Summertime!

The girls hopped in the pool for the first time tonight! Of course, it was too cold for me, so I took pictures!



We also recently went to the Mayfield Dairy and enjoyed some yummy ice cream! We sure look good in our hairnets!

All American Ally, Lauren, and Sara

We have enjoyed our first weekend of summer - no school, no work, just fun! Today we ventured out to the big Memorial Day Parade in Dacula. It was HOT and we all got a little sun! Ally really enjoyed collecting the candy in the parade. She ended up with quite a collection. She got so sweaty! She enjoyed the horses the most.

Sara and Lauren have taught Ally several songs that she continually requests, especially in the car. Her favorites include, "Jesus Loves Me" (called "Bible"), "I'm a Little Teapot" (called "teapot"), "Picking up a Baby BumbleBee" ("Bumblebee"), and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" ("Spider"). The funniest is when we say "Teapot", Ally will pose like the teapot!

We went out to Kohls to do a little summer shopping on Saturday while Daddy was at graduation. We make Ally "hold a hand" (anyone's hand) while we cross into any road or parking lot. She knows that this is the routine, and everytime we say the same thing, "hold a hand". As we left Kohls and Ally stepped off the curb, she immediately held her own hand. We, as usual, said "hold a hand, Ally". She looked up at Lauren and said, "Ally hold a hand"! She was very determined to continue crossing the road holding her own hand! She didn't win that one...

How Fragile a Moment Is...

I cannot believe that today's "Oprah" is featuring how to heal after a tragic accident. They are featuring a grandma that accidentally ran over her grandson with her SUV. How timely, considering what happened yesterday. The doctor that was on the show, said that we all do things in the car without thinking -- cell phones, radio, texting, eating, breaking up fights in the back seat, looking at directions, etc. that could so easily turn tragic. I am going to make an effort to be more careful. She also said that forgiving yourself is essentially never possible in a situation like that. God will forgive and other people will forgive, but I don't think I could EVER get past this. Please pray for Will Chapman. My heart goes out to him so very much as he begins to deal with this tragedy.

A Sad, Sad Day...

I'm just so heartbroken for the Chapman Family. Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter, Maria (of 3 he and wife adopted from China) was accidentally run over by her big brother last night in TN. She did not live. I just can't stop crying for this precious family (their son especially), who has had such a profound influence on our family and so many others in the adoption world. His ministry was so infulential in our decision to adopt Ally; and in our decision to return to China for Alaina. Click here for the news story on Maria. Also, click here to listen to Steven Curtis Chapman sing "Cinderella", a song he recently wrote to remind himself of the precious minutes he has with his children. And here he is explaining the meaning behind the song...

Also, this was on the front page of Yahoo today. The earthquake has left over 4000 children in China without parents... Could one of them need you?

Paperchasing & Earthquake

Boy, had I forgotten how challenging this is! A lot has changed since we started our paperwork for Ally in Aug 2005. It seems even more difficult this time around because of the new requirements for Immigration. I'm frustrated. I just hope we can get all of this "appoved" in time. I'm a little nervous.

As for the horrible earthquake, I did hear that Ally's orphanage had been evacuated, but Ellen (Frannie's mom) said that they had been able to go back in the building. Can you imagine evacuating an orphanage to an outside location (I'm guessing their playground, since it was fenced) for a few days and nights? All those LITTLE babies and children and not enough nannies to corrale them? I have heard of no problems in Alaina's city. I cannot imagine what the people affected are going through. I have a very different perspective while watching the news reports of a disaster so far away from us, now that we have been to China -- again, our hearts changed there; we will always be thankful to China! We hate to see anyone suffer and loose so much.

If you would like to see a report, jump over to EllaKate's blog. Thanks Sharon for posting. There are no words...

If You Like the New "Look"

Contact my brilliant web-designer buddy, Jennifer (link to the left or click her name). For a very "bargain" rate she can make your blog "fancy" too! She did this just based on our blog's name and made a few alterations that I requested. She is talented and fast! Check out her site (she too is an adoptive mommy to Gabe - his blog's link is on the left).

Also, here is a really sweet little video that was a Pearle Vision commercial. How true -- take a look. After the little faux-pas by NBC and Teleflora, calling adoptive moms "non-moms", it's nice to see a company "honoring" moms!

Her Name will be Alaina

And we will likely call her Lain. We will also keep the Chinese part of her name as her middle name, since that is what she is used to being called. Like I said in our "first" post, we cannot post her pic yet; nor can we post her Chinese name or her province.

Thankfully, she is not in the province where the earthquake hit yesterday, but she is in a neighboring province. In fact, Ally's province of Shaanxi is just above the center of the quake. Alaina's is south of the center. If you want to try to figure that out, that is fine!

Thank you so much for the emails and comments. It means so much to us to have such supportive friends and family. I go from feeling excited to nervous to down-right scared. From what I gather, from other families, this is fairly normal.

We enjoyed our Mother's Day at my mom's house. She wasn't feeling very well, so we did some "work" for her - outside cleaning, etc. Beautiful weather. Here is a picture of Ally reading books with Mema. Ally likes to point to my mom's white hair!



So, on this Mother's Day (one day late) we are thankful for another mom that made the difficult decision to give her little girl a life. It happened on a January day/night in 2003 when Alaina was born. From her info, there is no note or anything.