Lily is 7!!!!

I can't believe our baby girl is 7 years old today. I feel bad that she has to share her birthday with Christmas, but we do our best to try to separate it for her. There are definitely no complaints on her end. So, we must be doing a good job so far.

Happy Birthday Lily Rene Jiayan!!

Wordless Wednesday

Santa pics throughout the years

We take the girls to the same mall every year for their Santa photos. They always have the best Santa there. And I swear it's been the same Santa for the last 4 years. Check him out!

Lily (with Mommy and Daddy) in 2004 (we got her in 2003, but didn't torture her that first year like we did here)

A step closer for Lily in 2005

Lily, the brave big sister and Lia who was just not sure in 2006

Lily is finally quite comfy and Lia is NOT in 2007

Lily and Lia, both fairly content in 2008

They actually were both very excited in 2009 (just not a great shot of either girl)

Happy Hanukkah!!

My Little Pony party

We had a very small birthday party for Lia this year. We just had the grandparents over for dinner and some birthday cake. Lia enjoyed decorating the house with her ponies and hanging streamers. She was quite excited to be the birthday girl.

Happy Birthday Lia! The BIG 4!!!

Happy Birthday to our sweet, sassy, spunky, so-very-affectionate (when she wants to be), stubborn, sneaky, giggly, smart and incredibly cute daughter! We love you more than words can say.

This is Lia's "BIG EYES" pose as she calls it

Enjoying the November weather

The weather has been gorgeous lately, definitely not your typical Indiana November. We'll take it for as long as we can.

Happy Halloween from our little insects!

Lily's Gotcha Day #6!

It's hard to believe that 6 years ago Lily Rene Jiayan was placed in our arms at the White Rose Hotel in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China. It really does just seem like yesterday.

I cry everytime I see this photo!

Our first family photo

Pumpkins and hayrides

We took the girls to a pumpkin patch today. We went on a hayride which the girls loved and then we let them pick out pumpkins. It was a gorgeous fun-filled day today.

More about the Hubei Honeys 2009 Reunion

Oh, we had such a great time last weekend in Columbus. Ten out of 12 families that we traveled with made it. That is just an incredible turn-out. We have been lucky enough that we have actually seen most of this group over the past 6 years at our adoption agency's annual reunions. But we haven't all been together like that since we were in China getting our girls. And there was one family we hadn't seen since our trip so that was awesome to get to visit with them. We had families from Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. It was also so neat to be able to meet all of the new siblings. Out of our 12 original families, 7 of us went back to China for another daughter (although one of them turned out to be a brother - what a pleasant surprise!) And there are a couple of bio babies too that have joined our families! Also, a few of our families had older kiddos as well (both adopted and bio.)

So, here's how our weekend went. We drove to Columbus, Ohio on Friday. We were one of the later arriving families. So, we grabbed dinner at the hotel while the group was at the mall eating, and then went up to our room. We had a block of rooms at the hotel, so we just propped our door open so we could hear when the group got back. I had a feeling we would be able to tell when they arrived, LOL. After lots of greetings and hugs, we all went to the pool to let the kids swim. They had a blast. We finally went to bed around 11 pm which is about 3 hours later than our girls' normal bedtime.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then we all went to the Columbus Zoo. Wow, it was fantastic! We aren't used to such a spectacular zoo. It was so much fun and the weather was great. After the zoo, we went back to the hotel and had a catered pizza dinner with everyone in the hotel's meeting room. That was really nice because the adults could catch up with the kids played. We shared videos and photos from our trips.

And the next morning we had breakfast and said our good-byes. I, for one, and hoping this can be a annual thing, but we'll have to see how all of the "distance" travellers feel.

And onto the photos!!








Lia was zonked. This was when we were leaving the zoo.





The Hubei girls with their siblings.

Then and now

We got together with Lily's travel group last weekend. I'll blog in more detail later. But I wanted to share these photos right away.



Guangdong, China 11/4/2003
From left to right, starting on the top:
Tea (barely getting in the shot), Lily, Kiana, Ella, Zoe
Grace, Calla, TaraKate (not at the reunion), Savannah, Lauren, Faith




Columbus, Ohio 10/10/2009
From left to right, starting at the top:
Tea, Lily, Kiana, Ella, Zoe
Grace, Calla, Savannah, Lauren, Faith