Watching Video

I love seeing this picture. I finally let Aminah see her "Gotcha Day" video. Although she doesn't quite understand it she does know that the video shows "Mama" and "baby Aminah." She hears other babies crying in the video and tries to tell them to "shhh" and tells me they need to go "nite-nite." So what if this picture shows her with a little spaghetti sauce on her face, I still love this picture. She looks so happy watching the moment we became a family.

Aminah and I went to a Laua for the homestudy agency that I went through for Aminah's adoption and post-adoption paperwork. We met up with another family that was with us in China. Aminah and Emma were able to play together and it was so nice to see these happy girls. They have been home over a year and lets just say, "what a difference a year makes." God has blessed our families. Emma just found out that she is going to be a big sister. Her little sister will be coming home from Columbia next month.

Aminah and I hosted a get-together with some friends. We had two other families that had also adopted from China as well as two families that are planning on adopting from China. One of these families had already sent their dossier to China and the other family decided that evening to sign up with America World as their adoption agency. Thank you God for Aminah, and for these precious children that have become such an important part of our lives.

Happy Gotcha Day

One year ago today I was in China meeting my daughter for the first time. It has been an incredible journey. I can't believe that God loves me as much as He does. God brought us together and made us a family. We celebrated tonight by going out for Chinese food with our friends. Aminah had a great time. What a difference a year makes. A scared little baby was placed in my arms and a year later a confident little girl runs around knowing that she has the world wrapped around her finger, and most of all she knows that she is loved.

Aminah's Bike

For Aminah's birthday we ended up getting Aminah a tricycle. I had planned on getting just a normal trike that I had seen or even finding one at the second hand store but our friends had other ideas. I had told a few people that I wanted to get her a tricycle and people gave her gift certificates so that we could get a really cool "bike." I asked one friend, Keli if she knew what she was getting yet and I have her an idea for the helmet and she bought an adorable helment, basket, and the handlebar streamers. As soon as she saw the tricycle in the driveway with the helmet in the basket she wanted her "hat" on so she could ride her "bike." I took her to have her picture taken and she did not want to have her picture taken until I went out to the car and got the "bike" and we were finally able to get a cute smile. Yes she is spoiled but she is worth it. My job is to make sure that she doesn't act spoiled.

Aminah's Birthday Party

We had Aminah's 2nd Birthday Party a little early because we will be in Colorado visiting my sister, brother-in-law, and nieces on her actual birthday. It was obviously a ladybug theme. We had about 30 friends and family here at the house. It was a lot of fun. Aminah has been really blessed to have so many people that love her. She enjoyed playing with her friends and of course eating her cupcake that Mommy made.

America the Beautiful

It looks like Aminah is singing "America the Beautiful" in this picture on the 4th of July. Actually she has decided that she HATES having her picture taken and she is telling me, "NO!" Of course I didn't listen and I ended up taking many pictures but this was the only one that turned out half way decent.

Our China Toddlers

The first picture shows our friend Linsey in the front of the wagon, Aminah in the middle, and Linsey's brother Luke pulling the wagon. I thought it was neat because Linsey came home from China first then Aminah, and finally Luke and that is how they are shown in the picture. The second picture shows Aminah and Luke playing in the sandbox. These little toddlers have a lot of fun when they get together.

Super Model?

Give me a pose. Aminah could be the next super model. She just looks so adorable in her Chinese outfit. Those people in my travel group might remember how much trouble I had trying to decide which outfits to buy at the silk factory in China. I ended up being the last one back to the bus and they sent our guide back in to find me because it had already gotten dark and I was walking alone down an alley to get back to the bus. I didn't realize that everyone had already left. It was all worth it to have my wonderful little daughter wearing this adorable little outfit.

San Diego

Aminah and Mommy went to San Diego for Mother's Day weekend 2006. Our friend, Auntie Jeannette was graduating from Point Loma University and invited us to come and celebrate with her and Uncle Sing. It was so much fun. Aminah was able to go to the beach and play in the sand. Auntie Jeannette's sister-in-law spoke to Aminah in Mandarin and Aminah answered her in English. It was incredible to see her listening and responding since she hadn't heard that language for 9 months. That was the greatest Mother's Day gift!

Mommy's School Carnival

Mommy and Aminah went to her school's carnival. Can anyone guess which booth Mommy was working? Aminah had a great time. She was a big hit with all of the kids.

What is up with this bunny?

What is up with this bunny? Why can't he pick up after himself? Aminah wasn't thrilled with the bunny. He left all these eggs and she had to pick them up. She would make a little groan eveytime I pointed out a new egg. She likes to have everything in its place and the bunny must be some sort of slob because he can't pick up after himself. Then to top it off he gave Aminah bath paints and when Mommy put them on the tub walls Aminah had to clean that up too. She was not impressed.

My mommy made me wear this.

Aminah does not look thrilled. She was having a calm moment in between fit throwing (we are having her picture taken professionally and she hates that). It doesn't look too terrible here but in the larger picture you can see the tears and drool coming down her chin and onto her dress. When will she out grow this? I keep thinking that this time will be different.

Coloring Easter Eggs

We went to our neighbors' house (Brenda, Pat, and Kaitlyn) to color Easter Eggs. Kaitlyn is in the third grade and is an experienced egg colorer (she is wearing an apron). They had 10 or so different dyes along with crayons and paints. What did my daughter want to use? The paints. She had a great time and managed to get paint on two eggs. At first when I handed her the egg she wasn't quite sure what to do with it but like I have said before she is a very quick learner. She watched and within minutes she was painting her first egg.

