What a year!!!!

Where do I begin but life has been an amazing trip this past year.  Truly moving too fast to breathe and stop and smell the roses.  I'll attempt the year in review and get caught up on our blog.  So July as usual flies by with bday month and a trip to see Scott in Anacortes, WA.   We had a great visit and enjoyed our time with Scott.  Loved his home and Jailyn had a blast seeing her big brother and I think her highlight was picking strawberries and plopping down in the patch and just chowing down and spending time with her family.  Once July was over our world got crazy family challenges, all the final decisions on our new home just kept adding up and felt such an overwhelming stress on our lives.  Not to mention my family started to fall apart as we were gearing up for our move.  My brother had an accident that laid him up for months in rehab, we had a scare that mom might have pancreatic cancer and praise God was diagnosed with Diabetes instead and is now insulin dependent resulting in a hospital stay and total lifestyle change in her diet and my sister in law had to have her foot amputated.   Thank goodness everyone is managing a lot better now.  So my family was unable to help us watch Jailyn as we were trying to pack and get ready to move.  The goal was to move in August and ended up moving Sept 27.  We had two family weddings, my niece married in Sept and nephew in Oct which were a joy for us to attend in the midst of moving.  Jailyn started freaking out with getting ready to leave her home the only home with us she ever knew and Mike and I in a frenzy to finish the new house with all the contractors, sell the old home (which hallelujah sold 10 days after being on the market and we sold it ourselves taking a hit due to a neighbor low balling their home which was priced to low and went up the same weekend on the market but they had to sell).  C'est la vie it was sold woohoo!!!!  The house went up for sale the week before we moved, people were coming thru the house the whole time I am trying to get packed, Mike travelled the week before we moved (and I was still packing as the movers arrived) with Jailyn scared to death (and thank good saw the attachment and bonding therapist the week before to help Jailyn make the transition.). No sleep for the first two weeks and just totally overwhelmed with all the change.   We met every need to comfort Jailyn and she had just began preschool too when all this change was occuring.   God does not give you more than you can handle however I thought I was going to lose it!!!!  Then November came just sat and stared for a week and could not function.  Then the holidays.  Scott was in for thanksgiving and it was the best.  We had family portraits made which we so loved for our new home and had the best time with the whole family.  Then Christmas in our new home and it was so special in our new home we poured our heart and soul into.  However we decided next year we can not do Christmas with Mike's big family anymore Christmas Eve just too much on us and for Jailyn.  We want traditions that are enjoyable for our family and not so much work and stress.  I can't wait to be able to goto church Christmas Eve and not feel rushed and be able to enjoy our time with family.  Then the crazy winter of 2014.  We were so house bound and Jailyn loved the snow however it was so cold many days we were just stuck.  She hated how many preschool days were cancelled.  We celebrated Baby Adelyn's first bday January 31 and what a blessing she is.   Jailyn loves being Aunt Jailyn to Adelyn.  They are sweet together.  We were thrilled to plan an all inclusive vacation to Jamaica the end of March and beginning of April.  First real vacation for rest and relaxation in three years.  Just what we needed and  they had a kids club for Jailyn to attend.  She did not want to leave to come home and had a blast in kids club in the mornings and evenings.   It gave Mike and I time for us.  Best vacation ever!!!!  Then thrilled spring has sprung better late than never.  Love being able to enjoy our new home outside and be with the neighbors and Jailyn can play with the kids, ride her big girl bike which is a big o deal this year and just have family time together outside .  Jailyn graduated preschool in May.  She loved school and one more year of preschool and off to all day kindergarten.  We are in a Facebook group for the 8th grade graduating class of 2024.  How crazy is that!!!!  We still do gymnastics on Fridays and finish up Dance this coming week with her recital.  Very busy summer and the best is yet to come.  So I think we are caught up and will have to post pictures from the year in the next post.

Busy as ever and enjoy the video...

So many great things happening in our lives. It has been two amazing years with Jailyn.  Gotcha Day June 12!   How time has flown and she is growing up so fast and says the cutest things with big words.  Jailyn wants to be so independent and tends to have to sit in the naughty chair for not listening.  Working thru the challenging 3's already.  We love her so much and look forward to every day with Jailyn.  We celebrated the Baptism of our grand daughter, Adelyn, which was a very happy day.  Our new home is in the finishing stages and moving in August.  We are coming up on Birthday month for Mike, Jailyn and myself.  And so ready to go on vacation to see Scott in Washington State...Very blessed and just super busy...

