Wednesday, February 24, 2010

BLACK AND WHITE WEDNESDAY - "HELLO JESUS"

Happy Black and White Wednesday!

This week I chose a picture that was taken on Easter Sunday last year. At that point, it was 3 months since we returned home from China. Halainah looked everywhere but at the camera and was mesmerized by Jesus.

Since we are in the Season of Lent, I thought that this picture was a perfect fit...again I cheated with a touch of color.




May the Lord bless us,
protect us from all evil
and bring us to everlasting life.
Amen.


Please click on the button below to view some more spectacular Black and White Photo's and perhaps join in on the fun.


the long road

Thursday, February 18, 2010

SIMPLY AMAZING - ANOTHER LINK

Simply Amazing!

It is no secret that the first year of Halainah's life is missing a lot of pieces to the puzzle of her life. It is my duty as her Mama to try and gather as many pieces of her past that I possibly can so that one day when she asks me about her first year of life in China I can give her the answers that she so desperately wants and needs. I pray that when that day comes there will be few missing pieces of her puzzle and she will be satisfied with what I have collected for her.

On Gotcha day, we were so thrilled to have received a little Winnie the Pooh photo album with a lot of clues to her past. We saw pictures that we never saw before and I cherish every single one of them. I wrote about that precious photo album here if you would like to take a look.

But something simply amazing happened last week and I want to record it here in Halainah's life book.

I belong to a bunch of Yahoo groups on adoption as I am sure a lot of you adoptive mamas are as well. One of the groups I belong to is a very special group of families who adopted from the same orphanage as Halainah.

A week ago a message popped up from a proud mama who wrote in to explain her excitement over a photograph that she received. You see, she sent a picture of her daughter to the orphanage a few years ago to show them how she has grown. This was a very special picture to this woman because it was the first reunion she had attended with her daughter. And at the reunion her daughter was united once again with her crib mate. She was excited to announce that she received a picture from the orphanage of a woman who was holding a baby. On the wall behind the woman was the picture of her daughter that she had sent in. It was blown up, framed and hung on the orphanage walls. She was delighted to know that the orphanage cares about their children so much and this photo just proved it. They took the time to blow up her picture and place it on their walls as a reminder of two happy Shangrao crib mates who are now with their forever families.

I was eager to inspect the picture as it is the place that Halainah lived for the first 14 months of her life. But I was not expecting what I was about to see.

I opened up the picture and to my astonishment, the woman in the picture was holding my precious Halainah. Ahhhhh another link to Halainah's past...thank you Lord. Simply Amazing! Another picture to add to her life book. Simply Amazing!

I screamed, "Lainey that's you...that's you!"

And Lainey yelled, "ME....ME!"

Simply Amazing!

I e-mailed the woman who indirectly gave me this most wondrous gift to ask her some more questions. One being, "How did you obtain this picture?"

She explained to me that she donates money directly to the Shangrao Orphanage who has a program called, "Hugging Grannies." This program pays for some retired doctors, nurses, and teachers to come spend their days with the children and just hold, play, and love them, like a real Granny would.

Annually she receives updates on how the program is going and that often includes photographs. The last update she received was about a year ago....just about the time when we were in China. She never shared the pictures with our yahoo group. But a year later she felt compelled to share this photo with our group. Personally, I feel she was led by the grace of God to share this photo so that Halainah could have another piece of her puzzle...another link to her past. Simply Amazing! I will forever be thankful to this woman who indirectly gave me such an amazing treasure.

How wonderful to have received this photo but there's more to it. Halainah was loved by Grannies who spent quality time with her, to hug her and kiss her and play with her. She didn't just sit in a walker for hours and hours in a day. Most of the pictures I have of her life in the orphanage are in a walker! Nope, Halainah had Grannies that loved her, that hugged her and played with her. Simply Amazing. And I get to share this with my daughter when she is old enough to understand.

Simply Amazing!!




Wednesday, February 17, 2010

BLACK AND WHITE WEDNESDAY - "NEWBIE"

I am a newbie to Black and White Wednesday. So I hope that my first attempt is a good one. I decided to give it a whirl and visit many of my favorite blogs who play along every week.

I have been following Lisa over at The Long Road to China for a very long time now. Actually she was one of the first blogs I ever added to My Blog List. And she indirectly got me hooked on Matilda Jane. I was always in awe over Sarah's precious outfits that I inspected one of Lisa's spectacular photographs closely one day and spotted the Matilda Jane tag on Sarah's shirt. It was all over after that and have been addicted ever since. I cannot wait to follow The Long Road to China while they receive their precious miracle China doll one day soon.

The picture I decided to add to Black and White Wednesday is one of my favorites of my daughter Halainah. It was taken during a photo shoot to try and capture the perfect picture for Halainah's 2nd birthday invitations. I just love her expression in this pic.

I sort of cheated I guess by adding a tad bit of color. But I thought it added a little something special.

Run on over to Lisa's blog and read her heartfelt post as well as checking out some other spectacular Black and White pics.







Monday, February 15, 2010

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy Valentine's Day.


I hope that you spent your special day surrounded by the love of your family.

We had a terrific Valentine's day and Halainah went on a special trip to Toys R Us to pick out a new toy. She chose a neat Play doh set!



Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy New Year!!

2010 is the Year of the Tiger!

We celebrated Chinese New Year by going out to our favorite Chinese buffet where Halainah is treated like a princess. The staff loves her and always gives her special treatment every time we are there. Halainah loves the attention!







