2 Years Together

I can still remember that day two years ago in the hotel lobby in Nanchang, China.

Waiting for her to arrive after the long 5+ hour drive with the orphanage director and two nannies.

That palpable excitement and nervousness of meeting our daughter for the very first time.

And then there she was.

More precious than I imagined.

Overwhelmed by the love that filled my heart.

She cried, screamed, arched her back, and tried everything she could to bust out of my arms after one of the nannies handed her to me. 

When we took her back to our room, and she began to realize I wasn't going to let her out of my arms, she locked eyes with me. It was a mix of searching for answers and grasping for understanding of who I was. I remember at that moment praying with tears running down my cheeks and nose, "Jesus, let her see You." From that moment on, she never once tried to escape from my arms. In fact, it was the place she preferred to be. 

And, two years later, it still is.

Praise God.
What a joy and blessing it is to be her Mama.

Mina and Miracles.

Before I even attempt to write this post, if you are a mother -- go and wrap your arms around your child(ren). 
Hug them. 
Kiss them. 
Tell them how much you love them. 
Thank God for their life.

I do not want to over-dramatize the series of events that took place starting Thursday evening, but I want to have it accurately recorded. Because it needs to be preserved as a reminder of God's love, mercy, protection, and miraculous hand. 

______________________________

My sister and her sweet baby boy drove to our house Thursday morning to spend the day and night with us.
The day was perfect. We swam, celebrated Melanie's upcoming birthday with some cupcakes by the pool, and decided to just hang-out in our screened-in porch while we waited for Daniel to get home with a pizza for dinner.

In a split second, in the middle of talking and playing, Mina lost her balance and leaned up against the screen. It was loose and not able to support her. She fell 10 feet backwards onto the asphalt driveway below. 

The gut-wrenching irony of it all was that the porch was supposed to have been re-screened with railings added earlier the week before. The contractor got behind on another job, so it was pushed back to a later date. 

I cannot begin to describe the absolute horror of thinking your child has died.

I'm not sure I'll ever get over the trauma of that emotion.

This is where the nightmare begins and where God started pouring out miracles.

Daniel got home a minute after the accident -- Melanie was on the phone telling him what happened while I held Mina.

She said (through wailing and moaning) that her head hurt.

Minutes later she couldn't remember anything.

Not what hurt, not what happened, not even her name.

We rushed her to the hospital while my sister stayed home with Aubrey.

The ER was empty, which meant we were taken back immediately.

Mina was fighting off the nurses and doctors trying to assess her status, when all of a sudden she reached up to the side of her head saying, "Owwww!!" That's when I noticed blood coming out of her left ear.

The nurses and doctors went into high-gear. 

Neck brace, sedation medication, and immediate scans of her head and spine.

I was terrified before, now I was completely panic-stricken.

While she was being scanned, Daniel and I wrapped our arms around each other and prayed through sobs.

Once the scans were done, I went with Mina while Daniel stayed back to see the images.

It was so quiet in the room.
After praying over her, I started singing any song I could think of with the name "Jesus" in it. 

Daniel came back into the room. 

I wanted him to say everything was going to be okay.

But by the look on his face, I knew he couldn't do that.

As he started saying things like large skull fracture and contusion, I felt the room start spinning.

Another doctor walked in and asked us which Children's Hospital we preferred: Louisville or Nashville. 
The helicopter was going to be here 4 minutes.

In the meantime Mina started to come out of sedation.

The nurses tried to get an IV in her tiny veins 5 times before they were successful.

They gave her morphine (pain), zophran (prevent nausea/vomiting), and anti-seizure medication.

She fell asleep as the air med team came in, and I was informed that I wouldn't be allowed to go with her.
I tried everything I could think of to convince them to let me on that helicopter.

They let me ride the elevator all the way to the rooftop, and the last thing the air med lady said to me was, "I will be praying for her the entire flight."

The elevator doors closed, and I collapsed on the floor crying and begging God to protect her.

During all this time, Melanie had been packing all our bags and Daniel had driven home to pick up Aubrey and all our things. 

Someone (I think it was a nurse) walked me out of the hospital where I saw our car waiting. 

I looked in the back and saw Mina's carseat. 
Empty.

I lost it.

We prayed the entire way to Nashville.

Finally, after the longest drive of our lives, I had my sweet girl in my arms where she went from screaming to fast asleep within seconds.

They told us this night was going to be critical.

