Sunday, December 30, 2007

Family Foto Session!

How do you get 6 people to all be looking at the camara and smiling pretty at the exact same time, especially when 2 of them are under 3???? The answer is...............

YOU DON'T!!!!!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Healthy girl!




We went to the doctor today because of another pesky sinus infection. He started her on antibiotics again. They weighed her and she was up to 23.6 pounds, that makes 2.2 pounds just since we have been home, less than a month! We also had blood drawn while we were there and her lab values are all pretty much normal now! Her phospherous was still a little elevated but he said we will wait for a month or two and retest her again. If they are still high, he will refer us to a specialist. He is very pleased with her progress. She is now walking everywhere and into everything. She says Hi, kinda like a big breath of air that comes out and she waves and smiles at the same time. She is signing eat, more, bed, and of course no!
Hannah continues to do well with Makenna as well. She loves being a big sister and loves her sometimes until she pulls her over or knocks her down!
TJ is having a great visit home and we sure enjoy him being home. Hannah is glued to him and Makenna has gone to him like she has known him forever. I don't think he will be ready to go back Tuesday, and we won't be ready to send him off either.
Ryan has basketball games tonight and tomorrow. He was listed in the paper as being in the top 10 boys in the county for field goal percentage. We are very proud of him for that. He does love his basketball!! He took Hannah downstairs with him last night to sleep with him! She loves her big brothers!
That's it for now. We are going to take pictures at Ryans game tonight so we can post those tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow, back on my Saturday shift. I hate being gone every Saturday when Scott is home from work and Ryan home from school that day but for now, it is what is needed.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Christmas 2007




What a blessed Christmas we have had this year! To have all 4 of our children home is truly wonderful! We could not ask for more!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Get your kleenex out!

http://www.bringhim homesanta. com/

Get your kleenex out and ready for this one. Please remember all of our service men and women over seas during this time of year. It is so hard to be away from your loved ones.

http://www.bringhimhomesanta.com/index.php?page=video

TJ is home tomorrow!!

This morning, Hannah was laying in bed with me as we had our usual morning snuggle time. She asked if TJ was coming home today. I told her no, he would be here tomorrow morning. She said, "Good, I am so excited to see my big brother TJ!" She doesn't always want to talk to TJ on the phone but now that he is almost here, she is really getting excited. She even asked again as I put her down for a nap when we left to get him! I will post pictures of TJ and his reunion with Hannah and meeting Makenna for the first time tomorrow. We are all very excited. We have sure missed him!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Makenna, before a loving family and after!


4 weeks with Makenna Grace

We received Makenna Grace Bao Xian 4 weeks ago this past Sunday. I have been thinking alot over the last 2 days how her life has changed. She came to us smiling, and ready to play! Scott picked her up first in the conference room and she immediently started smiling. She wanted the cap to her bottle and began throwing it making daddy go fetch it. You can hear in the video that Scott was taking of the babies in the orphanage the cap falling a couple of times. You can also see Makennas hand come down over the lens of the camara as he held her and video taped the baby rooms! She came to either one of us willingly and didn't seem to have a favorite. I am sure her thoughts were these 2 nannys are the best I ever had! I am still not sure that she understands the consept of mommy and daddy but she knows that we are the ones that take care of her and love on her. She will let others hold her sometimes for a minute or so but always wants to come back to mommy and daddy. She knows that daddy plays more and usually has a snack for her! She gets so excited when Scott gets home from work. Both of the girls do. The last few mornings, Hannah has wanted to call Scott at work to tell him good morning.
This morning as I gave the girls their bath, I couldn't help but notice the change in Makenna. When we got her she was so frail, skin and bones with very little muscle. She couldn't walk, couldn't crawl, couldn't set up from a laying position. Today, she walks everywhere, crawls (GI and traditional), and is even going up steps. She is such a happy baby. Her temper tantrums that she was so fond of pitching are very few. She is doing much better with Hannah, not hitting her as much and giving her hugs. Hannah loves her little sister. She told me today that she has a cleft palate just like Makenna! She even opened her mouth to show me!
We have been amazed at how well Makenna's transition has gone. She is allowing us to cut her back on her food finally. This girl eats at least half again what Hannah eats! I am posting 2 pictures, one of her in the tub the day after we received her and one from this morning. What a change!!
We are so blessed to have these two girls in our family. They are truely gifts from God!!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Can you help an orphan?

