First Snow

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Yesterday we had a snow day! Sophie had never seen snow before so she was super excited to wake up and see it covering the ground. The snow was beautiful, but Sophie and I were more excited that Daddy didn't have to go to work. As Sophie said, "We get to spend time with Daddy!" So they played in the snow while I took pictures (I wasn't photo worthy). Then we laid around the house watching TV, eating junk food, and enjoying our time together. It was a great blessing for our family!

We're Going to Disney World (yes, again!)

Well, we officially made reservations yesterday to return to Disney World in September. The unexpired tickets that all three of us have for a 3-day park hopper are burning a hole in our pockets. Can you tell we still have Disney fever? We will be staying at the Pop Century Resort, and thanks to the fine folks at Disney, we found an AMAZING airfare from GSP-MCO for $135.00 per person! My parents are going with us and we are all so excited! There won't be any cruising this time - maybe sometime next year. The Disney Magic continues...

The Vendetta Defense - Lisa Scottoline

I LOVED this book! First of all, Lisa is a fabulous writer. The Vendetta Defense not only kept my attention, but it had great characters, an interesting storyline, and it was funny. I had never read any of her books before and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. If you want to read a legal book and you are also interested in Italian culture, then you will love this book. WARNING: There is bad language in it. But honestly, it didn't bother me because the story was so good. What do you expect from a story about Italians?!? You have to read it and let me know what you think. This goes on my list as one of my favorite books. Definitely 5 STARS!!!

Christmas 2007

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We had a very special Christmas morning. Sophie was really into Christmas this year so we were all pretty excited for December 25th to roll around. When Brian woke up around 8:30am, he found Sophie already in the living room rubbing her hand up and down her new Groovy Girls tent. Highlights included Sophie's Cinderella Castle from Mimi and Papa, and my white gold diamond sapphire ring from Daddy. Boy, was I surprised! We are so blessed to be a family and thank God for bringing us together to share moments like these.

A Christmas Letter for 2007

What an eventful year 2007 has been for our family! Here are a few of the highlights (and lowlights).

One of my favorite memories from 2007 will be Sophie starting K-3! She loves going to school and Mama loves to have six hours to herself on Monday and Tuesday mornings! Sophie is attending a Christian school, and has a wonderful teacher. She is a very social little girl and has enjoyed the company of other children during the week. Mama enjoys going to Target and running errands by herself while Sophie is at school.

We have enjoyed the first year in our home. Jill loves living in a neighborhood, while Brian prefers the country. Even though we are 20 minutes away from church, we are in a good location.

In October, Brian was laid off from his full-time job at the cabinet shop because business was slow. However, God opened several doors for him to do side jobs while he was looking for a permanent position. Last week, he started working at a cabinet shop about 5 minutes from our house. We don’t have room to go into detail regarding how the Lord provided this job for him, so you’ll just have to trust us that it was a God thing! Brian is happy that he is still working only four days a week so that he can still do his side work on Friday and Saturday’s. We give God all of the glory for meeting our financial needs during this past month. Brian is still working as the part-time Music Minister at our church and we love being a part of this family of God. We have made many good friends and the Lord has blessed us with incredible support from the people in our church.

Also in October, Sophie had to endure a VCUG test at the hospital. Long story short, the doctor was worried she might have reflux in her kidneys. She didn’t, it was an awful experience, and we hope she never has to go through that again. Not to mention we don’t have health insurance so the doctor bills are a real bummer.

Blah, blah, blah – Now it’s time to get to the best part of 2007 – our Disney Dream vacation! We met Jill’s family (her parents, and her brother and his family) in Orlando and stayed at a Disney resort for four days, then continued the vacation on a Disney Cruise ship for another four days. Our sister-in-law’s parents also came to Orlando, so at times there were 11 people walking around together. We had been planning this trip for 14 months, so by the time we left we were excited! We talked about it all year and it was definitely worth the wait. Highlights included staying at the Disney Resort (none of us had experienced that before), MGM Studios, Cinderella’s breakfast, dinner at 1900 Park Fare, Downtown Disney, cruising, the food, the shows, the food, clean staterooms twice a day, the food, Disney Princesses, and Mickey and Minnie Mouse! To say our vacation was magical was an understatement! Thanks, Mom and Steve, for making this memory possible.

An amazing thing happened at the resort. We met a little girl named Macy who lived at the same orphanage as Sophie, and at the same time! The girls are the same age just a couple of months apart. Macy came home from the Gaoyao Children’s Welfare Institute in January 2005, while Sophie came home in March 2005. Out of all of the people that we have met who have adopted children from China we have NEVER ran into anyone from Sophie's orphanage. It is hard to believe that as we sat there eating breakfast that morning the girls’ paths had crossed before. What an incredible blessing to run into Macy!

Sophie is doing great and is getting so big. She loves to be on the go, loves to listen to music (Walk the Line is one of her favorite CD’s), loves to play with her Groovy Girls, and loves stickers! She has brought us unexplainable joy and we thank God for choosing us to come together to be a family.

We hope you have a blessed 2008.

The Christmas Bus - Melody Carlson

I just finished reading The Christmas Bus by Melody Carlson. It was sorta cute, a little cheesy, and very predictable. It wasn't horrible, but I can't say I would read it again. I would probably give it a 1 1/2 out of 5 stars. But the book I am reading now is AWESOME! Stay tuned for more details...

Girl's Night Out - December 14, 2007

Time for the last Girl's Night Out of 2007! Julia, Trisha and I met at Jason's Deli to fill our bellies with spinach wraps before we went to the movie. Since we had a little time left we went to Tuesday Morning to shop. Then we met Jeannie and Priscilla at Wynnsong to see The Martian Child. First of all, let me just say that we were pretty fired up about seeing a movie that only cost $2.00. Hey, who doesn't want to save money? And everyone seemed to like John Cusak, so with those two factors working in our favor, what could go wrong? Well, the movie itself, that's what. It was sad. And slow. And sad. It was about a single man who adopts a 6-year old boy who has emotional problems and believes/pretends that he is from Mars, and it was based on a true story. Of course, I didn't like it and was glad when it was over. I need to be entertained when I go to the movies and this one didn't do it for me. Then I think that Julia, Trisha and I went to Barnes and Noble to look around, but I can't remember. Too much has happened since GNO! But we did enjoy spending time together even if the movie was stinky.