The Making Of A Princess

Now that Camilla is older and much more mobile, she is exploring her environment more and more, discovering new and exciting things.  One day I found her in the play room with the dress up tub out and she had pulled out this dress up outfit. She was just sitting there admiring the texture of the netting.  Something I guess she'd never felt before and it was different.  I then decided she'd look so cute in it so I put it on her.

Of course, she looked absolutely adorable in it, but it was still a little big and she had a bit of trouble walking in it.  But it was still fun :)

An Old and New Experience

    New Experience For Camilla

My bowl's still empty, what's going on here?!

Patiently anxiously waiting.......at least there's still a smile on her face!

It's hot pot time!  Everyone LOVES hot pot at our house!  Even Camilla decided this was pretty good stuff!

YUMMY!!

The Things We Get In The Mail....

A call is received and there's a delivery downstairs.  They rarely scale the 6 flights of stairs here, they just call you on the phone and tell you to come down and get it :)  So much for delivery right to your door, huh?!

Anyway, we ordered bananas?!  NO, it's not bananas.........

Oh, it's  something alive!!  In the mail, huh?!

Camilla wonders what could it be???  Tiny, our dog, is also quite curious.  What is coming in the mail these days?  Will more arrive?  We're being invaded!!  What could it be???????????

It's a curly haired guinea pig!!!  She's so cute!!

Now, I know what you're wondering.  We already had a new guinea pig, right?  Well......it died only a few days after getting it.  No one really knows what happened, but late one evening after we went to bed, the girls said he began acting strangely and suddenly died after having trouble breathing and such.  I won't go into the gory details.  Anyway, I'm assuming that he must have been sick when we got him.  SOOOO.........we had to get another one! In fact, we got two--by mail.   Lizzie and Shawna each have a guinea pig now and they love them.  They've survived a couple of weeks now, so I guess we can probably say they'll survive awhile.They are cuties!

Playdough Time!

                             A New Concept For Camilla!

And what am I supposed to do with that?! Camilla wonders.............

Oh, I poke it with this thing.  I can do that!

Now, that's more like it Camilla!  You're getting the idea.

Zoe, on the other hand, knows exactly what to do with playdough!

See what I made?!

Saying Good-Bye to Holly

We received very sad news last week from Holly's orphanage.  She has been recalled and it has been difficult for both us and her.  She left us on Sunday.  No matter the circumstances, we do our best to do what we can for our children.  

When I returned home with a cake, Holly asks who that is for.  I then said, "It's for you Holly!"  She then thought it was her birthday :) After all, isn't that what cakes are usually for around here?!  I reminded her again that this was her "going away" cake like we do for everyone that leaves the Forever Home.  Usually it's due to the fact that they've been adopted and leaving us, meeting up with their forever families.  Though it's what we always hope for when a child leaves our home, it sometimes can be for other reasons and lately, we've seen that way too often. Whether sad or happy reasons for their leaving, we celebrate them.  

We are thankful for the time we did have with her, for the love and nurturing we were able to pour into her.  We know in our hearts that it was not in vain, but there was a purpose for her coming to us. Even if we never know exactly what that purpose was, we know it's true and are thankful for the time she was with us.  These children bless our family so much and we're so happy to give all that we have from our hearts.  It's not always easy, and honestly, sometimes in times like these, you wonder if you can continue to do it again and again. But.....our hearts heal and there's always room for more to love and care for!

Having been there ourselves, we know exactly how our foster families feel when a child leaves their home bound for a new life with their adoptive families.  It is always a bittersweet time, happy and thankful for the adoptive parents that we'd always hoped for these children, yet so very sad and the tremendous loss we feel at their leaving our/their family.  It gives us all the more reason to be so very grateful for what they do--for taking in these little ones and loving them like their very own!!  Some do it time and time again, others have difficulty after one leaves and simply cannot do it again due to it's painful nature.  It matters not, they have made a difference in the life of an orphan--even if it is only one--and they have forever changed their lives.  You just can't ask for more than that!!  What a blessing to these children!!  Something though, that we learned long ago was that we often are more blessed ourselves by what we do than being a blessing to them--obviously though, it goes both ways.  It's a wonderful thing!

Another wonderful thing that we couldn't possibly do without, is you.  We couldn't do what we do here without your loving support and generosity!  Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!  Together we're changing lives! It's such a beautiful thing!!

Here, Holly gets her nails painted one last time by big sister, Elise, before she leaves.

Holly was quite excited about her beautiful cake!  Chocolate and strawberries, two of her favorite things!

Holly came to us 16 months ago and we have seen so many positive changes in her. Oh how we'll miss her happy, bubbly personality!  She always had a smile and we often referred to her as "Happy Holly!"  She was always proud of her accomplishments and couldn't wait to show us what she'd done or made. 

All the Forever Home girls pose for one last picture together before she leaves.  We'll surely miss you Holly!! More than you'll ever know.

A Trip To The Flower Market

The flower market here has way more than just flowers. They have small animals and house decorating items too.  It's a dangerous thing when the Rippee family goes to an animal market!  It's not uncommon to come home with a new pet and today was no exception.  It's a good thing we don't go very often or we'd be overrun with animals!  

Zoe and Elizabeth checks out the large fish.  Zoe is quite afraid of basically any live animal unless they are small fish in an aquarium.  

Camilla thinks this is pretty cool, but Zoe keeps her distance from these creepy moving things :)

Fascinated, Camilla takes a closer look.

Lizzie is a HUGE animal lover and has to pet everything!  She wanted a hamster :)

Lizzie tries her hardest to get her to pet this little turtle, but she thought it safer to keep some distance from it.

Shawna and Lizzie bought a guinea pig!  Zoe couldn't believe we'd actually take one of these creepy crawly things home with us!

Elise gives him a cuddle.

Lizzie and her are already close friends.  Now all they need to do is agree on a name for her!