Halloween Fun!

Last weekend Lauren went to her first official Halloween Party and had soo much fun dressing up with her friends! Then, last night Grandma put on an awesome halloween party with fun baskets of spooky treats and we enjoyed her awesome homemade chili, then we were off to our neighborhood for trick-or-treating. As we were walking house to house, Lauren said numerous times, while holding my hand, "I love trick or treating with you mommy and daddy, this is so fun!" This Snow White warms my heart with her heart of gold...

Family Portrait's 2011

This past week we have enjoyed taking a little break together as a family during Dan's fall break. One of the things we did was met up with Suz Hanson for our annual picture fun. It was good to see Suz as always, as we walked and talked, it really amazed me that a whole year had gone by already. I wanted to share how awesome Suz is and if anyone lives locally, I definitely recommend her for any pictures you need. She is a teacher by profession, but has a passion for photography and she does a great job! (proof:see the picture of both dog AND toddler looking in the camera together at the same time!) :)

FALLing more in love everyday...

Fall is finally here and Lauren was so excited to finally break out her school cardigan that I had to catch the morning on film. Braids have also been a big request from her, so I have been trying my hand at braiding for the first time. This day I had braved the double braid. It is just more and more fun everyday being Lauren's mommy. I keep telling myself I really need to make more time to catch these precious days on my blog. So, While daddy and Lauren take a nap, I am finally getting a post in!

Lauren is doing well in preschool after a few bumpy first weeks. Her second day of school she cried and screamed with her arms outstretched to me when I left. I bawled all the way to work and prayed all day as to whether I was doing the right thing or not. Each day got a little better from there and now she happily walks into class and has lots of fun making new friends and learning new things. Parenting is an amazing fine balance of so many decisions. I'm so thankful for my relationship with God. I cannot imagine trying to do this without His guidance.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Fall season! It is just beautiful here in Arizona and we are looking forward to many walks and lots of time outside! Lauren plans to be "Snow White" for halloween.

To all my bloggy friends, I wanted to let you know how much you still mean to me.Although we may not post as much as we used to, it's funny, if I've had a stressful day, I find myself going to all your blogs to see any updates and I realize that this has become a coping skill of mine that I must have picked up after all those years of waiting together. You are my comfort zone. :)

Preschool Day One!!

Lauren had a great first day at Preschool! Her teacher's name is Ms. Stolinski and she made a new friend "Sara" who she played with on the playground! I couldn't believe how grown up she looked in her uniform and backpack! When I came to pick her up, she ran to me with a big smile and gave me a big hug and said she had lots of fun! We then went out of the classroom and as we walked down the hallway side by side, she excitedly told me all about her first day. She makes me smile like noone else... :)

Lauren's 4th Birthday!

Our little girl is 4! We celebrated by going to the Children's Museum on her birthday and had a blast with just the 3 of us running through four stories of fun! We painted castles, ran through the "noodle forest", and laughed and laughed together. The next day we had her big party at the gymnastic's gym and the kid's got to swing on the trapeze, go through a really awesome obstacle course, and had so much fun together! Lauren talked about her party for days, what she liked most was having all her favorite people at one place!

2 years ago today...

It is seared in my mind forever, the moment our precious girl walked into the room. Wearing a light flowery purple and white dress, white tights, tiny purple jelly-type sandals and a white purse over her right forearm. Her eyes showed wisdom beyond what her tiny stature showed to be possible. The first sign of her strong will was when she stepped away from her nanny as her nanny gently pushed her towards us, as if to say, "I'll do this on my own time". We offered water which she took in quickly from daddy and grasped the lollipop that I gave her as if to never let it go. Once it was time to move to the next step of leaving her nanny, her cries began as I'm sure must have been a terrifying experience being taken from all she knew, not knowing she was actually coming home.

We held our most precious gift from Jesus tightly as we left the building into the night of heavy rain, surrounded by loud traffic, foreign foods hanging from skewers, the smell of sewer, and people jam packed. Lauren was quiet once outside and wide-eyed, took in all that was going on around her. We made our way through the traffic, dodging cars and pedestrians, to our hotel. Once inside, Lauren's tiny body started to shiver from being wet and having the cooler air inside. We had planned to leave her dressed longer to give her time to slowly leave behind what was familiar. However, decided to give her a bath since she was wet and cold. Once her clothes were removed it was evident just how tiny she really was. We put her in the bathtub and she looked around as to say, "what is this?" We had placed 2 square plastic blocks and a plastic beaded ring (pictured above) in the bathtub. I could see her eyes assess the toys and in the next second I could see she had learned to be resourceful. She picked up the beaded ring, swung one end between her teeth so it was hanging from her mouth, and then picked up a block in each hand.

After the bath, we swaddled her into her fresh new pajamas that I'm sure we had bought for her before she was born, and I rocked her for the first time. Standing up, one arm cradling her head and her tiny legs over my other arm, I sang "Jesus loves me" to her for the first time until she finally fell asleep.

Two years later, she is sleeping in our bed right now and I have often found her rocking her babies and signing "Jesus loves me " to them and she has even sang this to me a few times.

Thank you Jesus for our gift of precious, beautiful Lauren....

Kung Fu Panda 2

We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 over the Memorial Day weekend and wish I had read this preview prior to going. I thought I'd post this for any of my adoptive parent friends who may want to be a little more prepared than we were. The movie is focused a lot on Kung Fu Panda finding out he was adopted. The following link reviews the movie better than I can, so I will leave the link here. We still had a great family night out, just would have liked a little more preparation for the emotions and topics brought out in the movie.

Adoption Talk Forum;Movie Review

Memorial Day 2011

"A nation that fails to honour it's heroes will soon have no heroes to honour" ~Winston Churchill

2nd Annual Carnival!

