Christmas Thoughts

As milestones, and holidays roll around it brings thoughts of Emma's birth mother to my heart. I wonder if she is thinking about her. I hope and pray that she has peace about her decsion to give her daughter to adoption. Now I know that the circumstances that suround Emma's entering the orphange were not great. I know that her mother had to leave her baby and never look back. However I dont feel that constitutes her not caring about her daughter. She had few choices and chose to give my daughter a chance at life. This might not have been the outcome if other choices were made. I hope that her mother has peace. I will tell Emma that she was loved by her parents, not in the way that her Baba and I love her but loved just the same. I wish I could know who this wonderful person was. So I could in the very least tell her thank you. Thank you for taking a leap of faith and hope and in duing so giving me the joy of motherhood. I love this little girl so much. She is the center of my world and I enjoy every day with her. I found this video by Mark Schultz and christian artist. It expresses what I hope Emma's knows and how Emma will feel toward the mother who gave her life and a chance. I want her mother to know that we appreciate the sacrifice that she made.

Christmas

Well it's that time of year again. We have been so busy having fun this December that I haven't had the chance to post. Ugh. We have been shopping and playing with freinds. Our Charistmas tree went up the day after Thanksgiving but I am already to take it down.(lol) We have a new member to our family a kitty named Jinx and she had decided to take roost in our tree. This is highly upsetting because this year I have discovered the best Ornaments. They are called Li Bien and are from CHINA. They are painted from the inside out and of course of very very breakable. So I am NOT putting them on my tree since Jinx had decided to LIVE in my tree. We had a ornament exchange with the playgroup and took the girls in a trailer to go and see lights. Of course my camera has decided to die at the most awful time. Go Figure. Well I will post more after Christmas.

Thanksgiving

Well our Thanksgiving was wonderful. I took lot's of pictures but of course, I can't seem to find my camera at the moment. I believe it is in my car lol. My sister was actually off this time and we went and had an early dinner together. Then later on we went to Papa and Gran ma's house. It is so wonderful to see Emma with them. They love her so very much. It amazes me how this little girl just opens up hearts again and again. We also got an unexpected visitor while at Gran ma and Papa's. Aunt Karen and Uncle Todd came by. It was so nice to see them again. They are soo busy that it is hard to get together. Emma just loves them and actually gave Uncle Todd a hug. This is a huge deal for her. She is not all that comfortable with anyone hugging her except Mommy and Daddy. I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday.

I received a call yesterday with an offer for Jeff and I to share our story at an adoption seminar this coming Friday. This is a wonderful opportunity to share how God has blessed our lives with our daughter and to perhaps other families hearts to the wonder of adoption. As a I lay in bed last night I thought about how blessed I am. Emma is the absolute joy of my world. The gift of motherhood is so precious. I always wanted to be a mommy and to now how the joy of watching her laugh, learn, grow and love is overwhelming at times. We are so blessed to be a mommy and daddy. To have the family that we always wanted, dreamed, prayed, and hoped for. Please say a prayer that Jeff and I share on Friday may open some one heart. That they would not see all the "scariness" of adoption but the True Joy that God bestows on a family when they adopt. That another little one gets to come home to forever family full of love.

Birthday Party

Today was Emma's freind Alana's birthday party. Emma met Alana through our China Mom's of Kingwood playgroup and they have become fast freinds. Today was Alana's first American birthday since finding her forever family. The party was held at Build a Bear and Emma had a ball even though she wasn't feeling to well. She decided to build a ....Bunny. I think her #1 monkey pal Moe might have some competition. (lol) Well she did tell Moe that she still loved him very much when she came home. (too funny) I post a few a pictures of the girls day today.

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Happy November!!

Well today is November 1st which officially begins my favorite time of the year. It is the beginning of the seasons that we celebrate family!!! It is the only true time of year that we slow down and enjoy the people in our families and take stock of our lives. This year a online blogger friend invited us to write down each day what we are most thankful for. So I thought I would join the challenge. So here it goes:

I am grateful for my husband and daughter. That God has given me the precious gift of being a wife and mother. That I can stay home with my little girl and watch her grow everyday. God gave me a man who would love his daughter and I with all his heart, and soul. That our family although a little rough around the edges at time are a solid unit. That we have joy, love, laughter and peace.

Take a moment to slow down this holiday seasons and consider what makes you blessed.

Happy Halloween

Well Halloween has come and gone! I am always very tired and a little sad the day after Halloween. You look so forward to taking the kids trick or treating, going to a carnival ect that it is kind of a let down when it's over. (lol) Emma had a wonderful time trick or treating last night. One of the ladies from our play group invited the group over to her house for dinner and trick or treating. It was a wonderful time. It was really special to see all the girls dressed up in their coustumes and go door to door saying trick or treat. The parent's kind of chuckled at the some what suprised look on some people's faces when 8 little Chinese girls showed up on their doorstep saying "Trick or Treat". We even got to meet a couple who was starting their home-study process to adopt from China! They were soo excited to see the girls. It put such a huge smile on their face. Emma was so cute. She dragged her Ba Ba from house to house to trick or treat with her. After trick or treating with the girls we headed home and trick or treated at a few places in our neighborhood. So all in all Emma had a really great a 2nd Halloween. I am so glad to be a Mom on Halloween. To take Emma trick or treating is such fun. To watch her joy and laughter is the best.

