How neat is this?

So, this girl named Jill commented on my blog under my DTC post. I don't know Jill, but right now I am really liking Jill! I decided to check out her blog and she is adopting a seven year old from China. She and I are following the same time line. Under her first entry she talked about how her husband was looking through Chinese websites to find pictures of their daughter. They described how they did it. I of course decided to try for myself just to see if I could find anything of Hope. To my amazement I found 18 pictures of my girl. This had made my day!!!!!!!!!! I'm sharing some of my favorites. I have explained each picture below the pic. This was on the front page of the daily newspaper. The caption under this picture said, "They are so happy with laugh" She is 4 here.
She is the one in the front with the pink outfit on. She looks as petite as LeeLee was that age. She is 4 here. This was in the newspaper too. This is a donation from the fire department to the orphanage.

This is my favorite. This one is right when she had come back from foster care. A bakery had made a cake and brought it to the children to be on display. Hope is the one wearing all pink in the middle. This also appeared in the newspaper.

Here a group of 170 volunteers came to make dumplings for the children. She is the one on the right. I love the pony tail!! This is featured on the local government page.

This picture is funny to me. She is in the left hand bottom corner. All it captures is her little face, but that is her for sure. This was a ceremony they did for celebrating the end of the olympic and paralympic games. I have lots of pics of this ceremony. So it appears that they bring Hope out for lots of media opportunities. She seems to be one that they grab when important people come to visit. Hmmmm! I wonder what I'm in for. Okay for those of you that want to know what I did to find these, I will explain.

• go to http://www.baidu.com/ this is China's main search engine.
• use google translator to translate the page for you (I use the google chrome, so just hit the translate button)
• go ahead and hit the photos tab above the seach box (this is the tab to the right of MP3)
• then copy your SWI name in Chinese from your PA and paste it in the search box
• then scour the pictures for your child

I even found a website for the SWI that is amazing. There were several pictures of Hope on it. I am so glad that I have these. The SWI has had the computer crash that had Hope's early pictures on it, so at least I have been able to find some of her from the last two years.

We are DTC!!!

You may wonder what that means. If you are not in the adoption world, let me just say, it is a very good thing! Our Dossier was mailed To China. I am so super happy to know that now things are out of my hands. We just wait now (which I am not very good at). When we started this process I claimed the month of August for us to go get Hope. I realize my timeline is not looking so good for that, but I will deal with that when August is over and I am still in the US. I still believe in miracles! Please pray with me that we get logged in quickly and that we receive our Letter of Acceptance quickly from China. We are ready to see our sweet girl become a part of our family.

And the winner is?!?

My kids have been so excited for a couple of weeks about the Hamster Ball Race that Petco puts on each year. They picked up a training schedule and tried their best to prepare their hamsters for the big day. We held practice races at home that were entertaining. Hunter's dwarf Hamster seemed to dominate the group. Noelle's hamster follows her voice, but is never in a hurry. LeeLee's hamster never moved off the starting line, ever! My kids were the only ones that had preregistered for the race, so I felt like we had a good chance of winning at least something. Turns out one other family showed up with their sweet hamster, Button. The first heat was Hunters hamster, Heart, against Button. Heart of course did her thing a blew button away. Second heat was LeeLee's hamster, Jewel (last name Ya), against Noelle's hamster Molly. Jewel didn't move as expected, so Molly won the race. So they did the the winner's heat Hunter and Noelle against each other. The picture above is of them on the starting line, then the one right below is of Heart smoking Molly. The best race though was the losers heat, LeeLee's hamster, Jewel, against Button. Jewel actually started rolling for the first time ever. Button was ahead, then turned around and went the wrong way. Jewel came all the way to the end of the track and stopped. Hunter was pointing to the finish line, and LeeLee was slamming the ground. Button started sailing towards the finish line when Jewel finally decided to make go forward and roll off the track. The crowd went wild. It was hilarious. So, we took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. When Hunter got his prize, he said, "Wow, this is a lifetime supply!" I think he may be right. I think we will have to do this again next year. I love it that the smallest Hamster won! Little Heart looked like David against Goliath, yet came out victorious!

Happy Birthday LeeLee!!!

