Wonderful Christmas

Here is a short list!

20th - Did some running around with S and L and some last minute shopping and cooking. We hosted an "impromptu" 3rd Friday get-together. Glad to have Fannie and family and Shelby and family join us for some snacking and hanging out!

23rd - Chruch service and SS lesson that reminded me of what we were celebrating. To think of how Mary felt - holding baby Jesus - looking into the face of God himself!

Christmas Eve - Attended church with Mema, Aunt Amy and Uncle Ted, Susan and Madison, and our friends the Hills. All came over for dinner afterwards. Lasagna and the company was great! Ally sat thru "big church" pretty well! It was a beautiful service to celebrate the birth of Christ!

Christmas Day - We woke up about 7'ish and opened stockings. Ally had no idea what was in "store" as we went down to the basement! She soon found out and learned all about opening presents.

26th - Big sisters "baby sat" in their sleep while mommy and daddy hit the mall early for a few sales. After lunch, we hopped in the car and headed to mema's house. Aunt E and Uncle Paul came that night. E and I added a few "special" ornaments to mema's tree.

27th - Ally met Becca! Angie and Victor came over in the morning to visit with their China doll, Becca. It was so cute to see them together! Angie and I still laugh at how everyone who knew us in high school would think we planned this whole thing! Around noon, we had a delicious traditional dinner with the rest of the family. Of course, more gift opening followed that! About 4 PM we hit the road and made it to southern Virginia and stopped for the night in a hotel about 11:30 PM.

28th - Drove the rest of the way to NE Ohio (Grandma's house). Ally did remarkably well on the trip - not much crying or whining. We enjoyed seeing everyone up there and they enjoyed seeing Ally for the first time. She played really well with ALL of her little cousins!

31st - TODAY - We drove the ENTIRE way home today (lots of little stops). We left Ohio at 5:40 AM and got home at 7:30 PM. We really had no intention of driving the enitre trip in one day, but the girls (all of them) were doing so well, that we thought we'd give it a try! So we are home! Ally was glad to get back and play with her new kitchen. SHe went to bed about 8:30, and daddy followed suit around 9:30 or 10. The big girls and I are up (trying to tidy up a little - well, I am at least!). They want to watch the "ball drop" from NYC but I'd rather get to bed!

Tomorrow we are so excited to meet Sarah Beth and see the rest of the Miller family!

Fun with Friends!

Lots to catch up on (that seems to be a running theme these days). We had a blast last week with the Hill girls at the PINK PIG! We started out the evening by enjoying a great yummy meal at one of our favorites - The Cheesecake Factory! The girls (moms and daughters) all wore pink in honor of the pig.

We finally had a chance to get together with the 2 newest little girls to our group! Ally and I got to meet Shelby and Danielle. We also had a visit with Santa! It was just an amazing thing to see these 4 little girls together. Santa asked me if we were all friends before we decided to adopt, and I told him that the adoptions of these girls had brought us together. The girls were all dressed in their Christmas dresses, so they turned lots of heads as they paraded through the mall!

Sara and Lauren (and mom and dad) are looking forward to a break from school and work. Boy, are we ever!

HOPE

Click HERE to go to see a promo video for our agency. Please, please take a few moments to watch it. The girls and I make a "cameo". Its message is amazing. The countdown at the very end made me cry...

Bad Hair Day!!!

This is what happens when Doug gets bored at home with Ally. Last week he turned her upside down and sprayed her hair with hairspray. She thought it was pretty funny as well, especially when she looked in the mirror.

What a Treasure I Have

Last Friday we hosted some dear friends (and made some new ones) for a "First Friday" get-together. The best part of the night was (well, there were several) seeing the Randall Family with their new referral for Ellie! What a cute little tiny chick-a-dee. She has lots of black spikey hair! Another high point was showing our photo album of Ally's first 2 years at the orphanage to Cathy (an adoptive mom of 2 China girls and waiting for a 3rd). When she saw the book she almost instantly had tears in her eyes. She said that she had nothing like that (newborn pics, etc) for either of her girls. I began to realize what a treasure I have in that book. We have numerous pages of photos and commentary from the nannies (written by them in English).

On Sunday we hosted 2 parties for the girls' friends and their moms - our annual mom/daughter ornament swap. Since we have met so many new folks (who almost all have daughters, coincidentally) we split the party into 2 shifts. The afternoon group was the biggest with about 40 people, and the evening one was a little more cozy with about 22 folks. Both were a fun time with friends! My friend Amanda (Zi's mommy that we travelled with) joined us with her daughters Hannah and Abby. Yesterday, she emailed me about contacting an agency in China to help her take pictures of Zi's foster mom for him to have in the future. I don't know if she has many pics of Zi, for some reason, I doubt it. It makes me realize yet again, what a treasure I have in this photo album of my little China girl.

Monday afternoon, we enjoyed seeing Karen (our social worker) again for our first "post adoption placement" visit. It was as if the whole process came full circle when Karen entered our home again. Because she had been with us from the beginning, it was so nice to have her here and be able to introduce her to our little ALLY! We talked about the trip, life with a 2 year old, Ally's health and development. We talked about her heart and how we got great reports from the doctors. Ally was very well behaved, said a few words for Karen and played! It seemed as if Karen just couldn't take her eyes off of Ally. We also showed Karen our photo album prepared by Ally's orphanage. (You see where this is going) Karen said that she had worked with about 20 families that had adopted from China and in all of those, she had NEVER seen any of them have so many pictures of their child's life in the orphanage. Ironically, it drove it home again, that we not only have a treasure in the photos we have of Ally's first 23 months, but also what a treasure we have in our new little girl.

Yes, I will post pictures (camera is in the car and I'm lazy!) BTW, it was 80 degrees and sunny here today - I seriously almost put the top down - just for the heck of it!

GOOD News All Around!

Our friends, Scott and Joan, got their referral for their 2nd China girl! They waited exactly 2 years from their log in date. Katie will be a big sister in January! We are so excited to see her picture tomorrow night as they join us at our house for "First Friday"! I'm so glad we will have a real referral to celebrate! I think the Randalls are the first family from our little group (started in Aug of 2006) to get a referral (except for the few of us who went "Waiting Child"). What a great Christmas present!

Our friends, Greg and Jennifer, got some wonderful news about their son Gabriel, who is waiting in Guatemala. They are hopefully looking at a late December trip to meet him and bring him home! He is such a little cutie - spikey black hair and big brown eyes! The Guatemalan adoption program is having some challenges, and while I don't understand most of what is going on, and may be temporarily be shutting down on Jan 1, so it is such good news that they have gotten their approval!

In Ally's little world, she visited a wonderful pediatric dentist this week, after our family dentist thought she might have a cavity. She did very well and does not have a cavity - it is a stained molar. She also got a haircut last weekend and did very well for that!

Sara tried out for All-State on flute and will be attending the UGA honor band for middle schoolers tomorrow and Saturday with her friend Audrey. I hope they have fun!They went for auditions today and there were a ton of kiddos!

Some friends from several years ago moved back to the Atlanta area. We met Dennis and Mary Beth a few days after Sara was born. Their daughter, Grace, and Sara were born the same exact day and that is what lead us to begin attending the church that her daddy pastored! They moved to VA about 9 years ago, but recently returned to GA! Can't wait to see them and catch up.

Our Names - According to Ally

Daddy is DaDee
Mommy is Mom-mm
Sara is Ar-a (an improvement from Gunh Gunh)
Lauren is La Win
Ally is Ah wee

Isn't that cute?