Wow - didn't realize how long it's been - this past week has flown by! I think it takes about a week to get back on track after being out of town! So this is a mish mash post/catch up/catch all post to get myself back on track!

On Sunday, Doug and my dad took "the bigs" to the Yankees -Angels game. I stayed home with "the littles". They had more fun....

...a self portrait of sort of "the bigs"....

some might caption this "a rose between two thorns" :)

I can't even say anything about this - the picture truly is worth a thousand words!

Yesterday, Tanya and I took Becky and Gracie to Disneyland for a couple of hours - we are passing time while Tanya waits for her travel call to go get her baby boy Kyle waiting for her in Korea... any excuse to visit the Happiest Place on Earth!

Taken from our bench on the merry go round - Becky still will not ride the horses. I love this mommy/daughter picture - so precious!

Friends on the jungle cruise!

The other thing that has been occupying our time is swimming lessons. The girls go Monday-Thursday for 1/2 hour at the YMCA. These are not the greatest pictures (I'll get better ones next week) - but they at least show a little of what we've been up to! Katie absolutely loves the water - and unfortunately has no fear of it - so since I can't teach her fear, we're teaching her to swim!

Her own Boat

Three months ago, she was a "labelled" orphan in a dismal orphanage in China - today, she has a boat named after her! Ok - so it's a kayak, but that counts as a boat. My mom & stepdad recently acquired a restored kayak, and this morning was the official launching of the "Katie Bug" -

Can't wait until she's old enough/coordinated enough to paddle this herself - but till then, grandma will!

One more day in DC

Today was our last full day in DC and we were so lucky that DOug had no meetings so we were all able to spend it together. It started off pretty lazy - everyone just hanging in the room, soing their thing!

Once we finally got moving, we headed over to Union station and met our friends again, Diane and her clan along with Tara, Moli and Grace - and Shannon joined us too. Shannon and her family are waiting to travel to adopt Jace who is from the same orphanage as Katie. It was raining - and with this many little kids, our indoor options are limited, so we boarded the double decker bus and took a tour - we also took up almost the whole back half of the bus!

The kids could have cared less about what they were seeing, but they had a good time on the bus! We had containment - and a chance to talk.

SOme of the braver (or crazy - you decide) of our group decided to ride the top of the bus - rain and all

We head home tomorrow, once again reminded of the wonderful family that the Lord has created during this adoption journey. I continue to be amazed at how He has brought so many wonderful people into our lives to give us just what we need exactly when we need it. It is no accident, nor "coincidence" that the first agency I looked at was CWA and little did I know that not only would they help us bring our daughters home, but that we would be brought together with so many kind, amazing, fun friends!

Sight-I mean people - seeing

A lot of people asked me about all the sight seeing we would be doing in DC - and it's really not any. It's is actually all people seeing at the sights! Yesterday, while my darling husband slaved away at his meetings, the girls and I hopped on the metro out to Alexandria and had lunch with my step sister, Julie. We don't see her that often and aren't really in touch, but tanks to Facebook we've reconnected, and I sure am glad because we had a nice time with her!

The girls have traveled every day on the metro, and are getting used to it! They are almost ready for the tube of the NY subway!

Katie got the to the pier at the end of King Street and broke loose. She just loves being outside and near the water-

My step dad recommended a great place for lunch - so we headed there and found the address....

....only to discover it's no longer the Seaport Inn! Never the mind - we fond another place to eat and had a great day anyway!

Today - we got to experience the blessings of just how gracious God is to us! Our good friends form Charleston - Tara and Jamie - just happened to be in DC for Jamie's work commitments this week...so we got to spend the day with Tara and her precious girls! Becky had met them last year - but they got to meet Katie, and everyone got along famously! We met at the National Zoo, and were joined by two other CWA moms - one with kids and one solo (all her kids are in big and in school!)

Grace and Becky made fast new friends...

and Moli took charge of Katie!

