1st annual hunan spicy girls reunion!

We had our first annual travel group reunion this past weekend in Ft Myers Beach Florida! It was amazing to see all of Kaelin's little friends from her orphanage! My how they had all changed and grown so much! The weather was hot and humid and brought back memories of us all being in Changsha and Guangzhou! It all seemed so familiar right down to all of the mosquitos! I have tons more pics but my cd drive is refusing to work so all I have is what was left on my camera! It is so amazing to share such a special bond with these families! We are so blessed to have them in our life so that Kaelin will always be close to her "sisters" from China!

One year ago today.....We held our precious little angel for the very first time!

Our Gotcha Moment!





Fast asleep on daddy's shoulder for the bus ride back to the hotelGotcha Night!

Has it really been a whole year? It seems like five minutes ago that our beautiful daughter was placed in my arms! I can still smell the sweetness of her silky soft skin the first time I held her. She was sooooo tiny and just downright scrumptious! She was perfect in every way and best of all, she was ours! I don't think that a Gotcha Day could have went more perfectly! You can see for yourself from the pics that it was like something out of a dream! If you want to relive our Gotcha Day you can go here to the post I made the day after we got her.
This past year with Kaelin Bing Wen has been nothing short of amazing! She is soooo happy (except when it is time for bed!), silly, smart, energetic, stubborn, independent, cuddly, loving, beautiful, and sweeeeeeet! She has meant so much to our family and brings sunshine and happiness into our lives every single day! We just can't get enough of her! God has blessed us beyond belief! We thank Him everyday for this little miracle He has placed in our lives!

I like to.....

Color!
Bake cookies!
Play on mommy's pewter!

bye bye sarah!

Our babygirl, Sarah (on the right), will be joining her sister, Marie (on the left), to live and work in Chicago! It is going to be so hard on Bing a Ling to say goodbye and she will no doubt be looking for "Ah" for days on end after she leaves!
Oh crap! Bing just did a face plant into the kitcHen floor! Gotta go!

corn eat'in girl

kaelin's first trip to the zoo!

Well, sort of! If you don't count the Changsha Zoo that we visited while we were in China! On Saturday we took Kaelin to the Detroit Zoo and she loved seeing all of the animals! It was such a beautiful day,82 degrees and sunny! Although Bing is pretty good about sitting in the stroller, her favorite place to see the animals was perched up high on dada's or Marcus' shoulders! One thing she did not like much at all was riding the train! She was so cute! After we got off, she did her sign over and over again for "all done!" There was no way we were going to get her back on that train! Yes we did it backwards, you are supposed to ride the train to the back and then walk your way to the front! So we had to hoof it all the way back thru the zoo again! Good thing Bing got her way or we would have missed some really cool exhibits we didn't see the first time thru!

just pics!

Twins, Justin & Marie, and Bing after a storm!
Sisters!
Mommy and Bing
Smug!
On the verge of falling asleep in the pool!

Where did our baby go?

Kaelin is 20 months old today! Just in the last few weeks she has become such a toddler! We have even noticed that her baby fat is starting to disappear! I am getting all the pinching and kissing I can out of what is left on her little arms and thighs! She is such a girlie girl, too! She just loves her baby dolls, her favorite is an Asian doll! I did not encourage her to like this one the best, she chose her all on her own! She kisses her and pats and hugs her and says,"Awwwwww!" It is just too cute! She loves picking out what she will wear for the day, well at least for the beginning of the day, she actually goes through several outfits due to her messy eating habits and love of the outdoors! She is also a shoe queen! She currently has about 10 pair that fit her, but loves her little Crocs the best! Probably because she can get them on and off all by herself! She even pics out a hair "pretty" every morning! She also can't have her nails clipped without having them finished with a coat of polish! She always goes for the wild colors, but with mommy's coaxing, settles for a more modest pink!
Kaelin is also growing in so many other ways!
She can run like the wind!
She can jump
She can walk backwards
She can almost do a summer sault
She can sign about 25 words
she can babble up a storm, the words are almost there!
She can say please (peece) thank you (t-too) kitty (kiyee) dog (daw) bath (ba) just to name a few!
She can count to 3
She knows the color pink
She can climb anything
She has incredible balance
She loves to sing and dance
She loves Barney
She loves popsicles
She loves to pretend cook in the bathtub
She loves blowing bubbles
She loves drawing chalk on the sidewalk
She loves taking walks in her stroller
She talks on her little toy cell phone and pretends to call DaDa
She can get all of the shapes into the right holes of her shape sorter
She loves to walk around with her purse on her arm and her baby in her other arm, so cute!
She loves to swing
She loves to go down the slide
She loves her brothers and sisters and knows them if you point to them in pics!
She loves her mama and dada!
She loves life!

I could go on and on about our beautiful girl! Since she is napping now, I have to run and get a few things done before she wakes up full of energy, recharged and ready to go!

one year ago today.....

...we saw our precious daughter's face for the first time! We got "the call" at 3:47 pm that day! What a day it was! Talk about a nail biter! Well as you can see she was everything we had hoped and prayed for! It is so hard to believe that it has already been a year since that amazing day! I still have to pinch myself that she is home! what an incredible year it has been! Kaelin Bing Wen is the absolute pride and joy of our family! The way she is growing and changing every day is mind boggling! She is a true blessing to us all!

then...
now...

our little bathing beauty!

Kaelin experienced our pool for the first time a few days ago! The temp finally made it up to where we thought she could stand it, 82 degrees! She didn't really care to much for actually getting in with mommy, but she loved playing on the steps! She hasn't been in since since our weather has been rainy and in the 60's! Hopefully this weekend she will get to "swim" again!