life is beautiful

Packing my bags...

I wish! But soon though, very soon! 

I am moving to a new blog though. If you are interested in staying with me to follow along on our journey to get baby Kate and don't mind changing your link...again (sorry about that), please do! You can find my new blog at:

http://lifewithleahandkate.blogspot.com/

And thank you for all your support and encouraging words through the past few years on our quest to complete our family! I have met some truly wonderful people and I appreciate you more than you'll ever know.

Babypalooza Weekend

 

My brother Rich and his beautiful wife, Rachel, are expecting their first child in early June...around the same time we are likely to fly to China to get Kate. In one way, it's so neat that we both will be blessed at the same time...in another, I want to be there for them during this exciting time in their life.  In the meantime, we are both nesting together and preparing for our little ones to arrive in the next two short months.

We had a fabulous little shower for the glowing mom-to-be this weekend, it was such fun to share in the happiness with friends and family.  

 

 

Loved the cake, it tasted as good as it looked...it matched her shower invitations

 

Me, my mom, and my awesome SIL's Rachel & Cheri

Rachel and I had been planning for months for me to take some baby bump pictures for them, and wouldn't you know it...the day we had planned turned out to be a miserable 30 degrees and rainy! I think the pictures still turned out great even though we were frozen and I lost all feeling in my fingers while clicking away.

Aren't they just the cutest couple? And that bump...oh, so adorable! I'm sooooo looking forward to spoiling my little nephew rotten in a few months and of course, and have the chance to keep practicing my photography skills on all my new subjects. I can hardly wait! :)

 

 

 

 

 

    

This one is cute because they haven't decided on a name yet, so we did a series of these shots with the top three names (Cooper, Jackson (Jack) & Jonah) ..all three are great, so it will be fun to see which one it will be.

 

Officially Nesting

I have three rooms to redecorate, tons of organizing to do...and the demolition will start this weekend, but I wanted to capture these rooms "before" shots so I'd have them forever.

Leah's current room (soon to be Kate's):

 

The current playroom (soon to be Leah's big sis room):

 

The old playroom (soon to be the new playroom, and excuse the clothes on the floor, I'm sorting baby clothes):

This is actually a project I can't wait to get started on...the current playroom used to be Leah's nursery, so it's bittersweet to remove the wallpaper and the border that I was so thrilled to put up four years ago.

The lavender room just needs just a little bit of love and some curtains and it will be good to go...and the old playroom has never gotten the attention that it needs but has so much potential. I hope to add built-in's like these:

 

And I can't wait to do something fun with the two window knooks..anybody have any ideas on curtains?

 

Kate...my precious, precious girl.

I can finally shout to the world that we have another daughter! Shawn, Leah and I are absolutely thrilled and excited to be her family. And now, I get to be a proud mama and publically show off pictures of our long-awaited Kate!

We received the call on March 4, and after discussing her SN with some top Doctors in our city that night (that just happened to be the world's best in managing her condition...Thank you God!), we got the big ol' green light to gratefully accept this referral of this beautiful little girl!  

Some facts...she is 17 months old, born in Henan province and her chinese name is Zhang Hui (pro: Jung Way). We are naming her Kathryn Mei Lin. We are hoping to travel in about 2.5 months or so. Now to the good stuff...

Wanna see this little cutie-patootie?

   

 

 

 

Hangin'...

Found her having the best time in her room today--listening to music, singing, wearing her new outfit from another fashion show she was in this week (pictures to come)...just being a total teenager...had to grab the camera for a few pictures.  Love that girl.

 

 

 

  

 

Oh, look at that little face.

Three years ago today I got a phone call that changed our lives forever in the most wonderful way. "You have a beautiful daughter..." was all I heard before my mind went to absolute mush.

 

   

In other news...after fun times with her China friends playgroup this morning at the mall, look what this brave girl decided it was time to do today...

 

 

 

 

I love my little family

 

so, so much.

 

I love how this sweet, tender, cuddly little girl professes her love and try's to one-up our "to the moon and back's" with "Well, I LOVE YOU more than all the oceans and the sky". She'll never know how much she's not gonna win this one. 

 

He's awesome to walk through this life with and he makes me laugh every single day. He handles everything that comes our way with such ease, confidence and great faith. I'm always amazed at the strength he has given the hurdles he has jumped.

She's my miracle baby.

Happy Valentine's Day. Hugs and Kisses from our family to yours.

Sorority Sisters

Leah and I have coined a phrase for when she wants to have her photo taken via my camera phone to say..."SORORITY SISTERS!!"...meaning put our heads and cheeks together and strike a pose.  Keep in mind that Leah normally hates to have her photo taken, she's constantly thwarting my attempts to take photos of her on my expensive camera....but pull out a cell phone and she's all smiles. Go figure. Maybe little Kate will have sympathy for my mamarazzi efforts.

Lately, I've been too busy to attempt photos sessions with her...I just have a lot of crappy quality photos...but look at that face! I'll take what I can get from that chic in the photo department.  

This is just a sampling of the now hundreds of camera photos demonstrating the "Sorority Sister" pose. She's a natural. :)

 

 

 

   

Oh, how I love that little ham bone. :)