And this video was a big ole gift to us.   This video was used at the DSA, Direct Selling Association, Convention in June in Phoenix to celebrate what is right about direct sales.   We were picked to share our journey to Jailyn and my direct selling journey to be a work from home momma.  It tells our journey so beautifully and uses our actual footage from referral to gotcha day.  So happy to share on our blog.  Enjoy and get the tissues as you may just need them.

Thanks for following our journey!
Love,
Linette

Happy 2 year Referral Anniversary Day!

Two years ago today, April 1, 2011, was the first day we ever saw our daughter's face. We received our referral via email.  I remember the day's events clear as can be and I fell in love with an amazing little girl I had known in my heart and dreams that I was her mommy. Blessed beyond my wildest dreams. It's our Happy 2 Year referral Anniversary Day! 

So In Love with Jailyn...

Our Happy Little Girl at an Easter Egg Hunt March 30, 2013.

 

 

Happy New Year! Jailyn is 2 1/2 & with us 20 months!

Valentine's day and Jailyn asked if Santa brought these gifts and she said "Awesome!"

I love swimming lessons in my Elmo Suit.

2 1/2 years old Valentine's pictures.

Our beautiful daughter is growing up so fast.

Adelyn's first Valentine's Day!

Our Sweet grand daughter born January 31, 2013 6lbs 4 oz 1:35am  Adelyn Jean McSparron

Aunt Jailyn holding baby Adelyn

Been meaning to post our blog with pictures now for 3 months!  Thornbury Christmas 2012

Happy New Year 2013!   Life has been amazing and super busy for the Thornbury household!  So much to share and catch up on the past three months!  Best part is Jailyn is the sweetest, smartest and cutest little girl ever.  She had a fabulous holiday (loving Elf on the shelf and video we watched many times everyday and was spoiled rotten yet she was so polite and appreciative of every gift with an "Oh Boy and thank you").  The terrific twos arrived over the holidays and she wants her way and is talking so much and we are potty training!  Big deal a couple of weeks ago Jailyn Poopy in the Potty with much celebrating and had to call and tell everyone!    She pees in the potty yet still goes in her diaper.  She tends to be more dry in her diapers and feel she will potty train herself very soon with help from us.  She is in a growth spurt now 36 inches tall and almost 27-28 lbs.  She is still little however long torso, fingers and feet.  It will be time for new shoes soon size 8 shoe.

We are very happy to be back on schedule in the new year and loving it!  Still doing Gymnastics and Gymboree and Swim lessons on Saturday.  She loves it and nursery school at Church (she comes home with artwork and singing Jesus Loves me and they do puppets and loves them.)  So thrilled the Christian Church around the corner has so much for little kids while mom and dad can goto church in peace.  Mike has taken her to mass a few times and she is pretty good.  When mom takes her not as good.   She is always so good for everyone else and pushes her limits with momma.   We have a discipline routine (the think it over chair aka the naughty you are in trouble chair - which is working) after a challenging over stimulated holiday of misbehaving.  I never thought I would want to beat my child and found out I am completely normal to feel this way.  I jumped into my discipline books and how to help a child who has been abandoned with discipline.   She wants it her way but knows mommy is in charge and when she does not listen we take action.  Ah parenthood....  Still sleep issues but better....night terrors Christmas eve and Christmas day (over-stimulation the culprit and having three big Christmases at our home and so many presents... do you blame her?)    The holidays are hard for kids and their parents.   Jailyn is growing up so fast and she is so cute and happy.  I stand in awe of her and this little person we have who wants her independence (let me do it or I do it mommy) and is so smart and big stuff now.  She is making sentences and told me the other day that does not make me happy.  Love she is letting us know her feelings.  It is so special to be her parents and not to mention challenging with little miss strong willed.  We love her so much and love all the newness and joy her little spirit adds to our family everyday.  Blessed beyond our wildest dreams.  She is Miss creature of habit and thrives in her daily routine.  She loves her friends at her activities and just loves people in general.  We are raising a kind, confident, outgoing, positive energy giving little girl with a high self esteem of who she is.  Many people talk to her about being from China while out and starting to equip her to respond.  She knows she flew on a big airplane in mommy's arms when she was a little girl and starting to incorporate the children's books about the bundles of joy that come to America from China with their Forever Family.   She always watches her Nihao kai'lan videos and loves singing the song...I am going to China, going to China I feel so happy!  Someday I plan to travel back with her to China and not sure Mike would ever make that trip again.  My dream is to become a National Sales Director in Mary Kay and have the honor to train the Chinese consultants and take Jailyn with me and share our story of how God had our plan to adopt a little girl from China with me having the flexibility of running my Mary Kay business.

