Hope's First Memorial Day

Miss Hope declined to be in this picture of our new Red Bud tree (a gift from Grandma). I plan to take Sunnie and Hope's picture by it each Memorial Day to document the growth of the girls and the tree!!
The guys paused their game to play with the girls whose Jeep no longer has a battery.
After all who needs a battery when you have Bradley...
After a rain Daddy and Hope taking cattle feed to the barn. Of course the mower is not mowing just pulling the Cadillac Wagon.

Hope and Jie Jie
Sissy, Hope, Daddy, Mommy, Sunnie, and Bethany. (I made the flower arrangement for Ronnie's Dad's headstone...pretty good huh!!)
An almost smile...
This busy little girl will only sit still so long when she is outside and the weather is so beautiful.

Memorial Day is full of emotion around here. Hope's family is full of former and present members of the military. We always spend part of the weekend at a big picnic. The picnic is for family and friends of those buried in a small country cemetery nearby. For the past 3 years we have wished we could take our little girl with us. We were approved to adopt from China in May of 2005 and not long after we shared our joy and excitement with friends and family members at the picnic. Each subsequent year we would share with them our progress and explain about the delays in receiving our referral. This year we were able to share our precious little Hope. So many friends who had followed our story were finally able to meet her.

Other fun times over the long weekend included a family wedding (I'll post pictures of that on the Wolfhill site at a later date) and a family dinner at our house on Monday.

We appreciate all of our family members who served in the miltary. Hopes great grandfather served in World War II in France and Italy. All of her grandfathers served their country and her grandmother (Ronnie's Mom) was in the Air Force.

Today Hope has 3 cousins who are in the miltary, Gary, Zack, and Jeremy. We appreciate them and because of them and those who served before our country is free. Our little Hope is also free for the first time in her life...because she is a citizen of this great free country.

Becky

Swimming aka "take a bath"

We met a cousin of Hope's at the pool, Kiana
Sunnie
Nephews having an underwater watergun battle. They watch Sponge Bob.
Cousin Amanda and son Peyton

"This Texas sun is too bright"
"What is this"?
Her little baby face
Playing shampoo and bath
"This makes me hungry"

Hope spent Sunday afternoon at the pool with Mom, sisters Carmen and Bethany, and nephews,Bradly, Ben, Caleb, and Tyler, and neice Sunnie. She calls it "taking a bath". We haven't gotten her to say "swimming" yet. I think she wants to take another bath at the big pool soon.

With Broken Hearts

We were heartbroken to hear the news that the Chapman family had lost a precious daughter in an accident. Steven Curtis Chapman is a hero in the Christian music field and in the realm of international adoption, especially China. We live with an awareness that the wider we make our circle of love, the greater the chance that we might experience such a crushing loss. We believe that the joy of that wide circle of love outweighs any potential sorrow. Especially since our circle of love is centered in Christ's love, and all of His grace, comfort, healing, and hope. Our prayers are with the Chapmans in these coming days and weeks.

"Hand Me Downs"

Carmen saved quite a few of Sunnie's really cute outfits and now Miss Hope Marie is wearing some of them. I get really tickled each time I pull one out of the closet and it fits...reminds me of Sunnie wearing them and they were FREE. These pictures were made at the park last Saturday at Sunnie's 8th birthday party!! See more about the wild party on the Wolfhill Blog. Wow how time flies...seems it was only yesterday that Sunnie was wearing this sweet yellow cotton outfit with hot pink tulips.

Hope Brings Out the Kid In Us

ROTFL (rolling on the floor laughing) A common occurance on Wolfhill.

Sharing childrearing tips
Jie Jie helped make a tent in the living room
Come in Sunnie!
What fun!

Family....Hope's Forever Family

Hope has a really big family and we all love her so much. Since I broke my camera I depend on our girls to take pictures and I really must get another camera. Of course this is just a few pictures of a few people who make her life so much fun and so secure. We are blessed!! We went to take her picture in the buttercups which are so beautiful this spring and Miss Hopie fell asleep in the car. The light was perfect and they looked so sweet I just could not resist. Dad and his little girl.
Hope with her brother-in law Wade.
Misty Tyler and Hope

Hope Jie Jie and Daddy

Ben Caleb and Hope

Hope and Carmen

Hope and the Wolfhill Gang

Beauty, eh ?
She conned someone out of their coke.
This is how she does it. Who could say no?
Guitar Heroes

The Best Part of Baking a Cake