Birthdays and More Birthdays

We celebrated 3 birthdays this month!  :)  We are so blessed, but it makes for a busy month.  A super fun kind of busy, but busy nonetheless.  Maybe it will slow down a bit next month... 

Who am I kidding?  Every month seems to be far too busy in this family.  Lol  

Christmas was very special as we got to celebrate with lots of family we hadn't seen in a long time. I will save that for another post, but we had an amazing time celebrating the birthday of our Savior.  

Christmas Eve

Okay, so we have two birthday girls in December. One at the beginning of December and one on the 31st.  Ruby turned 6 on the 1st and Victoria is turning 5 today.  Kinda hard to believe there is only a year difference between them.  

You can kinda see the size difference between them in this picture.

Victoria is so tiny. Ruby is pretty small as well, but she just seems alot bigger. Toria just had a much harder start in life. Considering the fact that she did not get a much needed ASD repair (heart defect) until she was 21 months old, she is doing really great!  (Most kids get that taken care of in the first year of life).  But in Ukraine, where she was born, they did not think she was worthy of being healthy I guess... Ugh 

Our little girl has come so far!  Here is a video clip of her 3 years ago. She was really tiny then! I'm pretty sure the outfit she has on is 6-9 months.  Two years old and just learning to crawl.  

We had people question whether she would ever walk. I never wondered IF she would, just how long it would take. And earlier this year, sometime after her 4th birthday, she did it!   

Anyway, today we celebrate the beginning of a new year and a tiny little girl who was born on this day 5 years ago.  As with all my adopted children, but especially the girls, I always think of their birth parents. I wonder if Victoria's birth mother is thinking of her.  I wonder if she knows her little girl has been adopted or if she thinks she is in an institution somewhere in Ukraine.  I wonder if she regrets her decision or thinks she made the right choice to abandon her. I wish she could see her little girl now.  I wish she could see how smart she is, what a fighter she is, and how much potential she has. Most of all, I wish she could see how much she is loved and cherished and a blessing to this family. Ultimately, maybe she did make the right choice to somehow give her daughter a better life.  I don't know exactly what the circumstances were, but we are glad she is ours!  Her life has value.  A tremendous amount of value, no matter what the doctors in Ukraine think.  I hope that she is at peace and someday maybe even meet her beautiful little girl.  :)

Here's some pictures from Ruby's birthday. She is a special gift.  So funny and smart as a whip!  Her teachers just rave about her at school and she is really starting to pick up more language.  She loves to help with anything and really enjoyed her birthday.  She was amazed at all the attention being centered on her. Lol  She is a precious one with a quiet spirit and a loving heart. I know her foster parents in China were thinking of her that day!  They loved and adored her and that is so obvious.  She has her moments, but she is well adjusted and blended into our family with ease.    

Ruby excited about all the attention on her birthday.  She was so sweet thanking us after opening her gifts.

Happy New Year to you all and we wish you many blessings and happiness in the coming year!  As for us, we are excited to see what 2014 brings.  We are open to what God has in store for us and we are trying to walk in the path He has laid. Who knows where that will take us but we are ready!! 

I'm Back Blogger

It's been so long since I posted anything on my blog, I almost forgot how to. Lol Hopefully this new year I will be a little (okay a lot) better about posting and and updating about our family happenings.  I think things are settling down finally.  But you never know...  Just when you start thinking that, Boom! Something comes up.

Next post, some Christmas pictures.  But first I wanted to share the adoption video I put together for November Adoption Awareness month.  There are so many beautiful faces in there!  What a blessing adoption has been in our family and obviously in so many other families as well.  It's no wonder adoption is so amazing because after all, it was God's idea!   

One Year Home!

Wow has it really been a year that our sweet girls have been home?!  They have changed so much!

Last July at our hotel in Guangzhou.

 One year ago eating noodles in Hong Kong, the night before we flew home.  We'd had a little trouble getting out of China, so we were very ready to come home!

Getting to see some of our favorite cousins in Seattle on our way home!  Four countries represented here...Taiwan, US, South Korea, and China.  Pretty cool!

Then of course we were welcomed by a most 
awesome group of people!  :)  

I love my family!

 Hugs for a new sister.

What a year!  It has been wonderful, but also hectic and hard at times with our new busy.  As hard as it has been though, I wouldn't trade it!  These girls are so worth it!  

 We sure do love these pretty girls! They add so much character and craziness to our already crazy family.  

They fit right in...  Ha ha

Random Summer Pictures (warning: lots of pics)

Kick off to summer...a fire with smores. 

 Madalyn telling daddy all about her marshmallow.

Yum!

Asian Beauty.

 Climbing girls.

 Going for a ride with big brother.

 Three little ladybugs.

 She finally got the water table to herself.

 On the big girl swing.

Going for a walk.

 Signing "ice cream"and eating it while watching the
 boys have a water balloon fight.

Swimming

Emmee and Madalyn enjoy playing together while 

the other 3 are at school.

 This is how we watch movies.

 Some water table fun.

Water is the best entertainment ever. 

Until someone gets wet... 

And of course what is summer without baseball??

Baseball...

 And more baseball.

Sam plays first base on his 13/14 yr old team and Daniel plays 3rd base, catcher and pitches for his 11/12 yr old team. The 

boys do pretty well and both of them made the All-Star team 

for our town.

Of course the boys always have a large cheering section. :)