Being pulled all over

Frannie has strep throat, home from school today. My student of 3 years was adopted (yeah!) by a woman in Missouri and I was much sadder to see her go than I anticipated (boo!). Frannie is gearing up for her big appearance in the Nutcracker and Grace is gearing up for her appearance in the O.R. on December 21. It's a GO. I will not talk to her about it until a day or two before so she doesn't get too freaked out. We are meeting our digit friends on Sunday for our annual Christmas picture! So much fun! I love this tradition! We've gone from 4 woman with 6 kids and here we are, four years later, 4 women with 15 kids and one on the way!

Okay, this is a little questionable in taste, but.....

Grace should be having her next surgery a few days before Christmas (around the 20th, we should hear today). Not my idea of a good Christmas gift to her, but in the end, she will be glad we did it. She is going to have the skin clipped under her top lip because it is attached to the gum (like being tongue-tied only Grace is lip-tied) and she is having some cosmetic work done on her lip and nose. Poor little bugger.

My little tiny girl

Happy Birthday to my biggest fan, Frannie. She always says the nicest things to me, how good I look, even when I don't feel quite so lovely. She loves to sign "I love you" to me, like it's a special code just between us. She truly wants to be right beside me at all times of the day and night (oooh boy) and even when I have to run 43 errands on Saturday, she would rather do that with her Mamma then stay at home watching tv. I am thinking about and praying very hard for her Mom and Dad in China, hoping that somehow they know she is okay and maybe, just maybe, we can go there one day and let them know who she is and how gorgeous, funny and smart she has become. Look how tiny she was!!!! She had not yet turned two in this picture.