HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Mostly Good News

OK - some fun stuff...

Mark and Wendy (Wendy was my college roommate) are the proud new parents of a baby boy. Max Daniel was welcomed by his family this morning at 5:34. At 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 20 in., he is just perfect. Mom is feeling great and they may even be going home tomorrow. CONGRATULATIONS! I absolutely can't wait to see them when we are up north for Thanksgiving.

Hope is still cutting teeth. #13 arrived on Sat. Those eye-teeth are tough!

Last Friday (26th) was the two year anniversary of our log-in-date.

Group 92 from our agency (we were part of Group 91) met their babies in China on Sunday. Check out this blog for some new photos. Journey to Madison

We just had a great weekend! Here is the favorite photo of the day Saturday. We spent the morning at a fall festival in New Richmond and then after a quick lunch we found a geocache at this nearby park. Are these not the sweetest girls you've ever seen?!

That is Hope with her friends Lexi and Ava. Their family was part of our travel group and we have had a great time getting to know them. They live very close to us and it is so fantastic to be able to see them and watch the girls all play together now. So why don't we do it more often?!

Here is one other picture from the weekend. Friday night we took Hope out and snapped a few shots in the Stillwater area. In spite of a few sprinkles, we got some sweet ones. This is Mommy's favorite.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Beth

P.S. - The news on Tom is that he is still in serious condition. Please continue to pray for him and his family (wife and two young children). Thank you!

Pray

For those who believe...please pray for Ron's friend and co-worker Tom who was injured on the job today. We don't know a lot of particulars since Tom was at a different location than Ron, but we've heard that there was some sort of explosion and he has some pretty severe burns over 60% of his body. We'll be making some calls tonight and hopefully we'll learn more. When Ron tried to call after work, he was told that Tom was in surgery. Please keep Tom and his family close to your hearts during this time.

Thank you!

B, R, & H

OOPS

Hope tipped over. :)

Couple of things to note...

Well, we've finished up our part of our 6 mo. post-placement report. I can't believe we're working on that already! We just need our home visit for it all to be complete I think. Incredible that Hope has officially been our daughter for that long! I was looking at some of our photos from China last week and absolutely can't believe how Hope has changed. She looked so tiny and vulnerable in those pictures. When we were in the moment, standing there embracing our new little daughter, we of course knew she was terrified and tried to respect her anxieties. But now, looking back, it is SO CLEAR that she was sad, grieving, and scared to her very core. We have tried to be good parents and hope that she is truly adjusting as well as we believe she is. Adoption is nothing short of a miracle! We believe that with our whole hearts and we hope that we are honoring God's plan in our lives through Hope. She is incredible! We can't wait to celebrate the 6 month milestone with her on Dec. 4. We are so blessed.

Other fun developements...LANGUAGE! Hope is signing more than ever and sometimes now without prompting. We get lots of "please" and "thank you." We're so proud! And, tonight for the first time we heard her say "help" clear as day!!!...when she dropped her fork on the floor during dinner. She is also saying "Grandma" and "Grandpa" now too. She has such a cute voice. I'd love to get some video, but she doesn't often say things just because we tell her to. Most often her language is used on her own terms. HMMM...could we have a toddler on our hands? :)

Now for the not so fun. I'm writing this here as my journal, not because I'm particularly proud of our evening yesterday. So, here goes. We had our worst parenting moment since we've been home. Hope's cries took us back to China and her 2 weeks of tears when we first met her. These are the kinds of cries that just rip at your heartstrings. These are cries of pain. Not cries of anger because she wants her snack. Not cries of frustration because she isn't quite strong enough to pull her blanket out from under the dog. Not cries of fatigue because she missed her nap. We're talking genuine pain. Our daughter doesn't cry when she falls or bumps her head on the table. She's a tough girl. So, last night when she cried for an hour and half when she twisted (or popped somehow?) her wrist playing with Ron we were scared. I was so ready to go for x-rays. But, we waited. I'm happy to report that after a little Culver's custard (and a good night's sleep) Hope is fine, but it sure was a hard night. She's using her hand, playing, eating, etc. normally today. She is showing no signs of being tentative about pushing her hand through sleeves to get dressed or get her coat on. Really, she's fine. But, HOLY COW did we suffer last night.

Sorry for the post without photos tonight. I'm having trouble linking to our other computer to pull them up. Maybe another night this week? We'll see what the evenings bring. Have a good week everyone.

Beth (& Ron & Hope, too)

PUMPKINS!

Here is a glimpse of what is to come...read the next two post for more...

Isn't she just SO CUTE?!

Arena - II

Here is the rest of the Arena photos. See the previous post for the start of our day.

Geocaching






Pumpkin Carving

Arena - I

Heads up guys...lots 'o photos on the way...

We went to Arena, WI to visit Mark & Andria a couple weekends ago (Sept. 28-30). It was sort of last minute planning, but it turned out to be a wonderful weekend. Hope traveled very well. I was a little nervous about having to be in the car for so long since this was our longest trip since arriving home. She did great! We eventually stopped at a rest area and put Hope in her p.j.'s. She wasn't awake long after that. O.K. I'm going to let the photos tell our story now. We had a FULL Saturday with the petting zoo/pumpkin patch, geocaching, and pumpkin carving. We couldn't have asked for a better day. Thanks for having us down guys! We love you!