Words like bleeding on the brain, breathing tubes, seizures, facial paralysis were being said as possibilities I needed to be ready for. I kept her in my arms all night and prayed and whispered words of love and encouragement. 

This entire time, countless people were praying.

Angels and prayer warriors fighting for her while she rested.

Early the next morning, we were transferred to another room in PICU. Mina was already showing positive signs of improvement. She had to get neuro evaluations every hour for 24 hours. She was so tired, and kept getting woken up by doctors and nurses.

By early morning she was begging for her milk and saying she was hungry.
She hadn't been allowed anything to eat or drink since they weren't sure yet if they were going to have to rush her to surgery.

She was sitting up, talking, singing, and playing with her new toys.

All the doctors and nurses were blown away.
We were thanking God.

Instead of a second day in the PICU, all the teams: neuro surgery, ENT, trauma could not find a reason to keep her there. She passed a speech evaluation with flying colors, and we were told she would be moved to a step-down room that evening.

In the meantime, one of my dearest friends  from childhood (who now lives in Nashville) had just had a baby two days before. She delivered her precious baby boy at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. Her sister (who saw my urgent post for prayer on Instagram) told her about Mina at the same time Mina was being helicoptered there. A short while later, my friend heard the helicopter -- she started praying for Mina that very minute. How amazing is that?! Our sweet girl had someone praying for her everywhere she was even when we could not be with her. Praise God!!!

The prayers kept coming, and Mina continued to recover...

The next morning she continued to improve.

She even walked down the hall with Daniel and Aubrey to get some ice cream -- singing the whole way!

It wasn't too much later, and we received her discharge papers!

AMAZING.

We were sent home with prescription ear drops, follow-up appointment dates, and things to be on the look-out for over the next couple of weeks. In true Mina fashion, she kept one balloon (out of the MANY she received) and had the nurse pass the rest out to all the other children on her hall. Seriously -- this girl's heart is made of pure gold.

We thank God for His amazing, miraculous work on Mina's behalf.

We are beyond grateful for all your prayers.

To my sister, my parents, and Daniel's mom who all dropped everything to be our rock during the darkest moments of our lives -- we could not have gotten through this without them. They made endless phone calls, texts, and updates to friends and family. Walked the hospital over a hundred times with Aubrey and took the best care of her while we tended to Mina.

We are all still healing from the trauma of it all.

Just the other day, I was cleaning out our hospital bags in the laundry room when I pulled out the dress Mina was wearing the day of the accident. I wasn't there at Vanderbilt when they cut it off her to avoid further injury once she arrived. 
It's the only dress she has with a ladybug on it.
I stared at the jagged scissor cuts, the blood stain on the strap from her ear. 
It was too much for me to take in...I bawled right there in the pile of dirty clothes.

Also, I feel the need to mention a few other things.

This is a picture of the porch to give you an idea of its height:

The day of the accident I wasn't sure I could ever go back to our house.

Then I decided if I did go back, I wanted to have that porch burned to the ground.

It wasn't too long after that thought I could feel God speaking to my heart. 

He was the Ruler of our home, not the horror of that accident.

If He can restore all of mankind, He can certainly restore our home and our hearts.

Daniel had our contractor send guys over IMMEDIATELY to re-screen and add safety railings to the porch. 

While this whole nightmare will forever be etched in our minds, we will focus on rejoicing and praising Him.

Fear no longer rules in this space, GOD does.

Please continue to keep our sweet Mina in your prayers.

We are unsure if her hearing is 100 percent in her left ear, and we are still keeping things very low key around here for awhile. We give thanks for her life. 
Her precious, miraculous life.

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This song has been in my head since we left Nashville...

"Let Everything That Has Breath"

Let everything that,

Everything that

Everything that

Has breath praise the Lord

Let everything that,

Everything that

Everything that

Has breath praise the Lord

Praise You in the morning

Praise You in the evening

Praise You when I'm young

And when I'm old

Praise You when I'm laughing

Praise You when I'm grieving

Praise You every

Season of the soul

If we could see

How much You're worth

Your power,

Your might,

Your endless love

Then surely we would

Never cease to praise

Praise You in the heavens

Join with the angels

Praising You forever and a day

Praise You on the earth now

Joining with creation

Calling all the nations to Your praise

If they could see

How much You're worth

Your power,

Your might,

Your endless love

Then surely they would

Never cease to praise

I will worship,

I will worship

I will worship

You with every breath

I will worship,

I will worship

I will worship

You with every breath

Aubie & Minkster

Aubrey was so excited to become a BIG sister.
Then Mina arrived.
And she hit, pinched, stole toys and attention.
Aubrey's life was turned upside down.
Mina's life was turned upside down.
My days were filled constantly calming two girls screaming at each other and refraining one of them from causing physical harm.

