a walk down 'bow' lane inspired by my secret pals

10 months old in Chongquing, China

The Southern girl in me just came out and the bow

was bigger than little Lily's head!

our first week home in Louisiana

Her first St. Patrick's Day Parade

Spriing Time in Louisiana

A year later, Spring time in Kentucky

Our Winter CUTIE

Well we are officially 4 months into the wait. Some days go by quickly and others just drag along. Today was dragging. Then, I recieved my second secret pal gift within a week. Let me just say that these pals must know me because they have both sent bows for Becky. One of the gifts we got last week and I am just late in adding it to this blog. It is from a swap I am doing with people who all turned in their paperwork in the same month we did. We received 2 Karen Katz lift the flap books and a beautiful black and pink bow. I love it. Those of you who followed our journey to Lily will remember how bow crazy I was. We love the gift and thank you so much secret pal. Our other present arrived today from my secret pal who is using our agency CCAI. It was a purple onsie with socks and matching bows for Becky. Little did she know that my favorite color is Purple. I love it and can't wait to see Becky all decked out. She also sent the cutest turtle for Lily. You put it in water and it grows. We are calling him Tiny Timmy and he should be growing as I type. Thanks so much secret pals. You both made my week!! After I typed this, I just couldn't resist pulling up old bow and hat pics of Lily. As you can imagine, I had plenty to choose from. I put six yes just six on this post. Enjoy! I may be biased but she is just so darn CUTE!!!!

Fun Weekend

Lily and "Taylor" at the High School Musical Performance

flying high

Wes, Lily and I all headed to Prestonsburg, KY for the weekend for relaxation and a live performance of......(anyone who knows Lily will know) High School Musical. We had so much fun! The performance was at an outdoor amphitheater and the weather was perfect. Lily was in rare form. There were so many families around us with there daughters who were 10-14 years of age and there we sat with Lily, a tiny 3-year-old who thinks she is 10-14:) As soon as the production started, Lily began to dance and sing along in her chair and didn't stop. Many around us stopped watching the performers because Lily's performance was so mesmorizing. we had many comments at intermisson about our little actress. She was worried during intermission because of her many times watching the movie, she knew that it was not over and did not want to miss the end. She continued to dance and sing right along with the actors until the end of the show. She did cry at the end...I am talking large tears because she did not get to go on stage (no one did). We had to reassure her that when she got big that if she wanted to perform that she could. Wes said that we better start a trust fund now because she will never support herself acting. All I can say is that she can really belt it out for a 3 year old. We sure hope Baby Becky enjoys music because I can see many live performances in our future! Enjoy the pictures of our little actress. By the way, she wore the t-shirt from the performance for over 24 hours straight until we had to bribe her to wash it so she could wear it again to daycare the next day. Talk about a Drama Queen! We are so blessed.

Our trip to Virginia and Washington DC

We have been so busy as usual. Lily and I made a trip to Washington, DC. I attended the Talk for a Lifetime Conference and we spent time with my Aunt Erms and cousin Di and her family. It was a quick but fun trip. Di has 5 children and Lily loved spending time with 4 of them. Matt was out of state at a camp in Colorado. We really missed seeing him. We all went to see Lily's favorite movie of the summer, Hairspray. It was her third time seeing it. She loved singing the songs from the show with Stephanie and Caroline. She had a great time playing with John. She was a little shy around her oldest cousin, Chris, the high school senior who was gone every morning for football practice. She was just warming up to him when we left. I think she had the most fun when I was at the conference. Diane and the kids took her to Libby Lu where she had the Hanna Montana make-over complete with blonde wig and microphone. I hear she was quite a hit at the mall. She continues to wear the wig daily. I'll post pictures as soon as Diane sends them. I had a wonderful time seeing the Phantom of the Opera at the Kennedy Center. Diane and Steve also took me to dinner when they picked up from the conference one evening. We loved our time with Aunt Erms, Diane, Steve and all of the kids. Lily is still talking about the trip, "Hey Mom, remember last year when we...." We are working on the time concepts. Thank you to all for our special time!

For those keeping track, referrals came out this week. China referred another 7 days of Log in Dates. Our wait continues to grow. We are praying that things speed up soon!

