My beautiful kiddos

Crazy bunch!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope you all had a great holiday. We spent the week with 5 of our closest family/friends camping in a National Forrest.

I'll be the first to admit that 8 days in the forrest is even a bit long for me. The company was great, I just don't do well with chilling out for that long. But it was some great down time..and much needed.

Logan mastered riding his bike without training wheels! Mia conquered her dislike of sand and dirt! Livy became quite the volleyball player, and it was sooooooooooooo good to see Michael without that X box or cell phone attached to his body!

But it is good to be home. Trips like those really help to remind me of all that I have to be thankful for. An amazing husband, healthy and crazy children, wonderful friends, a dishwasher, HOT water, and more then one potty for 6 people!!!

Hope all is well.

Love,
Claire

Lacking complete motivation

Hey there!

Hope life is treating you well.

We are doing great. Had the chance to meet up with some dear friends from our first adoption group to China last week end. We had dinner out and just enjoyed chatting and seeing Laura and her beautiful family.

Not much else going on really..... just lacking motivation in many areas. The house looks like a tornado blew through, I have washed the same load of laundry 3 times in 2 days, and you could feed a small village with all of the snacks and drinks strewn about in my car.

I never realized just how OCD I am until Logan came home. I did great with just two kids, held my own when Mia came home..but now...I am totally out numbered. I thought for sure that God had given me a child after my own neat-freakness in Logan. Remember my posts from China about how neat he was? WAS is the key word there.

Oh well, I know there is more to life then having a picked up house. But there is just something about those fresh vaccuum tracks going across the carpet that makes me all warm inside.

Maybe my attitude is this way because I am sooooooooooo ready for it to be Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday, and we are headed out for our 7th annual camping trip with our precious group of friends. Out into a national forrest for a whole week!

No clock, no tv, no cell reception. Just room to run and play, 6 nights of campfires and s'mores, and the most amazing down time I have ever known.

CAN'T WAIT!!!

love,
claire

Busch Gardens!

Just wanted to post some pictures of our week end trip to Busch Gardens, and some of the halloween festivities in our hood.

We went to BG with 3 other families, and everyone had a great time. Logan was a riot, and Mia even was able to let go of some of her fears and really enjoy the rides and the huge sand pit/play area.

All is well here. We are loving the cooler weather, and can't wait for our annual Thanksgiving camping trip. We will be playing hooky from school for a few days, we lost some vacation days due to a few hurricanes. the kids are really upset with this decision, but I think they'll be o.k. (:

Hope all is well.

Love,
Claire

Happy Fall!

Hey ya'll!

Just wanted to share a few pictures of the kids and what they have been up to. And our ONE fall leaf we found. Not much of a change of seasons for us down here, so we get excited over the little things.


Logan and Mia are having a blast riding the bikes they received for their birthdays. School is going great for Logan. In fact.....he is adjusting so well that he had a check mark on his progress report a few weeks ago. Seems he is having trouble "controlling his verbal impulses".

TOO FUNNY!! He is talking too much in class! Remember, he has only been in the US since June!

Livy has been hard at work on her science project. A cake decorated as a plant cell! Yes, her science teacher is a bit off. And no!!!! I'm not her science teacher! She has also made squad leader for her ROTC class. It is wild to watch my girly-girl go all army on Thursdays.

Mike is off being a teenager, it is hard to get a good picture of him as he flies out the door. But, he did stop long enough to let us know that he made the teen worship band at church and his school's ROTC Rifle Team. He is really excited.

OH!!!!!!! Almost forgot... we had some testing done for Logan, and it turns out that he isn't 7. He is 5! There were many discrepancies in his paper work that led to us looking into things.

So, after a few moments of shock...we realized that we just postponed paying his college tuition by 2 years!

Hope all is well out there. I know things seem to be a little crazy these days, but it's all good. We serve a mighty God, and He is in control.

Love,
Claire and crew

Not blinking anymore!

Ok, I am not going to blink again.

Seriously! I have no idea how...but Mia turned 3 last week, Logan is sitting on our lap top yelling at a computer game, IN PERFECT ENGLISH, Mike has a date to his high school homecoming dance and livy is turning 13 in a few months!!

Too much for this sappy mama.

Our baby turned 3 this week. It is hard to believe that Mia has been home almost 2 years. I remember our gotcha day like it was yesterday. She was so tiny, sweet and scared to death. We called her our velcro baby. Not much has really changed....she is still tiny, sweet and very reserved outside of family and close friends.

But what an angel. She is so smart, funny and beautiful inside and out. I can not imagine my life without her, without any of my kids. They are such gifts.

Given that September is the birth month of two of my kiddos, I want to especially thank Mia and Logan's birth moms for the incredible risks they took in leaving their babies at safe place for someone to find. They risked their freedom to help their children. They could have so easily taken the other road.... not only legal and free, but heavily encouraged for unwanted pregnancies.They could have aborted these precious babies.

I pray that God gives them peace and comfort, and that somehow they can know how loved and cherished Mia and Logan are.

Now off to do those mountains of laundry my precious angels have made while watching the 4th love of my life.....NFL FOOTBALL!!!! GO SKINS!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope all is well.

Love,
Claire

Happy Birthday sweet boy.

Well, what an awesome day yesterday was.

We were given the tremendous honor of celebrating Logan's 7th birthday with him finally home! It was one of those times were I tried not to get caught up in all that we missed in those 6 1/2 years, but enjoy the moments we have.

I also found myself thinking of his birth parents a lot this week. I pray that some how they have a sense of peace, that some how they can feel how much we love Logan. How brave he has been these past few months...leaving all that he knew and trusting these total strangers enough to come home with us and begin a new life.

Everyday he opens up more and more. He is happy, healthy, outgoing and so smart. He lights up a room with his smile and easy going personality. He is so full of promise, he masters anything he sets out to do.

As we continue to settle into our new family dynamics, it is so evident that God created this child to be ours.

Happy Birthday little man. We love you!

Birthday boy!