Happy Birthday Nicholas!

Eight years ago today, in the calm before the storm of Hurricane Lili, our sweet, precious Nicholas was born. 

Although he came home to some chaos, he has blessed our lives with his laid back, easy going personality.  His laughter and smile light up his face and he finds humor in almost any situation!

Even with such a wonderful disposition, he has struggled some over the last few months as he has transitioned from being the baby of the family, but I have to say how proud I am of him!  He is a wonderful, caring, protective big brother to his little sister and to me he'll always be my baby boy!!

We love you Nicholas and are so honored to be your parents!

Happy 8th Birthday!!

Portraits

This morning, on a whim, I decided to take Eva to a local photo studio to try and get some portraits of her. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect since we have trouble catching her beautiful smile on camera. As you can see, she did GREAT! I was very impressed and had a really hard time choosing the ones to bring home. Fortunately, I was able to get a disk with all of her wonderful photos!!Our Asian Princess!Her Beautiful Smile Captured!A Girl's Got to Have Pearls!Her Favorite Blanket! Anna, this one's for you!!

TWO Months!

Today marks 2 months since we first held our precious daughter in Nanjing, China and it has been 7 weeks that Eva has been home to stay! What an amazing work that God has done in her and in us!! Her transition has been nothing short of miraculous. Looking at her still takes my breath away...at times it's so surreal that she is really here. I continue to marvel at God's plan for her and our family. To think that four years ago when we began this journey Eva wasn't even born and how in His perfect timing she came to be part of our family. I praise Him that He is our Sovereign God!! (Practicing Her Wink!!)

Last weekend we received Eva's official Certificate of Citizenship! Now I can move forward with applying for her social security card and state birth certificate. Oh, the joys of more paperwork!! We also took her to an appointment with a Pediatric Opthamologist. He pretty much confirmed what we were expecting to hear...she will need multiple procedures on her eyes, but the good news is that he doesn't want to start them for another year or two! That will allow us much more bonding time before putting her through surgery. We go back in December. so please pray that we'll receive another good report then.

The funner parts of our life lately have been: Lunch dates with brothers at school; Starting a Mommy & Me gymnastics class. It's low-key but gives Eva the opportunity to socialize once a week with three other children her age and to work on building her physical development. She loves to crawl under the ropes;can hang from the rings all hour if you let her,likes to flip over the bar, andthe best part...it all ends with a donut hole!!Last weekend we were treated to a little bit of cooler weather so we got out the bikes! Eva wasn't too sure at first, butshe loved it once we got going!She also loves to be outside in her swing. She also really enjoys weekly playdates with friends, including her new friend Maddie!Just this evening, we decided to take advantage of nice weather, and went on a picnic at our local parkthen played in the splash pad. Eva even let us take her shoes off to play! This is a big deal...the girl really does not like to go without shoes. They are the first thing she wants when she gets out of bed in the morning and leaves them on all the time!!On a personal note...each day as I watch Eva blossom and experience life in a new way, my heart breaks for orphans all over the world who will never know the love of a family. Each day as I hear her say "Mama" my heart weeps for her birthmother, and all women, who due to cultural or societal reasons are forced to abandon their children. My mother's heart is overwhelmed with the emotion of a women leaving her six day old infant, wrapped in a pink blanket, on the steps of a hospital in Suzhou, China, knowing she'd never see her again.

In the four years that we waited for Eva, these were all things that I had thought about but I just don't think it became "real" to me until we traveled to China. As inadequate as I feel at times, I am so thankful that God chose me to be a mother, especially one of an adopted child. I know that He equips us for any work that He calls us to do and I pray that He would use this experience to guide and direct us in other opportunities to serve Him. Our Princess in Training!

Friends

Today Eva & I were finally able to get together with my friend Paula and her two boys, Kai & Will, who has been home with his forever family for about two weeks now!

A little more than four years ago, Paula and I were introduced by our mutual social worker as we were going through the process of preparing our dossiers to China. Living only 20 minutes apart, our families quickly became friends and we have shared all the emotions that this adoption journey would bring. I am still amazed at how God worked everything out that we would have both traveled to China within just a few weeks of each other and that we would be sitting here today with these beautiful children we have waited for so long.

Paula, Thank you for your support and encouragement over the years; but most importantly, for your friendship! I so look forward to watching these two grow up together!!

Tomorrow, Eva will celebrate one month as a U.S. citizen!! She is doing GREAT and has transitioned so easily into life here. She is now calling us Mama and Dada which makes my heart melt everytime I hear!! Her vocabulary continues to grow and she has even picked up some basic signs that I've taught her. All this makes communication much less frustrating; even though David & I are both convinced that she understands everything we say...it's so amazing!

She has developed a love for a particular blanket. Consistently she would go to the drawer and pull out the same blanket; now it just stays with her almost all of the time.

She likes the smell of it;

and I laugh that usually when a 2 year old is quiet you'd better go see what they are in to?! Not Eva, when she's quiet...this is what we find:

usually she's in her room on her soft, pink rug but of course I couldn't get a picture of her there.

All in all she appears happy and to be growing more comfortable each and every day. We are, of course, still feeling tremendously blessed for the gift of these children that God has given us!!

First Day of School

How did I wake up this morning the mother of a 2nd & 4th grader??!! So PROUD of you, my boys!!Eva is missing her big brothers!! She's gone to their rooms looking for them and has been going up to their pictures on the end table pointing at them as if saying "where are these two guys?" I can't wait to see how excited she gets when they come home this afternoon!!
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***Excited is an understatement for Eva's reaction to seeing her brothers this afternoon. She screamed, with joy, for several minutes once they were home!!

Road Trip

We learned something new about Eva today...she is a fantastic car traveler! We got up this morning and decided that since it was the last Saturday before school starts we would surprise the boys with a trip to the Kemah Boardwalk. Kemah is about 2 1/2 hours away. Although we had traveled with Eva in China that was without child restraints so we really weren't sure how she would do buckled in a car seat for that long. She did beautifully! When she wasn't singing or sleeping, she was just sitting quietly.
We arrived in Kemah at lunchtime and went straight to eat at the Aquarium Restuarant surrounded by 70,000 gallons of water filled with many different species of fish. After eating our lunch, we went down to Stingray Reef and feed stingrays their lunch!!
We spent the rest of the afternoon playing boardwalk games and riding rides, including Eva's first park train ride.
Eva did great being in & out of her stroller all day. Of course it was hot out, but nothing that an ice cold Icee couldn't make feel better! The last surprise of the day was driving into Houston to the Galleria and taking the boys to the Lego Store. There we spent about 2 hours looking at ALL of the legos!! It was a great family day and a wonderful way to end the summer!!