Two years with our Miss Abby

Two years ago we met our Abby for the first time!  She was scared and shy but that only lasted for about an hour and she showed us her silly side.  So much has happened in the past two years since Abby joined our family.  She has grown eight inches, underwent major surgery and five weeks of inpatient rehab, endured hundreds of hours of therapy and all of those things have helped her to become so much stronger.  

My sweet silly girls!

But, the most important thing is she has learned of our savior who brought her through this and home to her family.  He has loved her since before she was born.  She has learned of His love for her(and you), that He died on the cross for her sins and this year she trusted Him as her personal savior.    

The other night as we ate dinner Abby asked, before her, Caleb and Seth came home where did everyone sit at the dinner table....hmm, we thought and thought and no one could remember our seating arrangements before they joined our family.  The bottom line they are our family and it is hard to remember or think of life without them!  Yes, there have been hard times, things are not always easy but we praise God he added these sweet blessings to our family!

We feel so honored and humbled that Jesus added Abby to our family.  You are the sister that Carrie Anne prayed so many years for!  We love you Abby!!

I got

a new dishwasher.  

And they got a new box!!!

They have had so much fun playing with the box!

All six of them!

Taylor is hiding Andrew in the box.

They have created games and laughed all evening, oh so much fun!

I love hearing all the laughter!

Who needs expensive toys, just a simple box will do!

Seth's 1st lost tooth {with us}!

He was so excited!

He had lost his bottom two front teeth in China.

H.O. had the honors of pulling this tooth!

What a cutie!

Six Months! WOW!!!

Six months ago today I woke with such a mix of emotions: excitement, nervousness, excitement, nervousness, which caused me to feel actually a bit nauseous!  It was finally the day we had waited a year for: Caleb and Seth day.  We were finally going to meet our sweet little boys!

It is hard to believe at times how fast the past six months have gone.  They are both sweethearts and add a real level of excitement to our house.  The volume level of our house is definitely higher, and I love it.  It is so fun to have cars zooming across the floor again and little boys running by pretending to be airplanes.  I love hearing more laughing.

The boys spelling their names in school.

Three of my sweet boys.

So how are they doing?  Amazing well!  We have yet to see any grieving.  Caleb came right to us that day in Chongqing and after five minutes and some M&M's Seth came to us and they have been happy and laughing ever since.  That does not mean we have not had moments :).  They have had to learn how to share and live in a family with rules, but they have been such troopers and their moments of trouble are overshadowed by many more moments of goodness and happiness and laughing.  Their English is coming along so nicely, they can understand about anything we tell them and speak a lot.  Often when they are playing now they will speak to each other in English not just Chinese.

Andrew helping Seth shoot the arrow.

Andrew helping Caleb shoot the arrow.

About a month ago as I was leaving to go to the grocery store Caleb ran up to me and hugged me tight and said "I love you Mommy". Oh what sweet words to hear, he will often tell me he loves me when I'm hugging him goodnight when I say I love you.  But, that was the first time he just ran up and said that on his own.  Now both boys regularly share their love.  How precious.  Just this morning as H.O. was leaving for work Seth many times said, "Daddy I love you",  just absolute preciousness.

Snuggle time with daddy before bed.

Our God is so good!  Only he could bring a family together that is from all over the world.  A child does not have to be born from you to be your child.  Only God could of taken these two boys, who until six months ago had never met and unite them as He has.  They are not only brothers but best friends!  They play so well together! 

Sweet brothers and best friends picking pumpkins.

So, how is everyone else doing??  Taylor has adjusted to the increased noise level.  He enjoys quiet and well... there just isn't much of that in our house.  Andrew and Carrie Anne have amazed me how good they have done, they are great helpers to me and an excellent big brother and sister to Caleb and Seth.  Abby has adjusted, she had to find her role in the family again.  She felt the need to be like a harsh orphanage nanny to the boys, we often have to tell her we are the parents and will do the correcting :).  However, we are beginning to see the happy, silly, giggly girl again that is our Abby.  Which is SO wonderful to see.  And H.O. and I, well I think we are doing pretty good also!  We've learned to juggle a little more and adjust to more going on.  We are loving having more sweet blessings to love!  We know this is only a season in our lives and before we know it they will have left home, so we are enjoying the excitement and chaos while it's here.  When I look around our dinner table, which is often quite noisy, and see all these precious faces, all with different personalities and desires and interests and all unique I feel so incredibly blessed to be their mommy.  Life is good!  

Caleb and Seth with my mom.

They love our sweet dogs!

Praising God our sweet boys have been a part of our family for 
six months!

Can you drool into your nose?? :)

Yep!  I have one talented son!

He plays hard and sleeps well!

23 years STRONG!

On this day 23 years ago my sweet sister at the young age of 28 was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She had a battle ahead of her but she fought hard!  She had the inspiration of raising two young children to keep her going.

It was not an easy battle, as she endured surgery and chemo, but she was victorious!  

She is a fighter and an inspiration to me!

Love you Ronda!

The Birthday Girl!!!!

Our precious Abby turned 12!

After a day of apple picking we came home and celebrated Abby.  She choose Chinese for dinner, even though she says American Chinese food is not as good as China's Chinese food (some of us in the family don't agree with that though:)).

She had looked forward to her pinata.  We had two to break open~ the one they made and the store bought one.  We did not get the homemade one painted because it took soooo long to dry, but they enjoyed busting it open anyway!

I love this picture of the candy falling as the pinata was busted!

Pinata number 2:

Taylor is quite serious about busting this pinata!

After all the candy was claimed Abby opened her presents,

and then enjoyed cake and ice cream!

We thank God that He placed Abby in our family!

We love you Abby!

Apple Picking

We enjoyed a trip to the mountains with a group from church to pick some yummy apples.

Nothing better than an apple right from the tree!

H.O. was the official quality control officer making sure there were no bad apples in our bunch!

Time for a little break, apple picking is such hard work! :)

The teens from church hung out and picked apples together, one time we did spot them through the trees...

..and Andrew came up behind Seth and grabbed him,

and tickled him.

We had a great time and are looking forward 

to eating lots of yummy apples!

The Great Gatsby

Andrew and Carrie Anne went to a birthday party and 
The Great Gatsby was the theme.  

How beautiful!

How handsome!

It was held at a local bed breakfast and everyone looked great!

My sweet children. 

Andrew and Carrie Anne with friends.

What fun to see everyone dressed up!  They had a great time!