The difference a year makes...

Just about one year ago to the day the below picture was taken on a red couch in the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China.

Yesterday we hosted 11 families from our travel group for our 1 year reunion/picnic. The weather held out and we spent the afternoon marveling at how much our girls have changed in a year. It has been a pretty amazing year for all of our families and we are so lucky to have these beautiful little girls in our families.

One year ago today......

We became a family. One year ago today we were handed the cutest little baby we had ever seen. We were far away from home and we fumbled through our first couple weeks as parents but eventually things started to click.

Last night as Grace was having trouble falling to sleep. As I rocked her I recounted the story of our "Family Day". After the story I asked her if she was ready for bed. She proceeded to give me a big hug, grab me by both cheeks and planted two little kisses on my lips. Finally a family!!!!

To commemorate our family day Jen put together a little video with highlights from our first year as a family. The pictures are in chronological order so it's really cool to see how Grace has changed over the past year. Enjoy....

One Year Ago Today...

We boarded a plane bound for Beijing China for a trip of a lifetime. It would be a trip that would change and enrich our lives forever in ways we would never imagine. We left home with bags packed and the below picture close to our hearts.....

We were scared and stressed and excited all at the same time. In just a few short days we would be meeting our daughter for the first time.

Pic post

Just posting a couple quick pics tonight.....

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all of the moms out there had a great day. This was Jen's first year celebrating Mother's Day with Grace home. Last year we had Grace's referral picture but Jen had to wait a couple more weeks to see Grace in person. We spent the day yesterday visiting with our Moms.

Me-Me, Grace and Jen
Gram, Grace and Steve

This morning Grace game mommy a special present and slept in a little so mommy had an extra hour of rest. Then Grace gave Mommy her gift. A new watch.

We headed out early for lunch in Salem and then to see the Mahjong exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum. I think it was a pretty good day for mommy. Some pics below from Jen's day.

Free Lifebook Course

I received an email today from Adoption Learning Partners regarding a free online lifebook class that they are offering until the end of May. If you aren't familiar with Adoption Learning Partners they offer web-based adoption resources and classes. We took a couple of their free classes while we were waiting. The classes are pretty quick to go through and for certain classes you can pay an additional fee to get a certificate of completion.

The description of the course from their website is below:

A Lifebook is a book created for an adopted child that tells his story, before and after adoption. The Lifebook helps all children place foster care or adoption in the context of their life experiences.

The Lifebooks Course helps adoptive families:

• Understand the purpose of a Lifebook and the need to start or to continue to develop one.
• Learn the difference between baby books, scrap books, and Lifebooks.
• Identify the components of a Lifebook.
• Identify situations that may benefit from employing Lifebooks.
• Develop some pages of your adopted child's Lifebook.
• Understand the importance of Lifebooks as a lifelong project.

You can sign up for the course at the Adoption Learning Partners website here.

Pic Post

Just a picture post tonight....

Loving Spring
Helping Daddy

Not what I had in mind.

Olive you.