Two Wheeled Tuesday

Return trip Summer 2018

We will be returning to China for a heritage with our kids and other families that we adopted with almost 11 years ago.  The last time we left the Mainland it was December 2008 with our newly added son to make us a family of 4.  Our kids are now 9 & 11 and are excited to travel to the land of their birth. 

Ten years ago today

It's been a very long time since I posted on this blog, but I thought today would be an appropriate day.  Ten years ago today (11/23/05) our dossier was logged into the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs for our adoption of Madison.  This date is significant & forever seared in my brain as this is the date that changed so many things in our life.  This date steered us to become friends with other waiting parents who were also logged in around the same time and still continue to be our friends both in person & on-line.  We treasure these friendships so much and are glad that our paths crossed on this journey because of a date.  

In thinking back it's funny to think that on the date we logged in, Madison hadn't even been conceived yet, let alone born.  At the time the wait seemed to drag on forever but in God's timing it was just needed to happen.  We are forever grateful to China for allowing us to adopt both Madison & Zeke.

Spotty updates

Yes, I know it's been over 2 months since my last update.  What can I say- life happened!  We got through a beautiful March only to get a little dose of weather reality for Easter.  In late April Matt spent 4 nights in the hospital for an infected toe that went wild.  Thankfully he is on the mend!

Now we are getting ready for Kindergarten- Maddy has her 'round-up' next week & is very excited.  Zeke continues to grow & develop by leaps and bounds.  And the siblings daily find something to fight about. 

Below are a few photos from Easter -

Wordless Wednesday- Happy Leap Day!

Happy Golden Birthday Madison!

Today Maddy turned 5. We had a fun day celebrating & she loved telling everyone (& I do mean everyone) that it is her birthday. We brought cookies for her to share with her Sunday school class at church & then we headed to PF Chang's for lunch. We have much bigger doings planned for next weekend complete with a party. Since a golden birthday only comes once in a lifetime, we will let her milk it out this week too a little :).

This weekend we also made our annual trek to the motorcycle show. Here are a few photos from that event:

Zeke & Grandpa- we stopped by Grandpa's stand to say hello



No, she didn't get this for her birthday (but Mama's hoping this will be her present someday)

Chinese New Year- The Year of the Dragon

Last Monday it officially became the Year of the Dragon. We went out to celebrate at our favorite local Chinese restaurant. The celebration came complete with red envelopes for each of the kids. This past weekend we also did our annual CNY Party with about 20 other local adoptive families at a friend's house. It's fun every year to see how much the kids are growing, one of the best parts of the night this year was making dumplings. This is one of Maddy's favorite foods so she was thrilled with doing this. I am putting a couple of previous year photos for fun too.



Our little life of the party in his glory right in the middle of all the girls



And now for a couple of flashbacks:

Maddy's first CNY in 2008 @ 1 years old

Last year's photo- Zeke's first CNY at home