Chinese New Year pictures

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today we went to celebrate the Chinese New Year with our international adoption group. It was lots of fun! Hope wore her pretty purple silks that I found for her in Chinatown, NYC last spring. She looked beautiful!!!

There were all sorts of crafts to do. She made a necklace, an Ox puppet (since it is the year of the Ox! There was Chinese music by the MSU students, Chinese Ribbon Dance, children singing in Chinese, The Chinese Dragon made an appearance, great food and lots of fun! We sat with some dear friends of ours, The Paces. The girls had a great time eating noodles and fortune cookies!!

It is so great to be able to get together and celebrate such a wonderful culture and heritage of China! The children all looked beautiful in their beautiful Chinese outfits!

I'll be posting a few pictures in just a little bit!

Hard Question!!!!!

I have always heard from other adoptive families that the hard questions come. Well last week the first hard question came. I was not expecting it at all! We were on the way home from taking Stephen to school. We were just a couple of minutes from the school and I heard in the backseat.... "Mom, where is my China mommy and why can't I see her anymore?" I was stunned!!! My first smart answer was.."I don't know!" Then I thought for a few minutes and told her, PRAYING that she would understand, "Your China mommy still lives in China and she couldn't take care of you like you needed, so she took you to your orphanage (she knows about her orphange)until Mommy and Daddy could get there to bring you home." She said..."OK!" I sighed a huge sigh of relief that she was ok with that answer.

We have always been very open about Hope being from China. We read about China, watch movies about China, read adoption stories...so she is very aware that she is adopted from beautiful China!

My mind wonders what questions will be next, when they will come, will I be ready for the answer????? I will cross that bridge when we get there!

All I know for now is that this little girl is thrilled to know that she will be able to go to Kindergarten in the fall!!!

Merry Christmas 2008 Pictures!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Well here we are just a couple of days away from Christmas and excitment is filling the house!!!!

All of the trees are up! Santa visit has been made! Cookies are baked! It has been fun to watch Hope get more excited about Christmas as she gets older! She actually sang in the children's program this year! But...she did spend a lot of time trying to make the little girl that was standing beside her to turn around and watch the teacher. It got quite funny at times!

She has helped wrap gifts! She was in charge of the taping, the picking out of paper and sometimes writing the gift tags! She is doing great on her writing!

She has enjoyed seeing all of the Christmas lights around town this year! She just gets excited about it all! She is really excited because grandparents will be here this year for Christmas! No traveling for our family this Christmas as school got out tooo late to make it!

She has really taken to singing Christmas songs as well! She LOVES Santa Clause is coming to town! She is really having a fun time dancing through the house and singing! She is quite the little Christmas girl!

This year at our annual pilgramage to Bass Pro to see Santa...the boys asked her if she was going to talk to Santa..she said NOPE! She didn't...she did shake her head when asked a question..but that is progress! The boys asked her if she was going to sit on Santa's lap...she said NO I'M NOT!!! But she did. Poor Santa...Stephen had to sit on the other leg so that Hope would sit on his leg. When Hope realized that there was no where for Phillip to sit, she might as well give in and sit on his lap. She did!!! She even smiled for the picture!!!!!

So as we get ready in the next few days to celebrate Christmas...from our house to yours...Merry Christmas and may your new year be richly blessed!!!!

I'll try to get some pictures up...but the computer is having a hard time today!!! :o)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!!!

Well it has been awhile since I have posted on the blog! Things have been a little nuts around here.

Thanksgiving has come and gone and we have eaten the last of our turkey! We went today to Branson to see the play Noah. It was wonderful! We were truly blessed to have great seats right near the aisle. So when the animals came in to go to the ark...they walked right by where we were sitting! That just thrilled Hope beyond all measure! She was sooooo excited!

We have started to put up our many Christmas trees in the house. Hope was the first one to get hers up! She turned off her light and squeeled and said:"Now, Santas Quause" can come and bring my gifts and put them under my tree!!! I said..well, no Santa doesn't come for 3 more weeks. She said OOOOO..ok. So when we put the family tree up in the family room...she just clapped and said...NOW Santa has the tree he can put the gifts under! She had taken a nap when I put the kitchen one up. Fred and I had gone out to do a little shopping. When she woke up and walked into the kitchen, she screamed..PHILLIP!!!! Come Look!!! There is another tree in the kitchen! She is really getting into the decorating!!!!

But as we have just celebrated Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a few things that I'm truly thankful for!
1. My daughter's birth mom. I know that it was not an easy decision to give this precious girl away.
2. Fuling SWI. This was Hope's first home for the first 11 1/2 months. Hope was loved and taken care of.
3. My husband: We are getting ready to celebrate 18 years together. I'm truly thankful that God confirmed to his heart that a China adoption was the way to go for our family.
4. My amazing sons: They were very supportive of having a little sister in the house. They truly love her!
5. Our Spicy Fulinger! What joy she has brought into our home with her wacky sense of humor! She is a joy to be with (most days... :o) )
6. My wacky family! They have welcomed Hope with open arms and hearts from the very start!
7. Last but surely not least: God, for bringing our precious daughter into our family! He knew what he was doing when he brought this sweet little girl into the world and bringing her half way around the world to join our family!

I pray that each of you will have a wonderful holiday season! And I'll be posting pictures soon!

I need SLEEP!!!!

I discovered last night that it is harder to get people to sleep when there is no power than if the power is on! Our power went out last night from about 8:30pm to about 11:30pm or so. Phillip and I came in from band practice and the lights were still out. Stephen was laying in the living room floor just talking!!! Hope was the one who opened up the front door and welcomed us into the party!!!! Needless to say I thought it would end quickly....NOT!!!

I finally took Hope to our room to see if that would help. I layed down with her. She tossed, turned, did a potty run, got back in the bed, played with my hair, played with my face, held my hand, wanted to know why I couldn't read her a story, did I know that power was out???, it went on and on! Finally just when I thought she was asleep, the power comes back on!! So we got up to close the windows, turn off the lights that people had left on and here she came...wanting to know if it was time to get up!!! I told her that I was just helping to get things ready for bed.

I don't know what time she and I finally went to sleep...but at 5:45 am this morning...I started to get up so that I can spend a few minutes with Phillip before he leaves for school. Thinking that she was very asleep....I made my way down the hall. At 6:15 AM!!!!...Here comes Little Britches...Mom is it time to get up??? No...lay back down here on your sleeping bag. So I layed down on the couch, she was on the sleeping bag and then at 6:30!!!!! Stephens alarm went off 1/2 hour early!!! She said...well his clock went off...it's time to get up!!! I told her to lay back down we still had a little bit of time! So we went back to sleep for a few minutes.

I'm hoping for a good nap time today!! But I guess my posing question would be..."Can you ride a bike at the gym and sleep at the same time?????"