How do you spell fun? riding on daddy's shoulders while enjoying cotton candy at a carnival! Lauren and Daddy walked the cake walk again! Lauren won on the first try the second year in a row! :) They had this really fun red train that Lauren LOVED! :) I love this shot that caught my girl's excitement after sliding down the big inflatable slide! She went down this slide at least 10 times! Summer fun has begun! :)

Being 3!

I was washing dishes yesterday and I saw Lauren pass me on her bike in her princess dress and pink glitter tennis shoes...had to catch the moment. :)

Preschool!

I enrolled Lauren in preschool yesterday! She starts in August... She'll being going 2 half days a week. I can't wait to volunteer in her class, go on field trips, and hear all her stories that she will come home with!

Have I said how much I love being a parent??! :)

Happy Spring!

We spent our weekend going for walks, having fun with friends at the park, and enjoying the beautiful spring weather as we put our flowers in the yard and gave our front yard a much needed spring makeover.

God continues to bless us so amazingly. Our girl is growing before our eyes and although it is difficult to know our "baby years" are now over, I am taken aback at how tender-hearted and special our Lauren is. She loves to meet new friends, has a sense of humor that keeps us laughing everyday. Her heart is so in tune with other's that she is touched to the point of full on sobbing when moment's like during the movie "Bolt" when Bolt finds himself alone or when I read "The Crippled Lamb" by Max Lucado the other night, and Joshua, the lamb, had a hurt leg...she is so tender to other's needs. I have been inspired by her to pray more too. Often something will happen and she will say, mommy can you pray for my knee, or lets pray for that person, etc. Then, I think, gosh why didn't I think to pray about that! :) I can see God working through her and am so thankful to Him that he put such an incredible little girl in my life and has allowed me to be her mommy.

Well, I hope you all have had a great weekend! I'm off to get dinner on! (aka, order take-out) :)

Happy Birthday Gramma!

Today we celebrated my Gramma's 84th birthday! I am so thankful she was able to visit from Michigan so we could celebrate her special day together. She is just an amazing woman, a woman after God's heart. Her influence in my life has been incredible. Her prayer's have impacted my life more than I will ever know. I am so thankful to God for allowing me to be her grandaughter. What an honor...


To celebrate, we walked through the beautiful Botanical Gardens, enjoyed lunch outside on the patio as a live band played, and we toasted our wine glasses to Gramma!



The 4 Generation's picture! What a long time coming this has been! :)

Parties!

Yesterday was a fun-filled day of parties! We started out at the Hanson's for our CNY party. The girls all dressed in their traditional Chinese dresses and we enjoyed yummy Chinese food! The girls had lot's of fun playing together. Thanks Suz, Dan, and Caroline for opening your home to us! We are so blessed to have met such amazing friends along our journey to Lauren.



We then did a dress change and swept Cinderella off to her ball! :) It was Holly's 3rd birthday and we had SO much fun dancing, laughing, playing, etc!


Just my type of princess...not afraid to get dirty :)



The Princes of the ball... :)



Daddy about fell over seeing Lauren in her Cinderella "Wedding" dress. :)



Happy Birthday Holly!! You are such a special girl! Thanks for inviting us to your party!!

Happy New Year~Year of the Rabbit!

We visited our friends at Tao* Kitchen Restaurant for dinner tonight and the girls all came over to wish Lauren a Happy New Year in Mandarin and then gave her this very special gift! It's a red envelope with $10 of "Lucky Money"! We have so much fun every time we visit this place and practice our Chinese as they practice their English with us.

Saturday we are celebrating CNY at the Hanson's, I'll post more pics then of all the girls together! Happy Year of the Rabbit everyone! I will be enjoying every second of the year with my little Fire Pig. :)

Off to Sunny Atlanta, Ga....waaaiit a minute

So, I have a work conference to go to this weekend in Atlanta and Dan and Lauren are coming with me! We had BIG plans to head over to see the aquarium there, it looks awesome! However, I was just checking out the weather to see how to pack...and the city is almost shut down due to snow! :) I don't think we'll be making it to the aquarium afterall! Dan is going to be REALLY sad when he finds out there's a World of Coca~Cola there too! :) Well at least the hotel has a really nice indoor pool! :)

Any travel tips of how to keep Lauren entertained on the plane are more than welcome! :)

Happy New Year!

Word of the Year: Discipline

Being an even number fan and my favorite number being #10, it has been a bit sad saying goodbye to 2010. However, I am starting the year with a drive toward higher discipline in my life. Discipline to lose the weight I gained during our infertility treatments, discipline to spend more time with God so I can be who He intended me to be, discipline to get my "bucket" filled by God, so I can give more freely to others.

Today we started the New Year playing in the park, with Bailey running like a puppy even though she is going to be 11 this year, and cherishing every minute of laughter from our wonderful daughter. Life is good... :)


Do you have a word you've chosen for this year?

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I love being mommy to this angel...




Lauren hanging her ornament. We have many that say, "Waiting for Lauren 2006", "In our Hearts Lauren 2008", this one says, "Adopted with Love 2009 ~Lauren 8/5/07".


My Grandma just arrived yesterday from Michigan and I just loved watching Lauren sit and talk with her great-gramma for the first time last night..what cherished memories.



My sweethearts...two gifts I never take for granted.


Merry Christmas everyone. May 2011 bring Peace, Love, and Joy to your family.

My Hero

Visit Katie at Amazima Ministries to be be inspired and encouraged. Please pray for this amazing young women who has left me speechless so often and feeling driven after reading her words to follow God closer and listen more intently for His will in my life.