Merry Christmas 2013!

First look at all gifts Santa delivered....most excited about new kitchen.

Summer 2013

And yet another cruise!

There are no words....

to adequately describe what it's like to have Lily in our lives. Because I am so caught up in the "living" of the moments, I have been a terrible "recorder" of our events. The following pictures are just a sampling of how much Lily has grown-enjoy!

Finally made friends with Samantha

Wished my mom a happy birthday

Got taller and taller

Happy Halloween!

It's been a long time...

Since I posted! Funny how time seems to fly when a two year old is in the picture. We've been busy-vacationing, potty training-singing and dancing. These pictures are from a family cruise we went on in July-fun was had by all.

Spring Break

Last week we went on Lily's first cruise for Spring break. It was so much fun-everything was new and exciting for Lily. As is the norm on cruises: she ate-A Lot!

She enjoyed the sun!
The decks were her playground
She wore the proper maritime attire
and even dressed up for Captain's Night
I was worried that it'd be too much for her, but she was wonderful. We can't wait for our next cruise!

On February 4th we celebrated one year of being home from China with Lily. So much has changed in one year. Miss Lily is a happy, spirited, sweet (loves to give random kisses) little girl who has adjusted beautifully into our family. She's grown so much she's hardly recognizable. We too are very different than we were a year ago-for one thing sleep is a precious commodity!

We decided to spend the day at Downtown Disney. She had such a great time that we are making plans to celebrate her second birthday in the Magic Kingdom.

Looking forward to this next year!

365 days ago....

You were handed to me in a hotel conference room. I was scared, nervous, and anxious-the same feelings I had when I was delivering your brother and sister. How incredible that you came into our lives! What did we do to be so blessed? You've added joy, richness, and love to our family each and every day. I look forward to the many years of being your Mom.
I love you Lily!

Happy New Year!

This is my Christmas dress-I sure was a cute candy cane....

My cousin M is my favorite friend ;-)
As soon as my mom learns how to use blogger she'll be a able to put the pictures in chronological order! This was my first Christmas morning! So many toys...
My favorite toy-a play kitchen. I think my mom is hoping I like to cook.

A Year Ago...

I saw your face for the first time and fell in love.
What a difference a year makes! I love you even more today. You are all mine (We won't tell Dad about this-he thinks you are all his ;-).

November!

Love my antennas

Mom was squatting so she squatted....

I love to play the piano-and am quite good actually....

This is my rendition of Mozart's 40th

As close to a smile as I could capture-you can't see her dimples here

Hard to believe that we are very quickly approaching our referral one year anniversary. Really does seem like yesterday that I saw Lily's face for the very first time! I've included some of the latest pics of our little dynamo-as usual-they are blurry or she's looking away. The moment she sees the camera she's all over the place or imitating my stance so it's hard to get a good pic. Maybe I need a new camera? Hmm going to look into this....

Enjoy our Halloween/November pictures.

xoxo

Fall Update

I guess I can't really call it Fall since I live in So. Florida and it is still very very HOT! Lily has really blossomed into quite the beautiful flower. She is so incredibly cute and smart-no motherly bias of course. Lily loves to run and climb-such a difference from that little baby girl that couldn't even sit up without help from pillows! So many told me that she would catch up-but I will confess-at the time I didn't really believe it. Those were some dark moments. I feel very blessed that she is in my life. As you have seen, I have not been on the blog much - I'll confess that I HAVE NO TIME! From the moment I get home from school until she goes to sleep, Lily and I are attached at the hip. I've never really had that kind of attention from anybody-not even my two older children. Sleep is still a work in progress for us-she had been doing well in this department, but double ear infections and teething have added dark circles under mom's eyes. Even during the worse nights, I thought to myself: this time is so fleeting.....enjoy while I can.

I'll try to post more often as I would like this to be a record for Lily of her early years with us as a family. These pictures are some of the latest ones I've taken of Lily. Once again, they are blurry-I can't seem to get her to stop moving long enough for me to take her picture.

Happy 4th of July

My mom and Lily on the 4th of July-she's looking like such a big girl.

This Saturday we Baptized Lily.

It was a wonderful day for me-my three children were home, sleeping under the SAME roof. This is a rarity as the older ones are off living their own lives. I was lucky enough to have my school's priest perform the ceremony for us. He made it very personal and unique. The above picture is just after the ceremony-DH and I with Lily and the Godparents.

4 Months ago...

today Lily was handed over to me with very little ceremony-yet what a moment! I realize that I've never written about the day because once Lily came into our lives things happened very very quickly and I never had time to write. I'll try to add some details as the days go by-

We had been in Hong Kong for about 3 days before flying to Nanchang to meet the babies. DH and I knew how hard it was to function while dealing with jet-lag, so we wanted to adjust before meeting the baby. We love Hong Kong! It is one of the most fabulous places in the world-we tried to visit old haunts and meet up with friends. Mostly I tried to rest and sleep as I knew that sleep would be hard to get once we had the baby. Our agency had told us that we would be meeting Lily on Monday, January 25 therefore we arrived in Nanchang on Sunday. We were not taking any chances of having something go awry. The flight was a good one-smooth and only about 2 hours long. (I am a terrible flyer) When we arrived at Nanchang airport, our guide had some news-we would be meeting Lily that day! at 4pm. Needless to say, DH and I were excited and scared! I think this is the moment that it became real to me. At 4pm we went to a conference room where we met two other families. Shortly thereafter the orphanage directors began handing over the babies to the families one at a time. DH and I were last-I knew when the director came to the door with the baby that it was Lily-but she looked sooo different! We were expecting a bald little girl-Lily had a full head of black hair! She was so gorgeous. She was handed to me very nonchalantly-and she just looked at me. There were no tears (those came later). What a terrifying moment for me-as I look back now I realize that I felt exactly the same way when I gave birth to my two older children! We tried to get information about Lily from the director, but it quickly became evident to me that what we were hearing was pretty generic and we would have to figure it out for ourselves.

Here are some pics from the "gotcha" moment.

As promised! I am soooo proud!

First Steps....

LITERALLY!

Lily took her first steps today at the physical therapist's office. Her therapist and I were just expecting her to stand in place during today's visit when......she took off! It was incredible! I have a small video clip of her subsequent walking during today's visit but I haven't loaded it into the computer yet-I will one of these years when I have some extra time. I'm so proud and astounded at the progress Lily has made in such a short period of time. She has gone from not being able to lift her head while on her tummy to WALKING!

Once again I am saying that I will be updating soon...

L

It's been three months...

...since we first held Lily. It is incredible how quickly time has passed-although it doesn't seem to go fast at 3 am! Lily looks like a different baby-she crawls all over the house and is walking as she holds on to furniture. She has gone from screaming because I was bathing her to screaming to be let in the tub. She now loves playing with water. She is adjusting so well to her home-I'll let the pictures tell the story.