5 years ago...

Today is a very special day in our house. 

Five years ago today, in Kunming, China, we were handed the most precious 16 month old baby girl!

She wasn't too sure, as she was crying, about what was going on, being handed over to perfect strangers, but we held her and hugged her and loved her without stopping and we were in love!

In the Civil Affairs Office, while we were getting to know our girl, our daughter, we were asked over and over and over, "Do you want her?"  "Yes!"  "Do you want her?" "Yes!"  "Do you want her?"  "YES, we want her!!"  How could we not? 

It has been amazing to watch how she has changed over the last five years.  From scootin' around on her bottom to walking.  From saying only a few words, to talking up a storm.  From crying every time we turned into the church parking lot to accepting Jesus, being baptized, and fiercely loving God like nobody's business!  And yet she will let you know about Jesus if you give her a minute.

We are still amazed by our beautiful little girl and we truly thank God every day for her!  We have been blessed beyond words! 

So not only will we will be celebrating her day today with cupcakes and a little gift as we do each year.  She will get to share with her friends in class at school as well.  She is very excited to say the least.  :D

Happy Gotcha Day Miss Magoo!!!!

We love you to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond, more and more each day!!

Don't forget to scroll to the bottom and pause the music player.

Easter and more...

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Don't forget to scroll down and pause the music player before watching the video.

Well I've really fallen behind on updating our blog and it seems like so much has happened since January.

March was the highlight as you can see by the video above.

Miss Magoo was baptized!  We have been talking to her about being baptized and what it meant and she was all for it!  She did say that she wanted me there with her and so that's why I'm in the background, yet in the water with her.  

Our girl is really something! (even if I do so say myself.  :D)  You see she accepted Jesus into her heart a week after her 5th birthday back in January 2011.  Miss Magoo has such a heart for the Lord!  She talks about Him throughout her day and even makes up songs to sing to Him.  It's so darn sweet!  She will talk about Him to anyone and everyone, she has no concern or worry if she should or shouldn't be doing it.  She is happiest when she is sharing about Jesus.

I have to share what she said to me after she was baptized.  "Momma, I could feel the sin just wash away."  She truly was excited to be baptized and promised to follow Jesus for the rest of her life.

I cannot wait to see what He has in store for her life!   

Oh I have one more story to share about what Miss Magoo shared with me the other day and it just gave me the goosebumps!

She said that when Elijah was trying to wake her up, he was talking to her, but God was talking to her and it was really loud, so she couldn't hear Elijah.
 

I asked her, " what did God say?"  "He said to me, love for all and never stop."  

So awesome!

Michael celebrated his first Easter with us!  I think he had a fun time dying Easter eggs and looking for them as well.  I think he was surprised by the Easter basket that he and the kids received.  Honestly, he seemed a little confused by it all.  He didn't really have much to say.

My favorite thing about their baskets this year were the solid chocolate candy with Jesus inside the fish.  I just love that we are making Easter about Jesus and what He did for us other than about the Easter bunny and toys.

I even purchased a set of Resurrection Eggs that explains what happened to Jesus and why.  Each day the kids got to open an egg (after reading from a Bible verse and part of the story in the booklet provided) to see a symbol of His crucifixion and resurrection.  They really enjoyed learning about the meaning of Easter and what Jesus did for each of us!

Tomorrow we celebrate Papa's birthday and the kids are excited!  Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!  We love you with all our hearts!  xoxoxoxoxo

January

Well here we are with another month's worth of what's happening with our family.

January started off of course with a new year and it was just that, another new year.  It's not a very exciting day in our household, either we are getting too old and don't stay up or... okay that's it, I admit it, there's nothing else that would keep us from ringing in the new year.  :D

Now the following week, we did celebrate Miss Magoo's birthday.  She turned 6 this year.  It's so hard to believe she's 6 sometimes.  I can remember the day she was handed to us in China and it seems like yesterday when that happened.

So we celebrated with a family party with cake and a couple of gifts.

We also had a little birthday party (her first one) for her at McDonald's the following week with a couple of friends from school and with daughter's of dear friends of ours that have also adopted from China.

