SOME DAYS....

They. are. best. buddies!

Other days, ummm, not so much.

But today...

 was a giggly, hand holding, full of fun day from start to finish!

And that warms this mommy's heart!

Immigration Approval!

Our immigration approval came in the mail yesterday!!

This states we may bring two boys from China into the U.S.!  This was the last document that we have been waiting on to complete our dossier.  Our agency says we should have our dossier sent to China in about three weeks.  Our dossier now has to go through the authentication process, it will make its way from the county level, to the state level, and onto the Chinese Consulate level!

Thank you Jesus, one more step done and one step closer to our boys!!!

Caleb Joseph

Seth Curtis

Wild Wonderful West Virginia

Our family was able to go on vacation to West Virginia a week ago.   The leaves were beautiful!

We stayed in the New River Gorge Bridge area, we saw the bridge from just about every angle!

The New River Gorge Bridge is the longest arch bridge in the 

Western Hemisphere.

In these pictures you can not see how amazingly high this bridge is, you could put the Washington Monument and two Statue of Liberty's all on top of each other under this bridge and still have 20 feet left.  Pretty tall!!

We took a gondola ride to the bottom and then got on a boat to ride up to the bridge.

We also enjoyed the Summersville Lake area, so beautiful.

I love the picture below, I'm sure H.O. is explaining something really important to the boys!

View of the river below the dam.

We spent a lot of time enjoying the river, climbing on rocks, and skipping rocks.  How great and beautiful is God's creation!!

We also went to see a coal mine exhibition "town".  It was set up as  a coal town would of been in the 1930's.  The buildings had been taken down from there original location, with each board numbered and reconstructed in this exhibition location.  We enjoyed our day here.

I often hear from folks how far our country has gotten away from God.  But, it was so evident at this exhibit.  I was amazed each bed or kitchen table had an open Bible on it.  In the school house "The Ten Commandments" were posted on the wall and a Bible was on the teachers desk.  Those are concepts I can't imagine in my lifetime, I've never seen a school room with the ten commandments or had a teacher that had a Bible on her desk.  How sad!

Carrie Anne playing the piano in the church.

I love the picture below because of Andrew's face in the background, trying to be silly.  Gotta love my Andrew!

We had a nice time enjoying God's creation in the fall.  It is hard to believe we were enjoying temperatures in the upper 70's and just 2 days later Hurricane Sandy came through and dumped a foot of snow in this same spot!

NEVER! DID. I. THINK.

I would hear my son say, 

"Mom, can you help me get this fingernail polish off!"

Last night at AWANA, at church,  the commander came to me and said, Your son let my daughter paint his fingernails.  I didn't even have to think, Hmm, I wonder which son that could be???  Nope!  I knew... Andrew!

Last night at AWANA it was orange night and in the spirit of the night the teens, at least some of them, were painting their nails orange!  And, as I've said before Andrew is our official family goof ball. So... of course he had no problem painting his nails.  Taylor, on the other hand, no way!

So... after I had a good laugh and took a picture :) I showed him how to take off the fingernail polish!

He did say he didn't know why girls painted their fingernails: 1. it felt weird, 2. it smelled bad and 3. you couldn't bite your nails!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!

Our sweet Abby turned 11 today!  This marked her first, of many, birthdays with us. Oh, our sweet girl!  She has been SO excited for this day!!  Andrew said to her the other day, it's hard to believe last year Abby was not with us for her birthday, she was in China.  Abby spoke up and said, "yes and so sad, life is so good now".  She is so truly thankful for EVERYTHING!  I can not even count how many times she has said "thank you" through out this day.  

We have had a wonderful, relaxing day celebrating Abby!  Each time we have prayed today, we again thanked God for putting Abby in our family, she just grins from ear to ear.

We started our day at a bounce house.

Then stopped for a snack at McDonald's and headed home to open presents.  She was excited!!

Then, the next long awaited moment... getting her ears pierced!

She loves them!  She just came up to me, gave me a big hug and kiss and said thank you for my earrings.  I love you mommy.  Oh how I love you sweet Abby!  

To finish our day we had Chinese take out followed by cake and ice cream!  Yum!

As I tucked her into bed tonight, she squeezed me tight and said I want to pray tonight, she closed her eyes and said, "Thank Jesus for giving me my mommy and daddy and family."  

We thank God for giving us the gift of Abby!  We are so blessed!!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Outdoor Fun

We have a wonderful amusement park near our house and enjoy going there.  It was too hot most of the summer to enjoy it but with these lovely fall days we have been going weekly.  Carrie Anne has conquered her fear of roller coasters and now enjoys going on all the big rides with her brothers.  Abby, well, Elmo's World is more her speed!  We finally remembered to bring a camera. 

Oh the things we forget that children not adopted until they were ten missed out on.  Abby was SO excited to see the Sesame Street characters!  Oh her sweet innocence.  She whispered in my ear, do you think there is a person inside there??

INTRODUCING...

Drum roll please!

Two of the cutest boys ever!

Caleb Joseph, age 6

and...

Seth Curtis, age 5

Both boys are waiting for us in China!

We think, other than Taylor and Andrew, 

they are the cutest boys ever!

What do you think??

We can't wait to get them HOME!!