Sweet surprise....

EARLIEST PICTURE THAT WE HAVE OF THE DUMPLING

Since 1999, the orphanages in China are required to run a provincial newspaper advertisement for children that are found and brought to their orphanage. These are commonly called "Finding Ads." These ads contain information about where and when the children were found and which orphanage is caring for them. Originally these were text-only ads, but most provinces now include photographs in their ads. These photographs are usually the earliest available pictures of the children, some from as young as a few weeks old. 

FINDING AD

We used a Chinese search engine (www.baidu.com) to search for any pictures from Dumpling's CWI.  Low and behold we found this sweet picture.  This is an absolute treasure for us.

Chinese New Year Celebration 2012

Dragon 2012

Beautiful Chinese dancer

our own Chinese dancer

the girls and their Popi

craft time with Daddy and the Vol

the Frog and Nana

our dragon will be 'great'!
We had a wonderful time at the Birmingham Chinese Festival.  The princess loved all of the dancing and music! This is her last 'silk' .... looks like another trip to China is in store.  We must stock up this time!   
They are really quite beautiful.

Give away for a good cause!

http://throwingourarmsopenwide.blogspot.com/

Gearing up for the weekend...

Happy Chinese New Year cont.

Happy Chinese New Year!

The princess is ready....

The Princess was excited about going to the Frog's basketball game this morning.  It was another win for the 4th grade girls!  They are headed to a tournament in 2 weeks.  This will end an exciting season.  Congrats girls!

A great giveaway

What we have been up to.......

We started back to gymnastics after an opening came available.  The egg roll love it!  Her friend SM is in the class too which makes it extra special.  "Nastics" is right up her alley.  Who doesn't like jumping, hanging, and climbing?

On a side note, the egg roll would now like to be called the Princess hence she will now have a new name!

The Princess also likes to pretend that she is a dog just to confuse us.  She has been coming out of her room by herself in the morning which is huge for her.  She greeted me yesterday with a 'good morning mommy!'.

FRIENDS.....

The girls finally had a chance to get together and play.  They had a grand time.  It is amazing how well they played together.  Friends are definitely a gift.

Snoopy as my guest........

peek-a-boo

I have a visitor....

Snoopy and his baby

in deep thought..

Glee..........

We are getting back in the swing of things after a restful holiday season.  The girls started back to school with a BANG!  

Our most exciting news is that our I800A was mailed off yesterday.  Our home study is going for authentication and then on to our dossier.  We are getting closer little dumpling.  Hang on, we are coming.

Happy New Year 2012

the egg roll and her 'reindeer'

We enjoyed our get away this New Years.  The scenery was beautiful and the weather was 55-60 degrees.  The highlight was of course the s'mores!!!  The egg roll decided that marshmallows 'plain' were just as good.  She requested 'non-candled' marshmallows!