Christmas 2007

"I can't believe Christmas is over already." "A stuffed horse........but I wanted a REAL horse."
Children's Christmas program at church. Audrey has just tricked Chelsea into giving her the microphone.
Natalie and Makenzie don't fall for Audrey's cute tricks anymore.....they refused to give Audrey the microphone for this song...so Audrey just stomped off back to mom & dad.
Our first picture with Paul, Audrey and Rachel together. It's hard to get 3 toddlers to pose for a good shot.

Star Student

Well, this was Natalie's turn to be the "Star Student" for the week. The star student basically gets to be extra special all week long (bring in pictures, show-n-tell all week long, first in line, etc.) When your the the star student you get to invite any of your family to eat lunch. So earlier in the week Grandma and Grandpa Homan ate with her. On Friday, Ted, the little kids and myself ate with her. If you have family come for lunch you get to set at the special round tables and you even get to invite 2 friends from your class to sit with your family. It was really fun and Natalie's friends are sweet!!!

Once again I've done multiple post at one sitting so be sure to scroll down to see what else has been going on in our lives. Tomorrow is our sweet Luke's birthday. I can't believe that he would have been 8 years old. I still miss him and think of him often.

Dayton's FCC Christmas Party

Myself, Paul, Audrey, Natalie and my niece Emily made to Dayton's FCC party (families with children from China). The families who organized it did a great job!!! I even finally got to meet one of my cyber friends in person (hey Sam). There were crafts, good food, a visit from Santa and even a secret craft in the kitchen...."NO moms allowed!!!" Sam's son, Cullen, did a good job guarding the kitchen doors to make sure no moms crossed the line. The kids came out of the kitchen with wrapped gifts for mom. Even though it took over an hour to get there it was well worth the drive.
Emily and Natalie making candy cane ornaments.
Both Emily and Natalie insisted that they would NOT sit on Santa's lap. I asked "well what if Santa has a gift for you???" Emily was the first kid from our group to get a gift from Santa's bag and boy oh boy she couldn't get up to Santa's lap fast enough!!!
On the way home Natalie and Emily debated if this was the real Santa or one of his helpers. Emily was sure he was the real deal (he was an excellent Santa) and Natalie was positive that he was one of Santa's helpers....hmmmm????
"Is it my turn yet??"

Gingerbread House Decorating Night

One of the high school girl's groups held a gingerbread house decorating night. It was awesome...you pay only $5.oo per kids and you get a pre-made house (graham crackers) and all of the icing and decorating goodies you can imagine. The best part is once your done......you just leave...no cleaning up the mess!!!!!!

One Year Ago Today

Loving on Mom..........mom loving every second!!!! Entertaining the Thanksgiving crowd.
The very first time we saw Paul in person...one year ago today. We could tell that he had already been crying......it only got worse from here.
This was the saddest thing I had ever seen. That first night after we managed to get Paul out of his clothes that he came to us in. He held on to them for dear life. He would calm down and then start to wimper and then grab up his clothes and hold onto them very tightly. He feel asleep the first night with the clothes in his arms. I cannot look at this picture without getting choked up.

December 4th is a BIG day for our family. Today my brother and sister-in-law adopted their newest daughter from China http://pumpkinnumber3.blogspot.com/ . One year ago today we met Paul for the very first time in Changsha, Hunan, China. We were so excited and he was sooooooo scared. I have never heard anybody or anything scream so loud and so intense. I have watched our 'gotcha' video just one time because it is so heart breaking. It didn't take Paul long to figure out that we weren't quite as bad as he had originally thought. Today his love for his whole family is very obvious. Boy oh boy do we love that kid. He is so sweet. He is happy and easy going. He has yet to be sick enough to need to go to the doctor. He takes his naps and goes to bed without much fuss about 95% of the time. He is very ornery or as the assistant director of the his orphanage told us a year ago he is a "naughty boy." Yesterday, Ted had to take the entire toilet off of the floor to find out why it was plugged. Mysteriously there was a comb stuck way down in the toilet. Everyone in the house agreed it had to have been flushed by Mr. Paul. We still have Paul's referral picture on our refrigerator. Sometimes I pass by it and remember that this sad little face sat on a special needs list for 3 months. I thank God every single day that He placed little Chen Zhi Qiang in our paths......our lives are much richer with Paul in our family.