2007~A Year in Review

I though it would be neat to post a smilebox of favorite and significant pictures from 2007. Hope you enjoy!

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Christmas 2007~Gracie's First Christmas Home

What a great Christmas this year! This year was Gracie's first Christmas home. Christmas had so much more meaning this year now that we have Grace. On Christmas Eve we took Gracie to the mall to see Santa. At first she was all excited about seeing Santa and telling him what she wanted for Christmas, a big girl bike. But then when we got up there she totally freaked. The rest of the day she kept saying "Santa mean." and "He scare me." Then whenever something would come up about Santa coming to our house tonight, she would say "no Santa no!" On Christmas morning Gracie was very excited to find that Santa left her her "big bike". She also got a Dora the Explorer helmet with matching knee pads and elbow pads. So now whenever she wants to ride her bike she always says "hat" and points to her head. That's our safe girl! Lol. We also got Gracie an Asian baby doll with some clothes and stuff to go with it. And of course we got her a "pony" that rocks back and forth and neighs when you press it's ear. I'd say this year was a pretty successful Christmas! Tomorrow I am off to Charleston. Hope everyone has a phenomenal day!

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Merry Christmas

These are just a few pictures from yesterday visiting my Grandma. And if you havn't seen the little Jib Jab thing I made, be sure to check that out below as well! If I don't do another post before Chrismtas, I hope everyone has a safe, happy, and wonderful Christmas!!!

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Just For Fun!

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Fun With Cousins

Yeah we are finally out for Christmas break! What a great feeling! I was more than ready for a break. Today my Aunt Sandy and my cousins Nathan and Christopher came to visit for the day. We had a great time and need to make the effort to get together more often! Today was also Christopher's 9th birthday! It is hard to believe that Christmas is on Tuesday! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. It seems like just yesterday we were in China. Tomorrow we are going to visit my Grandmother and a bunch of my relatives are going to be there to celebrate Christmas. So maybe I'll have some pictures of that. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

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Holiday Cheer

Gracie and Allie enjoying decorating the gingerbread houses
Gracie's school picture......I love her little smile in this pic :)

What a cutie
Gracie and I are"Princesses" lol
Me and my sweet mei mei
Zonked out on the chair
And yes,as you can tell when she plays hard all day, she is one tired girl when bedtime comes around!

Why?

Why is it 80 degrees in the middle of December?
Why did I wear shorts to school today on December 11th?
Why is it going to be high 70s low 80s all week?
Why does it never snow here?
Why can't it be even just a little chilly during the Christmas season?
Why can't the weather make up it's mind?
I mean two weeks ago it was freezing cold outside, what happened?
Why can't it just simply be cold when it's supposed to be cold and hot when it's supposed to be hot?
All I can say is hopefully it will cool down SOON!

Only 7 more school days until Christmas break! Yeah! I am ready for a break. Christmas is the best but I still have so much to do before Christmas. School has been pretty good lately. Health is bad and boring and pointless. Orchestra is fun and we have a concert on Monday so that should be fun. Geometry is hard and confusing. Social Studies is well Social Studies. Science could be better but yeah. We are doing this research paper in science and social studies right now so that's kinda taking up a lot of time. Language Arts is fabulous as always! I am happy to announce that my Language Arts teacher had her baby Bennett today! So that is exciting! Me and my friends Allie and Amanda organized a little baby shower party thing last Wednesday and that was fun and I think she was very surprised. Maybe I'll post some pictures of that. But it's going to be a long 12 weeks with her gone. I'll be ready for her to come back!

Also, something very tragic happened to one of my classmates, Kaytlin, a few days ago. She was visiting her father and somehow a fire started. Kaytlin is now at the Chapel Hill Burn Center. She is in critical condition and was severely burned. Kaytlin lost her two step brothers. My heart goes out to her. I can not even imagine what she is going through right now. Please, please, please keep her and her family in your prayers.

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Just Thinking.........

Well I don't really know how I got thinking about all this, I guess it was because a little while ago I was looking at our China pictures and stuff. But I was just thinking how different my life is with Gracie. Now it has a meaning. It's hard remembering what I used to do all day before we adopted Grace. Sometimes it really doesn't seem real that we were literally half way around the world. That we traveled 14 hours away from home on an airplane to China. When I look on a map or globe and see the country of China, it's sometimes hard for me to comprehend that we were there. The memories and laughs I have from our time in China are priceless. I think back and I remember the randomest things from our trip sometimes; like the things people said or the time we were in a restaurant and Ryan squeezed this food that looked like a golf ball that like of resembled a round chicken nugget with square spikes on it and some weird juice stuff in and center and he squeezed it and the liqiud stuff shot up in the air to the ceiling and I look up and see my Dad and Kreagh (who got to witness this exciting event) laughing hysterically. I really wish I had our entire trip on film. Every little thing we did. I can remember most of our China trip vividly; especially Gotcha day. I remember waking up being so excited, going to breakfast thinking this is the last time we would be eating without my mei mei. I remember being nervous and excited on that day. I didn't really know what to expect. I remember sitting in the lobby of the Jiang Xi hotel, with the other families, as the realization hit me that today was the day. The moment I saw Grace, it was like nothing else mattered. It was like I was in a whirlwind and everything else in my life was gone and suddenly it was like none of the little things in life mattered anymore. It is amazing to me how we were matched with the perfect baby. God is so good! I couldn't imagine another little girl being my sister. Grace fits into our family so perfectly. It is just amazing to me how things work out in life and that God really does have a plan for everyone. And this whole experience really taught me to be thankful and appreciate everything I have. Adopting Grace also taught me to always have faith. No matter the situation; in our case having to wait 2whole years for my sister, but in any circumstance to always have faith and trust God and know that everything happens for a reason. I am also so thankful for the people that we are now connected with through adoption and the life long friends that we made. I am so thankful that Gracie will always have her friend Kaylie, who was adopted the same time Grace was. Even though we live a few states away, I hope that Gracie and Kaylie will be life long friends because they share that special bond. You really don't know what adoption is like until you go through it. You do the paper work and you wait. And you wait some more. And then you travel and experience that unforgettable moment when your sister/daughter/son/brother or whoever else is placed into your arms. Then, you have truely expirienced adoption.

Also, I never really got a chance to post pictures from our Thanksgiving so here are some of those too.

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