Trick or treating is so fun!

trick or treat?

in a white dress . . .

Tammy won!

Tia drew Tammy as the winner of the Tuesday October 14th "Name this photo" contest. We just drew randomly. The captions were hilarious, thanks to everyone for playing!

Tammy can you send me your mailing address so I can get the surprise gift from Australia in the mail to you?!

wordless wednesday

one of the things we love about living in Sydney, Australia

This is Isabella, our 10 year old daughter's gymnastics team. Isabella is 3rd from the left. Can you tell what we like so much?

"Jesus, tank you . . . .

lollies, tandy, go-gurt.

amen."

(Tia's first prayer, I was praying out loud while it was taking her forever to fall asleep for her nap . . . . she reached through the slats of her crib, held my hand and said her own prayer )

yeah.

looking at the photos my 10 year old says . . . . "oh Mom, sorry I taught her that!"

thanks Miss Belle and we thought you were the perfect one!

Pink!

Pink has always been my favorite color (with purple) ! it is so nice to have a little girl to dress up again! Tia and I did a little photo session on her bed yesterday and all I had to do to get her to smile was to feed her bites of ice-cream between photos :) (a natural light inside assignment for my class. lovin' that class!)

name this photo!

If you post a caption for this photo I will enter you into a drawing for a surprise gift from Australia :) (hint, your child will love it!) You have until the 21st - so please leave a comment!

I've been tagged!

Lynn from Somewhere in the Sun tagged me . . . . This is fun, I've never been tagged before!

7 random/weird facts about me . . . .

1- I walk the dog between 10 -11 pm every night (and a possum usually jumps over our heads as we pass under a certain tree - and it startles me every time :)
2- I chew my cuticles, so I'm always hiding my hands.
3- My husband brings me coffee in bed every morning.
4 - Members of our family have lived in 5 different countries: USA, Hungary, Australia, Ukraine (Elijah) & China (Tia obviously, who has never lived in America)
5- I have some great pieces of furniture in my house I have gotten from the side of the road on "Big trash pick up day" (I'll post some of them on my blog in a few days).
6- the only thing my kids could think of when I asked them for an interesting fact about me was that I talk to myself. :(
7- I'm always thinking about (and probably talking to myself about :) the next place I want to travel to.

I'm tagging:

Simply Family
Gute Cuties
The Voice of Adventure
Slugs & Snails & Little Pigtails
China Caboose

Tea Party!

I had to do an assignment for my photography class - Tia enjoyed playing Tea Party!

Tia's first haircut!

I'm pretty sure Tia had her head shaved a few times in China, however today Tia had her first official haircut since she has been home with us. Love the Wiggles cape! That lollipop was so necessary! (ps I will take some better photos tomorrow in natural lighting)

it was written in his book.

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139: 16

One year ago today we received our pre-approval from China to adopt Ni Chou Zhou - who is now Kristiana Hope (which means "Anointed Hope"): our little Tia. This meant that as long as we were who we said we were (and we obviously were/are!) we were approved to be Tia's Forever Family.

It would have been my Mom & Dad's 50th anniversary. A Happy/Sad moment really. In Chinese adoption we call that a red thread. Those moments give me chills . . . those times in our lives where we are so aware that God is orchestrating our lives with his eternal purposes in mind.

What an amazing year this has been! I'm so glad we finally have our Princess home. We feel incredibly blessed and honored to raise Tia in our family - and to think it was all written in God's book before we even came to be!