I found this You Tube video on another adoption blog and thought it was so good.
When Scott and I started thinking of adoption, we said all the reasons why we didn't WANT to start over. It came down to all of our reasons were very selfish. We could not adopt and enjoy empty nest and take a nice vacation every year, get some new furniture, be able to buy "toys" at will but what would we think of our decision in 14 years. You see, in most countries when an orphan hits the ripe old age of 14, they "age out" of the system. That means that they are released from the orphanage, usually with no money, little or no education, no family or family name. Alot of the girls are forced into prostitution or deplorable living conditions. How would we feel in 14 years of vacations and toys when a child that we COULD have helped was turned out into a society that despised them? We decided that we couldn't live with that so we began the paperwork and a little girl diagnosed with Pulmonary Stenosis named Cen Fu Huo was divinly placed into our family. Hannah has been such a blessing to our family and to many people she comes in contact with. We said from the beginning that we were adopting ONE child and after being home for just a few weeks we knew she needed a sister. We could give one more child a loving home and give Hannah a sister that looked like her and someone that she could relate to for the rest of her life. Enter Fu Bao Xian aka Makenna Grace! She has been such a wonderful child from the day we received her in Fuling. Finally we know now that our family is complete..........is it? Once you visit an orphanage, the faces of those children cry out to you in the night, during your day, while you are driving, you cannot escape them. Those precious little faces that looked up at us from their cribs with eyes asking to be held and rocked, sung to, prayed over, tickled, and loved unconditionally. What else can we do? So many children in the world need homes, how many of us could give just one child a home and a forever family? Is adoption for everyone? No, of course not, but we believe that everyone has a job to do, some are called to give these children families, some are called to give financially, and some are called to pray continually. Please pray about your roll in helping these children. The UN guesses there to be 143,000,000 orphans in the world. Everyday it is estimated another 5,760 children become orphans, staggering numbers. We praise God daily for blessing us with a second family! Was it in our life plan? NO! Would we change it for the world? NO!

