Big Fat Exciting News

We are adopting again! We have been matched with another cutie from Henan province. She is a little girl about 15 months old. Her Chinese name is Ying Ying, which means warbler in Chinese because apparently she sounds like a singer when she cries. She has captured our hearts already, and we can't wait to bring her home sometime in 2014. This is the picture we received that convinced us she was meant to come to our family. We are going to call her Sarah Helen.

Mom ... I love you!

Recently John started telling me he loves me. He has been home over a year. We had never heard him say that he loves us until last week. He started about a month ago talking about other things he loves. "I love noodles!" "I love cars!" "I love my shirt." It got me wondering when I would hear those words directed at me. And then, out of the blue, "Mom, I love you!"

In all of our parent training for adoption they kept reminding us that love is an action. I'm so thankful that our actions are helping this little joy understand the emotion behind the word too.

"John, I love you too!"

Happy 4th Birthday!

We just celebrated John's 4th birthday on Wednesday. Officially he isn't four until Monday, but Rick will be out of town, so we wanted to celebrate together. This birthday was so much more fun than the last read here. He was so new to our family and our traditions, that he really didn't understand what a birthday party was - he didn't even want cake.

But  this year, our cutie was all about a birthday. He wanted a pumpkin cake, wanted chicken for dinner, noodles for lunch and muffins for breakfast. He was SO excited about his presents too. His birthday was so much fun this year. Happy Birthday sweet boy!