http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcgeasstYZA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrBg0KEaL5g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE9XnX7WRog

Mike and I have been World Vision sponsors for 17 years now. You can make a difference in the life of a child impacted by HIV/AIDS by sponsoring a HOPE child through World Vision. Here is a link to my Child Ambassador page. If you have questions, ask! I love to talk about World Vision.

http://tiny.cc/LouanneMason

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34enhrSeSv8

Silly Girls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3qCydS2u9E

Nadia’s Ad Lib Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id4aTZhRheA

Another Balloon Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVfZziPkJTQ

Just Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNHvKA4X4Ew

Four years ago we entered a sweltering hot room with 8 other families to have our lives changed forever. Babies were screaming and all of us parents, grandparents and siblings were desperately trying to pick out the new addition to our lives based on photos that were months old. We were looking at all the children and then the nanny holding Nadia pointed to me with Nadia’s hand and I could hear her saying, “Mama! Mama!” I thought I was going to faint right there.  It was agony waiting to hear our name called so we could go forward to meet her. Here is our Gotcha Day video for those who haven’t seen it (or would like to see it again).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQPvtOXRSeU

Sweet Nadia we love you so much! You are such a delight and so much fun to have around. You say the funniest stuff and so often I wish I had a permanent recording going because I can’t remember it all. You love to dance and make up songs. You love to take photos and now to also stage videos. You are eager to learn and have a memory that shocks me most days. You can be incredibly strong-willed, but I think it will serve you well later in life mixed with your sweetness. You have become such a good big sister to Amelie. You try to teach her things and I hope they are all good since she tries to imitate every single thing you do. It’s a delight when you say things like, “She just said this or that for the first time. Isn’t that great?” I love that when we told you that we would buy you a Batman and Superman t-shirt you immediately asked if Amelie could have one of each too – “so that we can match.” Right now you love all superheroes and Batman most of all. You want to fight for justice like they do; I hope that fire continues to burn in you and God uses you in an amazing way.

As I watch you grow and learn more about the world, I am so grateful that God saw fit to make you a part of our family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeTjzyNxPbI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8pp3-ktE0I

Once again we were impressed by the staff and volunteers of Scottish Rite and their love for the kiddos. They are also very efficient!

Amelie in the waiting area. Click the photo to see the entire album.

I think this is so cute.

Waiting for the nurse to come take the cast off.

Here is the video. It’s just under 6 minutes and I really made this for Amelie when she grows up. I want her to be able to see the reaction she had when it was being removed and when she first saw her hand. I hope no one gets jeebed out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ARjBqdRBo

Here I am being jeebed out at her picking the scabs off. Amelie DOES NOT like her hands to be dirty.

Sweet girl!

We couldn’t be happier or more impressed with what they accomplished at Texas Scottish Rite. They do have the best hand surgeons in the world! I was overwhelmed by emotion and gratefulness to God seeing those little fingers flex and move independently.

She has been in quite a bit of pain whenever she accidentally bangs it or puts pressure on it. The first night she would pick something up or climb on the couch then whimper, show me her hand and want a kiss. It was clearly catching her off guard that the stuff she wanted to do was causing her pain. She got used to the cast banging around and she has been carrying her arm a bit like it still has the cast, but that will fade more and more. She has no official occupational or physical therapy – she only needs to play.

We will take her in for a check up in about six weeks. Here is what we understand might happen in the future (but we don’t know any of this for sure, or when it would happen): another surgery on her left pinky finger to free it up from the base. A bone graft on the left middle finger. A touch up to the left hand fingers when she is older – plastic surgery type to make them look smoother. Also surgery on her right hand to separate the three partial fingers.

Thanks for all the many prayers and encouragement we received through all of this.

The first one is of Nadia at the Novotel Peace in Beijing. She said, “Stay at the bottom of the stairs mommy and watch my show.” It was SO FUNNY that Nadia did this in public. It’s so unlike her if people are watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHYVGKP39Ls

This is the girls playing a little game in the hotel in Ningxia. Notice that Amelie is totally silent which is how she was for the first days with us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09xltsUSfB8

Here is Nadia and the Hameloth girls on one of our sightseeing days in Guangzhou.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLosFt1_-wQ

This is from last week, about 5 weeks after Amelie joined our family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVR3bFEcUdw

Tuesday we woke up early to catch the bus to the Animal Kingdom, quite possibly the hottest and most humid place on the face of the earth that day. We had breakfast reservations for “Donald’s Safari Breakfast”. The food was very good and I enjoyed the Mickey Shaped waffles because they were so cute! Love this group shot of us!

During breakfast Mickey, Goofy and Daisy Duck came by to pose for photos and sign autographs. This place was MANIA!! It was a lot of fun to see the characters dressed up in the safari gear and we had the most fun with Goofy because he played around with the kids more.

After breakfast we headed out to get in line for the safari ride which has a pretty silly story, but the animals are neat. Nadia wore her “fari” hat for the ride.

We headed over to see the “Festival of the Lion King” show while the others went to ride the coasters. We ended up with really good seats because Nadia was on the end where the actors went in and out and they were saying hi to her and giving her high 5′s, which was really cute! The show itself was very well done and Nadia got a big kick out of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMtpjuyi1yA

After that, Mike saw that the line to see Goofy was short so we headed over there. Nadia loves Goofy and really had fun with him.

Then a man with a guitar and microphone came up and asked Nadia some questions and then made up a song about her and her Silly Bandz. It was adorable!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFqOZOuYZCw

After that we found some penny press machine for Nadia’s collection and then went to see the 4D show, “It’s Tough Being a Bug.” It was very cute, and the end was really funny for the adults and had quite a few kids screaming (or maybe that was some adult women). At that point we were done with the oppressive heat and humidity so we got on a bus to head back to our room for lunch and a nap. After our nap we met the rest of our group at the Polynesian resort for the “Spirit of Aloha Dinner”. The food was very good, especially the pineapple coconut bread and the chicken. YUM! The dinner and show takes about 2 hours and I went ahead and brought stuff for Nadia to do because I wasn’t sure what she would think. I was right and she didn’t really get interested until the end with a lot of the dancing and the fire dancer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deJH0ukNKzY

We headed back to the room for fireworks and Mike got some cool photos.

I asked Nadia what she liked best about the day and she said, “Goofy.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhbrMi8AnBw