Graduation is Near!!!

Next Friday Nick will graduate from High School, how can that be??? We had a party for him this past Sunday and thank goodness the weather cooperated since we had over 60 people here!! We had a great time and I have to say a Big Thank You to my mother in-law who made Nick 2 wonderful scrapbook albums which took her over 5 months to make, thank you Dixie. We will have more pictures after graduation, enjoy.

We recently got together with a local adoption group we are apart of and had such a great time. Although Lily was the youngest there she doesn't let that stop her from joining in on the fun. She actually plays with older kids (which are mostly boys) at daycare and can hold her own. She had a really good time playing with Cameron out in his dirt pile with the cars and trucks?? LOL Funny thing is she can jump and climb, get dirty then when Sunday morning comes around and she puts that dress on, she twirls around waiting for you to tell her how beautiful she looks, such a funny girl:)

Prom, Mothers Day and other stuff

Just some pictures of Nick and his last prom:( Love the one with him, his brother in the tshirt and his buddies, one of the things I Love most about Nick is crazy personality and not afraid to still be a kid and have fun:( Not alot of pictures from Mother's Day not sure how that happened, but you can see in Lily's hand is a small purple flower, she came running to me yelling out, "Happy Mothers Day" and handed me that beautiful flower, talk about melting your heart:)

Still having one small health issue, my trigliceride count is extremely high, seeing a dietary consultant next week on how to get that lowered? From what I have read and been trying to do, not much alot of fun food on that diet. LOL On a good note, my diabetes test, thyroid test and mammogram all came back fine!!!!! Hope everyone is doing well and had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Home 1 day and in the hospital the next!!

Home and doing fine now but on Saturday coming home I started to feel bad. Same time last month I was having alot of pain, called to get an appointment with my female doctor because I thought it was female related, they could not get me in for 3 weeks, dealt with the pain it was gone in about 3 days. So Saturday and all Sunday I started drinking lots of water and cranberry juice thinking it might be a bladder infection. Got to work on Monday and the pain was getting so bad I was in tears and feeling like I had to pee ALL the time. Again, called doctor, one week til I could get in, someone told me of a walk in clinic decided to go that route,they didn't come in til noon, by then I was really crying, thank goodness the receptionist felt bad and had me see a nurse, took a urine test and ask alot of question. One of the doctors there said he would see me, bless his heart, I cannot tell you how thankful I was to him. Anyway he thought I might have a kidney stone, went had a CT, he asked they I come back over to see him. Said the stone was VERY large 6mm I guess was large for a stone, wanted to check me into the hospital right then. Thank goodness they had given me a shot for the pain!!!! So now I am on nothing but liquids til midnight, didn't eat breakfast, and at midnight the liquids stopped, xray at 6am surgery at 1:00pm which means I didn't eat for 45hrs!!!! The woman in the next bed had emergency surgery at midnight so let's say I got about 3 hours of sleep that night. I have to say I was a little scared at first, the doctor doing the suregery actually goes to my church and does these procedure over in Haiti once a year at no charge, was wonderful and even came in to say a prayer with me before the surgery since I was a little worried. He had told me earlier they may have to put a stint in, well as you know my grandmother passed away about 2 months ago while having stints put in, so I was a little worried. Well, the stone was removed with no stint needed, doctor said it was lodged in there pretty good, Jeff said it looked like a bone grinded with little spikes everywhere, that's why I was in so much PAIN!!! Just glad to be home, in little pain still, took my vicodin and headed to take a nap now, boy that stuff is strong and I only took one. I still have another stone in my right kidney only 1mm though, said I might think of a procedure where you sit in a bath like where there sounds waves break it down?? Doctor said other stone was too large for that process, anyway so very thankful this did not happen in Florida!!! Ready to get back to normal. Jeff has been amazing, thank you honey and the boys both stepped up to help with Lily so much, she came to see mommy, pretty wild so she didn't get to stay too long kept trying to jump on my belly. So sweet before she left she said, "by mommy now lay down" LOL

Wonderful Vacation!!

