2009 Travel Group Reunion

We had our China Travel Group reunion this year in our home city. Last year we all went to Austin, Texas. There were 7 of the 9 families that came this year and it was so good to see everyone! We are blessed to have traveled with such an amazing group of people. We had a very large group in China with 4 Grandmothers, 2 Grandfathers and 4 siblings that also made the trip. We will forever share that incredible experience with these 9 families, some of them becoming parents for the 1st time! The girls are all precious and at such a cute age! We had everyone over to our house Friday night for dinner and catching up and lots of playing, Saturday we swam in the hotel pool and Saturday night we had pizza at our favorite pizza place-Yo Pizza. We then went to get ice cream and to the hotel for more photos on a couch that just happened to be RED!!!! It was amazing to see how much the girls had changed since that 1st "red couch" picture in Guangzhou, China in July 07. My family was very sad the next morning knowing everyone was headed home. We feel so amazingly blessed to have gone on the adoption journey-the joys we have encountered along the way are far greater than we could ever have imagined. We are already looking forward to next year's reunion in Orlando Florida!!!!!! Thank you to all our travel buddies for making the trip and for greatly enriching our lives!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

How cute is this????? As Jaida says "my China friends" jumping and dancing after pizza and ice cream. They were just adorable and all got along really well!

Forever Family Day Number 2!

Forever Family Day is the day we were blessed with Jaida joining our family. We celebrated 2 years on July 22. Wow! Time sure does fly by! We do little gifts and have a Chinese dinner and then choose an event to do as a family. This year we went to Mimi and Papa Bill's house and then onto the beach. We can't imagine our family without Jaida. She has added so much joy to all our lives!!! She is funny, smart, bossy, sensitive, caring, loving and of course..... adorable!!!!!!! I thank God daily for laying adoption on our hearts and for the courage He gave us to step out in faith on this wonderful journey. I love you my sweet Jaida and I am so blessed to be your Mommy!!!!!

July Beach Trip

We went to the beach for a long weekend in July to celebrate Forever Family Day #2. We absolutely love this beach in Northern Florida. We all leave there with sore necks. We become obsessed with finding sharks teeth and sea glass and don't quite know when to stop looking! We have an amazing collection of both at home. Two big glass jars are becoming rather full. We had a great time and hope to go back one more time before the water gets too cool!

PA Today!!!!

We received our PA today! PA is the pre-approval from China stating that yes, China will agree to proceed with the adoption of the child we requested. They said it would take 2-4 weeks and it took less than a week! This process is different from Jaida's because this child was on the Waiting Child or Special Needs List therefore the steps are a little different. I am going to check with our agency tomorrow to see if it is OK to post a picture now and info and if so I will do that ASAP. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!!

Ramblings

When we first got Jaida I worried that she might have some speech and language delays-I worry no more! We all joke that she never, I mean NEVER, stops talking. Here is a sample that took place in the car this afternoon on the way to take Julia to soccer ( we opted for a more in depth training this year vs. the 1 mile down the road YMCA league-not sure why but we will try it) It was thundering and lightening as we proceeded to drive the 20 minutes to practice and it began to rain.... Jaida.... "Why it rain Mama? I don't know honey, I guess God thought the trees were thirsty. What thirsty mean Mama? It means they want water. Why? Because they just do -like you like your sippy cup sometimes. Where my sippy cup now Mama? Where Daddy car Mama? Daddy's car is at work with him. Why? Because he drives his car and Mommy drives her car. Where we go now Mama? Take Sissy to soccer? I watch Sissy soccer?Where my new puppy dog? Xin like my new puppy dog? I need book now Mama. We almost there now Mama?" And on and on and on..... Quite adorable really and sometimes she lets me answer and sometimes she doesn't stop UNTIL I answer but none-the-less she NEVER stops! Sam pipes up from the back seat trying to spell to me the word- ANNOYING. Little does he know that he and Julia both NEVER stopped talking. Fast forward 2 hrs and I am sitting in a little 12 inch chair, that barely fits my 44 yr old fanny, listening to the orientation at Jaida's Mother's Morning Out program. My other 2 kids had this same teacher and I am struck by the realization that I have done this 8 yrs ago with Julia and 4 with Sam. Time flies- and soon I will be here no longer. I have moved from being a 1st time Mommy at pre-school to a 1st time Mom of a pre-teen! So I will try to cherish those sweet little, as Sam tried to spell it, sometimes annoying, never ending questions, knowing they WILL end and I will move on from this phase of life. Little blessings sometimes get buried in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, but it is those we must try to savor and thank God for because they are what make life-life! SO, thank you Lord for all those little "quirks" that seem unimportant yet fill so much of our days as mothers of young children. How boring life would be without them!

Photos and more Photos Round 2

A few more!!!!

Photos and more Photos

For those of you that know me, you know I take a GAZILLION pics! I got it honestly from my Mom, I love it and probably have way to many hanging and sitting around our home-I have thought of photo wallpaper-ha,ha! Anyway these are a few of my favorites from recent months, of my favorite subjects-my kiddos!!!!!

Let's Start at the Very Beginning

Welcome! As our family enjoyed a trip to Germany and Austria this summer where we took a fabulous Sound of Music tour we thought this an appropriate title to start off with. We live in the deep south and have a an 11 yr old daughter Julia, 7 yr old son Sam and a 2 yr old daughter Jaida. Our first 2 kids are biological and the 3rd is adopted from China. We have also acquired a puppy named Ollie. He is a Havanese-which is a little fluffy ball of energy. What was I thinking, oh yeah I know, the kids were "dying" to get another dog!!!! We lost our 14 yr old Golden Retriever last spring-Harley-oh how I still miss him!!!!

As summer is coming to a close, don't really get that as it is 105 degrees here and only August 3rd! Anyhow, school starts back around here next Monday-however we will NOT be starting next Monday as we are home schooling this year! Yes, we are VERY excited, all of us, I will be teaching a 2nd and a 6th grader and my 2 yr. old will be going to Mother's Morning Out 2 days a week but home with us the rest of the time. It should be interesting. Our children attended a private Christian school up until last year when we really felt the Lord calling us to home school. At first, I ignored God's call but it got louder and louder until I could ignore no more! So here we are, books, notebooks, charts, flashcards, pens and pencils ready to take on this new adventure! I am sure I will have some really good days and really bad days to post about so stay tuned!

The other big move around here is our 2nd adoption from China. We got word today that our agency had submitted our LOI(official letter requesting a child) to China for our newest family member. When we get pre-approval I will tell you all about it and post pictures. Adoption is a passion of our family and we have been immensely blessed by our daughter whom we adopted 2 yrs ago and felt God whispering to us again that there was a child He wanted us to love. This time around we went the Waiting Child route, which are children with special needs or older healthy children. We found this child on our agency's list and we are now praying China will grant us permission to proceed with bringing this child home to his Forever Family. Please pray this all moves as quickly as possible as getting paperwork through 2 governments can be rather SLOW!

We took everyone with us to China last time including Nana And Poppy, my parents, so we are planning on taking the whole crew with us again-oh boy sounds fun-3/4 kids on a plane for 17 hrs-yes adoption has its labor pains too!

Well, gotta go let the puppy out for the 14th time today but unfortunately even he doesn't want to go out when it feels as if you are walking into an oven!