Catching Up

A little of what's been going on here.......

The 2 little girls have enjoyed some quality "sick days" in their jammies

Mei Mei joined the ranks of "big girl" when she got to join her Baba and Mary for some ice skating with friend's dads and daughters.

Hadley is always looking for a distraction from exam studying.  Where are the little girls?  Hiding in bed with their big sis!!

I'm trying everything to get Annie to see that Mei Mei is such an awesome big sister, too.  They made granola together.  Annie has the cutest voice and often says, "Mei Mei" with the cutest southern draw combined with her "tonal" Chinese.  It's getting better between the two of them every day.

And, these next pictures just speak for themselves.  I know many people think we are crazy for adopting and say that we are almost "free".  I can't explain the joy that is multiplied to see our biological children open their hearts to their new little sisters.  There was a time that I thought a big gap between kids or a late-in-life child would be the worst thing.  I have to say, it's the best thing.  When your 18 year old asks you in the morning if he can wake up his littlest sister before he leaves because he is getting home late and won't see her all day, it just melts your heart.  When your 16 year old has a day off of school but asks you to wake her up early so she can go to preschool with her little sister, I just shake my head in disbelief that our joy and love can be multiplied.  When the door flies open 4 times from school and the first thing out of their mouth is their sisters' names, it's amazing and beautiful to witness.  Teenagers who can be so self-absorbed are suddenly thinking of others (sometimes).  Is it perfect all the time?  No. Do the girls count the minutes until they can bug their siblings while they are doing homework?  You bet.  Does that go over well?  Sometimes.  Do the biological siblings treat each other like they treat the youngest 2?  Rarely. Adding the girls to our family has been so special......love is multiplied........

And, since Cole doesn't read our blog, I can tell this on him.  He was pretty neutral about this adoption and never got emotionally attached to Annie as we were waiting and hoping that she would become our daughter.  He just always said that he would be gone to college soon so it didn't matter.  It has been so awesome to watch the two of them.  She loves him and I think he's pretty smitten with her, too!

I captured some sweet, sweet sister time!!  How blessed are they to have each other???

 And someone had a birthday!!!  She must be the luckiest woman alive!!  Yep, those are dark circles but boy am I getting some good night time snuggling in with Annie.  Wrinkles-oh yeah-lots of smiling going on.  Our first picture as a family of 8!!  Is everything perfect?  No way.  Crazy?  Yep.  Would I want it any other way?  Not for a second.

Happy New Year!!
Deb