18 Months With Noah

A year and a half ago this sweet boy walked into the civil affairs office in Guangzhou and didn’t seem quite sure of us!! We are no longer a small family and he seemed a little unsure of what this thing called family is...

In fact, he didn’t even give this Mama a kiss until day 56.  Up until that day, each night I would ask if he wanted to give mama a kiss and he’d shyly shake his head no. ;)

But it turns out, this boy, as standoffish as he started out, is now the most loving little guy! He loves his family and he is everybody’s buddy.  He tells everyone that Chengbin is his best friend, and we have no doubt about that!! They even sleep together just so they can chat a little longer at bedtime anytime we say they can.  (They ask every night!)

Noah Hongjie is just such an incredible little boy. I can’t believe we have come so far in 18 months.  I honestly thought his attachment was going to be the biggest challenge we had experienced.  Thank God that his Daddy was home with him for that first 8 months, I really believe it made all the difference for him.

And now we can look ahead at our hopes and dreams for where he will be another 18 months from now.  :) What a great place to be!!

Noah Hongjie we adore you dude! You are an awesome kid and we are so proud to be your family.  You are an amazing gift from God & we love you with all our hearts!

Hello Summer!

Summertime has arrived and we have been enjoying it!

Our first summer trip was a day trip to the beach, a few weeks before school got out so the beach would be a bit less crowded! Ft Walton Beach to be exact.  It was gorgeous!!! For some strange reason we’ve never made it that far to the east to hit the beach.  Kate & I actually looked at each other like ‘what have we been doing all these years??!!’ Haha!

This girl, she is wild and crazy and unafraid to completely cover herself in sand.  It cracks me up!!  And since she’s a little wild and crazy in the water, staying in the sand is just fine by me.

We had crazy clear water and it was shallow pretty far out so two of the littles excitedly got going on their first attempts at boogie boarding! They loved it! Laila stayed on a board 90% of our time there. So funny!

Kate & Bin had a blast too, boarding and just enjoying the waves.

So in spite of the long drive to this beach, my kids gave it a resounding 5 thumbs up and asked if we could come again the next day. Haha!

Man, I really do want to go again tomorrow... time for another beach day soon!