Happy Birthday Ivy Joy!!

Today we celebrate our Ivy Girl!

We celebrate 4 years of life and 4 years of this inspirational little bundle of joy being in this world. We shed tears of happiness as we recollect on how miraculous it is that she is here and she is doing so well. We give all the glory to God for His hand has always been on this child! We celebrate the love of a beautiful woman in China that gave birth to this most precious child and though her child was very ill, she chose to have hope! She chose life! Since Ivy was 4 months old when she was abandoned, we don't know that today is her ~actual~ day of birth. Regardless, I hope that on whatever day it is that her birth mom thinks of her birth, I hope she again chooses hope and envisions Ivy as a happy little girl who is very much alive and very very loved!!! 

A little bit about our Birthday Girl, who happens to be very very excited about turning 4 today.

Ivy is active and very busy... ALL the time!! She is happy happy happy and the most friendly child I've ever met. She loves people and she loves talking.. all the time.. to everyone! 

She is pretty bossy, mostly in a good way, and loves order people around. She has no idea that she is only 23 pounds and 33 inches of mighty little creature.

She is obsessed with her high heeled Elsa shoes. They are not really Elsa shoes but she thinks they are. She wears them all waking hours in the house and occasionally sneaks out to the grocery store in them. 

She loves her life books and will tell anyone who will listen where she is from and how she got here. She loves to look at pictures of her family and can tell quite the fabricated story about just about anything. 

She is a die hard drama queen. I mean this girl could get an Emmy for her acting ability. Give her any scenario and ask her to play the character and she nails it every single time. It is amazing. 

She is funny! I mean really really funny. People who are meeting her for the first time ask us if we ever get anything done because she really is that entertaining. 

She is tender. So tender and sweet. Has incredible empathy and compassion for people. She loves bigger than anyone I've ever known and she makes people feel special by the way she genuinely shows her love.

She can draw people in, I don't know how she does it, but the girl draws a crowd with those eyes and that sweet voice. We will have people follow us out to our car just to tell us there was something about her that just made their day.

She is an accident PRO. She could trip over a piece of rice. Especially if there is something nearby to fall on and get a black eye or a bump on her head! She is not clumsy, in fact she is very graceful and has very delicate motions, but when she falls, there always has to be something there to fall on that leaves a bright bruise or scratch. And always before the day we will be taking lots of pictures... like her make a wish trip with the big purple bruise on her head from falling on a wooden piece of play food pizza and like this new shiner, the black eye, from rolling her face on a glass bowl she was filling with money from her piggy bank. 

She has incredibly sweet relationships with her siblings and just glows when they are all home at the same time. 

         And my oh my are they ever in love with this little girl!!!

She is bossy. Oh wait, I already said that one didn't I? 
Well, it should be said twice... 

                   She is currently 23 pounds and 33 inches. 

          Her favorite princesses are Rapunzel, Anna and Elsa. 

Her favorite book is Marcy Mayer, Little Critters book, Shopping with Mom.

Her favorite song is Beautiful Day by 

Her favorite foods are buttered noodles, artichokes, zucchini, Oatmeal and chips.

                       Her favorite game is hide and go seek. 

          She loves to ride her tricycle and swing on the swings. 

She is the sparkle in our lives and our hearts and we are so blessed to celebrate 4 with our sweet girl!!!

Happy Birthday Ivy Joy! We love you all the way to China and back, forever and ever and ever!!!!