So recap of December, January and February to date............so much has happened and not alot of down time for us.  Mike had rotater cuff shoulder surgery late November and it went very well which kept him in town and home most of the month of December.   He is healing and impatient to get his complete range of motion back and the therapy makes him so tired and can be painful.  So glad he had the surgery and now he is anxious to get back golfing.  Scott and Wan (Scott's girlfriend from Thailand) came home for 9 days at the holidays to celebrate his 29th birthday and Christmas.  It was so special to have the whole family home.  The last two weeks of December were such a blurr with lots of fun and celebrating and total exhaustion by the time new years rolled around.  Not to mention designing our home and kitchen right before the holidays.  Thank you God we have an interior decorator helping us and great contractors however it is so overwhelming designing and building a custom home.  We are busy people anyway and add a busy 2 1/2 year old, work (run businesses) and build a house in the mix and you have two very overwhelmed people.  And getting ready to be first time grandparents too.  It was a special time with Katie pregnant at the holidays and knowing next year we will have a little granddaughter.   January went so very fast getting back to the norm so to speak with meetings, meetings and decisions and decisions about the house.  Back to work (Mike traveling alot for work) and having Katie's baby shower Jan 13.  Jailyn had so much opening all the presents with Katie.  I was blessed to host with Katie's friends running the shower festivities and fun.   It is going to be so fun that Jailyn will be Aunt Jailyn to Katie's little girl.  Jailyn can show her the ropes kind of like a cousin or big sis.   We are thrilled the baby will get all of Jailyn's cute clothes as hand me downs.  So glad all those cute clothes will go to good use.  Mike and I fall into bed exhausted and trying to find at least a date night a month for us.   Our home will be gorgeous and it is under roof and the cold weather has held up finishing the decorative brick cobblestone on the outside and the interior is almost ready to goto dry wall.   I believe we can be in by summer whether it be June, July or August.  So ready to purge and pitch so much and I love the feeling of out with the old stuff we have not used or want to send to Good will and to purchase new furniture...  We are not clutter people however so much can be purged.  That is another big ole stressor and change I am not looking forward to with Jailyn.  She will be about 3 years old and understand a bit more of what is going on yet change brings on fears and a new home can triggers the night terrors and fears of being left and abandoned.  We are over the hump yet Jailyn just does not want to goto sleep and sometimes I end up in bed with her a night or two but sleeping so much more in our bed.

Now since I have been blogging yet not posting for a couple months, I can share we are now officially grandparents to Adelyn Jean McSparron born 1:35am January 31.  Call us Grandpa Mike and Grandma Linette and little Aunt Jailyn.  Adelyn arrived much earlier than expected.  Katie's due date was Feb 8 however Adelyn was breech and was scheduled for a Csection on Feb 1.  Adelyn had different plans. Katie's water broke about 11:15pm January 30 and started going into labor and made it to the hospital at midnight and had an emergency csection at 1:30am on January 31.  Everyone did great and Adelyn was very little 6 lb 4 oz and 20 inches long.  She is so cute and Katie and Billy are learning the ropes of Parenthood.  Jailyn got to meet Adelyn a week after she was born and Jailyn loved her and said she knew the baby liked her.   So amidst a wild and crazy holiday and start to the new year we are so very blessed with lots of love, joy and happiness and best part the arrival of our first grandchild.   We became parents 20 months ago and now grandparents.  Does it get any better than that????  Of course God has big plans for us...We can't wait for all the hard work and decisions to come together as we move forward to building our dream home that we can share with our friends and family and call our new home sweet home finally.  Hope to move in June or July.

So until our next post...God bless and thanks for sharing in our journey.