Friday, December 14, 2007

The things kids say and do

One thing we have found out about Makenna is she needs 12 hours of sleep at night! Which sounds wonderful until you have something to do or visitors the night before and she doesn't get to bed until 10 or so! It is almost lunch time before she ever gets up! I have been going up and waking her up in the mornings. Night before she only slept for 10 hours and then she took a 3 hour nap! She rarely takes a nap longer than an hour when she gets a good night sleep. This morning I told Hannah that it was time to go wake Makenna up and she was so excited. This is coming from the little girl that asked yesterday if Makenna could go back to China! More on that later.... We went upstairs and went in the room. Hannah ran in and gently yelled "good morning Makenna" to which a startled eyed little girl woke up in a fog! Hannah wanted in the crib with her and gave her the biggest hug. She told Makenna "I love your eyelashes and your cleft palate"! Too cute for words. Oh did I mention that this morning after Makenna morning bottle, she had peed through her PJ's so I decide to strip her down and put her straight in the bath. I left for for 2 minutes to run the bath water and come right back out to get her. In that short amount of time she had proceeded to poop on the floor and was holding the prized marbles with a big grin on her face when I came through the gate! GROSS! Anyway, about yesterday... Yesterday was the first day that I started watching my nephew Tyler who is 6 months old and at least 20 pounds! He is a very sweet baby and I enjoy having him. Well, he is HANNAH'S Tyler Michael and no one elses, even his mom has to fight some evenings to take him home. Heaven forbid anyone come over to visit and even look at him, they will get yelled at by Hannah that he is HER Tyler Michael. Well, as you can guess where this is going as soon as Makenna looked at Tyler Hannah went into a jealous rage. She was pushing Makenna away and hitting her to get away. She said that Tyler was only hers and not Makenna's cousin. On top of it all, Makenna decided that Tyler was a huge threat to her and was very naughty with him. I could not leave the room because I couldn't trust her. She pulled his hair, pinched his belly, tried to sit on him.... It was quite the battle. When I was sitting on the floor giving Tyler his bottle she kept trying to pull him off my lap. Oh my, what a day. I went through almost a whole 2 liter of Diet Coke yesterday, thank goodness my wonderful husband splurged and bought me some! I could not have made it through the day without it! On top of it all I even got a very good supper fixed that included 2 veggies, chicken breast, rolls, and even dessert! (Scott made the brownies after supper) My step dad came in to meet Makenna for dinner. We looked at pictures and watched video of our trip and had a very nice visit. After he left and the kids were in bed, I finally got the suitcase from Indiana unpacked and put away and the last suitcase from China! It just had stuff in it that we don't use or summery clothes that we obviously don't need this time of year in it and I had just put off cleaning it out.
On an exciting note, TJ gets home one week from yesterday! We are so excited to see him. I know Hannah has been talking about seeing TJ. She will not speak to him on the phone but will talk to him on the webcam. The other day she was refusing to talk to him on the phone and he told her that if she didn't talk to him he was not buying her a Christmas present. So, she agreed, took the phone, said Hello, and handed the phone back to me! Oh, she is a smart one!
We are headed to Ryan's basketball game tonight. It will be my first game of the year. We were in China for his first couple of games, then there was 2 at least an hour away, to far to take the girls, and last weekend we were on our way to Indiana. I am looking forward to watching him play. I know he is excited to show Makenna off to his friends. I'll post a few pics from the last couple of days then post some of Ryans game (if we are able to manage 2 toddlers and a camara)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Orphans from Fuling




Scott put the pictures of the babies still at Makenna's orphanage to music in this YouTube video. I hope you enjoy it. When you listen to the words, it will bring tears to your eyes. It is hard to imagine how many children need families, not just in China but all over the world. Our prayer is that Hannah and Makenna would encourage another family to bring a child home. We can only adopt and help 2 but hopefully our two will result in others adopting. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about adoption, I'd love to help!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Christmas at the Cabin 2007




We had our second annual Christmas at the cabin this past weekend. We had a wonderful time. The girls enjoyed themselves too! Hannah told me when we were going to bed Saturday night that she was sooo happy that she had lots of cousins!! Pretty cute. Makenna did pretty well for only being home from China 10 days and then being uprooted again. She is pretty easy going and just goes with the flow. As long as she sees mommy or daddy she is fine. She started pulling herself up to furniture this weekend and walking. She has come so far in the 3 weeks that we have had her. We had fun with the gift game. Scott ended up with a nice home made fleece Colts blanket and I ended up with a CD clock radio. We needed a clock in the girls room and I play a Cd at night while they sleep so it will be perfect! We had lots of food, too much, but it was good. I went 30 some hours with no Diet Coke so those of you that know me, knows what a struggle that was!
Hannah's favorite thing I think was decorating cookies!! She would dip the paint brush in the icing then lick it off. She ate sprinkles right out of the can, good thing grandma was helping her and not mommy!! Oh the benefits of being a grandparent....!
Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Merry CHRISTMAS!

