Happy Holidays

Once again, I am really delayed in getting this posted! We are enjoying the holiday season so much. We were fortunate to have Nye Nye Johnson here with us for Thanksgiving and even got to celebrate early birthday! As you can see, Jodi is very happy to help with opening and handling the gifts. We also enjoyed some special time with our great extended family!

We had a brief and beautiful snow last weekend right when we were putting up the Christmas tree. Pretty incredible and it really felt like we were in the middle of a Hallmark commercial. Jodi had those boots on in no time (pink ones of course) and went right out in it. While Mom was here, she came across a little red dress we had bought for Jodi in China which we had forgotten about. Fortunately it still fit so we grabbed a few Christmas pictures in her beautiful dress. Our little princess has no problem striking a pose and cracked me up with all the poses she knew to do. I guess when you're a princess it just comes naturally to you! We cannot believe how Jodi has grown and blossomed in this year and are so grateful to have her in our lives. We look forward to another special Christmas with our families and wish the same for you!!

Happy Veterans Day

We had a great week celebrating Veterans Day and Old Mama's Day! I got spoiled for my birthday by getting a great party with balloons and a fantastic dinner out.

Jodi is officially a Daisy Scout which means alot to me because I always loved Girl Scouts! She is part of a special group of girls and got to ride in the Veterans Day parade. It was very touching to see this beautiful child waving an American flag. You might recognize the back of the "honorary Daisy" to Jodi's left although he adamantly said he was not a Daisy!! You decide.... :)Actually Baba was quite the trooper because I couldn't get off from work in time to get Jodi to the float. Hope all is well with you and your family and thanks for checking in on us.

Happy Halloween

As you can see, our little princess dressed as a little princess for Halloween! Thanks to cousin Alicia, Jodi had the real Belle hair but after about 30 minutes she decided that her real hair might stay on better. (Princesses do have a tendency to run....) She had a ball trick or treating with her sweet friends. We still don't know who the little skeleton was... he just showed up at the party.... spooky! :) Jodi was captured by pirates while trick or treating but they were very friendly and let her keep most of her candy with the exception of a few chocolate bars. :) We hope all is well where you are and Happy Fall! (Thanks for the help Uncle Bobo so that this blog would be possible today).

Last Pictures I Promise

And Even More Pictures

More Pictures!

Off to Disney World

Wow! What an incredible time we had. We started our time at Sea World which had the best shows. (Of course we have since learned that our cousin Alicia stage manages several of the shows so it's no wonder....) Believe it or not, one of Jodi's favorite things there was petting the sting rays! Pretty slimy little things but they seemed to really like to be petted!

We stayed at one of the beautiful Disney Resorts which we actually saw very little of. We didn't even take advantage of the great pool until the day we were leaving and could walk no more in the parks! We spent Monday and Tuesday with Aunt Julie and Uncle Mal and had an absolute blast. When Jodi saw Cinderella's castle for the first time, her face lit up! She was beyond excited and immediately wanted to go into the castle. It was hard to explain to her why we couldn't tour around the castle and see all the rooms, ballroom, etc. After that, she wanted to find Belle's castle! She's all about those princesses.... We made the mistake of going in the Haunted Mansion

and she really wanted to ride with Julie and Malcolm. Almost immediately, I could hear her crying a few cars down and would holler to her every few minutes that she was OK. Oops! We closed the park down and saw a wonderful fireworks display.

Day 2 was in Hollywood Studios. They have this great new ride there based on Toy Story which we only got to ride thanks to Aunt Julie and Uncle Mal. I highly recommend it if you get a chance to go!! The sky decided to open up on us in the afternoon but we kept going right along! Jodi loved seeing a Beauty and the Beast show as well as Ariel. Our friend Vicki joined us later in the day so Baba and I could ride a "big people" ride like the Rockin' Rollercoaster. We laughed alot that day and had a blast!

Day 3 was back to the Magic Kingdom with Nye Nye Huffstetler and Aunt Betty. It was a hot day but did not slow us down! Aunt Betty was a trooper coming out to join us even though she was sick with a cold. We spent alot of time in Toontown where Jodi met the princesses for the first time. It was so incredibly sweet that I was tearing up the whole time. She was SO excited to see and talk to them and eventually got brave in giving them hugs and having her picture made. I'm sorry to say that I have no pictures to post from that day because the camera had died. We had a ball though!!

