One Year Ago Today Ethan Became a US Citizen

So sorry that I did not keep up with the blog during the past 2 weeks.  Life is busy with 4 kids.  But I did want to point out that 1 year ago today we flew home with Ethan.  What a long journey that was.  We're so thankful he is home.  Our 1 year post placement is complete. Which means Ethan's adoption is officially complete. 
Thank you for following along on our adoption journey. And thanks for keeping up with our every day life.  It's never a dull moment around here.
In fact, the girls & I are getting ready to go to a baby shower tonight for our dear friend who is leaving for China next Saturday to bring her precious baby girl home. We are so excited and so happy to be able to celebrate another miracle baby coming home! 

Gotcha Day 2010

Day 4-Touring Beiging-Flight to Fuzhou

Sunday in Beijing is always good.  Starting off with church.  There's something about worshiping God in church in Beijing.  It's awesome.  It was neat being at the same church that we've visited before.  But it seemed smaller. 

After church we did more touring & The Great Wall. I was able to climb higher than the previous 2 trips. But it was still very hard. It was so cold and it was hard to breathe.  Bill climbed to the first tower and on his way, he came across writing on the wall.  Ethan in a heart.  He felt this was a little love note from God.

After the Wall, and eating, we had to leave early.  We were the only family who was flying to the province that night. Everyone else was leaving Monday morning.  It was sad going alone.  But we were excited knowing that we would meet Ethan first thing in the morning. 

Day 3-Touring Beijing

I remember it was frigid cold.  Very cold for my FL bones.  But it was beautiful. Snow on the ground. A sight my FL eyes never get to see.  It was fun seeing Beijing covered in snow.  It made the touring feel different, even though we had been to these same places 2 times before.  We had fun getting to know the families in our travel group.  But we were exhausted.  2 more days until we meet our precious Ethan. We were so excited.

1 year ago-Arrived in China

Boy that flight was long.  I'm so glad Bill & I chose to leave the kids at home.  They would have been miserable.  Thankfully the flight was uneventful (since I'm afraid of flying).  Once we landed in Beijing, we found some more new friends (travel buddies) and then headed to our hotel.  We stayed at this hotel 4 years prior when we were there adopting Jadyn.  So there was some familiarity to it. 
I kept saying yesterday, "A year ago we were 4 hours into the 15 hour flight....We were 6 hours into the 15 hour flight...." and it just made me so thankful that it was a year ago.  :-) 

Travel Day-1 Year ago

As I type this, it's 6:30 AM. We were already at the airport. We left our house around 4:30 AM I believe.  We were anxiously waiting to board our flight.  It seems like yesterday.  I look at Ethan and I'm so grateful that he is HOME and that he is HEALTHY!  He's been through so much this past year and to see how "normal" he is is just a miracle. 

Reminiscing

I can not believe 1 year ago we were about to head to China for the 3rd time.  I have been thinking about this a lot the past week.  Ethan has changed SO much.  I'm so thankful he is home.  Hopefully I'll be able to update each day from 1 year ago.  Enjoy the pics from the past.  :-)

Happy New Year!

Wow, I know it's been a long time since I've posted.  I have a good reason.  We moved!  Yep! On Dec 23rd we signed the papers and we moved into our new house.  We took the decorations off of our Christmas tree and we moved it to the new house. I wanted Christmas in our new house.  On Dec 24th we had movers come and move our big stuff.  So we did not have to sleep on the floors for Christmas.  (Well Abby & Jadyn did-but they thought that was fun). 

It's been almost 2 weeks now and we are FINALLY back online. We had the cable company out here on Dec 24th but there was a problem. A problem that did not get fixed until today.  It was a long 2 weeks without my daily blog checks. I have missed so much.  New babies coming home, new families starting an adoption etc.  I'm so happy to finally be able to get caught up everything that I've missed. 

As I type this Ethan is running around the house & A & J are in the shower. I really should be getting them ready for bed. But I have missed my cyber friends that I'm updating really quick. 

Here are a few pics from Christmas.  I hope to update this blog again soon.  But for now, Happy New Year!  It's good to be back online.

Christmas Morning

Gi Gi with her great-grandkids

Grandma & Pop Pop with their grandkids

Gi Gi with me, my sister & brother

The Gunter Family

Our family

Brothers

Ethan loves Marissa & Olivia

Nanny's Grandkids

Silly Girls

Tiff & Marissa