Chinese New Year Celebration 2012

We had a wonderful CNY Celebration!

We had a great turnout, over 60 people came to celebrate and learn about our Girls' heritage.

We were able to use the gym at the Brown's church which had a full kitchen and lots of room for all the kids to have fun!  We had so many people offer to bring food, which was amazing!

Our menu consisted of:

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Teriyaki Chicken

White and Fried Rice

Spring Rolls

Chinese Chicken Salad

Dumplings

Almond and Cashew Cookies

Dawn B. ordered this amazing dragon cake from our friend Jenn...it made quite the centerpiece!

Lucy invited some of her first grade friends and their families to share in our celebration, along with Grammy and Papa, and Aunt Deanna 

Dawn has done lots of events for her church, so she is great at coming up with games and crafts!

(this pic was taken during the introductions...the boys look like they are just waiting for the food!!)

Our night went perfectly

The food and company was fabulous

and 

we, along with our friends and family celebrated and honored the heritage of these two

little Asian beauties~

(note to self:  next year just shoot in auto w/flash and guarantee better pics!...uuggh)

 

Celebrating 3 years with Our Lucy Joy!

 3 years ago today,  this little "light" came into our lives....

Our tradition is to ask Lucy what she would like to do on her day, you can go HERE to see last years festivities :).  So, here are her choices for today....

Out to breakfast with Daddy

Swim Lessons

Our friends, The Brown's asked to take her to lunch :)

Go to the park

Pedicure from Mommy

Pasta or Tacos for dinner

and

Rootbeer Floats

"Gotcha" Lucy Joy!!

xoxo

Xin Nian Kuai Le! Happy Chinese New Year!

Year of the Rabbit

Happy New Year!

We will be celebrating with our good friends tonight the Brown's!

A Special Day!

Today was a special day!

Two years ago we arrived in Seattle from China with Lucy, and she met her Brothers for the very first time!

Today we went to the airport to welcome our dear friends home from China with their two new "teenage" Sons!! They have walked an admirable walk in Faith and are blessed beyond measure with now 6 wonderful children...5 adopted from China in the last 7 years!! ( I will share those pics soon!!)

I thought that since we were at the airport :) I would take pics of Lucy and each of her brothers, like my friend Terry captured that day two years ago.

I know I do ALOT of posts of just Lucy...it really is only because she is such an eager and willing participant in all my little photo sessions...the boys have had their fair share (trust me) those moments just came before I ever knew what a blog was :) I never want them to feel like I didn't give them their "time" here, but they are a little more protective of their privacy.

Each of these wonderful Guys of ours have opened their hearts and made a place for this little sister. They love her and would do just about anything for her. Yes, she annoys them at times, yes they (she and Bennett) irritate each other at times, yes she plays the "little sister" card quite often...but I do know they each couldn't imagine their life without her in it.

I love seeing how each of them has changed and matured in the last 2 years.

Bennett and Lucy

Blake and Lucy

Powell and Lucy

Lucy's Gotcha Day full of Favorites!

Lucy and I headed out for our day full of favorites!

Our first stop...

We headed straight for the nail polish! Lucy brought along her own shopping bag :)

We have accumulated a large assortment of polish in the last two years :)...so today's selection was a little harder.

Lucy ended up choosing a sparkly Gold polish named Paris

Next stop......

there didn't seem to be quite the selection of samples today as there is usually, but Lucy enjoyed it all!

The Library was our next stop...it is so pretty there in front that we stopped to take some photos on the walkway~

Where does this Girl learn to pose???

aaahhhhh books!

After the library we headed home to get our lasagna ready and get those toes painted. The gold polish is the one Lucy chose today!

After Daddy came home...we headed to the park!

...and last but not least the cherry Dilly Bar!

What a wonderful day to celebrate an amazing little Girl!

Happy 2 Years to our Sweet Lucy Joy!

Celebrating 2 years with Our Lucy Joy!

There have been many discussions recently regarding celebrating "Gotcha Days". Our journey to Lucy was full of so much joy, but I know there are others with as much heartbreak as there is joy. Lucy was 3 1/2 the day she became ours, and I do not know how much she truly remembers of that day, but she KNOWS there is a special day when she became ours in China...and that is HER Gotcha Day, and she can't wait to celebrate. I will honor and celebrate this day for her as long as she wishes, and I will pray that one day she will understand why this is her story.

So today we celebrate 2 wonderful years with our Lucy Joy. We thank God for 2 wonderful years with our Lucy Joy.

Last year we asked Lucy how she wanted to celebrate her day, and this is what she chose. Again, this year we asked her the same question, and here is what she chose...each one of these things are truly her favorite things to do!

Go to Walgreens and buy nail polish

Go to Costco and eat samples

Go to the library and check out books

Pedicure from Mommy

Play with Blake's Ipod

Go to the baseball park with Daddy

Go to Dairy Queen and get cherry dilly bars

Lasagna for dinner

Put on a concert for her family!

So, today we celebrate a day which we know every moment was orchestrated by God. HE had a plan for our sweet Girl from the moment she was born, and though we may not be able to answer all of the questions she may have someday, we do know for sure she was meant to be our Lucy Joy Jingxuan.

Two Year Ago~

Two years ago today, we saw this precious face for the very first time and knew this was our Daughter....

Today...this is the Girl who ROCKS our world...and life has NEVER been the same!