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The first thing I want to mention is this outfit. I bought this at the Children’s Place outlet a few days before we got Nadia’s referral. My best friend Jess was here visiting for the baby shower and we were shopping together. It now fits Nadia and so I decided to put it on her for the picnic. I teared up a little thinking about how Jess was with me when I bought it and we KNEW that we would be seeing Nadia’s face soon. Very sweet to finally see her in it. You can click the photo to see the whole slideshow.

This weekend was busy, but very fun. (We have photos from Mike’s camera, but they haven’t been uploaded yet) On Saturday morning we had our church picnic and we invited the KIDS HOPE kids. Quite a few showed up and I was able to meet some of the parents which was great. The mother of the boy I mentor brought him and his brothers and we all had a great time. I started mentoring this little boy in January 2007 and we have formed a great bond. Here we are:

 

Nadia had a great time at the picnic walking all around exploring with Mike. Lots of the little girls at church who love Nadia held her for a bit and tried to play with her, but she was more interested in checking out the leaves on the ground and riding the horse on the playground. She got tons and tons of compliments on her hat. Nadia proceeded to pass out in the car on the way home after a full day of adventures.

 

Then at 5:30 pm Grandpa Greg, Grandma Brooke and Aunt Bayli showed up for a whirlwind visit. Grammie came over and we all enjoyed watching Nadia be her entertaining self. They hadn’t seen Nadia since Thanksgiving and a lot has changed with her, especially her vocabulary. We had dinner and it was a nice peaceful night. On Sunday morning we got up and met Roger, Paula and Grammie at Bayley’s for breakfast. The Houston gang headed home right after that and we relaxed the rest of the day because it was such a long week for us. 

 

Nadia and Grandpa Greg. 

 

And the silly girl this afternoon.

 

 

So the women from my mom’s group at church decided to meet at the zoo today. (except Shawna and Edi - we missed you) We all got zoo memberships last week and decided that we needed to get right out there and use them. You can click the photo above to see the slideshow. Stephanie and her foster kids were there too, but no photos of them are allowed on the Internet, so I had to crop a few photos. Here are Elliott, Nadia and Clarity.

 

Nadia got the Little People A-Z Zoo for Christmas from Grandpa Greg and Grandma Brooke and she is a master of all those animals. Mike plays a game with her where he puts them all in the bag or in a pile on the floor and asks her, “Which one is the penguin? Which one is the tiger?” She can pick all 26 out and make sounds for quite a few of them. My attempts at catching this on video are a joke, otherwise I would post it.

 

So today was very exciting for her to ’see’ the animals. She got the most excited about the Penguins (back at the FTW zoo finally) and the zebras! When we saw the giraffe’s she said, “Neck, neck” because Mike always tells her that giraffes have a long neck. She liked watching the hippos swimming around and said, “Hippa, hippa.” I had a great time watching her get so excited about the animals and pointing to them and saying things to me. Having the membership is going to be great because we can go and stay until she is tired instead of trying to see the whole zoo in one shot.

Once the kids from various elementary schools left we practically had the zoo to ourselves which was awesome. We took the kids on the carousel and the Yellow Rose Express Train and Nadia liked both. On the carousel she kept going, “Neigh, neigh” and when the songs would end she would clap. 

 

On the train I got her to make a choo choo sounds, but then she got tired and decided to lean back and relax. We left shortly after that so she could get a nap.

  

  

Today I would like to be thankful for one thing that encompasses a lot of people. Friends!!! God has blessed me throughout my life with friends. I am grateful for all of them and for the time of my life that I had them. This week I have some friends going through some serious stuff. Serious challenges and heartaches. All of them don’t live very close to me, so I can’t just go give them a hug like I wish I could. I have done a lot of crying this week wishing I could help them. So I pray, for them and their families and all the things they are facing right now.

So if you have a friend you haven’t contacted in a while because life gets busy and WHOOSH the time flies by, give them a call. Or send them an email. Or even more unexpected…drop a handwritten note in the mail to let them know you are thinking of them.

  

Today we celebrate that Nadia has been with us 1 more day than she was without us. We have been a family for 268 days now and we can’t imagine life without her. She has gone from the tiny baby in China to a hilarious toddler who just seems to absorb knowledge like a sponge.

I think I should add that we bought this little red OINK outfit a few weeks after we were Logged Into China. Not knowing of course how long the wait was going to extend. So it seemed appropriate for her to wear it for the first time on this special day. I also added 2 more photos from this afternoon. She wanted to play with the goodies I bought for the church picnic this weekend.

Here are a couple shots from China in July.

 

 

And from today.

 

 

Honestly, could this photo BE any cuter???

 

And here she is doing her Air Guitar! Jenn - she’s ready for Rock Band!

 

Click the photo above to see the slideshow.

Tonight we attended the “Party on the Patio” to support the Child Study Center in Fort Worth. My uncle Roger is director of development for them and they do a wide variety of things to help children in Fort Worth. In addition to all the other services they provide to local children, they have an international adoption clinic. I am glad it’s there, but blessed that we haven’t needed their services because Nadia is doing so well. But I love that the option is there for adoptive families.

Their website is http://www.cscfw.org/

Tonight was their big fundraiser at Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican restaurant and Roger asked us to bring Nadia with us to be the “model” for the hand-made rocking horse. The horse was painted by the children at the C.S.C. school. We saw it last week at and thought it was the cutest thing. They had a bunch for really cool things for the silent auction and live auction. Nadia was the only child at the event and of course looked cute and got lots of attention. Which led to her giving people the “stare down” while she studied the situation. HA HA! I was glad to see how well they did at their fundraiser and it was a nice night out with the cuteness.