She could hardly wait, for Santa Clause to come

We tracked his every move, and he called us on the phone

She even kept a secret, for 2 months, a sweet surprise

To be given to her daddy, meant only for his eyes

He's loving the excitement, his first Christmas with us

He really is enjoying, all the Christmas fuss

He loves all of the presents, and is having so much fun

At Granny's he made rounds, mooching food from everyone

They baked some Christmas cookies, for good Old St. Nick

Then all rushed up to bed, and fell asleep real quick

She woke up pretty early, and came right down to see

Her eyes and mouth wide open, at the toys under the tree

She said a great big "WOW", and ran to everything

Then ran into our bedroom saying "Mama Santa came"

He woke up shortly after, and daddy brought him down

They hugged and he just smiled, as she took him around

He loved all of his toys, and played with every piece

He'd hardly take a picture, but did say "Dee" for cheese

This Christmas has been special, for our Jolly family

Our Parker's very first, and our Sloan truly believes!

School Days

Our little girl is growing up right before our eyes! She has always had such a hard time with separation anxiety and I was struggling on what to do about school. She was ready intellectually, but emotionally just wasn't there yet. Until........ a couple of weeks ago when we decided to

visit HCA (Hendersonville Christian Academy). It's a very small private school in Hendersonville and Sloan loved it. Fortunately, Jolly and I did as well. So we decided to go ahead and have her assessment done for acceptance and she did great!! Since she did so well at the assessment and said she had so much fun we decided to just dive in full fledged and start right away. Her first day was this Monday and she was very upset, crying hysterically saying "Please don't make me go Mommy" and when I dropped her off she was screaming "save me Mommy". Once I got in the car I lost it. I was a babbling fool the entire drive home (which Parker found rather commical and mimiced the sounds I was making, which definitely helped lighten the mood...he knew mommy needed a laugh, which was interesting to be crying so hard and laughing at little man at the same time). I called to check on her and they said she calmed down shortly after I left, which was unusual for her, and she was doing well, so that made me feel much better. When I picked her up she said she had fun and wanted to go back. Yesterday morning was not half as bad as Monday morning. She did cry some on and off while getting ready saying she would miss me, but it was not the sobbing uncontrollable cries from the day before. She didn't cry at school and kissed me bye with no tears!! Then this morning was amazing! She did not cry one tear!!! We woke up, got ready, fixed her hair, put on her chapel uniform (the one in the picture) and went to school. She even skipped into the building holding my hand!!! I was amazed and so proud of her. She did cry a little bit right before pick up but that was only because she didn't want to go play in the gym. She has done so incredibly well!!! Next year she will start Kindergarten there!! We can't believe how time has flown by! Mommy and Daddy couldn't be prouder of our Sloany Pony!!

6 months...almost legal and loved by ALL!!!!

We had our last post placement visit last week and now we're moving on to the legal and final part of our adoption journey. Of course, we are just at the beginning of our journey of life with two kids...life with raising a boy now along with a girl and life as a family of 4 and it has been a wonderful beginning!

Soon, Parker will be legally a Jolly, he will have his TN birth certificate and officially be Parker Scott Jolly. Of course we will always remember and honor his Korean heritage, we'd never want to forget that or leave it behind. It is a part of who he is and we hope one day he will be able to know and understand where he came from and be proud of who he is!

We are very excited he will soon be "legally" our son. Even though, in our hearts he's been our son since we accepted his referral last August. The past 6 months have been incredible....incredibly hard at times because of sibling things and incredibly wonderful at times because of the amazing miracle of being blessed with two beautiful, wonderful children.

Sloan in the past couple of weeks has become crazy about her baby brother and today we hit a milestone that I've wondered if it would ever happen. She was protective of her brother. She was playing with one of her best friends and he was playing imaginary play pretending Parker was the bad guy and told Sloan to run, not meaning anything by what he said just being fun and pretending, but Sloan said "No, he's my brother", she wasn't mad, but she was proud when she said it and waited for Parker to come down the slide to help him and hug and kiss him! I got chills just hearing her say those words and watching her with him because just a month earlier she would've gone along with it and wanted and probably encouraged ganging up on Parker. She use to be glad when he got hurt and liked it if people would say something mean, but now she doesn't even want to pretend he's the bad guy. It was probably the sweetest words I've heard from her ever, just because of the feelings behind it.

I know there will always be the normal sibling quarrels, but we've made it to that point where she loves him unconditionally and that's all I could ever ask for.

I thank God everyday for blessing us with the incredible gift of experiencing not just one journey, but two very different and very amazing, wonderful journey's to being parents. I loved being pregnant and all that came with it and I loved our adoption journey and all that came with that. And in the end of both we received two beautiful miracles!

4 months already!

WOW!! The time has flown by! We can't believe it's already been 4 months since Parker came home and at the same time feel like he's been with us so much longer! What a blessing he is to our family. We love him so much and even though right now it doesn't seem like Sloan loves her baby brother most of the time, there are times when she shows her love for him. We know that it is going to take her some time to come around and we understand it has been a big transition for her. Her biggest complaint is she doesn't like him getting her toys. Understandable when you've been the only one for so long. She has been the center of our universe for my entire family and sometimes I think it's about more then just the toys...it's about mommy and daddy too. I hope and pray someday they will be close and love eachother the way my sister and I do, but as for now I know there will be sibling quarels and we will just have to deal with those as they come and treasure the glimpses of love and affection exchanged between the two when we can. We are very blessed to have such a beautiful, smart, loving amazing little girl and such a sweet, smart, wonderful little boy. It makes us very "Jolly"!

Angela Crutcher Photography

Our Family of 4!

It's been 3 months now since Parker, our newest addition to our family, came home and our family has been very blessed. My sister today told me he is my "Easy Button" child! Which is funny because it is so true. Not that Sloan isn't a joy, she is so amazingly wonderful and fills our lives with so much happiness and humor, but she is also the one that gives us a run for our money and is so incredibly smart she sometimes leaves us speechless. Parker so far has been a very easy going, laid back little boy. We are in shock about everything he does. He sleeps easily, was totally not even phased when we stopped giving him a bottle, which was an accident. I forgot to take it to my grandparents house and had to put him down for a nap without it and you never would've known he even took a bottle. He just fell asleep. He does everything without a fuss and we are shocked! When Sandy (my sister) and I were in Seoul, it was amazing at how laid back and nice everyone was. The streets were what reminded me of what New York must be like and no one was phased. Riding the subway people would get bumped and pushed because of the large crowds and you never saw anyone that looked remotely frustrated. It is a wonderful city/country with beautiful wonderful people and I am thankful I had the opportunity to go there.
Parker has been a very wonderful addition to our family and helps balance out the chaos for Jolly. Sloan is her mommy's clone and it is no wonder she is so stubborn and full of life and Parker somehow is a clone of his daddy and just a laid back cool kid. We are truly happy with what a blessing both our children are in our lives!