Wednesday, February 10, 2010

SNOW DAY

We are nearing the end of the Blizzard of 2010. It has been snowing for 24 hours in our neck of the woods. It certainly looked beautiful outside but was a lot of work digging ourselves out.

Tony had a snow day from work so we were able to hang out, catch up on some paperwork for our upcoming adoption, eat goodies, watch TV, keep warm by the fire, play with play doh and frolic in the snow for a little while.


Halainah hasn't really had the chance to play in the snow. Thank goodness I had her snowsuit from last year that Opa bought her right before we left for China. Even though it was a size 12 months, she still fit in it. We did not have appropriate snow boots or gloves so our adventures in snow land did not last very long.

When Halainah got up this morning she ran to the sliding glass doors, took a peak outside and said, "oh daddy, daddy. Oh daddy, snow, SNOW! Oh daddy." She just melts my heart.


So our adventures outside in the snow for the very first time started out very well. Halainah was very excited and she loved touching the snow.

She had a little bit of a rough time trying to walk in the snow as it was too deep and again we didn't have the right boots.

Sooooo....DOWN she went....face first.


She whimpered a bit as I think she was a little startled.


But she managed to get herself up.

And sort of just looked at me like....what just happened and why didn't you help me mommy?

She quickly got over her fall and decided to catch some yummy snow flakes on her tongue.

And smell the fresh winter air!

And this is what our winter wonderland looks like from the sliding glass doors where we were finally snug and warm inside our house.


It was a very nice family day...but I am ready for Spring now!

Monday, February 8, 2010

BEST VALENTINE MEMORY

Wow...I haven't taken part in a blog hop for a really long time. But I have to be honest that my interest was sparked by a very nice $100 prize to one very lucky winner who takes part in this blog hop.

My husband and I have another large lump sum of cash due to our adoption agency in the next few weeks for the next phase of our second adoption. And I am trying every way I possibly can to come up with the money. So who knows...maybe I will be the lucky winner.

This week's blog hop theme is best "Valentine Memory." So I am supposed to tell you about my most memorable Valentine's Day. First of all, I have to let you in on a little secret. I was never a big fan of Valentine's Day. The reason being is that it is 1 day prior to my birthday. So I always felt jipped because I always got a "combined deal." It was never two separate occasions for me. Anyway, my husband was warned early on in our relationship and he always did a fabulous job of keeping the two separate (well most of the time...LOL)

But my all time favorite, most exciting, most cherished and grand Valentine's day was last year. I can think of a great runner up but this is a G rated family blog...LOL. My husband and I celebrated our very first Valentine's day together with our daughter on February 14, 2009. We were still getting to know each other as we arrived home from China just 1 month prior. We celebrated our unconditional love for Halainah and how happy and complete she made us on that special day. After 10 years of trying to conceive a child, we were finally parents through God's grace...and every holiday was a million times more special after her arrival.

Valentine's Day is no longer about me or about feeling jipped because my birthday is the next day. It is all about my daughter. It is about the love I have for her, the daughter I waited 10 very long years for. And if my husband is lucky, when our little miracle daughter is finally asleep, than maybe we can celebrate our love for each other too...maybe...LOL!

Happy Blog Hopping and enjoy some pics. from last Valentine's day. I can't believe how much Halainah has grown, in more ways than one!


MckLinky Blog Hop

Friday, February 5, 2010

2 YEAR OLD CONVERSATION

Halainah - "Mommy"

Me - "Yes Halainah"

Halainah - "Mommy"

Me - "Yes"

Halainah - "Mommy"

Me - "YES, Halainah"

Halainah - "Stinky"

Me - "You're Stinky?"

Halainah - "Nooooo"

Me - "Then who's stinky?"

Halainah - "Daddy's stinky, PU!"

Me - "Daddy's at work, how do you know he's stinky?"

Halainah - "Daddy's stinky" (Giggles)

Halainah - "Daddy's stinky PU" (More Giggles)

Halainah - "Daddy's stinky" (Major Giggles)

Halainah - "PU"


And she repeated "Daddy's stinky" during our entire shopping trip today bursting out with laughter. Wonder what people were thinking ? Who cares! We are constantly stared at while we are out and about anyway. This just made it more enjoyable!


Look Mommy, Snow!


Out shopping!

Halainah loves rice and will just throw it into the shopping cart!

Out to lunch with Opa!

Playing at an indoor gym!



Rock climbing with Daddy!

Monday, February 1, 2010

THANK YOU GOD FOR MY DADDY, AMEN!

The Greatest Gift I Ever Had

Came From God, And I Call Him Daddy!

Your The Bestest Daddy In The Whole Wide World!

Who Gives The Warmest Hugs And Most Heavenly Kisses!

I Am So Happy That All Of Our Dreams Came True

When God Sent You All The Way To China To Bring Me Home With You!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Your Little Angel,
Halainah Grace

Halainah's Daddy had to go away on business to Florida this weekend. We missed him so very very much. We said many prayers together so that daddy would come back home to us safe and sound. Our prayers varied daily but they went something along the lines of: "Dear Jesus, please protect my daddy and bring him home safe and sound. Amen." Halainah says the cutest, loudest and most cherished "Amen" that any little girl could utter! When daddy finally came home we said our prayers to him. He thought it was so very cute! The next few pics were taken as soon as we got home from the airport. Halainah was so happy to finally have her daddy safely back home and in her arms. We missed him dearly!