Last day visiting

We spent the last day just visiting.  We did a little shopping.  Got to see my cousin Travis's new place.  Had a very yummy dinner.  The little ones colored eggs while me and the older kids went to a movie with Travis, Ashley and Bob.  Were sad to leave, we only get to come down to visit a couple times a year and the kids love hanging out with Aunt Connie & Crazy Uncle Bob.  Until next time!

Batting Cages & Chucky Cheese!

We spent the second day shopping around.   Then we located an indoor batting cage so that the boys could practice hitting since they have try-outs for baseball coming soon.  We rented it out for an hour and each of the boys got to hit around 150 balls.  I even got in there and hit a few and boy am I sore now.  That night we took all the kids to Chucky Cheese, they always love going here, since we don't have one near our house.  They ran around playing games like crazy for the around two hours.  Meanwhile we find out the someone hit my cousins car in the parking lot and took off.  I can't believe people can be so inconsiderate.   Anyhow it was fun for the kids and they won lots of tickets!

The girls dressed alike.  We started a tradition that whenever the girls are together we dress them alike.  This is the outfit I bought for them.

The boys after batting

Conor & Chase

Even uncle Bob Played

Brianna & her daddy (Danny)

Travis's car

Were in Cali!

We made it to Redding California on thursday early afternoon. Brianna, Zoe's cousin who is the same age was so excited to see her. We spent the day doing crafts and making hair bows.

Grandma even got into make magnets

Cousins

Chase loving on one of Aunt Connies five dogs

Heading down south

We started out our trip down south by breaking the trip up and staying the night with Grandma and Grandpa.  Even though it was just the evening the kids enjoyed their time.

Dogpile

Watching the nightly news with grandpa

The luggage tag grandma made for each of the kids

Fishing

Steve took a couple of days off so that he could spend some time with the kids while they were on spring break.  Today they went fishing and came home with quite the catch.  As they arrived there was a truck getting ready to put a couple thousand fish into the pond.  Everyone caught at least one trout and they brought six fish home to cook for dinner.  Zoe wasn't too fond of the fish and screamed when she reeled in her first fish.  She is truly a girly girl.  Here's some of the pictures Conor took once they got home.

checking out their catch

You can tell by her face how much she likes fish

tired from the long day

New Milestone

Yesterday was an awesome milestone for Zoe and our family.  On the 23rd of March Zoe had been with us just as long as she had lived in China.  She has accomplished so much in these two years with us.  She learned a new language, she learned to talk (she only babbled when we met her with no clear words), she recognizes her colors, shapes, letters and numbers.  When we met her she was like an infant in a toddler's body.  She was 2 yrs and 4 months and yet was still very wobbly on her feet.  She had not been exposed to solid foods and therefore her mouth muscles were weak and it took a long time to chew her food.  She hoarded food, she would eat her food fast and then start eating off the plates around her.  She also looked for attention from everyone around her, even complete strangers.
She was terrified of our dogs at first, screaming if they even came in the same room as her.  Sleeping has never been an issue, except for occasionally wanting to sleep with mom and dad.  She's been to many doctors and hearing specialist, had a sedated CT scan and recieves aggresive speech theraphy.
When we decided to adopt through the special needs program I remember looking through the lengthy list of all the special needs out there and felt overwhelmed.  We went with our gut and what we had experience with and decided on hearing impairment.  I have to tell you I was scared when we first looked at her file, yes I knew she was our daughter but there were so many questions.  For one I didn't know anything about Microtia/Atresia, and whether she had a hearing loss or was deaf.  Anyone that has looked at a file from China knows that the information is very limited and you really just have to go with your gut feeling.  On the day we received her file our doctor was out of the office, and after making several calls to other offices no one wanted to give me information without seeing the patient and the patient couldn't be see because well, she was in China.  So we made the decision to pursue on our own with information that we were given.  I can't tell you that I never second guessed that decision, because I did.  After several of my friends online had gone to China to get their child and didn't come home with them for one reason or another, this scared me.  The "what if's" started and I wanted to be prepared for the "what if's".  We decided before we stepped on that plane that no matter what her situation was we were going to take her home, she was ours and that we were going to be committed to whatever we needed to do.  Meeting her that day on the 23rd of November 2009 , all those fears were washed away, I knew the second she was in my arms everything was going to be okay.   We had are ups and down those first few weeks, but for the most part they were happy times and she adjusted smoothly to her new life with us.  To me, the hardest and longest road has been with her speech. While she has made tremendous progress in the last year, she still has a long road ahead of her.  Next year she starts Kindergarten, and I can't help but feel nervous for her.  Especially when we meet new people/teachers that have no idea the accomplishments she has made over these last two years and just see a child that they can't understand.  I know her personality will always shine through and hopefully they will see her for who she is and not her limitations.   I thank God every single day for calling us to be her parents.  And also  that through her I was able to accept Jesus Christ as my savior (that is another story in itself that I promise to post soon).    I Love you sweet baby girl and can't wait to see what God has in store for your life!

If you haven't seen our adoption journey you can find it at www.myadoptionwebsite2.com/zoe

Chase's 7th birthday party

Chase's Birthday party was on Saturday St. Patricks Day.  He wanted a Green Lantern party and it worked out that we could have it on the 17th!  He wanted it at the bowling alley and invited some kids from school.  They were all full of energy but it was fun and he had a blast!

The candy bags we made