FINALLY!!

Our Little Joy gave us so much to celebrate last month, we had to take a bit of time to breathe! We celebrated a birthday, 6 whole months of being home and the Lunar New Year, all in the same week!! Here are a few pics of all that we did.

We had the opportunity to celebrate the Lunar New Year a little early at a local church that has an amazing Asian community, including a huge population of adoptive families of Asian children. The event was HUGE and we were a little overwhelmed, but I could see it being fun in a few years. LJ and Samuel were all dressed up in their "dragon clothes" as Samuel calls them.




A few days later, our little Miss celebrated her 2nd birthday!! We had a little party with her Bana and Papa and a very pink cake. She seemed to know that it was her very own special day and I think she really enjoyed it. Samuel decided that she needed a birthday crown, so he very thoughtfully gave up his play time at preschool to decorate her crown. She wore it ALL DAY LONG! We also had a bigger party in honor of her birthday, her 6 months of being home with us (can you believe it??!!), and the Lunar New Year. A great time was had by all!


We finished up that party weekend with a trip to my aunt and uncle's cabin up in the mountains. It was the only glimpse of snow that we had this year and it was very fun.

We weren't entirely certain how LilyJoy felt about the sledding experience, but she didn't seem to want to get out, so she stayed!

Otherwise, we've just been having fun together as a family. LilyJoy and I are doing great and Steve and LJ's relationship has also improved a ton just over the past probably 2 weeks. It has been so strange how she completely flipped the way she felt about us. I guess it just goes to show us that our experience in China was just not "real" life-- something that would be very good to remember when you're in the situation in China.