Petting Zoo




Pumpkin Patch

What can I say...

...we're in love!

This was a photo from one of our geocaching outings a few weeks ago. She's trying to kiss me on the cheek! SO SWEET!

The Shirt Says It All

Mommy's Little Treasure!!












You could tell that Mommy missed Hope (and me) when she attended the christian women's conference. Looks like she is happy to be home.

Daddy's little helper

Hope and I spent the day together while mommy attended a conference. We had a good time and were also in charge of taking care of Aunt Tami and Uncle Brian's dog, George. So, if a picture is worth a thousand words, this should priceless.

Kate

Everyone - Please find the link on the right and read the post from Kate Emerson's mom today.

Beth

Anniversary Wishes

I just wanted to add a quick note tonight about my husband. What kind of wife would I be if I didn't talk him up now and then, right? :) I am blessed to be married to the love of my life, my best friend, and an incredible father to our little girl. I won't spend a lot of time here because I don't want to embarrass Ron, but I just want to say "Happy Anniversary" sweetheart. Thank you for 9 wonderful years.

Gotcha Day (6/4/07)

Geocaching (9/9/07)

I wanted to share a wedding photo, but would you believe we were married before digital cameras were very common? I don't have any wedding pictures in electronic form. :) Feel a project coming on? Add it to the list I guess.

September (and before)

Once again I find myself with some things to catch up on. Here are some short snipets of some of the things we've missed on the blog updates over the past couple of months. Remember that you can click on the photos to view them larger.

Hope has a special friend named Lucy who joined her family recently from Columbia. She is such a beautiful little girl...and seemingly always happy. We were finally able to get the girls together in August (18th). Get a glimpse of these brown-eyed beauties...
The Girls!



A couple family shots


Mommies too! Hope is signing DADDY in this shot because we were telling her to look at "Daddy" so we could get everyone pointed in the same direction.

Hope got to meet more of her cousins at the end of August (19th). Scott, Brenda, Kerstin, Austin, & Logan were in town for a quick visit. Here are the young ones at the end of a night of HARD playing. Hope would be the one with the slightly mussed up hair in the middle. Do ya' think she played hard? :) We don't see family enough! Thank you guys for stopping to see us. Hey Austin...I don't think Ella has been the same since you left. :)

Eric and Mandy are married! WELCOME to the family Mandy! We had so much fun celebrating with you. Hope is a dancer to her very core. What a fun day. The weather was gorgeous! The ceremony was beautiful! Mandy was glowing, and I've never seen Eric so happy. Congratulations to you. We love you very much! (Sidenote...to any family reading this, I could use some help with photos. We didn't get nearly enough that day. Does anyone have the cousin photo with Eric and Mandy in it? Apparently it didn't make it on our camera. How about some of Hope dancing??? Help?)


The sisters and their husbands ~

Hatcher cousins ~

Hope with Uncle Mark & Aunt Andria ~

Favorite Shot ~

Now for Hope's 15 mo. appointment update. Hope saw her Dr. on the 20th of Sept. She had 3 vaccinations, 2 in her left leg and 1 in her right. What a little trooper she was. For us, holding her still for 3 shots was nothing compared to the 5 hour blood draw appointment we had when we were first home.Officially, Hope has gained 2 lbs. and has grown almost 2 inches in the 3 months we've been home. I'm so thankful that she's helathy. On American growth charts, Hope is now in the 50th % for height and the 10th % for weight.

(Another update on her growth...as of last Thursday, Sept. 27th, Hope has 12 TEETH!)

Last weekend (on the 23rd) we were honored by the Heutmaker family with a "welcome home" shower. Hope has been home for almost 4 months. It is remarkable to think about how she's grown. We feel so blessed by this little girl and during the party it brought such joy to hear her laughing with her cousins and playing with her family. I am in awe of her every day. Not a moment passes that I am not In awe of her resiliance, in awe of her smile, in awe of her inquisitiveness, in awe of her brilliance, and in awe of how just when I feel my heart couldn't be more full, I take another look in her direction and feel a new surge of absolute love for my little daugher. Thank you so much to everyone who came to the shower last weekend and shared the day with us. And, thank you Lisa, Tami, and Jennifer for hosting such a special afternoon in Hope's honor. Here are my favorite photos from the afternoon.


I'd like to close this post with a couple more photos. Hope has been able to get together with her travelmate Olivia (who also shares her birthday!) a couple of times. They are so cute together! Hope even recognizes Olivia when she sees her photo. Sweet. Anyway, here they are the last time we were together...



Random hat photo - Uncle Brian & Aunt Tami were over one afternoon and Hope had all her hats out. We thought we'd have a little fun. I think we all thought this was way more funny than Hope did.

Well, you're a step closer to being updated on our lives. Watch soon for some geocaching photos and an update about our weekend in Arena. Sorry I can't keep going tonight. I'm off to bed. That 4:30 alarm seems to come so quickly!