It was an exciting day, not only for Miss Magoo, but it started snowing which ended up snowing every day for a week after that.  We ended up with a total of about 14 or 15 inches!

This was Michael's first snow since being home and he loved it!  Not sure if it was because of the snow or all the snow days and getting to stay home from school.

Miss Magoo and Mister loved it too.  They all went out an played in it for a couple of hours ever day.

Snow Angels

Catching snowflakes

Happy kids with their snowman

Too cute for words

The snow finally melted and the kids went back to school and they were so sad to see it go.

January 23rd marked the first day of the Chinese New Year and this we got excited about!  Our church celebrates with a huge celebration, with food, crafts and even performances and a Lion Dance!

This is the year of the dragon and the kids made dragon puppets and got all dressed up in their best Chinese clothes and we all had a wonderful time at church!

We had a milestone this past month as well.  Miss Magoo lost her very first tooth!  It took 2 full months from when it started to become loose before it finally came out and with a little help from Mister, he accidentally kicked her and that did the trick, her tooth came out the next day.

To say she was excited is an understatement!  Okay Momma was excited too!  I ended up finding the cutest little Tooth Fairy pillow to put her tooth in so the Tooth Fairy could leave her some money.

The Tooth Fairy wanted to do just a little more than leave a dollar bill so the TF got a $1 coin with Sacajawea on it.  When she woke up the next morning and saw the coin, she thought that was the neatest thing ever!

When I explained who was on the coin she said, "that's the Princess on the movie, Night at the Museum"  Who knew she was paying attention.  Lol :D

So happy!!

Front

Back

Well Michael continues to do well and continues to fit right in with our family.  We went and had his gait evaluated and he will have to wear a brace on his left leg (only) to help him with his walking and hopefully it will also help to keep him from falling.

We will be going back to have it properly fitted and then he has to wear it during waking hours.  It will fit up underneath his pant leg so it won't be seen.

We have also had a kink in our journey called life and God continues to take care of us!  We are so blessed and THANKFUL for our blessings that He has given us!

If you should think of it, say a little prayer for us to do God's will for our family.

Thanks so much!

Blessings and hugs!

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Merry Christmas!!

I've posted a couple of videos and if you are viewing this post on the blog, don't forget to scroll to the bottom and pause the music player.

Well to start, I need to back up just a little bit.  

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, One Happy Momma (not so much on this day, lol) slipped and fell on the porch as I was stepping out to go to church.  Sprained my entire left foot.  I know, crazy, huh?  Didn't go to the ER until Thanksgiving night to make sure it wasn't broken or fractured.  Thanks goodness it wasn't, but a sprain is just as painful, believe me.  The doc put me in a walking boot and used that for just over a week and now back in shoes, but if I'm on my feet for too long, it starts to hurt beyond belief.  But it's healing and even though it may be slowly, I can walk.  :D

And before we knew it, December was upon us and it has been one busy month here at our house!

We started the month off with going to cut down our Christmas Tree.  We got a GREAT deal and a beautiful tree.  Mind you, we usually put up an artificial tree, but this is Michael's first Christmas home and we wanted to share getting a tree with him.  Honestly, I don't think he realized the tree was coming into the house, until he saw Papa and Jacob bringing it in.  His face lit up and all's he could say was, "wow!"  Okay he also said, "cool!"  :D

Mind you it took another 2 weeks to get it decorated.  But it's done and the kids helped and we're all enjoying having the tree in the house and when it's lit at night, it's just so beautiful!

Then...

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On Sunday, the 11th, we had our first Family church service and both Miss Magoo and Mister performed.  They looked so cute all dressed up to the nines.  :D  We just love to watch the littles do things like this, they just love church so much!

Next...

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Miss Magoo has been learning all about the Christmas Story this year and she tells us the story on a regular basis.  I videoed her telling it the other night.  She really does have it down and understands exactly what it's about, Jesus' birth!  She has such a LOVE for Jesus.  She is happiest when she talks about Him throughout her day or talking to someone, to anyone else about Him.    I know He is smiling at our precious girl, ever time she mentions His name.  :D

Oh and she is so excited that she has not one, but two loose teeth!  They're right next to each other and one of them will be coming out any day now.  She is doing everything she can to loosen it up so it will come out and the tooth fairy will come and visit.  Maybe by the end of the year it will come out.  So she hopes.  :D

So these are some of the things that have kept us busy this month and Christmas is fast approaching.  Looking forward to spending time with our family and watching Michael having his first Christmas home with us.

