too, I think she could eat her share as much as Sammy could.  We were thankful they made the trip, as it can be hard on Granna having to drive the whole way but she is willing and able so were glad!  Shiloh, loved to go to Granna too, so this was good.  And Sammy loves to play with Grandpa, which made for a fun time.  

Our flower children:) 

Sammy's favorite place!

Christmas Part 1-Late I know:)

Well we arrived home on December 20th, just in time for Christmas which we were really thankful for. My brother Herschel was able to come up on the 23rd and meet Shiloh and of course spend time with us too, this was super special!  He was able to bring my mom over to join in, so they took part in some of our traditions and we really enjoyed them!  Two things we have done for the past 3 or 4 years, we've lost count, is go out to eat at Pizza Hut on Christmas Eve and look at Christmas lights.  We shared with them that this started one year, we figured out it was right after the birth of Sammy(Nov. 14), needless to say I wasn't up for cooking much so we decided to take a drive and see what would be open on Christmas Eve when we stumbled upon Pizza Hut, then of course the next year the kids said well aren't we going to Pizza Hut, top it with stories from Papa and it became a tradition.  Secondly we have been sweetly invited to a dear family in our churches home for Christmas Day dinner, they even keep inviting us as our family has continued to grow so this is extra special.  We always feel truly loved there and our kids absolutely love to play with their children, even though they are now adult children.  So this year my bro and mom came along too and we had a great time.  We had a great Christmas and had so much to be thankful for!!  It's funny, in the manuals on adoption they tell you not to overstimulate your child, give or do too many things all at once, well poor Shiloh coming at Christmas she really had no choice:)  She did learn how to tear wrapping paper.

Uncle Herschel with Shiloh!

Shiloh, learning to open presents, she loved her princess chair.

Micah, giving his your not touching this look:)

Grandma looking through her basket!

Isaiah, as Thor!

Just sweet picture of big brother taking care of Shiloh!

Anna, working on her pottery wheel!

Sammy aka Ironman!

Financial Update

Just wanted to explain briefly why I changed our giving thermometer.  At the end of our adoption process, which is actually still ongoing in some ways with paperwork and fees, but the travel part we had a certain amount left to raise which at the time we thought to be just our travel and we thought our travel would cost roughly 6000.  But what happened is we had the privilege to travel in December which caused this to make our expenses be more than we thought, so it looks better to see how much we have paid and raised so far against the whole total bill rather than just the travel.  Please do join us in praying there is one grant that we applied for that is the last one out there that they may be gracious to grant us something toward our remaining bills, if we are the family God wants to receive some.  And again we are so thankful for all the generosity we have seen, it truly is amazing!!!

No Expectations-

I just wanted to share briefly how we are doing and a little of the journey it has been for us now that we have precious Shiloh home.  Travis and I talked about it and we both felt the same going to China, while we prayed for our daughter and loved her in the sense of a far away picture, we both had not necessarily developed a deep love for her as our daughter that some do prior to meeting their daughters/sons.  So anyway, we realized that everyone processes things differently and that even we might do the same, but at least in this aspect we were the same.  So I wondered how it would be for me, would it be love at first site, would it take long, just what would it be like...because it is different for everyone.  So I will say for me, after the first day and each day after my love for her has only grown more and more and I am thankful!  In caring for her needs, in trying to understand and sympathize what she might be thinking and feeling, my heart has been(and I pray will stay) filled with compassion for her.  I do admit in China, it was pretty surreal, in the matter of minutes this precious girl is our daughter, I did have to remind myself, she's ours, she is really our daughter.  It was a truly amazing feeling and thankful that God saw fit for our family to adopt internationally....so now that we are home, things are going better, or beyond any expectations we could have had.  I have told plenty of people, you expect the worst, but do hope for the best with the transition and while we are only 3 weeks in so far we have been blessed beyond anything we could hope for.  Shiloh, sleeps like a champ, see she was always destined to be a Williams.  Now the getting to sleep has been one of our battles, as she always had an adult sleep with her, but we have been working on this with her and she is doing better every night and it helps that she now has her big sis to sleep with too!

She also was afraid of baths, which caused a little drama but as of the last two no tears were shed these are great victories!  She has been to the doctor quite a bit, had x-rays which she hated, and apparently has really little veins(well she is very petite-doesn't get that from her mama:)  but overall has done extremely well.  She loves stickers so that usually makes it all better in the end.

So far health wise they have only found that she has something called pectus carinatum, which is a deformity of the chest, which the doctor said will either get better as she gets older or worse, so we are praying it will get better.  Regardless it would be helped by surgery if she ever needed it.  She has a couple more appointments, but things are looking good and she's gaining weight too so that's good!  She loves to mimic what we say, so this is really good to help her learn english, she is a bright little girl, we have no doubt she will pick it up quick.  Well thanks for caring and praying, will post more of the holidays and life soon!