Adoption is a beautiful thing, but it can get ugly at times...

As I'm typing this post (11 months later), both girls are in the playroom downstairs.
They've been there a good 20 minutes.
I hear laughing.
I hear one pretending to be a cat.
I hear meowing.
More laughing.
A random knock-knock joke.
They are both cackling (even though the joke made no sense whatsoever).

Aubrey just ran upstairs and grabbed both their thermos cups because "kitties need their milk!"

Aubrey started praying, "Dear God, please help me get along better with Mina..." once we moved to Cleveland.

Relocating to a new city without friends or family nearby has truly been the greatest blessing.
It forced helped these two strangers become sisters.
And -- dare I say -- friends?

I rarely have to intervene while they're playing together.

Aubrey even gets antsy when Mina is napping.
"Is she ever going to wake up?!"
She misses her little sidekick.
She calls her Minkster, by the way.
The first word out of Mina's mouth when she wakes up from her nap: "Aubie?"

Of course it's not sibling BFFs all the time, but I'm noticing this sweetness is not so rare anymore.
This little photo collage below illustrates how far they've really come.
(We moved the bouncy house to the basement to help get us through the winter months.)

Mina accidentally crashed into Aubrey's head while they were bouncing away.

A few months ago this would have resulted in a major meltdown from Aubrey, but now it's just a few tears (because it did hurt, after all). Aubrey knows it was just an accident, and she's quick to except Mina's, "sowy Aubie!" After wiping away the tears, she even asked me to take their picture together.

And hanging on Mina's closet door: the pièce de résistance of sisterhood...

Aubrey calls it: "Aubie and Minkster".

I call it: "Answered Prayer".

From My Heart...

I've been waiting for this Christmas for years.

December 24th, 2011, Daniel gave me two gifts:

One was a 147 Million Orphans shirt. (Notice the daisies on there?! GODWINK!)
The other gift was a folder.
Inside the folder was adoption paperwork that Daniel had already started filling out.

Daniel said, "I just want you to know, I feel like God is saying now is the time."
I was so shocked.
I put my face on the ground, cried, and thanked God.
Daniel didn't know, but I had prayed every single day for over six months for God to work in his heart regarding adoption. I knew God had a child waiting for us, but I wanted it to come from God and not me.

That Christmas, I told Daniel before going to bed, "You realize that our child is probably alive already? They are somewhere in this world. I hope they had a Merry Christmas..."
I cried myself to sleep that night.
And across the globe, our little Shisi was turning 5 months old in a Chinese orphanage.

The next Christmas, we were literally aching to travel to bring her home.

She was living with a foster family in a rural part of China, which made it difficult to get information about our sweet girl. 

That December 24th, God nestled a little ladybug amidst the gifts under the tree. 

The hope and promise that our Shisi would be with us next Christmas.

I cried myself to sleep again that year. 

Well, this Christmas I cried too.
Tears of complete and total happiness.

Merry Christmas from all FOUR of the Riherds!

Daniel made this wonderful slideshow to a song that fits our past three Christmases perfectly...

Merry Christmas, by Third Day

There's a little girl trembling on a cold December morn
Crying for momma's arms
At an orphanage just outside a little China town
Where the forgotten are

But half a world away I hang the stockings by the fire
And dream about the day when I can finally call you mine

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

As I hang the tinsel on the tree and watch the twinkling lights
I'm warmed by the fire's glow
Outside the children tumble in a wonderland of white,
Make angels in the snow

But half a world away you try your best to fight the tears
And hope that heaven's angels come to carry you here

It's Christmas time again but you're not home
Your family is here and yet you're somewhere else alone
And so tonight I pray that God will come and hold you in his arms
And tell you from my heart I wish you Merry Christmas

Christmas is a time to celebrate the holy child
And we celebrate his perfect gift of love
He came to earth to give his life
And prepare a place for us
So we could have a home with him above

It's Christmas time again and now you're home
Your family is here so you will never be alone
So tonight before you go to sleep, I'll hold you in my arms
And I'll tell you from my heart, and I'll you from my heart
I wish you Merry Christmas

9 Months of Love

I remember calling my sister to tell her we were starting the adoption process.
"You'll have a baby before we have our little one!" I told her.

