Happy New Year!!

Less Than Wonderful...
We've been wanting to share more but unfortunately Abbey has had the stomach flu since Christmas. If there is one thing worse than the stomach flu, it's having it in the car on a road trip. It began with projectile vomiting in the car. We went to a hotel rather than our destination in order to decontaminate and not expose the rest of our family. Thankfully the hotel had a washing machine so that I could take apart the car seat and wash our clothes. The trip home was filled with screaming "tummy hurts" and this has been continuing ever since. In the midst of it all we are still enjoying being together and playing with all the fun Christmas presents. We managed to make it to the courthouse today to turn in all our readoption paperwork. We are so thankful for this year and look forward to the one to come!

More Than Wonderful!

This has to have been our best day ever. Certainly the sweetest Christmas I've ever known. More to come...

Christmas Cheer

So it's Christmas Eve day and Someone is napping. I still have some cooking and wrapping to do so this will be brief. Did you see Abbey's advent chain? At the beginning of the month it seemed like it was a million miles long. Somewhere in the midst of report cards, evaluations, and holiday events it started shrinking rapidly. When we got into the teen numbers I had a few panicky days but I called on my mom for help and managed to make it through. We are now enjoying every delicious bit of our time together. It feels so nice not to be rushing through our day and our typical rigid schedule. Abbey is so into every aspect of Christmas and has no idea about what all is coming her way tomorrow. She is just so happy and fun. We have a Mickey Mouse Christmas CD and she insists that I turn it up LOUD and fast forward through all the hymns and carols and only play Jingle Bells, Frosty, Santa Claus is Coming, and Deck the Halls ( or lalalala, as she calls it). She has not asked to open any presents and has been very happy to give them to others. I wanted to sign my Christmas cards from The Happiest Place on Earth. I always want to be sensetive to the needs of others but it's really impossible to keep all this joy inside. My heart is more full than I ever dreamed it could be and Miss Zhuozhuo feels the same. We just love singing and laughing and playing together. I say it all the time but I will say it again...Thank you God for my precious daughter.
And a very Merry Christmas to all of you who have so enriched our lives in this past year. We love our cyber-family and are very blessed by your presence in our lives.

Go Big Red!!

Not About What We Can't Do...

But About What We Can

Alive, Well, and Too Busy to Blog!

Sorry for the lapse. We are happy and are doing great, but I don't have time to write. More to come when school lets out. Wishing the very best in this season to all of you!

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Ho Ho Ho!

We had our annual Gingerbread Party today and it was a blast! Tons of kids, frosting, laughing, candy, and cookies. Abbey was so happy with the whole event. After we came home and ate lunch I let her have a little of her house. Silliness overcame her and she decided to deposit a ton of sprinkles into her diaper. She is really into sprinkles. She spotted them at the party and went and got them off another table and then shook as much as she could all over her plate. We followed up the party by a trip to see a special train display at a store and ended up meeting the best Santa I've seen. She was very shy with him but when she realized he had candy canes she overcame her fear and approached him. It was very sweet. Abbey is calling any Santa we see Ho Ho.
Today we had a great time at church with lots of Christmas songs and crafts. Later we went to our FCC Single Mom's Holiday Party and got to see one of our travel mates and her daughter from Abbey's orphanage whom we had not seen since we went to China last year, so that was very special. They've both grown so much and yet I still see the same babies in their faces from when we first met. Afterwards we went to Candy Cane Lane and got so excited about all the lights that we had to get out of our car and walk around. It was beautiful!