We love you and know the best is yet to come!
Linette

So Thankful 17 + Months with Jailyn and 28 months old!

French Lick Resort 2012

Our Happy Family

Katie and Billy at French Lick Resort

On the Polar Express Train and Jailyn with her Jingle Bell from Santa.

On our way to go Swimmin!

Silly Picture on Santa's Sleigh French Lick 2012

Self Portrait on the Polar Express.

West Badin and on the left are Billy and Jailyn Playing.

Wow it is Thanksgiving eve and can't believe another month has gone by and our 2nd Thanksgiving has come and gone with Jailyn.   Also it is a day I love as it is a special anniversary day for Mike and I.  We met 14 years ago today.   I am married to an incredible man and love him more every year.

Today was a day of reflection and day of thanksgiving....we have come so far with Jailyn and I started to reminisce and played the adoption song "When Love Takes you in"  and totally lost it balling my eyes out with tears of thanksgiving.   The love and blessing I feel daily everyday with Jailyn just totally overwhelms and rocks my world.  We are so blessed to be a family.  Jailyn is an amazing little girl learning and growing so much in speech, cuteness and how smart she is figuring new things out and singing, dancing, playing the drums and just so dog gone happy....and the best part full of so much love and that love brings us home to the place God intended for us to be family.  To this day our journey has been an amazing adventure I would not ever change to bring us to where we are to day and know GOD still has incredible plans for us. I love my life and our life as a family.

Busy is the word for us and looking forward to the holidays with Jailyn and our whole immediate family....Jailyn is so cute and knows HO HO brings toys and knows she needs to ask HO HO for toys thanks to Katie coaching her what to say.  We also started our Elf on the Shelf Tradition this year.   Our elf is named Twinkle and Jailyn liked watching the video about elves.

So let's bring you up to speed on our lives.  Halloween was so much fun and the weather had a lot to be desired however Jailyn loved the candy and loves "Choc it" and "Kitty Kats" candy!   Mommy pushed Jailyn in the stroller in rain thru the neighborhood.  Kind of bittersweet to know next year we will be in our new neighborhood and leaving the home we have know for 11 years.  Love our neighborhood however getting excited as our home is under roof and starting to come together.  Still very overwhelmed with all the decisions to be made on our home, the shopping and the decorating to be made however we have professionals to help it all come together.  They are saying March to move in however I believe it will be more like late spring or early summer.  We had our fun family fest for pumpkin carving day and the everyone had a great time.  I was able to attend my Fall retreat for Mary Kay and be away from Jailyn 30 hrs.  She did well and says now I miss you mommy.  Daddy and Jailyn and the help Mike had all survived just fine. 

We just came back from a fun weekend at French Lick Resort with Katie and Billy.  Hoping to make it a tradition to go the weekend before Thanksgiving each year.   Love starting to make family memories with Jailyn.  It was the weekend they lit all the Christmas trees and we went on the Polar Express Train ride.  Jailyn did well travelling, loved swimming in the indoor pool,  we went bowling with her and she loved the rolling of the ball down the track and even made a few strikes with mommy's help (Jailyn liked high 5ing after each bowl) and Katie and Billy taught her how to play ping pong too.  The Polar express train ride was kind of scary at first then she loved the singing and dancing and seeing HO HO come on the train when we arrived at the North Pole.  She got a jingle bell and her picture with HO HO!  Katie and Billy enjoyed the down time and were able to take advantage of a couples massage and time relaxing before the craziness of the holidays, baby showers, remodeling of their home and ultimately the arrival of Baby McSparron in early February.  Katie tires easily and looks fabulous and is starting to put the babies room together and start the nesting.  We are thrilled for them and will be grandparents before we know it.  

Scott and Wan are coming home Dec 17-26 for the holidays.  We will meet Scott's long distance girlfriend, Wan, who is moving to the states Dec 1 to be with Scott.  We will get to celebrate Scott's 29th birthday on Dec 18 and the holidays with them.  This will be the first year we have all been together as a family in 3 yrs for Chirstmas.  We are thrilled.

Below are Jailyn's 28th Month Photos and Minnie Mouse Halloween Photos!