Just wanted to tell everyone Merry Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for this Christmas season. God has so richly blessed our family. He has saw fit to add a new life to our family this year! We are so excited that TJ will be home in 2 weeks for a couple of weeks. We have missed him so much and I think he is ready to come "home" to crash and relax. Ryan is in the middle of basketball season so it will be nice for TJ to get to a couple of his games. I know Ryan has missed his big brother being gone....although they used to fight ALL the time, they are finally becoming friends again.
Makenna is doing great. She continues to eat like a linebacker! She has sure gained weight since we had her. Some of her labs came back not so good and we are going to moniter for for the next month and try to get good foods in her and see how her body responds. She has been sleeping 10-12 hours a night! That is always wonderful.
Hannah has been a wonderful big sister. She has shown very little jealousy with Makenna. Makenna is far more jealous of Hannah! Hannah has been acting out more, doens't listen to what you tell her. We are nipping that in the bud. She is finally sleeping in her room! Anyone who has been following her journey knows that she has been in our room since the day we brought her home! She and Makenna are sharing a newly decorated room upstairs. It is a small battle most naps and nights but I refuse to give in at this point so I win every night! She slept upstairs for grandma and grandpa the whole time we were in China so she can keep it up!
That's about it. I will post some pictures later of our last days in China and also since we have been home.
We praise God the Father for His grace and mercy on our family and for blessing us with 4 of the most wonderful children in the world!
God Bless and have a Merry Christmas!




Saturday, November 24, 2007

medical exam

Here is the video of Makenna getting her medical examination. It is very detailed as you will be able to tell from the video!!
Check her website for full story, www.JourneyToMakennaGrace.com

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving Hot Pot in Chongqing!




I have to say that this was one of the most interesting experiences we have ever had in China! I am so proud of Scott for eating everything that he did! Scott, if you don't know, eats cheeseburgers and pizza, a meat and potatoes kind of guy so for him to even try this was amazing! He ate 10 times more than I did! Makenna was hungry so I just kept busy by cutting up pieces of who knows what and puttint it on her plate to eat! She loved it and I am sure that she was used to eating every bit of it at the orphanage. Her paperwork said that she ate livers and other organs with her rice! I am sure she will thank us someday for rescuing her! We told Frederick we were nervous and we only ate normal beef and chicken. It didn't take long to find out that there would be none of that! We could have any internal organ or intestine of pretty much any animal we wanted! Frederick kept pulling bowls off the conveyer belt and dumping them in the boiling pot of unknown liquids and spices!
Enjoy the video. I am sure someday we will look back on this thanksgiving and laugh!!! We do look forward to a turkey and mashed potato real thanksgiving dinner!
Happy Turkey Day!

Sights of Chongqing

Makenna in hotel in Chongqing

Sunday, November 18, 2007

We have Makenna!

I'll just post quick, we have Makenna. You can follow more at her website at www.JourneyToMakennaGrace.com . She is doing great but is running a fever. I tried to post pictures of her here but can't. Sorry!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

when you turn your back for a minute!




Well, this is what happens when you are busy trying to pack for a 2 week trip to China and also get your house cleaned. You think your daughter is down in the family room watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and you hear her talking about how beautiful she looks! She is so proud and wants to show you!!! AAAARRRRGGG!!
I tried to act very upset and stripped her down and told her to stand on the rug so I could take pictures and daddy see what a bad thing she did! Thank goodness it was washable marker and it comes right off. She is soaking in the tub now not sure if she will be green forever!! Hopefully I put enough fear in her she won't do it again!!
Well, back to packing and cleaning!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Marine Corps Ball

TJ went to his first Marine Corps ball this weekend! He flew is girlfriend Anna out to California so she could go with him. Aren't they a good looking couple?! He said they had a great time and the food was really good. He said they had a piece of prime rib the size of a dinner plate! I am sure it was hard for Anna to come home. We have not gotten to see each TJ much this year. He is such a great son and we are so proud of him. We miss him alot and look forward to him coming home for Christmas for a couple of weeks. Enjoy the pictures!

Our nights!

Ryan showed me this YouTube video. It is so much like what Scott and I go through almost every night! We would love nothing more than for Hannah to sleep in her own bed and especially in her own room! I figure by the time she is in high school she will not want to be in bed with us! They are only little once right?!


