Christmas Sunday

The last Sunday before Christmas is always a special day for our family. This year we were blessed to be able to attend Church together. It was also John-Christian Heath's first church service...how special.

Hope gets very excited about every aspect of Christmas...even the special Christmas dress. This year we did something cute cute cute...Sunnie, Hope, even little Audrey had dresses alike. Sunnie's was a little different since she is in a larger size but the girls were tickled with the matching dresses. Needless to say so was I.

I have a closet full of Sunnie's previous Christmas (and Easter) dresses which Hope also wears each year as the different sizes fit. Here are a few pictures of the girls...for shots of the families visit the Wolfhill Site.

One of Sunnie's Christmas dresses.

Happy Birthday Hope Marie

Hope meets Ivy. Daddy and Hope checking out the dolls at the American Girl Store

Caleb and Tyler did not know they would be visiting a DOLL store...Caleb called a friend (girl) on the phone and said "You will never guess where I am" Thanks guys...you helped make this day very special for Hope even though you were a bit embarrassed while we roamed around this fun girl store!

We can't wait to get down there and skate around that BIG tree.

That tree really is big mom

Three beautiful sisters... Misty Hope and Bethany.
A sleepy little Audrey...to little to skate so she just rested!! Beautiful birthday cakes for a beautiful little girl.


One top of everything else ... PRESENTS!

Not long after we brought Hope home from China we celebrated a couple of family birthdays. That started an excitement for birthday parties in her world. She really LOVES them...it doesn't matter if it is her party or a party for someone else.

December 12 was Hope Marie's fifth birthday. How can that be? My baby already 5 years old! Anyway Hope was true to form with her excitement. The build up to the day was a lot of fun. She talked about every aspect of our plans over and over and over.

The day started out with a trip to the Galleria in Dallas to Ice Skate around the Big Tree...even though we knew it would be very crowded we decided to go on her birthday to make it more special for her. Another bit of excitement planned for the day was a trip to the American Girl Store for our little American girl. Hope had a wonderful day and then that evening we had a family party for her which she loved loved loved.

We love you Hopie and wish you many many Happy Birthdays...

A Big Sack Of Canny...

On December 7th of 2007 we received our adoption referral and saw a picture of Hope for the first time. In the weeks up to that Christmas we had a sense of sadness, knowing that we had a daughter in China and wishing that she could be with us. We wondered if she would have any knowledge that it was Christmas time or if the Chinese observed the season at all, even less likely we thought, in an orphanage.

Last year around the first of November we began to ask Hope what she would like for Christmas. She didn’t really grasp the fact that she was about to be showered with gifts and her response was puzzling. She didn’t ask for much, but the one thing that she was insistent upon was that she wanted a big sack of candy. She would hold her hands apart about six inches and say, ‘a big sack of canny Daddy”. I thought it was odd that she asked for the candy. It reminded me of how my Dad would tell of Christmas when he was a boy, and the brightest memory he had was of the candy and fruit. He loved hard Christmas candy all of his life.

Well, we made certain that Hope found a good sized sack of various kinds of candy on Christmas morning and she approved with glee. Of course she was also a bit overwhelmed with all of the toys. It was a Christmas that will stand out in our memories, the first one for our little Hope Marie.

Later in the year, Becky was surfing the net, looking for people who might have visited Hope’s orphanage. We have tried to piece together all we can of Hope’s past. Becky found a lady who had been in Hope’s orphanage during Christmas of 2007 She worked with a group called “Love Without Boundaries” and she was kind enough to send us a DVD that might have Hope on it.

We watched the video intently. It was a Christmas party for the kids of the orphanage put on by the “Love Without Boundaries” folks. We watched for a long time and we saw dozens of kids, but they seemed to be mostly in older age brackets than Hope would have been. It was a great party with some songs in English and most in Chinese. The kids were having a blast.

After about fourteen minutes and several songs and dances by various kids the camera began to pan around the room. All of the kids were wearing Santa hats and many were sitting at low tables. All of the kids had little red sacks of candy that they were showing off and eating. Finally the camera reached two very little girls in big Santa hats. There was Hope with a sack of candy in front of her, her lips glistening from the candy she was eating.

It touched our hearts to know that someone was willing to spend their Christmas in China to show unconditional love to those orphans, one of which was our daughter. Isn’t that what Christmas is all about? Our Lord left the comfort of Heaven to give us that unconditional love.

Introducing John-Christian Heath

The Proud Aunt Just look at that sweet face!!!

Hope would like for you to meet our newest family member.

John-Christian Heath.

Isn't he just beautiful. We are blessed .... so very blessed. Thank you Lord for this precious gift to our family.

We have been so very busy lately and we really will catch up soon. Wishing everyone who reads our blog...a very Merry and Blessed Christmas.

Becky

We Are So Thankful For Hope

Hope helping unload pumpkins or our church pumpkin patch.

Our camera was broken and I kept meaning to download some of the girls Thanksgiving photos which never happened...so here is my Thanksgiving post minus the pictures... so I am posting just a couple of random Hope photos...

We are so blessed as a family. One certain little brown eyed girl makes us thankful every day for Chinese Children Adoption International our agency and the wonderful work they have done over the years to bring children and their families together. Several of our family members donated money to send to Hope's orphanage in China. The place where Hope spent the first three years of her life will always be close in our thoughts and prayers especially this time of year.

