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| Don't you just love her uniform. It was our first really lovely Friday night since the time change and we were all ready to get outside and play. |
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| S W I N G...... |
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| And......a miss.... strike one . . . . Oh well, she's still smiling |
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| Let's try that again....maybe I need to keep the bat off of my shoulders . . . |
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| Swing, crack of the bat and zoom! |
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| The J O Y of success! Priceless moments of our girl on a Friday night in her backyard. |
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| This is 1 day after Liliah's ear drum surgery. I took a picture of it as she wanted to see what it looked like. She is not a dramatic child and I knew it would not scare her to see it. It helped us explain to her why we needed to be careful and protect her boo boo |
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| Two weeks later, it is healing up nicely. She had her post-op with her surgeon and he wants to see her in a month. He said the gel that they placed over the skin graft to hold it in place looks fine. He needs to wait another month before removing it to make sure it was a success. There is no infection so that is a good sign. Our job is to keep water out of her ear for a while. She was such a good little patient and never complained or cried. She did need pain meds off/on for the first week. |
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| Today we headed off early at 6AM for your ear surgery. It was discovered at your 4 year old check-up that you had abnormal hearing in your left ear @ only about 70%. You had a perforated ear drum we believe from ear tubes that were put in your ears when your palette was repaired at age 2. The doctor had to lift out your ear drum because of something like a bone spur that had formed due to a past infection. He also cut away about 50% of your ear drum and using your skin, patched it with a skin graph from you! It is hoped that you will regain hearing in the normal range once you are fully healed. |
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| We recently took a family field trip that included eating out for breakfast and a trip to a quilt shop to find just the right material for your quilt. You and Liliah will share the same room for a time and so I needed to find similar colors to match her quilt. |
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| We scoured the shelves until I found this cute little ballerina fairy. Liliah found the purple material with the multi-colored small dots. It was a perfect fit and she is so proud to have found that for you. Daddy found the purple fabric with the large white polka dot pattern. It was so special to be doing something just for you. It makes it all the more real that you really are coming to join our family. The other thing that makes it real, is that I mailed off our dossier to our agency today!!! We hope it will leave for China this Friday. I wanted to kiss and give that package a hug as I sent it on it's way. Six months to complete this part of our journey to you. Adoption is like climbing a BIG mountain, you get all your gear on and the equipment ready and get the right mind-set to start the ascent. It's a steady effort up and there are no quick routes. I am so excited to have made base camp! We are now waiting to be matched with you so we can start the final ascent up top to you! You are in our thoughts and prayers daily. (BTW, I have never climbed a mountain!) |
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| We went from snow a couple of weeks ago to very mild and sunny weather this week. We couldn't wait to head to the local nursery to buy some flowers to color our world! |
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| Liliah loves to do projects with Mama and that makes me a happy girl too. We potted up some pinks and purples and strategically placed them in the backyard so we could see them from inside. |
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| The other big event, was Liliah got glasses on this day. We discovered at her 4 year old check up that she is near-sighted in one eye. She is now the proud owner and wearer of two pairs of glasses that she picked out. |
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| We then headed in to enjoy some noodles. Liliah decided to try out her noodle slurping skills |
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| slurping, slurping . . . |
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| Yeah, I did it! Liliah, you are beautiful inside and out! The other BIG event was that we visited the USCIS this week and got our fingerprints taken. Hopefully, in 4 weeks (or sooner) we will have the coveted I800-a in our hands. That means our dossier can be sent to our agency and then on to China. We also have been given the gift of what Mei, Mei's name will be! |
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| We spent the last few of the holidays in Carlsbad, California. We spent a day at Sea World and had wonderful Mexican dinner in Old Town, San Diego. Our favorite past time though, was at the beach. Our hotel was situated just across the street. It was heavenly . . . |
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| My prince for 25 years! |
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| Liliah wanted to take our picture. We have a few bloopers, but these are her best. I love that she took our picture |
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| She saw me writing in the sand . . . |
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| She was very proud of her success. It surprised me . . . |
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| We got boat loads of snow over past couple of days and have been home bound for 3 days. We have found some fun things to do....like baking and cooking yummy meals, putting away our Christmas decorations, lots of art projects AND...... |
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| Our first time sledding as a family. Daddy got our little tobogganer going from the top of our driveway |
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| She's fearless |
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| And I greeted her at the bottom . . . .Mama even took some rides down with her! We had a ball! |
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| Watching the birds feeding from the house has been activity that we have all enjoyed. We have large groups visiting us daily and I put new seed out daily. |
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| She was a helpful little penguin playing with Maddy and shaking off all of the snow from my prized Japanese maple trees |
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| First snowman made at our home |
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| D A N C I N G with G L E E |
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| Welcome to our home, Frosty! |
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| It's hard to believe it has been 3 years since we became a family in China! It now feels as if we've always been together. We are beyond blessed to be able to call you our daughter. We will always remember the day we walked into each others lives....how are hearts were changed and expanded beyond anything we could have ever imagined. |
