So Blessed

This past weekend some of my very sweet and very dear friends gave us a baby shower and just completely blessed us so much!!

I enjoyed getting to see everyone so much.  Even though we all live in this area, lives get busy and sometimes months can go by before I see some of these amazing ladies and get to catch up with them. 

My lovely hosts!!!...Tamara, Mindy, Jen, and Sonia

The decorations were great.  We had a Chinese theme.  Red for Good Fortune and blue for little Hudson.

Big Sister...Sweet Emma and myself among all the yummy Chinese food.
We had pot stickers, chow mein, egg rolls, fortune cookies, etc.....

Emma and I had fun opening gifts.

My friend Debbie (an experienced adoptive mom of 3 and soon to be 5 Chinese children) had decorated this paint can with a Chinese dragon and filled it with all kinds of things we "must have" when traveling to get Hudson.  Great idea and So appreciated!

This is a wishing tree that Chinese families give to new parents when their children are born.  Everyone wrote special wishes for Hudson as he gets older.  I loved this!

It was a special afternoon that I will always remember.

The Long Awaited Phone Call

Can't believe I am just getting to the blog and posting what happened earlier this week......

TA People....TA!!!

Travel Approval!!  Oh Yeah!!  I'm loving those two words!

Bill and I will be leaving the first part of February to go get Hudson. 

My thoughts on Monday after I got the call ranged from....

Yaaaa Hoooo it's finally here!  (pure happiness) 

to...  Yikes...it's finally here!  (a little trepidation)

to...  Can't believe we will be holding him in less than a month!  (full/happy momma's heart)

to...  Yikes...maybe I should have packed a month ago like Sonia told me to!  (little panic)

to...  God, you are so good and faithful to have everything happen in your perfect timing.  (peace)

Now I'm back to a mild panic.

Our plans are to fly to Beijing and tour for a couple of days and then fly to Hudson's province.  (Guizhou)  We should be meeting our little guy on Monday February 6.

Psalm 68:5-6  Father to the fatherless and protector of the widows is God--He places the lonely in families.

Happy Birthday

Someone special celebrated a birthday this past week.

Happy Birthday Bill!!

 Since Bill was overseas during my birthday, we shared a birthday cake and a birthday song.

Happy Birthday To Us!!!

~~We love you Daddy~~

More catching up...

Our family gift to the kids was a TENT!

So Bill...being the rock star that he is and the Bestest Daddy in the Whole World...decides about ummmm...7:30 PM  (as it was already getting dark) to put up the tent in our backyard and camp out with the kids.

It was way after dark when they got the tent up and the sleeping bags out in the tent.

This was the next morning.  Yay~ they survived the night with all the wild animals.  (aka- armadillos, squirrels, feral cats, and opossums)

By 7:30 AM, I was waiting in the warm house waiting for them to emerge.  Nope...no movement.
So I made some hot chocolate and coffee for the campers and brought it out to them.

Yumm...nice and chocolatey!

Hot cuppa Joe

Sleepy Girl. 

This was one of those "wild animals" I was talking about.

Catching up...

I've neglected posting the last couple of weeks. So here are some pictures from our Christmas break.

Right before school let out, the kids had their Piano Christmas Recital.  I love hearing them play.   

When we got home from the recital, we took a quick picture for our Christmas/New Years letter.

Bill left for an overseas trip right before school let out for the holiday break but that didn't stop us from having some fun while he was gone.

One of my dearest friends from South Carolina and her family (minus their girls) came for a quick visit so we surprised the kids with a trip to the new LEG*LAND that just opened near here.


We had perfect weather, small crowds, and just plain ole' fun that day. It was soooo good getting to spend some time with my Amy. Love Her!!

Welcome to Leg*land

Pretzels Anyone??

Amy, Kent, Thomas and Cade

Very Cool Christmas Tree!

Spangenthal's vs. Patrick's
Race to see who can get their emergency vehicle down the track - put out the fire- then race back.

Frantically spraying water on the "fire".

Oh yeah!!!!  Spangenthal's rock.  'Bout gave myself a heartattack pumping that thing but we won!

No caption needed here.

Getting wet!

Having fun!

 What a great time we had with the Patrick's.  It was a great start to our vacation!

Puppy Love

We just received a few pictures of Hudson and Oh. My. Goodness. they are too cute.

We are so thankful for the pictures that we get occasionally.

His foster family's dog recently had 4 puppies...and as you can see, he is absolutely enjoying a little Puppy Love here.

Okay...ready for another one???  This one made me laugh out loud.

Looks like the black puppy is nuzzling his neck.  So Cute...I can't stand it!

I'm lovin' the split pants thing going on too.  Funny!

This picture also has a good shot of his extra pinkie thing that he has going on.  Poor little guy... it's just hanging there.  In some of his birthday pictures from July, there is one where he is looking at his finger like..."Seriously, are you kidding me?  Get this thing off me."  It looks like it probably just has blood flow to it so it has continued to develop but no bone or cartilage.  That's a  good thing because it's an easy fix.  Here in Am*rica, that would have been taken care of right after birth. 

As soon as we have our travel approval we'll be getting doctor's appointments lined up for when we return and then we will be on track to start repairing his cleft issues and pinkie.  So thrilled for him.  We are so thankful too that despite his cleft lip and palate he has continued to thrive and we could wait to do his surgeries until we got him home.  Now he'll have his momma and daddy there to comfort him and love on him after his surgeries.  God is Good...All the Time.

What a Big Boy

We got updated pictures and information on Hudson a couple of weeks ago.  Yay!!

He is a big boy!  At 17 months, he is:

 

HEIGHT身高：83cm  = around 30 inches
WEIGHT 体重：11kg = around 25 lbs. 

FEET LENGTH足长：13cm

Even on American growth charts he's big.  I'm just hoping that some of the smaller clothes we bought him will fit. 

The outfit he's wearing is from the care package we sent.  Aren't those boots cute?!

You can see all his other goodies in the background.

I can't believe that we will have him in our arms in a month.

 

He's starting to walk so I'm guessing that's the reason for the scuff above his eye.

I feel like we have missed so many "firsts" like walking but Oh my goodness sweet boy...

You have no idea what awaits you here.  A momma and a daddy that will love you like crazy and a sister and brother that can't wait to be a part of all your firsts in our family.

Isn't he a cutie.

We are now just waiting for our Article 5 this week and then our Travel Approval in a couple of weeks. 

CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!