Thursday, November 29, 2007

Family Album 07

We are still waiting on word from China of our Log In Date, which should have been during the final week of October. It could be January before we find out what our exact LID was, but as we move through the holidays I thought it would be a good time to compile a family album of sorts that can act as an overview of what we will be introducing our little girl to and a catch up on our year for some of the family and friends that will be reading this blog.

I believe we had our busiest year to date in the Wells Household, Missouri Division. In fact the biggest project of the year involved our house itself. We tore it apart in June... ...and are just now finishing the last details of our renovations.
Everyone lent a helping hand.
Some more than others.
Jude took it upon himself to catch up on some reading while the rest of us worked.
The boys even tried to invent a new sport that they hope to take to the Beijing Olympics in honor of their sister-to-be.
Since the reconstruction took so long, we had to break for things like birthdays and such.
This is Jack’s.
It was during the dog days of summer.
This is Jude’s.
A big thank you to whoever got this one for Jude. The Backyardigans guitar has become cherished by all with ears.
Things got a little out of hand.
I’m not sure handing a deadly weapon to a six year old is one of the smartest things I ever did.
As you can see, fun with the Hicks clan is a community experience.
Jack learned a new skill set.
It took the entire clan to catch this one fish. Get that away from us Gandpa!

Jude tried to make more room in our car for his new sister by eating himself. Hold on there buddy! She’s not here just yet. That may not be necessary.
The boys and their cousins, Alexander and Gabriella, took in some culture attending fine theater.
The boys eagerly followed the Giants for the first half of the season.
Now, that the Giants’ fate of throwing in the second half of the season seems to be unfolding as usual, Jude finds other comforts. There will always be cake.
And with fall there are always leaves, as well. The quality of help in cleaning up the leaves is just as good as it was for the kitchen project.
The boys made full use of The Monolith (their gigantic playset) this fall. So there is no doubt our daughter will have a good exercise regiment when she arrives.
And the Corgi looks on with her frog legs. We hosted our first Thanksgiving Dinner this year in our newly refurbished home.
Uncle James was ready for the task at hand.
And we’ve already embarked on creating a genuine environment for our children for the Christmas season. Yes, this is the first picture of myself I've chosen to include.
We’re watching all the holiday classics.
As you can see, there is only room on Lucy’s head for the antlers or those satellites of hers, not both.
I hope this one can stay off Santa’s naughty list.
And if we do end up naming our daughter-to-be Zu Zu, here’s a hint as to why.
Happy Holidays!

Friday, November 9, 2007

A Story of Hope

Last week Americans Adopting Orphans posted this story from the New York Times.

http://relativechoices.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/test/

It goes a long way to explain just what we are trying to accomplish with this adoption. It is a wonderful story, and we could only hope to orchestrate a story just as wonderful for our own adoption one day. This isn’t just about us, or even our daughter. There is more involved in all of this than simply having a daughter of our own. We could just keep trying for that. My brother has proven that there are more than just boys in our genes. But we want someone else to have an impact on a child’s life, just like the social worker in this article did.

In bio-children news, we received an interesting e-mail from Jack’s kindergarten teacher this morning. Here it is:

“I have to tell you about Jack. His morning started off great and he
got a positive action. He turned it in for a piece of sugarfree gum. So
he was chewing (chomping) away. Father Kevin comes in for his visit
and after 15 min. he sees Jack with gum and immediately questions him
why he has gum. I explained why, but while I was explaining Jack looked
so scared. He thought he was in big trouble. Jack was really good at
answering Father’s questions through-out his visit, and he said he should
get more gum. It was so funny. The look on his face. He wouldn't
even look at Father the rest of his visit, but he was sure answering the
questions. Thought you would like to hear about this funny moment.
Dodi”