Yummy!

Myah has learned that baseball games are associated with a trip to Dairy Queen or popsicles at the park. Although it is messy it keeps her occupied for a while! She never used to like the texture of ice cream but she is coming around! She can eat a baby cone all by herself. Here are a few pictures of her with treats after a few very hot games! I have the cutest video of her if I can figure out how to post it.

Chuck E Cheese

We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese before one of Dayton's baseball games. It was Myah's first time there, she had so much fun! I hadn't been in this one since D was really little, it was actually really clean and all the games only required 1 token so your dollar went a little farther than it used to! It was a great place to take a 12 and 2 year old! We are searching for places that both kids can enjoy, it can be challenging. We will be back Chucky!

Baseball Season is Over!

Our big hitter,
catcher
coach (dad)
cheerleader
and pitcher, we are proud of you #8!

Tonight marks the last baseball game of the season! I truly feel like summer can start now! Yeah!! Dayton made us very proud this year and I can't imagine how big he will look next year out on the field!

Fourteen Wonderful Years!

I love this picture, it was taken during the ceremony, you don't see all of the guests but it captured many of our loved ones.
I took a few pictures with my camera from our wedding album.
I love this picture because it shows the true Mark and Leslie, always goofing around! Our sense of humor has always been our strong point!

Today is our fourteenth wedding anniversary! We have been together since I was 15 years old and Mark was 17. We dated 7 years before we were married. It seems like I have been with him forever. We knew each other in elementary school, he was my best friend's "boyfriend"! I was a cheerleader and he was a basketball player. We were together all through my high school years and college years. A year after he graduated from college and began his police career, he proposed to me and I gladly accepted! We were married in the church that Mark was baptized in as a baby, his parents were married there and most of his family was also. It was a very beautiful day and looking back it was the most special day of our lives. We had planned every detail ourselves and enlisted our families help in making the day perfect. I will never forget walking down the long aisle smiling at all of our family and friends, we had about 400 guests and I was grateful to see each and every one of them. At the end of the aisle stood my handsome groom. I had nerves of steel and he was nervous as could be. I have never felt so loved in all my life as I did standing at the alter knowing that everyone in the world who loved us and cared for us were seated in the pews. As we were looking through our album tonight I noticed how many of those people have passed away. Many loved ones who sat in the first and second pews are gone. We are so grateful that they were there to witness our vows. We know that they are still here with us, guiding us and protecting us just like they did that day. Time has flown, our waists have grown, our hair is gray but we still have the same authentic love that has carried us through all of lifes ups and downs. This past month our flower girl just graduated from high school as co-valedictorian, we are starting to feel old! I am so blessed to have Mark in my life and am excited to see what our future holds for us! I love you honey! Happy Anniversary!

PS: We stayed up really late tonight watching our wedding videos, we haven't watched them in a few years. It was so funny seeing Dayton's reactions, he was laughing at how big everyone's glasses were and he also proclaimed that when he gets married he will pick a very short song to dance to for his first bridal dance, he claims it would be too embarrassing to dance in front of all of those people for so long! This coming from the boy who break danced in front of everyone at the last wedding we attended! We laughed and cried, all of the things you do when you reminisce! I also forgot to mention that once again we spent our anniversary at Dayton's baseball game, they WON! We all went out to Dairy Queen for ice cream to celebrate afterwards!

Tea Party

This next picture is the place setting that she prepared for me, so darling!! I love having a little girl!!

I had bought this cute lady bug tea set for Myah a few years ago and pulled it out the other night. She adored it! We had a tea party in her room for new bunny and her Bitty Baby. She was a very good hostess!

Liberty Fest

Here is Myah on one of the Police Motorcyles at Daddy's department, long ago Daddy rode one of these and we have pictures of Dayton on it too.
Myah was treated like a queen, Lt. Kerr told Daddy to give Myah a spin on his golf cart at the festival.
Jack Hannah the animal guy was there showing us all kinds of neat animals.
Dayton and Andrew had fun walking around on their own and riding the rides, they also toured the big rig, the new mobile command unit.

Happy 2nd Birthday Sarah!

Myah's First Garden

A month ago I purchased the cutest starter garden for children at my favorite nursery Bordines. They had 4 little veggie plants already started and we put them in pots and Myah helps tend to them. They are growing really well now, especially the tomatoes, this is so much fun!

China Doll

One of my adoption buddies Laura owns a flower shop and before we went to China she gave the 4 of us buddies a special plant called China Doll. It is getting so big and I just love it! I am not the greatest at tending to indoor plants but this one in particular has not only survived but it has thrived!

Yucky Shots!

