A Busy Week but a Blessed Week!

Mercy Me

Jeremy Camp

Me and Katelyn having a great time!

Hawk Nelson

Tenth Avenue North

A Pregnant Addison Road

Thousands of People Waiting to Get In

Me and Chenecua Freezing to Death!

Katelyn, Destiny, and Dejah Goofing Around

Whew, what a week this past week was! It all started Monday night when I got home to Katelyn with the stomach flu. I then stayed home from work on Tuesday to be home with her. Wednesday she was feeling much better so we took her to the doctor to take a look at a toe that has been bothering her. Turns out it was broken! Thursday was a pretty normal day. Friday I took Katelyn to get 2 baby teeth pulled. Her "grown-up" teeth were coming in above them so we needed to get those out of the way. She has never had a filling before or anything so she was pretty freaked out. Then we had to head over to the school for Kennedi and Bradley's Talent Show. Bradley said jokes again and did a poem with his class. Kennedi did the Lord's Prayer with her class. They were great! Saturday we had the usual ice-skating lessons and then head over to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D. Then we went to my mom and Charlie's for dinner. This brings us to yesterday! We went to our normal church service at 9am then Katelyn and I headed to the Savemart Center to stand in line for the Rock and Worship Road Show staring Addison Road, Tenth Avenue North, Hawk Nelson, Jeremy Camp, and Mercy Me. We got in line at 10:30am and there were about 20 people in line. We met Katelyn's friends Dejah and Destiny and Dejah's mom Chenecua there and sat outside in line for 6 hours until the doors opened. What an awesome concert!!! If this "Road Show" ever comes to a city near you, see them! You'll be glad you did! The concert sold out to a packed crowd! They even had to take their backdrop of the set down so they could make more seats! Amazing! So many people in one place singing worship songs and prasing God! Katelyn and I were tired today but definitely worth every minute of it! Here are some pictures of the week! {HUGS}

China Day 2 and Gotcha Day

Today is our one year anniversary with Kennedi! We started the day with giving her a little gift to mark the occasion. Then tonight she and I had dinner at McDonalds (her choice) while Mark and the other two kids were at church. Then I painted her nails and she played with the new toys. She had a great day! Here's what was written a year ago:

March 17, 2008

Oh my gosh! What a day! First of all, our plane was delayed an hour and a half out of Beijing and what a crazy mess that airport is! :) So we got off the plane and went straight to get Kennedi. When she met us she began crying non-stop. I felt so bad, you don't know what to say or do. Then the guide took me to the vending machine to get her a soda and she began to warm up somewhat. She would still whimper the whole time there and in the bus back to the hotel. But once we were at the hotel, you would think we had a different girl with us! She would hold our hands and want us to pick her up and laughed with the kids. She knows so much more English than I thought she would (we have a deck of like 50 picture cards with English words and she knows almost all of them!).

Day 1 in China

March 16, 2008 (we staying in Beijing for one night before heading on to meet Kennedi):

Okay, really quick because we've been up for 25 hours and really need to sleep. We just wanted to let everyone know that we made it safely. I was sick on the plane, motion sickness I hope, still not feeling good. There was a passenger needing medical assistance, they had to put an i.v. and everything so we were delayed for an hour. That was the longest flight ever! Anyway, we are all exhausted and we have to get up to leave for Guangzhou to get Kennedi at 5:45! Please keep us in your prayers that we'll all feel rested and I'll feel better tomorrow.

Found this video of Kennedi singing Jesus Loves Me (well, kind of....she thought she'd be silly and sing it as fast as she could!). She sang it a couple weeks after we returned home from China last year. Seeing this video and hearing how strong her accent was is amazing. Now I can hardly notice her accent (although she still has one, I just don't notice it anymore). She has grown so much! We love this little girl to pieces!

Be sure to read the post below and to pause the music on the left (scroll down) before listening to Kennedi's little song!

One Year Ago Today!

Can you believe that one year ago today we boarded the plane that would take us all the way to China to become a family of 5? I know I can't believe it! How fast time flies! So I thought it would be fun over the next couple of weeks to re-post some pictures and writings of a year ago. It amazes me how much Kennedi has changed in just this short amount of time. You know, when you're with someone every day it's hard to notice the changes. Hope you enjoy taking a look back as much as we will! Have a blessed week!

March 15, 2008
Leaving around 4:30 or so and we head for San Francisco! Our flight leaves at 11:14am and arrives at 2:35pm Sunday in Beijing (which will be about 11:30pm SATURDAY night here). The families that left on Wednesday are just now getting to post on their blogs and I've heard it is kinda tricky trying to figure out the internet thing in China. So we will post as quickly as we can and if we are having problems a friend who went to China to bring home little Noelle in January will post for me until we can figure it out. So if you don't hear anything right away, we're fine, and will post soon! Thank you everyone for all of your prayers up to this point, we couldn't have done it without them!

Ice Skating and Bike Riding

The weather has been so nice here in sunny California lately. The kids have enjoyed being outside riding their bikes, especially since the time changed and now there are more hours to do so! Bike riding is one of their favorite things to do together. This past weekend Bradley decided he wanted to try riding without his training wheels and he took off all on his own. He now loves riding around with only two wheels! This past weekend we took the girls to their first "official" skating lesson. They really enjoyed it. They can't wait to buy themselves their own figure skates! Katelyn and Bradley have also decided to try the Kerman Kickers Swim Team this year and this week we signed them up for that. Practice starts in another couple of weeks and meets run through July every weekend so we'll be busy, busy, busy. I swam for the Kerman Kickers, ummmm well, like 18 years ago or something! That's how long they have been around! It should be fun! A year ago this Sunday we were boarding the plane to China! Can you believe it has been a year?? That is crazy to me! So over the next few days I will be re-posting some posts from a year ago for you all to remember. Love to you all!

Kids and Blogging

So, yesterday I came to the conclusion that I need to try to blog more. This blog is really a scrapbook or photo album of our lives. Something my children will (and better!) cherish when they are older. I love to scrapbook but honestly have zero time to pull everything out, decide how I want things laid out, cut things out, glue things on, etc., etc., etc... So I have decided that I have to try my hardest to get on here once again more often to at least write about the happenings around this home more often. I have started making our China blog into a actual book for the kids to have and plan to do that with this blog as well. So here I am! So last week my adoption friend, the first one I met during our adoption process, Tonya from Maine announced that they are answering the call from God once again to adopt a child. They are actully heading to Nepal this time and adopting a boy! I am so thrilled for them! To read about how they came to their decision on Nepal, you can visit their blog by clicking here
There are three other families that I have come to know during our adoption that are on their next adoption (one traveled to China when we did and one is Nicholas' mom and dad!) and I am so excited for them! Oh to be in their shoes again! :)
On the home-front.... This past weekend we took Kennedi for her first ice skating lesson. I knew she loved roller skating and was really good at it so I thought this would be great for her. She has a hard time trying new things, always thinks she can't do it. So, she LOVED it! We actually ended up letting all the kids try because the first lesson was free and they were there with us so why not! Well, they all loved it! I think Katelyn is going to join in on the lessons and Bradley's still trying to decide what he wants to do (he'd like to try golf and wants guitar lessons). You'll see some pictures below. Also, today was Book Character Dress Up Day for Kerman Christian School for Dr. Seuss' Birthday and Kennedi was Angelina Ballerina and Bradley was Indiana Jones. They looked so cute! AND today, Kennedi went back to the surgeon to have the rest of her bandages removed! Poor thing, this really hurt, probably more tramatic for her than the surgery was! But she is all done. You'll see a picture below of her new lip. It's still swollen and red but it is doing great!