Welcome Home R!!!

We were so excited to get to welcome home sweet R in person! Gabriella was so "exciting" (as she calls it) to see her orphanage buddy. It was a very surreal experience....still hard to believe that these two little girls who played together at their orphanage in Ethiopia are now in their forever families in Tennessee!!!! Click here for her familiy's blog.

Guitars & Gymnastics

This week Gabriella started gymnastics! She has been very eager to learn to do cartwheels & such, so we gave it a shot & she did great! She is a very agile, bouncy little girl, so it should be perfect for her!

At the beginning of January, Troy started guitar lessons. He's a music guy & has always loved the guitar. He loves lessons, but, of course, hates to practice! He says, "He wants to play the guitar his way, not his teacher's way". Oh, boy! The funnest part is that Nate Dogg gets to go with him & he's getting to learn with him. Siskel & Ebert have soccer sign-ups tomorrow. Fun, busy times for the fam!

Hair for Gabriella

Recognize this face??? It's sweet Gabriella, but she has long hair! I haven't gotten a good shot with my camera, but I was anxious to share so the picture from my phone will have to do for now. I've mentioned how much she has missed her hair since it was shaved when she got to Hannah's Hope. The relaxer helped, but I still catch her in the mirror pretending that her hair is long & she's flipping it over her shoulder or moving it out of her face. This weekend, I took the plunge & bought her a real wig (gulp!). It dawned on me that if she had gotten her head shaved for chemo, we would have gotten her a wig. And even though she in no where close experiencing the pain of chemo, she still deserves to feel girlie! Plus, I found out that it's not unusual in the black community to wear a wig (you know...for the days you want straight hair or longer hair :-) ). She was so proud of her new hair. The look on her face was priceless! There is something innate in girls & women to need their hair! It just helps us feel extra good about ourselves...right! The funniest part was that as we were leaving the mall, she looked up at me & said, "Now I look like Barack Obama's friend!". To which I asked, "You mean his wife or his daughters?". She said, "His daughters.". I laughed b/c it was so cute, but I was also proud b/c it seemed like for the first time she has been proud to identify herself as a brown-skinned little girl!

Change of Heart

I've mentioned before about how we were hoping Gabriella would be ready to move on to 1st grade at the end of this school year...mainly b/c of "the brothers". Well, God has totally changed our hearts on this one (isn't He good at that!). Things have been great in Kindergarten & it has been amazing to see her learn so much in so little time. After Christmas break, she started staying afterschool for "Intervention" which is a literacy program. It added 2 hours & 45 minutes to her day & was just too much. A week or so ago, I mentioned it to her teacher & she agreed that she seemed tired by the time "Intervention" rolled around. Then, Gabriella started telling me how much she misses me while she's at "Intervention". That's where I drew the line! She loves school & does great during the half-days but full-days are just too much! We have not been together long enough for her to be missing me! We realized that pulling her out of "Intervention" would probably guarantee that she would not be ready for 1st grade, but even before "Intervention" started that concern seemed to have melted away. We realized that we have always worked very hard to treat the boys as individuals & not as "twins" (we hardly have ever referred to them as the twins). It dawned on us that adding Gabriella to the mix was adding another individual not a third-wheel! So, today we confirmed it with the school & are so at peace with our decision. No more "Intervention" & no 1st grade next year! Besides, Kindergarten is the best & what a lucky girl to get to have extra time in Kindergarten! She has not had enough time to learn through playing & singing before moving onto the challenges of 1st grade! Thank God for "change of hearts"!

More Sisters...What???

