Christmas at Mom and Dad's

 Heather and a few of her cousins.

Brooke taking a break from snowman building.

The kids in front of their snowman. They enjoyed 

the first white Christmas in Georgia in 130 years.

Here's a really cute video of Heather and her cousin Brooke singing Rudolph the red nose reindeer of course there was a little assist from the audience. We really enjoyed Christmas dinner with all the family at my parent's house. We also got a little surprise, a White Christmas, the first in 130 yrs. Good Night and God Bless everyone.. Below are some videos from Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve

Our friends Chris and Catherine came over this evening for Christmas Eve dinner along with their beautiful and sweet daughter Harper. Heather and Harper enjoy spending time together and Heather is so pleased that Harper is now speaking quite a bit and they can talk to each other. She was so excited all day today waiting for them to come. Here are a few pictures of the girls together.

Our Christmas Photos

Tonight we took our Christmas Photos for our second annual Christmas Card. This is a tradition we plan to continue and we will keep a card from each year as a memento of years gone by. This will be our second Christmas with our sweet Heather. She is so excited and Karen and I get such a kick out of her when she goes through her list of things that she wants for Christmas. One of the top items on her list is the Fur-real dog. Little does she know he has already found a cubby hole to hide in until Christmas morning.

Halloween photos

Heather sleeping. She got a pumpkin that lights up and it became her night light for the weeks leading up to Halloween. I will add a few other pictures once I have them in the right place for uploading.

The Case Against Homeownership

The Case Against Homeownership

I read this disturbing article last week in Time Magazine and found it troubling. If the average family does not own their home who does, The land lord. Who ends up with the equity in the home you rent, certainly not you or me, so there goes another source of wealth for the average middle class American. This is the path to becoming a third world nation with the super rich and the rest of us serfs. Yes, homes have lost value but in the end you will own your home and have the peace of mind knowing that you will not have to pay rent to someone else until the day of your departure from this world.

Happy Adoption Day - August 31, 2010

We celebrated Heather's first Adoption Day with our fellow adoption travelers, Chris and Catherine and their lovely daughter Harper. We met at a local Chinese bistro called the Iron Wok. The owners know us and always treat us very well. The girls were their silk outfits which their mothers picked out for them while we were in Beijing. Here a few photos of that wonderful day.

Campbellton, NB, Canada Day week

 Karen and her sister Phyllis

 Heather and I in front of the Campbellton Salmon fountain. This part of New Brunswick is know for it's Salmon fishing.

 Karen and Heather enjoying lunch on Canada day. We went to the fair that was in town for the weekend. Below is a picture of Heather and I with the Restigouche river in the background.

We traveled to Karen's home town to introduce Heather to her Canadian family. This year we got to celebrate Canada Day in Canada and Independence Day in the US. This is the first time in the last five years that I got to celebrate both events in their respective countries. Last year I celebrated both in Canada. Back to the main topic, Heather was a hit with Karen's family and friends. We had a great time and Heather is looking forward to making the trip back to Canada again soon......

July 2, 2010: Campbellton, NB, Canada

Heather with her Mom along the Matapedia River, Tide Head, NB, Canada in early July.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Heather's first Dance Recital

Heather has been attending Heather Wayne's Dance Academy since January. She was a bit hesitant at first and would watch the other girl's from the sideline. Her initial hesitation was due to language which I mentioned in a post back in February. It was about her third session when she just got up from the sidelines and joined the girls doing everything they were doing just as if she had been doing it from the start. She is a very observant little girl and thus a quick learner. Now five months later we got to see her in action along with the other girls in her class at her dance recital this past Saturday May 22nd. As you can see they were dressed as little monkeys and the theme music was of course the theme from "Curious George". All the girls looked so cute with their little outfits. She wants to take tap dance next.

Heather in pigtails

Right from the start we knew Heather was all girl. Our first few hours with her involved bouts of crying with the first break coming when Karen showed her, her new clothes. She loves to put her hair up in pigtails as well as shown in this picture, she is pretty adept at it.

Heather's Fourth Birthday

Heather celebrated her 4th Birthday on Tuesday April 20th. Our new friends Catherine and Chris came over with their daughter Harper. They were members of our travel group to China whom as it turned out lived within a short drive of us. Harper's birthday is the same as Heather's and she turned 2. We had been to her Birthday party on Saturday the 17th.
Here they are both attempting to blow out the candles on the cake. Little did they know Heather's grandfather had placed special candles on the cake. These candles go out but then re-ignite. I could see

Heather getting frustrated. This was a repeat of what occurred on my 5th birthday when my own grandfather pulled the same trick on me. I hope I'm around to do the same to Heather's first child. Can't let traditions such as this go the way of the dinosaurs.

Here's a cute picture of the two of them together. The next time we will all get together again will be the end of May when all of our travel families will come together in the Cleveland area for a adopted family reunion that our Adoption agency EAC sponsors every year at the Cleveland Zoo.

Heather dressed up for her Pre-K photo

Heather has been registered for Pre-K to start in August. Each child has to have their picture taken for the registration process and today is the day for Heather. Karen laid out a beautiful dress and sweater for Heather to wear for her photo. Last night when mom told her that she had to dress for a photo tomorrow she became upset and at dinner she was crying. We asked her why and she said that she was scared. We asked why are you scared and she mentioned having her picture taken. It clicked with both of us at the same time that perhaps Heather was scared because neither mommy or daddy would be there for the picture. Maybe it reminded her of the pictures she had taken in China for her Chinese Passport and her American visa. In all the official pictures in China she was crying, perhaps she was thinking that another big change is coming. We both took turns holding her and assuring her that we, Mommy and Daddy are her's forever and ever. She calmed down and ate her dinner while sitting in Mommy's lap. Times like this remind us that she wants so much to be sure that she is home for good but at times doubts arise in her mind and we must be sure to comfort her and tell her that we love her very much. The crowning touch to yesterday evening was Heather asking for a family hug saying she loves Mommy and Daddy.

Enjoying an unlikely occurence in Georgia: Snow

Our backyard earlier in the morning. It was beautiful! Heather would get up and look out the window every once in awhile asking if it was time to go outside yet.

Pulled out the skis for a little down hill fun in the backyard.

Heather and Mom are enjoying the snow. Below they build a snowman.

Heather's taking creative dance

Heather is enjoying her dance class. The first two times she sat on the sidelines and watched the other girls dance until the last ten minutes of each class, at which time she would get up and run to join the girls. (I believe the sticker each girl gets at the end of class is the enticement.) The last two classes she was a little hesitant to go into the room and would peek into the room via the door until the instructor said, Heather it's your turn. She finally ran in and joined. Each week seems to be getting better. I believe the key to this is the fact she is speaking and understanding English so much better now. She will carry out a conversation with little hesitation now. Her class will be giving a recital in May. We look forward to seeing her up there on stage at the Gwinnett Arena.

Heather is such a cute little girl. The girl in black just beyond her in this photo is half a year younger than Heather.

Saturday January 9th

Saturday we went to the kids museum "Imagine It" in downtown Atlanta. They currently have a Curious George exhibit and Heather loves George. Our nightly routine has been one episode before bed. The picture says it all.

New Years Day at Chris's and Catherine's

Harper and Heather at the table. Looks like Harper just received a text message. Chris and Catherine invited us over for dinner on New Years day and we had the opportunity to enjoy a pork roast that Chris had cooked on his new Green Egg that he got for Christmas. We had a great time enjoying each others company and the girls continued to bond.