HOMECOMING 08

Well it's that time of year again, homecoming is here! This is Taylor and Amy's second homecoming and they made such a cute couple! Amy's best friend Shelby and Amy's twin brother Michael made a cute couple too! It was my turn to have some of the kids over for pizza and pictures before the game this year. The weather was perfect and we won the game 62-28! Meisi also had her mum on! Homecoming is a huge day for the kids with a outside stage set up at school for the peprally, bar-b-q and other food stands at the rally, and the homecoming parade the night before! The kids are all painted up in purple and gold with much a "mardi-gra" feel at the game! It was all fun, here are some pics from the evening!

HOMECOMING 08

GOTCHA DAY - FOREVER FAMILY DAY

September 11th is the third aniversary of Meisi's Gotch Day! I can't believe that it has been that long. I still can't believe that we have been so incredibly blessed to have this child from half way across the world in our family. I look at her everyday still wondering how we came to be this lucky! People tell us she is the lucky one to have us but it is definitely the other way around!!!! Here are a few pictures of our dinner at Kuo's (these people at this restuarant have had her SPOILED from day 1!!!) celebrating the day. Meisi is being held by "Auntie" Kendra a very good friend of ours who was with us from day 1 of the adoption journey to Meisi. In the other pics is her husband "Uncle" Arnold, their precious little Nethaniel and of course Mamaw and Papaw. Taylor's girlfriend Amy also joined us for the celebration.

GOTCHA DAY- FOREVER FAMILY DAY

Legacy of the Adopted Child

Author Unknown

Once there were two women who never knew each other

One you do not rememberthe other you call Mother

Two different lives shaped to make you one

One became your guiding star the other became your sun

First one gave you life and the second taught you to live it

The first gave you a need for love

The second was there to give it

One gave you a nationality

The other gave you a name

One gave you a talent

The other gave you aim

One gave you emotions

The other calmed your fears

One saw your first sweet smile

The other dried your tears

One sought for you a home that she could not provide

The other prayed for a childand her hope was not denied

And now you ask me through your tears

The age old question unanswered through the years

Heredity or environment which are you a product of?

Neither my darling neither, just two different kinds of Love.

After Taylor Came back from Colorado, oh yes he went AGAIN ( 3rd time this summer) with his best friend Ben. Ben is condidered one of the family (Shelly, Ben's mother became very ill before we went to China to bring Meisi home and passed away on Meisi's first B-Day) and usually comes on vacation with us. This year though Ben's father invited Taylor to go with them on vacation. They went rafting, jeeping, and fishing. Boy, the life that child lives!!!!! Okay...where was I....Oh yea, these were taken a few days after Taylor came back from CO and him, I and Meisi drove to El Paso to visit with my parents before school started. Meisi was enjoying the good life learning how to tan from Taylor and my neice Christian.

Here is Meisi studying her FAVORITE book, Fancy Nancy so she can decide what to wear to hea friend Jentry's Fancy Nancy B-Day Party! You'd have thought she got invited to Cinderells's Ball she was soooo excited! The next picture is right be fore the party, she has become quite the poser! They all came home with little satin bags with personalized homemade bubble bath, sponge puffs, high-heeled shoe soap bars and pretend jewelry! Here are also some pics from the party!

As you will soon notice Taylor had a very eventful summer. After our vacation to Colorado he had enough time to come home get some clothes washed and head to Dallas for a week of Miss Teen Texas hoop-la.....came home again with enough time to do laundry for his next adventure back to Durango, CO with First Baptist Church for camp. He really enjoyed this camp and had a chance to listen to some very inspirational speakers. He forgot his camera so these are the only pics I have, one is of him and Amy and one of the kids who were in his group. The best thing about this camp was that so many of his friends went together and I couldn't think of a better place for them to be than learning how to be a better christians together. It was awesome the night they left, all the parents formed a circle around the buses to pray for them before they drove off.From then on for the next week they were only allowed to have emails, no cell phones, no phones period! I felt so lost not having contact but I made it to the end of the week. Here is the web site link (http://camp.studentlife.com/experience/gallery.php?cn=08FORT01) to see some of the pics of their activities during the week. Every day I would go thru those photos looking for him and he only ended up being in a few....I thought for a while he defected!! Just kidding!

Taylor spent his 4th of July in Dallas with his girlfriend Amy and her family while she was competing for Miss Teen Texas. These are a few pictures taken during the preliminary week before the pageant. She did not place in the top 10 but she certainly is a beautiful young lady!

The Fourth of July complete with patriotic tootsies! I have learned for the fifteen dollars it costs for the salon to do this I could do it for two! This was the first year Meisi actually liked the fireworks. In the past she just hid her face.

Forgot the grocery shopping with Grandpa...this is too cute to leave out!

Sul Ross State University

These were taken at the Denver Aquarium.