It seems that Gabriella & Ebert have decided that there are not enough children in our family. They are insisting that we need to adopt 2 more girls! For Gabriella, this is understandable, she lived with 9 other kids when she was with her Ethiopian family plus the time she spent at Hannah's Hope. I'm sure our SMALL family with only FOUR kids seems like there's not enough action or girls! However, it is quite amazing to hear this coming for Ebert! This was the child that insisted that if we added a girl to our family he would go live with his Great Grandparents! It seems our sweet, darling daughter has convinced him how great sisters are! They even are wanting to save certain things (like our old laptop) to make sure the two new sisters get to see it! My, oh my! If only adoptions were free! After this morning's church service, I'm thinking more along the lines of moving our family to Ethiopia to start an orphange. This is the beginning of missions week at our church & the focus is ORPHANS...let me just say, I was a blubbering mess during the whole service! All the tears of adopting don't end when your child comes home forever! That is only the beginning b/c Ethiopia (or whatever country) & the child's birthfamily will be forever on your heart! I miss Ethiopia so much! How blessed I feel to be touched by such an amazing country & people! Maybe we do need more children around!

My Little Ponies

The boys LOVED playing with all of Gabriella's birthday toys. Oh, how things have changed at our house...who would have thought the boys would have this much fun playing with GIRL toys! After her party, they sat in the floor forever playing with all her new ponies. We have NEVER seen them sit that still for that long! Even after the others moved on & went upstairs to play WII, Siskel was still doing pony hairstyles! Everytime he did something cute to it, he insisted I take a picture! Then, he insisted I blog about it! Nate Dogg will be so proud when he sees this post! ;-)

Snow Day

I mentioned that we got snow on Gabriella's b-day, but I forgot to blog about it. So here goes the quick version...I've got fifty loads of laundry & fifty million errands to do before the weekend!

Playing in the snow in the culdesac...including riding bikes & big wheels around in the snow!

Building our little snow girl (in honor of Gabriella's 1st snow person)...I know all of you who live where you get REAL snow are laughing...we were so excited to have enough for this little one!

Sledding down the hill in our backyard...I was at the top of the hill helping the kids get on the sled & giving them a push...Nate Dogg was at the bottom trying to keep them from breaking through the fence :-)


Minnie & McGwire (our two dogs) loved the snow. McGwire is getting pretty old & has arthritis, but he & Minnie still had a blast chasing each other through the snow.

Now, we are hoping for an even bigger snow before the end of winter...it will probably come the 2nd weekend of Febuary when we're at DISNEY WORLD!!!!!

Gabriella's B-day Part 2

What an amazing birthday our sweet princess had! When she went to sleep on the night before her birthday, she kept saying that it was going to snow "a bunch, a bunch", so she could go sledding. We told her that the snow was probably finished & there wouldn't be more when she woke up. Oh, what a surprise we all woke up to! "A bunch, a bunch" of snow & her first snow day from school! She said, "See Mom, I told you"! It was perfect b/c I really didn't want her to go to school....I really wanted to be together as she spent her first birthday with us! The snow day allowed us all to spend the entire day celebrating our special little girl! Thank you, God! Since the hill out of our neighborhood was totally iced over, no one was in a hurry to go to work. She opened her presents & insisted that we go ahead & eat cake! Cake for breakfast? Anything for THE PRINCESS! Thankfully, we were able to head outside to play & run off the sugar high we all experienced from eating for breakfast! She was so excited about the snow. We told her that it must have been Jesus' birthday present for her! The coolest part was that on our wedding day in March 1999, we had a surprise snow & laughed then about it being God's wedding present for us. We just don't get much snow here in Knoxville, so it's really a big deal! Isn't God amazing like that! So, anyways, we bundled up & headed out! We had a blast sledding & watching the kids ride their bikes in the culdesac...yes, that's right...the kids decided to ride their bikes around & thought it was hilarious to slip & slide. Gabriella was ready to tackle the icy hill on the big wheel, but we had to draw the line somewhere! Lol!Then we came in to warm up & watch the inaguration! I was so glad to have the kiddos home from school, so we could all watch it together. Siskel & Ebert didn't get into it too much, but Troy & Gabriella loved it! During the election, Gabriella did not like Obama...I'm pretty sure that was b/c he had brown skin & we had told her about his African heritage. However, she seemed to have moved on from that, & I believe the MLK parade & the inaguration festivities played a big part in that. I felt so blessed to be watching our country's first African American president being sworn in. How cool is it that our African-Asian princess celebrated her first birthday in America on the same day that a man with African & Asian roots became President!