The zoo has some very neat interactive features - this one showed where all the panda bears live on a huge map of China was you pressed the buttons; we were telling the girls that it was a map of China - and Grace made sure that we all knew she had been there! It was very cute!

Becky looks so studious here!

Grace, Katie & Sofia -

"if we stare long enough and wish hard enough, we just know that baby elephant will come out from behind that tree for us"

"see - told you"

Katie is becoming quite the little camera ham - preferring to pose for the camera than look at the elephant they waited so long to see!

We were quite the group moving through the zoo today - but no one got separated or lost!

Loved having Diane's big kids to help - what a great family she has!

Tomorrow it's off on a tour to see some sights...but I suspect we'll be doing as much visiting as seeing!

Every year, Doug has a trip to Washington, DC for a legislative conference. Every year, I go with him. The first two years, it was by ourselves. Two years ago, I dragged a reluctant Matt along with me. Last year, Becky came - and this year.....both the girls and I tagged along!

The flights yesterday went well (well, except for the very bad case of airsickness that Katie had as we were in initial descent into Dallas...I've now joined the very exclusive club of mothers that have caught throw up in their hands...). The girls did great on the planes, and Becky certainly has got her groove going when she flies. I guess two trans pacific trips in as many years gave her good training

As has become our tradition, we had dinner last night at Legal Seafoods - it was great - as always!

Today, we took the metro out to the suburbs (I love the suburbs on the east coast - 15 miles form the city and there are huge lots with lots of trees and great,big gigantic from yards...sigh - yard envy here..) to visit one of our travel families, Ben & Sandi and their kids - all 6 of them that are still at home! Their daughter Leah and son David were adopted when we adopted Katie. Leah especially loved Katie - and it was so wonderful to see them. It's a little hard to explain - but it feels like a safe place to be with our children. We have seen our children at their worst, have held one another up, have rejoiced over a word spoken or a hug given and have generally all walked together down a quiet and private road that is known to few - but blesses all who travel it. It was nice to be back on that road with them for a few hours today.

The little girls just loved the attention from the big girls - Emma's helping Becky learn to steer (not sure she ever really got that concept today) and it looks like Leah and Katie are playing bumper cars!

Burning off some energy before heading back to the hotel

Al the kids (except Ben & Sandi's oldest) - Leah with Katie, Matt holding onto brother David with brother Kevin in front, and Emma with Becky - a fine looking group of kids!!

Someone asked me if we were doing a lot of sight seeing in DC -and we are..but the sights we are seeing are the best ones - people that mean so much to us!

Where is Dog Heaven?

I believe that somewhere it is posted that dog heaven is at our house. At least for one little chihuahua terrier mix it is. Two weeks ago Friday, after dropping the girls at school, Sailor & I headed out to meet friends for a walk and breakfast. As I turned the corner onto the very busy street - two little dogs had 4 lanes of traffic stopped in all directions. Long story short - I was able to catch one of them - who was in pretty bad shape. We put up the posters and on Monday, got a call from a woman who thought she knew the owner - but wouldn't tell me who it was because of how poorly this person treated their pets.

Off to the vet for a teeth cleaning (poor thing needed 6 teeth removed they were in such bad shape!), some responsible pet owner surgery, a flea dip and vaccinations.

"Duke" as we now call him - has landed in doggie heaven as far as he is concerned!

Sailor is adjusting rather well to yet another intrusion on her formerly serene life....she just wishes that Duke was a little bigger so that he could enjoy some of Katie's "love"!

Spring Photo Shoot

Last February, our dear friend Kim asked me if she could photograph Becky & I for a school project. She did such a wonderful job that this year I asked her if she would do a photo session with the girls & I when she was home form college on spring break. I think the results this year are even better than last year (warning - there are a lot of photos!)

It warms my heart to see all those wonderful pictures of my girls together; I know that God must be smiling too ~