We had a day of festivities with the family for Thanksgiving and looking forward to a great weekend.  We will celebrate our Thanksgiving with Katie and Billy Saturday.  Billy is frying a Turkey and they are having it this year since Mike is preparing for surgery on Tuesday to repair his rotator cuff.  We are decorating the house tomorrow and making preparations for my Mary Kay Open house next weekend.  We have a Happy birthday Jesus and Breakfast with Santa this weekend at Church with the girls.   Not to mention Mike being home for a few weeks healing.  Pray for him and our holidays with the challenges he will have with limited mobility.  I will have two kids to take care of along with all the holiday craziness.  I know God is good and we will press on and it will all come together and be okay.

We are so loved and blessed and know the best is yet come!

Happy Thanksgiving and being a part of our lives!
Love,
Linette

16 months with Jailyn 27 months old!

Carousel at Coney Island

Trick or Treating at Coney Island

Riding the choo choo at the Zoo

Pumpkin patch fun at Shaw Farm.

Fall is flying by and Jailyn is growing taller almost 34" tall and 25.2 lbs and learning so much.  We are finding things all over our house in strange places.  She is the sweetest little girl and feel so blessed and love her more every day.

It has been another busy month in the busy lives of the Thornburys.  Our new home is in the framing stage and we are making decisions as we progress.    We believe it will be ready in the spring.   It is exciting and overwhelming all at the same time.  We are working through sleep issues still with Jailyn but moving forward in the right direction and getting more rest.

We met with the attachment therapist and she was pleased with Jailyn and felt she is quite bonded and just going through adoption grief of realizing she lost her caregiver 16 months ago and Jailyn is fearful it will happen again.  We are making strides in the sleep department and boundaries are consistent now and all are sleeping better.  Many weeks of lack of sleep.  We have put a gate up to keep her in her room during naptime and bedtime which she dislikes and she says "Gate up, I stuck mommy".    The first time the gate went up she threw her stuffed cow and a door hanger outside her room in her fit of anger.   I was happy to see she got it out and felt her feelings.  She wails/screams with drama and sees we are in the other room and finally gives up and crawls in bed after her night time ritual of reading books, praying, cuddling, listening to music and having her light show with lots of stuff animals in bed with her.  She is the most beautiful sweet little girl and I marvel at her and my eyes well up with tears of thanksgiving.  I wondered why for the longest time why we could not have our own biological children and now I know Jailyn was to be our daughter and God had a different and bigger plan than we ever imagined.    Sleep challenges are accepted as the norm now and she is now sleeping most of the night through and can not come in our room to sleep with us.

Great news Katie and Billy are having a little girl and we are thrilled all Jailyn's hand me downs have a place in our family.  Mommy sure likes to shop for Jailyn and has so many darling Gymboree outfits that now our little grand daughter can wear too as she grows into 12 month clothes...  So Aunt Jailyn will have a niece.  How fun they will grow up together.    Katie and Billy are excited and it won't be long until February 8 when Katie is due.  Happy times for our family and love having little girls around.  Katie and Billy celebrated their 2nd Wedding Anniversary and just bought a mini van Katie has always wanted.

Scott our son in Washington state just bought his first home.  He now has plenty of home projects to keep him busy.  We hope to visit him in the spring.  So looking forward to Scott coming home for Christmas.

We have started the fall events with a trip to Coney Island for Fall-o-ween with trick or treating and rides.   She likes the carousel and we went down the giant slide which she put her hands over her eyes and did it and said do it again after it was over.   Jailyn is going to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween.  Then we made a trip to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins for Pumpkin Carving Fall Fest later this month.  We just celebrated our 11 year anniversary and went to the Bengals game and then will celebrate this weekend with Dinner at the Precinct and to see the Blue Man Group at the Aronoff.  Katie and Billy will babysit for us.

We have had two more doctors appts.  We went to the dentist again for our 6 month check up and she did much better.  The dentist was pleased with her teeth and the bottom 2 year molars are coming in and the top still not in yet.  These teeth coming in has been happening along with the sleep issues these past weeks.  Then we finally made it to the pediatric eye doctor.  She was great and disliked the drops to dialate her eyes.   However the doctor said she is so smart she passed the depth test with a perfect score and the doctor said she has 5 and 6 years olds who can not take the test and understand what she is testing.   She was so impressed and said she has strong healthy eyes and wants to see us in two years and said if any eye issues arise we will know by age 8.  So the last t is crossed and i dotted with all possible health concerns covered now and she is healthy, happy and thriving.  Woohoo!!!!! for having no family history and now we have checked it all and all is good.

