Matchy-Matchy and DejaVu {Again}

In case anyone had any doubts, I am publicly proclaiming my love of having the kiddos color coordinated or, gasp, even matchy-matchy (especially on Sundays).  And, while I'm at it I'm going to further admit my love of dressing Nora in Lydia's outgrown outfits and then finding photos of Lydia in the same outfit.  For the record, I did this with Samuel wearing Jack's outgrown clothes as well.  In fact, I still do it at times considering that 99% of Samuel's wardrobe is hand-me-downs from Jack.  

So, for fun, a few recent and not so recent photos of my little blessings as evidence of my obsession with fondness of matchy-matchy and hand-me-downs.

Matchy-Matchy Dresses from China

I love Nora's plea for assistance as Lydia is so lovingly positioning her, ha!

 

Matchy-Matchy Outfits Under their Coordinated Coats

And, even better, Nora is wearing the coat that Lydia wore for two winters.

 

Lydia rockin' the coat at nearly 12 months (December 2010)

 

More of Lydia rockin' the coat in December 2010

And, as a bonus, the boys all matchy-matchy!  Some of you may recognize this as the photo from our 2010 Christmas cards.

 

Oh man, how I love this little one! 

And, I love how she pulls off the ruffle pants! 

Kinda like her big sis!  Here, Nora is nearly 18 months.  And, I'm happy to say that her hair is coming in nicely (it had been shaved in the orphanage) and for that I am thankful as I'm getting a little annoyed with people mistaking her for a boy!  In addition, she's taking a few more steps here and there and can now get to standing from sitting all by herself!

 

Ha!  And, here is Lydia at nearly 12 months (December 2010) in the same ruffle pants and top.

 

In other news, we had a lovely Christmas and were quite thankful that Nora was "hands free" for her first Christmas home.  She seemed to enjoy opening gifts playing with the tissue paper and wrapping paper from gifts. 

 

Nora's "hands free" status is quickly dwindling as her surgery nears (scheduled for Friday).  I continue to struggle with her upcoming surgery and understanding what God's intention is.  He purposefully and beautifully created Nora with her cleft.  Did He really intend that surgeons would change His creation?  Of course, we will move on with surgery as we know that without surgery Nora would not be able to "normally" (what really is "normal"?) function in society (speech, eating, etc.).  It is still hard to imagine that, on Friday, our little one's smile is going to be forever changed.  I know that I've talked a lot about Ashley on here, heir little one is also having her lip repair surgery on Friday (Ashley posts about this a few times, most recently intermingled in this post here).  And, one of the little ones from the same orphanage as Nora, Dana's sweet Anna, will be having her palate repair on the following Monday.  And, Angie just posted about it being one year since her Emery had her lip repair.  Angie seems to struggle with many of my same "concerns" that I have.  Once again, I am in awe of God's timing and how I feel so connected to these amazing women that I have yet to meet in person.  Hopefully one day!  Until then, I'm thankful for technology.

 

And, I'm thankful for matchy-matchy and hand-me-downs!  {Big Grin}