Thursday, November 1, 2007

Hannah's fall pictures





Today I got Hannah's fall pictures back! They are of course adorable! I will post more about trick or treating later, (Scott only took ONE picture of her and that was the back side of her). I am going to get her dressed up again tomorrow and take pictures of her. She had a blast. Ryan told her to say "Trick or Treat, give me some candy now". Very nice! She loved tootsie rolls! Scott asked her what her favorite was and she proudly yelled "CANDY"! She agreed next year that Makenna can have all the smarties but she wants all the chocolate....boy is she like her dad, the girl loves her chocolate.
Enjoy Miss H's picture! I am also going to post the picture taken last year at this time. What a difference a year makes. She has lost her baby face and turning into a little girl!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

A Fun Fall Day!

Well, today it was a nice, sunny, and brisk day here in Northeast Ohio. Scott decided to rake leaves in the back yard so of course Hannah had to go outside. She loves to be outside. I saw her out playing in the leaves and ran to get the camara! Now Scott has this fancy schmancy camara and I don't know how to change the settings so the first half of pictures I took came out too blurry because the shutter speed was way to slow. He came to fix it and the rest of them came out pretty good. He says he is going to give me a Camara 101 class. I hope my brain can comprehend what he teaches me! My brain is not the sponge it used to be!!
Anyway, we are getting ready to head to Dairy Queen for our Sunday evening ritual. We have been meeting our friends Scott and Trish at DQ for over 2 years almost every Sunday night. We have "our" table that we grab and if someone is in "our" table, it throws us all off! Kinda like going to church and you have "your" pew and you go to sit down and a visitor has sat there!!
Enjoy the pictures!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Just another day...

Not to much happening here with us. We (Tina) has been busy getting stuff together for the trip. I went though Makenna's suitcase yesterday and repacked stuff. Took some clothes out, added a couple of other things. I am afraid she is going to be bigger than Hannah so I have taken pretty much all the 12 month stuff out. Hannah helped me gather up some small toys that we can take to Makenna. I had to promise to bring them back home though! She was especially nervous about me taking the stacking cups.
Last night I went Christmas shopping with my sister in law. I was wanting to have the girls' Christmas done by last night. Well, my sister in law did pretty well but of course I couldn't decide on what to get and then they didn't have a couple of things I really wanted. I did get Tyler Michael (my beautiful nephew) finished up today. I am looking for a life like baby doll for Hannah. One that is soft, that she can change her clothes, but doesn't poop or pee! It is hard finding one that looks even similar to her. I found a couple on Ebay last night, 60 bucks, but adorable. We'll see. Scott wants to just look in China for one. Most of what I saw there was blonde hair, blue eyes! They did have some smaller Chinese dolls but I was wanting something bigger. She keeps tryingn to put clothes on these little hard dolls and struggles then mommy has to do it!
I know why you have children when you are younger. Today at Walmart, I had to plan on parking near a cart return so I could push a cart over to the van, put Tyler Michael in his carseat in the "bucket" of the cart and Hannah in the kid seat. Diaper bag went under the cart by Hannah's feet. Then the shopping, of course she wants everything and in the middle of the toy isle, Tyler decided he was starving! His carseat takes up the whole cart so I had things packed in around him so I just took his bottle out and propped it up with a blanket and all was happy. Of course since I wasn't holding him and able to burp him right away when I did pick him up I paid for that one! He just smiled like always. Sometimes I think his daddy (my brother) tells him to do things to me! I'll post a couple pictures of this angel boy. It has been so much fun watching him. Hannah just adores him. It is "HER Tyler Michael. If anyone even looks at him, she gets upset. There are times his mommy comes to get him and Hannah cried for her not to take him. I guess we told her SHE was getting a new cousin, then we had the nerve for him to live at Uncle Todd and Aunt Kayla's house!! I told Scott, if I tell you are are getting a new car, you expect that you are getting a new car, to use as you want and parked in your driveway. Well Hannah can't understand why if Tyler is HER cousin, why he can't just stay here! I enjoy my sleep too much to keep Tyler here at night too!
Well, I will end with a couple pictures of Tyler Michael. This is a little video of the life of Tyler Michael, Hannah's cousin!! I am quite confident that she will NOT share him with Makenna!!