Myah went in for her 2 year checkup today, she is very healthy at 26.4 pounds and 33 inches tall! Her favorite new phrase is "no way" and our Dr. sure heard that enough today! She was pretty cooperative, we have had this particular pediatrician since Dayton was 4 days old, she is so relaxed with us and I think that really helped Myah feel comfortable. She got 3 shots today, she knew they were coming! I had to go in early to have some blood work done for myself so the kids tagged along while the nurse drew my blood, Myah freaked out, she didn't want anyone hurting her mommy, it was so cute seeing Dayton try to comfort her while I am being stuck with a needle! I am a pretty woosy person and I had to laugh when Dayton was comforting her by saying " look Myah, see the pretty red color" I told him to change the subject! She freaked out worse with my needle than she did with hers. After her shots she screamed a bit but I told her she could have a sucker and that was all it took, she started saying "sucker, sucker, sucker" and there were no more tears. So cute. Good news Myah, no more shots until you are 4!!!!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

In honor of Father's Day I will keep this short and sweet so that we can spend our day together as a family. I could literally write a book on how wonderful Mark is as a husband and a dad. We know how blessed we are to have him in our lives and we want to thank him for always putting our family first in his life. He makes many sacrifices in order to create a safe, warm and loving home for all of us and we love him so much for that! We love you Daddy!

Home For 1 Year Today!

Our front door never looked so inviting as it did that day! Home Sweet Home had a whole new meaning!
Chloe, Annabelle and Myah were modeling the hats I had picked up at the Great Wall for them!

I only have a few minutes today but I wanted to acknowledge the fact that we arrived home with Myah a year ago today and she became a US citizen! What a year!! We spent the day at a baseball tournament and planes kept flying overhead reminding us of the 16 hour plus trip we had home with our darling daughter. It was a great feeling to stand on US soil again and introduce Myah to our friends and family and take her home!

Two Years Ago This Morning.......

This beautiful, raven-haired baby girl was found all alone on the orphanage steps two years ago today. The wonderful people at Tuanfeng SWI took her in and snapped this priceless photo of our little Li Wen Ting. I have taken thousands of photographs in my life, none of them even come close to being as precious as this particular one is to our family. What makes it so remarkable is the fact that a picture of her so young even exists. Even more so is the fact that the SWI gave us a copy of it in a beautiful album with pictures taken throughout her first year of life. I have stared at this photo and examined every aspect of it. These were the clothes that her mother (maybe father too) wrapped her in. I can't imagine how she must have felt when she dressed her little baby for this day. She was bundled in 3 layers. I am sure that the weather was very hot that day, she lived in a very warm area of China. She was so tiny, with so much hair! I have been torn about sharing this picture with others for a while. However, I have come to peace with my decision and I hope that Myah will understand someday why I decided to share it. There are many items that I have left for "just her" to decide if she wants to share someday. I know that God was looking out for little Myah that morning. For a moment in time, she was all alone, with no one, no possessions, no note, just the clothes that she was swaddled in. She was a fighter and still is. I wish with all of my heart that today her birthmother feels like she did the right thing by letting Myah go. I pray that she isn't living her life in shame or regret. We said our prayers last night before Myah went to bed and while we were praying for Myah's birth parents, she was the happiest that I had seen her all day. She was laughing and throwing her head back from giggling so hard. I felt very good at that moment, we have done the right thing, and so did her birthmother. Please say a prayer today for all of us. Yesterday I was at our local antique mall looking for furniture for Myah's big girl room and I came across this Chinese Proverb that someone had painted on a picture of flowers it was a red thread moment for me and I thought it was appropriate for today."Flowers leave some of their fragrance on the hand that bestows them”.

School's Out!!!

I can't get over how much the kids have grown since last September, look at the difference! The top picture was the first day of 6th grade for Dayton in September and the bottom picture is from his last day of school on Tuesday. Myah decided she needed her Finding Nemo book!

Gotcha Daisy

These were taken on our 1 year Gotcha Day anniversary.

The Talented Aunt Melanie Strikes Again!

Many of you know how my little sister Melanie just oozes with creativity. I have always told everyone that I left the creativity genes in the womb for her to have, I am the organized one. I have come to the conclusion that she can do anything! She is an awesome interior decorator and has worked for Ethan Allen and Rainbow Interiors before opening her own storefront a few years back. She is also a wonderful floral designer, she has created the most beautiful weddings that I have ever seen. She also happens to be a great cook! She is Martha Stewarts long lost daughter, seriously! I loved helping her in her gorgeous store and also learned more than I ever wanted to know about flowers from her while working on weddings with her. I will have to dig up some photos of the weddings that she has done so you can see what I mean. She has kind of stepped back from all of it now since she adopted her two adorable daughters almost 3 years ago. She has found her hobby to be scrapbooking lately, of course putting her creative spins on her work. I thought I would share a few pictures of the sweet book she made me for Mother's Day, the thoughtful frame she made for Myah's baptism and also the little book she made Myah for her birthday. We have been approached about me taking pictures for families needing pictures for their adoption papers and Melanie creating the portfolios needed in domestic adoptions, hers was beautiful by the way. If you know anyone interested please contact me.

