SANTA!!!!

Abbie told Santa about the doll that she wants for Christmas. Only, she told him in Chinese!!!! Mama told Santa that Abbie said that he was Santa and he would know Chinese! Hope that he understood, I would hate for her to be disappointed on Christmas day!

After visiting Santa, we rode the Pink Pig! I love Atlanta!

GOTCHA DAY!!!!!

Today was such a special day! Drew brought me beautiful roses, we ate Chinese food delivery, Abbie opened her book, we ate ice cream cake, and then we watched videos of our time in China! You can view Abbie's book (just cut and paste link below into your web browser):

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/322816/3e5d599f912c12360baac59e93f75906

What a difference a year makes...

Just remembering what last year felt like!

Mulan, Shang, and Mushu!

When Mama asked Abbie what she wanted to be for Halloween, Abbie said, "Mulan!"
Mama said," You will be such a cute Mulan!"
Abbie said, "No, Mama be Mulan- I want to be Mushu! Baba can be Mulan's boyfriend (Shang)!"

Mulan and Mushu!

Thanks Gramma for making Mulan's costume!

HALLOWEEN WAS AMAZING!

Mushu from Mulan has never looked cuter!

Abbie is getting ready for Halloween!

Abbie's 3rd Birthday

Ready to ride!

hey everybody!

ok,so it has been a while...

baba's birthday in June. more to come...

Mama + Baba + Abbie=Family

Photo thanks to our good friend JP!!! http://jasonpendley.smugmug.com/

SUPER STAR!!!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!!!!!

Early Easter

Happy early easter =:]

You gotta see this!!!!

I know you are ready for a new video!!!!

We received the greatest gift on Valentine's day! Perfect timing because 3 years ago on Feb. 13th, Drew and I went out for a Valentine's dinner and decided to go to China to adopt Abbie! While in China, we learned that Abbie's foster care had been sponsored through an organization call FTIA. We contacted them when we got home and they sent us baby pictures of Abbie!!!!! Several pictures of her as young as 1 month old!!!! God is so good! All this time that everyone was praying, He was at work in her life! I was so sad thinking that all of her past would be lost forever! Now we have photos! We did not post them because we do not want Abbie to see them yet. They show the area that she lived in for the first 2 years of her life! To our surprise, there was also an article in the FTIA newsletter about Abbie. You can see her photo and story (also below) at

http://www.ftia.org/Hunan%20Foster%20Care/Winter%202008.pdf

Learn more about sponsoring a child at

http://www.ftia.org/Hunan%20Foster%20Care/Index.html

The Story:

My Mommy and Daddy
Hunan Story
Fan Zhi Qiu was adopted by an American family on
December 2, 2007. Before the adoption, Zhi Qiu had received
a photo album from her adoptive parents. Her foster mother
showed the album to her and told her who her adoptive
mother and adoptive father were and what her room would be
like. Her foster mother also told her that her adoptive parents
would come to pick her up soon. She remembered all that her
foster mother would tell her. She was eager to see her
adoptive parents. She held the album in her arms all the time
and didn’t want to share it with anyone. She was afraid that
other children would love her adoptive parents too and take
them away from her. Knowing she was so attached to her
adoptive parents, her foster mother was very happy for her.
We wish her a healthy and happy life with her forever family.

Our trip to the zoo.

Abbie loves animals.

We had some fun at the zoo this week :]

Disney #3

Another day with the princess!

More Disney Videos

Another wonderful day!

Meeting Mickey!

oh, to see the world through a child's eyes...

Snow day

We had a very fun snow day last weekend. Hope you enjoy the video.

Stories

I just wanted to take the time to post some stories. Abbie is perfect! Drew and I feel so blessed and we could not imagine a better fit for our family! She is sweet, cute, funny, smart, etc.... She has learned so... much English and we have picked up a little Chinese. My friend Mary Pat gave her some alphabet blocks/boxes. Each box has a letter on the outside and a toy that begins with that letter on the inside. Abbie has learned almost every toy! Some of her favorite words are triangle, xylophone, bicycle, and Chinese-e! She is so sweet! She always says, "shey-shey" which means "Thank you!" She loves to put her little hands together to say a prayer! She makes the funniest faces and says the cutest things! The other night, she found an instruction manual. She turned to the page written in Chinese and said, "Chinese-e!" I was in shock! I closed the book and said, "Where is Chinese-e?" She turned to the page again, pointed and said, "Chinese-e!" WOW! Yesterday, I was teaching her some animals. She was having trouble saying "Aligator", so I said, "It is like Ali (her cousin)- Ali-gator." Last night, I was drawing pictures for her and I drew an Ali-gator. She pointed to the page and requested that I draw a "Luke-e-gator!!!" (Ali's brother) Too cute! We are sure having a lot of fun! I better sign off, I think that a tea party is waiting for me!

Happy birthday Nana and Gramma!

New Pictures

Hello everyone. We cannot tell you how great Abbie is doing. By this time tomorrow she will have been here a month. Wow, how time flies. She is learning English very fast! What an amazing little girl...a video will be up soon.