HERE HE IS...TYLER MICHAEL!

Monday, October 22, 2007

My fortune!

Look at my fortune! Can you belive that?!?!

ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more

China journey address

I just wanted to post our other blogs. Hannah had her own journal that we kept for her from before we knew who she was until present. We also have one for Makenna that we will use for our trip. We had no problems updated our blog while in China with Hannah and we have heard with blogger it is hit or miss so we will use Makennas blog until after we are home.
Feel free to check them out!

www.JourneyToHannahMei.com
www.JourneyToMakennaGrace.com

Beautiful fall day

I was watching our neighbor boy Caleb and the kids wanted to go out and play. Hannah has been fighting a cold all week and I apologize for not seeing the snot coming from her nose but the pictures were to cute not to post!! Caleb and Hannah are one month apart. I used to babysit Caleb before we adopted Hannah and the sad thing is, we have not gotten the kids together hardly at all! The funny thing is, Caleb has been here over 3 hours and they have yet to have a fight! Maybe I should watch him everyday. Hannah is loving having someone to play with. I guess it helps confirm our decision to bring a sister home for her to play with. Well, I am going to fix lunch then see if I can get to two year olds down for a nap!! More later!


Chongqing videos

Hi guys, I found some YouTube video's of Chongqing. This is where we will be staying for a week. Fuling is where Makenna is and that is about 2 hours away. We will go to Fuling to get Makenna and visit her city on that day. I'll upload more video's as I find them. Pretty interesting though huh?!








Friday, October 19, 2007

Makenna, here we come

We finally got word yesterday that China has given us permission to come get Makenna! We will leave on November 15 and get home the 27 or 28. We will meet her for the first time on November 18! We are very excited to bring her home. Please pray for our family as Hannah will be staying home with grandma and grandpa. She is happy they are coming but I know she doesn't understand that this will not be your standard weekend visit!
On another note, Hannah has been batteling a cold all week. It started out Monday with sneezes and projectile snot flinging! She got to the point that when she'd sneeze, she'd hold her hand out to catch it! Pretty gross! Anyway, it has turned into a cough now also. She doesn't let something like a cold keep her down! She is on the go nonstop.
I'd ask that you keep my friends Brian and Elisa in your prayers. Elisa is in China now adopting their little girl from China and just found out that Brian's brother Bill lost his battle with cancer last night. They knew it was a possiblity that is why Brian stayed home but she is having a hard time being a half a world away and not be able to grieve with her family. She will miss the funeral, as it is the weekend and the adoption cannot be speeded up at this point.
Thank you in advance for prayers on their behalf as well as our family as we pack to head to China.

We meet Makenna soon!


Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Ryan

Our youngest son Ryan is a senior in high school this year. He plays basketball and baseball. He is a great son and a wonderful big brother to his little sister!

OOH RAH

Our son TJ is a United States Marine. We are so proud of his decision to be the best of the best!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Hannah's gotcha day video



Hannah in the park

Daddy decided to be really nice this afternoon to mommy and take Hannah to the park to play. It was a beautiful fall day here and he was working with his new camara lens so it was a win win for everyone! He got to practice with his new lense, got to spend wonderful time with Hannah, and I got lots of great pictures! Not to sure what happened to that one piggy tail....kinda smushed and funky looking but she had a great time! She brought home a whole big bag of nuts that she and daddy collected. We are going to color a picture of a tree later and glue them on. Scott said they sat under a pavillion for at least 20 minutes watching the squirrels gather nuts and play in the leaves. He said that when they were coming home, Hannah was talking about her foster parents and mentioned they had a son! One report we had gotten said they had a son but we had never talked about it. He asked her if they had a sister for her too and she said no, only a son. Comparing to her big brothers or the little boy in 4 grade that I watch after school, she said he was more like the 4th grader in size. I am thinking I may contact the orphanage to see if there is a picture of the foster family and their son that we can add to her scrapbook. Since she does seem to remember him, I feel like this needs added to her lifebook!
She is an angel 90% of the time! Can't imagine life without her for sure!