My sweet girl is 5!! Everyone in my house knows that 5 is a HUGE birthday. When you turn 5 at our house you get to pick a parent and pick any trip you want. LeeLee decided last August that she wanted to go on the Disney Cruise for her 5th. Before she even picked a parent, Paul said that it wouldn't be fair for just one of us to go since we had both already been on one of these special trips (he with Noelle, me with Hunter). Paul knew she would pick me, and he wasn't going to be left out of the Disney Cruise. There was a cruise leaving out on her Birthday, so I felt it would be the perfect one. I was so impressed with the cruise the attention to detail was amazing! As soon as we boarded the boat they but a button on her that told everyone it was her birthday. The staff really paid attention to that button and she felt like a princess all day. At dinner the first night they brought her a cake and sang Happy Birthday to her. I loved the white chocolate Disney boat that sat on top of her cake. After just one night of cruising, we woke up in Nassau, Bahamas. I really had no desire to spend any time in Nassau, so we got off the boat for about thirty minutes, then headed back to enjoy the boat. The picture below is of LeeLee and I with the boat docked in Nassau. The boat is just as full of Disney characters as the theme park. The only one we didn't already have was Tianna from Princess and the Frog. She hadn't hit the park yet when we were there in October. LeeLee was happy to see her. On Tuesday morning we woke up at Castaway Cay. This is still part of the Bahamas. It was so beautiful, and I really wish we could have just stayed there for a week or so. LeeLee had a blast trying to make Cinderella's Castle out of sand. She dared to go down the brand new water slides on the island, and she had a ball chasing after the fish around the island. In true Disney fashion, the island was amazing. They had a kids' club on the island, so LeeLee wanted to go do that too. While she was well taken care of, Paul and I ventured over to the other side of the island and loved see the natural marine life. I should have taken my camera because we were able to walk around with gigantic starfish, sand dollars, and even a barracuda. The picture below is of Paul and LeeLee in Castaway. I just love how God answers prayers. I had thought about the fact that because there were just three of us, that we would be at a table with strangers for dinner every night. When I thought about it, I quickly prayed that the Lord would take this detail and work it out. I truly gave it to him, because I forgot all about it til we were getting ready for dinner the first night. I told Paul, I had prayed that we would be with someone that I wouldn't be embarrassed for my kids to be around. As we were walking into dinner, we saw several families where the parents had already become a little tipsy, and I again just looked towards heaven and thanked my Lord for what he had already prepared for us. I figured if it wasn't a good situation, then at least I would have someone to witness to. Well, God not only answered my prayer, but he gave us an extra special blessing. We sat with our brother and sisters in Christ from California. We were able to pray together before every meal, talk about the Lord and the things he has done for us, and just fellowship together. I have included pictures below of Julia and LeeLee together. Then one of us as a group. Frank and Sally were such a cute couple! Sally had a sweet spirit, and Frank was extremely personable. They had two daughters, Julia and Emily. LeeLee had fun getting silly with Julia when they played. Then Frank's mom, Merle, had also joined them for the trip. Merle was a real treat to be around. Sally and I were talking one day and she said that she got an exceptional mother in law, and I have to agree. Merle is such a beautiful person inside and out. Every fiber of who she is says she belongs to the Lord. She radiates his love with every breath! Hopefully when we hugged them good-bye Thursday morning, it was more of a "til next time" moment. I sure hope to see them again someday this side of heaven! Oh, and yes, I highly recommend the Disney Cruise to any family. We hope to go back someday with all the kiddos!

Easter Sunday

I love Easter. It is my favorite holiday! I think that my Sunday School class understood that as I told them for weeks how important Easter is to me. I explained that Easter is what proves that Christianity is the only religion that serves the one true God. Our saviour is the only one who has conquered the grave. I love sharing with this group of girls, because for some of them, this is all new stuff. I realize now how blessed I was to be able to grow up in church and understand the meaning of Easter. To so many of the girls in my class, it has always just been about some eggs and a bunny!!

I will take some actual Easter portraits when we don't have the wonderful "yellow dust" as Emily Chih called it. It is miserable to be outside right now, as everything is covered. I did learn something from this little adventure of picture taking. I will not try and take a picture of the three of them. It is alot easier when I have just one subject to work with. I am however looking forward to taking a picture of four little kiddos next Easter instead of just three.

We had a great Easter. After church we headed to my mom's house for lunch and and Easter Egg Hunt. The kids were itching to get our of their Easter clothes so they could get on with the hunt.

Easter Eggs

The kids love doing the Easter eggs. I was glad I covered my antique table with a blanket, because there was dye everywhere. LeeLee went a little crazy. The each got to dye 11 eggs. I was impressed that I only had 4 eggs crack out of 33. LeeLee loves hard boiled eggs, so she enjoyed eating some of them. They used their eggs to hunt at our house, and also at Tita's house. Tita's house has such great hiding places that we lost one because we hid it so well. Maybe Tita will find it when it starts stinking.

Mother Son Brunch

Hunter has been looking forward to this for over 2 years. He was always jealous when the girls get all dressed up and head out with dad for the daddy daughter dance. I have always told him that when he was in first grade he would get to go to the banquet with me. He even wanted to wear a tie! He has never worn a tie in his life. I was proud to have my handsome little guy by my side. I am thankful to be part of such an amazing church that does special things like this for the kids. There was a magician, and he was great. I am looking forward to many more years of taking my little man to this banquet.