Esther's Reunion

Get ready for lots and lots of pictures!!

Thursday we drove down to Fredericksburg, Virginia in anticipation of a long awaited reunion for Esther and her best friend, Jing Chen. After stopping for lunch, we drove to Belvedere Plantation and awaited our friends. The only bathrooms available were the portable type and our aching bladders were all less than pleased to discover this. (Especially Emma.. note her face as she exists the portable restroom!) While we waited, the girls and Ian picked daisies and wildflowers and explored the plantation. And then our friends arrived. A year and two months later, the two best friends who survived three years together in an orphanage were finally meeting again. Yep.. Esther and Delaney!
We were fortunate enough to be able to get together with Delaney and her parents, brothers and sister while in Maryland. It was so good to see them again. (For those who don't know, we traveled with Delaney's father Charlie and brother Britt last year when we went to China. You can see more about that here.) Britt has probably grown about 5 inches since last year! He's the same age as Ian, but a lot taller. The two of them got along just great! Delaney is beautiful and has grown quite a bit since our trip. She no longer looks like a young child, but a beautiful four year old with the same funny personality!!
Esther and Delaney were a little skittish around each other for the first hour.. they both preferred to stay close to their other siblings. We took a hayride down to the fields and picked four boxes of strawberries! The kids had a blast picking, throwing and eating all those yummy strawberries. We were lucky since the Plantation had only opened up it's fields to picking the day before! We had such a great time remembering our trip, and meeting new friends. We hadn't yet met Delaney's mom Elizabeth, or her brother Will and sister Eliza, so it was great to finally meet them after corresponding through e-mail the last two years!
Laney & Esther finally started to engage with each other after the first hour.. and they started playing like they had just seen each other yesterday. Esther strongly remembers Laney and for the longest time we couldn't show her pictures of her friend because it would send her into tantrums and crying spells. She finally got to the point where she could see the pictures and video and be fine, but she would always talk about her Jing Cheng.
These two had such a close relationship, they were more like sisters. The Lord was so good when he allowed both of our families to adopt Laney & Esther at the same time, because I strongly believe their adjustments would have been MUCH worse if they hadn't been together. For the first few days after we got Esther, she would scream when we would have to say goodbye to Jing Chen so we could go up to our hotel room. Esther was very protective of Jing Chen and would always hold Laney's hand, or feed Laney much like an older sister. They were so cute together in China and we are so glad that we were able to get them together again.
The girls have a lot in common, like the fact that they were both born with a cleft lip and palate and each has a sister close in age. When we got together, not only did we have ten children between the two families... but FOUR four-year-old's!! (Esther, Emma, Laney & Eliza) The girls were very cute together and really enjoyed playing.
Afterwards, we took the kids to a local Chinese restaurant and enjoyed the yummy food.
It was such a nice visit with Laney's family and we look forward to keeping in touch and meeting at least once a year! Enjoy the pictures!!

My Hometown Hershey

Today we headed north and visited Hershey, Pennsylvania.. the birthplace of not just chocolate, but also Elena and I! We were born at Hershey Medical Center while my Dad did his residency training and lived there for about three years. We still have friends who live here and love coming up to this wonderful *sweet* little town.
The familiar aroma of chocolate began the second we stepped out of the car and lasted all day long. (And oh it smells so good!) We didn't have a whole lot of time here today, so we took the kids to Chocolate World, a fun little complex right next to Hershey Park. We took an interactive ride through the process of chocolate making, watched a 3-D movie and then shopped through the largest chocolate store I've ever seen! I was in Heaven in an aisle devoted to only the best candy ever, Reece's. Mom was thrilled to find tons of delectable dark chocolate options and Dad exercised his credit card! The kids just ran around and enjoyed burning off all the energy.
Later, we went and visited our friends, "Grandma" Delores and "Grandpa"
Dick. Grandma Delores was my first baby sitter and we've continued to stay in contact. We first went and visited the hospital since she was supposed to be having hip surgery yesterday. We were a bit shocked when we asked the floor attendant and she said Delores wasn't there! Turns out, a last minute x-ray revealed that she wouldn't need the surgery! So.. we headed over to their house and visited for a few hours. It was great to catch up and remember about my obsession with Barney when I was little. =)
Then, we ate dinner at our favorite restaurant, Friendly's. Mom & Dad used to take us there all the time when we were little so it was fun to go back and sit in the same spot we did 15 years ago. Esther and Emma enjoyed their first Friendly's Sunday's!
Enjoy the pictures..Notice why I don't have that many pictures of Elena? Because every time I try to, I get the expression she has in one of the below pictures!
Tomorrow plans on being an extra special day, especially for Esther. More tomorrow!! =)

Hello from Baltimore

I apologize for the fact that already I can see my pictures are overlapping each other.. but hopefully you all will be able to still view them okay.
Anyways.. we're in Baltimore, Maryland! We arrived yesterday and are here for the week visiting family and attending our cousin's wedding on Saturday.
The day started early yesterday at 6:00 AM and for some of us it didn't end until 1:00 AM. (Ahem.. that would be me since I'm *fortunate* to be sharing a bed with the thrashing-snoring-constantly-moving-Emma.) I don't know how we managed it.. but all eight of us made it on and off the flight..and no one died! We got through security with all eight of us in tow, including shoes off, eight backpacks, two strollers, laptop and cell phones all through the x-ray scanners. The girls did wonderful on the flight- thank goodness for Crayola (Color Wonder) Coloring Books and Leapsters!
Today, we visited the Baltimore Zoo (or, now called The Maryland Zoo at Baltimore) along with Mom's best friend, Aunt Irma. We've been visiting this zoo since I was a baby so it always brings back memories when we come and visit. The weather was beautiful and the kids all had a blast. You'll notice in one of the photo's, we're all sitting in a bird's nest. There's a reason for that- Mom has taken pictures of us in that nest starting from when I was a baby and each time we've added a child to the family. We hadn't visited the zoo when we were up here in August 2005, so this was the first time we took a picture there with all six children.
Ian, Kayla and Elena all enjoyed climbing the rock wall in the zoo, but I don't have pictures of that since I had a little problem with my camera! It fell off the stroller earlier today and I didn't notice, but somehow the memory card fell out as well! My camera has a built in memory, so I was still taking pictures and didn't realize anything until I went to look through my pictures and almost all of them were gone! My memory card was gone!! So we went back to the spot where the camera had fallen and looked all through the grass and weeds, but didn't find anything. I finally went and asked one of the employees and fortunately someone had found my memory card!! I am so glad they found it since it contained about 80+ pictures from the last two days and some really priceless pictures I didn't want to loose!

So..enjoy my pictures that once we lost, but have now been found!