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Winter Musings

Ok, It's started getting cooler. Can you say Yahoo!! With the Summer being soo hot the cooler weather is a much welcome change. Time to pull out the winter clothing again. Emma was going through a HUGE growth spurt last winter that all her winter clothes are to small. She had only been home a little while and was still catching up developmentally where she needed to be. She has changed soo much and the growth spurt seems to have slowed down a bit. One of our wonderful playgroup Mom's has loaned us some winter clothes for Emmie. Her daughter Alana is not quite Emma's size yet. THANK YOU DEBBY!! I have added some pictures of Emmie last year and this year so that you can see the change. I am soo happy to she her so full of life and growing and yet so sad as well. I finally understand my mother when she said. "Your Heart burst with love on one hand to see them grow up and breaks a little at the same time" I love you Mom and wish you were here to see my wonder full daughter. I know that you are with God in Heaven watching over us.

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A Hidden Treasure

Yesterday my sister, Emma, and I went to Jesse Jones Park to check it out. The park was really a neat place. It has a wonderful Pioneer Homestead buildings that Emma just loved walking around. She had blast just walking through the trails too. It was nice to take a moment to slow down and enjoy the day. Here are some pictures...

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Sarah's Birthday

Well today is Sarah's birthday but yesterday we attended her birthday party. Emma had a great time and got lots of candy. (thanks Aunt Sherri lol) It is such a joy to watch Sarah and Emma together. Just when you think you have those two girls figured out, they go off and change things. I thought for sure because of their age difference Sarah would be more interested in her friends and Emmie would feel a little left out. See Sarah is 7 as of today and Emmie is 3 and 1/2 years old. Boy was I wrong. =0) Sarah was so excited to see Emma yesterday! She came running across the park and nearly tackled her, while Emmie giggled the whole time. Then Sarah made sure to include Emma in everything her and her friends were doing. What an awesome older cousin Emma has. It is amazing to watch Sarah grow up. I believe that I was about the 3 rd person to hold her after she was born and now she is vibrant, funny, loving, active girl. She has filled my heart with so much love and truly made feel that I wanted to be a mommy. She has accepted Emma with every once of her being and is rarely jealous of her. (all kids are of each other at some point). I am so fortunate to have a wonderful friend in Sherri and awesome God Daughter in Sarah Gale. I have added some pictures of Sarah's Day below.

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUG!!!!

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Pumpkins Patch and Petting Zoo's Oh My!

Well we went to our first carnival of the season last weekend with our freinds from the play goup. Boy did Emma have a blast. She just loves being with the girls! I really do enjoy watching the joy on thier faces when they get together. We adults had a ball too. Emma got to meet her first "actual live" monkey. The monkey's name was Mango and was at a petting zoo/pumpkin patch that we went to after the carnival. Mango seemed to be very courious about Emmie. She actually reached out and grabbed Emma's nose. It was so neat to the courousity on Mango's face and the sheer terror on Emma's. (lol) Then my daughter asked "Mommy is my Moe in the car?" I guess she prefers stuffed monkey's to real ones. Well I have attached some pictures from our trip. I hope you enjoy them.

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Pumpkins Guts!! Ugh!!

Yesterday my sister called and said that she wanted to decorate pumpkins with Emma. My first thought was Great but Yuck. You see I have a pumpkin carving aversion. I don't like doing it. There I admitted it!! I feel like a murderer when I have to pull all thier guts out. Yeah, I know I am wierd. Anyway, Janet came up with a really neat idea on how to decorate pumpkins. Last year Emma was home with us for Halloween but she was still very unsure of everything. Needless to say tha Halloween just went a little over her head. Not this time! She loved decorting her crazy pumpkin. She laughed and smile and I think I had the most fun that I have ever had pumpkin decorating. I have added a small slideshow of the results of our pumpkin decorating. All I can say it our house is going to be the talk of the neighborhood.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.

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Summer Time

I can't belive that Summer is offically over. All the kids have headed off to pre-school or school and hopefully the days will start to become cooler. This time last year we were still getting used to being family. Now it seems as if this is how life has always been. Emma, Jeff and I! Emma had a wonderful time this summer, although she is still a little leary of water. Here are some pictures of her water adventures. We hope you enjoy them.

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Our Family.

We started a journal when began our journey to becoming a family. Since then we have brought home our wonderful, awesome, funny, smart, little girl from China. Since our lives are now full of wonderful adventures we thought we should share them. So I hope our family and freinds enjoy the many adventures of Emmalyn.