Birthday's Galore...

February 1st is Abby's actual birthday. Her birth mom left a note with her...
We celebrated her 5 little years of life with family on Friday night and then we celebrated Averleigh's 3 little years of life yesterday, which is her birthday:) It was a fun-filled weekend. (BTW, Ansley turns 11 on the 12th and Ashlyn turns 14 on the 18th!)

When we got up on Friday morning, Matt played "Happy Birthday" for her in Chinese on his phone. She really liked that and seemed to totally understand.

She loved it when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her in English too and she was in awe of the candles...

This look on her face was cracking us up!

Totally in love with babies! This is her cousin Liam.

They got mini baby dolls with bunk beds!

This is Abby's favorite spot in the house! Girlfriend LOVES to eat!

She is ALL GIRL!

Averleigh's party was a repeat of Abby's. I'm not sure how we'll decide to celebrate in the coming years, but for this year we wanted to make sure that we celebrated them individually and I'm so glad we did. Averleigh was old enough to really understand this year. It was a special night for her too.

My sweet baby and her balloon bracelet.

SO hard to believe she is 3!!!

Some of the fam...

I adore this precious smile. There is nothing more adorable than a 3-year-old little girl! I think it's one of my favorite ages.

More of the gang...

These Disney light-spinning toys were the hit of the night!

And Abby just so happened to have her Minnie Mouse dress on!

Partied Out!

We tried my mom's readers on Abby to see if they helped the poor girl with her squinting. She absolutely needs glasses ASAP!

I had to include Mr. Toothless:) The cutest and sweetest and cuddliest 7 year old boy you've ever known. AKA: A-Dog

Liam was a HUGE hit with Ashlyn & Abby. They were both so sweet with him. I even caught Ashlyn stealing kisses from him:) She's a natural little mommy.

So that's it for the birthday's. I thought I'd include some more Disney pix...

Crazy Boys...

Right before Abby's total freak out moment on Dumbo:) Fortunately, I was able to switch her before the ride started.

Precious girls...

Thumbs Up for fireworks!

Chillin' Out...

It's so hard to believe our girls have only been with us for a little less than 2 months. I honestly feel like they've always been here. Abby is adapting amazingly well. I took her to a FREE Down Syndrome clinic yesterday morning where we got a lot of good insight on her hearing, feet, vision, speech, skin... It was really educational, and they all said she looked great! Her ears are totally clear and her hearing is perfectly fine. She has some molluscum bumps on her bum which makes her itch alot, but all of my bio kids have had a round of that and so we know how to treat it. Her feet look great... nice arches. Her vision is wacky... something about spacial issues??? We will take her soon to get it checked out. I know she needs glasses for things close up. I got some great info on sign language and speech therapy. We are just so proud of our girl. We love her to pieces... ALL of us. She is just such a great kid!

Ashlyn is equally amazing. I know I keep saying that, but honestly, I am just so overjoyed with how well she has done in this huge life change. I told her again today that I am so proud of how brave she has been. I can NOT imagine going through what she has gone through and having the same attitude that she has. She is everything they said she was and SO much more.

She has started learning some of the songs that we hear on Christian radio. Her favorites are "10,000 Reasons" & "Our God". I absolutely shine from the inside out when I hear her singing along. We had communion at church this morning. I shared the passage in 1 Corinthians with her about the body and blood of Christ. I told her that communion was for someone who is a committed follower of Jesus Christ and that in time, should she choose to receive Him as her Savior, she too will participate in communion. She said, "Ohhhh..." with a big smile on her face.

She says, "This?" all the time. It's like her very favorite word these days:) We talk to her and she points to things and says, "This?" And we say, "yeah!" She is like a little parrot. She repeats everything we say, and I gotta tell ya, it's a really great way to learn the language. Her speech isn't near as bad as I thought. I am so crazy in love with this child! I wish so badly that I could have a real conversation with her. I can not wait to learn more about her!!! I'd give anything to know what she looked like as a little girl.

As I look at my Aver-pie, I can't help but think about Ashlyn at her same age. Ashlyn was abandoned at age 3. Can you imagine? I sure can't. It breaks my heart just thinking about it. I think about her birth family and how hard that must've been to let her go. Ashlyn is from a rural area. There is no doubt in my mind that they wanted her. She came to the orphanage with a repaired cleft lip/palate. You can't tell me that a poor family would go through all of that expense if they didn't love her.

Anyhow... I've thought about my girl's birth families alot lately and I pray that the Lord will comfort them and give them peace because He gave them to a family that is CRAZY about them!!!

I have some great videos of our trip to China that I will upload as soon as I can figure out how to get them from my phone to Yout*be.

Stay tuned...

Blessings,
Rebecca