The Birthday Boy is 12

A little Birthday song, to evoke the mood...with the Birthday dinner.
Yummy, the homemade German Chocolate cake with the... "Trick" smokin' relighting candles...

Scott almost poured water on his cake to get them to quit sparking and smoking... LOL
Cousin Dayne (pictured above) thought Scott was too funny~


And... the Presents, he so patiently waited until evening for.

he had an "Awesome" (his words) :) first Birthday!

July 4th

The Fourth is not the 4th, without watermelon.Our Foutain of "works".Xanadu of Sparklers...oohh lala!

Look at me sparkle. Bah Hum Bug, mommy said I could not light the fireworks myself until I was 21..lol

2 years and counting...

Referral Photo 2008

Our Beautiful Daughter Hannah!

It's Official...

We received our PA {Pre-Approval} today from Ch!n@ for our newest daughter...

Meet our baby girl; Bella XiaoHan so cute!and Full of Giggles...

Yes, ... uhhh, well, ...we are adopting again ... and... Yes, ...Over the Moon with Joy!, as we are once again Humbled, and Blessed Beyond Belief to be able to have yet another daughter.

She is age four and waiting for us in Henan, China.

Our Family cannot wait to bring our newest daughter home.

Please Pray with us, as we begin our "paper-pregnancy" to bring our daughter and our children's sister home, in what we hope will be a short 9 months.

"Grand" day for Pictures

When Grandpa says "jump", you can imagine :o) "We Jump" .

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit this June and out of the blue,...

in the late afternoon on one of those festive days;

Grandpa says "Get dressed we are going to go get our new family portrait." :o)

Sweaty from work and play, hair a muck, and no appointment reserved,...

And well, we managed to find some clean clothes and brush our teeth,

as we quickly headed out the door in record time for a party of 8.

Drumm-m-m Roll-l-l ...please!

and...

Here we are!The Grand Picture! :o)

The kids are adorable. awhhh, aren't we cute.

Mayana

This was a special visit for Hannah. Mayana was Hannah's foster sister in China.

Extra "thank you" to Mayana's family for coming all the way to Colorado just so they could see each other.

Athena & Scott's first Zoo trip.

Football Camp

3 day summer camp for Jacob.

Ladybugs:

Ladybugs are believed to be good luck in the adoption community. Several years ago, while numerous people waited for their referrals, there was a huge infiltration of ladybugs across the nation. Immediately following the ladybug sightings, a flood of referrals came in for many of the waiting parents. Many people now believe that when a ladybug is seen, a referral is not far behind.

~
When you're having a biological child, you KNOW you are expecting all along the way and you get to hear the baby's heartbeat and see him/her on the ultrasound monitor, you can count the weeks of pregnancy, you begin to feel the baby move and of course your body changes daily. With the adoption process, we wait and wait with no confirmation (except a pile of government forms & an email from our agency to download another newsletter), until we get a referral; a referral is only the beginning on the Special Needs Journey. Then, it's faith and hope that get us through, along with lots of prayers, doctors and "thoughts for "WISDOM" to guide us" on the right path to our daughter... and a few days like today when it feels a little more "real"... maybe even a step closer. A cloud is lifted... and we suddenly spot a Lovely Ladybug.

Update: As I trekked on a 4.3 mile walk to my son's football camp today, at my destination I saw a sweet little flying ladybug. :o)