Thankful Thursday

Today I would like to be thankful for one thing that encompasses a lot of people. Friends!!! God has blessed me throughout my life with friends. I am grateful for all of them and for the time of my life that I had them. This week I have some friends going through some serious stuff. Serious challenges and heartaches. All of them don’t live very close to me, so I can’t just go give them a hug like I wish I could. I have done a lot of crying this week wishing I could help them. So I pray, for them and their families and all the things they are facing right now.

So if you have a friend you haven’t contacted in a while because life gets busy and WHOOSH the time flies by, give them a call. Or send them an email. Or even more unexpected…drop a handwritten note in the mail to let them know you are thinking of them.

268 Days!

268 Days
268 Days (click to see album)

Today we celebrate that Nadia has been with us 1 more day than she was without us. We have been a family for 268 days now and we can’t imagine life without her. She has gone from the tiny baby in China to a hilarious toddler who just seems to absorb knowledge like a sponge.

I think I should add that we bought this little red OINK outfit a few weeks after we were Logged Into China. Not knowing of course how long the wait was going to extend. So it seemed appropriate for her to wear it for the first time on this special day. I also added 2 more photos from this afternoon. She wanted to play with the goodies I bought for the church picnic this weekend.

Here are a couple shots from China in July.

In China

In China

And from today.

268 days

Cuteness

Honestly, could this photo BE any cuter???

268 days

And here she is doing her Air Guitar! Jenn – she’s ready for Rock Band!

268 days

“Party on the Patio”

Child Study Center
Child Study Center (click to see album)

Tonight we attended the “Party on the Patio” to support the Child Study Center in Fort Worth. My uncle Roger is director of development for them and they do a wide variety of things to help children in Fort Worth. In addition to all the other services they provide to local children, they have an international adoption clinic. I am glad it’s there, but blessed that we haven’t needed their services because Nadia is doing so well. But I love that the option is there for adoptive families.

Their website is http://www.cscfw.org/

Tonight was their big fundraiser at Joe T. Garcia’s Mexican restaurant and Roger asked us to bring Nadia with us to be the “model” for the hand-made rocking horse. The horse was painted by the children at the C.S.C. school. We saw it last week at and thought it was the cutest thing. They had a bunch for really cool things for the silent auction and live auction. Nadia was the only child at the event and of course looked cute and got lots of attention. Which led to her giving people the “stare down” while she studied the situation. HA HA! I was glad to see how well they did at their fundraiser and it was a nice night out with the cuteness.

CSC event

CSC event

Little People Easter Eggs

Little People Easter Eggs

Joy and Janis bought Nadia the Fisher Price “Little People” Easter Eggs and put them in this cute Easter Basket. I am just now talking about it because of how funny Nadia is when she plays with it. She is very precise with it which is fun to watch. She likes to sit in one of our laps with the basket in front. Then she takes them out one by one and opens them up to look inside. When she opens the bunny she will say, “Hop, Hop, Hop” and make the bunny hop. When she opens the sheep she says, “Baaaaa.” Before moving to the next egg, she closes the current one and says, “All done.”

After she has opened all six, she puts them all back in the Elmo basket. Unlike her other toys that get thrown around and mixed up, she is very careful that all the little people go back in their eggs and then back in the basket. She just cracks me up!