Well, we got back aroung 12:30 am Sunday, 17 hour trip home and Lily did amazing!!! We had a hotel booked for about 10 hours into the trip but Lily was being so good we decided to go the whole way. She then decided she was wide awake at 1:30 am and finally wound down about 2:00am and getting up at 7:00am, needless to say we are tired!!! The weather was great, had a couple cool days but we used those for shopping and Disney. I have to say, Lily enjoyed Disney and loved the rides but compared to the other theme parks the Disney rides seem really outdated, just my opinion. lol We also spent one day at the Beach in Clearwater, kind of disappointed there too, it had a ton of sea weed, but again Lily was great and enjoyed playing in the sand. It was so much fun to see Lily, Sammy and Sophie together!!! Lily, loves the water and has no fear, refuses to wear water rings and walks around in the pool til it hits her chin, then she says, "too deep" turns around and head back. She was jumping off the sides and eventually doing the nest tea pludge backwards into the water!!!! Anyway, had a great time, glad to be home and headed back to work tomorrow:)

Headed to Florida!!!

We will be heading out tomorrow morning for Florida, bags are packed, house is clean, sunshine here we come!!! LOL Will post pictures soon:)

Wonderful Weekend!!!

Well we got to spend the weekend with our travelmates and had a wonderful time. To see those sweet little faces jumping around in the pool was amazing!!! We went to Rockfor Il and stayed at the Clock Tower Resort that had a wonderful indoor water park the girls really enjoyed. We ate pizza in the room on Saturday then out for lunch Sunday before heading home, it just brings so much joy to my heart to see these sweet litle angels all the way from Fujian playing together and my hope is that this amazing bond continues to grow as the grow. We Love you Olivia and Zoie!!!!! I took a few pictures but am hoping Gina has some to share, she took a ton of photos and is quite the photographer, check her site soon for some "good" photos :)

Good News!!!

First, we are so excited because we will be getting together with our travel group from China. Cannot wait to see Lily, Olivia and Zoie together again, it means so much to us for these girls to stay in contact and have that one common thread keep them bonded for life. Here is a photo of all the girls in China.

Next, Nick got his license back!!! Well, he is on court supervision for 3 months but can drive during that time. Once the three months is up and he has NOT gotten any tickets, his last ticket will be dropped and he will have a clear record again since he has officially passed the first 2 years which means he cannot get 2 tickets within the next two years.

Lastly, Lily is officially done with speech. We had three woman over on Wednesday to talk about her progress and she no longer qualifies for the program which is a good thing!!!!!! They said there are hardly any kids in the program who "graduate" out early so we were thrilled. She is is doing great with her speech, putting 5-6 words together now, knows about 10 colors a few shapes, sings most of the alphabet and can recognize about 10 letters by sight!!! She loves puzzles, reading books, building blocks, playdoh and really getting into coloring, she jumps and climbs on everything and is quit limber, she can stand on one leg while holding the other up in the air with her knee near her shoulder, girl has balance!!! She has also moved into a Full size bed, after my grandmas passing we were blessed to be given one of her mattress sets which fit Lily's 4in1 crib my parents bought for her. She LOVES it, the first night I think she jumped around for 1 hour before I could actually get her to lay down. I will have to post pictures once I find that "right" bedspread. Who would have thought it would be this hard to find bedding for a girl???

Alot of Stuff

Just some fun pictures from last couple of months.

This last month or so has bee a little crazy and I apologize for so much time in between post. Nick got notice a little over 3 weeks ago he was losing his license for 1 yr!!!!!! He had 2 tickets in 24 months, we are still working on that, forgot what it was like having to drive your kid around, but I think we are making head way thanks to grandpa knowing the State's Attorney

Then, two weeks ago today my Grandma passed away very unexpectedly. She went in to have 2 stints put in for poor circulation to the legs, after a long surgery something was hit and the bleeding they were hoping would stop. Once she was taking to ICU they very quickly realized the blood was not clotting and she sadly bleed to death. Although she had been wanting to be with Jesus for a long time, not the way we have hoped she would go. But now she is in the presence of God our King and singing his praises and seeing the man she had loved for so many years here on earth.

Things are now slowing back down and we are preparing for a long needed trip to Florida the first of April, so ready for the sun and just laying around.

Hope everyone else is doing great, will stop by to visit you all soon:)