Hair

I am getting better at this hair thing....but still it takes me a LONG time to get it done.  It only took 4 DAYS to go from this...

to this...

She loves it and clickity clacks around the house.  Here's hoping that it lasts for a while!

Photo Catch Up

I thought that I would stop blogging when we reached the 6 month mark.  I am not much of a writer and blogging just seems to be one more thing to do, BUT there is a little girl here in this house that wants to see her photos on the computer. One of the things that she loves to do is look at photos of her friends that she spent time with at the orphanage.  I guess she wants her friends to be able to look at her photos, too.
So,  here we go...we have a lot to catch up on...

Mother's Day

What a special day this was...Miriam's first at home with us!  There was something about this day that seemed like an extra special gift...an unexpected blessing...a sacred day.  We went to Honey and GrandDoug's house to celebrate after church.

Miriam made me this gift at preschool.  I love it!  She was so excited to give it to me and talked about it for days leading up to Mother's Day, but she never gave away the secret and wanted me to wait to open it.

Part of this Mother's Day celebration was celebrating the mama in Congo who cared for Miriam...we call her Congo Mama.  We bought flowers that Miriam thought she would like and planted them in our yard.  Miriam wrote her this note to let her know that she loved her and she was doing well.  From this point on, I will share this day with her and honor her for the life she gave to our precious daughter.

 

Readoption Day!

Looking back on this past month, we had a lot of special things happening.  One big one was that we had our appointment with the judge to readopt Miriam.  Up until this point, Miriam was a permanent resident of the USA, this day gave Miriam her name we chose for her, a GA birth certificate, and her citizenship.  Everybody skipped school, Honey and GrandDoug came out, and we went to the courthouse to meet with the judge. After a brief time of waiting where we saw lots of unhappy people who where appearing in court, we were called back to the judges chambers.  He was so kind to Miriam and our family.  He told a story of adoption and then had Miriam sit on his lap to help him sign the official paperwork.  After it was signed, he asked Miriam to draw a picture of her family at the bottom of the papers.  What a sweet moment!  Then we all went out for a celebration lunch!

Last Day of Preschool

Miriam had a great few months at preschool with her loving teachers and fun class.  The last day they had a party where all the parents came.  She didn't want Joey and I to come...apparently we have a  little too much fun and are louder than the other parents.  We showed up anyway.  I caught her eating pizza which she refuses to do for us...so I had to document it for future purposes!

Helen's Birthday

Miriam loves birthdays and is patiently (or not so much) waiting for hers.  We woke up Helen on  her birthday with breakfast in bed and a visit from the birthday fairy.

Caleb's Graduation

We had fun celebrating Caleb's graduation!  Of course we had a little wardrobe drama, but in the end everything turned out great.  Joey's family came in for the celebration and Miriam had a great time playing with her cousins.  

Beach Trip

What crazy family celebrates graduation, has a party, and plans a beach trip for the next day? You guessed it...we did!  While the preparation was CRAZY, it was great to have a week to relax and have fun after the busyness of graduation.  We had a houseful of fun...grandparents, us, and an extra three teenagers.  Miriam joined right in the teenage fun.  Miriam loves the beach.  She played in the sand...in waves...at the pool.  We met up with some friends who live near our beach house and went on a dolphin boat ride, too.  It was a great trip!

Helen's Trip

We sent Helen off on her big trip to Africa for a month.  Miriam loves having her sweet sister Helen around, so she was not very happy about sending her off for a month.  Miriam has done better than I expected with Helen gone, but we are all ready to have her back home.

Father's Day

Father's Day was very low key this year because we had to leave that morning to take Caleb to orientation at Ole Miss.  We did celebrate our great Papa with a little breakfast on the front porch.  Then we got in the car for the long drive to Ole Miss.  Miriam kept asking Caleb why in the world he would choose a college so far away.  She hated the drive there but loved the hotel where we stayed because it had an indoor pool and hot tub.

WOW! No wonder I haven't updated the blog!  We have been super busy! Oh well, it has been a lot of fun!