General update

I haven't taken many pictures lately, so here are a couple of cute, recent ones of the kids.




We had a little drama in our house this week with flooding of our basement. Thankfully the damage was minimal & after a few days of needing to vacate the lower level, we are back in business.

This week I was thinking back to a year ago when we were in the middle of our wait for the Letter of Approval issued by China to move forward with Zeke's adoption. That letter was always in the back of our minds during last summer since it would have such a profound impact on the course our life would take.

The best laid plans

Our plans for the 4th of July got turned on their ear this past weekend with the storms. It started Friday night with the loss of electricity at our house overnight which delayed our packing up until the next day. We finally got packed up & headed north early Saturday afternoon when we got a call that the resort where we go every year was hit pretty hard with the storms. They lost electricity & water plus the cabin we stay in had a tree sitting in one of the bedrooms. So alas 2 hours of getting the car loaded & keeping the kids from climbing the walls while doing it turned out to be for nothing. Every once in a while we need a little reminder that we are not in control.

After a few more calls & tears from the kids at the loss of our lake weekend, we quickly came up with plans to morph our vacation into a 'staycation.' We spent a lot of time outside & hit a local beach, water park & spent a night camped out at grandma & grandpa's house with some of the cousins.

All in all it was a fun weekend. I am a little sad since this was to be our 4th year of going to Yellow Lake (a tradition we started when Maddy was just a year old). It has always been fun to relax, eat lots of food, swim, & of course provided many photo opps for creating the following year's calendar.

Here are this year's 4th of July weekend photos:

Wordless Wednesday

Graduation & Wedding Season

We had a very busy June this year with a total of 6 graduations & a wedding that we were invited to attend. This month has been pretty none stop each weekend, so we are glad to have a little time to relax coming up in July.


Here is a look at some of the June festivities we attended:

Hanging with one of his cousins's at the wedding

Outside Miller Park in Milwaukee w/the Klements characters

Zeke kissing the ladies' hands - starting his chivalry early

Timeout for monkey

Recently there has been a lot of fighting over this little monkey. Maddy was gracious enough to give Zeke most of what she considered her 'boy' stuffed animals (the brown ones like bears & monkeys), but she had a change of heart with this little guy. They had been fighting over 'Little George' (yes there is another bigger version of this guy w/o the hat) for quite a few days. One would wait until the other wasn't paying attention & would play capture the monkey out of the other's room. On this particular day, there was a tug o war going on over poor little George. I told the kids since he was causing them to fight so much that he had to go into to timeout. Problem solved!

Six months ago today.....

in Hubei, China our lives were forever changed by a certain little boy. Today we celebreate half a year with our son. It's so hard to believe that it's already been that long. We are amazed & blessed by him on a daily basis. Amazed that he blended into the family so quickly and blessed that we were chosen to be his forever family.

The other part that blows our minds is how well he & his sister have formed a bond. There are times when we see a side of Maddy that would have never been possible without a sybling. Zeke has come a long way since that first meeting at the Civil Affairs Office in Wuhan. His English is wonderful & his pronouciation since his surgery is remarkable.

Things we have learned about our son:

• Lately he prefers to be called Yang Yang so we are trying to respect that
• He loves meatballs
• He can spot a motorcycle from very far away
• He makes the funniest sound effects with his mouth (motorcycles, cars, sirens, etc.)
• He is learning to hold his own with his bossy big sister
• He does not like having dirty hands or a dirty face
• He is very friendly & loves to say 'hi' & 'bye' to everyone
• One of his favorite games is playing pillow pet chase with his sister before bedtime

Wordless Wednesday