My Sweet Chloe :)

Oooooooh, there will be many posts about my dear Chloe! She is....... how do I put it...... well, she is very much her own person..... I can't think of a better way to sum it up....... she is strong-willed (thank you, Shauna for the Dr. Dobson book a few years ago, a God-send!), she is sweet, she is opinionated, she is spunky, she thinks she's 16, she is motherly, she is a momma's-girl (even though we are nothing alike and butt heads most of the time), she is smart (too smart)...... the list could go on and on! I will, from time to time I'm sure, be posting 'Chloe-isms', because the funniest things come out of her mouth, so get ready! But this post is about her sweet side, and in a way her prayer life!

The same day that my kids started at the daycare (2 mos ago), a 2-month old baby also started, Elicia. Chloe thought she was just the cutest thing ever, and a week later, somehow Chloe found out that Elicia was in foster care. So Chloe asked what that meant, and I explained to her that Elicia's mommy couldn't take care of her at that time, and so someone else is caring for her until either her mommy can, or until someone adopts her. Well, Chloe knows ALL ABOUT adoption b/c before I got pregnant w/ Jax, Derrick and I were beginning to look into adoption since I had been told we couldn't have any more children naturally. If you know Chloe, you know that she has an obsession w/ China, so her vote was to adopt a child from China. We had told her that God would take care of everything if it was in His will, and at that time, His will was to provide us w/ the miracle of having Jax. But even throughout my pregnancy w/ Jax, we still talked about adopting in the future.

SO, immediately, Chloe asked if we could adopt Elicia. I told her that she needed to pray about it, and boy did she! She prayed (and still does) for Elicia in EVERY prayer, "Dear God, please let Elicia be my sister", "Dear God, I know Elicia is supposed to be my sister, can we please 'dopt her?", "Dear God, thank you for our food and thank you for giving us Elicia, because I know you want to", "Dear God, I know I have a brother, but Elicia does not and she wants one too, so can Jax be her brother too?", "Dear God, I know I asked for a sister from China, and I want her too, but right now I want Elicia to be my sister"........ the prayers about Elicia are endless, and are usually enough to bring tears to mommy's eyes! Not only are there prayers, but she also has brought others into the mix :) Here are a few examples........

1) Chloe and I were drawing family pictures one evening after I put Jax to bed. When I presented mine to her, she promptly told me that "someone" was missing.... I went through the list, "Jasmine? (the dog), Marsha? (the cat), Nana? Mimi? Papa?".... "NO! ELICIA, MOM! How could you forget Elicia????"..... how dare I forget a child that is not, and may never be, my own???!!!! Forgive me, please! After Chloe refused to hang my picture until I added Elicia, I proceeded to draw a baby with a pink crayon and heard, "MOM, Elicia is black, well, she's not black, she's really brown but I heard someone ask you if you were talking about the 'little black baby', and you said yes, but she's brown, so you need to use a brown crayon to draw her..... but you can put a pink dress and bow on her if you want to." Okay Chloe.

2) Just after we first talked about Elicia, Chloe says to my mom, "Guess what, Nana? I'm getting a sister!" Of course, my mom looks at me like, "WHATTTTTTTTTTT???!!!!!!" When I give Chloe a questionable look, she says under her breath, "Elicia"....... oh boy........ you can imagine the explanation! This also happened with Derrick's parents as well :)

3) So then a few weeks ago, when I was picking up the kids from daycare, Chloe's teacher asked me if she could talk to me. She tells me that during circle time, they were discussing one another's families, and when the turn came to Chloe she said that she had five members in her family. The teacher stopped her and this was the conversation:

Teacher: "Are you sure? I think you have four in your family.... are you adding your cat?"
Chloe: "No, my sister."
Teacher: "Well, I didn't know you had a sister... how come she doesn't come to school here?"
Chloe: "She does!"
Teacher (who at this point thought Chloe maybe had an imaginary 'sister'): "Oh really? What is her name?"
Chloe: "Elicia, and she's in there with the babies!"
Teacher: "Ummmm, Elicia-Elicia??"
Chloe: "Yep; we're 'dopting her since she doesn't have a family."
Teacher: .................................... (no words here purposely; she was in shock)

4) Last week, Chloe told Derrick and I that she knew what she wanted for her birthday (not until August, but the girl plans early)....... "A bunkbed, the ones with the bottom bed bigger than the top one, so that when we get Elicia she can sleep with me, because I know that sisters like to sleep together." Okaaaaaaaay.


I could go on and on about instances in which Chloe has mentioned Elicia being ours, but these are the most prominent!

Just so you know, Derrick and I have looked into adopting Elicia. As of right now I am still getting the run-around on her adoption status and am on case-worker #3... unfortunately the state always tries to put children back w/ the parents, so there is no telling when and if she will actually be adoptable, but like I always tell Chloe, "If it's in God's Will, then He will make a way"!!!!

Anyways, just wanted to share my Chloe's sweet side........ especially since there will be many future posts showing her 'other' sides, HAAAAAAAAAAA! Love and prayers!