Fall

CaraBeth is especially excited that she is finally old enough to attend AWANA this year! She and Madison (who is starting her 7th year of AWANA) attended the "Back to AWANA" carnival last Wednesday and will begin regular club activities this week. Now we have to convince CaraBeth that moonwalks and hot dogs are not the norm for each week in Cubbies! Last Tuesday CaraBeth also began going to Mother's Day Out at our church...1 day per week. I think this will be good for her and will help the rest of the kids get a long day of home school in without 3 year old interruption.

Blue Belt

Connor tested last Saturday for his blue belt in Taekwondo. 3 hours later he had earned it! The coaches really worked everyone hard and he was very tired by the time it was over.

CaraBeth and I were there for all of it and for a 3 year old, she did pretty well! Connor is excited to see Taekwondo matches next week on tv (Olympics).

And here's a picture of Connor kicking a board in half....these tests get harder with each belt...one boy had to break 3 boards stacked together!

Our other new friend!

Here's the other little girl we were privileged to meet the other night. Look at those cheeks!

Finally, We Meet!

In September of 2005, our Dossier was sent off from our agency http://www.dillionadopt.org/ along with the Dossier's of several other families. This instantly became our "travel group"...the ones we would receive referrals with and the ones we would travel with to China. While some families lived in the vicinity of Dillon and were able to meet each other, others of us did not. Immediately we all began communicating via a Yahoo group and emails...getting to know one another and anxiously anticipating our travel in a few, short months. Well, it turned out that we did not all travel together so we were not able to meet anyone in person. Last night, we were able to meet 2 of these families! One family was driving through town and they were able to stay the night with us. Their daughter is just a few weeks older than CaraBeth. Once they warmed up to each other, they had a ball! They played so well and loved to do the same things. They sang, danced, dressed up, "cooked", went "shopping", and had dinner together. Above are a couple of pictures of them together. We can't wait til they meet again! The other family was with us here for dinner also. They returned from China just a few weeks ago and their daughter is not quite a year old. I got a few sweet pictures of her but didn't ask her parents (yet) if I could include those on this blog. We are excited that this family lives closer by and that we might be able to meet up with them again soon!

Off to camp

Connor and Madison headed to Centri-Kid camp yesterday
morning! Connor has been to one in KY before but this was Madison's first camp to attend...she was so excited! We did get extra hugs from her so I am sure she was a bit uneasy about it too. She called us last night...all bubbly and excited. They are in for a fun week and will be tired on their return Friday! As for us at home, it's kind of odd to have only 2 kids with us for the week..CaraBeth isn't quite sure about it. Meghan is liking the quiet!

CaraBeth is 3!

Meghan worked hard making a Nemo cake for CaraBeth
All of us
She sang Happy Birthday along with the rest of us!

These pictures are from her party on Saturday. We had a house full of family and she had a great time playing with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Today is her actual birthday and at VBS she had a couple of special "happy birthday" moments including another cake! We'll celebrate again tonight with a couple more gifts from Mama and Daddy.

First thing she told us this morning was that she was 19! yikes! We think we finally got her to understand that she's only 3.

Two years ago....

Two years ago, on July 7, 2006, we received "the call" from our social worker that we had a possible referral for a baby girl in China. Minutes later, I received an email with these photos and information on Xi, Qian Ling. Just two days later she would be turning 1 year old while we celebrated her birthday and our referral. It would be 3 months later that we finally held her. Now, over a year and a half later, it seems she has always been with us!