One Year Home

March 2, 2010 was our one year celebration of "gotcha day", Sarah has now been with our family for a year. The year flew by, so much faster then the time we spent waiting for her to be with our family. It has been a wonderful year, she is such a blessing to our family and I thank God every day for the blessings we have been given.
Sarah has grown and changed so much during this past year. She feels secure with her family and knows she is safe and so loved. She continues to be such a tease, the other day Todd was working on something and had taken his glasses off and set them on the table, Sarah carefully picked them up and gently placed them in his back pocket without him feeling it. Then when he was finished with what he was doing and he went to get his glasses, they weren't there. He asked where his glasses were and Sarah started to giggle and put her hand over her mouth, she then showed him where they were. She teases her sisters too and it is so much fun! I love to see her personality just shine.
Sarah loves to look at books and have us read to her, she loves to sing songs and she continues to love to help others. She loves to play dress up and has a great imagination. She hates being dirty or sticky and likes her surroundings to be clean too.
I love to hear her laugh, it just brings so much joy to my heart! I think about the time we spent waiting for Sarah, sometimes it was so hard, not knowing so many things but moving forward in faith and hope. And now, my heart is just filled with so much gratitude.
We took her to Disneyland in March and we were standing in line to get a picture taken with Goofy, she was eating some fruit snacks when all of a sudden she put the package in my hand and said, "Goofy no snacks, need get own." I love to hear her talk, she is starting to say more words and sometimes it is just so funny with what she comes up with. Sometimes it is still a little difficult to understand what she is trying to say and I know that is frustrating to her but I think she is doing really well and she understands everything we say to her or so it seems. She is an amazing little girl and my life is so much better because she is a part of it. I so look forward to watching her grow and learn and to see what she will come up with next.

Chinese New Year

February 15, 2010 we held our first Chinese New Year's celebration. We had so much fun! Several families came over and helped us celebrate. This is the year of the tiger! We decorated our house and with help made some traditional Chinese dishes to eat. There were crafts for the kids and we all learned about some of the Chinese New Year customs. Sarah especially loved the food, she wasn't quite sure about all the people or about exactly what was going on, but she seemed to have a good time. We are all looking forward to many more celebrations!