G's Family Day

It's hard to believe, but 5 years ago we met our wonderful G and she became part of our family. I look at her so grown up now and wonder if she was ever a baby??? It certainly doesn't feel like five years have passed.

As has become our family day tradition, we watch the "baby movies". These are the movies that R and I have from when we opened G's referral, the first moment that we met her in China and then that precious time in China when we had her all to ourselves.

It is always so hard for me to watch these as it reminds me of the passage of time and how quickly it has gone by. It is also hard for me to watch the one of our first meeting because I realize how scared G must have been when she was handed over to complete strangers. We had been waiting for her all our lives but she had no idea who we were and why we were taking her from familiar surroundings. I don't believe she is old enough to put these feelings together with what she sees in this movie but my hope is that when she does, she will realize that we did it out of love.

A note to G's birthmom-may God continue to bless you and comfort you with the knowledge that G is a happy, beautiful little girl who is loved by many. R and I are thankful for the sacrifice that you made that has allowed us to parent this wonderful child.

Spring is here.....

Spring is here......The flowers and trees and blooming, the weather is getting warmer, and the ice cream truck has returned to our neighborhood. It has finally been warm enough to get out the pink car that K got for Christmas. Initially, we could ride her around the house in it but once the baby gates went up that was a no-go.

Both girls enjoyed the car-baby K enjoyed the ride and G enjoyed being the big sister and pushing her around the cul-de-sac. Even better than the ride was the first ice cream sandwich purchase from the neighborhood ice cream truck.

Enjoy the pics!


"Toot, Toot, Chugga, Chugga, Big Pink Car"


First ice cream sandwich of the season


There's nothing better than sharing an ice cream sandwich with your sister!


Should have gotten two ice cream sandwiches!

G's Birthday

G celebrated her 6th birthday at the Young Chef's Academy with a princess tea party. It was nice-no setup or cleanup for me. We just showed up about 10 minutes before party time and then when it was over, collected our stuff and left. I think I prefer this type of party over the last few that we've had :-) There was definitely a lower stress level!

See pics below from the party. I used a new photo slideshow program this time-a little "bulky" to get it setup and it will only let me have 100 photos before I have to become a paying customer so I'm not sure that I will use it after this.

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

No words needed......

Look what happens when I leave these two alone.....

A different perspective on adoption

This week I received a different perspective on adoption. As an adoptive family, we've seen what I would consider the happy side of adoption. A couple wants to have a child, a child needs a family, and after mounds of paperwork and an interminable wait, a family is born.

We have a close friend of the family who has grown children and teenage grandchildren. A teenage granddaughter of this friend is pregnant and has decided to put her baby up for adoption. Upon hearing this, I said to close friend of the family, "kudos to this young person for making such a mature decision and for thinking of what's best for her unborn child. There is a family out there waiting for this baby that is going to be so happy to have him/her."

My friend didn't see it in the same positive light that I did. She saw this decision as a loss. She was sad that the granddaughter was making this decision and even more sad that she didn't live near enough to be a support system to this granddaughter. She also saw this situation as a breakdown of sorts within her family structure.

This friend is also from a generation older than mine when adoption was closed and there was no contact between the birth family and the adoptive family. Current research is indicating now that an open adoption with contact between all parties is the most beneficial for the child. I hope for my friend's peace of mind that this is possible.

Our third CNY Celebration and the first week of March

A week behind, but here are a couple of pics from our third CNY celebration. Our local Families with Children from China group held their CNY party last week and as always it was a treat to see all of our friends. There were crafts and games for the kids and an amazing slide show that one of the parents put together each year.


Aunt M and G


All of us

This first week of March has brought three new teeth for my munchkin and anxiety for my big kid who is getting ready to have allergy testing done tomorrow. The munchkin has had terrible intestinal distress from teething (I had no idea that teething could cause so many problems)and the big kid has had a stomachache off and on all week from nervousness about getting the allergy testing done. Here's hoping that this coming week will have all of this resolved:-)

Lots of firsts in February

WOW! We've had a lot of firsts this month-Baby K turned 10 months old, she got her first tooth, and has taken some steps with her activity walker. She has also mastered what we call "the monkey face" and put two words together. It would have been nice for the first words to be "love mama" but of course it had to be "bad pop-pop" referring to G's cat Lollipop.

Lollipop is our cat that we adopted when Baby K's adoption was taking so long and we wanted to reaffirm and show the positive effects of adoption to G. (Actually we went to the local SPCA and she was so irresistibly cute that we couldn't leave her behind.) Her cuteness has been severely overshadowed by the amount of destruction she has bestowed upon our house. But what are you going to do-she's part of the family now?


The Monkey Face


Concentrating on those first steps


There's that tooth in the top!

G has also had a busy month. She and I went to our first Girl Scout event. World Thinking Day 2010 was an event that spot-lighted different countries. Each troop had to pick a different country, create a display board about the country, have a food to share and a small "swap" for everyone. Our troop chose The Marshall Islands-I wonder whose suggestion that was :-) See pic below of G in her Daisy uniform-look how grown-up she looks!



We celebrated Chinese New Year at Aunt M's house-thanks Aunt M for doing such a great job on the decorations and food! I got pics of both girls in traditional Chinese dresses. This was the first of three Chinese New Year celebrations that we would attend in February. The second was organized by the local Chinese community and G actually danced in the show. I got a video and if I can find time and the instructions for the camera, I may try to load it. The third celebration will be this coming weekend with our local FCC. This is the event where G gets to see all of her China friends as she likes to say.

For all my China friends, note what's written on the bottom of Baby K's shoe. She's wearing the squeaky shoes that we brought home from China for G. It's hard for me to remember G being that little when I look at her now-she's become such a great big sister. She spends a lot of time with Baby K-see pic of the two of them watching TV together.


CNY celebration at Aunt M's house




The Jones girls kicking back watching some of the "big box"

We've had so much snow this month that I was afraid that G would miss her Valentine Party at school but they managed to get back to class and to have their party on the Monday following Valentine's Day. (Then they missed two more days after that) There is this bulletin board in the hallway outside of G's classroom that is always decorated for the current holiday-it's become our "picture spot".


The girls and our favorite cousin, J at the kindergarten V-Day party