December 2010

Wolfe City Christmas parade...Calvary Baptist Church float.

Getting ready to be in the parade :)


Christmas gift exchange with Grandpa!

Christmas morning at Nanny's with Grandma!

Calvary Children's Christmas musical :)

Christmas morning at Nanny's with
Opa, cousin Olivia, and 6 month pregnant Momma.

Opa & Gami took us to DisneyWorld after Christmas!
@ Animal Kingdom

Meeting Mickey & Minnie!
She kept asking Mickey where his clubhouse was,
and she never did get an answer.

Oh how Abby wanted to go in Cinderella's castle!

Christmas morning at Nanny's with Gami and Olivia.

December was AWESOME! We had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Jesus with our precious Chinese princess :)

November 2010

Decided we needed to "catch up" with a few months in pictures...so here is lovely November:

Abby attended a wedding.
She loves any reason to get dressed up :)
She had just had her cleft lip revision surgery at the end of October.

Happy Adoption Day! Our Gotcha anniversary is in November...the week of Thanksgiving - what a wonderful time :) We took Abby to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri.
She loved this flying elephant ride.

Getting off of the teacup ride...another favorite!

Only picture with Momma...unfortunately I couldn't ride anything being pregnant :( Loved seeing my little girl having fun though! The Christmas lights were amazing too - Silver Dollar City was decked out! We saw a fabulous parade very up close. Abby was hugged by many parade characters.

These boats go a lot faster than you would think. Another fave of our Abigail.

November was a great month! The best thing was the celebration of our adoption! Our family had been together an entire year...what an amazing gift from God - we are so very thankful. Abigail loved Branson again - Silver Dollar City, swimming at the hotel, and attending the Shanghai Circus, Thanksgiving meal with family...many great memories :)

October

God has given us some beautiful weather in October - and we seized the moments for some great field trips and family memories!

Met some friends at a park for a fun morning of play -
and creatively making a "party for the squirrels!"

Homeschooler field trip at a pumpkin patch with a maze, hayride, and petting zoo. Abigail loved the animals but wasn't too sure about petting and feeding them!

A hayride with some other homeschool families in our area -
another first for Abby :)

A visit to the Pumpkin Storybook Village at the Dallas Arboretum.


A day at the zoo - Abby loved the crocodiles!

A night with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Abby told us she wants to learn to play the piano, violin, and guitar!

The Ambucs of Mesquite gave Abby an Amtryke!


Abby was given the opportunity to participate in a fishing tournament
sponsored by Turning Point.

As October comes to a close, we are getting ready for Abigail to have another surgery to repair her cleft lip. It will require a one night stay in the hospital again. Please keep her in your prayers. The LORD has blessed her with more peace and knowledge of her security with her family this time - but we know she is still that tender-hearted precious girl that has been through so much uncertainty in her short life. Thank you for your prayers!

Wordless Wednesday

Labor Day Getaway 2010

We spent Labor Day Weekend at Timber Lodge Ranch near Amity, Arkansas with the Weaver side of the family. It reminded me (Missy) of the trips my family took each year to a place called Thousand Trails at Lake Texoma with cousins, aunts, and uncles. It has been years since we've gone there. Timber Lodge Ranch may just become an annual getaway for us. Abby wanted to live there. She couldn't understand why we had to leave. There was a little bit of everything - beautiful indoor swimming pool, gameroom, playground, outdoor basketball court, volleyball court, lake for fishing, paddle boats, trails to hike or ride an ATV, and all kinds of animals (like zebras, buffalo, llamas, sheep, goats, chickens, peacock, donkeys, etc). We absolutely LOVED it and can't wait to go back!

Grandma and Abby blowing bubbles off of the dock. Abby loved to watch them float on the lake.

Evening fishing...Abby caught her second fish of the trip that night.

More bubble blowing...one of our girl's favorite things to do!

Waking up early. Coloring in her room with cousins
so as not to wake up other sleeping adults just yet.

There was a water balloon war on our last morning.
Not sure why there is such a sad face in this pic
because she really did have great time :)

Wordless Wednesday

Unexpected Blessing

For some time now Abby has been saying prayers that include thanking God for all of her cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Often she even names them...and there are many to name :) She loves having a family, and we love that she is part of our family. It wasn't long until her prayers began including a request for brothers and sisters - and then thanking God in advance for those brothers and sisters He would give her.

Back in the early Spring we discovered from conversations with Abigail that she had lived with a foster family before the spinal cord stroke. She lost this family because they could no longer care for her, and she returned to the orphanage after 2-3 months in the hospital. The foster family was also caring for a little girl close to Abby's age - and Abby would call her "my sister." We began inquiring about this little girl through our adoption agency - only to find that she was being and is now adopted by a family. We were able to make contact with this family, and hopefully when the little girl is ready she and Abby will be able to keep in touch.

The Father has given us a great love - a passion for the orphan and especially those sons and daughters in China. Our prayer has always been and continues to be that He would provide for us to return to China and bring home another daughter - a sister for Abigail. We were hopeful to complete that long paperwork process by the year marker of having Abby at the end of this year, and possibly travel to China again in late 2011.

However, God often has a different schedule. What is that line from the movie Bella? Something like, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." We have found this to be so true! He continues to amaze us. Our current unexpected blessing is a child growing in my belly - as Abby proudly tells everyone. The Father has heard her (and our) prayer for brothers and sisters...and He has chosen to act very swiftly...come March 2011 there will be a new addition to this Weaver family :)