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.

Together Again

What an incredible opportunity we had this week! Our friends that we made in China were staying nearby and we had the chance to get together which was such a privilege. It meant so much to have the time with them. You probably remember Jodi's "boyfriend" Keith who is an absolute doll. They were quiet around each other at first even though they said they remembered each other. By the end of the day, they were interacting quite a bit though they needed coaching on what to say to each other! It was amazing to see how far they both have come in this past year. We feel very blessed to have maintained contact with Keith's family and we still hold onto the hope of an arranged marriage.....! As we were saying our goodbyes, Keith gave Jodi a kiss and then shyly told his father, "Daddy, I gave her a kiss and she liked it!!!" Pretty cute! God bless.

Long Overdue

Where to start??? What an incredible few weeks we have had. We first celebrated Jodi's baptism which didn't quite go as smoothly as we had hoped. I retrospect we realize that we should have prepared her a little better! She literally cried throughout the whole thing and was fine after it was over. At least she wasn't sobbing, just a soft cry!!

Next, we had the privilege of Jodi getting to meet her Uncle Don and Aunt Linda. She loved every minute of it and also got to spend some fun time with her cousins. It meant so much to us for my father's brother to meet our daughter. Uncle Don favors my father quite a bit so it was quite a special time. We are grateful for their efforts in coming through Asheboro!

Finally we got to celebrate Fred's parents 50th anniversary at Mom's lakehouse. What an incredible celebration it was!! It was wonderful to again spend time with family and for Jodi to get to be with her aunts, uncles, and cousins. One of these pictures are of Fred's mom and her sister Lynn. Can you imagine that these two don't see the resemblance in themselves??

As you can see, it has been a special last few weeks with more great times ahead. We are so grateful for all of the love and kindness showered on Jodi and believe me, she is thriving in knowing how loved she is. God bless!

Gotcha Day

Monday was our official one year for Gotcha Day!! We knew we wanted to do something special and Baba had a great idea. Our first meal with our daughter in China was at McDonalds so what better way to celebrate than to recreate that in our own hometown. We told Jodi we were going somewhere special and she was very excited that our choice was good ole McDonalds!! We had a little time to look through some of our video in China and could not believe how little Jodi was. It was also funny to hear her speaking in Chinese to her friend Keith. We asked her what she said and I'm not sure she remembers Mandarin too well. Maybe one day she'll want to get back to it but for now, we respect her need to distance from it some. Jodi got her cast off and is using her hand like a pro. She's very excited to have 5 fingers "like everybody else." We weren't sure how aware she was of the thumb but evidently she did recognize that she was different. Glad it's over with and we pray for no more surgeries for a very very long time!!! Our love and gratitude to everyone for your incredible support and encouragement. You have blessed us so much.