One Enchanted Evening

A couple of Saturdays ago, we joined other adoptive families at the zoo for "One Enchanted Evening." Each year, our local adoption agency, Harmony, who has completed all of our home studies for us, hosts an evening at the zoo. This year's theme was based on Alice in Wonderland, and families are invited to wear costumes, eat, play and tour the zoo. We met our new friends, the Butterworths and Jones, for a really fun evening. The Butterworths adopted Grace from China, and she's now 2 1/2. The Jones adopted Caden domestically, and he's now almost 4. They're also adopting from China and their log-in date is June of '06. Ava had a lot of fun with her new little buddies! It's been so great to connect with other adoptive families who can share this journey with us.

I'll start by showing you this funny video of Ava riding the carousel. This was her first time, and I chose an elephant that went up and down. By the end of it, she had her arms wrapped around my neck, and everytime the elephant went up, so did my head! That's in pictures below the video. This is when it first started. You'll see Shannon and little Grace, and Amy and Caden riding, too. They were "experienced" riders! :) Enjoy! Don't forget to pause the playlist music so you can hear her!










Grace, Caden and Ava



The Butterworth Family



The gibbons were our favorite animal to watch. This guy put on quite a show and then plastered himself on the glass right in front of Ava. So cool!







You can tell she's getting more upset in this picture.



This is the picture of her holding onto my neck for dear life!





Amy and Caden



Wheeeee, Daddy!

Jose G.

First off, I'm aware that there is someone precious following my blog that I don't know, and I am aware of tremendous suffering in your life and anger in your heart. I'm writing this trusting and hoping that you'll read this. I want you to know that God does care about you and your suffering, and no, He doesn't cause it. It's the result of us living in a fallen world that is very broken and where bad things happen to us for reasons we can't understand. Reasons that have nothing to do with people but more with the evil and the brokeness in this world. Before you write this post off, I want you to know that I know about suffering that is great and heavy, the bring you to your knees kind, the I can spit nails kind, the questioning of my life and my purpose here kind. Hear this. This journey through life, no matter how broken and hard and unfair and confusing ends well, but you don't have to wait for Heaven to have joy in the midst of your circumstances that are overwhelming. There is hope. This is what my next post is about. I'm reaching out to you, and I hope you'll give hope a chance, Jose. You are loved more than you can possibly imagine and the God who created you, special, unique you, has His eye on you. I believe He has something to say to you. Add the ability to comment on your blog, and I'll write you a more thoughtful post.

Back to my post update on Miss Ava...

Hey, everyone,

We're home from West Virginia which in my mind is always followed by "mountain momma" from that John Denver song. We had a great time with family, and I'll post pictures from our weekend after several posts I'm behind on!

Ava and I decided to bake some muffins the other day, and she loves to be my helper now in the kitchen. If I'm doing anything at all on the counter that she can't see, she'll say, "Watch!" So, I'm looking into those little kitchen helper ladders that are sturdy. After making muffins, I got out several different kitchen tools for her to play with and a leftover bag of barley from 2006 that I had long forgotten about. Guess I was going to put it in soup or something! I have loads of pictures coming up that you'll enjoy, and I hope to post something very thoughtful in the next few days. I feel a post brewing, and I'm waiting for inspiration to write it. Stay tuned! :)

Amy! Miss you, too. For some reason, your comment disappeared! I'm looking forward to getting together soon. Off to see my "little" cousin graduate from college. I'm getting old! :)

China Update

Well, after stalking the rumor queen China site for two weeks now, it's looking like China has processed through April 21, 2006 for this month. We're the 28th and are now 7 days away. It's unusual that China would process 7 days at one time. At most, they've done 6, so we're estimating July!!! Whoah, did I just write July?? Waiting for updated home study to be completed, and then I can mail every last bit of paperwork for USCIS to USCIS forever!!! Boy, we will be so glad when that part of this paperwork journey is over.

Maia Grace is on the way!

UT Vet Fair Fun

I heard a story about a hairless cat that won first place in a contest at the UT vet school, and when I found out that there would be a free open house for the public, I knew we had to go!

Here she is!



We spent most of the morning and afternoon at the UT Veterinary School last Saturday and saw so many animals, especially unusual ones. Ava just loved it and got to interact with a lot of them. She adores cats, and you'll see the hairless one at the end of these pics. We had a really fun day and are going to hopefully check this out every year!

Our first stop was to seeing different breeds of dogs. This English Mastiff met us as we went through the line. This picture really does NOT do justice to the size of this dog!



Miss persistent. Ava was surrounded by big kids at this next stop but found a way to wiggle her way in to pet this golden retriever. This particualar dog is used in a lower elementary classroom to help children read. What is so cool about this is that he is used to help children who are nervous reading in front of an adult. This dog just lies patiently in the reading corner as child after child reads to him. As a former teacher, I just loved this!



Daddy and Ava visted the big bunnies exhibit.



Ava chose a pink balloon animal and had the whole thing undone so that it looked like a snake 5 minutes later! I then accidentally rolled over it with the stroller and it
popped. Thanks, Daddy, for getting me another one later, which also turned into a snake.



This was really awesome! This was the anatomy lab for vet students, and they had all kinds of crazy animal parts to look at. We especially like the tiger paw and head.



Lots of bones! Ava found one her size to touch.




Yes, this is for real and definitely the strangest specimen we saw that day!



Ava's face while watching the horses parade by us.



This is one of five horses we saw up close. Ava would wave to them as they walked by her.



A Tennessee Walking horse foal. He was very curious about Ava.



This is a hairy Scottish cow that a women allowed UT to display for the public. He/she is beautiful and is her pet. I couldn't believe how pretty its fur was.



Ava's first experience with real piglets.




Hmmm...



May the force be with you!

Special Story Time

Don't forget to pause the playlist music. :)

A few weekends ago, when Granddaddy, Grandma and Uncle Vince came for a visit, they recorded a story for Ava. I found these recordable stories at Hallmark and bought one for us to read and for both sets of grandparents to read. Ava loves her new story! You guys harmonize really well! :)

Warm Temperatures

Ready... aim...



Spray!



The warmer temperatures and lower pollen counts have been coaxing us outside a lot more lately - that and the fact that we are way behind on yardwork! When Ben gets home in the evenings we try to do something fun outside with Ava before dinner. Recently, Daddy had a little helper while washing the car. Seeing as how Ava LOVES anything associated with water, she absolutely loved this activity!

Happy May, everyone!