A.MAZ.ING Love

Tonight, the most amazing thing happened! Excuse the weaving around on the highway through town, as I had my arm wrapped around the seat, firmly holding Dex's hand, tears streaming down my face so hard I could barely see the lines on the road.
Two weeks ago, Dex initiated a hug with me for the first time. For several months, he has been okay with me hugging or kissing him if I approach him, but he had never been the one to ask for a hug. Before that, he would pull away or become rigid when I was affectionate with him.
Tonight, driving down the road, his sweet little voice said, "Hold hand, Momma?" I could hardly believe it ... he had asked to connect with me, when we weren't face-to-face or having a transition of any kind ... just because he wanted to. After fifteen months, he wants to hold his Momma's hand.
Amazing. Love. Joy.

Our Merry Christmas Letter

The Coston family has been blessed beyond measure this year. It has been a year full of change, chaos, adjustment but, above all, blessing.
We’ve celebrated birthdays, our first forever family anniversary with Dex, lost teeth, a year in business, deaths into heaven, brokenness and healing, friendship, new schools and teachers, scrapes and scraps on and between kids, answered prayers, and lots of love. Each of the children has grown and changed immeasurably this year, each growing more distinctly individual. Abi is thriving in school, definitely academically-oriented, loving reading and writing, the monkey bars,
and children’s choir. Brandon loves to build and invent things, mostly from cardboard and tape, is in love with his kindergarten teacher, and is becoming more of a rough-and-tumble little boy every day. Camryn is our spicy, spirited little preschooler who loves to learn, coerce others, be in-charge, melt into a puddle when things don’t go her way, and make us melt into a puddle with her beauty and sweetness. Dex is becoming confident in our love, confident enough to be completely “two,” and loves to blow bubbles, play outside, color, sing and dance, eat candy, and kiss Momma. Each of our babies is such a blessing and opportunity to see what we’re truly made of each and every day.

Our vet clinic has been open almost a year now, and there have certainly been bumps along the way as we’ve learned. But, as we say daily, we haven’t starved to death yet, and it is an honor to serve our community in this way. Mischelle started working in the clinic full-time in April, which has meant significant adjustments for the whole family, but we’ve survived the transition. We work together and play together.

Our days are gloriously filled with rocks in the dryer, learning to spell “big” 10-letter-long words, booger emergencies, potty-training, lost coats, applying God’s Word to our family, fixing puppies
and kitties, a messy house, lots of noise, more new tennis shoes and blue jeans, scooter rides, board games, sidewalk chalk, spankings and kisses, discussions and decisions, snuggles, and “I love you’s.”

And we are blessed.

Love,
The Coston Clan

Is it or Ain't It?

Great line of questioning, drawing a parallel between the two . . . there's no middle ground. Either abortion is or isn't right. Watch with an open mind.

Cloudy Day ....

Today, my mood just matches the weather. Cloudy.

I have so much to be thankful for - I certainly haven't lost sight of that. Just a bit gloomy.

I was told by an elderly man today, who had just come within 2 inches of plowing over my cart full of children groceries in the crosswalk, that his time (all 20 extra seconds it would have taken him to stop and let us pass had he chosen to do so) was more valuable than the four precious faces in my cart. I generally ram my cart into the fenders of said crosswalk offenders, but I had exercised self-control, much to my chagrin now. Just kidding. Kind of.

I put away the highchair for the fourth and final time.

There are home repair projects that desperately need to be done, but I can't do it myself (enter the sobbing when I came home to discover my 85-year-old neighbor brushhogging our pasture because it's embarrasingly overgrown).

We have this puppy that I really like but can't seem to fully housebreak, and even I am tired of steam cleaning.

Dexter won't quit vocalizing through his nose - think nails on a chalkboard.

Remission is no longer a likely outcome for Nick's grandfather.

I have become a last-minute, procrastinator out of necessity.

My momma doesn't feel good lately.

Everyone's bedsheets need to be changed.

I miss my best friend.

There's a 6-inch hole in my living room carpet - let me tell you that cleared a room when this Momma discovered that!

I have gained 5 pounds and haven't exercised in weeks, unless you count holding down a 100-pound obnoxious puppy yesterday.

My kitchen is still half-painted.

Despite 3 hours in town this morning, I still have a list of errands a mile long.

I haven't vacuumed along my baseboards in months, and my plants are droopy and begging for a drink.

My first-ever Smartphone just died. So much for technology.

I have a massage gift certificate that I haven't used in almost 2 years. Thankfully, it has no expiration date.

I just feel gloomy, and then I feel guilty and ashamed for letting these things, most of which are horribly insignificant, bug me.

Attitude is a choice, and I will smile.

No Whining

As I grew up and envisioned my life, my visions of family portraits certainly didn't include a fiesty little Asian man. In retrospect, I'm not quite sure how our life journey wound up here, but I'm so thankfult that it has.

