Sunday, June 22, 2014

ALL ABOUT OUR SON

At the end of February we were matched with our son.  He was one week shy of 10 months old.  We were shocked as we were expecting a baby girl.   As soon as I received the phone call that would add another precious miracle to our family, I knew we were meant to have a son.  I am beyond excited to have a little boy join our crazy girl world.

Our son is currently residing in Loudi City which is in the Hunan Province of China.  His Chinese name is Lou Kang Nan.  He is called NanNan by his nannies.  He is described as being a strong little baby, stout little arms and legs, squabbly  little belly (not sure what that means), short and spare hair, chubby face, gleaming big eyes, stretching his little lips, horribly cute.  We think he is perfect in every single way.

We are naming our son Colton Anthony.  Boys names are so hard.  We tossed a bunch of them back and forth to each other and none of them sounded right.  We think Colton will fit him perfectly and we will call him Cole for short.

So without further adieu let me introduce you to our son who we are madly and deeply in love with.  We pray that the Lord is preparing his heart for Gotcha Day.  Gotcha Day is so bittersweet for me.  It's one of the best days of our lives yet devastating for our little treasures.  Halainah loved us as much as we loved her from day one.  Ava struggled terribly on Gotcha Day and for many days afterwards.  I pray somehow Colton feels at peace and feels loved.  1 1/2 more weeks before we embark on our next journey.














Sunday, June 15, 2014

WE'RE BACK

We're back to the blog world...for now at least. And we are back for a VERY good reason.  In 2 1/2 weeks we will be traveling to China to bring home our next treasure.  Our Son is currently waiting for his Mommy and Daddy to come and get him.  Yes, you heard me right...our Son.  And he is the cutest little guy that you will ever see.  The Lord was not done with our family, and when the Lord says GO...we RUN!  We are beyond excited to add a little boy to our family.

I figured since it has been well over 2 years since I last updated my blog, I would post an update on my beautiful girls.




Halainah Grace is 6 1/2 years old.  Halainah is our quiet until you get to know her, loving, smart, artistic, compassionate, affectionate, happy little girl.  She will be graduating from Kindergarten in a few days.  Halainah loves school and willingly jumps out of bed in the morning to get ready.  She loves to learn new things.  You will always see Halainah with a pencil and notepad.  We find notes all around our house from her.  Usually her notes say, "I love Mommy and Daddy and Ava."  We will also find notes and drawings to her friends or Grandma and Opa.  Halainah is our laid back, go with the flow kind of girl.  She will gladly jump into the car at any given notice as long as she has something to write with.  Halainah loves BIG.  She will tell us she loves us at least 10 times a day and that is not an exaggeration.  She gives the biggest most warmest hugs ever.  And if you are sitting for a minute she will wiggle her body as close to yours and place her head on your shoulder or chest and that is after she plants a nice big kiss on your cheek.  Halainah has a heart of gold and wants to make sure everyone she knows is happy.  If a friend is sick, she will get out her art supplies and create an amazing card for them.  Halainah lost her first tooth a few months ago.  She wrote the tooth fairy a letter with a picture and placed it inside her little tooth box.  The Tooth Fairy was very generous.  On the following Sunday, Halainah grabbed her Tooth Fairy money and said, "I'm going to put this in the basket at church today so that another little girl or boy can have something new that they want."  This girl of mine is wise beyond her years.  We love her more than life itself and know that she will love life to the fullest.



Ava Maria is 4 1/2 years old.  She will be graduating from preschool in a week.  Ava is so excited to be going to Kindergarten in the Fall.  She already knows all of the teachers at her new school since her big sister is in Kindergarten now.  Ava knows everyone and everyone knows Ava.  Ava is our spunky, sassy, very loud, extremely flexible, head strong, loving, born to be a leader little girl.  She is extremely bright but if she doesn't feel like learning something new, she will let you know it.  Ava will walk up to anyone who even glances in her direction to ask them their name and age.  It doesn't matter if you are 2 or 82.  Ava loves to look beautiful and will only wear sparkly dresses, sparkly shoes and tons of lip gloss.  She looks at herself in the mirror and will say, "I'm so beautiful."  Ava loves to take care of the little babies at the daycare/preschool that I run.  She's a good Mommy to them and I know for certain that she will take very good care of her brother.  Ava loves to hula hoop.  And she can keep a hula hoop going around her waist for a good 15 minutes.  And the funny thing is, it almost looks as though she isn't even moving.  Ava will be going to dance classes in the Fall and I think that she will not only love it but she will own it.  She can stand on her head with her toes pointed towards the ceiling for what seems like an eternity.  She's constantly jumping, twirling, tumbling, singing, and moving.  No wonder she only weighs 30 pounds at almost 5 years of age.  But even though Ava is tiny...she is fierce.  I have no doubt that our little firecracker will conquer the world and that is why we love her to the moon and back.  

Ava and Halainah are very different...complete opposites for sure.  They love each other very much but also fight like typical sisters.   We are so excited to add some blue in our very pink world.  We can't wait to embark on this next chapter of our life.

Next post will be all about our Son, and I can't wait to share him with the world!