My Cousin's Birthday Party

Happy Father's Day!

Fun at McDonald's

Sydney loves to go to McDonalds's but I love to hear her call it "Old McDonald's". It is so cute!

Balloon Festval

Breakfast in my Room!

Enjoying the Summer Heat

We had so much fun spending time with the family in our travel group to get Sydney. We were so lucky to travel half way around the world and end up with a family who lives 25 minutes away. It is wonderful to be able to keep close contact with a family who shared such a special moment in our lives.

Splash Fun!

Forever Family Day

Summer haircut and hanging with my brother

I am trying to grow out Sydney's hair to all one length but it has been difficult. She had a boy style haircut when we got her last year and it is growing in many different lengths and layers. I am also trying to grow out her bangs and they are at the difficult stage right now. Since it is summer time I decided to go ahead and cut several inches off of her hair to even it out as much as possible. It looks much better and hopefully in another 6 months we will finally reach our goal!

One Year Ago Today...Lives were Changed Forever

Fixing up the pool

We finally had to break down and re-plaster the pool. We decided to go ahead and redo the deck, tile, and a few other things. We are more than ready to use the pool and cannot wait or them to finish.

Summer is Here!

School is out for summer!

Yeah! It is officially summer!!!

One Year Ago Today...

We boarded a plane in San Fransisco at 1:15am on June 4th that would take us half-way around the globe to change our lives forever. I remember being so nervous but yet so excited. It almost didn't seem real. Something that we had worked on a waited for for over 3 years was actually happening.

I cannot believe that one year ago we were traveling to China to meet Sydney and bring her home with us. It seems like she has been with us forever. We watched several videos from China last night and Sydney asked a very serious question.

Sydney said " Can you and daddy take me back to China? That way you can come get me again and this time I won't be scared! That was so much fun and I was so happy to meet you."

She loved watching herself experience a bath for the first time, a swimming pool for the first time, bubbles for the first time, and so on. I think she misses the feel of having these firsts and wanted to experience them again. I think she also misses the overwhelming emotion with all the excitement of having a family and new life. I tried to explain to her that she will have many more firsts and many more new experiences and emotions. Even though we, your house, your life, your town are not new anymore...each day holds new and special experiences to share.

We will take her on 2 vacations this summer. We will all travel to New York to visit with Mark's parents in July. Then in August, the older kids have plans and so we decided to take just Sydney somewhere for a long weekend. We asked her where she wanted to go and I named several place including Disney World. Nope, she knew exactly what she wanted to do and from the sound of it she had her mind made up months ago. She said she wanted to go on the BIG BOAT! Mark and I have taken the older kids on several cruises an Sydney ha seen all the pictures from our trips, so she wants her turn. So it looks like we will be cruising again in August so I better start my favorite thing of searching for the best deals!

I cannot wait to celebrate our Forever Family Day this Tuesday! We received a huge book from her orphanage on Gotcha Day that was like a scrapbook/dairy of the 3 years she spent there. I had a friend translate it and I spent many hours arranging and adding in more details of her life in China. It is now being scanned, copied, bound, and put on a CD to preserve this treasure. I will give Sydney the bound book of her life in Wuzhou City SWI on our Forever Family Day.

On our 1 year anniversary of being home, I will give her the life-book that I have made for her. It is not finished so I could not give it to her next week. It is all the scrapbook pages that you have seen in the blog plus many more. It starts when we first made the decision to adopt and will end with 2008. I will continue a book for each new year. I guess I am already half-way through 2009...WOW!

Thank you God for giving me this special little girl. She has truly changed my life and blessed me in so many ways.

Over the past year I have done everything I can to help keep her Chinese language. She has gone to Chines school on Sundays and has had a private tutor. She has resisted completely and it doesn't matter how many lessons she attends she will not learn or retain if she does not WANT to keep her language. Until now...it really hit home for her when she watched the videos from China last night and she could not understand what SHE was saying. It didn't bother her when she could not understand what other Chinese people were saying but when she could not understand what was coming out of her own mouth...well that struck something different inside her. So, we will now continue with lessons stronger than ever and this time...she will listen and have a willingness to learn (i hope).

Kindergarten Graduation

I will miss my teacher! She was wonderful!

Wow! This year went so fast. Sydney has grown in so many ways and it is truly amazing! She is a funny little girl and really sees the world in a positive light. She is full of smiles and giggles. She does not let the time she spent without a family and living in an orphanage stop her in any way. She is truly just a happy girl!