Day 4 was spent at Epcot. We spent the morning in search of more princesses and Jodi was especially excited to meet Mulan. We got to eat in a restaurant with an indoor aquarium where we were seated right next to the window so we could look at the amazing fish the whole time including a shark! We then got to meet up with Cousins David, Florine, and Alicia and Vicki joined us again as well. Jodi fell in love with her cousins and took to them immediately. Florine has recently had knee surgery so Jodi thought it was quite a treat to ride along in the wheelchair! We had a great time with them and hated to see the time end so we met up the next day at Disney Downtown. Jodi also attended a princess dinner Thursday night where each of the princesses come up to your table. My favorite part was the princess parade where all the little girls walked around the restaurant waving at the crowd. Too cute!! We are so grateful to our family and friends who show Jodi so much love! She commented about what a "big" family she has and is so excited to get to know them.

I think Jodi summed up our time at Disney the best when she commented at the end of a fireworks show. She looked around and exclaimed," Now that's what I'm talking about!"

First Day of Kindergarten

How is it possible that Jodi started kindergarten this week?? She is growing up incredibly fast as everyone told us she would. She's off to a good start and loves her new class. Jodi now has "homework" every night which she is quite proud to do.

We had a great family weekend over Labor Day with trips to the pool (even though we were about the only ones to brave the cold water) and to the zoo which was not the least bit cold! We were fortunate to run into her buddy Keri at the zoo and they had a great time together as usual. As you can see by our picnic pictures, it was the usual scenario with Baba and Jodi being very serious (or not....). :) Love to you all and we thank God for the cooler temperatures and beautiful changing leaves!!!

Family Fun

Jodi and I were very fortunate to get some time with Nye Nye Johnson, Aunt Laura, and Uncle Bobo! We met up in Greenville and squeezed in as much fun as we could into 24 hours. Highlights include going to the pool, checking out a great park, and just hanging out. Jodi's favorite was checking out the water park downtown where you can walk around the different water spouts that pop up at different times. Little did Aunt Laura and I know but the area we were standing in had many MANY water spouts that decided to start up all at once so that we got soaked!!! Jodi thought that was pretty funny of course and wanted to keep playing! We of course just wanted to dry out....

Jodi has had a great summer playing with friends and at the pool. We can't believe our little girl starts kindergarten next week. She is very excited to go back to school! She is growing incredibly fast and continues to blossom before our eyes. Jodi is a very musical child and loves to make up songs and dance. She wants to take piano lessons so we'll look into that soon. Much love to you and sorry for the delay in writing (Uncle Mal.....). :)

Old Friends Reunited

We had an amazing experience over the weekend. We were able to meet up with who we think is one of Jodi's friends from the orphanage. I am part of a yahoo group for families who adopted from Beijing. A little girl from Michigan was looking for one of her best friends named Lang Chi Chi which was Jodi's Chinese name. They evidently played together, tickling each other and also laid side by side at night holding hands to go to sleep. At first Jodi was shy with her friend but they hit it off very quickly and had a ball together. It was incredibly sweet and the little girl told her mother that she thought this was her long lost friend because Jodi "tickled just right!" Our time with their family was very special and we were amazed that they just happened to be in NC to visit family so we could reconnect our girls. We definitely plan to stay in touch with this family and keep the girls in contact. The little girl's mother said that her daughter had hoped that Jodi would one day be her sister so we'll do our best to keep them connected! Jodi is starting to talk a little bit about her time in China but is still very limited. We keep reassuring her that she is our daughter forever and she smiles and hugs us. She is such a special child and a true gift from God.

What a Summer

My camera is not the fixture it used to be so pictures are a little fewer and far between! As you can see, Jodi is toothless in the front which is really cute. She is having a great summer from going to Vacation Bible School with her cousins to spending a wonderful week with Nye Nye Johnson while Baba was on a youth retreat to learning to swim at the pool. We also had a ball with family and friends over the 4th of July in the North Georgia Mountains. We are staying busy to say the least!! Jodi had a followup MRI on her spine last week with good results for which we are thanking God!! She brings us such joy and even when Fred and I are at are grumpiest, she can make us laugh. What a gift.

Happy Birthday 6th Birthday

Our little princess is officially 6!! How is that possible? Jodi had a wonderful celebration with her buddies starting at the "paint your own pottery" place. We were laughing at the end because the adults were left finishing up the kid's projects!
She didn't really understand birthdays last year. This year she had been to enough birthday parties that she knew it was something good! Jodi was in awe of her incredible gifts and of course, she loved all the hugs and good wishes that came her way. One of the pictures is a beautiful cake that her special friend Miss Beth made. Jodi was quite impressed with that!

Jodi is now a graduate of preschool and had a super year. She continues to overflow with joy and excitement about life! One day we went out and played in the rain which was so much fun. She said,"Mama, I've never done this before!" I didn't want to tell her how incredibly long it had been since I had. What a blessing to enjoy the simple things like I used to. Our love to you wherever you are and God bless.