Gymnastics

On Lily's last day of gymnastics class, there was a little recital. She was very excited that her Daddy was coming to see her at "nastics".

Lily has a fear of heights, but she is proud to show us how far she has come on the balance beam.
Receiving her ribbon
Daddy's girl!

He Has Risen !

The day before Easter, the kids colored eggs. Another first for Lily. She loved all the pretty colors.

Waiting for the eggs to dry - she kept going to the table to check on them
One of our local churches put on a "Walk Through Jerusalem". They set up a town that looked like it did in Jesus' day. The kids were able to feed animals, make some olive oil, sample bread, and see a camel up close. The walk ended at Jesus' tomb with the Easter story.

This is what happens when you don't pay your taxes!
Easter morning.

Not only did Lily experience her first Easter, but she was the first one to find her basket!

Our pretty girl in her Easter dress
Beautiful kids!

After church and lunch, the kids searched for eggs filled with money the bunny left in the yard.

Thank you Father God for your son, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again, so that we may have a relationship with you.....forever.

Easter Egg Hunts

The 3 younger kids had Easter Egg hunts at their preschool. All the kids have been learning about the real meaning of Easter. Even Lily will tell you that it's when "Jesus died on the cross for our sins". I know they don't totally understand what that means, but it's important that they keep hearing the stories and talking about it.
They do, of course, understand that Easter egg hunts mean treats!!!

Here's Tyler with his Pre-K class.

Happy with his basket full of eggs!

Lily with her class

This was Lily's first Easter egg hunt, but it didn't take her any time at all to figure out that there were treats in those eggs!

Michael's class had a picnic inside since it was a little wet outside

Enjoying a cupcake at his party

The 2 "littles"

Our neighborhood also had an Easter egg hunt. Michael was at t-ball practice, so I found his eggs for him. He was more concerned about the treats then the hunt!


Every child picked a colored, decorated egg to hunt. Alex's eggs were green with black polka dots. Almost impossible to find in the woods! (I need to remember that for next year!)

8 Months In Our Arms

Well......I was planning to write a "6 months in our arms" post back in February, but before I knew it, it was April!

In the adoption world, people will tell you that you will notice a lot of changes in your child once they have been home for 6 months. Very true, however, we've seen a lot of major changes in Lily between months 7 and 8, so this is a good time to write a post.

In the past month, Lily has stopped crying every time I pour water on her head in the bath tub. She has also stopped crying every time I brush her teeth. Her sleep has gotten a lot better. She has stopped having night terrors, and although she still wakes most nights and cries out, she's more easily calmed.

All these changes have been wonderful, but most importantly........she is happy almost all of the time! She has changed from a meek, quiet, little girl that wanted to be held all of the time, to a happy, fun little girl with a lot of self confidence.

Here's some things we know about our Lily.............

She talks ALL the time! She has certainly made up for her first two months of silence. She also will not let us respond with an 'uh huh', or 'yes'. She wants to make sure we really listened to what she said.

She does NOT like to be told no, or to be corrected. This can cause her to dissolve into tears.

She doesn't like to ask for things. She will just ask questions until you figure out what she wants. She will say, "Mommy, what are you eating". After I answer, she'll say, "but why are you eating that?" She'll keep asking questions until I ask her if she wants one. And, it's not just food. She might say, "why Tyler want to read that book", "but why that book". Again, she'll keep asking questions until you ask her if she wants that book read to her. We're working on this!

She LOVES her daddy! She climbs all over him when he gets home, and will initiate hugs.

However, she will not call daddy "daddy". She says 'hey', or just starts talking. (she does refer to him as daddy when she's talking about him when he's not home)

She loves to sing. When we're out shopping, she will sing at the top of her lungs as she's riding in the cart. She will also make up songs about things she sees around her.

She loves playing with her brothers, and has gotten quite good at ordering them around!

Her English is excellent. People are always surprised to hear that she's only heard English for 8 months.

She has lost all of her Chinese. When she says words like shui for water, or Ni Hao for Hi, she says them with a very American accent.

She does not like to talk about her past. When we show her pictures of her life in the orphanage, she usually just says "I don't know", or "I don't remember"



Here's some pictures of our sweet, scared little girl the day we met her and a few days later

This is Lily now. Look at that difference!! She is happy and silly, and still so sweet. It's hard to remember our life without her.

We love you so much little girl and are so happy that God brought you into our lives.

A Visit From Our Niece

Our niece Kristen is currently in grad school about 6 hours away and she was able to take a long weekend to visit us! The kids were very excited to have a "playmate" for the weekend.

We paid a visit to the zoo. This was Lily's first time at the zoo. It's fun knowing that there are still "firsts" we get to share with our daughter.

Checking out the flamingos. We don't stay here long as the smell is not good!
Michael carried his map everywhere and checked it often. (he did the same thing in China at the Safari Park)
I actually got a picture of all 4 kids sitting still and smiling!

On the train - which is the kid's favorite part

Check out Michael going down the slide........still holding his map!

The next day we headed to our little downtown area.

The kids ran us out of change throwing all of it into the fountain!

There was a train for the kids to climb on , although most kids did not climb quite as high as Alex!

The conductor

Tyler loved the bell

We finished the visit with ice cream cones.........yum!

Here we are on the way home........doesn't Kristen look comfy?!

We all really enjoyed the visit and hope that we get to see Kristen again before she graduates and heads back home.