4 Years ago TODAY!!!!

4 Years ago today, we were in the heat of Fuling, China! We didn't seem to mind the heat at all. We were about to become a family of 5!!! We made our way the 2 hours on the bus to the Fuling SWI. When we got there, we waited and looked around. They had just fed the girls lunch and were getting them bathed and ready! Then the time came and they brought the girls out! What a beautiful sight to see...7 little girls in matching outfits!!! They were simply precious!!!

A lot has happend in four years! She went from only being able to sit by herself to she skips everywhere she goes!! She chatters non stop! She laughs and giggles! She is such a girly girl who loves to spend time doing her hair...painting her fingernails, looking for new purses, shoes...the WORKS!!!

She is no longer a little baby, but a big girl getting ready to head to Kindergarten in the fall!! She is so excited about heading to school! It will be sad to see her head off to school, but to see the things that she has learned to do and accomplish in the last 4 years!

We are very proud to be her family!!! And we know that God is the one that placed this precious little girl into our lives!!!

The picture that we used today is one that one of our travel familes happen to catch! What a precious treasure to have for her!

We love you Hope!!! We are glad to be your Forever Family!!!

Sum, Sum Summer Time!

Well Summer is off and running at our house! We have entered a new phase in our house! Every child is now registered for school in the fall! What a place that is! We are now the parents of a High school Jr., and 6th grade Middle schooler, and a big KINDERGARTEN girl!!! She is sooooo ready to start school!

She went for her kindergarten screening and did great! She tested at age 6 for a lot of things! That is awesome since she hasn't had her 5th birthday yet! The funny part was that she showed her Fuling spicyness a bit. She had 2 age Three marks on her paper and the lady explained! She was given those marks because she REFUSED to skip and to mobile skills with her fingers! I had to laugh because those of you that know her knows that she SKIPS just about everywhere she goes!!! She even skipped from the time we left the door of the builing to every place we went after her screening!!!

The other thing she did that left the lady scratching her head was that she had to do a picture cut out. She left no white on the edge of the of the dinosaur! Then the lady said, but this is the funny part. The lady looked and said, in all of my years of doing this, I have never had a child cut in between the legs of the dinosaur. I asked her why she did that and she looked at me and said..Well that way if he needs to go somewhere, then it can walk!

She is getting used to the boys being home each day for a few weeks! Then she is enjoying sleeping in just a bit!

We have hit summer full speed ahead! We have gone to Branson a couple of times already and she is full on for the rides at Silver Dollar City! She was a little sad when she found out that she wasn't quite tall enough to ride this one roller coaster! But thrilled with the fact that she only has about 1/2 inch to go!!! So hopefully by the end of the summer!!!

I will try to do better about posting this summer!! :o)

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)