Chongqing Families 1st Reunion

We just got back from a fabulous week at the beach with our travel families and Jade's six orphange sisters! I was relieved that it all turned out well because we had it here in FL over at Reddington Beach. Micah and Anna's families live not far from there, Natalie's family drove all the way from Michigan (God Bless them!), Logan's family flew from Texas, Keira's family drove from Maryland and Jillian's Mom and Grandma flew with her from Arizona!!!! Now that is committment and I'm glad we all share the same level of it as far as wanting our girls and families to be close thru emails, websites, pictures and Reunions. In the white dress photo the girls are from left to right, Natalie in front, Micah, Jade, Logan, Anna, Jillian and Keira. All of the girls are unique in personality and beautiful in their own ways. We really enjoyed seeing them and how they have changed since last March! Our Florida girl wanted no part of the beach,sand,water thing so she was happiest with her pink cowgirl boots on :>)

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY JADE!!!

WELL!! Where do I begin? First, I lost my camera battery so I havent been taking pictures or posting obviously! Major guilt trip over that..hated to buy those CVS ones without the ability to edit with digital...if you dont have a digital camera buy one! they are the best! Finally my wonderful hubby bought another battery for me...now enough of that...our Jade is TWO today! We had a nice day with close friends and family over. She had on a sweet little outfit that my friend Andrea embroidered for her with a Chinese Birthday girl on the front of it! (everyone loved it Andrea, thankyou!) Jade is talking so well and strings 3/4 words together now. The best thing is 'I love you Mommy' of course :>) I cant help but think of her birth Mother today and say a prayer for her. I hope that she thinks of Jade (how could she not?) but hope that God has given her some sort of peace in her heart. HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY SWEET JADEYBUG!

Happy Easter

Jade was more interested in the candy in the plastic eggs than anything else..yes she is mine! We had a great day at church, my Moms then our friend Renee's for dinner!

My BFF :>)

My best friend Gayle moved to Georgia last year and hasnt really seen Jade so we had a great visit with her family at our house last week! Gayle and I have been best friends since the 7th grade and she is Luke's Godmother. Luke was named after her hubby :>) Anyway, Aunt Gayle is also the giver of the ever present 'night night' purple pillow. Jade doesnt go anywhere without it and when she's sleeping its always up near her face or in her hand while her thumb is in her mouth. Its so sweet! Gayle has sent others as replacements but Jade smells them and throws them, they just dont have that good nubby feel either :>) Gayle's girls Hannah and Presley are in the pictures too....I loved seeing our daughters together, it was a very special time.

More new pics

Gotcha day

Our 'Gotcha Day' Anniversary as its known was March 28th last Wednesday. We had a little party planned for Jade with our favorite friends but she ended up with strep throat and DOUBLE ear infections. She has tubes but apparently she's in the 20% of the babes that still get infections. OH JOY! So, she was miserable and we just ordered Chinese take out and watched our video from China for the first time!! It brought tears to our eyes and lots of joy of the time spent there last year as a family and bringing Jade home. We were hoping to see our friends Staci and Emilee as they were down in Orlando but we couldnt work it out. We'll plan a trip up to see you guys in NYC Staci!!!! Here are pics of Gotcha Day and Gotcha Day 1st anniversary :>))))

Baseball game

Jade loves being outside and yesterday was Luke's baseball game. The weather here is so nice right now, if it would just stay this perfect. Seems every summer I want to move from Florida! More of an update on our Jadey to follow later....

Sports Illustrated Model 2025

We're ready for summer!!!

Chinese New Year 2007

We spent the afternoon at Saddlebrook celebrating Chinese New Year with over 300 other people yesterday! It was alot of fun to see all the adopted girls and their families. Some we have known through the community and we got to see Anna from St. Pete, Jade's Orphanage Sister. Our Chinese Princess decided she didnt want to be like everyone else on stage ,she wanted to stand out...so she pulled up her dress and spent part of the afternoon walking around like this.....:>)))

FL cutest baby photo contest

Ok so here's the deal: On/After Feb 1st you can help raise money for breast cancer research and at the same time help Jade win some prizes :>))) Go to www.cutestbabyfl.com and then to the voting section. You will see Jade in her purple Valentine's LOVE shirt. You can vote as much/often as you wish and it is only $7 a vote. The one with the most votes wins, simple!!! It's also for a great cause, I'm sure we all know someone who has been affected by breast cancer. Thankyou!

Referral Anniversary

If your reading this, your going to get tired of hearing about the Anniversary Celebrations coming up! In the adoption community we are celebrating today because it was a year ago that we were all glued to our computer chairs and jumped if the phone rang thinking it was our agency. Mike came home from work at noon, the boys were lingering around, My Mom was here and my sister in law Danielle with Jacob in tow. Our friends Charleen and her daughters were here, bringing a beautiful bouquet of flowers to celebrate. Friends popped in and out hoping to get a peek of the eagerly awaited baby girl. At 5:30 'the call' came with the news that Qian Xue Han in Qianjiang Orpahange awaited her family. We were told of her birthday of May 28, 2005...smack dab in the middle of all her brothers birthdays :>) and that she was found in old cotton clothing at the gate of a cultural park at 3 days old. Shortly after we were sent these beautiful pictures and life began taking on the excitement of our travel to China and our daughter's journey home with us. Looking at this little ray of sunshine now, its hard to imagine that her life started out any way other than perfect. But its the way that led her to us and us to her.

Orphanage Sisters

Today was alot of fun! We met 2 of Jade's Orphanage sisters and their families that we traveled with in China. Keira now lives in Maryland and Anna lives in St. Pete. We met at Myakka state park and spent the afternoon letting the girls play! I like to think they knew each other but its hard to tell. In June our entire travel group and the babes will get together so we cant wait for that!

2007 WOW

Happy New Year! Jade is starting to talk and can say Mama, Dada, Ryan, Luke, Willi, Max, more, hi, peeeshhh(please, and oh so cute) and thankyou, says NOOOOOOOOOO and uhhuh for yes. She gets into everything!!! I love this age but I'm exhausted :>) You can see in the one pic how long her hair is and still has some curl which I WILL NOT cut anytime soon! I'm having a ball with hairbows and even bought a book on how to braid..heehee...yes I know I'm a silly Mama!