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Nadia has been able to say Ma and Da for a while. She clearly knows that Mike is Dada and gets excited when he gets home from work and usually says, “DA!” as she speed racer crawls for the door to have him pick her up. I know that she knows I am Mama, but she has not said it to me. When she gets upset, she often goes repeats, “ma ma ma ma” over and over.

On Saturday Mike was holding Nadia and said, “Where’s Mama?” And Nadia turned right and looked at me. Then she said, “Ma ma.” I got so excited!! Then Mike said, “Kiss Mama” and kissed me on the cheek. Then he said to Nadia, “Kiss Mama” and she leaned over and kissed me. I just started crying because I thought that my heart was going to burst right out of my chest. Then Mike said it again and she kissed me again. I cried some more - tears of joy of course. The sweet little baby open mouth sloppy kiss is just too sweet for words.

Today she has looked right at me and said, “Ma ma.” Or pointed to me and said, “Ma ma.” This has been the best birthday week EVER! Nadia “gave” me a mommy birthday card, she took her first tentative step and she said mama and gave me a kiss. God is good and has blessed me so much with the best husband and sweetest baby ever.

I am thankful for my Grammie. For years now we have had “birthday lunch” at Italiani’s to celebrate our birthdays. With Nadia being an October baby too, she was added to the mix this year.

I am thankful that Mike got me a birthday card from Nadia with a gift card inside and signed it with her “chop” name stamp from China. It was my first Mommy card and I was so excited. He left it in her crib, so I found it when I was getting her blanket to rock her back to sleep in the middle of the night. Too cute!

I am thankful that Nadia took her first tentative step on my birthday. She was holding on to me with one hand, then let go and stood for a second or two. Then she got back up and let go again, stood there and then took a step with her left foot. Then she promptly fell over.

I am thankful that all the mentors have been introduced to their kids for the KIDS HOPE USA program and starting next week, the program will be in full force with 24 members of our church mentoring in the school each week. God is good!

I am thankful for all the calls, cards and emails I got yesterday wishing me a happy birthday. I am grateful that I have such great friends and family in my life. Below is a photo I grabbed off Jacquelyn’s blog. She took this at the sip n see the night before Nadia’s baptism.

Hi all. I have been wanting to do this post for a while, but I finally had time to get all the items and photos together! I just wanted to share some photos - knowing that they don’t do the items justice - of some special and handmade gifts that Nadia has received.

The outfit above was given to Nadia by Grandma Brooke on Labor Day. It brought tears to my eyes because it’s her adoption day outfit from 40 years ago. She has no children of her own and she wanted it to stay in the family. We were truly touched by this sweet gift.

This painting was done my Louanne’s sister Aunt Tahni. The verse is so wonderful and the painting matches all the other paintings in Nadia’s room perfectly.

The blanket above was made by Grandma Linda. It should be noted that this was made after she had a 3rd stroke, so quite a lot of effort went into it, but a side benefit was that it was good rehab for her. It’s stamped cross stitch.

This blanket was given to us by The Peterman’s and made by Randy’s mom Nancy. The photo doesn’t do the color purple justice….it’s a fantastic shade.

Grammie had this blanket embroidered for Nadia. The cute thing about it is that it’s small enough for her to cart around the house with her, even when she is crawling.

Karen and Ken M. had this crib sheet made for Nadia. It’s bright white with the red lettering and matches Nadia’s room colors. What a totally cute idea!

These 2 blankets and bibs were made by Aunt Sharon’s best friend Amy in MO. The blankets are not only cute, but soft and comfy.

This TOTALLY adorable hat was made by a woman who works with Mike named Leigh. It’s the cutest thing and should keep Nadia’s head toasty this winter.

I want to say I am thankful for our country - America. Don’t roll your eyes and think it’s some kind of cheeseball patriotism thing. Today I met a woman who used to live in a communist country. As soon as communism fell about 11 years ago, her and her husband escaped the country and were able to come to America. In their home county she was a high school teacher of language and philosophy for 25 years and her husband was a Chief Plastic surgeon in a hospital helping burn victims and the like.

Now she works part time as a babysitter and part time as a cashier at a local grocery store. She would love to teach again, but English is her second language and I thought she was incredibly fluent, but it’s still a hurdle in the testing. Her husband is trying to get in the medical field here, but he has to start over and work his way up. And he is way behind in age of all the other people (you know - fresh out of medical school?). But they are happy and grateful to be here in America and call it home!! Happy to be in our country and living in FREEDOM!!!

So all those complaining people who want to talk about how bad America is need to meet some people like this lady! They haven’t had the “luxury” of always living here and the “luxury” of being able to complain about America without having their hand chopped off (or something worse). Good for them that they can complain without fear, but dang….step outside yourself a bit and look around at all the opportunities around you. Okay, I got on a soapbox here, but I am Thankful that I live in America and VERY thankful that God allows me to do things to help people in my community through KIDS HOPE and around the world through World Vision. I need these reminders of how good I have it.

Hi all! Nadia was baptized in our church on Sunday September 23rd. There were so many great photos from the weekend that I uploaded a bunch. My cousin Jen and her roommate Shawnaka drove up from Houston for the event (and they attended a Ranger game). My Aunt Paula, Uncle Roger, Grammie and Mike’s Aunt Joy and cousin Janis also attended. Our friends Arvel and Laura came, but left before we took photos. Thanks to everyone who came to share her special day. Grammie bought her dress that Mike and I picked out and Roger and Joy matched without knowing it Click on the photo above to see the whole album.

Here we are with Pastor Darwin Jordan after the baptism.

The night before Karen and Kaye hosted the ‘Sip N See’ for Nadia at the McCarty’s house. Many people from our church came to the party and they did the sweetest thing. Kaye and Karen gave everyone a slip of paper with a letter of the alphabet on it (some people got 2). Then they had to write down a prayer or a Bible verse that started with the letter they were handed. Then once everyone was done, they went around the room and read them to us. It really was the sweetest thing. My friend Jaquelyn had ‘Z’ and she started her prayer with ‘He is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end’ I was already a little choked up from the sweet things that were said, but that was a fantastic way to end the list. God is good and he brought sweet Nadia into our life. Then Kaye put the book together for us in alphabetical order and gave it to us to bring home and save for Nadia. Thanks to everyone who was a part of that….we were truly blessed by your love.

Here are some photos of Nadia playing with cousin Jen.

Jen took these photos in the car on the way home from the church. Nadia was one tired baby after all that excitement.