Lexi modeling skirts I made for Tanya and Deanna

Eye Candy 3/27/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Eye Candy for my family in Cali!
See you in 5 days!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Montage 3/22/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Spring Break March 2010

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Spring Break

We had a wonderful week with all the kids off from school. We spent lots of time in the hot tub, shopping, at the zoo and just enjoying this beautiful weather. We have had temperatures in the 70's and even 80's! Lexi has an appontment with the Orthopedic Surgeon on Friday. Once he determines that her feet have no structural issues then he will send us off to the regular Ortho so we can begin whatever method of correction she will need. I am posting a photo montage from the week as well as some short video of my baby girls feet in action. They may be silly feet, but they are the cutest most precious silly feet on the planet. God made no mistakes on this little peanut, she is exactly as she was made to be..Perfect!

Day2walking

Big Sister Quincie came over to see her baby sister walk. Lexi was very proud to show her. Well and she was excited about more m-n-m's as well. We love how our daughter makes such an effort to miss nothing in her sister's growing up and stops by all the time to see her baby sis. Quincie got her first apartment a few weeks ago and we could not be more proud of her. Here are some highlights from Lexi's second day of walking. By evening (the one in her jammies) she was so done showing us she can walk on command that she just stood there clapping for herself!! So cute!

Look Who's Walking!!

On Wednesday night Lexi decided she was ready to try a few steps. And when we flashed few colorful m~n~m's, she moved a little quicker!! Now if we could just hurry and get her little feet fixed!
Oh and we had baby visitors so excuse the background noise :)

Welcome Home Sienna

While were in China, after returning to Guangzhou for the second time time, we had a conversation with our son on skype. He said "Mommy, there's another family from church in China now getting their daughter." I have been with FCC for our entire wait and have attended all the events, met people and so on. There was nobody even close to traveling to get their child. So he had to have been mistaken :)

That same day I heard voices in the playroom at the Dolton hotel, I stuck my head in and saw several families. I stepped out of my shy box and said, "Is anyone here from Arizona?" A woman immediately looked up and with a puzzled look on her face, said yes. I asked if she was from Gilbert? She said yes again. I asked if she went to Mission Community Church? She said yes!!!!

It was at that moment that even more peace came over me. God had provided for us once again. We had someone to grasp on to, to share our concerns with. Someone else to lift us in prayer and advocate for us so that we could quickly get back to Guangzhou, get an earlier consolate appointment and get back to the US before hitting one month in China. We missed our kids, we missed our home, we missed our bed. They helped to break that time up. They shared their story with us as well. They were adopting a little girl who had been sponsored by Dianna of 1daimond1ruby1pearl. Dianna had hoped to adopt the little girl she had grown to fall in love with while she was her sponsor. Jill and Ralph were already in love with the little girl they had agreed to adopt. And so sorrow turned to joy when Dianna found her daughter Sienna and found out that Sienna was best friends and next door neighbors in foster care with.... you guessed it, the little girl she had sponsored!!

When we got home we checked out Pearl Rivers Blog for the first time. What an amazing organization! And in doing so we noticed that the little girl on the top right of the header looked just like a little girl (Katie Mei) adopted in our first travel group (yes we went through 3 travel groups during that long trip!) I went back to some October posts and found a post on the little girl and it said she was going home to her forever family and it gave her birthdate which also matched perfectly with the little girl in our travel group. I told Jill about it and and she said that Dianna had also sponsored that little girl!!!! Could this red thread get any more amazing!! I contacted Jacob, Katie's daddy and told him what I had found. He couldn't believe it!

So needless to say we have been following the Journey to Sienna Grace ever since. And TODAY she made it home sweet home to MN to meet her little sister Ruby and begin her new life in this beautiful family! Last weekend we got together with Jill and Ralph and all their kids to take this picture. Jill's kids made this awesome banner! We only had 2 of our kiddo's in the photo, our youngest and oldest.

Welcome Home Sienna! We have prayed for you and our prayers have been answered.

Love from Arizona! Can't wait to meet you all some day when you visit Arizona.

Mary

Sick Again

Well Little Miss Baby Cakes has been sick sick sick since last Friday. We are having a quiet week and she is doing much better. Can you believe she had Strep! She is finally eating a little today but I think she has given up the bottle. Yep, my doctor wanted me to keep her on it a while longer but she rejected it so much while it hurt to suck and swallow that now she is not wanting it at all. I am worried that I won't be able to get enough calories in her each day. She is a great eater meaning she will try anything but she doesnt eat large amounts. And she likes very low calorie things like veggies and soups. I am pushing cows milk, goats milk, formula, almond milk, just trying to get her to love one of them. She doesn't like anything cold so it's a little tricky. I think she is siding with the cow's milk and the almond milk. But still only taking a few ounces a day! She is back down to 16 pounds so I am spending my whole day just trying to stick food or milk in her mouth. Her throat should be feeling much better by Friday and I can not wait! I feel so bad for her. She makes the saddest face every time she swallows. We had physical therapy today with our new PT and she agreed that Lexi's feet should be seen by an Ortho. I don't remember if I have ever posted about her feet. We noticed that she has a great turn out when she began standing but her toes also fan way out. So her feet go outward as well as her toes and she puts every ounce of her weight on just the insides of her feet. It has got to be uncomfortable and it can not be good for her ankles either. So we are going to get a referral to go see an orthopedic doctor and perhaps get inserts for her shoes or special shoes. Darn!! All those 20 some odd pairs of shoes I have been waiting for her tiny size 2 feet to fit in to and we have to wear special ones??? Ahh man! Oh well, could be worse!
On a final note, Socks are done! If you won please privately email me your address.
Mary

Happy Birthday Bryan

On March 3rd, a *few* decades back, the baby that would grow up to be my soul mate, was born. We lived just a mile from eachother growing up and even went to the same school for many years but we never met. Then, in High School, we met (I saw him first) and we became the best of friends. Bryan you are the most amazing husband and father on the planet. You are my Best Friend, you make my heart skip a beat when I think of you and our LoVe. Thank you for being every bit of the man God created you to be, and for always going the extra mile for Him. I love you, I love that every day is just Fun in our house! I love the chaos and the running and the noise and the laughter but what I especially love is that the day always ends with just you and me, side by side, still madly in love after all these years. Happy Birthday My Love!
Mary

A very special visit.

Auntie Kim came to visit from Northern California last weekend and it was such a treat! We had a lot of down time just visiting and enjoying eachother. The kids didn't have quite as much going on as normal so we actually got in some really good R&R. My sister is an amazing woman that anyone would be proud to just know, more less be sisters with. Lexi you are such a lucky girl to have an Auntie Kim!