Life in the Skipper home.....

Life is good.  Still challenging but good. 

Transition with Meili is two steps forward and one step back.

And that's a very good place to be.....progress is definitely being made and the daily challenges keep me on my knees in dependence of and surrender to my mighty God.

Here are a few of the "good moments" that we have been enjoying:

One of Marc's pet peeves with me is when I cut my nails in the house.And YET his daughter is cutting hers on his HEAD and he's still smiling....ah, the power of a girl with her daddy!

It had been 6 weeks of bathing my screaming daughter....disliking her bath would be an understatement.

And then this week I put Caleb in the bath and when I went in to check on him look who had jumped in with him!!!! Ah, I treasure and celebrate every breakthrough we have with her! 

As her personality emerges I am in AWE of how well she fits into our family.

I think that my favorite part is how she LOVES singing and dancing.....mainly because

Jorie ALSO loves to sing and dance and they LOVE to do this TOGETHER.

Thank you, Lord.

It was time to take Meili to see daddy at work.

The Skipper crew to the rescue!!!!!

There is a little boy in my house that since he has started talking has said that he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.....can you guess who that is?

while the other 3 were playing on the fire trucks, look who was running around goofing off???  shocking.

not sure yet if the best part of visiting dad is the fire trucks or watching the disney channel in his room.

my first honest thought when I saw this picture was, "wow, that's a lot of kids."

ha.

I am loving watching Meili's relationships grow with each of the other kids.

While it is often ROCKY, there some really sweet moments that are happening.

Again, thank you, Lord.

Long story short is that Miss. Meili is having her cleft lip repaired on Tuesday (I'll try to write more on that later.) She won't be allowed to suck her thumb after surgery as it would interfere with the healing process of her scar and so we are now currently in the process of trying to wean her from sucking her thumb.  This has NOT been fun.  I feel like the progress she has made has taken many steps backwards in that she is more sad, angry, and NOT sleeping well again.  She's had these bandages on for 3 days now and as for the thumb sucking, they are working perfectly....she won't and can't suck her thumb anymore.  I think it has been hardest on Marc and I watching her grieve AGAIN the loss of something....this time the ONLY thing left that always brought her comfort.  It feels like just when things were really getting better and she was getting so much happier we set her back with this.  As you can see, it has been hard.  BUT necessary.  I am sure things will start getting better again just before we put her through surgery on Tuesday.....AGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!  When there have been the hardest moments I keep thinking about all the orphans and people in Haiti, and God reminds me that there are people that have it A LOT harder right now....and then I just start praying for them.

Knowing that God is in control,

He alone is sovereign,

and THIS picture

makes it all worth it.

My life verse these last couple of weeks has been

2 Timothy 2:4 "No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs-he wants to please his commnading officer."  If I claim that Jesus is my Lord then He alone is my commanding officer....does my life and thoughts and time reflect that?  With His help, I am working on it.