Mommy and Hope day!!!

Today was a mommy and Hope day! Both of the boys went to work with Fred today! It was a welcome break! Since school as been out, it has thrown Hope for a loop and her schedule!!! She doesn't think she needs to take a nap because "her boys" as she so calls them are still awake!!! So, there have been a couple of days that I didn't make her lay down!!! BAD MAMA...and a bad move!!! It got down right ugly in this house. She was tired, but didn't want to sleep, so every little thing got to her!!! She cried, she yelled, she got mad...so I would sit her down away from the boys and she would fall asleep!

Today we have watched Cinderella 3, colored, made peanut butter cookies for "her boys" for when they come home, had lunch, picked up a few things, played with the cat and now she is napping!!!!

She was thrilled to have gotten another "birsday" card in the mail! She has really enjoyed getting some mail these days! She has been singing the birthday song most of the day today! Her friend Zoe also had a party on Saturday and so today she has been singing Happy Birthday to Zoe and Hopey!!! It has been very cute!

Happy Birthday Princess Hope!

Happy Birthday to our Fuling Princess! On Sunday June 24th our sweet Fuling Princess will turn 3 years old! Just a few days ago we celebrated our 2 year Gotcha Day and on July 2nd we will celebrate our 2 years Forever Family day because that is the day that we flew home and Hope met her brothers for the first time!

My daughter is one of my biggest heros! She was born, spent at least 9 days with her birthmother, left in a park, found and taken to the Fuling Social Welfare Institute. There she spent close to the first year of her life. Then she was placed with people that don't look or talk like her, flown halfway around the world to live. She is an amazing girl so full of life and we are truly blessed to have her in our home! There are days that are more challenging than others, but that is so much a part of life.

Saturday we are having the party and I will post pictures after that of her in her new princess dress! She is planning to be Cinderella tomorrow!

Happy Birthday our Princess!

Where have the last 2 years gone???

riding in the wagon!
Dedication Day!
Valentines Day
Loving my bears!
Laughing with Mom

First Snow!

First Thanksgiving!

In the leaves with the boys!

Catching Bubbles!!!
Loving on my Uncle Michael!

The Referral Picture!!!

Swinging in my swing!

First Christmas! Trying to learn to walk!

I thought that I would just post some pictures that cover the last 2 years!!! Enjoy

2 years ago!!!!

2 years ago on June 19....Father's day...in more ways than one!!!! We took a bus ride through the countryside Chongqing, China to the beautiful city of Fuling! It was about a 2 1/2 hour bus ride. Our group was very excited some were to be fathers for the first time and it was a very exciting day for them!!! We were just ready to meet the little girls that we have only seen a picture of for the last couple of months!

We were handed a sweet little girl who had this puzzled look on her face and she sucked her thumb! That day we became parents of a sweet girl! We were missing our boys on that day!

A lot has happened over the last two years! Learning how to walk, talk, crawl, painting finger nails, dress up clothes, potty training, watching all of the Princess movies, moving from a crib to a big girl bed!!! Needless to say we still struggle with some issues of her getting overly frustrated at some things, but the good days far outway the bad!

She is truly a blessing to our home and we could never imagine life without her!!!! She is such a joy and can make us laugh with some of the things that she does or says! We are truly thankful for the special gift that God has given us in our children and we celebrate the completion of our family!!!!

JULY 2nd...WE ARE HOME!!!!

We got to the airport and told Simon farewell. He helped us get to the luggage check-in. The funny thing is we had to go through a process where they banded your luggage (for a small fee). Then you could take your luggage and check in for your flight!

We left around 7:30 am and we were happy to be on a plane headed home! The flights were good except for the long layover in Tokyo, Japan. They had a guard that wouldn't let people on the bus to go over to the next terminal...he kept saying it was the wrong bus! We waited for 1 1/2 hours to get to the correct terminal. Once we got there, the lady that worked with American Airlines was wonderful!!! She said that she had some better seats in the bulkhead that would give us more room for the flight home! She said that she would also make sure that Hope would have a bed for the flight! Well the bed was a little cardboard tote with a little cushion in it. Hope slept in that for just a little bit, but she was a little long for the box so her legs hung over the side.

The next leg of our flight took us to Chicago where Hope became a US citizen!!! We went through immigration and the processed us very quickly! I heard the one worker tell the other to please hurry, that they had a small child with them. I was forever grateful, because we were sitting on a bench with a LONG line of people trying to come into the US! They had us to the luggage claim area in about 10 minutes! We then went and grabbed our luggage and made the transfer from international flights to domestic flights! They guy laughed when he saw the bright yellow banding and didn't even want to search our luggage. He said no one would have been able to mess with it anyway, so he took our luggage and sent us through! By this time, we were hungry and had spent most of our extra money on the two extra days in China, so we found a hot dog stand, got one hot dog and 2 cokes with ice!!!! It was I do believe the best coke that I had ever had!!!! We then headed down to our gate and waited for our flight back to Springfield!!!!

The best part was seeing everyone once we landed and made our way around the corner at the airport!!! It was awesome to see their faces with big smiles on them! This group was the group that prayed us through and encouraged us the entire way!!!!

God has truly been faithful to us through it all! He has provided in many ways that we can never imagine! The most treasured thing to me is my friends and family!!! That's what makes my life complete....everything else is an added bonus!!!!!

July 1st...our last full day!!!

Well today is our LAST full day in China! We slept in a little, it was nice! We went down for breakfast and then we decided to go to the mall to get more goodies to bring home for everyone! Fred even managed to find a few shirts for himself! We were able to get some DVD's of some movies that we were wanting. Phillip will be thrilled to know that we got the new STAR WARS movie!!!! We had a good time just walking around! But I'm ready to go home!!!

After we came back to drop off our finds, we headed back to Lucy's (it became our favorite place to eat there!). We then went to the Carrefor and got a few things for the trip back home. We decided to get some sandwhiches from the deli at the back of the White Swan for dinner. We had to go back upstairs and try to pack and have everything ready for a 5:45 AM departure!!!!

Are we any closer to going home??? June 30...

Well the consulate got visa's to us late this morning...about an hour after our original flight left!!! Fred also talked to them about helping us find tickets for earlier than the 4th!

They put their travel person on it! It worked...we had tickets for July 2nd! It was an answer to prayer! We were on our way to walk down and pay for the new tickets when we heard someone call our name...it was Cedra from the consulates office. She came over to bring us the tickets. She was the sweetest thing! She kept telling us how sorry she was that this happened to us. Hope and I went upstairs to take a nap and Fred went with Cedra to pay for the tickets. When he got back, we went to dinner at Lucy's! We went strolling around and went to pick up our laundry at Jennifers! It is a very neat place right near the White Swan. They have all kinds of things. They let you borrow strollers if you don't have one...they have medications that other parents have left behind that haven't been opened so that someone else can have them. They do your laundry for practically nothing. The shops right by the White Swan are wonderful!!! You can find all kinds of wonderful things to get. I wish that we would have gotten more!!! After that, we met up with Kimberli and Scott and Mia, it was nice to still have them there with us. Scott said that we needed another massage, so he told Kimberli and I that he would pay for it because he thought we got jipped out of our last one!!! It was wonderful...it was a wonderful way to get rid of some stress!!!!