Thanking God for sending Jesus to us!  We are blessed beyond words and oh so grateful!

Wishing all of you a wonderfully blessed Christmas!!

Our Blog

Well apparently my custom domain name expired and after working on this for almost a week to get it resolved, it doesn't look like it will be anytime soon.

So in the meantime, I have had to go back to using becauseweareled.blogspot.com

But at least the blog is back up and working again.

Now maybe I'll get posting again with some of our families activities during the Christmas season.

I am so sorry for any inconvenience.

November and Christmas Shopping

Well here we are, November already!

A few reasons why I love November.  

1.  November is the National Adoption Awareness month.  With the actual day on Nov 19th.  This year our church is having Orphan Sunday this Sunday the 6th.  Adoption will be talked about during all 4 services and there will be a lunch and breakout sessions afterwards.

2.  Veteran's Day.  This day has become more important as we have military men and women serving to protect and to keep our country free.  Also, it has touched me personally since my husband served in the Navy for 14 1/2 years and went through two wars.  The stories he has shared, just makes me even more grateful to him and everyone else that has served.  THANK YOU to all you Veteran's!

3.  Thanksgiving.  Well that is a given.  But what am I grateful.for?  First and foremost my family!  It has been my dream to have a family and even though it came later than what I thought it would, God has seen to have blessed me with one!  For that I am THANKFUL beyond words.

4.  My step-son's birthday.  He's turning the big 18!  A milestone this year and we actually have him on his birthday this year.  So looking forward to celebrating with him.

Last but certainly not least, I love November because this month seems to be when Christmas shopping kicks into gear.  So for the last couple of years we've been able to shop with a purpose.  What does that mean exactly?

There are more and more families fundraising for their adoptions to help bring their children home.  There is some really neat stuff that are up to buy and the funds spent will go towards their adoptions!  How cool is that!  Okay I have to admit, I just bought something today from my friend Joleigh to help her bring her daughter home from Eastern Europe.  It is so cool!  She actually hand knits these hats herself.  Go check it out HERE!

So I have added a button on the right hand side bar, click on it and it will take to you a blog for the families that are fundraising.  

This year, I want to teach the kids about giving for Christmas and that is donating towards the families fundraising.  After all we are still so grateful to everyone that helped by donating to bring Michael home!

So I hope that you will stop by the blog and check it out what you can shop for and help these families too!

Summer 2011

Well I am so behind on updating our blog and what has been happening since Michael came home a little over 3 months ago.

First, we celebrated our 10 year anniversary in July and had a party to celebrate and actually renewed our vows and took family vows at the same park we got married at 10 years ago.  I wore the same shoes I wore on our wedding day.  They were an eyelet tennis shoe with lace ties.  :D  We even had the same gal that made our wedding cake make our cake this time.

Pastor Gary presided over our vows and it was truly magical.  Friends and family came and we just celebrated and had a wonderful day!

We celebrated the Autumn moon festival this year at the park with other families that all have adopted from China.  It was so great to meet new people and enjoy a nice summer evening enjoying a pot luck and moon cakes and even the story behind why the moon festival is celebrated.   The kidss then had a lantern parade and the moon was out and beautiful!

 

Then came Mister's birthday.  He turned 4 on Sept 18th, he shares the same birthday as his uncle Danny that passed away 6 years ago.  I made his Hot Wheels themed cake and just celebrated Mister.  Hard to beleive he's 4 already!

Then 2 weeks later we were celebrating Michael's birthday on Sept 30th.  We now have another teenager in the house.  He turned the big 13!  He ordered a Transformer themed cake and we went to the family movie night at church and during intermission, everyone sang Hapy Birthday to Michael.  It was great that friends were able to come and be a part of his special day!

So now we are caught up and hopefully I will do better with posting things on time.  :D

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!