Emily's Birthday Party

Emily had her first birthday party with friends.  Her friends from her school class, a few close family friends and family also celebrated with Emily.  It was a fun day of painting, bubbles, birthday cupcakes, presents and smiles. 

 

    

You go Girl! We love you!

Emily turns THREE!

My little girl is growing so fast right before my eyes!!!  Can you believe Emily has been home for almost 2 years now?  Wow! What is Emily like at 3?  Well...she is a little ham. She has such expressive facial features, loves to be so silly and is constantly talking from sun up till sun down.   She especially loves to talk to her little fairies at our nature table, take good care of her baby dollies, ride her two wheeled bike, and climbs like a monkey.  She loves to wear cute shoes, fun clips in her hair and give us directions.  She is a mommy's girl through and through but of course loves her daddy and brothers too.  She is tough but can be shy in new environments and with new people. Such a little cuddle bug she is...loves to be held and snuggled. We are so blessed to be Emily's family.  What a little joy she is!  

My how she has changed! Here is Emily at 13 months the first week home and Emily now at 3 years old on her birthday morning.

When Emily woke up we had crepe paper curtains hanging from her door, a few small presents and birthday sign on the table and her favorite breakfast of eggs, bacon and orange juice.

After dinner Emily blew out her birthday candles and opened her special present...a new pink bike!

                                

 Happy Birthday Em!

Emily at Mtn School

Emily started school in the fall just like her brothers. She goes one day a week to Mtn School with mommy. She is in class with 11 0ther 2 and 3 year old children. Emily is loving her school and asks every day if it's her day to go to Mtn School. In the fall and spring Mtn School meets outdoors at various locations. Currently we are meeting in a redwood grove that has a creek and a sandbox. The kids go on hikes, participate in cooking projects, do music, read books, sing songs, do art, play in the creek and sand. It is a blast.

Fishing in the creek.

Emily and a banana slug. Isn't she just so happy to be carrying that bug?

Emily really loves bugs. Any kind of bug seeking is fun and especially when she finds them. One day we found hundreds of lady bugs hiding under the grasses. She was in heaven trying to pick up and hold the lady bugs. They were everywhere...on your pants, hair, etc. Emily did not mind, she just kept trying to get one on her hand. Finally, she succeeded!

Look carefully and you will see Emily is proudly holding a ladybug.

Here she is on a hike picking up a dandelion in the tall grasses.

We have a good friend in class with us. Here's Emily and her bud sitting on a log participating in a song. Too cute! Notice the rainboots for creek hiking.

Here she is climbing a redwood. Such a monkey!

One last photo with the puppet, Tiny Tim the Turtle. This puppet is a special friend in this class. All the children want to hold Tiny Tim. Here is Emily having a turn with the Turtle, who just happens to be her favorite animal.

School is off to a fun start. How I love this class. I'm having so much fun with Emily. Her Mtn School day is our special day together. I Love, love love time with just my girl!

Sillyness

Well, it looks like I took a little time off. All is well, just had a busy and fun summer. Lots to catch up on. Here is a quick photo series of my silly kids this evening.

For fun..here is a look at a photo series I took a little over a year ago. Oh..so little and oh so cute! Hard to believe how fast they grow!

An email I received tonight...

Back in Feb 2008 I was desperately trying to get a response to what happened to my I-600A. It had been sent in completed 6 months prior and I couldn't get anyone at Homeland Security to respond to me. In desperation, I sent off many emails to my local homeland security office in charge of adoptions inquiring desperately about why I hadn't received my 171-H yet. We were told we would most likely travel on trip one in March 2008 to meet our daughter and court would be shortly after on trip 2. If we didn't have that paper in the next month it could interefere with our court date. I was pretty anxious and a little desperate in Feb 2008 because after 6 months of not being able to get a response how could I in one month?

14 months later today, imagine my surprise when I opened my email to see this very short response I received with all my previous emails attached...

"Hopefully this has been resolved. If it has not, please provide me your number and the best time to reach you.
Thank you."

So sad...as if I just sat around for the past 14 months waiting for some unimportant response as if forgetting that this was in regards to a child and family's life that was stuck in limbo. And the worse part, my number was all over that email even under my name at the bottom and top. Clearly, my desperate pleas were not even read. Just a formal procedure to move around paperwork. So, here I would be again responding and then waiting to hear back from who? No name was even signed. So very, very sad! I shudder to think what if...what if I didn't get that paper?...what if noone had helped us? What would our lives have been like today without our sweet and precious Emily? It gives me chills to even consider...

Another big milestone for my big girl!

Oh sweet goodness! My little baby girl has been in big girl undies the past few weeks and has had no accidents the past 4 days in a row. We have been on the go...parks, carpooling to camps, grocery store runs, restaurants, swim lessons...she has used the potty successfully everywhere we have been. She is so proud of herself and loves wearing her big girl undies. It's amazing..it's like it just finally clicked and she wanted it. She has been using the toliet since last summer. She was interested of course because big brothers are on it so frequently so it just became built into our everyday routine, kind of like hand washing and she of course was still in diapers too and just this week it's like something changed. It's like she made up her mind that she wanted to wear her big girl undies all the time and that was it, no looking back. She's so funny about the big girl undies...just like mommy she says. She sleeps with her undies and loves to decide over which pair to choose each morning. She has favorites and it's hard when those are already been chosen for the week. She is such a girl. The boys never care which pair they are wearing but Emily loves to come down and show everyone which pair today. Yeah! I'm so happy for her! Yeah!! Of course at night time she is still in overnights not undies, and I will expect acccidents to come when she stops focusing on her body and moves onto other goals she sets for herself...but it's a great accomplishment and one I don't mind moving on from. Yeah for Emily!! Three cheers for my big girl!

Still hanging around

We are still here! Just been so busy with the end of the school year stuff!! Little miss smiley is still keeping me on my toes. She continues to grow and amaze us. Her little personality is not so little! She is full of smiles and sillyness. She likes girly stuff but is also my sporty tom girl..totally into climbing, riding her scooter and bugs! And she is fast too! Full on sprints, totally fluid in her movements, she is really hard to catch! She finished off the year at Mtn School with Bubba and I was so impressed how she was able to hike up the creek with the 3 and 4 year olds! She is going to have a blast next year in her own class! She's been asking me where her back pack is. Looks like I need to get her's ordered! She is right in there with other kids. We don't have regular girls to play with as much as we have lots of boys so Emily is very interested in girls esp. girls slightly older. She has a special little girl friend that we do see at school and she always asks to play with her. They are the same age and so cute together! Potty training is still going. She picked out big girl underwear and on the mornings she keeps her diapers dry then she gets to wear the underwear after nap. She is so proud of herself and loves her underwear. I frequently find all of them in her bed with her during naptime. She loves to go through them and pick out her favorite pairs...the pink ones, of course! She refers to herself as big girl and gets really upset if her brothers call her a baby and will yell back at them, "No, I'm big girl." Ah, where does the time go?

Life is good...just busy! Looking forward to the summer and all of the adventures that it entails! The kids are all signed up for swim lessons just as soon as Boy Wonder's school is out. I'm sure Emily will do great!