This is a site to help my family and friends keep up with the adoption story and daily life of Aminah.
For the longest time Aminah would not cooperate with the camera, but she is learning that Mommy likes to take her picture. She has also decided that she likes to see the pictures. Now when she has a new outfit on and I say, "Let's go take your picture." She goes right outside and gets ready. I'm not even going to mention the fact that once I offered to pay her money if she would just smile for me. (The girl can be bought). Both of these pictures were taken on our way to school.
Well it has been only 9 months since my last post. I could have created a child in that amount of time but alas . . . I have only been really busy with my toddler. Lets see if I can do a little updating with pictures. These were taken September of 2006 (yikes). Aminah loves to play outside and she has a container for her toys. Where are the toys you ask? Well they are all over the yard and she is in the container. She really loved that game. Not as much as she loves her "Wooky" (her boyfriend Lukey). Here you will see their "first kiss" as I like to call it. Luke's sister Linsey is watching. Luke's mom, Libby and I hope that one day this will be shown at Luke and Aminah's wedding and of course Linsey will be the maid of honor. The two picures of her in her Chinese outfit are just too cute. The one that looks like she is sneezing is actually her showing me what a skunk says (for those of you that don't know what a skunk say, he says, "shoo, shoo, shoo" and he covers his nose). I can't wait to add more to the blog. Stay tuned!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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? 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.
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.
