Updated kids pictures

Spring 06

Easter 06

Spring 06

Halloween 06

Fall 06

Spring 07

Spring 07

Easter 07

Easter 07

X-mas 07

Spring 08

Easter 08

Easter 08

Smilin' Big! in 2008

Happy New Year and Many Many More…

We had a wonderful and fun but very very busy holiday. We were so happy to see uncles, aunts and cousins who made it to Houston from those much colder places :-). Everyone enjoyed the exceptional warm weather in Houston. Anna got tons of Christmas gifts that made her seemed get lost in the gift pile. She is a very happy child most of the time – at home or at the daycare. She loves playing with other kids, going out, partying, signing and dancing along with music. Grandma made a couple of pink tutu dresses for her and Cousin Emily. They both had fun with those tutus. Everyone just loved to meet, hold and play with her. We cannot believe she has been with us for six months already. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. She just had her 18 months checkup/shots and everything was right on target. We received her new birth certificate from Bexar County, Texas after Christmas. She is now officially and irrevocably here, and unmistakably a part of our family. Anna, our dear dear daughter, you are HOME!

We created this Blog to chronicle our journey to bring our Anna home from the land of her birth, The People's Republic of China to the land of dreams, The United States of America. Now we declare this Blog complete. We love you all and God bless you!

We witness a miracle every time a child enters into life
But those who make their journey home across time & miles
growing within the hearts of those who wait to love them
are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us
by God's very own hands --- Kristi Larson

Happy Holidays and Studio Pictures

Here are some cute pictures taken by professionals. Ben went to Disney World this week when Daddy went to a conference in Orlando. Mommy is trying to learn Scrapbooking – it is very time consuming! So his pictures will be in his scrapbooks. Grandma tagged along so Ben could go to DW. They went to Magic Kingdom two days and Animail Kingdom one day! Anna jabbers a lot lately and is picking up simple words. Book will be “Bo”, peek-a-poo will be “po”…. She pronounces the words “baby”, “byby” and “I” very clearly. She also learned the word “Mine” – a result of sending her to daycare. She gets upset in her car seat if we don’t include her in the conversation. We are so busy lately and are looking forward to Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa will come, Roger’s Aunt and Uncle from Seattle, Aunt Cindy’s family from Chicago and Uncle Feng’s family form Ottawa, Canada are all coming for Christmas. Thanks for reading this blog and following our journey, we wish you a joyous and peaceful holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving

The daycare arranged a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast in JSC. We had our Thanksgiving lunch at home with friends. It was a very busy and fun day. Early morning, Ben went to downtown Houston with one of the other families to watch the Thanksgiving parade. It was so cute that Ben said he is thankful for his mom, dad and little sister. Surprisingly, Anna did not eat much food but was in a very high sprit after a late morning nap. She likes to “help” with everything and tried to clean herself in the dish washer too. The time passes very fast when you have good company. After the meal, instead of playing cards as planned, we just talked, talked and talked until dark. We are so grateful to have those good friends live nearby and our two beautiful children in our lives!

Happy Halloween

It was Anna's first Halloween experience and she dressed up as a bumble bee. Ben was an astronaut. He wanted to be Thomas Tank Engine for the third time but was convinced by Mom and Dad that change is better. We missed the daycare Fall Festival since we were in San Antonio but Ben had fun trick-or-treating in the JSC buildings on Friday and got a big bag of candy! Anna's class had a party on Halloween and went trick-or-treating from room to room within the daycare center. That night they attended the 8th birthday party within two months at the neighbors and was able to go trick-or-treating with the party crowd afterwards. Unfortunately, it rained very hard between 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The kids had to stay in doors for most of Halloween night. They were finally able to go out trick-or-treating in our neighborhood after it stopped raining. Anna started crying and wanted to go home to bed after knocking on only a few doors. Both of them woke up the next morning very happy and seemed to still be in a party mood.

River Walk and Sea World

After the court, we went to the famous River Walk of San Antonio and had a boat tour of the river. Anna was so excited about everything but crashed in the stroller when we visited the Alamo. The next day, we visited Sea World. All the shows were spectacle and the "Dine with Shamu" experience was some real UP CLOSE fun. Anna still tries to make a sound like a whale. Ben really enjoyed trying to feed the dolphins. We were there a couple of years ago with Ben. But this time we are a family of four and had double the fun.