Look who's three

Breathtaking

Behold the beauties

Wonderful family party. She is growing so fast. It seems to be something new everyday. Now she loves to carry a purse and put things in it. She has now become very loving towards baby dolls and enjoys being a mommy to them. Where did my baby go??

Just a glimpse

Just a small glimpse of breath taking beauty to come. No matter how much they are paid, photographers don't get enough money....more later

Decision

After much thought and prayer we have decided to not pursue another adoption. Our hearts are very raw and hurting right now, so the explanations don't come easy. We know that this is the best decision for our family as our girls needs ALL of us right now. We will take our time in mourning the loss of our precious boy, but we know that this is the right decision to make. God will take care of the healing and help us move along in life. I will take a short break to let my soul and mind truly believe that this is the best decision to be made at this time. Please pray that I can begin to understand why this has to happen this way and I will continue to trust my God. He loves me and wants only the best, I must believe this and help my family to heal.

Small reunion

Baby bowling shoes

Roping a friend

Helping sis bowl

Watch where it goes

Friends

Cowgirls?

Friends in a wagon

Reading friends

We missed our other travel mates terribly, but we did have a wonderful time watching our girls play together. Our girls didn't seem to have any "recognition" of each other, even though they spent the first 20 months of their lives together in the orphanage, but they did seem to like each other and played together as well as 3 yr olds can. It was so nice to see my friend D and catch up on our lives. The weather was wonderful and the company was even better. We had some awesome experiences and some horrible ones. The horrible one helped me teach my child (the 11 yr old) that drinking does make you really stupid if you do it wrong. These KIDS did it really wrong. Up screaming drunk until 3 am and only stopped because the police were called. We were somewhat cranky the next day but had a wonderful nap. We can't wait to get together with all our precious Anhui girls at Disney next yr.

We are busy decorating this week and updating our homestudy. I will post pictures of our child decorated tree soon.

What a wonderful time

My sister and her family came in for Thanksgiving and we had a wonderful time cooking and SHOPPING. I had never gone out on black friday. Now I have all the gifts I need and they have been wrapped and sent back with sis....I smell a new tradition coming on. My brother and his family will be here for Christmas so the mailing industry just lost a ton of money from me. Yes we had a fabulous time and can't wait to see her ( and the wonderful kids at New Year) I so wish we lived closer so we could see each other all the time. I am working on that, believe me. The following pictures are our attempt to herd cats (much like the red couch photos in China). Next post will be about our trip to New Mexico to reunite with one of our Anhui sisters...WE CAN HARDLY WAIT!!! The only down side is we will sorely miss Claire and Kacey.Take one.Take twoTake three,you get the gist

Playing together

The girls are playing together almost everyday. They have found more things that Claire will and can enjoy and the "velcro baby" is leaving this house more everyday. I hope everyone being here for Thanksgiving doesn't make her come back. Her language is EXPLODING...she now regularly says three word sentenses and will most times calm herself down from imploding. She now is enjoying going to school and loves to tell about her friends and what they do during the day. So with all this progress I am ready to know when our boy is coming home. Funny Taiwan doesn't feel the same way. We have marked the 6 month waiting period. I really feel I can only wait 1 yr sanely...I did it for Claire, I am sure I can do it for Kevin. I know there are so many families waiting twice that long...I can and will be strong if that is what the Lord has in store for us. But I will have to eat a bunch of choclate and drink lots of wine. Now that the holiday season is approaching I guess I could switch to Egg Nog with lots of nog.

Halloween cuties

Yes we made a haul. Claire didn't understand why the candy couldn't be eaten immediatly, there was great distraction techniques used. She learned to say "treat" only and then she would promptly say "tant u" Everyone thought they were too cute together.

100th post. More cute pictures

Bubble blowing

wanting a pic of her pig

Wow...I can't believe I have posted 100 times. Looking back it seems like 1000. Here are more pictures of the girls.

Hannah helped at a birthday party. She didn't like the wig after about 1 hr but toughed it out for the sake of the kids.

Thanks so much for the overwhelming response to our prayer request. All those who emailed privately and left messages here. He feels really good about the interview and will send a follow up letter tomorrow. I will keep everyone posted. I believe it will aleviate a lot of stress in his life. I like my job (the new position I mentioned earlier) but would greatly prefer to be a part time worker and a part time stay at homer(?). Why couldn't I have been born really rich instead of REALLY beautiful. HA HA I guess it is a cross to bear.

We are so excited to see fall FINALLY coming our way. We had 90 degree weather on Sat. and today we hope to get to 60. I love the fall best, as you get to have fires and hear leaves crunching under your feet. We were decorating for Halloween last week and an older gentleman was walking down the street. We have a huge arch in our yard that is air filled and lights up, a tombstone in the yard, a skelaton hanging from our front porch and another one that is sound activated and glides along a string that is connected from our porch to one of our trees. Yes, I know, we put Clark Griswald to shame....wait until Christmas....my husband is a maniac. ANYWAY, the older man is walking down the street and stops in front of our house and says, "are you decorating for Halloween?" WHAT!!?? I thought he was joking at first then realized he was serious...I said "yes, it is already October" he sighs and then walks away. Should I have been worried that he wandered off from our nearby nursing home???

