Family pictures . . .

The week after we came home with Samara, we thought it would be nice to get a good picture of the three kids together. Ha! Easier said than done. Here are some of the results:

Attempt #2: same kids . . . different day . . . same results: unsuccessful!

The biggest problem seems to be that Samara can't sit still for two seconds. And then Victoria and Austin start giggling cause they think she's so funny. Perhaps these are the kind of family pictures we'll have to expect from now on . . . it'll make for interesting Christmas cards!

We've only been home for a month but this past Saturday we had our first reunion with our China travel group. After spending 17 days together in China and becoming really close, we've had a bit of withdrawal being away from each other. It's amazing how strong of a bond we have formed with these friends. These are people we shared an amazing journey with and they were right there beside us as we welcomed Samara into our arms. We shared our excitement and frustration during the long wait, shared our joys and concerns in China and now we still keep in touch via email. Needless to say, it was so good to see everyone again on Saturday. We missed those who were unable to make it - Darcy and Donna, Dave and Jayne, Kirk and Debbie - hopefully we'll be able to see you soon too!

Here are a few pictures from Saturday. Thank you Paul and Angela for welcoming us into your beautiful home.

Ella's new family

Before we travelled to China at the beginning of February, a girl I met through a yahoo group asked if anyone would be willing to take a care package to the orphanage for her daughter. I said I would gladly do that for them and the care package was sent to me promptly. When we visited the orphanage I was able to take pictures of Ella opening the care package and looking at pictures of her new family. She is such a beautiful child and I was honoured to be able to do this for her and her family. Here are some pictures I took in February of Ella with her carepackage:

And today Ella is finally with her new family. I am so excited for them all. Congratulations Tracy, Jeff, Savannah (who is also in China with them), Jeffrey and Sam! You have been blessed! Here they are:



Look how cute she is! She's obviously had a haircut since I've seen her. So precious!

Oh ya, the orphanage director told them that Ella knows their pictures very well and can call all of them by name. I'm so glad that I was able to bring that photo album to her - it will help immensely with her adjustment. What a great orphanage too - to be able to take the time with Ella to show her the pictures and teach her who her new family is. We are all blessed to have children from the Foshan Nanhai SWI. I will be forever grateful to Ms. Tang and all the nannies there for the wonderful care they gave our children for the first months or years of their lives.

Disney on Ice

On Friday evening my sister-in-law Michelle and I took our oldest girls, Breanna and Victoria, to see Disney on Ice. We were so excited because we've been waiting for them to be old enough to do this. Michelle and I actually went to see Disney on Ice together probably more than ten years ago and ever since we had our daughters three months apart, we've talked about taking them when they were old enough. They were so excited and hyper and absolutely loved it!! One of the biggest highlights was that they got to stay up past their bedtimes. And the biggest disappointment (for Victoria anyway) was that her mother (yes, that's me) wouldn't fork out $10 for cotton candy. Can you believe that? It cost $10 for cotton candy! I just couldn't do it. We did buy colouring books for them though and a bag of gummies. Here are some pictures of the girls and the show.














The girls were a little disappointed that they didn't get to see more princesses but hopefully this will be an annual event now so perhaps next year Cinderella or Snow White will make an appearance.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Wings of Paradise

Mike has been off work for a few days since it's March Break so we decided to take the kid to Wings of Paradise (a butterfly conservatory) on Monday. The second we walked into the butterfly area Austin freaked right out. He absolutely hated it. I guess the whole experience of butterflies flying around his head was too much for him (sound familiar Aunt Christel??) I had to carry him the whole time and he eventually relaxed . . . a little. Here are some of the pictures we took.











I think Samara enjoyed it the most out of everyone. She didn't even mind when a drop from the waterfall fell right on her nose. As long as she's got those two fingers in her mouth, all is right in her world. Now if only mommy and daddy would let her eat that big yellow flower!