Day Six

Hmm. Might just be a little fitting right now :)

A very happy birthday to my sweet mama. i am so very thankful for her and i can't believe God blessed me with such a wonderful woman. here's to many many more birthdays. may this one be the happiest yet. xxx

Day Five

Happy Birthday, Andrew. It is unbelievable that you are seven years old!
I hope you have the best birthday possible.

I am so thankful that you are my brother and cannot imagine a day without you!

Day Two

Royal Baby.
No, we don't live in the UK. No, it really doesn't affect us. Yes, I am obsessed with Kate Middleton and now her little Prince. Will's not half bad either.

I know this isn't a fabulous Day Two, but it's not everyday that a Royal baby is introduced to the world.

Day One

It's never too hot to wear boots. Nope, not even when it's over 100 degrees. Clearly, Ainsley gets her style from me.

three six five

three hundred and sixty five days in a year. such a big number, yet so small too.

because my blogging majorly lacks and i have felt as if i have nothing to blog about.

so, welcome to three six five.

this next year is going to be crazy, full of events and it should be pretty great.

so for the next year i will post a photo every single day to document life.

some may be better than others, but i am determined to post daily.

feel free to join in with your own little version.

SIX

six whole years.

yes, you read that correctly.

on Tuesday we celebrated six beautiful, glorious years with our sweet Anna Grace. I still cannot believe that it was only six years ago we were in china meeting this very special little girl.

Anna Grace rocked our world that hot July day. She made us a family. She made us multicultural. She made us open our eyes. She made us thankful. She blessed us.

Many people will say how lucky Anna Grace is to be in our family, but it is truly such the opposite. We are blessed beyond belief to have this little girl.

I'm not sure what I ever did to get to call her my sister, but oh how thankful I am that God would choose me.

We spent the day loving and treasuring Anna Grace for all that she is and celebrating the day she was placed in her forever family.

I know that this day might not always be a happy one. Adoption is not always happy, beautiful, perfect it is sad and messy and it shows what a broken world we live in. It also shows what a just and merciful God we serve. So today, we celebrate.

We love you, AG, and are so thankful to call you ours. Happy Gotcha, Baby. We love you to the moon and back fifteen times.

Diagnosis.

After about 3 months and many vials of blood later we finally have a diagnosis for Miss Anna Grace.

Let me go back a little bit.

About 2 months ago, Anna Grace went to the Dr and tested very very low for iron. (About 9.7)
We were told this looked like an iron deficiency issue and she would need to start taking iron. This was no big deal and we hoped that if she took the iron everything would be just fine.

So for two months Anna Grace took very big doses of iron religiously. She may have missed two doses. Our sweet girl prayed and took the nasty iron in stride and was very hopeful she would be better come her next doctors appointment.

Sadly, this was not the case.

Last Monday we had the "Big Appointment" to get more blood drawn and more tests done to see if her iron had improved. After a very, very traumatic finger prick the doctor came in. The doctor was so kind and so very sweet to our delicate flower girl. Instead of the iron helping and raising Anna Grace's levels, her levels were even lower.

This was a very sad thing for us, not because it is a big huge deal but because we were hopeful that we had figured out what exactly was causing her problems and this put us back at square one.

Our only option was to draw more blood and run more tests. After four tries and a lot of tears from nurses and Anna Grace they were able to get enough blood for tests.

We left after two hours and waited for the results.

Yesterday we received a call from the doctor and thankfully, her report was hopeful.

Anna Grace was diagnosed with Thalassemia. It is a blood disorder very common in asian children.

What does this mean? Well right now, she just has to be monitored pretty closely to make sure her levels stay okay. It also means she gets to stop taking the nasty iron (Yay!) Right now, it is no big deal and we pray that is continues to stay that way.

Please join us in praying for our girl. We are so thankful to finally have a diagnosis and to know exactly what was going on.