September Up Dates

Smiling with Chuck-E-Cheese

I love this Monster Truck!

Roll Tide!!!!

Braxton and Brooklynn having fun!

Brooklynn with Noah

Well, we have kept ourselves pretty busy this past month. Between all 3 kids we have made our rounds to birthday parties this month. Brooklynn had her first visit to Chuck-E-Cheese and she enjoyed the rides and games. She was not to happy with Chuck E himself, so the giant mouse stayed at a distance. Brooklynn got enough tickets that she was able to pick a prize. Suprising enough the boys still like going there.

Our favorite College football team Alabama started off their season. So, it has been football every weekend. I am so glad that football season is here!!! Roll Tide!!! For those of you who are not familar with the south, we love our football. Brooklynn has caught on real well to the sport and she will ask if we are going to watch it.

Braxton has been keeping busy with band at school and hanging out with his friends. He is really growing up fast and I can't believe how he has changed these past 6 months. All the little boy features are fading away and they are being replaced with features of a young man.

Davis is playing fall baseball this year. He really wanted to play football, but we told him he needed to wait until he was in middle school. That will be next year. He is doing well in fall ball and seems to enjoy it.

Brooklynn still is enjoying dance class and goes every Monday. I can't wait to see what they are working on in class. They will have a parent day sometime in November. She also enjoys going to Davis' baseball games and playing with Braxton. She really loves her brothers and says that they are the best.

Clint and I have just been trying to keep up with all the kids activites, as well as our own. We celebrate 15 years of marriage today. We both enjoy spending time with the kids as well as with each other.

One year ago today

This time last year we were landing in China. Exhausted of course, but ready to get our daughter. We still had to get on another plane to travel to her provience. Really if you have never flown a China airline it is an experience, and I thought Southwest was bad. Anyway, we managed to land in Taiyaun tired, hungary, and smelling pretty rough. We managed to meet with our guide and get our luggage. I had to use the rest room, so off to the squatty potty . I remember thinking only use these in cases of emergency. Before we knew it we were off to the hotel, which was about a 45 minute drive, for most normal people driving. I discovered that there are no rules when operating a motor vehicle. I just prayed that we would make it in one piece, thinking to myself how many more times do we have to get in this van.

Finally, we were at the hotel and got all checked in and our guide Mary gave us some instructions for the next day and when we would leave to get our lovely daughter. We went up to our room and lets just say it is a good thing I really love Clint. We got unpacked and ordered some dinner, which we still laugh about today. If you have not heard the story you need to ask, it is too funny to just type it down. We discovered we had I think it was 2 English speaking channels. HBO, which for some reason only showed B movies and of course BBC. We layed down to go to sleep, which Clint seemed to drift off pretty quick, but I layed awake wondering what was Dang You Ju thinking. I thought about if she had grown alot, what her mother thought about when she left her at a train station at 10 days old, and if the father new anything about this child. I wondered if she looked like her mother and had her father's smile. Was she taken care of at the orphanage or just lost in the mix with the other many children's faces. It seemed like I just fallen asleep when it was time to wake up and start a new day, but this time with our daughter and forever family.