We have not had any new news on the adoption front. I sure hope to get a referral by May, that is about as long as I can wait. I wonder if he is waiting for us too, like Claire was??

PLEASE PRAY

DH is applying for a wonderful position today. Please pray that the Lord touches JDs heart and hires my man. This will be a wonderful position for him to have and he will be such an asset to the company. Thanks so much.

FUNNY

I think he dances better than me

Busy..not dead

Halloween 2006...my how they have grown

Yes, we are all ok...thanks for asking. We just have been so busy I don't seem to have the energy to come to the computer. Claire is beginning to adjust to going to school everyday. She isn't running in by any stretch of the imagination, but she doesn't fight or try to leave. They have cameras in the classrooms, so I know she does fine the rest of the day, but drop off is still drama. Hannah is thriving in middle school. She seems to have found her way through the normal girl stuff and is enjoying making new friends and learning new things. Tonight was her first choir concert. She was so good. I would love to post pictures, but the camera stayed at home. DUH!!!!

Spooky!!

I will be taking a new position at work. Hopefully it will alleviate most of my stress and give me more energy for my family. Thanks for inquiring about us. I hope to be a better blogger in the near future.

I haven't been lying....I promise

SISTER TALK

Throughout our yr together with Claire, I have spoken often of how much the girls enjoy each other. OK....here is the real story. They tolerated each other. Claire wasn't too keen on sharing her new parents with Hannah and vice versa for Hannah. We have gently helped this relationship along with activities that both girls can enjoy and participate in together. They enjoy their time together, they just don't seek out time together.

Today is the National Day of Play....they have been outside with each other all morning. They excitedly run into the house to show me their "castle" in the sand box, how they have developed a "routine" on the trampoline just like "the Olympic girls", and how Claire is learning to pump her legs on the swing. It does warm my heart that they are REALLY learning to play with each other and enjoying the company of each other. Claire is becoming more verbal everyday, so Hannah enjoys having conversations with her. Claire doesn't really answer, but I think Hannah likes talking to her about stuff she doesn't want to talk to mom about. I try not to listen ALL THE TIME, but sometimes they are close enough to hear. Hannah teaches her things about school, church, and playing properly with toys. Claire has become more tolerant of Hannah always wanting to be in charge, and Hannah is beginning to let Claire lead the play more often. I love having a sister and now the dream of Hannah having a wonderful sisterly relationship is finally coming true. Makes a mother's heart warm.

Swinging

So glad she chose grape kool-aid to match her purple shirt

Post placement thoughts

Just finishing our 1yr post placement visit, I thought I would share some thoughts about that. So many people question the homestudy and the visits that it entails. It isn't really a study of your home, per se, although they certainly look at that as well. It is more of a study of YOU and your abilities to parent a child that didn't come from your body. How come biological parents don't have to have them??? Is there the thought that because a child came from your body you will have no problems parenting them? OR, could it be that there is the thought of "there is no turning back now..you are pregnant and can't give it back?" If they did homestudies on bio parents and they didn't pass what do you suppose would happen to that child? I felt as if there was "no turning" back once the decision was made to adopt. Our baby was out there and we had to get her home!! I never really felt probed or invaded with our homestudies. Sometimes it irritated me that we had to jump through so many hoops, especially if I thought there was a better way to do things. HA HA

One huge PET PEEVE is the financial aspect of it. GET READY FOR A POLITICAL RANT..why isn't it ever asked of all the young mothers and fathers if they can support their new baby without the support of the govt. Why does the govt make it so easy to continue to have children and be support by them but yet makes adoption really expensive and timely.?? Ok I am done with that. I will never regret an ounce of paperwork and worry that I had to do before, during, and after the adoption because it brought Claire home. But wow, don't I wish it were a more simpler process. My friend questioned why the post placement study "It's not like they will take her away...right??" I told our social worker about that statement and he said it was soley for the protection of the parents. He wanted to continue to let us know that he would be here for any problems we would encounter once the child came home....wouldn't that be a nice service to bio parents as well.

Gotcha day clothes..one year later

Enough with the modeling

Looking at her shoes

This was on the pants..cute

So tall

cute shoes

I thought I would post pics of her in her clothes from a yr ago. The shoes were really small, but the clothes fit quite well. They were really big on her last yr.

THE BEST DAY EVER...

Most of our precious Anhui girls

She's here!! Thank you God

So glad to see mom and dad

Stefanie has a sister!!

Sweet K and J finally together

As 10 families crowded into a room to become families, we couldn't believe our good luck. One by one families were made simply by calling out their names. All the waiting and worrying fell away as our precious ones were placed in our arms. Anyone who has experienced this knows there are no words to describe it. I wish we had more contact with all the girls but I know their families love them and are remembering us all on this day. Please take a moment to enjoy the pics and lift your glass today in celebration.