Baby Becky's Present

Thank you Secret Pal! Today we received the sweetest gift from our secret pal. I am a member of many adoption groups but the one that I am the most active on is the one for people who are also Logged In in the month of April through our agency CCAI. With the wait being so long, we are doing a gift exchange. I have been assigned a secret pal that I will send a gift to every month and one has been given my name. Today we received our first secret pal gift! I must admit that it made me cry. The note from our pal was so sweet. Baby Becky's first present from our pal is a boo bunnie ice pack and it is so cute. She also sent some bath gel for Lily which Lily loved! It meant so much to me that our pal thought of Big Sister Lily. Lily carried the bath gel around until she fell asleep with it in her hands at nap time. Many of you may remember that I obsessively shopped for Lily while we waited. I have not allowed myself to buy one present for Baby Becky especially with the wait being soooo long this time. It was so nice to recieve the gift today. Thanks again secret pal!

Referrals and Sophie

I remember when we waited for Lily that I loved referral times. I loved reading when other people got their referrals. The first time that I saw one on the computer I burst into tears. I knew that someone had just found out about their daughter/son. I still love referral time. It is so exciting to see the pictures and to hear the family's excitement. It was a little different when we were waiting on Lily's referral. Things were much more predictable than they are now. China was referring a month to a month and a half of Log in Dates each month. Then they started referring two months each month. We had initially anticipated that we would wait 12 months but we only waited 6. It was amazing when the time frame decreased so dramatically. Now the opposite is happening. For the last few months and including this month, China is referring 7 days or 5 business days of Log in Dates each month. The families with log in dates in the 2nd week of November 2005 just got their referrals. What does this mean for us? At this point the wait times continue to increase. We are told that this trend will probably continue. We are expecting at least a 2 year wait. I am looking forward to and praying for the time when referrals stabalize and hopefully speed up. Staying busy with Lily helps but we think about Becky each and every day.

On a happier note, our friend Ginger Stringer and her daughter, London are in China now. Walt is at home in Louisiana with Victoria and Sydney who was adopted not long after Lily. Ginger and London met the newest member of their family late last night China time/early this morning US time. Her name is Sophie and she is 3 1/2 years old. They are asking for prayers so that the transition will go as smoothly as possible. If you would like to follow their journey, please go to http://www.StringersInChina.com. You can e-mail them through the sight and let them know if you are praying for them or how their adoption journey touches you. London is sending the pictures and Walt is adding the commentary...he is hilarious!!! Enjoy their special journey! We are blessed to call them friends!

Beach Pics and Happy 4th of July

We celebrated the 4th today with my good friend, Becky. We just had a wonderful time visiting and hanging out by her pool. I hope everyone else had a wonderful day as well. I am finally getting around to posting some of the pictures of my trip with Lily to the beach last week. We had so much fun and the big news is that Lily learned to swim without her floaties!!! We were so excited and all she wants to do is practice now. She had lots of fun playing and singing with her friend, Bett. They repeated silly lines from movies to each other and had Lisa and I laughing along with them. It was a great experience to see them together. I really enjoyed the camping even more than I thought that I would. We had wonderful neighbors at the camp ground that really looked out for us. After Hurricane Katrina, I have vowed to never live anywhere near a coast again but I sure enjoyed visiting. I would have loved to have stayed all summer. Enjoy the precious pictures of Lily and Bett. Lisa and I talked a lot about how blessed our lives are with these two sweeties!

2 months completed

I have been determined to stay positive on this blog which is why there is a lot of Lily and very little information on the wait for Baby Becky. There is a lot of information that is indicating that our wait could extend to 2-3 years. It is really so hard to wrap my brain around that idea and to stay positive. Lily asks about her sister each and every day at least once. I can't imagine waiting that long. So we are happy to say that we are 2 months into the wait but wondering just how long we will really have to wait for Becky. I know that it is all out of our hands but still so overwhelming.

I'll be away for the next week. Lily and I are headed to the beach with Lisa and Bett. Lisa and I met during our first paperchase and traveled to China at the same time to adopt Lily and Bett. Since Wes and Steve are both in school this summer, we are doing a Mommy/daughter trip. We are camping so this should be one big adventure. I will post beach pics when I get back!