I've always been a "suck it up; get up and get moving; get tough" kind of gal. I run a wee bit short on mercy and find it difficult to coddle those whose only affliction is apathy or laziness. However, orphans don't fit in that category and somehow God has used that small loophole in my "No whining, Git'r'Done" edict to bring a little compassion and Dexter into my life. I don't think there's any question that as Christians, we all share a role in the plight of orphans.

"Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17

Scripture doesn't have any qualifiers on this passage .... those are action verbs (learn, seek, defend, take up). They require action. Not everyone is called to be an adoptive parent. I didn't think I was. But, you can help support orphans and foster/adoptive families in so many other ways.

It was a year ago Friday that we returned home with Dex. I think it's really neat that our coming home date will always coincide with National Orphan Sunday. The National Christian Alliance has marked the first Sunday of November "Orphan Sunday" (visit orphansunday.org for more information). Now that I'm beginning to have my feet under me as an adoptive mom, I'd like to start planning for a local event for next year to raise awareness for the need for adoptive and foster parents for the world's 140 MILLION children without families. I encourage you to take action for an orphan somehow, in some way.

Tomorrow Will Be Very Boring!

Tomorrow will be very boring compared to October 20th of last year!

We are not boarding a plane to travel to the other side of the globe. We will not be having a day that lasts 37 hours. We will not be stranded in an airport where no one speaks the same language as we do. We will not be with people who would understand why the t-shirt "I'm huge in China" is hysterical. We will not be eating something unidentifiable, but with a strong similarity to fish, at 33,000 feet altitude. We will not be trying to get through each airport security checkpoint without our around-the-waist money pouches looking obvious because we didn't want to try to explain to Chinese-speaking guards why we have $10,000 in US currency strapped to our bodies. We will not be squatting over a porcelain-lined hole in the ground to urinate. We will not be nauseous from the anticipation of meeting our 4th child for the first time, as well as leaving our other three children 6000 miles behind. Going to work in Greenwood, AR, and eating leftovers for dinner seems relatively boring, in comparison.

I cannot believe that it's been a year since we left for China. Sigh. Smile. Cry. Sob. Smile.

Happy Birthday, Dexter!

In just a few minutes, our littlest man will be 2 -- on this side of the globe, anyway. On the other side, in China, he's already 2.
So many emotions fill my heart in anticipation of his birthday. I am so grateful to be with him this year. Happy tears overflowed tonight when I laid out his clothes to wear tomorrow, which included the "Birthday Boy" shirt I bought last year just before his first birthday, when it had become obvious that we were not going to get clearance to travel to be with him on his birthday. I had what I call an "ugly cry" in the middle of JCPenney's, looking at the shirts and wanting to be with him so badly. I am sorrowful for what I know must lurk in his "tummy mommy's" heart on this day, when she relives the birth of a precious little boy that she could not keep. I am ecstatic that he is happy and healthy and loved. I am melancholy that in 16 minutes, when he turns 2, I will never, ever again have a 1-year-old child in my home. I always longed to be a mom, dreaming of having squirmy babies and rambunctious toddlers in my arms and home. Now that phase of life is quickly fading into something equally wonderful but maturely different. I am forever changed by the things he's taught me and the love I've experienced.
Happy Birthday, Dex!
Love,
Mom

First Day of School

This year, the first day of school was twice as much fun in the Coston house! Abi is a second grader, and Brandon is a kindergartener! Brandon was so excited about school - he's been ready since the day he turned 5 to go to school (slight misunderstanding about my statement that, "You will get to go to school when you turn 5.")Brandon wasn't the tiniest bit hesitant about school. He threw on that backpack and took off down the trail we were walking to school .... tomorrow is what he's really been waiting for, though, when he gets to ride the bus! He was eager to get past the picture taking with Mrs. Sosebee and get on with recess!
Abi was excited about second grade, but she said she knew she wouldn't learn much the first few weeks because "you never do" (she's such an expert at this school thing now!)

Happy Independence Day!

Mr. America's first Independence Day!Freedom is currently defined by Dex as "being out of any buckles, restraints, strollers, or other cruel, spirit-smashing devices" ... he enjoyed some freedom at Greenwood's FreedomFest tonight.Mr. America will likely not be joining the local fire department when he grows up ... not a fan of the firetruck!

We're so grateful that Dex is part of our family. We are so grateful to live in America! Happy 4th of July to our Chinese-American son!

Summer

So many summer fun times .... so many picture-worthy moments!Playing at the parkBubbles

Sisters - My beautiful daughters

Bicycle washings

Preparing for the assault

Bike rides

Sleepovers in siblings' rooms.

Baseball games.

The results of eating of dishwashing detergent . . . a whole new meaning to having your mouth washed out (by tears and Electrosol)!

Swinging Naps

Sunday morning doughnut breakfasts at the "gas station"