and now she's four!

I can't believe my baby is FOUR!  (sniff, sniff) 

Um, no... I didn't make the cake.  A friend made it. 

Martha Stewart I am not.  Not by a long shot.  :)

 

Not sure what this "faraway" look is about...perhaps she is slightly aggravated by the mamarazzi?

Sarah's birthday castle...

invaded by Buzz Lightyear and friends. 

(Jason had a great time with all of Sarah's "girly" toys.) 

Happy birthday, Sarah!  Can't wait to see what new adventures you'll have this year!  We love you to the moon and back!

Precious photos

Some of you know that our adoption story is a little different than most Chinese adoptions.  

Here's a little background info.  :)  When Sarah was just six weeks old, she was transferred from her province orphanage to New Day Foster Home (on the outskirts of Beijing).  At New Day, she received excellent care and had surgery to repair her cleft lip.

If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you know how we feel about New Day.  New Day lovingly cares for special needs children and provides life saving surgery and therapy for them before they are adopted.

While at New Day, Sarah was placed with a foster family.  When we traveled to China to bring Sarah home, we were blessed to visit New Day, meet some of the amazing staff and kids, and also meet Sarah's foster parents.

This is the photo of us with Sarah's foster parents. (We were jetlagged and incredibly excited and nervous.  We hadn't met Sarah yet and the entire experience was both beautiful and overwhelming at the same time!)

During our meeting with Sarah's foster parents, I tried to express my deep gratitude to them for loving and taking such good care of Sarah.  And of course I couldn't say that without crying a puddle of tears.  Sarah's foster mom was also teary as she asked us if we could send her a family photo when we returned to home.
I told her of course we would send pictures! 

And so I try to keep my promise and send family photos to New Day at least once a year.  I got some ready to send this February:

... and just this week I got an email from Karen (New Day director-- she is truly an angel on earth) saying that the pictures had arrived.  And better yet, Karen also sent us new pictures of Sarah's foster parents!

As I sit here typing, Sarah just came in and said, "There's Yeh Yeh (Grandpa) and Nai Nai (Grandma)!" and then skipped off again.   I'm so grateful that we have this connection for her. 

And as for me, even though we speak different languages and only met for a brief time, I feel a very strong connection to this sweet Chinese couple.  I'm not a "well traveled" person, but in my limiited travels, I will say that I have discovered that although we live different lives, people everywhere are more alike than different.  We want the same things, and we have many of the same worries, hopes and dreams.   And I treasure the opportunity we have to be a small part of this family's life.

Oh, yes she did!

Yesterday afternoon I suddenly realized that I needed to get online and register the boys for baseball or risk paying late fees for each kid. 
So I left Sarah at the kitchen table, happily cutting up her brother's old math worksheet.  I didn't think much about it, since she loves to cut paper and it tends to keep her busy for more than a few minutes.  

I was almost done on the computer when Sarah yelled,

"Mom!  I cut my hair!" 

I jumped up, ran to the family room, and saw this:

Aaaack! 

Believe it or not, this is the first "self barbering" episode we've had at our house.  Don't know why we've beat the odds until now.

Sarah was quite pleased with herself, but quickly realized that mama was not as thrilled with her new skill.  :)

Oddly enough,  I can't really find the bald spots on her head that I was expecting!  Crazy, right?  With that much hair on the floor you'd think there'd be some issues... but not really.  (Apparently she's a pro at "thinning" hair!)

Whew, I think we dodged a big-chunk-of-bangs-missing bullet this time.   

Hopefully we won't have a repeat performance, or Sarah may end up wearing her tiger hat a lot more often.  ;)

Basketball champs!

Our second son, Evan (#8), loves all sports, but he really loves basketball.  He watches ESPN, follows different college and NBA teams, and shoots hoops whenever he has a spare minute.  Literally. 

So we were all pretty excited when his team won almost every game in city league play.   Last week they played in a south valley tournament, which involved teams from three different towns in our area.   Evan's team played great.  Some of the games were real nail biters-- one game they won by only one point.  On Thursday night they played for the championship and WON! 

Way to go, Evan!  We are proud of you!

Here's Evan with his "trophy"-- a t-shirt! 

Jason and Sarah weren't real interested in the game, but entertained themselves by locking each other up in "cages".  

Sarah's naptime buddy

First, I must preface this post by saying, "Yes, Sarah still takes a nap!" 
She is almost four and still naps for an hour or two in the afternoon.  The boys gave up naps entirely by the time they were two, so having a good napper is a new thing at our house.

As soon as Sarah lays down for her nap, she immediately takes inventory. 

"Where's my Big Panda?" she'll ask.

The other stuffed animals are also inventoried, but are not crucial for naptime.  Big Panda, on the other hand, is pretty much a napping necessity.

I'm glad that Big Panda is BIG, because otherwise I'd never find him at naptime.  He definitely makes the rounds at our house.

Here he is, playing Life.   (Yes, I know it's not exactly a preschool game, but Jason and Sarah are fascinated with it!  The cars!  The pink and blue people pegs!!)

Here he is, having a weekend snooze on the couch with Sarah and Logan.

And here he is, back in Sarah's bedroom.  Is it just me, or does he have a slightly glazed look in his eyes?  (Kinda like I do at the end of the day!)

Big Panda gets dragged all over the house by his snout, so his mouth and nose are a little saggy and worn. 

Poor Big Panda. 

Saggy, worn... but very loved!

(Oddly enough, this description seems to fit me, too!  :)