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Playing catch up on some of the pics. The first set is from our Friday night event at my favorite mall visiting with Frannie and Ellen. Who by the way has just been matched with the cutest little bald headed baby ever ;) I am proud to say I was able to tug on this baby's red thread and it felt great. I can't wait to see her in person! Congrats to the Fays-YEAH!
Well I attended the support group Friday night and learned some information that I did not know before, which it is always nice to learn more! Hopefully there will be more to this in the later months to come. We also were able to see little Miss Ally too. Always fun to visit with our digit friends ;) Anyway fun night had by all.
Oh and here are some pics from our Easter Sunday. I am one blessed woman to have 3 gorgeous kids!! It didn't take long for Shelby to figure out the Easter
egg hunts. Once she realized there was candy inside, there was no stopping her. We spent the afternoon at my dad's house which of course is always fun, especially with all the motorized toys and buggys and such.
I had Shelby's preop visit yesterday but will post more on that tomorrow. The great news is Shelby will NOT have to wear the no-nos (arm restraints). YEAH!
Here is a recent post from another blog that is great information for me. I am getting what I call a Blogger Education in palate surgery. I sure hope this education helps to prepare us for what lies ahead. Click here to read. I am very thankful to others for posting in great details. This is why I blog is to help educate others and of course to have a keepsake for Shelby about her early life with us.
And the most startling numbers fact of all:
The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world!
I found an interesting article that was from the adopted teens perspective:
When you're of one race and your adoptive parents are of a different one, just walking down the street with your family can feel like the whole world knows you're adopted.
That's one of the things that a group of adopted teens talked about recently when they gathered at a Portland adoption agency to eat pizza, do artwork, and share their thoughts and feelings.
"It's just the odd looks, like when you're out in public, but you learn to ignore them after a while," said 14-year-old Tess Kupel of Scarborough, who was born in Vietnam but whose adoptive parents are white.
But Tess and the other teens laughed about how the experience can also have an up side. "It's great because when your parents are being very embarrassing, you can just walk away," Tess said. "It's like, 'No, I don't know you."
You can read the rest of the article here if you are interested.
Yes, only my dad would invent such a wonderful "train" ride for the grandkids. Yes, that is a Rhino pulling some car seats on wheels. Oh and I said just for the grandkids, but of course my dad wouldn't leave me out. So yes, that is a seat made just for us big kids to be the caboose. My dad may come across as one tough guy, but seeing how much time and energy he puts into creating fun things for the grandkids and us kids-it is obvious he is just a big KID himself who obviously loves us very much :)
Delta Air Lines will launch its first flights to China with a daily route between Shanghai and Atlanta beginning March 30.
A Boeing 777 will fly between Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to the company’s website.
The flights will begin March 30, U.S. time, but due to the time difference flights from Shanghai begin March 31.
The route, Delta’s first direct route to China, is one of several opened up to American carriers during China-U.S. air traffic negotiations last year.
“The route will serve as a bridge between Shanghai and 65 million residents in the southeastern U.S. who have active trade communications with China,” the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Delta Executive Vice President Lee Macenczak as saying.
[source]
So I checked on this on the Delta site and it is only a 15 hour, 40 minute non-stop trip over. And even better than that is the torturous trip home is now only 14 hours, and 40 minutes- piece of cake up next to the way we had to do it :)
Man, this one day a week off day thing is the bomb. I had a wonderful day yesterday just hanging out with my kids and my friends. Let's see what all did we do...first I slept in until 8AM!! Yep can you believe it. The only reason I was able to do this is because I kept Travis home one extra day from school since he wasn't feeling the greatest the day before. Anyway then Travis, Shelby and I surprised Caleb at his school for lunch. Travis was able to practice getting his own lunch tray and choosing his own lunch for the first time. My baby boy is going to be going to school with Caleb next year so I thought it would be neat for him to give it a trial run. Of course we had a great lunch-school food and all.
I am really looking forward to tomorrow's First Friday meeting. Here are the details for anyone interested in attending. Hoping to really learn some scream free parenting tips tomorrow. I am sure my kids are hoping I learn something too ;) Oh and I really hope to see Mr. Micah live and in person!
~MEETING~ Friday, March 7, 2008 @ 7:00 PM
North Metro Church
2305 Barrett
Parkway, NW
Marietta, GA 30064
Click Here for Directions www.northmetro.org (678) 574-9596
www.firstfridayschina.com or email chapmansk@bellsouth.net
Vision Statement : Our vision is to make sure that every family who wants to adopt embrace the thought that "every child is worth the wait!"
Hal Runkel, March guest speaker, will appear on NBC's Today Show, Friday, March 7, 2008
Award-winning author and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Hal Runkel is quickly becoming America's greatest expert on human relationships. With an impressive academic and social science background, he has taken the most advanced approaches to relationship theory and, through thousands of hours of family therapy, organizational consulting, and professional coaching in churches, family businesses, and schools, has developed the revolutionary ScreamFree Living methodology.
Click for More Information on Hal and Scream Free
For those of you not in the daily life of China Adoptions, the CCAA (gov't people in China adoptions) have finally matched kids with their parents this month. Well yes they match them with parents once a month every month, but this time it was special because they finally started matching parents who sent their paperwork in January 2006. Yep that's right they are just now matching kids to parents who have a LID (logged into China) of 12/28/05 through 01/04/06. It took China 32 months to get through everyone who requested a non-special needs child in 2005. At that rate if we were to have asked for a NSN child we would be waiting about another 6 years for our daughter. So glad we didn't have to wait that long! Congratulations to the following who are just now seeing their babies pictures for the first time...
The following blogs have pictures:
Ellie Morris Journey
Countdown to Aubriana
Journey to Double Happiness
Finally A Family
Nathan Dewitt
Lily Rolaine
Koss Family
Voyage to Karson
The following families in the SN program would like to share their news as well:
Gracie
Our Journey of Love
She Burbles at Happy
Little Latham
East and West Kids
Blessings from China
Here are some pics from the weekend. We had a great time at Liz's house at the FCCA Potluck dinner. There were alot of people there that I had never met. I love expanding my adoption network of friends. Liz was so nice that she had even baked CJ a cake and let the kids help decorate it for dad (see why adoption friends rule)! Michelle was kind enough to share all her toys in her room which Shelby still needs some work in the sharing department. I love watching her play with other little girls. It was a great ending to a terrific day.