One Year Ago...

One year ago today Karla called us with the news that she had a file of a beautiful little girl for us to look at! My how life has changed in one year! When we first saw the picture of this little girl I immediately fell in love! I loved how she had her tongue stuck out of her mouth in that first picture! I had wondered if that was going to be her thinking face! Guess what? It is! If she is thinking about something really hard she sticks her tongue out! Precious! Also, that bruise on her forehead? We have had many bruises in that exact spot since we got her. I will never get over how I felt this time last year! Our wait was over; We had a picture of our beautiful baby girl!

Six Months Ago Yesterday...

The first time we saw her in person!

Our first family photo!

Smiling for the camera!

First bath

Since I was out of town this weekend I didn't get a chance to post, but I certainly wanted to post today! Six months ago yesterday, we became a family of three! My have we experienced some change (mostly for the better) in this six month period! Our biggest and most welcomed change has been in Grace's sleeping. She is soothing herself to sleep at night and is sleeping in her big girl bed all night long!!! When we first came home she wouldn't even get in the bed so this has been the biggest change! Also, she is in preschool two days a week and loving it! Since beginning preschool, her speech has really taken off. We still can't understand most of it, but everyday words are getting a little clearer. What does she say? Her favorite word seems to be "no" and it is very clear. Other than that she says, Mama, Daddy, Nana, Papa, Mimi, Molly, Jesus, pizza, chicken, please, thank you, no thank you, puppy dog, Oobi (her favorite TV show), Dora (my least favorite of all her shows), Abbie, gum, phone, movie, cup, bottle, ahya (for Aunt Lauren), Tah (for Uncle Todd), Addie, Tee (Thomas), Steben (Stephen), book, Bible, spoon, nastics (Gymnastics), Pa-paw, no mam, open, eat, and probably some more words that I will think of later. She loves to eat! She now will eat anything we put in front of her as long as we let her think she's picking it. She is warming up to her dad more and more everyday and everytime the dog barks she says, "Daddy?" wondering if he has come home from work yet. Her favorite thing to do with her daddy is riding the tractor and she gets to do that a lot with 12 acres of grass to cut! She has also become very interested in playing baby. She likes for me to hold her like a baby and play like I'm giving her a bottle and she talks "baby talk". She'll randomly look at me throughout the day and point to herself and say "baby". Then she'll point to me and say "mama". Of course, I say " that's right your the baby and I'm your mama". I love it!!! My most favorite time in the world with Grace is in the morning. This is the time that she lets me love on her. Every morning she climbs in the bed with me and we snuggle. Oh she will let me love on her and sqeeze her to death! That's also when she tries to talk to me because she will look me in the eye and try her hardest to tell me her heart. I treasure those moments with her! We still struggle with some things ( mainly that fowl temper of hers!), but overall we cannot complain! Enjoy these pictures!!!

We Thought We'd Seen It All...

Much to our surprise she loved it!

Grace first trying the asparagus Okay you know how you try to get your kids to eat wierd things so you can see them make funny faces? We'll we tried that recently with grilled asparagus that had been marinated in seasoning salt and Dale's. Needless to say it back fired on us and she loved it! We hope she continues to eat "wierd" stuff like this for years to come!

Eye Update!

Grace loves sitting in the big chair! This looking over the top of her glasses is something new! She especially loves to do this when she is upset with me about something!

We recently went back to Callahan Institute in Birmingham to see Dr. Cogan again. Grace has had her glasses three months now. Dr. Cogan was very pleased with her progress and said that she is already using her left 100% more than what she was! We see him again in six months for another re-check to get new lenses!

While the Boys are Away the Girls Will Play!

The finished product! Doesn't Grace look thrilled?

Putting the bear's clothes on

Giving her bear a bath

Grace and Uncle Todd

Rubbing her bear's heart on her head so that she will be smart!

Grace and Travis

Jay at the Rain Forest Cafe Recently, my husband and his brother went hog hunting for the weekend in South Georgia. We love for them to have hobbies like that because it usually involves them giving us money to take the kids and go shopping! This time was no different! We loaded the kids in the SUV and headed to Opry Mills to go to Build A Bear, eat at Rain Forest Cafe, and do some spring shopping for the kids. I was a little bit worried about how Grace would react at the Rain Forest Cafe. She loved the butterflies and the aquariums but was not at all happy with the gorillas! Uncle Todd met us at Build A Bear and we had a great time!

Fun Days...

Joseph, Grace, Rachelle, and Jorday (in back) at our play date at the park!

Whit and Grace riding the carousel Some of our favorite things to do are to go out to lunch with Whitney and go to the park with our cousins! Whitney are her husband Larry are finally DTC!!! We can't wait for them to go get Elizabeth Grace! We eat with Whitney atleast twice a week and try to go to the park every chance we get!

Just a swingen...

Grace loves to swing!

Stocking the pond...

Helping daddy with the fish

Grace couldn't wait to get the fish out of the bag!

Petting the fish

Feeding the fish

Molly is trying to decide if she wants to snap at the fish!

Trying to find the fish!

Recently we bought 200 little catfish and put them in our pond. We also bought a few other ones, but being the girl that I am I don't remember what they were called. Grace loved the fish! She wanted to hold them immediately, but I didn't quite want her too!

Happy (and very late!) Chinese New Year!

All the beautiful girls (minus Katie Lin and Addie) with their siblings!

Our forever family!

Grace and Addie! They look like their up to something!

Grace holding her red envelope. It is customary for parents in China to give their children red envelopes filled with money on Chinese New Year.

Grace and Brooke

Grace, Katie Lin, and Mr. Jeff

This is what was left of Grace's Chinese Yo-Yo. She didn't quite understand how to use it!

Baby Dedication...

Me, Grace, and her daddy on her dedication day!

Some of these next few posts are very old so just bear with me! Between having a very active two year old, gymnastics, preschool on Tuesday and Wednesday, church on Wednesday night, keeping up our house, trying to sell our house, and me being in grad school, there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day! Grace's baby dedication was on February 18th which just happened to be Chinese New Year. The verse we chose to read for that day has been a theme for us since before we even had Grace's picture! We read Ephesians 1:5 which says, "For we were predestined for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which his has blessed us." For me the physical act of our adoption of Grace is the perfect picture of how God adopts us into his on family. Grace had no name, no father, no inheritance, and no hope. Now here she is with her forever family! She has a new name, a father, an inheritance, and hope. It is the same with us before we were adopted into our eternal family. We had no name, no father, no inheritance, and no hope. Praise God that he has given us a new name, a heavenly father, an eternal inheritance, and an everlasting hope! This is the only picture I have of this day. Lots of video tape! My sister took some pictures on her camera so I promise to post them when I get them!