more Spring\Early summer updates

Early in the spring we had a work play date at the zoo and as usual LynnMarie had a great time with the animals and meeting new friends! One of the other pics posted was one when we went to an art festival in New Smyrna Beach.LynnMarie loved the clown!!!

More updates

Random pic now. We went to a couple of festivals this spring including the taste of Marietta and one in Kennesaw. She also went on a date night with Daddy this year and they had a good time together !!! We visited both grandmas in Florida earlier in the year too. We certainly stayed busy! Y

Yes our girl loves her some corn

Easter

This Easter we spent the day in Jonesboro with Aunt Andy and Uncle Jerry. LynnMarie also had a an Easter party at school with her friends. So lots of eggs were found this year. Our church had a family fun day the day before Easter with train rides, cookout food, bouncies and we enjoyed it all.

3rd birthday

In March we celebrated her sweet birthday with Chuck E Cheese. This was our 2nd time partying with the mouse and we had a great time with lots of friends and family. Although, it was at Chuck E Cheese, we still had to have our Tinkerbell cant made with lots of love from a great friend! It was fun time seeing new and old friends and loving on our girl and reminding us of her great story.

1st Disney Trip

Earlier this year, LynnMarie made her first trip to Disney World. We visited Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. Totally had a blast and as you can see, she and Mickey are old pals.There really is nothing that compare to seeing your child's eyes light up at Disney World! Great family memories were made!


Earl

Guess who's back...back again

We have a new computer (the letter N works on this one) and I have a camera that works so I am hoping to not only get things updated, but to keep writing again.

Our sweet LynnMarie is 3 and a half and loves life. She loves to sing and dance, and has become quite the conversationalist. These pics include our 2010 White Christmas and the next week we went to Bounce U as a family and had some good ole bouncing time. LynnMarie decided going up the big slide by herself was not nearly as scary as she thought. Awesome!
As of right now, she is right on target. She has really grown up in the past 2 weeks with asking lots of questions and just chatting away. She is just a joyful little girl.We are hoping to try gymnastics later this year.Hopefully I will have even more pics tomorrow.

LynnMarie 3yo update

Oh how I had wanted to post her much more often. I wanted to share a few pics of sweet LynnMarie. We took her to Disney for the first time in Feb and she loved it. WE can not wait to go again. She is an amazing little girl and loves life! She finished year 2 of Mothers Morning out and will be in 3yo preschool next year. Can you believe our peanut is 3? She is sweet, funny, and sassy. She loves Tangled right now and walks around with a rubber lizard on her shoulder all the time. She will tell you to "No Throw" at times. She certainly loves to tell you the rules but sometimes just doesn't follow them. No big drama here.Michael and I are both on facebook pretty regularly so find us there if you want to see even more pics. We will always be thankful to those who physically helped and those who prayed for us during the wait to bring LynnMarie home until now. The adoption community is tight. I can not believe how much we have been loved on.

Family Day2 years later

Can you believe its been 2 years since we became a family? Although we have prayed for her for years, LynnMarie joined our family 2 years ago with an amazing travel group. We had an amazing support system who held our hands from referral all the way to the airport. A sincere thank you to all who helped make our dream come true. There are not enough words to thank you all.

Here is a link to our summarized China journal if you would like to read it here.

It has been a journey, a wonderful amazing journey that I would not change for the world. She has made us smile, cry, dream and question. She has proven therapists and doctors wrong.

Its birthday time

Happy 3rd Birthday sweet precious peanut. What an awesome year you have had and what a dream come true you are. You make me smile with your silliness and you have certainly taught us a few thing too. May you know how much your Heavenly Father loves your sweet spirit!

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Psalms 139:14

Mommy's Project

It's a die-hard, all-in endeavor. LynnMarie is in potty training boot camp. I honestly know nothing about techniques or plans, but Amy ha things well in hand. They've been at it for about a day and a half and so far have only had one accident.

LynnMarie also had her evaluation with her therapist and we've decided she will have 3 more PT appointments and then she will be out of the program. Physically she is doing very well. The only thing she is not doing is jumping with both feet at the same time. All other physical needs are being surpassed an for communication she is using some 4 word sentences so she is progressing very well there too.

We are both very proud of or baby girl.

Mike

December 2010 Callaway Gardens

2 years ago today

2 years ago, God connected us to our daughter. When we paperchased, I was looking forward to getting our referral like everyone else. Knowing it was coming and being prepared for the phone call. I know when we sent in our medical checklist, that wasn't going to happen. God was good. Our referral day was bigger than I could have ever imagined. Thanksgiving week had me looking at the CCAI website and I inquired about a few of the kids, the first time I had ever done that. I did not think anything of it. In fact, the next day I was told me families and already requested the files of those kids.

So 2 years ago, the Wed before Thanksgiving at 2:42 as I put my Christmas cards in the mailbox at the post office, my cell phone rang and it said 303. Since we were getting ready for review in China, I thought this was a bad call. But when I heard "Amy, are you still interested in the baby on the website"? I had to catch my breath and sit down as I was told she was emailing me the file. 2 hours later ( had to wait for Michael to come home), we saw the picture below along with a lot of other stuff. Her medical needs per the file was not what I expected but she quickly grabbed our hearts! I contacted my professional adoption friends and asked 2 friends to pray for a decision for us. 1 adoption friend told me she didnt think this child was ours because there were sooo many unknowns. another friend told me that I didnt have to go and take the first kids that was offered ( I know she didnt mean anything by it). I listen to my friends and quit frankly,I got disappointed. Man but I am thankful for those friends and their honesty because it just makes her story that much sweeter.

Wed night, my friends mom told me about a blog whose family was in China adopting a little boy with similar conditions. I quickly emailed her and she had no idea why she was up that night (but I do) and quickly gave me a lot of information. We emailed back and forth all night!!! Also anothe adoption friend who happened to be in Disney world, was such an encouragement. We facebooked quite a while an realized that she knew LynnMaries caregivers and had been donating there. She was 100% sure that if there were any unknowns, this lady would have shared them. Trying to make a long story short, Wed night God just showed up. He opened doors and windows right in the same room as me. It was the coolest experience as so much "proof" was shared with me. Now 24 hours later, a RN I work with send me a random email asking for prayers as she was born with some medical issues and in a lot of pain. In that email, she shared that she had arthogryposis (this was the term they used to describe LM). So, after hearing the diagnosis 24 hours ago, I got this email. None of this may make sense to you, but its hard to put into words that night.

The Sunday before we had to make our decision, I got an email from a friend that said God opened this door for you. Do not close it for Him. If this is not your child, then He will close it. Take a step of faith and go for it. Well thats what we did and look what God did!!!

What a season

Compared to last year we have had a full fall season and its not even over! We started by visiting Helen, Ga one Sunday afternoon (literally got out of church and decided to go) by visiting a farmers market and then walking around the town. We have done the pumpkin patch a local church, our first trunk or treat (what a great idea), we went trick or treating, had family visit and visited the top of Kennestone Mtn for the first time. We also visited Hillcrest Orchards where you can pick your own apples. When we went there was no more apple pickin but we sure did have a good time. The end of Oct included visits from both Grandma Christopher and the other Grandma and Grandpa along with Aunt Kelly, UNcle Neil, Janie, Seth and Owen. Boy did we make some memories with our precious peanut. We also squeezed in a trip to the zoo and the botanical gardens with Grandma.