Life at the Thornbury home is never dull.   It is so fun being Jailyn's mom and dad.  We have so many special moments with her.   Mike has become the tubby King with Jailyn.  They have a blast at bath time and play and have their ritual.  Mommy and Jailyn have our schedule and she is really liking gymnastics and still loves Gymboree so much.  We are having a blast and she still goes to workout with me.  She is the Princess of NO!  But she is 2yrs old and learning and challenging us and truly our little girl and not so much a baby.  She is in a booster seat at the table and have just taken away the high chair.  Today we went to McDonalds and she is an all American girl loves french fries and chicken nuggets.  She also went to the nail salon with me and got her nails painted and thought she was big stuff.

I will have to post her 27 month pictures which are being taken next Tuesday and Halloween pictures.

We appreciate YOU following our blog.
Happy Fall!
With love,
Linette

15 months with Jailyn and our Busy Summer and adjusting to our new schedule

Well we had a fun trip to Nashville with Jailyn and Friends.  She traveled well and enjoyed her quality time with mommy and daddy.   The Opryland Hotel was just what we needed and that place is amazing.  She liked the Shrek and Friends characters and had fun with Cameron and Payton our friends kids.  We have been busy and never a dull moment.  They broke ground on our new home August 27 and we are picking brick, shingles, fixtures, appliances....Super busy trying to fit all the decisions into our busy lives.  We have been making the big girl bed transition now for 7 weeks.  Jailyn has been challenging and fighting sleep.  We believe the beginning of the realization she lost her foster mom has finally caught up with her, they call it adoption anniversary grief and to go through separation anxiety is normal for an 18 month old and we are a bit behind in that department only having her 15 months and being 26 months old.  She is grieving and so wants to be held by mommy and does not have issues leaving me or me leaving her it is at night time and during the day she just wants me to "hold j'you, hold j'you".  The fear of ever losing her caregiver now me her mommy is so heightened now.  It breaks my heart but all a part of the abandonment grief cycle she must process and does not fully consciously knowing what is happening.   We battle going to sleep and shutting down as she seems to be on high alert which is normal for little girls coming out of China with never knowing what is next and wants to control her environment.   Heck, she may be over attached with everything we do for her.    However the terrific twos are hard for her and being told no and not listening and wanting her way.  Totally normal at this age.  I have reached out to a therapist to help with the recent grief cycle and will be talking to her in the coming weeks.  On top of it all those big ole 2 yr molars have started to cut thru her bottom gums and the dentist said it would be tough and she has been crying at night.  Understand that completely.  On the positive note Jailyn is talking in complete sentences and takes it all in and is so smart.  Her little personality is so sweet and she is such a joy and melts our hearts daily.  So blessed with a happy, healthy thriving little girl who wears her mommy and daddy out.  Feel so honored we are her parents.

This week is our first week on our complete new schedule finally and I feel a calm and productive fall is in store for us.  The summer just took me by surprise with all the challenges and craziness that happened and have just been exhausted.  We love the new shcedule.    She loves gymnastics at Cincinnati Gymnastics and loves Gymboree still and loves being back with Colleen two days a week.  I am able to work a bit more and Mike and I have our dates planned which is so needed as Jailyn not sleeping has taken it's toll.  I am getting more rest and maintaining my wt and able to still workout with my trainer 2 days with Jailyn with me. 

We love fall and can't wait for all the pumpkin festivals and fun coming.  Jailyn is going to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween and just got a cute costume from the Disney Store.  For Mom and Dad's b-days Jailyn had her pictures with Paw, Paw and Grandma and I will post a few of those on the blog.

Hanging in there as it will be Christmas before we know it and so many wonderful experiences to come.  Scott will be home for Christmas with his girlfriend and Katie and Billy will be parents in February and will hopefully find out in two weeks if it is a boy or girl.   Mike is having shoulder surgery in late November so it will be an interesting holiday full of fun and memories.

Thanks for following our lives and so blessed to share it with YOU!  Today is our 15 month anniversary of our Gotcha Day!  Wow time is flying by.....and the best is truly yet to come.
Love,
Linette