Photo Op

Another Photo Op. I like to have lots of pictures. We had to go over to my neighbor's house to have this picture taken because she likes to sit on the little brick wall there (I know it is scary but it makes her feel like a big girl) and Terri's lawn is green. I didn't plant rye grass this year because I was a little busy with a toddler so I just have to wait until spring before I can have grass nice enough to photograph. I still think she will want to sit on the bricks for a picture.

Bye-Bye Hair

Aminah has to have her hair done before we go out. She calls it "bye-bye hair." On this day I was actually able to get small little pig-tails in her hair which was a very big deal for me since I have been waiting for her hair to grow out from when they shaved her at the orphanage.

Prayer Warrior

Aminah is going to be a "prayer warrior." She can say, "pray" and "dear Jesus" (at least I can understand what she means). We say our prayers each night before we go to bed and then sing, "Jesus Loves Me" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children." Before each meal we pray and when you say "amen" she raises her hands and claps. When we go to church she likes to go to the front of the church and kneal at the alter because we were visiting a church and they had an alter call and she watched other people go up and from then on she likes to go up to the front of the church to pray. I thank Jesus for giving me this precious gift.

I'm pretty cute!

What is not to love about this face? Aminah doesn't necessarily like having her picture taken but she tolorates it when it is done by her Mommy. If we want to have it done somewhere else, like professionally, that is when she throws an absolute fit. To her having her picture shot professionally ranks right up there with going to the doctor's for a shot. We went to have the 1st picture done professionally and this was the only shot they could get after being there for about 45 mintues. You can see she had been crying but finally I was able to make her laugh and we got this picture, then she threw a fit again.

She even pouts cute!

I don't remember exactly why she was pouting here. It looks like she spilled her juice or water on her outfit. She isn't the kind of child that will throw a fit often but when she does you better watch out. This must have been a pretty mild one. Around this time I would tell her that she couldn't throw a fit until she was officially two so she had to wait at least 6 more months. It usually calmed her down. I'm guessing just having me calmly talk to her did the trick, because I'm pretty sure she didn't understand what I meant.

Learning to feed herself is no easy task

One thing I can say about Aminah is that she is a quick learner. I'm so glad I got this picture when I did because she learned right away that the messier she was with her food the less food she was going to actually eat. She now is a very clean eater but for a while I was wondering. I'm not sure what I expected by giving her Spaggetti but she had to learn sometime.

Baby's First Christmas

We might have gone a little overboard for Baby's First Christmas. Between Aminah and my nieces (Belle and Suzie) my front room was bulging. My oldest niece, Tashia and I were joking that the adults would all have to stand outside and look in through the windows at the kids opening their gifts. Auntie Im and Uncle Eric came in from Colorado but I would have thought they drove in directly from Santa's workshop at the North Pole. It was a lot of fun and Aminah got right into it by saying, "oooohhh" to each present she opened. It didn't matter what she was opening she gave it an appropriate, "oooohhh." One of the highlights for me that day was watching the "stroller parade." Aminah, Belle, and Suzie each got strollers from Santa and amazingly we got babies for each of the girls, so in the afternoon the girls all got to take their babies for a stroll. The weather was about 78 degrees on Christmas day here in California. All in all it was a fantastic first Christmas.

Do you want fries with that?

I love this picture because Aminah is wearing a telephone headset and "talking" to her Auntie Im. Actually she is just listening. She looks like one of the people at drive up windows that takes your order. This poor little thing has only had french fries once and even then it was only with the babysitter. She much prefers steamed broccoli or vegetables, so who a I to complain?

These are a few of my favorite things

I felt like I was in the movie "The Jerk" where Steve Martin was saying, "all I need is this . . ." and he kept adding more and more things to his hands. If you don't remember the movie then this won't make any sense. Aminah has to have things just so. She has to have her blanky and bottle (at least in December it was her bottle, now it is her sippy cup). This picture was taken early in the morning one day before going to school. She wanted her blanky and bottle and then she added her baby. She is sitting on the box of wipes which was a perfect size for her at the time.

Merry Christmas!

This was the picture we sent out as our Christmas Cards. I went to have the pictures taken at a studio but Aminah cried and threw a fit. She seems to not enjoy having someone else take the pictures so I had my friend come across the street to take the pictures.

Look what my Mommy did this time!

Look what my Mommy did this time! She is a funny lady. She brought a tree into our front room while I was asleep. She put these strange things all over it with some lights and then told me "No-no" anytime I got close to it. Aminah woke up the day after Thanksgiving to a Christmas tree. Aminah got in trouble once at the sitters and the sitter had to tell her "No-no" and shook her finger at her and from then on whenever I told Aminah "No-no" then she would shake her finger at me and say "No-no." We had a lot of finger shaking during the month of December.

I love going to church!

Aminah loves to go to church. At this point (November 2005) she was just learning to smile for the camera. She didn't like having Mommy too far away. One thing she has always enjoyed was "people watching" so going to church gave her a great opprotunity to do just that.

Do all Mommies allow slides in the house?

Do all Mommies allow slides in the house? Aminah was just learning to slide and so I brought the slide into the front room so that she could practice.

Aminah LOVES music. Especially live music. We went to a benefit concert with Christian artist Clay Crosse in November (2005). My friends in Tehachapi, CA were fundraising for their adoption of their second child from China and Clay Crosse and his wife were also adopting from China. They were able to raise about $5,000 and now both families have their children home from China.

Aminah had a great fall. She was able to spend time at home with Mommy before she had to go back to work. We went to the pumpkin patch that was at Mommy's school and then on Halloween we went to school for the parade. That evening we went to visit friends. One of Aminah's favorite things at the time was bananas so it was only fitting that she dressed up as a monkey. She was even able to say "oohh, oohh, oohh" just like a monkey. It was