Great Books

Myah's hands down favorite book is I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, it is so sweet because it is a book about a mommy going to China to adopt her baby. I was thrilled to discover that the author has wrote a book called Every Year on Your Birthday just in time for Myah's 2nd birthday. I ordered it off of Amazon, it just came out last month. Another great book is Snowflower and the Secret Fan, this is a must read for any mom/dad who has a Chinese daughter. It is a fiction book but is based on the authors research into the Chinese history of young girls growing up in China many years ago. I could not put this book down. I picked mine up at Target.

The Circle Game

Here is an awesome video by Steven Curtis Chapman that another awesome China Mommy posted, I think you can access it by going here. Or search youtube for the Circle Game. I am not sure just yet how to upload video to my blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw2VMO09bSw

Our 1st Trip to the ER

We decided to take Myah to the ER last night. Her tonsils are usually bigger than normal but over the past few days I have been watching them get bigger and bigger. The Dr. said she has like a double tonsil on the right side. I am not sure what all of this means. She choked on a banana tonight at Dairy Queen and I truly believe it is because her tonsils are so large. I am planning on getting another opinion from our pediatrician. I was just worried that they would swell so much that she couldn't breathe! She isn't sick at all, no strep, no fever etc. Maybe she is just wired this way. She told the Dr. thank you when he was done and blew him kisses.

Forever Family Day!

Today marks one year ago since we received Myah into our family forever. Who knew what a profound impact that one moment would have on our lives. I will never forget how she felt when they placed her in my arms. She was heavier than I imagined her to be. She was sticky from being so warm. Her clothes fit her just perfectly almost too perfectly, she was just about ready to outgrow the new outfit they had dressed her in for this special occasion. I was suprised to see her in shorts, I had read so many stories about the clothing police in China and how they are constantly bundling up the babies. I was relieved to see her dressed appropriately for the super hot weather in Wuhan, one of the 3 furnaces of China. All the pictures we had received she had several layers of puffy clothing on so I wasn't sure if she was a bigger baby or just looked that way due to the way she was layered. I will never forget how she smelled. It wasn't a foul odor just different. Somewhat clean, somewhat musky. Just different. Her hair was so cute, I couldn't believe how much she had. I had done my research and figured that she might be in piggie tails when we got her due to all of her hair. That seemed to be the style for babies with longer hair in China. Her little piggie tails were hitting my face every time she whipped around really quickly to see what was going on around her. She came to me very calmly at first and then the tears came. To hear her cries out loud was a precious moment to me. I knew that she could talk but this was the first time I heard her little voice. She had a deeper voice. She was becoming very intriguing to me. I tried to give her toys but she didn't want them, or the snacks I was offering. The next few minutes were spent gathering our items, trying to calm her down, admiring the other six babies in our group, and taking a bus ride back to the hotel. She fell asleep on the bus, I held onto her for dear life. Like I did when they wheeled me out to the car to take Dayton home from the hospital. It was that same feeling. Even though we were thousands of miles away from home, I was proud to take her. Even if we were just going back to the hotel, she was my precious baby forever. As my Grandma Friend used to tell everyone about the night I was born:" we looked into each other's eyes and fell in love and have been that way ever since." A year has gone by and I am sad in a way because I think back to our days in China and I miss them. We spent our first few weeks as a family getting to know each other. Those most precious moments took place in her country, where she was comfortable. She has done such a remarkable job of adjusting to our culture. I am so thankful for the time we spent in China. We tried to learn so much while we were there and I was constantly taking notes so that we can share this information with Myah someday. We can't even begin to express how this experience has changed our lives. We love our little Myah so much and pray that she will want to celebrate this day in her life, the day we became her family.

Welcome!

Welcome to our family blog. We are still using Baby Jelly Beans for now but I am trying to transition over to this new home. We have been using BJB for over a year now and I love, love, love, using their service but this is free! So we will see how it goes. I named the blog Myah's Days to incorporate both of our children's names. So we will be sharing more of our family life and not just so Myah specific. We are blessed with two great children and hope you enjoy hearing more about our lives!