Adoption is notorious for taking a long time, and she and her husband had already decided to start "expanding" their family.
Any day now I just knew I'd be getting a call from her squealing on the other end, "I'm pregnant!"

Months went by.
She still had no pregnancy news to announce.
Daniel and I started the massive amount of adoption paperwork.
We continued to flip pages on our calendars.

More and more adoption paperwork.
Pregnancy expectations mounting.

Seasons and holidays passed without even acknowledging the pain they brought.
My sister didn't have her baby, and neither did I.
We both felt hollow inside.
We took turns sharing tears on our phone calls across the miles.

Daniel and I received news that we would finally be traveling to bring our daughter home.
We could see the light at the end of our tunnel.
My sister felt trapped in hers.

It had been over a year since the original conversation about pregnancy and adoption.

My sister decided to meet with a specialist to figure out why she wasn't getting pregnant.
The day she arrived for her appointment, she was told there had been a mistake in scheduling.
Sorry -- come back next month to see the doctor.

My sister never ended up going to her appointment.

Halfway across the world when Mina was placed in my arms, my sister became pregnant.
The week we brought Mina home, my sister saw her very first positive pregnancy test.

This week marks nine months since God placed this precious gift in my arms...

Nine months.
Just enough time for Him to deliver another precious miracle...

God truly amazes me with His intricate details.
Weaving lives together all over the world.
He has a plan.
For everyone.
And it's filled with immeasurable love.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

Flock

That's what our church calls "Sunday School" or "small groups".
We tried several flocks when we first joined the church nearly 4 years ago, but none of them quite "fit" us.
Over a year ago we met an amazing family at an adoption meeting at church, and they invited us to come to their flock.
They said, "It's not the typical flock...our families meet at a home. We all bring a dish for dinner to share, we do some praise/worship as a family, and then we talk about the sermon and pray for one another."
It sounded great -- and a little weird, honestly.
After going the first Sunday evening Daniel and I agreed: it was awesome and the perfect fit for our family.
Oh, and one other thing...99% of the families have adopted.

I love how a fellow flock member put it when he posted a few of these pictures on Facebook:
The "United Nations" of our Family Flock. I love that our children get to play, praise, and pray together each week! These beautiful kids were born in Ethiopia, Taiwan, Uganda, Rwanda, China, Guatemala, Thailand, and the USA.

There were several families that weren't here on this particular night, but you get the gist.
Caucasian kids are the minority, which is pretty atypical here in Oklahoma.
 

I had to include this last one...how cute is Mina with that arm propped up on the end?! Seriously...

So here's a little peek of what a family flock looks like...

LOTS OF PLAYING AND SOCIALIZING

 

  

 

 

(These two are so stinking cute together it kills me.)

 

Then it's time to EAT!

After dinner Colby gets out his guitar, and we all gather in a circle to sing Kumbaya!
Juuuuust kidding.


We sing current / contemporary Christian songs, and it's pretty amazing to hear the kids singing right along with their parents.

It's beautiful, actually.

Then we pray and start our discussion of the sermon. 

Sometimes the kids stay and listen...other times they run off and play.

Then we finish the evening off with dessert...s'mores!

This was the first time I brought my camera -- our last night of flock before we leave.

I cried my eyes out when it was time to say good-bye.
These families have blessed us in immeasurable ways.
We've shared joys, sorrows, struggles, and victories -- basically walking together through life in prayer and fellowship. Words cannot begin to express how much this amazing group will be missed.

Heavy Heart

So many people lost everything today in the massive storm and tornado that ravaged Moore, Oklahoma.
About 15 miles from where we live.
Homes leveled.
Cars thrown and flattened.
Schools destroyed with students and teachers trapped in the rubble.
Injuries and  death of both young and old.
No rhyme or reason from my earthly eyes that have been fighting back tears all evening.

So tonight, before you go to sleep, please pray for these families.
Families who are hurting.
Families who have no home.
Families who are lost.
Families whose arms are longing for their loved ones.
Thank God that He can make all things new.
That He can make even the worst disaster into something beautiful.

And give extra snuggles and good-night kisses to your sweeties.
Hold them extra tight tonight.
Thank the Lord.
I know I am...