Our Little Miracle

Demetria posted some more of Olivia's pictures last night. I don't know how I am ever gonna pick!!! I only posted a few of my favs...Demetria, you are awesome gal!

I saw this video on a friends blog who is currently in the process of trying to adopt and I got chill bumps and just cried my eyes out. I think maybe it's because God has been talking to my husband & I a lot lately about adopting another child & some situations have come up that we are having to think about it, but this just broke my heart. I hope you don't mind that I borrowed this Heather. Grab some tissues! You will have to scroll to the bottom and silence the music box ~ (Just click the big circle) Hope is Fading from Allan Rosenow on Vimeo .

Back in March, I entered Olivia into a contest on facebook called "The Cutest Kid Contest" held by Demetria Hale Photography . Olivia won second place and we won some free pictures & a free photo shoot. Here is what Demetria posted after the contest was over. So yesterday we had her photo session and she did soooo good. She would even stop at random places and say "Hey, take my picture here." Sooo funny. Then Demetria got out the tutu and she thought she was something special. She just started working it... I loved it. There are times when she seems sooo very shy, and times when she thinks she is all that. It was scorching HOT, but she was a trooper. (So was Demetria :o) Thanks Demetria for the contest, free photo session and pictures. I hope your business is a huge success. I will leave you now with a sneak peek of Demetria's fantastic work and our precious baby girl. There are more to come. She took almost 300 pictures!! Yippee!!!! I can't wait.

Here is Olivia's finding ad in the newspapers in China. Here is what "we were told" it says: Ad # 1729 Lian Ai Sen A girl On July 20, 2006 she was found at the gate of Jishui Hospital, Lianjiang City. She was dressed in a white flowered shirt. She was a newborn baby, and has black hair. She has a red dot on the right side of her face. Claim unit: Lianjiang City Welfare Institute

Some really good friends of ours (Patrick, Aleisa & Maya Lily Dunn) who adopted their baby girl when we adopted Olivia, were recently able to travel back to China and visit the orphange where the girls lived the first few months of their lives. I will cherish these photos forever. Thank you for this gift..... The baby building at the Lianjiang SWI Our girls lived on the third floor of this building from 2006 to May 15th 2007! Another picture of the SWI We are on the wall! Our group photo plus-- The Jones Family , The Batdorff Family and the Ginn Family gotcha day photos were all on display in the SWI reception office. It was great seeing these pictures. ( We are middle row, second from the right) Mr. Huang ~ the director of the Lianjiang SWI (and the Dunn family) The same nannies are still there! These are the same ladies who cared for Olivia and the other girls in 2006-2007. They are currently caring for more than 30 babies. (Boy, they look like a bundle of joy don't they :-)...

This year we had Olivia's birthday party at the Jungle Jym and then we left there and walked over to the Gilley Pool for a cool down (which was much needed after the intense heat at the Jungle Jym) I can't tell you how many times our little red-faced Olivia came up to me and said, "Mom, I am ready to go to the pool!" Bless it! At any rate, the theme this year was "My Little Pony". (which was surprising seeing as how we seldom watch this) I figured she would pick Tinkerbell or Strawberry Shortcake, but she picked "My Little Pony". We had pizza, chips and dip, cookies & some yummy cake. She got LOTS & LOTS of presents (that I did not get pictures of because my camera's batteries died as soon as I got everything set up. I didn't even get a picture of all the guests. Every now and then I would turn it on and get a shot, then it would die again. I gave up. I hope to be getting some pics from family soon) We had a great time and we are gr...

Everyone who owns a home MUST have this stuff. I have yet to find something it did NOT get up. It dissolved Olivia's silly putty in her carpet immediately. (Although it has left some serious fumes in the house that I am concerned will give us some kind of brain damage), but other than that, a MUST HAVE :o)