November is adoption awareness month

Lately, Phil and I have really felt God's call on our lives more than ever to work together to care for orphans. It is amazing how God has placed one opportunity after another in our path to lead us in this direction. As part of our efforts, Phil made this great video for our church for Adoption Awareness month! All of the families in the video are in our church. We are so blessed to have a church whose body cares for orphans and is adoption friendly! Be sure to send it on to others who might be interested in adoption!
Click on Adoption video to watch, turn up the volume on your computer and give it time to load.

Our new pictures

Thanks for all the helpful comments about glasses! I'm excited to try some of them this week. :)
We got our family pictures made this month. Erin Nolen took them. She really captured their little personalities and our relationships. She lives here in Birmingham and goes to our church. She takes her time, so you don't feel rushed and the session was very relaxed...perfect for kids! She is giving a great discount to adoptive families. So...if you need some photos, give her a call. Her website is www.erinnolenphotography.com

Our pictures can be seen at www.erinnolenphotography.com/chambers

Click on the "Our pictures" and it will take you straight to the site.

Lily gets glasses

My sweet Lily got glasses yesterday. Ugh! She is only 3! I think this is the start of a lifetime of glasses and contacts. She has a lazy eye and these glasses are to make her eyes work harder in a sense. She LOVES them...when they are in the case. Since they don't make her see any better, I guess it is like you and I trying on someone else's glasses whose prescription is just a little stronger. She has to wear them all day and we still have to patch 6-8 hours a day (which she also loves, as you can imagine). This is all occuring while she is going through a major embarrassment stage. She hates too much attention, so wearing glasses and a patch is a little much for her right now. By the way...if you adopted a child...get her vision checked no matter how young. I have many patients that I could not diagnose in the office that there was any visual abnormality, but when seen by the pediatric ophthalmologist, there was significant visual loss present. Visual development only occurs until age 6 years old, so you can correct many problems before then, but not after. Anyway...she loved these clip-ons, so if you see her indoors wearing them...it is the only way I could get them on her that day! Also, if anyone knows a place to get cheap children's glasses, let me know. Otherwise, I need to start a vision trustfund!
















































































































Below are Kate's empathy glasses. Kate has been spared the glasses thus far. Thank goodness!

Mickey and Minnie Mouse on Halloween

Mickey (Kate) and Minnie (Lily) had a blast during the Halloween festivities. This was the first year they understood what it was all about...candy/costumes, but they still needing a little prodding for the trick or treating. Here they are posing in their duds...

Kate gets her whiskers painted...

Her first look in the mirror...

Lily trying her dress on for the first time...

Getting to surprise Daddy with our costumes when he got home...

Meeting the Downings at our church's carnival...

They are not afraid of the rides! (the people are a different story)...

Thanks Tim and Robin (our children's pastor and wife) for working so hard so we could have fun at the carnival!

Riding the carousel with Laura Joy...

Daddy showing off his little girls...

Not so sure about Trick or Treating (a little too close for comfort)...

...but we warmed up fairly soon. This is what I love about living in a cul-de-sac - Kate and Lily know all the neighbors well, so this wasn't so overwhelming.

Now we are cooking with gas...

Looking over the evening's loot in her bed... (it brought back so many memories of childhood Halloween candy - eating the best stuff first, hiding it from my sister, begging mom for more, sorting the candy and sorting it again).

The Mickey and Minnie Mouse Pumpkin Patch Birthday Party!

Here are a ton of pictures of Kate and Lily's birthday party! You can speed it up with the -/+ signs in the corner. This is only a fraction of the photos we took. Thanks to everyone who came. I'm beginning to see that these birthday parties of my girls are going to be even more fun being the mom than being the kid!

I wanted to tell about my twin cake experience...
I was determined to make two cakes so that each of the girls would have their own. But at about midnight the night before, I had just finished only the Mickey cake for Kate. Lily was adamant that she wanted a MINNIE cake. So, in desperation, I decided to try to pull one over them. The next morning, Lily, Grammie and I went out shopping for a ribbon for Minnie's hair on Lily's Minnie cake. Lily felt special that she was getting to pick out her own bow for Minnie. When it was time for the cake, we sang Happy Birthday to Kate then whisked the cake away out of sight...stuck the bow in Mickey's head and put eyelashes on him and WALAH!...the Minnie cake appeared for Lily to enjoy her moment! Needless to say...I was pleased to pull if off and more restful since I didn't have to stay up all night baking the second cake. Who would have ever thought I would be at a place in my life where outsmarting 2 three year olds would make me feel as proud as the day I finished medical school! :)