Christmas 2011

Christmas this year was so simple and beautiful. We had our traditional dinner where we invited our parents to come for dinner, and of course, my sweet Grandma. I feel so blessed to have her close again (she is living with my parents). It is her house that we would go to, or have her come to ours, when I was growing up. It was her that gave us pajamas each year so we had something special to wake up in on Christmas morning. I love her so much!

The kids also wanted to make a birthday cake for Jesus, so they helped me make that as well. And, we ate our traditional Shepherds Pie-our rendition of it!


Then, we talked about the birth of Christ, what His life means to us, and how we can better live to show our love for Him. I love these tender moments where our parents share their testimonies with our children. It is truly spiritual.

We try to keep Christmas simple, focusing on Christ, not too many gifts, and more about giving. The kids have been great, making simple lists and not asking for anything extravagant. It was a great morning taking turns to open gifts from each other and giving thanks to each person. I just absolutely love the Christmas season. Decorations have been more simple, the schedule has been more simple, and we had Lizzie, our little miracle, with us this year enjoying her first "Christmas." It's been perfect! I look forward to spending some time visiting our parents today.

Christmas Season Photos

First Snow of the Year

We had a little bit of snow fall...just enough to make a snowman out of one giant snowball. But, it was exciting enough for Lizzie, Ryann and Nathan. Lizzie tasted the snow, the kids used our Snowman Kit, and we played outside for a while. It was fun! And doesn't she look so cute!

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever?

5 Months Home

Many have asked how Lizzie is doing. She is doing fantastic. She is 2, and very busy. The kids love her, her big brother Josh (12), has developed such a fun relationship with her. She adores him and Ryann (10), and enjoys playing with Nathan (7) when he’s not teasing. They all are adjusting so well to our new family dynamics, and they have been very honest with their feelings. It has been such a great experience.

She has had no side-affects from the hydrocephalus. It has self-corrected and she is doing amazing. She runs, jumps, sings with me (that is one of my favorites), and grew 2 inches in 3 months. She is learning the language so quickly. She loves animals, so those are the first words she picked up. Nathan quickly taught her “Mine”, and she’s now saying no to about everything. She says no so sweetly when she means yes, and shakes her head “no” while saying it with a little more force when she means no. She loves our cats, loves to pretend she’s a kitty, and sleeps with a stuffed animal kitty. It is darling. She also loves shoes and feet & lotion. I did not realize you could be born so enamored with shoes, but she adores them and loves to try them on in the store. She always wants you to have your shoes on….and I seem to prefer bare-foot, so it’s a battle.

She is attaching well. It was such a blessing that she attached to her foster mom. I owe her so much for loving my daughter and teaching Lizzie to love. It has been a much smoother process than we had expected. We are grateful for the classes we took before adopting that helped us be aware of the attachment issues, and to so many wonderful people who shared their success and not-so-successful stories so we went into this educated.

I was looking at her the other day and had the thought: wow, she’s Chinese! She has fit so well into our family that I don’t see that very often. She is our daughter, she is our gift, and she is everything we dreamed and hoped she would be.

(photos from Nov & beginning of Dec)