As For Me And My House

"Gigi" and "Aimee" (now Carrie and Kennedi) playing during the first day in their foster home, September 2007
The caption on this picture was that these girls love to color and they fill up both sides of the page! Kennedi definately does love to color!
Off to preschool. Look how little they look!
Making dessert!
Kennedi and Carrie (we still call her Gigi because Kennedi does so I may mention Gigi in some posts, she's the same girl) playing with their cat Dexter!
Kennedi and Gigi wearing their foster moms shoes and blowing bubbles!
Kennedi and Gigi
Making another dessert!
This is outside where they lived. They lived right next to the school so Kennedi said they had no car, they walked! Looks like a nice place to live.
This is outside the school. Kennedi said you turn to the right and there's the school. To the left is where they lived!
Decorating their Christmas tree!
Out for a fieldtrip!
On the field trip eating lunch. Doesn't Kennedi look cool in her sunglasses?
Play-Dough! Who knew they had play-dough?
Christmas morning! They were up at 6:40am ready to open gifts!
Jackpot!
Look at all those gifts!
Skates were one of their Christmas gifts. Here they're trying them out!

On Kennedi's way back to the orphanage, leaving Gigi behind.
Skating is going good!
Chinese New Year 2008


Making cookies for Christmas!

Wish I could get her to take a nap like that here!
Fun in the sun!
Kennedi and Dexter!
Bedhead!
Love these two pictures! How beautiful does our little girl look? That dress is adorable!

Silly girl still making cookies!

Kennedi having a great time in the sand in China with her foster moms and Gigi!

You'll never guess what happened yesterday! Okay, don't judge me for being like a teenager but I have a Facebook account (like MySpace for those who do not know) and I got a request from someone wanting to be my "friend". I had no clue who this person was but saw a Chinese girl as her photo on her page so I figured it had to be someone to do with adoption so I said yes to the request. I then got a note from this person saying that she has followed our blog since Gotcha day and has been praying for our family. She said to view and download as many photos and video as we could. I still had no idea what she was talking about. So I went to her page and looked around. Then remembered she talked about videos and photos. I went to her's on her page and there were tons of Kennedi and Gigi. Then I put two and two together, SHE WAS KENNEDI'S FOSTER MOM!!!! I could not believe it! I couldn't look at everything fast enough! Tears in my eyes looking at all the pictures and videos (some great videos that I can't figure out how to download from Facebook so I can have a copy)! There's a file that is titled "Goodbye Beautiful" with pictures of nothing but Kennedi! When I saw that, my heart sank for these 2 women who opened their home to these girls and treated them like their own children! They took them into their home September 2007 (a month before we knew Kennedi was our little girl) and Kennedi went back to the orphanage to wait for us March 2008. So they had them for 6 months, the same amount of time we have had Kennedi now. I can't imagine having to send her back to the orphanage. How heartbreaking that must have been. Her foster mom wrote to me that she couldn't bear to be a part of Gotcha Day because the grieving was too much but she found our blog the day after and was able to follow us in China, her first days with us, and still follows our blog today! Do we have an awesome God or what!!!! First finding Gigi and her new parents and now finding her foster parents! WOW!!!

Looking at those pictures and videos, seeing how much these women loved these girls and how much they gave them in just the short time they were with them, we are forever indebted to them. There are no words to thank them enough for all they did for Kennedi. She was obviously well taken care of and LOVED so much! They put on one of Kennedi's picture "Reserved yet a Sweetheart" and yes, those are the words I'd use to describe our daughter. Seeing these pictures and videos made Kennedi really miss Gigi and her home in China but it really helped her open up some about her life there and gave us a bigger picture into her life before becoming Kennedi Xin Mei Salvador. Thank you so much for finding me on Facebook (you know who you are) so that we could experience this. I am making books for Kennedi with all the information we can get about her life in China and this just makes the memories so much better for her.

So.... Sorry for all the many pictures. I want to share these with the world, as you can imagine! It's like getting an ultrasound picture after you've delivered a baby! :)

Praying God's Blessings on you this week; He sure blessed us!