3 years ago ... it all changed

Three years ago today (April 17) our world changed.

We were in JCPenney buying some last-minute things for our trip to Chicago for the East Meets West conference when my cell phone rang. It was Great Wall, and they had a "kiddo" whose file they wanted us to take a look at. Since we were in town, we hurried over to work and checked the e-mail.

This was one of the first photos we saw.



From that moment on, we knew we had found our son. Who couldn't fall in love with that face? Luckily for us one of the guest speakers at the conference was an international adoption doctor who had adopted 4 girls from China. He reviewed our file and we decided to go for it.

Three years later life is definitely good.

BE THERE! BE THERE! BE THERE!

We were there Saturday night, for the monster trucks. We figured Jake would get a kick out of it, since he has taken more of a liking lately to his extensive collection of toy cars and trucks.

He did enjoy it, although a couple of times he said he was "tired of watching this" and could we do something else. But, we stuck it out and he ended up having a good time. His favorite thing was when "the cars went upside down."

Here we are in line. We had to stand in line for a little while in the cold.



Here's Jake with his ear plugs in (it was really loud) standing in front of the monster trucks.



Another pose with the trucks in the background.



Jake watching the show.



Waving his flag for the winner.



What goes up, must come down ... upside down that is.





Bigfoot standing on end.



Jake doing a silly pose in front of Bigfoot after the show.

Another CNY celebration, and a great time was had by all

We had a great time at the CNY party put on by Central Oklahoma FCC. Thank you so much gang for the good time. It was at a Chinese buffet in Edmond and we were celebrating the Lunar New Year (a little late) and welcoming the year of the rabbit. There were crafts, good food, friends, a chance to meet new people and the lion (or was it the dragon?) dance.

Jake's favorite: Egg-drop soup



Making crafts. Jake is getting good at coloring, although he did run out of patience today and go crazy with the crayon at the end.



Here is what Jake and Marossie made. Scary!



They also made a lantern for the lantern festival, celebrated shortly after the new year.



Was it a dragon dance or a lion? We're going with lion since the teeth seem more blunt. LOL Jake didn't want to participate in the dance at first, but Daddy shoved him in and it was all fun from there.



Who's that lion?



It's Jake! He pretty much stole the show.



Mommy, Jake, Daddy in our traditional self-portrait



Jake with his friends Marossie and Mary playing in the water fountain.


Later we had some fun outside at our "Little House" as Jake calls it.

How handsome is he?



There are thousands of geese that have taken up residence in the field across the road. When they take off it sounds like thunder or a truck rumbling by on the dirt road.



There still is some snow left.



Showing off his form. Pretty good.

Chinese New Year

We had another great time with area families Sunday evening celebrating Chinese New Year, the year of the rabbit.

Jake had a good time playing with his friend Marossie and the others.

Here's the whole gang.



And here's the little ham having some fun. I wonder who taught him to do that?

Too big for his britches

In China nothing fit Jake. We were told his size, and we brought clothes accordingly, but everything was way too big. Unfortunately, he had to wear what we brought for a few days until we could shop for more.




Today I packed the pants away. He's "a big boy now" and he's finally gotten too big for these pants.

Violet

This is Jake's province. Amazing video!

Snow

We got a bit of snow here Monday, maybe a couple of inches.

But, it was enough to have some fun. For one, we were able to go sliding down a nearby hill.

Is he having fun, or what?



It was cold, too, so we came home and had ... hot chocolate with marshmallows. Yummy!



The snow wasn't the best kind for making a snowman, but we gave it a good try. He's a mini snowman.