Hope is a sweet precious little girl who has progressed so very much in the past couple of years. We are thankful that her transition into our family has been easy and wonderful. Our whole family has welcomed her with open arms and she loves them all. We are so thankful to have such a warm welcoming family.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Becky

Hope's Sister Is Having A Baby

And Hope helped give her baby shower...read all about it here...

The View From Wolfhill

Halloween 2009 - The Cutest Little Ladybug In Texas

She really was the "Cutest Little Ladybug In Texas" this halloween...I'm sure there may be other moms who would disagree with me...
Hope had great fun this year. She loved getting dressed up and instead of saying "Trick or Treat" She insisted on saying "Thank you for some candy please" Isn't that just too cute!

Ronnie bought her this halloween costume at Cracker Barrel. Funny, last year's costume was also from Cracker Barrel, we may just make that a tradition.

These pictures were taken at Bethany's on Halloween. The big question now is can I stand it until all that CANDY is gone? I think the best way to handle it is just let her go for it and eat as much as she wants until it is gone...I do try to limit it close to meal time. The sooner it is gone ...the better. Probably most parents feel the same way!

Becky

Check out the Wolfhill Site for other Halloween pictures we had a family party. Hot dogs and a hayride combined with smores and lots of candy was a recipe for fun!

County Fair time again and Hope enjoyed every aspect of the week of activities. Waiting on the fair parade to start Hope and baby Audrey got a little impatient looking for Sunnie who was riding on the back of a pretty red convertible! None of the pictures of took of Sunnie came out...they were blurred due to my broken camera............




Becky

She's Got Him Wrapped Around Her Little Finger

Of course she does...all of our daughters did. Ronnie is a wonderful father and Hope really really loves her Daddy or Dad as she has recently been saying. Actually it depends on what she is talking to him about. If it has anything to do with bringing her home some candy from work then she usually uses a very sweet southern drawl and makes sure Daddy is listening.

My rosebush is out of control and a summer storm really tore up our gate arbor. Ronnie promises to fix it...he will probably have lots of help from his sidekick...Hopie Marie

Becky

PS if anyone notices the blur in the upper left of these pictures...I broke another camera...yes camera number three bit the dust so to speak. It is no wonder when I keep hinting for a really really good camera (translated as an expensive Cannon with multiple lenses) I get nothing but this look from him...maybe I should get Hope to ask for me...she seems to get whatever she wants when she uses that "Daddy could you bring me home some candy" voice of hers!!

The View From Wolfhill

Don't forget to check out "The View From Wolfhill" from time to time.

"Cowboy Girl"

We are still having issues getting pictures to upload and hope to have that resolved soon. I did manage to get a couple more from last summer loaded. We went to the Rodeo again and once again Hope loved, loved, loved it. She looked really cute too. Sunnie, her friend Peyton and Tyler went with us.

Our little "Cowgirl" or as Hopie puts it "Cowboy Girl".....

What do you think about these boots?Notice the powdered sugar on her shirt and the fact that she is licking her finger....well a trip to the rodeo certainly calls for a FUNNEL CAKE.

Becky

A Few More Pictures

What is Caleb thinking................he knows I have this camera in my hand and that means look this way and smile.

Happy Happy Baby....Happy Happy Mom!

Sunnie Kay always has such a beautiful smile.

Hope making us laugh...

Sometimes now she even poses...........

Really Cute

Our family vacation this past summer was wonderful. I have several hunderd pictures........I promise not to bore you with all of them.

This Girl Loves Hiking

I wanted to post a few more summer pictures. Summer has come and gone and my computer is still slow slow slow. I have trouble uploading pictures. Ronnie swears it has something to do with me having THOUSANDS of pictures saved on it. Gotta do something about that. My 80 gig external hard drive is getting pretty full too! I thought I would try uploading pictures to blogger in the middle of the night hoping that it would work faster. Yeah they just uploaded.

Thought this series of pictures of Ronnie and Hope hiking in Missouri were just very cute. She will run and play all day...that is if either of us can keep up!! What a joy she is to have in our lives. We are so very thankful for our family.

Becky

Hope's Long Awaited Vacation

Audrey, Ben, Sunnie, Caleb, Tyler, and Hope. Where's Bradley?

Waiting for the Pizza in Eureka Springs

Here I am, in Roaring River.

Roaring River State Park 2009

We had a wonderful trip to Missouri. We love Roaring River and have wanted to take Miss Hope Marie there since long before we knew her. In 2006 we went and I bought a T Shirt for a little girl who I did not even know yet...it said someone who loves me very much went to Roaring River and bought me this shirt. Hope really loves the shirt and Roaring River as you can tell by the picture above. We are having some problems with picture uploads and that is part of the reason we have not been very good bloggers lately. I'll try again to add more pictures tomorrow. Our whole immediate family was able to make the trip this year and we had so much fun. Hiking with a 4 year old and a baby was a little different but we managed just fine and actually Hope LOVES hiking....she is very hard to keep up with.

More photos later.

Hope is having a health issue we would love to see resolved...extreme outbreaks of hives. We will share more later but she has had to make one trip to the ER and we now carry an Epi Pen Jr with us where ever we go...more later on that.

Becky