Hannah in the park

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Our wonderful dinner tonight


Well, I had to post and let everyone know about our supper tonight. I worked from 5:30 this morning until 4:15 tonight and came home rested for an hour then headed to the mall for some early Christmas shopping. We shopped, didn't buy much...too many decisions for someone codependant like me to make. We finally stopped for supper around 9:00 and I let Scott pick where to eat and he chose Chili's. We all really like the food there so I was more than happy to go along. I love their Chicken Club Tacos and Hannah loves their corn on the cob! Well Scotts supper came out cold and the kitchen made him new potatoes and corn on the cob and when that came, the corn was still very cold! Needless to say, the manager was at our table twice, our waiter was very upset with the kitchen, and Scott ended up getting his supper for free! Well, our poor waiter was trying to make small talk with us because of the mess up and he told Scott, "I would be upset if I came here with my daughter and was served a cold supper". As he said this he was looking right at me!!! When the waiter left, Scott gave me the look and said that the waiter thought I was Scotts daughter! The funny thing was, Scott was teasing me before we ordered to order a daquari and see if I got carded but I just laughed it off and got a diet pepsi like always. I got up later to take Hannah to the bathroom and Scott did something he never does....he corrected the waiter! He told the waiter that I was not his daughter that I was in fact his wife but that I was only 25 (I'm over 40 and under 45)! He told the waiter he gets this all the time and he just expects it now since he is twice my age!! The waiter of course felt awful but Scott said they all had a good laugh over it!
If I thought for a minute that I only looked 25, I'd use that to my advantage! I read a funny the other day with a suggestion that the fatter you are the less wrinkles you have...you fill out your skin!! Maybe that is the case!
I'll post a family picture that we had taken last fall. We did pictures with Scott's sisters for his parents for Christmas. They all turned out great and John and Margaret were very surprised!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Hannah summer of 2007

Here are some pictures of Hannah Mei from this summer. We had a great summer with her. She has grown so much! She has gotten much taller, almost potty trained, talking complete sentences and actually carries on an adult conversation! She talks non stop from sun up to sun down! I have told her that just because her eyes are open doesn't mean her mouth has to be open too!! Hannah has been taking gymnastics on Thursday nights and story time at the library on Monday nights. Scott took pictures last night of her at gymnastics so I will post those soon. She is a bundle of energy, very stubborn and opinionated, and I wouldn't change her for the world! She is such a blessing to our family!

Hannah summer of 2007

My first slide show!!!

I just uploaded my first slide show!!! I am so excited. My friend Debbie has a wonderful blog and she talked me through how to set it up and get it on my blog! I promise to have more slides very soon! I want to do one of the kids and family etc.
I hope you enjoy it. I will try to get more creative as the slide shows go by!!

Slide show of Makenna Grace

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Welcome to our family!

Welcome to our family. I have wanted to create a blog for our family for quite a while now. We have had a blog for our daughters that we have adopted from China but we really needed a family blog so we can talk about our whole family! I think it will be easier to keep up with one blog than 2 or 3! I will try to blog every couple of days and include lots of pictures and also video of our family. We have 2 wonderful sons, and one daughter from China. We are planning on traveling to China next month to complete our second adoption so between now and then I have about 10,000 things to get done. I cannot promise that I will keep this one up too often before we get back! We would appreciate your prayers as we make this long journey to bring our daughter home. I have read so many blogs and admire how people share their lives online. I also wanted an easier way for our family and friends from out of town keep up with our children. Children are a gift from God and they grow so fast!