For her birthday dinner, she wanted to go to her favorite restaraunt, Wasabi.

This picture is especially funny b/c back in December at Nate Dogg's work Christmas party, she got really tired of everyone coming to our table to meet her (& staring at her & telling her how beautiful she is). Being her silly self, she slipped a lemon into her mouth without us knowing it, & when people would come to meet her, she would smile a big lemon smile! It was hilarious! Last night, she decided to try it out again! She has the best sense of humor, & we know came from her birthfamily b/c they were funny when we met them, as well! I'm so glad we were able to meet them & learn this about them, so we can tell her where she gets her silliness!

Happy Birthday sweet princess! We are so blessed to have you in our life!

MLK Parade

Treat people kindly. Do what is fair. Work for all people. Show you care.

These are the ways we work as a team, to remember the man who said,

"I have a dream."

This was the writing lesson that Troy came home with this week. He has been learning a lot about Martin Luther King, Jr. & the work he did to promote fairness for all people. I have been so proud of him as he has shared with his siblings about this holiday. Nate Dogg decided to have Home Depot be a part of our local MLK parade, & he wanted the kids to ride in the truck with him. They were so excited to be apart of the parade & Troy's lessons helped them understand why we were saying, "Happy King Day".

Gabriella's B-day Part 1

Today was Olivia's birthday party. She had a blast! She was so excited to have many of her friends come to celebrate with her. She has been grinning from ear to ear all weekend! You can tell she feels very special!

Yesterday, while we were making her cake, she said, "I'm so excited about Santa coming". We realized that she thought her birthday presents were coming from Santa! Until last week at another friend's b-day, she didn't even realize she'd be getting presents for her birthday.

We are so blessed to be celebrating her birthday with us this year. Tuesday is the "big day", & we can't wait for more fun with our Ethiopian princess!

We're Still Here!

The new year is off to a busy (but good) start at our house. We rang in the new year with a fun night with my mom & my uncle who came up from West TN for a surprise visit. The kids were so excited when they heard a knock on the door around 8:30 p.m. & looked out the window to see him & his dog! We love our "Uncle Chuck"! I love for the kids to spend time with him, especially since they don't have a grandfather on my side of the family...he's a great substitute & my kids love him just like a grandfather. I wish I could post pics, but I accidently deleted them from my camera! Oops! It was a great time though! We made it to midnight & beyond (all of us!) and rang in the new year with lots of confetti, noise, & sparkling apple juice! It was a blast!

Now, we are off & running with the new year. The kids are all back in school after a fun holiday break. Now, I'm busy working on Gabriella's lifebook, scrapbooking my memories from our adoption journey, catching up the boys' scrapbooks, & starting Gabriella's scrapbook...whew!...my goal is to be finished by summer! Lol! I had hoped to start back to work part time from home with my previous job but it looks like I'm not needed there right now...surprise, surprise with the economy the way it is right now. Oh, well...I've got PLENTY to do & I'm trusting God with the financial aspect of this & know that He knows what I really be needing to do right now...focusing on my sweet family!

We just finished our 6 month post adoption report for Gabriella! So hard to believe it's already been 6 months! Time flies when you're having fun! :-) This past weekend we put on a relaxer on her hair & she loves the results. I ran into another adoptive mom & she told me about the "Just for Me" relaxer that is sold at Kroger. Her curls were so stinkin' tight they were growing but just sticking to her head. Gabriella was so frustrated that her hair was still so short. So, we tried the relaxer, &,now the curls are not as tight & her hair actually moves! She now loves to shake her head & watch her curls bounce! We can't believe how long her hair looks now & how much older she looks!