Anna's Birthday Party!

Helping big brother Matt put together the wagon!

Oh my, that looks very scary!

This is more like it!

Auntie Barbie and Auntie Tracy with Sarah!

Oops- didn't mean to post a second pick! How do I take one off? Anyone?

Yippee presents for me!!

Teaching Auntie Barbie how they count in China with their fingers!

Auntie Tracy recorded Uncle Bill snoring, Anna enjoyed listening to it! She said "very noisy"!

We were on spring break during Anna's birthday- so we postponed her party until we were home with the rest of the family. She was very excited that the celebration was for her! She got a fun birthday balloon bouquet. When you hit the big balloon it sings Happy Birthday to you from all the magical D*SNEY PRINCESSES- what more could a girl want!!

Anna's 2 Aunts joined us for the celebration- Barbie and Tracy! The girls had a wonderful time with them! We did our usual, family dinner, presents and cake and ice cream! Anna got a wagon and the teeniest, tiniest bike with training wheel- that she probably won't ride until she's 4- so why did we get it this year...I don't know?

Happy Birthday to our precious little Anna!

Thank you Jesus for this sweet girl!!

News Flash! Sarah and Anna will be meeting Lucy!

Yes, the headlines you just read are true. Our two girls will be meeting the infamous and adorable Lucy Joy!  We are all very excited! The girls have been checking out her Momma's blog so they can recognize momma and daughter. We looked on a map and showed them where we would be going.

Of course, Anna really doesn't get it- what she really cares about is that she will be going with us- we will not be leaving her. Second up on the Anna agenda would be- don't forget my blankie and 3rd is bring the movies!!

Sarah on the other hand is concerned about 7 hours in the car because she gets car sick- bummer- let's hope it doesn't happen. She is also very excited to have a pillow in the car- another new experience for her. She did tell us the other day she likes Florida and America(which is MN)- I wonder what she'll think about the country of Kansas! Okay, okay, I have a little work to do in the geography department.

Meeting bloggy friends would be reason enough to travel 7 hours but we are actually traveling to that neck of the woods for Johnny's soccer tournament.  I think it is cool for bloggy friends to meet and we are all thrilled to have this opportunity! Yippee Jesus!!

Big News!!

Someone is sleeping in their own bed in her own room!! And it is Sarah!! This is huge!! On thursday she wanted to sleep in her room, I was surprised but we went with it! On Friday and Saturday Katie and her friend were in the room, too. Sarah loved that! Now today she is in her room still, we are thrilled and a bit surprised! I was thinking it would happen in a month or two BUT this works for me! I am so glad she is comfortable enough with her home, her family and her bedroom to be able to do this! It is a big step!! (I do hope it continues!)

Sarah knows that she gets her ears pierced after one week in her room and with the intention of staying there. You have to cover all angles with this little girl or she will get her ears pierced and move back into our room! Next week we may have pics of pierced ears!!

What I love most is that she was comfortable to come to our room at 7:00 am and hang with us until we got up! I am so happy to see her comfort level increasing with the family and home!

Thank you Jesus! 

Adoption Completed!! Something to be very Thankful for!!

Because Jim did not travel to China this time we had a few more things to do to complete Sarah's adoption. The extra paperwork has been pretty painless, it really wasn't a big deal. We are so very happy though that it is all done and our darling daughter is home with her forever family!! She is incredible and a precious gift from God!

I used to watch adoption stories on the family channel and often times the families would bring there whole family to the courthouse to complete the adoption and celebrate their new family member! Well, we did a mini version of that! Sarah, Dad and Mom went to the courthouse to complete the adoption. The judge was very official and wonderful! Everything went smoothly and now Sarah is ours- yippee Jesus!! 

Since there are quite a few in the family and we have a 3 yr old party on Saturday and Easter on Sunday we did down play it a little bit. The 3 of us went out for doughnuts- they were great! After that we went on about our day. Dear Hubby takes lots of time off to make these events special and official, so he needed to get back to work. Sarah and I did school, picked up Johnny and Anna at Montessori. Anna, of course informed us that she did cry, BUT no as long as usual- good for you honey!!

At first we thought this event was basically going through the motions but it actually meant much more to us, it was very special! I got a little teary at one point and Sarah was concerned- "are you okay?", she asked.  "Yes honey, these are happy tears!"

What a great thing to be thankful for on Thankful Thursday- a precious little 9 yr old girl!!

Jump Rope!

When we were at the park on spring break Anna was trying out Sarah's jump rope. She was so thrilled to be able to use it and it was adorable watching her! These kids make me laugh!! It's great medicine!!

But, it's still light out?

It is so nice to be home!! We took the early flight this morning. Jim and I were up at 4:00 Florida time (3:00 Central time) and the kids were up at 4:45 (3:45). We boarded the plane by 6:45 and were in the air at 7:15 (6:15). In case you didn't know- I am not a morning person. It was all a blur to me.

The kids did fine. They slept in the car on the way to the airport but wanted nothing to do with sleeping on the plane. It was good to get home and see our doggies! The girls were comforted by the familiar surroundings of home. As early evening came,  the foggy feeling crept back into our lives. The girls were getting crabby and after we realized how little sleep they got we went upstairs to get their jammies on, brush teeth and to bed! Sarah was thoroughly confused, she kept repeating "but, it's still light out"! We tried to explain how much sleep she didn't get last night and even though it is light out now, it was dark when she got up this morning but she couldn't quite get past the thought of "but, it's still light out"!

Anna, we could fool! We shut the shades and went through our nighttime routine- she happily greeted her crib! She was surrounded by her pink piggy, pink baby doll, pink bunny,  2 pink blankies and one green blankie- she was surrounded by her entourage and couldn't have been happier!

Meanwhile Sarah is still saying "but, it's still light out". So we compromised and tucked her in our bed with a little movie and told her when we come up to bed we would move her to her bed IF by chance she was asleep. 5 minutes later- sound asleep!

We will be back to our regular routine tomorrow! Hopefully everyone will have had enough sleep so they can learn a few things at homeschool!

Playground skills!

So the other day we went to the park. Big daddy and Johnny were playing basketball and having quite the good time. The girls and I went swinging and played on the equipment. It really is an awesome, fun park for kids- it has everything! The girls love the slide- yes they can do it without help. Next is the swings- ahem, ahem, after much effort to teach them how to pump and get higher on the swing, we have not made much progress. Sarah loves going higher than she did BUT she really wants mom to push her... and push her... and then tickle her and push her again! AND you better not give out an uneven amount of pushes to her little sister- it will not go unnoticed! Little sister Anna loves to be pushed, too and throw in a tickle here and there and she is doing great!

Now lets move on to the monkey bars. These are foreign- they have no idea what to do with them. They also do not have the muscle development to do them properly. It amazes me that they no not have the upper body strength to do the monkey bars. When we started on this journey I never thought of this - I would think that children that lived with children and played with children would have this skill. That is completely false and what is true, is they did not have opportunities in their previous life to build the strength and coordination to accomplish this playground skill. I do have to say in my attempt to show them how easy this was I found out it is not so easy and it hurts your hands. (Just 40 short years ago I could do it- no problem!)  I felt so darn bottom heavy- what a bummer- but don't tell them that! We are going back to the park tomorrow to work on this- this time I have already lined up Johnny as the example of how to do the monkey bars!