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?????"

I don't want chool to tart today!!!

After a good summer break hanging out with her big brothers. Hope proclaimed this morning from the breakfast table (still half asleep!) I DON'T WANT CHOOL TO TART TODAY!!!! She either didn't want to get up early because school started back to school today or she didn't want to see her brothers leave her for the next several months! Phillip had already left this morning before she got up. So she will be excited to have everyone back this afternoon!!!!!!

My little Band Girl!!!!

Just thought I would share a couple of pictures of our little band girl!!! It is fun when your big brother is on the drumline in marching band and you get to hang out with everyone in the band because you are cute!!!!

Hope got to hang out at the last band camp a few days! She had a great time! They are doing a show this year featuring music from the Rise of the Samurai Warrior. They are calling the show the Year of the Dragon! So in celebration of all of that, the color guard girls made Hope an honorary color guard this year! The gave her a flag for her birthday and everything!

She has her outfit all ready and wanted to go to band when it was finished today!!! Needless to say she was a little sad when we told her that there is no band today!!! So she is really looking forward to the season getting a great start next week!!!!!

CHI Reunion 08

More Pictures coming!!!!

Well I still have a few more days of pictures to add to the blog! We have been very busy trying to get ready to go to St. Louis this weekend for the Children's Hope International annual reunion! It is a chance for every family that has worked with Children's Hope to all come together together! We are excited about going because 2 of our travel families to Fuling are coming and we all enjoy getting together! We wish that more of our Fuling family could come this year, but we will miss them and hopefully next year they will be able to make it!

We will be posting pictures of the weekend hopefully not long after we get home!! But may be a little slow in doing so as we will be back on the road a few days after headed to SC! Hope will be spending some one on one time with her Maw Maw Ruth. It is hard when we live here in the Mid west and the rest of our family lives back East. So Hope is looking forward to going!!!!

Hershey Chocolate World