Shaoey and Dot

Another day at work, and another day for Mommy at the house - although the scheduled workers did not show up to dry clean the carpet upstairs. Still, Mommy and Madison were able to join Daddy for dinner at a pasta place nearby that Madison loves: Pastabilities. It's a great place to hook up with friends, which we did.

We had a great night at church - for one, we added Mentos to Diet Coke again. This time, we did it live on stage and things got pretty messy! Our message tied in a little bit of Napoleon Dynamite with some Bible concepts - which made for a good time for the kids.

MADISON'S BOOK CLUB

Today's book that we've been reading again is "Shaoey and Dot," which is the first of three books that we have written by Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman. It is the story of a ladybug that follows an orphan girl in China, keeping up with her on her journey of adoption. Obviously, it is a special book. It's the story of Madison, and the story of many other little girls adopted in China. The ladybug is a symbol - they say when you see ladybugs, it means a child is on the way. We saw plenty of ladybugs at our house, of course. It was about a year before we went to get Madison when we had this freakish swarm of ladybugs invade our property - hundreds of them crawling all over our house! They didn't choose any other house in the neighborhood, but rather kept themselves all over ours specifically. It was almost magical.

Of course, if it were any other insect it would be creepy. But that's another matter.

Back to this book: we love it. Steven Curtis Chapman has always had a role in our adoption plans. His organization, Shaohannah's Hope, was kind enough to bless us with a grant to help us make it to China for Madison. We have many of his CDs, and listen to them frequently. One year, we saw him at EPCOT at the Candlelight Processional. It was an amazing Christmas concert with a massive choir and orchestra. Truly wonderful!

Madison enjoys the book, and the other two books that feature Shaoey and Dot too. They're fun to read, and they're good books that help cover the subject of adoption.