Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Walking Along



Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.


Deut.11:18-19

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Plans

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future".

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Life Lessons

Our church held a family party type thing on Friday night to wrap up Vacation Bible School. The children sang songs, we had a guest speaker and then we topped off the evening with hot dogs, chips & cookies. We were in line with the kiddos and when Emma was handed a hot dog, Brian asked her "What do you say?". Emma's reply - "I like hot dogs".

What an answer ... we'll just have to work on the expected "Thank You"!

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Fashion Disaster


Okay, this is what happens when Ryan & Emma play together. I call it a "Fashion Disaster", Ryan calls it a "Doctor, Basketball Player, Cowgirl, wild girl" outfit.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Children

All children come from God,
for some the journey home
just takes a little longer.


--Unknown

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Another LizzieLoo specialty


I certainly hope no one is tired of seeing the pictures taken by Elizabeth, I'm not even close to being tired of posting them :-)

Monday, July 16, 2007

friends



Adam & Ryan



Emma enjoying the YUMMY cake and enjoying having Kristie's attention

What would we do without friendships in our lives? Brian & I both have been amazed at our friendly and open the people are here in Kentucky. Besides the numerous friendships we have made through church, our neighborhood and Ryan's activities, we've also had the blessing of making many friendships throughout the adoption process.

Saturday evening we had dinner with a couple we met last summer that are about a month ahead of us in the wait for our next adoption. They have two boys, Adam and Alex that are so incredibly sweet with Emma and have to be the most patient two children I've ever met in my life. Emma has really taken to both of them (well, she's taken to the parents too), but she really enjoys the attention she gets from Adam and Alex. It seems though that she will favor one for a while and then the other for another period of time. After dinner was over they all played on the trampoline, swings, etc and we heard hardly a peep out of her because she was having so much fun with them. She was however right in the middle of the grownups when the cake came out!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

More "Moments"



I've looked at these pictures countless times and am in just awe as to how Elizabeth caught some of the sweetest moments between Ryan & Emma. If I ever make it to the wealthy level, I'll just have to hire Elizabeth at least once a week!

Friday, July 13, 2007

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Pictures taken in May


We had Ryan & Emma's pictures taken back in May & at the time I had posted a link to the photographers blog. Today she sent me a link to download websized versions of the ones we ordered. This one has to be the sweetest one of all, even though you can't see Emma's face.

Fun Stuff & Summertime Rest

Brian happened upon a fun website the other day

http://www.flash-gear.com/index.php?a

It allows you to use one of your pictures and then do fun stuff with it such as make the eyes move, make a puzzle out of the picture and such. The one that he & Ryan had the most fun with was the option for "goo" that distorts the image and makes it gooey looking. I wasn't downstairs while they played with that feature but I swear you could have heard them laughing half way down the street. Earlier he had taken a close up picture of Emma and used the "eyes" option such that they would follow the mouse movement. The laughter began when he would point the mouse to her nose and her little eyes would become crossed.

The unbelievable thing though is that we were actually home doing nothing and had time to play with something like that! Baseball season is over, Brian has rotated off the deacon board at church and we've actually even gone a few days at a time where we were home in the evenings. WOOHOO. Every night Emma asks me "where are we going pomorrow" (yes, that's a p in place of the t). She's so used to us being on the "go" that she almost acts like she doesn't believe me when I tell her we're going home after work. She'll follow that up with "no, where are we going AFTER we come home"! Fall baseball signups have started, just not sure when the season starts but I'm sure it will be no time before we're on the go again.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Emma


The lovely & divine Miz M. These were taken at her daycare a few weeks ago.

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Water Play Day




The Children's Center at YUM has a "Water Play Day" on Thursday's during the summer. Emma loves playing outside with her little friends and also really enjoys getting to wear her swimsuit. It seems as though she has loved water since the day she was placed in our arms.

Her best buddy these days is a little boy named Jack. From what I hear, the two of them are quite a pair in daycare. Recently they were told they could not be kissing and hugging each other in class!

Puzzle Fun

http://six.flash-gear.com/npuz/puz.php?c=v&id=2340842&k=74397978

Friday, July 6, 2007

1 year anniversary of being logged in


Today marks the one year anniversary of our documents being logged into the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs. This just so happens to coincide with this month's referrals, which cover through 11/14/2005. At one point I really thought it could be feasible for us to be back in China possibly in late 2008, but I'm beginning to thing that was probably too optimistic.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

CCAA Update


The CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) has updated their website with information stating that they have completed the review of documents sent through May 31, 2006. Our documents were sent in late June of 2006 but were not officially logged in until July 6, 2006. Almost 1 year ago! Even though we still have a long wait ahead of us, I'm finally feeling as though we're making some progress.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Emma's First Movie



Ryan & I took Emma to see her very first movie on Monday night. Ratatouille. Until then, she had not even watched a movie at home either, although we tried watching Finding Nemo one time and she just didn't seem interested. She did fairly well with the movie, until her popcorn ran out! She ended up in my lap at some point and would bury her little head in my chest and tell me she wanted to go home when the bad guy was shown up close.

Ryan & I enjoyed the movie, even though he had declared not too long ago that he was too old for animated movies. Uh-hmmm.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Red, White & Blue




July 1, 2007

Here's a couple of pictures I took of the kids on Sunday right before we left for Church. Emma wore the same dress last year although it was a little big on her then. I went back through my pictures & was able to find one that I took similar picture last year. In some ways it seems like she has changed a lot in the last year, but then I look at these and think that maybe she hasn't changed that much after all.


4th of July 2006

Monday, July 2, 2007

Take me out to the ballgame ...



We took Ryan & Emma to a Bats baseball game on Saturday evening. It was PERFECT ballgame weather and it was Emma's very first "non-Ryan playing" ballgame. Both of the kiddos had a great time.

The Oreo & Milk Jingle Tour had an RV setup at the entrance to the stadium. They were inviting people to sing the oreo jingle for a chance to win a trip to NYC and $10,000. We passed on the chance to sing ... but took them up on the free oreos! With free cookies involved, Emma will be asking to go to the game all the time.

Emma was quick to mimic Ryan in whatever he doing or saying. If he clapped, Emma clapped. If he yelled for a player, Emma yelled for a player. The funny thing though is that Emma is terrified of mascot type things but had quite a bit of interest in "Buddy Bat", the bat's mascot. We were behind home plate (Thank you Scott for the great tickets!) and the mascot and team workers were coming in and out close to where we sat. Emma kept a close eye on Buddy and then she would wave at him and blow him kisses. The little flirt! The one time she thought he was coming close to us though, she was in my lap in 0.00002 seconds and was crawling up me to escape.

The evening ended on another good oreo moment, more free samples after the game was over!

Sunday, July 1, 2007

Take Your Child to Work Day



YUM hosted their annual "Take Your Child to Work Day" on Friday at the main campus. I think this was Ryan's 3rd year to go. YUM really puts on a wonderful event for the children. It's so nice working for a company that seems to care about their employees and families.

The kiddos started out their day with breakfast and then went on a "belief in all people tour". The tour included a visit to the Colonel's Museum and a glimpse into some of the executive offices. The highlight of the day was the opportunity to create the next Yum! My kids meal featuring LJS and A&W food items. You never know, YUM may very well have hosted a future YUM CEO on Friday :-)

Emma & I went over and had lunch w/ Ryan at the conclusion of his day. I wanted to get a picture of the kids with the statue of Colonel Sanders, but Emma didn't want to touch him ... or him touch her. That child! She finally got close enough for me to catch a photo and then she was out of there.